Pikuniku is now available with a 100% discount on the Epic Games Store. As usual, this will be free to keep for all who claim a copy over the next seven days. Epic also reveals the two new giveaways that will take its place at that time as ABZU and Rising Storm 2: Vietnam. Here's a quick summary of Pikuniku:

Help peculiar characters overcome struggles, uncover a deep state conspiracy, and start a fun little revolution in this delightful dystopian adventure!

The Shadowlands expansion for World of Warcraft will remain in the shadows a bit longer than expected, as Blizzard announces it is being delayed until later this year. Here's the update from John Hight, Executive Producer on the MMORPG:

I wanted to let you know that we’re delaying the release of Shadowlands to later this year—and while we’re still in the process of determining the right new date to launch, we felt it was important to let you know about this change in plans as soon as we could. This was an incredibly difficult decision for the team, as we’re as eager to get the expansion into your hands as you are to play it—but ultimately, we feel it’s the right decision for the game—and for our players.

Over the past several months of testing, we’ve made significant progress iterating on and polishing the core features and gameplay of Shadowlands. We’re at a point where the zones, the campaign, the level-up questing experience, and the story we have to tell are essentially ready to share. We’re excited by the Covenants at the heart of the expansion, and it’s been a thrill to see Torghast take shape into a fun new kind of WoW experience, thanks in no small part to your input.

Continue here to read the full story.

Ubisoft announces that season two of Hyper Scape will begin on October 6th, offering new content and challenges in their vertically integrated battle royale shooter. They say this will be preceded by a special event called Project Tower which gets underway on Sunday. Here's a Season 2 Announcement Gameplay Trailer celebrating the news. Additionally, this blog post discusses plans to overhaul the game going forward, as they want to lower its skill floor, smooth out the onboarding process for new players, add more forgiving gameplay modes like deathmatch, and accelerate the transition to support cross-play to increase the population of available players. They say they will restructure the development team to bring this all about. Here's the skinny:

Three months ago, we released Hyper Scape to the world. We were thrilled with the response, as millions gave our take on Battle Royale a try, telling us specifically how much they love the movement and fast pace of the game. While July’s launch and Open Beta on PC were successful, we were not able to achieve the high expectations we set for ourselves with our full release on console that followed in August. We also know we didn’t fully meet the high expectations of our players, so we are taking action. We have more work to do to get there, but our team is fully committed to the challenge.

Continue here to read the full story.

Developer Green Tile Digital announces October 28th is when Strobophagia - Rave Horror will arrive, offering a rave that features additional horror beyond the usual EDM. You have a chance to experience this firsthand through the Release Date Trailer and the playable Windows demo that's now available on Steam. Here's word on this "macabre psychedelic music sensation":

As a raver in search of the ultimate freedom of expression, players find themselves at the Headless Rave Festival: a carefree carnival of unabashed drunkenness, fluorescent body paint and bumping electronic tunes set in the middle of a dense forest. When the event’s enigmatic organizers suddenly announce that admission comes at the cost of one’s own life, fans must learn to maintain a grip on their sanity while sinister beings threaten them in the shadows. With the aid of an in-game smartphone app mechanic, players will solve challenging puzzles and connect with other ravers in hopes of making it out of the neon-drenched woods alive.

Continue here to read the full story.

Unspottable is a competitive couch party game for Windows, macOS, and Linux coming on October 22nd. The quick description of this sounds like a cross between the Turing Test and the Chuck Norris treatment: "It is a local party game, where players must behave like AIs and tell their friends apart from robots. When they found the real players, they must punch them in the face!" There's a playable demo you can check out right now on Steam and you can take a look at the game in action in this Extended Gameplay Trailer. Here's more:

Unspottable is a competitive couch party game for two to four players. Blend in the crowd of AI characters, hunt down the other players and use the many different environment specific rules to win the game.

"Walk like a robot and punch like a human!"

Continue here to read the full story.

October 16th is the newly announced launch date for Mesmer, a spin-off of the Teslagrad series. You can read all about the game on its Steam Listing and it's coming to GOG.com, the Humble Store, and Utomik as well. Here's a Release Trailer and here are the mesmerizing details:

Mesmer is a social survival game, in which you take on the role of a revolutionary leader. You must be prepared as every action matters in this unique twist on the survival genre.. Each action moves the clock forward, and reaching the end of the day without enough influence with the people will lead to your demise.

Tension is building in the city of Mesmer. The citizens are displeased with their king, and his oppression has pushed them to their limits. Playing as Teri, you plan to use this tension to turn the citizens of Mesmer to your side and build a revolution strong enough to overthrow the king!

Continue here to read the full story.

Valve announces the annual Scream Fortress celebration of the Halloween season is now underway in Team Fortress 2. Here's a portion of the lengthy patch notes:

Scream Fortress XII has arrived!

• Featuring 4 new community maps: Megalo, Bloodwater, Hassle Castle, and Moldergrove
• Added the Wicked Windfall Case
  • Contains 22 new community-created cosmetic items that make up the Wicked Windfall Collection
  • Has a chance to give one of 6 new community-created Halloween-restricted items as a bonus item
  • Has a chance to give a taunt Unusualifier as a bonus item
• Added 19 new community-created Unusual effects
  • 8 new effects for Unusual hats
  • 11 new effects for Unusual taunts
• Added the Scream Fortress XII War Paint Case
  • Contains 15 new community-created War Paints that make-up the Scream Fortress XII War Paint Collection
  • Has a chance to give a taunt Unusualifier as a bonus item
• All players who launch the game will receive a Soul Gargoyle if they don't already have one

HeroesHearth announces they are revamping the Community Clash League for Heroes of the Storm. This will involve nominal cash compensation and prizes for participants. They say this will not be on the scale of the defunct HGC, but they hope to create "a solid, part-time opportunity in which each player is uniformly compensated for their time and Orgs have a sustainable and stable ecosystem they can rely on." Here's the CCL FAQ and here's more:

The CCL (Community Clash League) is a 12-week long league brought to you by HeroesHearth featuring the best players in North American Heroes of the Storm. Starting today, Players who have achieved the rank of Masters and above in Storm League in 2020 will be able to enter the CCL Free Agent pool. Furthermore, Orgs of any size will now be able to apply to occupy a slot in the league.

There are 48 Players slots available and 8 Org slots available, so the competition will be tough, but we’re excited to meet the best and brightest from the Heroes community on both fronts.

• Starborne Patch b2.14 – Change Log. Here's the Starborne: Dissidence Announcement Trailer.

• Alchemist Adventure - Learning with Air - Guide.
• Amnesia: Rebirth – Official Gameplay Trailer.
• The Falconeer - The Free & The Fallen. Thanks Gematsu.

• Sources: Pete Vlastelica Steps Down as Overwatch League Commissioner.

• Apple Officially Obsoletes Last iPod Nano Model. Thanks Slashdot.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• Hands-on With Razer’s 8,000 Hz Gaming Mouse- Avalon Prototype Claims to Be 8 Times Faster.
• Newegg Reinvents the ABS Brand to Focus on the Gaming Community.
• Using and Building QMK and VIA.
• Computer Weekly announces the Most Influential Women in UK Tech 2020.
• "Bill & Ted" Bigger On PVOD Than Cinemas.

• Nexus Mods bans political content in the lead-up to the November election…

Last Link of the Day: Rescuing a Fox from Deep Vat of Water.

Epic Games announces that Rogue Company is now in open beta testing. This is accompanied by the news that marks a new free-to-play era for this shooter from First Watch Games and Hi-Rez Studios. You can now pick this up for nothing on the Epic Games Store. Here's word:

Our Open Beta launch comes hot on the heels of our Desert Rose update, which saw the release of Lockdown, our latest map, as well as custom matches. Our players overwhelmingly requested the ability to face off against their best friends - or mortal adversaries - for the ultimate Rogue Company bragging rights, and with the introduction of custom matches we gave them the opportunity to go head-to-head with the players of their choice. And now, they can do so in a maximum security prison deep in the jungles of Venezuela in Lockdown, a facility built to contain some of the world's most dangerous threats!

As Rogue Company becomes free to play, we are also introducing our newest Rogue, Dahlia. A master of small-squad tactics, Dahlia is a well-rounded support character that excels at pairing up with one other player on the team. If she’s on your team, Dahlia’s got your back - and if you’re not, you’d better WATCH your back!

In the coming months, our goal is to give Rogue Company players more of what they love. Not only will we be rolling out more Rogues, more maps, and more game modes, we will also be listening to our most valuable source of feedback during open beta: our players. We look forward to hearing all of the feedback you have on our latest update as we continue working to create the most stylish third-person shooter experience possible. Whether you’re an existing Rogue Company beta player or just joining us, remember: it’s time to Save the Day, Look Good, and Get Paid!

Continue here to read the full story.

GOG.com announces an enhancement planned for their GOG GALAXY client. Similar to how GALAXY 2.0 supports launching games owned through services besides GOG.com, the client store will allow you to purchase games from other storefronts as well. They are currently internally testing this new feature with the Epic Games Store, and say they will be inviting additional users of the service to participate in the testing as time goes by. Here's word:

We created GOG GALAXY 2.0 to give gamers a better way of organizing all their games across multiple gaming platforms into one library. Since its launch, the most requested new feature has been the option to buy games not only from GOG.COM, but from other platforms as well, straight from the GOG GALAXY app.

Today, we’re happy to invite the first group of gamers to test the brand new store we’re working on, and share their feedback with us.

In the new store, we will be welcoming games from both GOG.COM and beyond - including titles previously exclusive only to other gaming platforms. With the internal beta launching today, invited users will have the option to buy games from a selection of hand-picked Epic Games Store exclusive titles, alongside all GOG.COM games. Most importantly, all purchases are covered by our 30-days refund policy as well as 24/7 human support.

There is still plenty of work ahead of us. As the internal beta test continues, we will be inviting more gamers, expanding the store's catalog and introducing new features. For a chance to be part of this test, join GOG GALAXY today at www.gogalaxy.com.

With Star Wars: Squadrons set to launch tomorrow, the PlayStation.Blog offers tips for new players. Also, reviews of the space combat game are now emerging. Here's a roundup:

• Star Wars Squadrons impressions: A heavy asterisk at launch for PC players - Ars Technica.
• Star Wars: Squadrons Review – Roaring With Excitement - Game Informer.
• Star Wars: Squadrons review- "Turns idle daydreams into tangible experiences" - GamesRadar+.
• Star Wars: Squadrons Early Review Impressions – Single-Player Campaign - GameSpot.
• Star Wars: Squadrons Single-Player Review - IGN.
• Star Wars: Squadrons review: The perfect 2020s spin on a '90s fave - Mashable.
• Star Wars: Squadrons review in progress - PC Gamer.
• Star Wars: Squadrons review – I know a few manoeuvres - PCGamesN.
• Star Wars: Squadrons review: a new hope for Star Wars video games - Polygon.
• Star Wars: Squadrons review - It's not a trap - Shacknews.
• Star Wars Squadrons review: EA's smallest scale Star Wars title yet - but also its best - VG247.

SteamDB reports the dates for upcoming Steam sales. This does not seem to be a leak as much as an announcement, as they say the source is an email Valve sent to Steam partners. Here's what to expect:

• Steam Halloween Sale: October 29 – November 2
• Steam Autumn Sale: November 25 – December 1
• Steam Winter Sale: December 22 – January 5

A new Seize the Day Trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 features Keanu Reeves promoting the November 19th launch of the sci-fi RPG. Glimpses of gameplay are offered in what is actually a television commercial, so feel free to pretend you're using a DVR and skip through it if you wish. Here's an explanation:

The promotional video was broadcast during game 1 of this year’s NBA Finals between Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat. In the commercial, Keanu Reeves invites players to join his character, Johnny Silverhand, in Night City when the game releases in November.

Continue here to read the full story.

Publisher Modus Games announces a select group of players will participate in closed beta testing this weekend for Override 2: Super Mech League. The test runs from tomorrow through Sunday, and those interested in taking the mech brawler for a test drive should sign up here. They accompany the news with a new Closed Beta Trailer and the following details on the plan:

Players of the closed beta this weekend will get to test out five of the game’s 20-mech roster and engage in 1v1, 2v2, Brawl (4-player free for all) and King of the Hill modes. State-of-the-art opponents aren’t the only thing to worry about, though: arenas are speckled with game-changing hazards including pools of lava and geysers, so pilots would be wise to remain strategic while wreaking havoc on their surroundings.

Announced last week, the game will also release with an ULTRAMAN Deluxe Edition, expanding the game’s core 20-mech roster with four key characters from Netflix’s most watched anime series of 2019: Shinjiro Hayata wearing the iconic ULTRAMAN Suit, the mysterious Bemular, Dan Moroboshi donning the ULTRAMAN Suit ver7, and the incredibly powerful alien Black King.

Continue here to read the full story.

Vertigo Gaming announces Early Access for COOK, SERVE, DELICIOUS! 3 is set to conclude on October 14th when they will release version 1.0 of the food truck installment in the cooking game series. The Windows editions are being served through GOG.com and Steam, and the game and the entire series are currently on sale on Steam. Here's the previously released Launch Trailer and here's more on what they're cooking up:

Hit the road in this massive sequel to the million-selling Cook, Serve, Delicious! series as you travel across the United States to participate in the Iron Cook Foodtruck Championships with your trusty robot crew Whisk (voiced by @negaoryx) and Cleaver (voiced by @havanarama).

Set in the radically-changed war-torn America of 2042, play through an all new story-driven campaign where you cook hundreds of foods—including many brand new to the series—across hundreds of levels in a new gameplay structure that has been completely redesigned to deliver fast-paced action, or take it easy with the all new Chill Mode that can be toggled on or off at any time!

Continue here to read the full story.

How To Reduce Lag - A Guide To Better System Latency is a new guide on the topic with tips from NVIDIA on how to fight latency with system settings tweaks as well as NVIDIA's Reflex technology. There are also hardware tips covering NVIDIA graphics cards as well as items like your mouse and keyboard. This is accompanied by a What is System Latency Video. Here's the intro to the article:

As a gamer, system latency impacts us in a number of ways: aiming precision, peekers advantage, and PC responsiveness. System latency breaks down into three key parts: peripheral latency, PC latency, and display latency.

Using the NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer integrated in G-SYNC 360Hz Esports displays coming this Fall, you can measure end-to-end system latency, peripheral latency, and PC+Display latency. Until you can get your hands on one of these butter-smooth displays, you can get started by measuring parts of the latency pipeline using in-game latency stats in games that have integrated NVIDIA Reflex technology, or with the rendering latency metric in the GeForce Experience performance overlay.

Continue here to read the full story.

• Newegg’s Annual Gametober® Initiative Promises Great Gaming Deals Throughout the Month of October.

• Monster Hunter: World - Fatalis, the Legendary Black Dragon, storms into Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
• Overcooked! 2 – FREE Moon Harvest Update Out Now.
• Resident Evil 3 - New Resident Evil Resistance Update.
• Capcom has removed Denuvo from Resident Evil 3 Remake.
• Serious Sam 4 Update 1.02-1.03.
• Wolverine Claws His Way into the Fortnite Nexus War.

• Esports Awards 2020 names final nominees for best player, best team, more.

• Steve from Minecraft is the next DLC character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• The Internet Has Thoughts About Spider-Man Game Swapping Lead To Look Like Tom Holland For PS5.
• Orangeblood Is Now Available For Xbox One.
• Cake Bash Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One.
• Transformers: Battlegrounds Digital Deluxe Edition Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One.

• Microsoft removes the Surface Neo from its website.
• Microsoft Launches the Surface Laptop Go- Lighter In The Hand And The Wallet.
• A 15-inch Thin Laptop For The Road- No More Dongles With The XMG DJ 15.
• Apple Suggests Restoring iPhone and Apple Watch to Fix Excess Battery Drain or Missing GPS Data.

Thanks Frans.

• Twitch’s new moderator widget gives banned users the chance to appeal.
• Google will pay publishers to curate a reliable news feed.
• Reddit Bots Are Hunting Down Racists, One Post at a Time.
• Google Maps' Nazi problem.
• Mozilla Firefox 81.0.1, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes.
• Mozilla Firefox ESR 78.3.1, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes.
• Borat 2 gets a rude, crude trailer (and a new title).

• Beijing likely to reject Arm-Nvidia deal over US fears, says former Lenovo chief engineer.
• Windows 10 will monitor your NVMe SSD to prevent catastrophic failures - PC Gamer.
• Microsoft introduces a new keyboard, mice, and a wireless display adapter.
• ASTRO Gaming Introduces the A03 In-Ear Monitor for Console and Mobile Gaming.

• Hades: The Kotaku Review.
• Hades review- a roguelike with hot gods and time to kill - The Verge.
• Serious Sam 4 - Zero Punctuation.

• Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA review- a standard step ahead - The Verge. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Corsair K100 RGB keyboard review - Guru3D.
• CORSAIR K100 RGB Mechanical Keyboard Review - Aftermarket keycap sets are a go! - TechPowerUp.
• Corsair K100 RGB Gaming Keyboard Review - ThinkComputers.org.
• Crucial Ballistix Max RGB 32GB DDR4 4x 8GB DDR4-4000 RAM Review - OverClocked Inside.
• Gigabyte RTX 3080 Eagle OC 10G Graphics Card Review - IGN.
• HyperX Cloud Stinger Core Wireless+ 7.1 Gaming Headset Review - Nikk Tech.
• Plugable TBT3-UDC1 Docking Station review - TechRadar.
• Quick Look: Vissles-M 15.6" Portable Touchscreen Monitor - TechPowerUp.

• EA SPORTS Celebrates FIFA 21 World Premiere With Music Performances and More Around the Globe…
• The Angry Video Game Nerd I & II Deluxe launches October 30 for Switch and PC, later for PS4 and Xbox One…
• Stunning Nier: Automata Statue Revealed. Thanks Max…
• Report: Warner Bros. Games President Says Transphobe J. K. Rowling Has "The Right To Hold Her Opinions"…
• Bossa makes Surgeon Simulator 2 free for NHS staff…

As you may have noticed, the desktop version of the site is adorned by a variation on our logo today. As I recently mentioned, a discussion on the topic in the forums inspired us to look into reusing some of our extensive library of logo variants based on games and other occasions. This is the first of these, appropriately based on the first such variant from when the new logo debuted along with a redesign of the whole site back in December of 2000. The logo and the site design were both the work of artist extraordinaire Walter "2" Costinak, and it features the Quake player Blue caricature from his previous Blue's News logo as a transition. It bears mentioning that implementing the new design at that time was also thanks to hard work by Walter, loonyboi, Frans, Furn, and Bagpuss, since our current design remains an updated variation on much of their efforts. As for the revival of these logos, this is also thanks to the hard work of some volunteers. Readers Dave, Scott, and Steve all stepped up to alter most of the logos to work in the current version of the site. They put up with aggravation along the way, but cheerfully made the changes we needed, and this could not have happened without them. Likewise, besides being the critical eye to approve the updated logos, Frans provided additional programming to make the process of rotating the logos easy enough that it could be handled even by a monkey such as myself. Our archive contains 185 distinct logos, all originally created by 2. The games they commemorate range from the classic to the forgotten, and it will be fun to see them return along with the logos for holidays and other occasions. So again, thank you to Dave, Scott, and Steve for their updates, thank you to Walter "2" Costinak for the original artwork and for graciously allowing us to update it, thank you to Frans for making it so easy to use them, and thank you to everyone who suggested the revival.

Retro Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Stories

• Sandwiches in Subway 'too sugary to meet legal definition of being bread'.
• Full moons in October: Harvest moon tonight and a rare blue moon on Halloween.

Science

• Scientists say social distancing is working — for a completely different disease than COVID-19.
• Venus might be habitable today, if not for Jupiter.
• Did NASA detect a hint of life on Venus in 1978 and not realize it?

Media

• When two spaceships have the same registration number.
• The Stakes Are High — Scotch Bottle Puzzle Solved.
• Wheelchair man catches a ride holding on to truck.