This announcement has a lot to unpack. Let's start with the first announcement. We are excited to announce Oddworld: Soulstorm Enhanced Edition, an action-adventure platformer will be available by the end of November on all Xbox and PlayStation consoles and Epic Games Store. As the name states, it is enhanced and you will experience improved gameplay mechanics and motion code, as well as all previously released updates.

Valve is reviewing the entire Steam catalog, and will be categorizing each game by its level of compatibility with Steam Deck. Customers will see these categories on the Steam Store and in their own Libraries.

Thanks to ongoing detection systems in place and, in part, to a previous rollout of meta-game system updates to VALORANT’s ranked, the number of report rates for cheating are trending downward, and are at the lowest they’ve ever been.

Still, the team is combating increased cheating efforts, as cheaters and cheat developers continue to attempt to implement new techniques. The global popularity of VALORANT has created a global market for these nefarious actors, and we make sure to respond accordingly. Certain regions saw spikes in report rates, but through additional investigation and intelligence efforts, as well as continual improvements to Vanguard, we’ve been able to negate these spikes and keep competitive integrity globally strong.

Featuring the "Ghosts of Verdansk" limited-time mode, The Haunting in Warzone brings Verdansk back under nightfall. In Black Ops Cold War, new modes in Multiplayer and Zombies are sure to get players into the Halloween spirit. Completing The Haunting's challenges in either game will unlock prototypes of the LAPA SMG - the first-ever ranged weapon event reward, which will also have unique Weapon Blueprint available in the store, along with Halloween-themed bundles.

Those additional Store offerings include the new SCREAM's Ghostface Operator and the Frank the Rabbit Operator Skin from Donnie Darko. Later during The Haunting, there will be a trio of ultra-rarity Operator Skins across three bundles, including the Tracer Pack: Necro Queen Reactive Mastercraft, Tracer Pack: Disciple of Mayhem Ultra Bundle and Tracer Pack: Lumens Maxis Ultra Bundle.

A Halloween-inspired take on the traditional Mann vs Machine dynamic, Operation Hexadecimal Horrors features 48 brand new missions spread across more than 10 new, returning, and spookified maps! The campaign will run until November 30th, so don't wait! Servers are available in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

On an entirely different, less scary topic: a charity drive benefiting The Trevor Project will be running in tandem with the campaign. In-game medals are available for those who donate $5 or more! Check out the website to learn how to donate and how to play!

Revealed over the weekend, the DC Super-Villains Racing Season will start on November 11, delivering to every player a large number of free and premium content than can be unlocked by completing new challenges that have been added specifically for the DC Super-Villains Racing Season. The Season will include six themed vehicles: Bane, The Cheetah™, Poison Ivy™, Black Manta™, Deathstroke™, and Harley Quinn™. It will also introduce many themed customization items for the Basement and the Player Profile, as well as plenty of gears and coins for everyone. The Season will start on November 11, and it will end on January 18, 2022.

Coming on December 2nd, the Batman Expansion DLC will bring a huge amount of new content with a brand-new Career Map inspired by Gotham, and a breathtaking new environment - The Batcave - with many new tracks and items. The Batman Expansion also includes five themed vehicles spanning The Penguin, Robin™ 2.0T, Armored Batman™, Batman™ Rebirth, and The Joker™ GT, plus a new Track Builder Module - the Joker Funhouse Split - and tons of themed customization items. The Batman Expansion is included in the HOT WHEELS™ Pass Vol. 1 or can be purchased separately starting December 2.

Dive into the wild west as a saloon owner in a volatile frontier town. Customize your character and face the consequences of your choices as you forge friendships and enemies of townsfolk, travellers, outlaws, and lawmen. Build the most famous saloon in the territory or be overrun and destroyed.

• Save 25% on Black Book on Steam.

• Welcome to Trial Week! - RIDERS REPUBLIC.
• THE FINISH LINE - Live Action Trailer Ft. Fabio Wibmer - Riders Republic.

• Vladimir Putin congratulates Russian Dota 2 team for world championship win.
• New Dungeon and Halloween Events Now Live in Black Desert.

• Xbox’s website is sporting a new look inspired by 360’s ‘blades’ dashboard.
• Overwatch Takes Advantage of the Added Power and Performance of Xbox Series X|S.

• Nightmares Come to Life in Season 9 of Call of Duty: Mobile.

• Introducing M1 Pro and M1 Max- the most powerful chips Apple has ever built.
• Windows 11 hardware requirements made a mockery of by an Intel Pentium 4 processor. Thanks RedEye9.
• Chip Shortages and Pricing Considerations in the AV Industry.

• Facebook AI moderator confused videos of mass shootings and car washes.

• Amazon's Jeff Bezos 'may have lied to Congress.'

• Outriders Coming to Microsoft Store on Windows with Game Pass for PC and Ultimate on October 19…

Selected fans will be able to experience the opening hours of ELDEN RING to get a hands-on glimpse at what the full game will have to offer while assisting the development team in testing the game’s online servers ahead of its new release date of February 25, 2022. The depth of the game and the degree of freedom in strategy exceeded the initial expectations, hence it has been decided to extend the development time for final adjustments.

The ELDEN RING Closed Network Test will be playable throughout the weekend of November 12-14 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S during the following time blocks:

GENERAL

• We have implemented a Login Queue for high traffic periods. This queue will pop up after the title screen when opening up the game. The queue will only appear during high traffic windows.
• Players will be shown a number on where they are in queue.
• Players will have the option of exiting the queue and playing offline immediately if they wish by hitting “Escape” on the queue prompt.
• We should note that the higher your queue number appears, the slower the number will refresh in the prompt. The number is still refreshing in the background, so we do not recommend leaving queue as this will create further delays to you entering the game during these high traffic windows.

We expect a patch in the next week that will implement the same queue functionality to consoles.

You and your partner may have completed your primary mission, but you still need to keep your skills sharp! Explore the all-new Challenge mode to hone your communication skills, compete for medals, and even take control of new robot friends! Master your craft and work quickly if you want to collect every medal! Bronze, Silver, and Gold are all up for grabs... and for the most elite agents looking to prove themselves, there will be leaderboards on the Clever Plays Discord server!

Not feeling competitive? You can always just walk through each challenge at your own pace and enjoy the new content - there’s no time limit for those of you who like to take their espionage at a more casual pace.

The Last Stand: Aftermath is a roguelite adventure, which sees players taking control of a survivor thrust into a cataclysmic zombie apocalypse.

In a unique twist, however, the survivor has been infected and must strike out to make the most of their final days by gathering supplies for those who will come after them, and hunting for the truth behind the renewed danger of the zombie virus, before they themselves inevitably succumb to the virus.

Sorry for any confusion! We don't have any big game news tomorrow, or any info about @WeArePlayground's upcoming Fable game.

Journalist Naomi Hayward is drowning in debt and is at the end of her rope. Having accepted a request from The Morning Bell newspaper to “uncover the mystery of a small English town”, Naomi finds herself far from her home in New York, in Rainy Woods. Upon beginning her investigation, Naomi – camera in hand – soon discovers an inexplicable phenomenon in which the townspeople transform into cats and dogs as night falls... Then, as just she’s looking into that particular mystery, a murder occurs... Join her as she attempts to reveal the truth about Rainy Woods.

• Weekly Sale: engaging games for every taste up to 90% off - GOG.com.
• Save 67% on Ori and the Will of the Wisps on Steam.
• Save 30% on Operation- Tango on Steam.

• Castle Flipper Major Update v1.1 launches TODAY.

↑ Official patches. ↓ Unofficial games, patches, and mods.

• Fez and Portal are perfect partners in this short free mashup.

• Age of Empires IV: French vs Chinese. Thanks DSOGaming.
• Launch Trailer (ft. Jack White “Taking Me Back”) - Call of Duty: Vanguard.
• Dota 2 Marci Trailer.

↑ Official trailers. ↓ Content creator videos.

• 33 Amazing Ways To Fly In Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Elden Ring Insider video - reupload. Thanks VG247.

• Team Spirit wins $18M Dota 2 championship in close finals.

• Dying Light Next-Gen Patch Announced, More Details Coming At A Later Date.

• Can driving data help make our roads safer?
• Where to Watch Apple's MacBook Pro Event.
• The Pixel 6 might start at a relatively affordable $599.

• Facebook denies weak performance on hateful content. Our hateful content is performing as strongly as ever!
• China's illegal bitcoin miners go off-grid as the country records a 0% share of global hash rate.
• HyperX Launches Streamer Starter Pack for Aspiring Content Creators.
• Doom on Twitter is possibly the worst way to play so far.

• Nvidia allegedly halting RTX 3000 production this October to keep prices as high as possible until 1H22. Thanks Simon.
• Windows 11: Wondering if you really need to upgrade? Here's what to consider. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• TSMC Roadmap Update- 3nm in Q1 2023, 3nm Enhanced in 2024, 2nm in 2025.
• MSI Z690 Motherboard Specifications Leaked Ahead Of Launch.
• How AI is helping to make breast cancer history.

• Intel Alder Lake CPUs could fail to work with some DRM-toting games. Fairly thin speculation. Thanks Max.
• KB5006670 is the latest Window update to cause printer problems. Thanks Ant.
• Whatever sort of disaster we’re talking about, if your backups are fried, you’re not going to recover.

• China's tech minister signals ongoing crackdown of apps, web.

• Alan Wake Remastered PC Performance Analysis - DSOGaming.
• Don’t Touch This Button! - Christ Centered Gamer.
• The Good Life review: A messy RPG as unique as it is ridiculous - Ars Technica. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• The Good Life review - Deadly Premonition by way of middle England • Eurogamer.net.
• I think this is cool but I also don't get it. - OPUS- Echo of Starsong - Indie Showcase (video).

• CPU Cooler: MSI MEG CORELIQUID S360 AIO Cooler Review - The FPS Review.
• Headset: 1MORE ColorBuds 2 In-Ear TWS Earbuds - Mad Shrimps.
• Headset: Creative Outlier Air V2 Review - APH Networks.
• Monitor: AOC 16T2 Touchscreen Monitor Review - OCinside.
• Router: Netduma R2 router review - Guru3D.

• Fortnite leak reveals Dune skins & cosmetics coming soon…
• After Back 4 Blood, Nobody Is Player Aliens: Fireteam Elite…
• Resident Evil 25th Anniversary Watches are Inspired by Umbrella. That's fine, but I still pine for the Official Hamilton Watch x Far Cry 6…

Lasso Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Breakfast Link

• Retired Boeing 747 Repurposed for Seattle Apartment Complex Lounge. Please don't disable the rest room smoke detectors. Thanks brother19.

Stories

• 'We have no idea how they did this'- Secret hypersonic launch shows China streaking ahead in arms race.
• The IATSE Strike Has Been Averted.

Science
Thanks brother19.

• Stunning images show how muscles heal themselves after a workout. I used these photos to shame my muscles. Thanks Max.
• Nebra Sky Disc: British Museum to display world's 'oldest map of stars.'
• How a Nuclear Bomb Could Save Earth From a Stealthy Asteroid (may require registration or subscription).

Media

• We Test if BATMAN's Vanishing Trick Actually Works.
• Tesla Crash Lab - Data Driven Safety. Thanks VideoSift.

Follow-up

• J&J 1-shot vaccine should have been 2, Fauci says.