The Halloween Sale is now underway on GOG.com, offering discounts of up to 90% of on over 2000 games. This includes a 100% discount on one, as everyone can collect a copy of Dagon: by H. P. Lovecraft for free. Here's a bit on the new releases on GOG that are part of the promotion:

First, let’s take a look at the new releases on GOG:

• Dagon: by H.P. Lovecraft (FREE) takes you for an interactive narrative experience based on the cult short story of the same name by the master of cosmic horror and weird fantasy himself.
• The Shore (-40%) will task you with finding the protagonist’s daughter on a forbidden island filled with horrors from the Lovecraftian universe.
• Just Cause 1 and 2 (-75%) provide you with a full dose of adrenaline and pure fun while you embark on your missions as agent Rico Rodriquez.
• Tormented Souls (-10%) will send chills down your spine, giving you the chance to explore a terrifying mansion-turned-hospital in a title that draws scares from the best classics of the survival horror genre.
• Agony will take you straight to the depths of hell, where you’re challenged with randomly generated levels to explore and survive. The game contains mature content.

Continue here to read the full story.

A post on the Call of Duty Blog has more details on reports about how file sizes for Call of Duty: Vanguard will be smaller than recent titles in the series thanks to a new texture on demand feature. Word is: "Due to new on-demand texture streaming tech, Vanguard’s install size at launch will be significantly below that of previous Call of Duty releases – up to 30% - 50%+ of a file size difference on next-gen console and PC." The post includes details on console preloads, and the promise of further details for PC players soon:

Preloading for PC begins on November 2. Stay tuned to the blog for more info coming soon, including PC specs for minimum, recommended, competitive, and Ultra 4K play.

The PlayStation.Blog has the announcement of Star Ocean The Divine Force, saying the sequel is coming to PS4 and PS5 next year. This carefully ignores the fact that the Debut Trailer from Square Enix concludes with logos for both Steam and Xbox, so this is coming to PC and other consoles as well. So feel free to add in those other platforms as you check out the first details:

Star Ocean The Divine Force is developed by Square Enix and tri-Ace, and set to release on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in 2022. The game features a story that blends sci-fi and fantasy, a rich lineup of characters and side stories, a battle system delivering exhilarating combat with easy controls, and more.

Star Ocean The Divine Force Features:

• A story that changes based on the choices made, where heroes intersect between the two worlds of sci-fi and fantasy
• A rich lineup of playable characters
• Freedom to fly around the environment
• Three-dimensional traversal and exploration where everything in-sight is a field for adventure
• The Star Ocean game with the fastest and mightiest action in the series

Continue here to read the full story.

Darkest Dungeon II is now available in Early Access on the Epic Games Store, offering a roguelike sequel from Red Hook Studios (yo Brooklyn!). Though its only been available for around 24 hours, this tweet notes it has already sold more than 100,000 copies, saying, "our journey has just begun." Here's a bit on the game:

Gather your courage and ride out into the chaos of a world undone.
Darkest Dungeon II is a roguelike road trip of the damned. Form a party, equip your stagecoach, and set off across a decaying landscape in a last gasp attempt to avert the apocalypse. The greatest dangers you face, however, may come from within...

Roguelike Runs; Even Failure Moves You Forward
Each expedition is less than 5 hours, and progress you make opens up new hero abilities, items, and stagecoach upgrades that can be used on your next journey.

Indie developer Games People Play today announces Killer in the Cabin, a multiplayer social deduction game coming to Early Access on Steam on November 11th. But before then a 24 hour beta test will begin on Sunday. There's no link on the Steam listing to request access to the closed beta yet, but when it does, that's how to get in on testing. Here's the voice balloon-filled Announce Trailer and here's more:

In Killer in the Cabin, play as a member of a group of survivors from a bus crash in the desolate Norwegian mountains, where in order to survive you must work together in order to gather supplies, discover shelter and share food as you wait for help to arrive. Stick together and you’ll make it out alive, but danger looms: there’s a hidden killer in the group, working to sabotage all survival efforts and eliminate the party, one by one.

If allocated as the killer, use the sandbox environment to get creative as you terminate your fellow survivors. Blunt violence is seldom a good idea, rather stay stealthy to avoid attention and detection. Poison the food, sabotage the survival efforts, strangle someone in their sleep or use your surroundings to pull off a deceptive hit. When the party begins to suspect who the killer is, they can vote and kill the elected suspect, whether they are guilty of the crimes or not.

Continue here to read the full story.

• Sonic 30th Anniversary Bundle (pay what you want and help charity).*
• Humble Book Bundle- Raspberry Pi Uncut (pay what you want and help charity).*
• Save 65% on Traders & Merchants Bundle on Steam.

*Blue's News may receive a commission on sales of this item.

• Dread Templar Halloween Update 0.920b is here.
• The Hand of Merlin - New Update Available - The End Times.
• Succubus: Halloween Special. Here's a Halloween Update Trailer.

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

• Lode Runner - Forty years on, a Lode Runner clone for the Commodore PET.
• Resident Evil mod puts the majority of the games in VR on PC.

Official trailers.

• Brawlhalloween Launch Trailer.
• Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach - State of Play Oct 2021 Trailer.
• Jurassic World Evolution 2 - Developer Diary #3 – Creating your own Jurassic World.
• KungFu Kickball - Available on PC, Mac and Consoles on Dec 2nd.
• Tunche Release Date Trailer.

• One year of Baldur's Gate 3: An adventure in failure and success - GamesIndustry.biz.

• Age of Empires IV: Trebuchets, Tips, and a Toweringly Tall Guest.

• PlayStation State of Play: all trailers and complete recap.
• Xbox hardware revenues up 166% as Microsoft continues to battle supply constraints.
• King of Fighters XV open beta test announced.
• Death’s Door spreads its wings on PS4 and PS5 November 23.
• We Are OFK- indiepop music biopic game revealed for PS5 & PS4.
• Wind Peaks Is Now Available For Xbox One And Xbox Series X-S.
• United Assault - Normandy '44 Is Now Available For Xbox One And Xbox Series X-S.
• Apple Music launches on PS5 today.

• Android’s 12L feature drop aims to be a big improvement for folding phones.
• Google is giving Android on tablets another shot.
• Google Camera gets a big update ahead of Pixel 6 release day.

• Intel Unveils 12th Gen Intel Core, Launches World’s Best Gaming Processor, i9-12900K. Thanks Hypothermia.
• First gaming benchmarks revealed for the Intel "Alder Lake" Core i9 12900K.
• Intel finally confirmed its new GPU's specs, and it looks like a beast.
• Enter the Next Generation of Performance and Speed Introducing CORSAIR DDR5 Memory.
• Two Chinese Supercomputers Break Exascale Barrier.
• Microsoft is adding another way to update Windows 11 with Online Service Experience Packs.
• Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22489. Thanks Console General.
• WINBOT - ASUS ROG Z690 Launch Build. Thanks Hypothermia.

• US Copyright Office says you can fix a game console (but only the optical drive).

• Far Cry 6's goading marketing email raises eyebrows among fans…
• Once upon a time, Dune star Timothée Chalamet was a YouTuber who modded Xbox controllers…
• FFXIV devs update harassment rules, will issue “in-game restraining orders” against stalkers…
• Bugsnax free update Isle of Bigsnax out next year…

Last Link of the Day: I Rented A Helicopter To Settle A Physics Debate. Haven't we all done that at least once?

The Farm 51 announces the release of Monster Hunt on the Epic Games Store, GOG.com, and Steam, the first of three planned free DLC packs for Chernobylite, the irradiated survival/horror RPG. The post includes a new trailer showing the new horrors this brings to life. There is also a new premium Autumn Dread Pack featuring new skins for all the weapons in the game. Here's a bit on both releases:

Video game publisher All in! Games and development studio The Farm 51 are pleased to present the first of many Free Content Updates for Chernobylite — “Monster Hunt”. This Free Content Update introduces three brand new monsters to the deadly array of challenges in the zone, the toughest you’ll encounter yet. Each comes with its own unique abilities, so you’d better be prepared if you want to survive. Chernobylite is available now with a 20% discount on Steam.

In addition, the new Autumn Dread Pack will add some scary style to your combat with new weapon skins available for all weapon types in the game. Grab the Autumn Dread Weapon Skin Pack for PC (Steam) for just $3.99/€3.29/£2.89. The Autumn Dread Pack will come to other PC platforms as well as consoles later this year.

Continue here to read the full story.

In this post, Paradox Interactive explains the release schedule of the Royal Court expansion for Crusader Kings III, the historical strategy sequel. The add-on did not carry a release date when it was announced, so it's not actually delayed, but the tone suggests the news that this is now expected in 2022 represents some sort of setback:

With that in mind we are not, at the moment, entirely satisfied with Royal Court's progress, especially regarding its stability. There are a number of bugs we really need to iron out, and are taking more time to make sure it is in line with the standards you would expect from us.
We also understand the frustration that delays cause, but we would like to make sure we are always as forthcoming as possible and that you hear the news directly from us. It’s a tricky balance between sentiments like “It will release whenever we finish making sure it is ready” and things like giving exact timelines only to make necessary but upsetting changes to that timeline when we do actually need time to review and make those changes.

That being said, you can look forward to news about the 2022 release date Soon™!

This tweet reveals that Back 4 Blood has now been played by more than six million players since the launch of Turtle Rock Studios' co-op zombie shooter (thanks Wccftech). The milestone is noted in an animated gif with this caption:

Thanks for all your hard work, Cleaners! With this many Cleaners on our side, we'll stop the Ridden in no time. #Back4Blood

It's not six million or anything, but SEGA announces that Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles has shipped over one million copies since the launch of the arena fighting game a couple of weeks ago. This is driven in part by console sales for what's described as the "the first official console game" in the series. The news is celebrated with a reminder of plans for free post-launch content:

The game has been well received by customers around the world for its beautiful graphics, spectacular combat elements including incredible character skills, and the unique feel for the characters’ actions that only a video game can provide.

SEGA previously announced there will be a series of 3 free post-launch content updates coming to the game, with the first update planned between late October and early November which will include the addition of two playable demon characters, Rui (Lower Five) and Akaza (Upper Three) of the Twelve Kizuki.

• The spooky and creepy Halloween Sale has launched on GOG.

Official patches.

• GWENT Patch Notes 9.5.
• Overwatch Retail Patch Notes - October 26, 2021.
• PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS -- Update 14.2.
• Steam Client Beta.

• Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is completely broken on NVIDIA's Maxwell GPUs & AMD's latest drivers.

Official trailers.

• Music Behind The Scenes - Call of Duty: Vanguard.
• Halloween Comes to Swords of Legends Online.

• Age of Empires 4 Interview - Going Behind the Scenes on the Return of the RTS Great - AusGamers.com.
• Darkest Dungeon II Early Access Interview - Epic Games.

• Dadish And Dadish 2 Are Now Available For Xbox One And Xbox Series X-S.
• Hermitage- Strange Case Files Is Now Available For Xbox One And Xbox Series X-S.

• How to Use Android Recovery Mode (may require registration or subscription).

• Samsung Is Developing a New Cloud Game Platform.
• Facebook labels recent revelations unfair.
• #Paintok- The bleak universe of suicide and self-harm videos TikTok serves young teens. Thanks Acleacius.
• FileZilla Version 3.56.1 2021/10/26. Thanks Ant.
• Cowboy Bebop - Official Trailer.

• AMD Reports Q3 2021 Earnings: Records All Around.
• We're not in Ubuntu Anymore: The Linux Distros You've (Probably) Never Heard About Before. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Drive Failure Over Time: The Bathtub Curve Is Leaking. Thanks Ant.
• Microsoft is force installing PC Health Check in Windows 10.

• Securing your digital life, part two: The bigger picture—and special circumstances.
• Microsoft warns over uptick in password spraying attacks.

• YouTube, Snap and TikTok executives take their turn answering to Washington (may require registration or subscription).

• House Of Ashes Review: Supermassive's Latest Misses The Mark - Kotaku.

• Case: DeepCool CG560 Review - TechPowerUp.
• Gaming Chair: Noblechairs Epic TX - a REALLY GOOD gaming chair! - KitGuruTech (video). Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Misc: ECOVACS DEEBOT T9 Robot Vacuum Cleaner - Nikk Tech.
• Motherboard: Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme X570 Motherboard Review - PCTestBench.

• Why detective video games are the perfect way to experience a mystery. Thanks Max…
• Far Cry 6 Emails Taunt Players For Not Beating The Game…
• Call of Duty: Vanguard will use 30-50% less storage space than past CoD games…

MrsBlue and I are going to head out today to get our flu shots. This is an annual thing for us, though we're much later than usual. It's been that kind of year. The approval of COVID-19 booster shots just came down a couple of days ago, so that's not officially part of the plan. But we do want to discuss it with the doctor, and if things work out, we're open to taking another jab. This is slightly complicated by the fact that MrsBlue and I got the J&J vaccine. This was initially known as the "one and done" shot, though this eventually evolved into the "probably should have been two doses all along" shot. In reading about booster testing, the data seem to show that a second J&J shot greatly increases efficacy, but that switching to one of the RNA-based vaccines will provide even more protection. So well see what the doctor says and take it from there.

Round-up Shots
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Breakfast Links

• How to Generate Infinite Fake Humans (may require registration or subscription).
• You only live once: Epidemiologists analyze health risks in all the James Bond films.

Stories

• Pablo Escobar's "cocaine hippos" are legally people, U.S. judge rules. Thanks brother19.
• Bill Murray Hints He’s In Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania.’
• Got a spare $680,000? You could buy this working hoverbike.

Science

• Scientists Debut Coffee Developed Through Cellular Agriculture. Thanks Acleacius.
• This Flu Season Is Different. Here's How to Prepare.

Media

• Lightyear - Teaser Trailer.
• Just Following Orders.

Follow-up

• A toilet tube on SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship broke and sprayed pee under the floor during its first tourist flight.
• Pandemic drinking, alcohol sales spike liver transplants, study says.
• HBO Renews "Succession" For Season 4.
• Snyder Sets "Planet of the Dead" Title.