Gods Will Fall is now available completely free on the Epic Games Store offering the chance to take on the deities for free in this action game from Clever Beans and Deep Silver. With the holidays in the rearview, this program has returned to its weekly schedule. So you have until next Thursday to collect this and its yours to keep. At that time Galactic Civilizations III will take its place as the new giveaway. Here's word on the rise of Gods Will Fall:

The gods’ torturous rule over humanity has lasted for millennia. Bent on cruelty and suffering, they demand to be served with blind worship through an oath of fealty pledged from every man, woman and child. To those who don't submit to the gods’ will; a slow and merciless death awaits.
Experience the brutal trials of a venturous band of warriors in their desperate plight to sever the gods’ callous grip on humanity. Every man and woman who can muster a blade, having suffered the brutality of the gods’ reign for too long, will be called upon to form your clan of 8 Celtic survivors and rise up to take on the legions of horrific beasts and minions that dwell in each of the gods’ hellish realms.
A personal tale emerges with every decision made. Succeed and see legends born. Fail, and watch lives turn to dust.

VentureBeat reports E3 2022 will be an online-only event amid renewed concerns about holding in-person gatherings during the pandemic. "Due to the ongoing health risks surrounding COVID-19 and its potential impact on the safety of exhibitors and attendees, E3 will not be held in person in 2022," the ESA said in a statement. "We remain incredibly excited about the future of E3 and look forward to announcing more details soon." There's a follow-up on IGN casting doubts on whether there will even be a virtual version of the trade show:

Meanwhile, E3's future has been a question mark for some time now. Its 2022 show never had firm dates set and was never on the official LACC calendar, despite past shows’ physical and digital being scheduled over a year in advance. An in-person E3 2022 had been planned officially since the opening of last year's show, per a speech from LA mayor Eric Garcetii. But its official Twitter and website have been uncharacteristically silent since then, and multiple sources with ties to E3 speaking to IGN under conditions of anonymity suggested that the ESA had given up on trying to hold a physical show much earlier, possibly as far back as fall of last year. Other industry sources suggested that while they would typically have heard about formal plans for E3 by now — digital or physical — the ESA's silence on the matter had been deafening, and they are unsure what the plan is at all, if any.

An update on the BioWare Blog has a "State of BioWare" report from general manager Gary McKay. This includes a look back at last year, a discussion of lessons learned from working during a pandemic, and a glimpse at future plans. There's also an update on stated plans to restore faith in the company after the disappointment that was Anthem. Here's a bit including hints about some Mass Effect teases already in the wild:

And of course, we remain hard at work on the next iterations of Dragon Age and Mass Effect. I’m seeing some incredible work from both teams. If you’re curious about Mass Effect, I’d encourage you to take a look at the poster we released on N7 Day. If you look closely, there are a handful of hidden treats; by my count, there are at least five surprises, all of which point to an amazing future in the Mass Effect universe. As for Dragon Age, we have a veteran group of talented developers working on the next iteration of the franchise. We are focused on a single-player experience that is built on choices that matter.

When I took on the GM role, I talked about rebuilding our reputation, and that remains a huge priority. We are laser-focused on building back the trust of our fans and community, and we plan to do that by delivering the types of games that we are best known for and ensuring they are of the highest quality. Our mission is to “Create worlds of adventure, conflict, and companionship that inspire you to become the hero of your story.” We want the launch of our games to be seminal moments in the industry. We want each game to earn the kind of reaction we’ve seen with Mass Effect Legendary Edition. We feel that we have the right people, the right creative focus, and the support from EA to deliver on the promise.

The Queen and the Sea is now available for Dead Cells, adding new content to this roguelike action/platformer. The Windows, macOS, and Linux edition is available on GOG.com and Steam, and the base game is required. This carries a launch discount and the game and its other DLC are on sale too. This Animated Trailer offers a stylized look at the DLC, but no gameplay. Here's word on how this caps off the story from the two previous DLC releases:

The Queen and the Sea DLC finishes the path that started with The Bad Seed and Fatal Falls, in which after dying all over again trying to save the island from the Malaise, the Beheaded is now seeking for a way out of the island - a way out which he seems to have found in the last DLC, but it's heavily guarded. The Queen & The Sea DLC takes players through two brand new Biomes: The Infested Shipwreck and The Lighthouse.

The run is parallel to the High Peak Castle and Throne Room levels, introducing players to a variety of new challenges. The first Biome, The Infested Shipwreck, winds you through a rotten shipwreck where you will be hunted by unforgiving eldritch horrors lurking (like they do) in the spooky and haunted old vessel. The second Biome, The Lighthouse, showcases a brand new challenge of vertical exploration not yet seen in Dead Cells. Players will find themselves in a soaring tower in which players will scramble upward as fast as they can to outrun rising flames while simultaneously fending off highly skilled warriors who want nothing more than to end your run.

Continue here to read the full story.

Electrician Simulator - First Shock is now available for Windows on Steam, offering a free prologue for Electrician Simulator, an upcoming full game. As the name states, the premise of the prologue and the game is to test your skills at electrical repairs, without the risk of electrocutions or house fires. Wire you just sitting there? Here's an Official Trailer with a look, and here's more:

In Electrician Simulator - First Shock, learn the ropes from your Dad to become an electrician. Repair and assemble sockets, panels, strips, plugs, chandeliers and even change light bulbs and try to avoid getting electrocuted.

For passionate and aspiring electricians, the world of Electrician Simulator - First Shock allows you to test your skills or learn new ones from scratch. Train yourself in the prologue and start a professional career in the full game.

Continue here to read the full story.

Steam now offers the release of Heaven Dust 2, a zombie survival sequel for Windows from two-person development team One Gruel Studio. This includes a number of improvements on the original. Word is that a positive reception will inspire further development of the series. The Launch Trailer shows off gameplay including some puzzles and lots of combat. Here's a briefing:

This is the stand-alone sequel to the survival horror thriller Heaven Dust (it is not mandatory to play the previous game to enjoy this one).

After a press conference, a virus outbreak happens in the mysterious First Research Center.
In the meantime, deep inside the institute, Steve wakes up from his cryogenic pod.
He finds himself trapped in a living hell, surrounded by zombies, again.
He must fight his way out even when the dreadful truth is also approaching...

Continue here to read the full story.

• Hunt- Showdown -- New Steam Bundle is here! - With very deep discounts for everyone!

• Overwatch Retail Patch Notes - January 6, 2022.
• World of Warcraft Hotfixes- January 5, 2022.

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

• Mass Effect's 'Happy Ending' mod is now available for the Legendary Edition. Thanks Neutronbeam.

• Apex Legends exploit gives players "infinite" lunge speed glitch.

Content creator videos.

• Diablo 2 Act 5 Finale Teaser - Carbot. Thanks Ant.
• Final Fantasy VII Remake with Classic PS1 Camera. Thanks Simon.

• SI 22 - Zero Audio Interview - Osa - Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (video).

• Dead Cells: The Queen And The Sea DLC Is Now Available For Xbox One And Xbox Series X-S.

• Mozilla pauses accepting crypto donations following backlash.
• Bitcoin price tumbles and 'no signs of a decisive reversal in sight,' hedge fund risk manager says.

• Alienware's Gaming Monitor Touts Industry-First Quantum Dot OLED Panel.
• AMD- We're Exploring Supporting Ryzen 5000 on 300-Series Motherboards.
• AMD Presents Latest High-Performance Computing Technologies in 2022 Product Premiere Livestream. Thanks Hypothermia.
• GIGABYTE Announces B660 Aorus Master Motherboards.
• LibreOffice 7.2.5 is now available. Thanks Reddit via Ant.
• Visual collaboration company Miro valued at $17.5B following $400M in new funding. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Green Lantern Build. Just watch out for the yellow screen of death. Thanks Hypothermia.

• Your backups can save you from ransomware. But how do you protect your backups?
• Hackers are sending malicious links through Google Doc comment emails.
• Log4j flaw hunt shows how complicated the software supply chain really is.

• Cryptocurrency crime hit an all-time high last year.
• Lawsuit: Facebook recommendations helped extremists meet and plan murder.
• France orders Google and Facebook to offer one-click cookie rejection.

Last Link of the Day: Extremely rare jellyfish (Chirodectes). Wow! Thanks VideoSift.

Obituary: Peter Bogdanovich, director of ‘Paper Moon,’ dead at 82.

Team17 announces the acquisition of the Hell Let Loose IP as well as independent publisher The Label. Word is the two deals are worth between USD$66 million and $100 million:

Team17 Group PLC said Thursday that it has bought Hell Let Loose for up to 46 million pounds ($62.4 million) and The Label for up to $40 million.

The U.K. videogame developer said the deal for Hell Let Loose, an existing Team17 Games Label third-party title, is for an initial consideration of GBP31 million and an earn out consideration of up to GBP15 million. The initial consideration will be satisfied through GBP19.75 million in cash and the issue of 1.5 million shares.

The acquisition of U.S.-based independent games publisher The Label is for an initial consideration of $24.0 million, with additional earnout of up to $16.0 million over the next three years. The initial consideration will be satisfied through a combination of $18.0 million in cash and the issue of 604,543 shares.

GamesIndustry.biz has a follow up to its story yesterday on the Raven Software QA strike. This highlighted a tweet from the ABK Workers Alliance saying it has not heard from leadership in the weeks since the strike began. Raven parent Activision Blizzard is not calling anyone liars, but its response says it has indeed engaged staff on this topic. Here's the statement:

"Activision is deeply committed to the wellbeing of all of our teams, including our QA workforce," the statement read. "Raven leadership has engaged in dialogue with its staff to hear concerns and explain the company's overall investment in development resources. As previously announced, we are growing our overall investment in development and operations resources and converting nearly 500 temporary workers to full-time employees across our studios, the largest conversion in Activision's history.

"For the 12 temporary workers at Raven whose agreements were not extended, we provided an extended notice period, included payment for the two-week holiday break, and will be working directly with those that need relocation assistance. Raven is full of people dedicated to improving the culture at Activision, and we look forward to partnering with employees to do that work together."

A tweet from EA executive Andy McNamara announces he has deleted some tweets about Battlefield 2042, saying: "Deleted the tweets. Seems my message wasn’t clear. Apologies." As noted by Flakfire (thanks Tom Henderson), these tweets included criticism of gamer expectations, calling them "brutal," so it seems the message may have been more unwelcome than unclear. Here was what McNamara said about gamers expecting more than they've gotten from the military shooter sequel.

Back to work today, check Reddit and Twitter and battlefield fans are pissed we didn't do enough updates or communication during the holiday break. Guys, people gotta rest. We have things in motion but we have to figure out what is possible. We will address it when are 100%.

Let us get back from break and get back to work. Love you guys but these expectations are brutal. The things you want take time to scope, design, and execute.

Respawn tweets that Rampage and Sentinel weapons are temporarily disabled in all modes in Apex Legends to prevent an exploit. Additionally, the MIL-SPEC Bangalore skin can no longer be equipped, though it can still be purchased. It's been reported the skin was crashing the game, so it will return to active duty once this is addressed. Here's word:

We've just pushed out a @Playapex update temporarily disabling the Rampage and Sentinel weapons in all modes due to an exploit.

The update also disables the MIL-SPEC Bangalore skin. It is, however, still purchasable from the store and will be present once fixed and re-enabled.

• Days Gone Director Says It Sold More Than Ghost Of Tsushima, But Was Still Viewed As A “Big Disappointment” By Sony.
• Tom Holland says he's Nathan Drake because Sony left him a PS4 and a copy of Uncharted.

• Call of Duty: Warzone - We're aware of the concerns regarding the Akimbo Double Barrel Shotgun.
• Call of Duty: Warzone - We have updated the Trello Board with several new issues including a certain Throwing Knife bug and Invert Mouse Look not working.
• How to fix Warzone Code Torch error.

• Project Wunderwaffe - First Gameplay.
• Windjammers 2 - An Arcade Legacy in 2022 (Making-of).

↑ Official trailers. ↓ Content creator videos.

• How Much Would Video Game Homes Actually Cost? Thanks Ant.

• Apex Legends ‘Dark Depths’ event leaks- Start date, skins & more.

• Rumor - Half-Life- Alyx Is Coming To PSVR 2.
• Hatsune Miku Logic Paint S Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On PC, Xbox One, And Xbox Series X-S.
• RPGolf Legends Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On PC, Xbox One, And Xbox Series X-S.
• Gunvolt Chronicles- Luminous Avenger iX 2 Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One And Xbox Series S-X.
• Take a closer look at the tribes of Horizon Forbidden West, including the Utaru and Tenakth.

• AyaNeo Next handheld gaming PC to compete with Steam Deck.
• Samsung’s Galaxy S22 lineup takes shape in unofficial leaks.
• GIGABYTE Revamps Aorus 17 Gaming Laptop With 12th Gen Intel & RTX 30 Series.
• Here is how the Galaxy S22 Ultra compares to the S21 Ultra.

• Konami celebrates Castlevania's 35th anniversary with an NFT collection.
• Why Video Game Makers See Huge Potential In Blockchain—And Why Problems Loom For Their New NFTs.
• New Instagram test brings back the chronological feed.
• Google Chrome rival Brave reports another big jump in users.
• ‘Don’t Look Up’ Officially Breaks Netflix Weekly Viewing Record.

• HP's new cases have a separate 'Cryo Chamber' for cooling.
• Thermaltake Debuts LCD Screen For Your RAM.
• ViewSonic Launches 32-Inch 4K 144 Hz Mini LED Monitor.
• Microsoft PowerToys version 0.51.1. Thanks Console General.
• Video gaming and e-commerce mogul sees wealth losses surpass US$10 billion after Tencent sells Sea shares.

• Oasis Consortium Issues New Digital Safety Standards for the Metaverse Era.
• Cybersecurity training isn't working. And hacking attacks are only getting worse.
• This sneaky hacking group targets old Java applications to break into networks.

• Italian mafia boss caught after Google Maps sighting in Spain. Thanks Max.
• Illegal movie streaming service Popcorn Time shuts down.

• Misc: IOGear Kaliber Gaming Roundup - Neoseeker.
• Misc: Sonos Beam Gen 2 Review - The Ultimate Compact Soundbar - TechPowerUp.
• PSU: 1st Player Steampunk PS-850SP 850 W Review - TechPowerUp.
• SSD: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD - Nikk Tech.

• Denuvo V10.0, used in Watch Dogs Legion, has been cracked…

I had an epiphany today, realizing that yesterday was the 12th day of Christmas, which is a pretty good way to mark the end of the holiday season. We will put away the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree and the Festivus Pole here at the BlueTower today. So it was also time to pack up the Blue's News holiday logo and haul it back up to the attic. It's replaced today by the return of the Freedom Force logo, which already reappeared last year. This is unrelated to Ken Levine's name just popping up in the news. This week is the 20th anniversary of the original release of the RPG on January 9, 2002, and there aren't that many January game releases to commemorate. So we've ducked into a phone booth (this is two decades ago, remember), and switched into our superhero costume. Thank you to Walter "2" Costinak for the original versions of both logos, and thank you to Steve for updating the Freedom Force logo to match the not massive changes to our design since it originally appeared.

Obituary: Tributes paid after Just Add Water founder Stewart Gilray dies aged 51.
Obituary: Kim Mi-soo Death- 'Kiss Sixth Sense' Disney Plus Show Paused.

Epiphany Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Stories

• Walmart, Kroger raise at-home Covid test prices after White House agreement expires.
• Cat Accidentally ‘Donated’ To Arc Thrift Store In Denver Reunited With Owners. Thanks Boing Boing.
• Kew scientists name new tree after Leonardo DiCaprio. The king of the wood! Thanks brother19.

Science
Thanks Max.

• New COVID vaccine from Texas could be a global game changer. Thanks Acleacius.
• The Science of 'Flow States', Explained by a Cognitive Science Researcher.
• Scientists Settled a Century-Old Family Drama Using DNA From Postcards (may require registration or subscription).

Images

• Aperture Science Cat.
• This amazing HD video is the last view we'll ever have of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Media

• 3D Schröder Staircase. Thanks VideoSift.
• You good….I saw that mf this morning (NSFW). Thanks VideoSift.