Ubisoft has released Pagan: Control for PC and consoles, offering the promised new content for Far Cry 6, the latest installment in the shooter series. The Windows edition is on the Epic Games Store and it's also available to subscribers of Ubisoft+ or Luna. Here's a trailer with a look, and here's more on this chance to play as the Far Cry 4 villain:

Players will embody Pagan Min, the iconic villain from Far Cry® 4, in a brand-new experience inspired by the roguelite genre taking place in the depths of the villain’s troubled psyche. Blending intense action and storytelling, Pagan: Control will provide a unique opportunity for players to explore Pagan’s mind, learn more about his past, and face off against familiar faces as he struggles to break free from his cycle of guilt and regrets.

Joseph: Collapse, the third and final DLC to release as part of the Season Pass, will be available later this year and allow players to dive into the mind of Far Cry 5 ‘s villain.

Continue here to read the full story.

This post outlines changes in Call of Duty: Vanguard season 1.5. which is now underway, bringing a new operator, a new weapon, new zombie content, and more. This paves the way for a major update for Vanguard and Warzone Pacific on January 20th as a collaboration with Attack on Titan. Here's an update on the Call of Duty Blog with the battle plan for the premium shooter and its free-to-play battle royale spin-off:

The iconic best-selling manga series Attack on Titan, whose award-winning anime adaption just entered the second half of its final season, is coming to Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone Pacificas part of the games’ first major update of 2022. In this bundle to be released as part of the midseason update, Daniel Yatsu will don the legendary Survey Corps gear.

This epic collaboration will officially become available on January 20, approximately one week after a midseason update for Vanguard and Warzone Pacific that will include a new Operator, a new weapon, additional content for Zombies, various bug fixes, and more. The Vanguard update will be available to download tonight at 9 PM PT, while the Warzone Pacific update can be downloaded starting on January 12 at 9 PM PT. These will prepare both games for the first full day of Season One’s midseason update on January 13 at 9 AM PT.

Available on January 20, The Tracer Pack: Attack of Titan - Levi Edition Bundle features 10 items, including the Titan Piercer, a weapon made of ultrahard steel capable of slicing through opponents with ease.

Publisher Perfect World Entertainment and developer Cryptic Studios now offer Dragonbone Vale, the 22nd module for the PC edition of Neverwinter, the D&D RPG. This is available through Arc Games, the Epic Games Store, and Steam. An additional update is expected on February 8th for the PC edition, which is when the console editions of Dragonbone Vale will arrive (the additional content will come to consoles on March 8th). Here's the Official Launch Trailer and here's more:

In Dragonbone Vale, the evil lich Valindra Shadowmantle has returned to threaten the Sword Coast alongside the Cult of the Dragon, who have come to possess an ancient artifact with the potential to amplify their foul rituals of undeath. Under the leadership of famed wizard Elminster Aumar, the brave Heroes of Neverwinter will need to work with the allied factions of Protector's Enclave, to reclaim the Dragonbone Vale and put a stop to the Cult's plans.

Continue here to read the full story.

Heck Deck is now available for Windows, macOS, and Linux on Steam, as well as for Android and iOS. This is a bullet hell shooter that uses card-based mechanics to take the genre is a surprisingly turn-based direction. Here's a trailer showing off how this works. Here's the deal:

Throughout 5 different stages, Heck Deck will challenge your precision and dexterity during the bullet hell phases and your strategy when using your cards. Each card you pick up will cost you at least one life point, so you will have to be careful about which ones you pick on your way.

The abstract and minimalist world of Heck Deck is created with a cute hand-drawn art style. Each level of the game has its own universe, its own music, its own set of enemies, and of course, its own boss.

Continue here to read the full story.

Early Access to Neko Ghost, Jump! is now available for Windows and macOS on the Epic Games Store and Steam. This is a puzzle/platformer that alternates between 2D and 3D with both side-scrolling and third-person perspectives. The Early Access Trailer takes a look at how that works. You can also check this out firsthand, as there's a playable demo. Here's word on the game and its Early Access roadmap:

Neko Ghost, Jump! is a puzzle-platformer in which you switch between 2D & 3D camera perspectives and between your physical & ghost forms to solve puzzles and combat enemies.

Neko Ghost, Jump! will remain in Early Access for approximately 6 months and will launch with 30+ handcrafted levels, 6 boss fights and 100+ customization options. They wish to add content to include new biomes and levels and new game modes such as an “ironcat mode” where you only have 9 lives to play through the whole campaign and with the valuable feedback of the community, create an unforgettable 1.0 release.

Continue here to read the full story.

• Humble Choice is leveling up next month.

• Rogue Company - Glimpse Update Patch Notes.

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

• Bonkers mod Half-Life: Year of the Dragon drops Gordon Freeman for Spyro.

• Rainbow Six Extraction — Operator Showcase: Fuze.

↑ Official trailers. ↓ Content creator videos.

• The History of Dragon's Lair 2022 REMASTERED - Arcade console documentary. Thanks Rhialto.

• How Blizzard failed the women who worked for it, according to three who left - PC Gamer.
• Scarlet Nexus' Developer Discusses Its Characters - Siliconera.

• Deathloop, It Takes Two and Forza Horizon 5 Lead Finalists for the 22nd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards.
• Riot Games Is Investigating a Top Esports Team Founder Over Bullying Allegations (may require registration or subscription).

• Assassin's Creed The Ezio Collection: Switch Announce Trailer.
• Reverie Knights Tactics Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One And Xbox Series X-S.
• FAR- Changing Tides Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One And Xbox Series X-S.

• Big Call Of Duty Mobile YouTubers Are Getting Their Own Skins.

• Twitch streamers are seeking a fairer revenue split.

Thanks Ant.

• PCI Express 6.0 Specification Finalized- x16 Slots to Reach 128GBps.
• EPYC 7773X Milan-X QS CPU Hits Chinese Market at $2,800.
• BurnAware v15.0. Thanks DSLReports.
• Glary Utilities..V. 5.180.0.209. Thanks DSLReports.

• CISA: Russian state-sponsored groups exploited vulnerabilities in Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle tools.
• Sonicwall SMA 100 VPN box security hole exploit info shared.
• ‘Wormable’ Flaw Leads January 2022 Patch Tuesday.

• The FTC's antitrust suit against Facebook is cleared to move forward.
• High Court Won't Weigh $425M Equifax Data Breach Deal (may require registration or subscription). Thanks DSLReports via Ant.
• LastPass risking a €20 million GDPR fine due to unresolved bugs.

• How fans helped this 11-year-old pirate MMO outlive 2 studio closures…

Last Link of the Day: Honest Trailers - The Matrix Resurrections.

Obituary: Magawa, the landmine-sniffing hero rat, dies aged eight. Thanks brother19.

An article on Bloomberg Law (may require registration or subscription) describes a court victory for Valve in a class action suit over loot boxes in games, and whether they constitute gambling. Another Bloomberg Law article (may require registration or subscription) details a victory by Google in a similar case. The Google ruling was based on US state law and article 230 of the CDA: "The plaintiff’s claims failed because loot boxes are legal under state law, and even if they weren’t, the Communications Decency Act shields Google under the alleged facts, Judge Beth Labson Freeman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said. Section 230 of the law immunizes internet platforms from liability for publishing content created by others." As for Valve, the case seemed to fail due to lack of evidence:

Valve Corp. beat a proposed class suit by parents alleging it failed to disclose gambling-like features in games with embedded loot boxes just a week after another federal court rejected a similar suit against Apple.

Here, a Washington federal court said the plaintiffs can’t support their claims because they didn’t see the allegedly deceptive materials.

PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS is now free-to-play on Steam, kicking off the promised new business model for the game that jumpstarted the battle royale revolution. Those who purchased the game before this change are entitled to the PUBG – SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE PACK, which includes a free upgrade to the premium BATTLEGROUNDS Plus along with other rewards. This post outlines the January 2022 shop update that supports the now F2P game, as new items and skins are now available. Here's the pitch:

Play PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS for free.
Land on strategic locations, loot weapons and supplies, and survive to become the last team standing across various, diverse Battlegrounds. Squad up and join the Battlegrounds for the original Battle Royale experience that only PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS can offer.

This content download will also provide access to the BATTLEGROUNDS Test Server, which requires a separate download to play.
Optional in-game purchases available.

EA offers an Account Takeover Update following news that some high-profile players have had their FIFA 22 accounts taken over. This is attributed to social engineering and phishing. EA describes steps being taken to restore lost accounts and to better safeguard them going forward. Here's word:

Over the last few weeks we’ve been made aware of reports that high-profile player accounts are being targeted for takeover. Through our initial investigation we can confirm that a number of accounts have been compromised via phishing techniques. Utilizing threats and other “social engineering” methods, individuals acting maliciously were able to exploit human error within our customer experience team and bypass two-factor authentication to gain access to other player accounts.

At this time, we estimate that less than 50 accounts have been taken over using this method. We are currently working to identify rightful account owners to restore access to their accounts, and the content within, and players affected should expect a response from our team shortly. Our investigation is ongoing as we thoroughly examine every claim of a suspicious email change request and report of a compromised account.

Continue here to read the full story.

This Steam Listing takes the wraps off of Forever Skies, a first-person survival game in development at Far From Home for PC Early Access this year. Despite the name, Spider-Man is not an employee of Far From Home. But according to IGN, the company does include some known quantities, calling it "a group of 23 individuals with credits on titles such as Dead Island, The Medium, the Dying Light series, Chernobylite, and Divinity: Original Sin." Here's a Forever Skies Reveal Teaser Trailer and here's more from Steam:

Forever Skies is a game of action, survival and discovery amongst the ruins of human civilization. A mass ecological disaster wiped out humanity, with only a few able to flee into space at the last hour. You, a lone scientist now returns to the remains of Earth. A toxic cloud of dust blankets the entire surface. Above the dust are crumbling, makeshift towers where humanity unsuccessfully made their last stand. It’s up to you to now uncover the story of humanity’s fall and witness the birth of a new world that has been evolving below the dust without us. We are no longer at the top of the food chain and surviving here is going to take a lot of skill, technology and ingenuity.

Continue here to read the full story.

IO Interactive is teasing a HITMAN 3 - Year 2 Reveal, which will outline the new content coming to the assassination sequel this year. There will be a prerecorded stream on the Hitman YouTube channel on Thursday at 9:00 am EST. Here's what to expect:

Join us later this week on 13 January for the reveal of our second year of post-launch content for HITMAN 3, including Elusive Target Arcade, PC VR, the reveal of a brand new game mode – plus other announcements, surprises and new footage!

Join Clemens, IOI’s Community Manager, and other developers from the Hitman team for a pre-recorded 15-minute video from our Copenhagen studio that is packed full of announcements, reveals and never-before-seen footage of new content coming to the World of Assassination in 2022.

An update on the Halo Waypoint Forums has details on a patch 343 Industries is working on to fix Big Team Battle (BTB) problems in Halo Infinite (thanks Game Informer). Word is that this is entering testing, but there's no ETA yet on a release. There's also word on a patch that will hopefully arrive next month to fix cheating problems in the first-person shooter. Here's a bit:

We know there are a number of other topics you’re eager to hear about - including some issues with instances of cheating. The team has been working on a patch for mid-Feb that looks to address this and other things, and we’ll have more details to come as we get closer to release. We are actively triaging and still working to get as much as we can into this Feb update while still ensuring no negative impacts or regressions to other parts of the game.

For now we are opting to slipstream the BTB fixes given the broad scope of impact on all players. That’s not to say issues like cheating or wonkiness with the ranked experience aren’t important, but they have other dependencies and are on a bit longer timeline than this BTB fix which is nearly ready to go.

• Microsoft doesn't see Game Pass as a replacement for game purchasing. New addition to the "things MS doesn't see" file.
• Launching a VR game these days is "A perfect storm of shit."
• Strauss Zelnick: Zynga's contrasting culture is a benefit, not a challenge, for Take-Two.

Official patches.

• Fortnite Battle Royale v19.01 - Jan 11 Hotfix- Tornadoes and Lightning Crop Up.
• Mortal Online 2 - Beta Patch Notes 0.1.13.8.

• Select Call Of Duty Warzone Skins Are Turning Players Invisible, Raven Investigating.

• Destiny 2: The Witch Queen - Savathûn's Throne World.
• FAR: Changing Tides - Soundwaves #1 - "Above."

↑ Official trailers. ↓ Content creator videos.

• GTA V: Definitive Edition VS GTA V Vanilla (Comparison Trailer). Thanks DSOGaming.
• God of War PC Full Gameplay Walkthrough Part 1 2021. Thanks DSOGaming.

• New York Game Awards 2022 goes virtual, releases list of nominees.
• AusGamers Top 10 Best Games of 2021.
• Warframe Prime Resurgence Event Ends on January 25th.
• GWENT Masters Season 4.
• Hypothermia- Intel Core i9 10900K, RTX 3090 Raffle System.

• Shattered: Tale of the Forgotten King coming to PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch in Q1 2022.
• Xbox players are fed up with forced crossplay against PC gamers.
• This Week's Deals With Gold And Spotlight Sale - Xbox's Major Nelson.

• Apple's upcoming AR headset may limit users to short bursts.
• Intel Mobileye Going Into Volume Production Of SuperVision. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is out now, and it comes with perks.
• Mozilla unveils Total Cookie Protection for Firefox Focus on Android.

Thanks Neutronbeam and Frans.

• Moxie Marlinspike has stepped down as CEO of Signal. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.
• Disguised Toast banned on Twitch after streaming Death Note.
• How 5,000 frustrated customers forced Microsoft to make a big change.
• How to Install and Try the WhatsApp Native App for Windows 10 and 11.
• Mozilla Firefox 96.0, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes.
• Mozilla Firefox ESR 91.5.0, See All New Features, Updates and Fixes.
• Mozilla Thunderbird — Release Notes (91.5.0).
• Linux Mint sells out for Mozilla money -- Google becomes default search in Firefox.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• NVIDIA Quietly Launches GeForce RTX 3080 12GB- More VRAM, More Power, More Money.
• Just Buy It! Nvidia Doesn't Want You To Know How This GPU Performs, GeForce RTX 3080 12GB (video). Thanks Simon.
• AMD RSR Claims Up to 70% Higher Performance, Coming Q1'2022.
• Nvidia was approached to buy Arm, not the other way around.
• There’s one area Microsoft is beating Apple – with right to repair.
• "Digital amps will probably be obsolete in 10-20 years because they just won’t be fixable."
• Neglecting These 5 Things Can Slow Down Your Windows 10 PC.
• Powering Up An Original Apple I After Three Decades In A Museum.

• Intel fully resolves DRM issues with its 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" processors. Thanks Simon.
• 2021 was a terrible year for cybersecurity. Without action, 2022 could be even worse.
• Windows security in ’22 — you need more than just antivirus software. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Facebook failed to police election misinformation among groups (may require registration or subscription). Thanks DSLReports via Ant.
• DDoS attacks that come combined with extortion demands are on the rise.
• Apache Maven Central serves millions of old Log4j versions.
• Ransomware: Hackers are using Log4j flaw as part of their attacks, warns Microsoft.

Thanks Ant.

• Firing upheld for police who played video game during holdup. Thanks Boing Boing.
• Google in last-ditch lobbying attempt to influence incoming EU tech rules.
• EU data watchdog to Europol: That’s too much data.
• Fighting the darknet drug dealers who keep coming back.
• GCHQ rebuked for ignoring spy law safeguards. Thanks DSLReports. People go to jail. Companies get rebuked.
• Arm Investigates Chinese Division on Allegations of Suspicious Financial Activity.

• Case: MONTECH AIR 1000 LITE Case Review - The FPS Review.
• CPU Cooler: DEEPCOOL AK620 High-Performance Dual Tower CPU Cooler Review - TweakTown.
• Monitor: Quick Look: INNOCN Portable Monitor N2F Review - TechPowerUp.
• Motherboard: Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Apex review - PC Gamer. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Mouse: Grip style may vary but your mouse won’t- Xtrfy M4 Wireless mouse review - Dot Esports.
• PC: Corsair One i300 gaming PC review - PC Gamer.
• SSD: ADATA XPG ATOM 50 Gen4 NVMe Solid State Drive Review - ThinkComputers.org.
• SSD: TeamGroup A440 PRO Special 5eries 4TB NVMe review - Guru3D.

• SEGA establishes SEGA Sapporo Studio…
• EmuVR - Virtual Emulation. Like a VR MAME. Here's a gameplay video. Thanks The Flying Penguin…
• Antstream Arcade moves to include indie and homebrew titles in streaming line-up…
• Lego Delays Overwatch 2 Set Over Activision Blizzard Allegations…
• Frasier in Fortnite? Potential new Paramount deal preps bizarre crossover. Thanks Neutronbeam…
• Duncan Jones wants to make a Full Throttle movie, and he needs your help…

Our other January birthday has rolled around as we wish a happy birthday to Ant. On this occasion last year I mentioned the first of Ant's many submissions here. That actually dated back to before we switched to a database for news, so I couldn't even link to the story at the time. Since Frans completed his marvelous HTML conversion since then, I can do so now. Thank you Ant for this story from July 21, 1997 about the resemblance between the Quake Marine and Captain Kangaroo (Bob Keeshan died in 2004, so we can no longer follow this up with a paternity test) as well as all the pointers to interesting and relevant content since. How much content? Searching for the phrase "thanks ant" in our database yields over 24 thousand results! Happy birthday Ant!

Obituary: European Parliament President David Sassoli dies at age 65.

Annual Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Breakfast Links

• As Its Population Soars to 40, Rum Isle Glimpses a Future in the Mist (may require registration or subscription).
• From Greek to Latin: Visualizing the Evolution of the Alphabet.

Stories

• Famed White Cliffs of Sicily Are Defaced in an Act of Vandalism (may require registration or subscription).
• Woman swaps out roommate's food with vegan alternatives, ends up charged with a felony.
• Gifts of DNA tests are leading to more family surprises — and lawsuits, lawyers say.

Science

• Ichthyosaur: Huge fossilised ‘sea dragon’ found in Rutland reservoir.
• In a First, Man Receives a Heart From a Genetically Altered Pig (may require registration or subscription). Here's exclusive coverage from the hospital.
• New study identifies psychological predictors of problematic binge-watching. Thanks Max.

Media

• The Bob's Burgers Movie - Official Trailer.
• MILK CRATE. Thanks RedEye9.
• Casino Cheating Expert Reviews Card Counting and Casino Scams From Movies. Thanks VideoSift.

Follow-ups

• Computer games developer dies from Covid aged 51 'because fear of needles meant he did not get jab.'
• How European Royals Once Shared Their Most Important Secrets (may require registration or subscription). Thanks brother19.