A report on the Wall Street Journal (may require registration or subscription) has the latest fallout from the sexual harassment scandal at Activision Blizzard that has inspired a couple of lawsuits and other issues for the gaming giant. The WSJ says that the company has received over 700 reports of workplace misconduct since July, a figure that Activision Blizzard challenges. It also says there have been firings and disciplinary actions that have not been announced. Reportedly Bobby Kotick wanted to suppress this news, apparently thinking that appearing to address the problem would be a bad look:

Activision Blizzard Inc. has fired or pushed out more than three dozen employees and disciplined about 40 others since July as part of efforts to address allegations of sexual harassment and other misconduct at the videogame giant, according to people familiar with the situation.

A summary of those personnel actions was scheduled to be released by Activision before the winter holidays, but Chief Executive Bobby Kotick held it back, telling some people it could make the company’s workplace problems seem bigger than is already known, the people familiar with the situation said.

In October Devolver Digital announced Shadow Warrior 3 was being delayed until early this year. Now a Pre-Order Bundle Listing for Xbox (thanks Reddit) includes a release date. It's unannounced and unconfirmed, but as of this writing the listing says to expect the next installment in the first-person shooter series on March 1st.

• Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Multiplayer Has Been Broken on PC for a Long Time, But 'It Will Be Fixed.'

• Publisher Sale: games from TOGE Productions up to 60% off - GOG.com.
• Weekly Sale: point and click games up to 90% off - GOG.com.

• Deep Rock Galactic - Board Game Update.
• Stellar Warfare - New build effect, black holes and direct unit control.

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

• Melkhior's Mansion - Ultimate Play the Game inspired 'Atic Atac' is finally here for your PC.

• Vanguard's game-breaking 'demon gun' glitch is now ruining Multiplayer maps.

Content creator video.

• Ordering a gaming catheter - Viva La Dirt League. Thanks Ant.

• Deep Rock Galactic Beginner Guide - Top Tips.

• How to set up Bluetooth multipoint on your headphones. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Apple may have dropped built-in noise cancellation on the iPhone 13.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• Gaming YouTubers have had their likenesses stolen and sold as NFTs.
• Crypto Losers Buy Copy Of Jodorowsky's Dune, Play Themselves.
• Amazon halts plan to ban Visa credit cards in UK.
• Microsoft lets you follow YouTube creators in Edge browser test.
• How To Detect the COM Port for Any Serial Device in Windows.
• 5 Ways to Check if Your Internet Is Being Throttled.

Thanks Console General and Simon.

• Intel Alder Lake Celeron G6900 Easily Achieves 57% Overclock.
• PCI Express Bandwidth Test- PCIe 4.0 vs. PCIe 3.0 Gaming Performance & Limited VRAM Memory Buffers.
• Will PCIe x4 Cripple the Radeon 6500 XT- PCIe Bandwidth Test (video).
• Yikes! Lenovo is vendor-locking AMD Ryzen CPUs via PSB (video).
• Improve SSD Performance on Windows 11 Using These Simple Methods.
• Releasing Windows 11 Build 22000.466 to Beta and Release Preview Channels.
• Releasing Windows 10 Build 19044.1499 to Release Preview Channel.
• HDMI 2.1 Compliance Certification Is An Incomprehensible Swamp Of Confusion. Thanks James.
• What Is Headphone Burn-In- Does It Make Your Headphones Sound Better? Thanks Neutronbeam.

Thanks Ant.

• Cities in Texas hit by QR-code phishing scam. Unpossible! Thanks DSLReports.
• Safari 15 bug can leak your recent browsing activity and personal identifiers.
• Goodwill claims it was hit by data breach.

• China’s ‘People’s Courts’ Resolve Online Disputes at Tech Firms. Uh oh, fifteen minutes to Judge Wapner.
• Spain will regulate influencers promoting cryptocurrency.

• God of War PC Review featuring DLSS Performance & IQ - BabelTechReviews.
• God of War- DLSS vs. FSR Comparison Review - TechPowerUp.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Loop 240mm AIO - Mad Shrimps.
• Motherboard: Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Pro motherboard review - PC Gamer.
• Motherboard: ID-Cooling SE-226-XT BLACK CPU Cooler Review - TweakTown.
• Mouse: Logitech Signature M650- A quiet wireless mouse for big, small, or left hands - Ars Technica.
• Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X4 vs X3- A Big Upgrade? - PC World (video).
• SSD: ADATA XPG Spectrix S20G 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD - Nikk Tech.
• SSD: XPG Atom 50 1TB Review - APH Networks.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• How a design museum unearthed a treasure trove of classic Slovak games. …
• Foxhole Players Are Going On Strike Over Logistics Problems. So when we stop playing a game we're going on strike?…

Today is a holiday here in the US, as it's the celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I'm one of the many who share his dream of a better future, so I'm on board. The occasion should make it a little easier in the aftermath of this weekend's winter storms, as there will be fewer cars on the road. But it's not so bad in these parts. We were threatened with a "blanket of snow," but the single-digit cold snap broke when the snow started, and the snowfall turned to rain, so it's not nearly as treacherous as it could have been. We lost power for an instant, but it came back. It seems we are in luck, as the storm definitely left a lot of people on the East Coast without power. Hopefully everyone is safe and things will be back to normal soon.

Obituary: Fable art director Paul McLaughlin dies at 57.
Obituary: Shinji Mizushima, Known For His Baseball Manga, Dies At 82.
Obituary: Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta- Ousted Mali president dies aged 76.

Dreamy Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Play

• Play Up Left Out, a free online game on Kongregate.

Brunch Link

• 17 NYC businesses New Yorkers want to bring back from the dead.

Stories

• Scripted TV Production Hits Record Numbers.
• A man became trapped in a chimney while allegedly attempting to enter a Maryland home.

Media

• Young Frankenstein - Deleted Scenes. Thanks Boing Boing.
• Rebuilding the Oroville Dam Spillways. Thanks The Flying Penguin.