We have decided to focus the Closed Beta on Diablo IV’s end-game offerings for a few reasons. The full story of Lilith’s return to Sanctuary is not something we would like to spoil prior to release—players will experience a post-campaign Sanctuary during the Closed End Game Beta. Also, for many, the end game is their favorite aspect of Diablo—we want to ensure it feels satisfying, and with no shortage of challenging variety to experience across many, many demon-slaying gaming sessions. To achieve this, we’re collecting community feedback early so that it may be integrated into Diablo IV prior to launch. Players who are selected to participate in the Closed End Game Beta will have the ability to provide feedback between bouts of cutting down demons through an in-game feedback tool.

Now, here’s a run-down of the end game offerings included in the Closed End Game Beta: Helltide, Nightmare Dungeons, Whispers of the Dead, Fields of Hatred, and Paragon Boards. Take stock of the skills and knowledge you cultivate from playing through these features, you’ll need every tool at your disposal to defeat the Closed End Game Beta’s boss!

From now until September 26th at 10am PDT, you'll find discounts and demos on current and upcoming games as described above, and we hope you have as much fun exploring them as we did putting it together! However, if you disagree with our definition of games that Bash, definitely feel free to angrily tweet at us let us know, as we're always looking for fun and creative ways to feature all kinds of genres!

As some folks on the internet have noticed (we see you Reddit!), we're speeding through reservations at an accelerated pace. This is due to increased production, and we've beaten our own estimates yet again. With today’s batch of emails we’ve now sent invitations for all reservations in the Q3 (July-September) bucket.

Now that Q3 is done early, we're going to get a head start on the next set of reservations, and are fulfilling reservations that were scheduled for the Q4 window. We've updated the store page to reflect this, with an updated bucket description: September-December.

Omega Strikers is a 3v3 competitive game where the objective is to knock out opponents and score goals against the enemy team using explosive attacks and abilities. Matches are fast and intense—the first team to get five goals wins, and you must get at least two points ahead to secure a victory.

Omega Strikers has an ever-growing roster of unique and powerful Strikers, each of which can be unlocked through normal play. 3v3 unranked, ranked, and private lobbies across a handful of maps are available from day one, with more maps and modes planned. For those looking to dive deeper into the game, cosmetic purchases and battle passes are available via in-app purchase.

Wield your flame to overcome menacing creatures lurking in the shadows of a ruined castle, use the dynamic difficulty system to your advantage, traverse challenging platforming sections and solve cryptic puzzles inside surreal paintings in this 2.5D action adventure platformer.

• Thief 2 prototype appears in yet another leak.

• Save 86% on Sid Meier’s Civilization VI Anthology on Steam.
• Drzewiecki Design Sale - Microsoft Flight Simulator.

• Spacefolk City - Big Update: Pirate Fish & Handy Cam.

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

• Fallout 4 gets a new DLC-sized fan expansion, featuring 30 new quests.

• Xbox Insider Release Notes - Alpha (2210.220916-2200).
• Xbox Insider Release Notes - Alpha Skip-Ahead (2308.220916-1900).

• iPhone 14 Secretly Redesigned to Be More Repairable.

• Judge orders release of ‘Serial’ podcast subject Adnan Syed.
• Mozilla Thunderbird — Release Notes (102.3.0).
• Mozilla Thunderbird — Release Notes (91.13.1).

• Intel CEO Says Arc Gaming GPUs Will Hit Retail, Somewhere.
• Windows 11 Update Kills Undervolting and Overvolting on MSI Boards.
• James Cameron Knows Why 3D TVs For Homes Failed: 'Not Everybody Is a Film Geek Like I Am' - IGN.
• T-FORCE Launches VULCANα DDR5 Gaming Memory.

• 3 vital security lessons from the Uber hack. Thanks Console General.
• Your browser spellchecker could be leaking your passwords.

It’s been many years since Guybrush Threepwood was last locked in a battle of wits with his nemesis, the zombie pirate LeChuck. His true love, Elaine Marley, has turned her focus away from governing and Guybrush himself is adrift and unfulfilled, having never found the Secret of Monkey Island. Hip, young pirate leaders led by Captain Madison have shuffled the old guard from power, Melee Island has taken a turn for the worse, and famed businessman Stan has been imprisoned for ‘marketing-related crimes’.

Banter with old friends and new faces on familiar islands now under dangerous new leadership. Then, take to the high seas and explore the new and unknown as you work your way out of tough predicaments. Clever puzzles, bizarre situations, and devastating ripostes are all that stand between Guybrush and glory.

We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto. At this time we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services nor any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing project.

We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned and we remain as committed as ever to delivering an experience to you, our players, that truly exceeds your expectations. We will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it's ready. We want to thank everyone for their ongoing support through this situation.

As shared by Reddit user iV1rus0 on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit, about 53 minutes of the upcoming sequel is available to watch as a pair of videos, one that's around five minutes in length, the other around 38 minutes. While the GTA 6 footage was the result of a hack, this Diablo footage appears to be from a Discord stream, as the app's notification sounds can be heard in the background.

Arto is an action role-playing experience that features fast paced combat, an arsenal of weapons and spells to unlock and upgrade, alongside epic boss encounters. Arto invites you to discover strange biomes with their own unique visual and gameplay styles, to piece together the mysteries of a broken world. Are you ready to paint a new path?

Arto features huge bosses and over 30 different enemies, each with their unique abilities, motivations and lore. You'll need to perfect your positioning, weaponry, combat skills and timing if you're to defeat them.

Set across three shattered versions of the game's world, Trinity Fusion casts players in the role of the Hitchhiker, psychically linked to her parallel selves to coordinate the attempt to stitch their different realities together. Each reality comes not only with its own unique challenges, but a version of your character with their own weapons and abilities. Deploy equipment that afflicts enemies with status effects, deal heavy bursts of damage at a distance with ranged weapons or brawl up close with blades and hammers!
Stages are a mix of procedurally-generated and hand-crafted levels. As the player travels through each universe, levels and biomes will merge depending on the route the player takes, encouraging multiple playthroughs to see the various ways the worlds can be combined.

Make difficult choices with dozens of unique weapons from Wrist Claws to Rocket Launchers, with elemental weapon variants adding further variety. Mods with different activation conditions can dramatically change the decision-making process mid-run. Do you spend your money at the shop on a slightly better weapon, or do you hold onto it for now, knowing one of your mods gives you a better critical hit chance based on how rich you are? While you’ll lose much of your gear upon death, there are plenty of permanent upgrades available, so no matter where you die, you’re making progress somewhere.

A long time ago at the peak of the High Kingdom of Aerovan, a group of seers looked into legends of a powerful force believed to be the origin of life; this they called ‘Gan’, though modern peoples know it as ‘Divinia’. The ancients sought to utilize Gan as a weapon; in doing so, their perverse intentions spawned the malignant ‘Gan-Ti’, or ‘anti-life’. Infusing Gan-Ti into artifacts, the godlike High Kings ruled the Aerovan peninsula with an iron fist.

Eventually, rebellion arose and the Order of Archkeepers was formed of the most noble warriors to free the people. They managed to capture the relics of Gan-Ti and cast them into the fiery pits of Mt. Suvius near the shores of Orio island.

• Special Sale: spectacular games from 2K up to 80% off - GOG.com.*
• Weekly Sale: engaging games from various genres up to 90% off - GOG.com.*

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

• RESIDENT EVIL - Season 1 - VFX Breakdown by MPC (2022) (video). Thanks Ant.

• Top Gun Maverick looks insane in Unreal Engine 5. Thanks Max.
• Gaming at Work - #shorts. Thanks Ant.

• CEO of world champion esports team apologizes for partying with alleged human trafficker.

• Turtle Beach’s Award-Winning Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX & Stealth 600 Gen 2 USB Series Wireless Gaming Headsets for PlayStation Are now Available.

• iPhone 14 Pro Programmed To Reject Repair - Teardown and Repair Assessment (video). Thanks Simon.
• Tom Brady just chucked another Microsoft Surface tablet.

• YouTube filled with mysogyny [sic] and harassment, creators say.
• Twitch gambling prompts threat of blackout from Pokimane, Mizkif.
• 11 hidden Google Search features that will make your life easier.
• The 40-year evolution from :-).
• Amazon Driver Fired for Posting Photo of Customer’s Dildo to Reddit. Dick move.

• Is Silicon Valley’s golden era coming to an end?
• Sony's Nextorage Demos PCIe 5.0 SSD As It Enters SSD Market.
• How To Use The New Arduino IDE 2.0.
• Hands on with Windows 11's new Task Manager.
• How to set up Windows Subsystem for Android on your Windows 11 PC.
• Microsoft PowerToys Release v0.62.1. Thanks Console General.

• Does a Factory Reset Remove Viruses? Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Report: Ransomware attack frequency and amount demanded down in H1 2022.

• h8machine - Christ Centered Gamer.
• A TOUGH time attack racer with STYLE for days! - Neodash - Indie Ramble (video).

• Case: Seasonic ARCH Q503 + CONNECT 750 - Nikk Tech.
• Headset: Corsair HS80 RGB Wireless Review - APH Networks.
• Laptop: Alienware x15 R2 Review - A Better Razer Blade 15? - Hardware Canucks (video).
• Laptop: Asus ZenBook 17 Fold OLED Review- Cool Concept, Poor Execution - WIRED (may require registration or subscription).
• Laptop: HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook Review- It Checks All the Boxes - CNET.
• Misc: Quick Look- Kovol Sprint 120W 4-Port QC 3.0 & PD 3.0 GaN Charger - TechPowerUp.
• Monitor: Asus ZenScreen Ink MB14AHD Portable Monitor Review- Pen to Go - Tom's Hardware.
• PSU: Lian Li SP850 Gold SFX Netzteil Test - OCinside (German).
• RAM: CORSAIR VENGEANCE DDR5 32GB 6000MHz C36 Memory Kit Review - The FPS Review.
• RAM: TEAM T-Force Vulcan DDR5-5600 32GB Dual-Channel Memory Kit Review - TweakTown.

• La Mulana Director Wins Konami Contest to Revive Old IP. Thanks Neutronbeam…

Seafaring Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Breakfast Link

• Here's Why A Toilet Is Hanging On A Navy F-A-18 Super Hornet's Wing? Thanks Console General.

Story

• French 'Spider-Man' scales skyscraper aged 60. Thanks brother19.

Science
Thanks Max.

• When meta-analysis goes wrong.
• Can We Live Longer? Physicist’s Breakthrough Discovery in Genetic Protective Layer.

Media

• The Ronan Point Tower Disaster 1968 - Plainly Difficult Documentary. Thanks RedEye9.
• Why You Are Lonely and How to Make Friends. Thanks Max.
• Tuned Mass Damper of Taipei 101 Skyscraper during Earthquake. Thanks Boing Boing.