A video presentation today unveiled new details about Dead Island 2, the upcoming action/RPG sequel that's been in development since Kim and Ye's wedding. You can watch a recap on Twitch, and in a couple of days it will also be posted on Prime Video. The festivities include the release of Another Day in HELL.A, a Dead Island 2 live-action "showcase" along with a Welcome to HELL-A trailer with a look at gameplay. There's also news of a preorder incentive, an Alexa gimmick, and a special edition described as highly collectible, a significant upgrade over run-of-the-mill collectible. Here's a rundown on the event:

Today's showcase featured a live-action pulp-adventure starring three fictional characters set in a similar universe to Dead Island 2. With the military long gone, we follow the fearless survivors as they search for a safe haven from the virus outbreak and zombie hordes. As they roam the supposedly abandoned mansion of a local video game and movie producer in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills, they’ll soon discover that nowhere is safe.

The new Dead Island 2 Welcome To HELL-A Trailer also premiered – narrated by Jacob and Amy, two of the game’s slayers, as they visit HELL-A. Witness Dead Island 2's unique gore tech, upgradable weapon and combat system, and, of course, its gruesome zombies. Join the slayers as they take you on a tour around the stylish, sunbaked zombie-smashing playground of HELL-A.

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Operation Solar Raid is now underway in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, bringing a bunch of changes to the tactical shooter. As seen in the patch notes, this brings the promised cross-play and cross-progression, a new map, a new operator, a revamped battle pass, a new ranking system, and more. This post has a patch notes addendum with more details. Also included in this update is the beta version of Reputation Score, letting players see their Reputation Standing for the first time. This is part of a larger effort to combat toxic behavior discussed in detail here. Word is: "The Player Behavior and Rainbow Six Siege team is working hard to implement changes to the game while keeping in mind to increase cooperation and address toxicity." Here's an overview:

This game-changing season introduces many long-awaited features including crossplay and cross-progression, a new and improved battle pass, a new map, a new Colombian Operator, the new Ranked 2.0, and the ability for players to see their Reputation Standing.

Operation Solar Raid shines light on new Defender Solis and her SPEC-IO Electro-Sensor gadget that gathers crucial intel for coordinated strategy. Solis can clearly analyze and identify Attacker devices including drones, breaching devices, and more. Her gloves also allow her to interact with the gadget overlay and trigger a cluster scan. Solis is a medium speed, medium health Operator, carrying the P90 or an ITA 12L as a primary weapon and an SMG-11 as a secondary weapon.

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Hello Neighbor 2 is now available for Windows on the Epic Games Store and Steam as well as for Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch. This is a stealth/horror sequel based on the premise that your suspicions about that creepy neighbor turn out to be well-founded. Here's a paranoia-fuelled Launch Trailer and here are the neighborly details:

Hello Neighbor 2 casts players as Quentin, a journalist and incorrigible snoop based in the sleepy suburbs of Raven Brooks. There have always been rumors and mysteries surrounding the eccentric architect and engineer Mr. Peterson (including a series of Missing Persons cases), but could there be something bigger going on? Starting with the old Peterson house, players begin a dangerous investigation across the town, infiltrating the homes and hideouts of the town's most influential figures. Just don't get caught.

All that poking around won't earn you any respect. Each building you'll be exploring is patrolled by an ornery inhabitant with their own unique AI personality, waiting to pounce and throw you out, minus any items you might have taken. It'll take stealth, smarts and nerves of steel to evade their attention, solve the puzzles in each house, track down where Mr. Peterson is hiding out and crack the true mystery of Raven Brooks. Just tread carefully, or you might end up on one of those missing person posters too...

Continue here to read the full story.

Grand strategy sequel Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is now available for Windows on GOG.com* and Steam, offering the chance to take the throne and lead your people to glory. The Release Trailer accompanies the news with a look at the game, and there are dozens of developer videos on YouTube with all there is to know about this title. Here's a summary:

Long live the King: The day has come, sovereigns! Today, the new grand strategy game Knights of Honor II: Sovereign is launching on PC. Pick from one of 200+ realms in three different starting eras and lead your chosen people to glory! You can control every aspect of your aspiring kingdom. Lead the economy to greatness by developing your cities and provinces and negotiating profitable trade deals. Master diplomacy and surround your kingdom with allies and friendly neighbors. Use espionage to weaken your enemies significantly and maintain control of your own realm. Establish your royal court and create a family that turns into a powerful dynasty to rule over your lands for hundreds of years to come. What will your legacy be?

*Blue's News may receive a commission on sales of this item. Continue here to read the full story.

Blizzard announces the March of the Lich King has begun in Hearthstone with the launch of the newest expansion for the digital card game. This adds 145 new cards to the mix, introduces a new Undead minion type, and raises the Death Knight as the game's 11th playable class. Here's the deal:

Upon completion of a short prologue, players will be armed with an all-new Death Knight class, unlocking 32 unique core cards to challenge the meta. All Death Knight heroes will be equipped with Ghoul Charge, a hero power which summons a 1/1 Ghoul with Charge that dies at the end of the turn. Plus, even your dead minions will be cause for celebration, as they play a pivotal role in powering up specific cards requiring Corpses. Death Knight is a powerful, flexible class, powered by three Runes: Blood, Frost, and Unholy. The player’s chosen devotion to those Runes will determine which cards they can put in their deck. Learn more about Rune deckbuilding in the Death Knight introduction article, and be sure to check out the Path of Arthas bundle ($24.99) for even more Death Knight class cards.

A post from Ubisoft explains its new Fair Play Program a new "platform" on Ubisoft Connect "designed to raise awareness on disruptive behaviors in the gaming community, help players recognize their own triggers, and how they can better understand the roots of those behaviors to overcome them." As that states, the idea is to educate players about how disruptive toxic behavior can be in multiplayer games, and how to recognize their own toxicity. There's a presumption that players are not aware of their own negative behavior, and it would be interesting to learn if that is accurate. Word is:

The modules are intended to help players understand situations that cause negative behaviors, the behaviors themselves, and the impact they have on other players. The Fair Play Program is designed to teach by example, rather than give an exact definition of toxic behaviors with no room for nuance. The videos will show instances of disruptive behavior that will help players think differently about their own interactions while playing, as well as tools players can use if they are exposed to disruptive behaviors.

• Save 50% on Necromunda: Hired Gun on Steam.
• Save 67% on Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition on Steam.

• What Is The Nivada Grenchen Pac-Man Watch?

Official patches.

• Ho-Ho-Home Invasion - 2022 Update - All I Want For Christmas Is Infinite Lives.
• League of Legends Patch 12.23 notes.
• Teamfight Tactics patch 12.23 notes.

Official trailer.

• Sword of the Necromancer: Revenant - Teaser Trailer.

• CES 2023 is targeting 100K attendees and millions of square feet of booths.
• Game2Give Charity Fundraiser Now Underway.

• Portal with RTX Launches December 8 - A Breathtaking Reimagining Of Valve’s Classic With Full Ray Tracing & DLSS 3.

• Waze is getting its own dedicated Android Automotive app.

• Elon Musk Doubles Down on Military with Starlink Spinoff 'Starshield' for National Security.

Thanks Console General.

• Intel- 4nm, 3nm-Class Nodes on Track, 1.8nm Technology Pulled in.
• Vendor Confirms RTX 4070 Ti is a Resurrected RTX 4080 12GB.
• Crypto lenders are suffering as bitcoin miners are unable to pay back gigantic loans. Schadenfreude alert.
• Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.1028 and 22623.1028.
• Microsoft PowerToys version 0.65.0.

• Another top password manager is doing away with passwords.

• Play Ubisoft Games You Own on Amazon Luna…

Last Link of the Day: Famous writers open up about low turnout at their book signing events. Awkward.

A new interview on Eurogamer.net hears from CD PROJEKT RED designer Philipp Weber about the fate of multiplayer support for Cyberpunk 2077. Back in 2013(!) it was announced that the sci-fi RPG would include multiplayer, which later morphed into a plan to release an entire separate multiplayer Cyberpunk 2077 game. Then in 2019 it was announced that multiplayer support would be added in a post-release update. In 2020 it was announced this would come sometime after 2021. A roadmap published in January 2021 worryingly had no mention of multiplayer support. A couple months later came word that the company was "reconsidering" this altogether. "Previously we hinted that our next AAA would be a multiplayer Cyberpunk game, but we have decided to reconsider this plan," Joint CEO Adam Kiciński explains. "Given our new, more systematic, and agile approach, instead of primarily focusing on one big online experience, or game, we are focusing on bringing online into all of our franchises one day." This brings us to this new interview, which confirms that the multiplayer plan is dead, and that the game's rocky launch was indeed to blame:

"We really needed to look at what were the priorities for Cyberpunk [after it launched]," Philipp Weber told me when I visited the studio last week. Weber was senior quest designer and coordinator on Cyberpunk 2077. Today, he's acting narrative director of the new Witcher game codenamed Polaris.

"The priority was that the main experience will run for the people in a really good state," he said. "And essentially, the switch of priorities meant that other R&D projects had to go away. With Cyberpunk, we wanted to do many things at the same time, and we just needed to really focus and say, 'Okay, what's the important part? Yeah, we will make that part really good.'"

Dwarf Fortress is now officially available on Steam, offering a new version of this intense survival simulation. The game has been in development for 20 years, and an alpha version launched in 2006. It famously featured ASCII graphics, but has now been updated with new artwork that uses these things called "pixels." The new look, which is still not what you'd call graphically intensive, can be seen in the Launch Trailer. Here's an explanation:

This new version brings a brand new pixel art tileset, a new helpful tutorial to onboard unfamiliar players, new soundtrack and sound effects, new user interface and navigable menus, and other quality of life additions to the legendary civilization management and construction game.

The game will launch with the Fortress and Legends game modes that longtime players are familiar with. We plan to add the Adventure and Arena modes to these versions of Dwarf Fortress very soon.

You can learn more and see Dwarf Fortress’ development roadmap here.

Continue here to read the full story.

Ubisoft announces the Lost Between Worlds expansion is now available as promised for Far Cry 6, offering new content for the first-person shooter sequel. It's available for Windows and consoles, and the PC edition is on Ubisoft Store or the Epic Games Store. Here's the Launch Trailer and here's the pitch:

Developed by Ubisoft Toronto, Lost Between Worlds is a thrilling new chapter of Dani Rojas’ story, set in a fractured version of Yara. Players will dive into a rich action-packed gauntlet with deadly crystal enemies, a wide variety of unique gameplay challenges with bewildering supernatural obstacles, and multiple player paths. Players will test their wit, prove their skill, and overcome death itself – or be lost forever.

Following their exploration of a mysterious meteorite impact site, Dani will find themselves in a twisted space between worlds accompanied by a noncorporeal lifeform named Fai. Players will need to repair Fai’s broken spacecraft by collecting five lost shards, each increasing Dani’s overall stats for survivability and bringing them one step closer to escape.

Continue here to read the full story.

By Crom! Funcom announces the release of Age of Sorcery — Chapter 2, adding even more magic to Conan Exiles, the Hyborian Age survival game. This is a major update that comes along with free features and improvements along with unique cosmetics supplied through Twitch Drops and the new Battle Pass. A new Age of Sorcery — Chapter 2 Trailer sets the stage for what to expect. Here are some barbaric details:

Conan Exiles receives its first major update following the monumental shift that came with Age of Sorcery, filling the game’s vast and savage wilderness with even more activities and danger. The free update arrives at the same time as a trove of new cosmetics that can be purchased through the new Battle Pass or in the Bazaar item shop. Feast your eyes on the abundance of new content in the Launch Trailer!

Funcom is also excited to announce three new Twitch Drops, running from today until January 3rd, letting players acquire two wall ornaments and the beautiful and festive Crested Lapdog pet simply by watching Conan Exiles streams on Twitch. Players need only link their account to Twitch through a button in the in-game menu to get started.

Continue here to read the full story.

Worried about a shortage of old-school first-person shooters? Well, perish the thought, as developer ITEM42 and publisher HandyGames announce PERISH, a mythology-inspired first-person co-op shooter arriving on PC on February 2nd. This will come to Window via GOG.com, the Epic Games Store, and Steam, and there's a playable demo on Steam to play right now. Check out the Release Date Trailer and read on for more:

​There is no way back and only one way forward. Enter blood-soaked underworlds inspired by ancient mythologies, all accompanied by a death-metal soundtrack. Face ceaseless battles on the perilous path to Elysium. Stave off a barbarous fate and slay hordes of infernal creatures on the black sands of Purgatory.

Sell their corpses to a glorious priestess in exchange for increasingly powerful melee weapons and firearms. Overwhelm abominable bosses and use the spoils of war to gain entrance to Elysium, where death and gold await thee.

Continue here to read the full story.

Disney announces the launch of a Missions in Uncharted Space content update for Disney Dreamlight Valley, the life-sim/adventure. This opens up a Toy Story realm where players are shrunken to toy-size. This comes just in time for the game's Early Access launch on the Mac App Store. Here's a Missions in Uncharted Space Update Trailer with a look. This comes along with an update allowing you to decorate for the holiday season. Here's a bit:

Once Buzz and Woody return to the Village, you will help Woody learn the magic of childhood memories and help Buzz as he enlists the support of Dreamlight Valley’s residents to establish its first Star Command outpost. You’re also in for a surprise as you help uncover the source behind some village mischief alongside Donald Duck, culminating in a new resident from beyond the stars!

In addition to decorating your Villages with homes for our new heroes from Disney’s Toy Story, you’ll also have plenty of opportunities to get into a festive mood with the release of the new Festive Star Path, filled to the brim with new and exclusive items to help you get cozy and warm in Dreamlight Valley.

Continue here to read the full story.

Madmind Studio announces new Red Goddess DLC is coming to Steam on December 22nd to add new content to SUCCUBUS, the sexy action/RPG where you slay your foes after mesmerizing them with your bewbs. Here's a CGI trailer to pave the way, with tasteful Japanese porn style pixelation to blur the naughty bits. Here's word:

Become the infinitely cruel and beautiful ruler of hell. Dressed in a gown of goddess blood, she will allow you to use her mighty powers that will bring to their knees any opponent who dares to oppose you. Next, mould blood to create a mighty, shapeshifting sword that easily slices through even the thickest demonic armour. Finally, savour the new executions of your enemies that will leave the battlefield wet with their blood.

With full support for the Goddess model, players can experience the story in Succubus as the Red Goddess, appearing in gameplay, story cutscenes and any available secondary animations!

• Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer "had to go away" after game's rocky launch - Eurogamer.net.
• Stranger Things' David Harbour to star in horror game with Jodie Comer.

• Special Sale: Sports & Racing games up to 90% off! - GOG.com.*

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

Official patches.

• No Man's Sky - Holiday 2022 Expeditions 4.08.
• Team Fortress 2 Update Released.
• Valheim - Patch 0.212.7 – Mistlands.
• World of Warcraft — Hotfixes- December 5, 2022.

• EA has added six more patents to its accessibility pledge.

Content creator videos.

• Why Are So Many Games Poorly Paced? - Slightly Something Else.
• 10 Video Game Remasters That REMOVED Things Fans Loved - WhatCulture.

• Changes to Ranked in 2023 - League of Legends.
• 'People go to video games for escapism’- Video game designer Cliff Blezinski - ABC News (video). Bleszinski!!!
• 50 years of the video game Pong - NPR.

• Destiny 2: Season of the Seraph underway.

• Third-Person Platform Fighter, Divine Knockout, Available Now on Xbox Series X-S and Xbox One.
• This Week's Deals with Gold and Spotlight Sale - Xbox Wire.

• Robo Truckers and the AI-Fueled Future of Transport (may require registration or subscription).
• This Low-Cost Test for Hearing Loss Lives on a Smartphone (may require registration or subscription).

• Google Search brings continuous scrolling to desktop. Um, yay?
• Meta told to overhaul moderation system for high-profile users like Donald Trump.
• Apple Music Sing Lets You Sing Along to Millions of Songs.

• Latest Intel Arc beta driver boosts GPU performance in 13 games.
• Apple, Nvidia to be first customers of TSMC Arizona chip plant. Thanks Max.
• Apple self-repair service comes to UK.
• Microsoft is trying another push to get people to switch to Windows 11.
• Microsoft confirms problems with some Windows apps due to database connections issues.
• This Tool Can Boot Multiple OSes From a USB Drive.
• Stardock Start11 version 1.35. Thanks Console General.

• Top 200 Most Common Password List 2022. Thanks Boing Boing.
• This broken ransomware can't decrypt your files, even if you pay the ransom.

• Elon Musk’s Neuralink is reportedly facing a federal probe on animal welfare grounds.
• Hackers linked to Chinese government stole millions in Covid benefits, Secret Service says.
• Woman tries to enter China with over 200 Intel CPUs hidden inside fake pregnant belly. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Hertz to pay $168 million for falsely reporting stolen vehicles causing customers to be imprisoned.
• Elizabeth Holmes appeals conviction, 11-year sentence despite bleak outlook.

• Need For Speed Unbound Review - Comic Book Racing - GameSpot.
• Need for Speed Unbound: FSR 2.1 vs. DLSS 2 vs. DLSS 3 Comparison Review - TechPowerUp.
• The Oregon Trail - Christ Centered Gamer.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• Case: Montech Sky Two Review - TechPowerUp.
• CPU Cooler: DeepCool LT720 AIO Review- The Best Yet at Cooling the 13900K - Tom's Hardware.
• Laptop: HP Omen 16 Review- The Adult's Gaming Laptop - Tom's Hardware.
• Laptop: MSI Prestige 15- Perfectly tuned for creative work - NotebookCheck.net News.
• PC: Supermicro AS-5014A-TT AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro Workstation - STH.
• RAM: Silicon Power XPOWER Zenith RGB DDR5-5600 CL40 2x 16 GB Review - TechPowerUp.

I finished another Cyber Monday-related project yesterday, much to my satisfaction. I've had to change way too many smoke detector batteries since we moved, and it was months ago I mentioned wanting to swap them out. It took longer than planned, but I was able to pick up a pile of new detectors on sale, so it was worth the wait. The bases of these had fittings to use the pre-existing screws, so installation was a breeze. And the sealed 10-year battery thing is going to be a lot easier to deal with.

Obituary: Kirstie Alley Dead: Star of Cheers Dies of Cancer at 71.

Charged-up Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Breakfast Link

• Legendary "Hulk" comic book writer Peter David raising money for hospital bills.
• Stern Pinball Presents the “Stern Experience.”
• The secret calling cards left by the people who built SF.

Stories

• PFC bans are set to change the face of all waterproof garments.

Science
Thanks Max.

• Weight-Loss Drug Semaglutide Is Debunking Diet, Exercise Myths.
• Identical twins aren't *that* identical.

Media
Thanks RedEye9.

• Why Pet Rats Are Called “Pocket Puppies.”
• Worlds hardest jigsaw vs. puzzle machine (all white).

Creature Features

• Adorable Baby Girl Convinces Wolves To Howl! They Go Crazy! (Cutest Ever!!). Not wolves (thankfully). Thanks Kxmode.
• 20-month-old sheepdog named Casper fights off and kills 8 coyotes that attacked his flock, farmer says.