An X from Valve's CS2 account does not come out and say that Counter-Strike 2 will arrive one week from today. But it's pretty easy to come away with the impression that the tactical shooter sequel will arrive on September 27th from the six word missive:

What are you doing next Wednesday?

Bloomberg reports that Glen Schofield is departing KRAFTON subsidiary Striking Distance Studios following the disappointing commercial performance of Callisto Protocol, the spiritual successor to Dead Space, which he co-created. Schofield was CEO, and word is he and the company's CCO and CFO are all leaving voluntarily, so they were probably fired. Here's a bit:

Chief Executive Officer Glen Schofield is leaving, a Krafton representative confirmed Wednesday, saying he has “decided to pursue new opportunities.” Striking Distance’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer are also leaving. Krafton said all three departures were voluntary.

Chief Development Officer Steve Papoutsis will take over as CEO. In a statement, Schofield said his departure was “bittersweet, but I know the studio is in excellent hands.”

A post on Steam lays out the schedule for Steam sales and fests for the early part of 2024. Here's a first look at the new year:

Steam Sales & Fests Schedule for 2024

• Capitalism and Economy Fest: January 8 - 15
• Pirates vs. Ninjas Fest: January 22 - 29
• Next Fest: February 5 - 12
• Remote Play Together: February 12 - 19
• Dinos vs. Robots Fest: February 26 - March 4
• Spring Sale: March 14 - 21 (major seasonal sale)
• Deckbuilders Fest: March 25 - April 1

The list of scheduled events is also available on the Upcoming Steam Events documentation page.

Criterion Games joins EA Entertainment is the announcement that the Need for Speed studio is now part of EA Entertainment, rather than EA SPORTS. This makes it officially part of the Battlefield development process, though it has worked on the series in the past. Here's word from EA Entertainment GM Vince Zampella:

As we’ve said before, we’re all-in on Battlefield. Today, Criterion is added to our world-class Battlefield studios dedicated to ushering in a new era for the franchise. The majority of the team will be working alongside DICE, Ripple Effect, and Ridgeline that are led by Byron Beede, GM of Battlefield. Criterion’s experience with Battlefield, our technology and building engaging experiences will have an immediate positive impact as we continue to work on Battlefield 2042, and as we continue pre-production on a connected Battlefield Universe. There is no better studio to join us on this journey and I couldn’t be more excited.

Work will also continue on what’s next for Need for Speed. Many of you might be familiar with my history in games, having worked with extremely talented teams on Apex Legends, Titanfall, and Star Wars Jedi here at Electronic Arts. But you might not know I have a passion for cars, which also makes Criterion a perfect match for me to explore another genre in gaming that I love. I’m really looking forward to working with a core group as we shape what’s next for the franchise.

Mortal Kombat 1 is now officially available for PC and consoles, offering the latest installment in the fighting game series which, despite concerns, never did cause the downfall of society. The Windows edition is on the Epic Games Store and Steam. Here's the previously released Official Launch Trailer with a look. The game carries a full-on USD$69.99 price tag, but the minimalist description is not a very hard sell:

It’s In Our Blood!

Discover a reborn Mortal Kombat™ Universe created by the Fire God Liu Kang. Mortal Kombat™ 1 ushers in a new era of the iconic franchise with a new fighting system, game modes, and fatalities!

Moonstone Island is now available for Windows, macOS, and Linux on Steam, offering the latest destination to the many drawn to serene pixel-art islands. And that description certainly fits this life-sim, as seen in the Launch Trailer. Here's word:

It’s tradition in your village for young alchemists to move away from home to a new island in the sky to finish their training. Armed with a team of nature Spirits, potions, and the help of the friends you’ll meet along the way, you’ll explore ancient temples, dangerous dungeons, and diverse biomes to prove yourself as a true alchemist and uncover the secret of Moonstone Island.

Inspired by Studio Ghibli classics like Kiki’s Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky and more, Moonstone Island transports you to a magical world full of delightful creatures, characters, and charms to discover. Along the way, you’ll master new skills, grow your own crops, and make a new home for yourself in the clouds!

Continue here to read the full story.

• Save 70% on Supraland on Steam.
• Fellow Traveller's Publisher Sale on Steam.
• Save 40% on Return to Monkey Island on Steam.
• Save 60% on Tinkertown on Steam.
• Get Your Head in the Game VR (pay what you want and help charity).*

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

• Embracer Group layoffs hit Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics.

Unofficial games, patches, and mods.

• Starfield gets a new DLSS 3 Mod with extensive in-game settings.

• Meet PC Game Pass' Autumn Curator, Content Creator Bruce Greene.

• Soul Covenant - Official Announce Trailer.

• Bang-On Balls: Chronicles - Open Worlds Trailer.
• The First Descendant - Official 4K NVIDIA DLSS 3 Comparison Trailer.
• EA SPORTS WRC Gameplay Deep Dive.

↑ Official trailers. ↓ Content creator videos.

• I went to ARCADE HEAVEN with nearly 1,000 games! - Galloping Ghost Summer 2023 Tour.

• The plans for Lies of P - GamesIndustry.biz.

• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Has Gone Gold.
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Actors Celebrate The Game Going Gold With Fun Video Messages.
• Trailer for disastrous Mortal Kombat 1 Switch release contains a Steam achievement popup.

Thanks DSLReports and Ant.

• Is T-Mobile shifting focus from midband 5G to fiber? Or UScellular?
• Mozilla Thunderbird — Release Notes (115.2.3). Thanks Frans.
• SeaMonkey 2.53.17.1 Release Notes.

• Nvidia Says Native Resolution Gaming is Out, DLSS is Here to Stay.
• Intel’s biggest laptop CPU update in years is a huge departure from past designs.
• Intel Announces Panther Lake Client Platform, Built on Intel 18A For 2025.
• Chinese Officials Discover Cache of 360 Intel CPUs Hidden in Bus. What bus speed?
• New Amazon hardware devices revealed, including new Fire TV sticks, new Echo Show 8 and more.
• Windows Subsystem for Android on Windows 11 preview adds localhost loopback support for LAN.
• Amazon announces Alexa AI – 5 things you need to know about the voice assistant. Just need to know how to keep it out of my house.
• The Gruesome Story of How Neuralink’s Monkeys Actually Died (may require registration or subscription).

• Signal moves to protect chats from quantum computers.
• International Criminal Court hacked amid Russia probe.

• John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, other prominent authors sue OpenAI. Martin should just use it to do the writing he obviously can't. Thanks Matthew.

• Learn Top Hit Songs From The Clash in Rocksmith+…

Last Link of the Day: Honest Trailers - Barbie.

Bethesda Xs a thank you to the 10 million players who've played Starfield since its launch. Bethesda says this makes the sci-fi RPG its biggest launch in its history:

Thank you to more than 10 million #Starfield explorers for creating the biggest launch in Bethesda history.

Here's a roundup of reviews of Phantom Liberty in advance of next week's launch of the first expansion for Cyberpunk 2077:

• Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty Review - Surprised - AGC (video).
• Review: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - Destructoid.
• ‘Cyberpunk 2077- Phantom Liberty’ Review- Blood And Sublime - Forbes.
• Cyberpunk 2077- Phantom Liberty Review - So Long, Night City - Game Informer.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review - GameRant.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review - GamesRadar+.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review - The Songbird Sings - GameSpot.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC Review - Game Changer - Gaming Bolt (video).
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty review --- A blaze of glory — GAMINGTREND.
• No IGN Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Video Review Yet - Here's Why - IGN (video).
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review - IGN.
• 'Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty' Is the Best Spy Game in a Decade - Inverse.
• Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty- The Kotaku Review.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty review - PC Gamer.
• Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty review – a fitting Night City send-off - PCGamesN.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is an exhilarating spy action thriller - Polygon.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty review- perhaps the best expansion pack ever made - Rock Paper Shotgun.
• "Electrifying, Emotional, And Full Of Twists" - Cyberpunk 2077- Phantom Liberty Review - Screenrant.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review - TheGamer.
• Review: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is a transformative overhaul - VGC.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review - Shiny Firmware Update - Wccftech.

Speaking of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, CD PROJEKT RED Xs about plans for a livestream tomorrow on Twitch where the team will show off and discuss the expansion. In other news related to the release, this X reminds players of the game's updated system requirements and warns that uninstalling any modifications is recommended before installing the add-on:

Attention players! The upcoming @CyberpunkGame Update 2.0 will bring exciting changes to the game, including the updated system requirements. We'd like to remind you that the new update of the game will only support SSDs. Don't forget to check if your PC meets the new requirements!

If you're using mods, we recommend uninstalling them before Update 2.0. Due to the sheer amount of changes, they might cause more issues than usual. Wait until the modding community updates them to the new version of the game.

A new Story Trailer from Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth offers a look at the next installment in the series formerly known as Yakuza. This includes a release date, saying it will arrive on January 26th. There's also a new gameplay reveal trailer. The video was part of a presentation from the developers and Game Informer share some additional details from that:

Some details not in the trailer include the fact that the playable party now has full freedom of movement while fighting, allowing for more strategy. The game includes a Crazy Taxi-inspired minigame, among many other money-making opportunities. Actors Danny Trejo (Machete) and Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) will also be playing Dwight, the leader of the Barracudas gang, and Masataka Ebina, the ruthless captain of the local yakuza syndicate, respectively. You can check out some additional screenshots for the game below.

• UK's preliminary judgement on new Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal reportedly due next week.

• EA SPORTS Celebrates a New Era for the World's Game With Epic EA SPORTS FC 24 Soundtrack.

• Euro Truck Simulator 2 1.48.5 Maintenance Update Open Beta.
• Ubisoft Connect PC Beta's Rollout is Complete.
• World of Warcraft Hotfixes: September 19, 2023.
• Xbox Insider Release Notes - Game Bar [6.123.9141.0]. Thanks Console General.

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

• Baldur's Gate 3 gets a DLSS 3 Mod that doubles its performance in CPU-bound scenes.

• Sonic Superstars: Trio of Trouble.
• Star Citizen Alpha 3.20 - Fully Loaded.
• Super BUFF HD - Release date trailer.

↑ Official trailers. ↓ Content creator videos.

• A very useful tool as a survivor... - Viva La Dirt League. Thanks Ant.

• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Dev Diary #1: Welcome to The Chinese Room. Thanks Acleacius.

Thanks Console General.

• Xbox Insider Release Notes - Omega (2309.230917-2200).
• Xbox Insider Release Notes - Delta (2309.230917-2200).
• Xbox Insider Release Notes - Beta (2309.230917-2200).

• How to Get Free Ebooks on ‘Stuff Your E-Reader’ Day (2023) (may require registration or subscription).

Thanks Max.

• NVIDIA Reflex Now Reducing System Latency In Party Animals, Warhaven & More.
• Musk start-up Neuralink seeks people for brain-implant trial. Let us know how it goes.
• Google’s Bard chatbot can now find answers in your Gmail, Docs, Drive.
• Google AI tool predicts danger of genetic mutations. Seems Google AI got a new press agent. Thanks Acleacius.
• Amazon announces new Alexa LLM.
• New ‘Physics-Inspired’ Generative AI Exceeds Expectations.
• Forty years of GNU and the free software movement. Thanks LWN.net via Ant.
• How to Convert an Image to Text in Google Docs. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Visual Studio Code v1.82.2. Thanks Console General.

Thanks DSLReports and Ant.

• Hackers breached International Criminal Court’s systems last week.
• Why you can still trust (other) password managers, even after that LastPass mess.
• Marvell disputes claim Cavium backdoored its chips.
• GitHub Copilot, Amazon Code Whisperer emit people's API keys.

• Court sentences pair for India-based robocall scam.

• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Benchmark Test & Performance Analysis Review - TechPowerUp.
• Lies Of P review: the closest we'll get to Bloodborne on PC, probably - Rock Paper Shotgun.
• Mortal Kombat 1 PC Performance Analysis - DSOGaming.
• Mortal Kombat 1 Video Review - GameSpot.
• Mortal Kombat 1 review – so close to greatness - The Loadout.

• Gaming Chair: Nitro Concepts X1000 Gaming Chair - Nikk Tech.
• Headset/Earbuds: Corsair Virtuoso Pro Headset (2023) - it's one of their best - KitGuruTech (video).
• Headset/Earbuds: NACON RIG 600 PRO HS Review - Neoseeker.
• Mini PC: Ace Magician AMR5 "Ryzen 5800U" Mini PC - TweakTown.
• Monitor: Dell P2424HT review- An office monitor built for touch - PCWorld. Thanks Neutronbeam.

I don't know to what degree I expect it to address the oddball crashing problem I have in Diablo IV, but I have a new video card on the way. And considering I'm the one who ordered it, I am as surprised as anyone at my choice. I'm getting an RTX 4090, which will be my first flagship GPU since long before pricing went insane. I was considering everything but, so I needed to be talked into this, but everyone I spoke with was in favor of the choice, including MrsBlue. It is a budget-buster, but I can justify using some of my meager accident payout on it to help make up for well over a year of gaming lost to my broken arm. It also fits with me thinking recently about my late mom, who was not about denying your joy. I'm looking forward to checking out games with their settings cranked up to ridiculous. The fact that two of them are RTX Portal and the upcoming RTX Half-Life 2 is a little weird considering their vintage, but there it is.

High-end Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Stories

• Space Drugs Factory Denied Reentry to Earth. Thanks A.C.M.
• New "electrical" blue tarantula species found in Thailand: "Enchanting phenomenon." Thanks brother19.
• Starbucks to face lawsuit claiming its fruit drinks are missing fruit. No stars, either.
• Danish artist ordered to repay museum after delivering blank canvases.

Science
Thanks Max.

• A single dose of psilocybin boosts neuroplasticity and reduces depression symptoms. Also, Phish. Thanks Acleacius.
• This 200-Year-Old Technology Could Revolutionize the Future of Heating.
• Jamais vu: the science behind eerie opposite of déjà vu.

Media

• ALL MY CARS ARE BROKEN! 3 weeks commuting via E-BIKE. Which of his broken cars was used to film the moped open?

Creature Features

• Bears raid Krispy Kreme doughnut van making deliveries on Alaska military base. Thanks Matthew.
• Dog almost outsmarts owner playing fetch.
• Deadliest Baby Shark attacks caught on video ⚠. Thanks RedEye9.

Auction

• Unreleased Beatles recordings, John Lennon-Yoko Ono album and George Harrison album up for auction.

Follow-up

• What we know about the Marine Corps F-35 crash in South Carolina. Thanks The Flying Penguin.
• Spending time in space can harm the human body − but scientists are working to mitigate these risks before sending people to Mars. Thanks Acleacius.