Ubisoft announces the appointment of Julian Gerighty as the new Executive Producer for The Division Brand, a move that will take effect after Star Wars Outlaws ships. This includes a very casual announcement of The Division 3, the next installment in the Tom Clancy-branded franchise:

After joining the team at Massive Entertainment – A Ubisoft Studio and shipping the original in 2016, he moved to Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 as Creative Director, where he and his team crafted a new adventure in the summertime streets of Washington, D.C. Now, he’s setting his sights on Tom Clancy’s The Division 3, as well as the plethora of other projects set in The Division universe, including the mobile game Tom Clancy’s The Division Resurgence, and the survival-action shooter Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland.

A core focus of Gerighty’s is to build a team for Tom Clancy’s The Division 3, which will be led by Massive Entertainment, while making sure Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 remains well supported. Outside of that, his attention will be on a solidification of brand identity.

“We may have over 40 million players, but The Division is still in its early years as a franchise. There are so many incredible stories to tell, places to explore and people to protect. “

Airship: Kingdoms Adrift is now available for Windows on Steam, and presumably soon on the Epic Games Store, offering a sandbox ship simulation set among the clouds. This carries a 20% launch discount for the next week. Before you look skyward, cast your eyes on the Launch Trailer and the following details:

Airship: Kingdoms Adrift is an airship trading and combat simulator, set in the wake of a Great Sky War that ripped through the steampunk world of Spheara. An uneasy cease-fire holds between the Aecerlian Kingdom, the New Viridian Republic, and the Teutonic Confederation. As they lick their wounds, their suddenly jobless soldiers and skyfarers look for new opportunities among the desolation.

Enter the Suthseg Archipelago. A far-flung frontier ruled by an aging king, it was spared from devastation of war and is a land full of riches and opportunity. It is here that fortunes will be made, loyalties tested, and skyfaring captains will get the rare chance to carve out a future of their own.

You are one of these captains, commissioned to establish a trading company in the Archipelago, and soon pulled into a game of grand politics… and grave danger.

Continue here to read the full story.

Pew pew! Fans of frantic firefights may be interested in the Steam Shmup Fest. This gets underway on Monday to give the Fest treatment to the shoot-em-up genre. Here's the Official Trailer, and here's word on this visit to bullet hell:

From September 25th through October 2nd, Steam SHMUP Fest will have an entire week full of discounts and demos celebrating shoot 'em ups, twin-stick shooters, and bullet hell games.

Continue here to read the full story.

Blowfish Studios announces PHANTOM GALAXIES will launch into Early Access on November 2nd, promising a free-to-play AAA online RPG featuring mecha combat. This will come to the Epic Games Store and Steam. Take a look at this space opera in the cinematic Early Access Trailer and read on for more:

PHANTOM GALAXIES™ is an expansive online multiplayer sci-fi action RPG set in a vast and immersive universe, featuring fast-paced mecha combat, high-octane action, and a captivating story and characters.

After an interstellar war, the Commonwealth and the Union have united to form the Ranger Squadron — a unit of elite mecha pilots devoted to protecting human colonies on the frontiers of known space. Players will take on the role of an ensign in the Ranger Squadron, piloting a transforming mechanized Starfighter to defend against the incursions of ruthless pirate factions and treacherous alien foes, from the scavenging Junkers and paramilitary Brooksea to the reviled Xanorra and vicious Sha’har zealots.

Continue here to read the full story.

• Save 35% on We Were Here Forever on Steam.
• Save 75% on State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition on Steam.
• Save 30% on Blood Bowl 3 on Steam.
• Save 20% on Farming Simulator 22 on Steam.
• Audio FX Plugins & Royalty Free Sounds Mega Bundle (pay what you want and help charity).*

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

• The current state of games investment.
• Re-Logic donating $100,000 to Godot and FNA in response to Unity backlash.

• The Xbox Mastercard Is Available Today! A New Way to Earn More Value for Gaming.
• Presenting the Razer Blade 16 x Automobili Lamborghini Edition – Supercar Excellence Meets Gaming Dominance.

Official trailers.

• Bus Simulator 21 Next Stop - Thomas Built Buses Bus Pack Trailer.
• The Crew Motorfest: Accolades Trailer.
• For Honor: Content Of The Week - 21 September.

• World of Warcraft — Jump Into This Week's PvP Brawl.

• Call of Duty- Modern Warfare II Announcement: Season 06- The Haunting.
• RazerCon 2023 Lights Up the Global Gaming Community With Groundbreaking Announcements & Exclusive Partnerships.

• Free Play Days – Farming Simulator 22, State of Decay 2- Juggernaut Edition, and Tekken 7 - Xbox Wire.
• Nintendo Download: A Night Market To Remember.

• Here's everything Microsoft announced at its Surface and Copilot event.
• Google is teasing Apple again over its lack of RCS messaging support.
• Blue OLED Advancement Set to Transform Smartphone and Large Screen Displays.

• Facebook officially embraces fake profiles.
• Encrypted email provider Proton has built its own CAPTCHA service. Thanks DSLReports via Ant.
• YouTube reveals powerful new AI tools for content creators – and we’re scared, frankly.

• Nvidia Responds So AMD Can't Win- September GPU Pricing Update.
• Razer goes after the Herman Miller Aeron with its Fujin gaming chair.
• Tech salaries are dropping. Here's who's getting hit the hardest.

• Pizza Hut Australia warns 193,000 customers of a data breach. Thanks DSLReports via Ant.
• Gen Z vs. boomers: young adults are victims of online scams more often. Thanks Matthew.
• TransUnion says dump of customer data came from third party.

Last Link of the Day: SANS ICS HyperEncabulator. Thanks VideoSift.

It's Thursday, so the Epic Games Store is offering another chance to add to your gaming library without subtracting from your bank account. Two free games are now available, and as usual, they are yours to keep if you snag them before next Thursday's giveaways take their place. Right now everyone is entitled to free copies of Out of Line and The Forest Quartet for Windows, while next week's games are revealed to be Soulstice and Model Builder. Here are quick descriptions of each of today's freebies:

A unique adventure game filled with beautiful puzzles all hand-drawn in a unique 2D style . Out of Line follows the adventures of San in a quest to escape the Factory that was once home. Dive into a story set in a mysterious world that is revealed through multiple chapters.

The Forest Quartet is a 3D narrative puzzler about a gone, but not forgotten, lead singer. Play her spirit and travel through 3 acts unique to the members of her band for a final farewell concert. Face their emotions, solve puzzles and fight the corruption plaguing their souls.

It's payday for PAYDAY players (aka "heisters"), as PAYDAY 3 is now available on the Epic Games Store and Steam, offering a new installment in the co-op heist shooter series. A Message From Our CEO from yesterday features Starbreeze's Tobias Sjögren thanking players in advance for supporting the release and there's a new Dev Diary Episode 9 celebrating the launch. Here's the scheme:

PAYDAY 3 is the much anticipated sequel to one of the most popular co-op shooters ever. Since its release, PAYDAY-players have been reveling in the thrill of a perfectly planned and executed heist. That’s what makes PAYDAY a high-octane, co-op FPS experience without equal.

Step out of retirement back into the life of crime in the shoes of the Payday Gang, the envy of their peers and the nightmare of law-enforcement wherever they go. Several years after the crew’s reign of terror over Washington DC has ended, they assemble once again to deal with the threat that roused them out of early retirement.

Continue here to read the full story.

GeForce News announces the launch of new version 537.42 GeForce reference drivers for running NVIDIA graphics cards under windows. These include support for the new Ray Reconstruction feature and are game ready for Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Party Animals, Warhaven, and Witchfire. The drivers can be found here. Here's more:

Today, September 21st, Cyberpunk 2077’s 2.0 update launches with tons of enhancements, including DLSS 3.5. In Cyberpunk 2077’s Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode, DLSS 3.5’s new Ray Reconstruction technique improves the quality and clarity of reflections, global illumination is even more accurate, and lighting is more dynamically responsive, for an even better, more immersive, more realistic experience.

GeForce RTX 40 Series users can benefit from all the performance and image quality enhancements that DLSS 3.5 has to offer - including performance-multiplying Frame Generation for the fastest frame rates - in the demanding Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode.

AMD Software now offers new version 23.9.2 Adrenalin Edition Windows drivers for AMD Radeon graphics cards. These add support for Lies of P, Party Animals, and The Crew: Motorfest, new Anti-Lag+ game support, and more. Here's word from the Release Notes:

New Game Support

• Lies of P
• Party Animals
• The Crew™ Motorfest

Continue here to read the full story.

Separate Ways is now available on Steam, offering new expansion for the Windows edition of Resident Evil 4, the survival/horror remake. Word is: "Requires Resident Evil 4 (2023). Please update the game to the latest patch before playing." A post from Capcom has the previously released Launch Trailer and these details:

Somewhere in a rural village in Europe, a village is under the control of Los Iluminados, a group that will soon cross paths with Leon S. Kennedy when he arrives in search of the president’s missing daughter. Before Leon arrives, however, Ada Wong has already infiltrated the village in search of something far more precious to her own mission: an enigmatic material only known as “the Amber”.

Under the orders of Albert Wesker, Ada must infiltrate Los Iluminados and escape with the mysterious substance. What will she do, though, when an all-too-familiar face from the Raccoon City incident shows up with a mission separate from her own?

Providing a different perspective on the main campaign of Resident Evil 4, Separate Ways explores Ada’s side of events and the intersections that bring both stories together, painting the full picture of what happened behind the scenes while Leon and Ashley mounted a desperate escape from Los Iluminados.

Continue here to read the full story.

Days of Doom is now available for Windows on the Epic Games Store and Steam as well as for consoles, offering a roguelike tactical RPG from SneakyBox and Atari. As seen in the Launch Trailer, this is unrelated to id's DOOM, nor is it related to Diablo, despite being set in Sanctuary. But enough about what it is not. Here's word on what it is:

Days of Doom is an unconventional post-apocalyptic odyssey set in a colorful, chaotic world where zombies, raiders, zombie raiders, and mutant lizards roam free. You’ll embark on a quest to navigate a treacherous wasteland and reach sanctuary amidst the rubble. Armed with an eclectic group of uniquely skilled survivors, you must strategically maneuver through hordes of undead hellspawn and other threatening adversaries, manage hard-earned resources, and devise tactics that will allow you to outsmart the undead and mutated swarms.

Mastering the art of turn-based combat is essential to survival in this tortured realm. Each character class possesses unique abilities that, when skillfully employed, can turn the tide of battle. Kickstart the chaos with Pyro, setting foes ablaze for lingering damage. Combo together attacks from Hydromancer and Thrasher, drenching enemies with watery assaults and delivering an electrifying knock-out. Though the odds seem insurmountable, strategic utilization of each class' talents, combined with timely upgrades and new abilities, is the key to overcoming the undead (or otherwise disturbing) menaces.

A Builders of Greece: Prologue is now available for Windows on Steam, offering a sample that should grease the wheels for the release of the full version of this city-state-builder. The Prologue Launch Trailer is here to introduce this introduction. Here's word:

Put your management skills to the demanding test and prove yourself as a fine ruler of the ancient Greek city. Throughout your journey, you will face many challenges, unexpected events, and promising opportunities. Make world-shaping decisions, command your subjects, erect magnificent structures, and make your Polis the most glorious place in the whole ancient world! Builders of Greece: Prologue, being a shortened version of the full game, is a great way to practice your management skills and learn basic game mechanics.

Continue here to read the full story.

Funcom now offers Chapter 2 of the free Age of War update for Conan Exiles, the multiplayer survival game set in the Hyborian Age. Here's the Launch Trailer with a look at all that this adds, including a revamped Purge system. Here's what this brings to the party:

In Chapter 2, take full control over both when a purge attacks, and the difficulty of the event. As Stygian fighters pour from a nearby war camp, defend your base and the treasure within it against wave after wave, until the Hand of War emerges. Defeat him and reap the rewards, which improve according to difficulty. This is a completely new experience in Conan Exiles, leveraging the game’s deeply customizable player-built bases and followers to create epic battles with high replayability.

In addition, loot tables across the entire game have been improved, making enemy drops reflect their culture, environment, and equipment. Leave the confines of your fortress to raid camps and delve into dungeons to find the rarest of loot. Thanks to their systemic nature, the impact of these features can be felt by new players taking their first steps out of the desert, to end-game veterans dominating the Exiled Lands and raising whole cities.

Continue here to read the full story.

Okay, so Steam now offers the Windows edition of an old school dungeon crawler that can be called Mon-Yu for short. Also available for consoles, we're unsure of the game's appeal, but are drawn to its eloquent full title, which may be the longest in game history: Mon-Yu: Defeat Monsters And Gain Strong Weapons And Armor. You May Be Defeated, But Don’t Give Up. Become Stronger. I Believe There Will Be A Day When The Heroes Defeat The Devil King. Here's a gameplay trailer, and despite the title itself being a description, here's a description:

With an emphasis on character creation, party optimization and good, ol’ fashioned turn-based combat, Mon-Yu: Defeat Monsters And Gain Strong Weapons And Armor. You May Be Defeated, But Don’t Give Up. Become Stronger. I Believe There Will Be A Day When The Heroes Defeat The Devil King celebrates the pioneering RPGs from the earliest days of video games. Developed by EXPERIENCE, the game features a plethora of adorable character portraits, tons of weapons and armor, and flexibility in skill point allocation so players can tweak their lineup to their heart's content. Players also have the option to speed up combat so clearing dungeons never feels like a grind!

Continue here to read the full story.

Official patches.

• Update 2.0 to Cyberpunk 2077 is here – check out an interview with Miles Tost, Level Design Acting Lead of the game.

• Next Move Demo on Steam.

Official trailers.

• Battle Bows - Bow Showdown Update Trailer.
• Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles - Settlement Trailer.
• Dinky Guardians - Release Date Trailer (Automation, Colony Building, Defense, Co-op).
• Palworld - TGS 2023 Trailer.
• Space For Sale - Tools of the Trade Trailer.
• War Thunder - Sons of Attilla Update.
• Wardens Rising Gameplay Overview [PvE Hero Shooter - Base Defense].

• We Are Retroactively Dropping the iPhone’s Repairability Score - iFixit. Thanks RedEye9.
• Google accused of directing motorist to drive off collapsed bridge. Thanks brother19.

• Max Adds Streaming Live Sports for NBA Season and MLB Playoffs.
• NFTs Almost Completely Worthless, Crypto Researchers Find. Crypto Researchers learn what non-Crypto Researchers have known all along. Thanks Matthew.

Thanks Console General.

• Undervolted AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT with 200W power limit matches average performance of GeForce RTX 4070.
• GNOME 45 'Rīga' Linux desktop environment is released. Thanks Ant.
• Update to Windows Subsystem for Android™ on Windows 11 (September 2023).
• Plex Media Server v1.32.5.7516.

Thanks DSLReports and Ant.

• Feds issue Snatch ransomware alert as crims list new victim.
• TransUnion denies it was hacked, links leaked data to 3rd party.

• Dune: Spice Wars review - PC Gamer.
• Payday 3 review – an essential multiplayer heist FPS - PCGamesN.

• Case: Building With Cooler Master’s Qube 500 Modular Case- Great Concept, Room for Improvement - Tom's Hardware.
• CPU/AIO Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360 Atmos Liquid CPU Cooler Review - ThinkComputers.org.
• CPU/AIO Cooler: Deepcool Assassin IV air cooler - Guru3D.
• Headset/Earbuds: MSI Immerse GH50 Wireless Gaming Headset - TweakTown.
• Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga G4- ThinkPads should utilize magnesium more - NotebookCheck.net News. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• SSD: Kingston XS1000 2 TB Review - TechPowerUp.
• SSD: TeamGroup T-Force Z540 2TB SSD Review - Fastest Retail SSD to Date - TweakTown.

Thank you for the support many leant to the decision to buy the RTX 4090. It was supposed to arrive yesterday, but the weather set it back 24 hours. This gave me time to digest and worry about comments about my PSU. It is a 1000W model planned to be future-proof for this upgrade. But that may be borderline if I do any overclocking, it does not include a 12VHPWR cable for the 4090, and it is not ATX 3.0. This doesn't seem like something to mess with, so I've got a new 1200W PSU on the way as well. This satisfies the rule that it's most common to have one upgrade trigger another. It also turns a simple graphics card swap into a more complex bit of surgery, so wish me luck with that.

Powerful Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Stories

• Logan Roy Steps Down as Chairman of Waystar Royco. Names Kendall Roy successor.
• Half-million-year-old wooden structure unearthed in Zambia. Thanks brother19.

Science

• NASA's Curiosity Rover Reaches Fascinating Geological Formation on Mars. Thanks A.C.M.
• Most pink diamonds were birthed by a disintegrating supercontinent. Where can we find more? Thanks Acleacius.
• Extreme Fasting- What Does 'One Meal a Day' Actually Do to Your Body?

Media
Thanks VideoSift.

• A few thoughts on Pumpkin Spice Season. Thanks oregonlive.com via Matthew.
• World's Best FPV Drone Shot- (extreme mountain biking).
• Free solo climber freaks out at worst possible moment.

Creature Features

• 13 July 2023 (NSFW).

Auction

• Bob Ross’s first TV painting ‘A Walk in the Woods’ on sale for $9.8 million. Now that would make for some happy little trees. Thanks RedEye9.

Follow-up

• Biden administration announces $600 million to produce COVID tests and will reopen website to order them.