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Friday, Dec 01, 2023 World AIDS Day

New Cyberpunk 2077 Content Next Week

CD PROJEKT RED announces details about a version 2.1 update coming to Cyberpunk 2077 on December 5th, the launch date for the new Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition. This will add new content, including a fully functional metro, replayable car races, and boss fight improvements along with accessibility enhancements (detailed here), bug fixes, and more. This was all discussed in a developer livestream today, and you can rewatch that on Twitch. Here's more:
With Cyberpunk 2077’s Update 2.1, players can expect several exciting additions to the range of experiences Night City already offers. Chief among them is a city-wide fully functional NCART metro system, offering a more relaxed way of getting about the most dangerous megalopolis of the dark future — and taking in the beautiful views along the way. Radioport, another new feature, lets players enjoy the eclectic musical vibes of Cyberpunk 2077’s selection of radio stations beyond the confines of their vehicle of choice — for example, during a peaceful walk through the city center. New hangouts with romantic partners are also available to partake in, as following Update 2.1 players will be able to invite their in-game significant other to enjoy some quality time together in V’s apartment.

Alan Wake 2 New Game + This Month?

Alan Wake 2 xeets a tease that a New Game + mode is coming to Alan Wake 2, Remedy Entertainment's survival/horror sequel. This is phrased as a question: "New month, new game... plus?" But it's hard to imagine it was posted if the answer is no. It includes an image that seems to confirm the news for anyone who can read the writing on the wall.

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Halo: Infinite Trailer Tease

Here's more teasing. A post on Xitter hypes a Halo: Infinite trailer that will arrive on Monday at noon EST. Such an announcement suggests this will be significant. But the presentation is also a quickly prepared homage to the xeet this morning teasing a Grand Theft Auto VI trailed coming Tuesday, so it seems equally likely this was done just for fun.

Diablo IV Campfire Chat

Blizzard News now offers a recap of yesterday's Diablo IV Campfire Chat along with the VOD of the stream of this discussion of plans for the action/RPG sequel. Word is: "On November 30, we held a Campfire Chat that sliced into our first seasonal endgame event Abbatoir of Zir, and foreshadowed chills yet to come in Midwinter Blight." Here's more:
Associate director of community Adam Fletcher, game director Joe Shely, and associate game director Joe Piepora detailed the fearsomely challenging endgame dungeon that arrives on December 5 in Abattoir of Zir. We visited the frozen lands of the Fractured Peaks to show the Frigid Husks and Blightfiends now permeating the land in tribute to the Red Cloaked Horror. We also confirmed there will changes to itemization arriving with a future season next year and answered questions from players in a Q&A session at the end of the stream. If you’d like to watch the full Campfire Chat to catch up on all the details, see the video below.
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Into the Black

Last Link of the Day: GODZILLA MINUS ONE Final Trailer.

Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer Next Week

A tease on Xitter by Rockstar Games teases the launch of a trailer on December 5th at 9:00 am EST. This does not reveal what it is for, but if it's for anything but Grand Theft Auto VI, there will be hell to pay. The image in the xeet shows a gold and purple sky with palm trees in the foreground, lending support to speculation that the next installment in the open-world crime series will return to its Miami-inspired Vice City locale. With trailer due in just days, presumably we'll know more soon enough.

Homeworld 3 in March

Gearbox Publishing and Blackbird Interactive announce a release date for Homeworld 3, revealing the outer space RTS sequel will launch on the Epic Games Store and Steam on March 8, 2024. The news comes with a new Behind the Scenes Trailer which hears from the developers and shows off gameplay to help build anticipation. This is a teaser for a longer documentary that should be released later this month. This post has more on the teaser:
Hype trailer for an upcoming documentary made in partnership with PC Gamer looking at the development of Homeworld 3. The documentary contains behind the scenes interviews with the development team. The full documentary will be available in December.

Homeworld 3 will explore an all-new story in the Homeworld universe. Imogen S'Jet, a scientist and Karan S’Jet's successor, must become Fleet Command to help solve the mystery behind The Anomaly, a threat which endangers the galaxy's future.
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SteamWorld Build Released

SteamWorld Build is now available for Windows on the Epic Games Store, GOG.com,* and Steam as well as for consoles, kicking off a subterranean exploration and construction game from Thunderful and The Station. This is a follow up to the Steamworld Dig Games, and owners of the entire series are entitled to an additional 22% off the new game on top of its 10% launch discount. Here's the Launch Trailer with a look, and here are more details if you don't mined:
As the architect of a SteamWorld mining town, break ground and raise houses for your steambot citizens, keep them fed and provide some rootin'-tootin' entertainment. Venture into the abandoned mine sitting under your town, rumoured to be filled with ancient tech that holds the key to escaping impending doom. Using the natural resources above ground and the abundant ores buried below, expand your town, stimulate new residential tiers to join the quest to dig deeper, unearth untold riches and ultimately help them to hightail it off the planet!

SteamWorld Build has been developed for PC and console simultaneously to ensure that every aspect of the game works just as well with a controller in hand as it does with mouse and keyboard, bringing a traditionally PC-centric genre to console without compromise. In SteamWorld tradition, it's a fantastic way in for newcomers to city builders, regardless of what platform they are on, while also offering a new twist on the genre that gives experienced players a refreshing new challenge infused with that patented SteamWorld charm.
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Pinball M Rolls Out

Pinball M is now available for Windows on the Epic Games Store and Steam as well as for Xbox and PlayStation (with a Switch edition on the way). The title covers some of this, as this is a free-to-play pinball simulation, but doesn't reveal its horror theme (jump scare!). The launch trailer does delve into this, showing off free content as well as some DLC, which features horror-themed tables for Chucky, The Thing, and Dead by Daylight. There's also Duke Nukem DLC which doesn't fit the theme, but no one's going to tell Duke that to his face. Here's more:
Pinball M boasts a sinister lineup of pinball tables available day one, designed to keep players on the edge of their seats from the moment they plunge into the darkness. Prepare to face your deepest fears with Zen’s own Wrath of the Elder Gods - Director's Cut, Dead by Daylight Pinball, Chucky’s Killer Pinball, and The THING Pinball in collaboration with Universal Products & Experiences. To complete the launch table lineup, Duke Nukem’s Bigshot Pinball delivers a wild and uninhibited extravaganza, complete with bubble gum.

But the horror doesn’t stop there! Pinball M introduces never-before-seen features that will plunge players even deeper into the nightmarish realms.
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THE MULLER-POWELL PRINCIPLE Released

Steam now offers THE MULLER-POWELL PRINCIPLE, a puzzle themed first-person action/adventure that clearly draws inspiration from the Portal series (thanks JDreyer). This can be seen in the previously released Announcement Trailer which features AI narration, portals, a not-portal gun, and a honking big eye in the sky. The launch has met with "very positive" reviews, so we're making a note here, huge success. Here's more:
It is a sci-fi story that takes place in the near future. You are Harry Herman, an employee of Delta Laboratories who researches interdimensional traveling. You had been participating in a project that was supposed to benefit all humanity, but something went wrong. Through the gameplay, you will solve various physics-based puzzles using an energy-manipulating weapon, travel across space and time to explore surrealistic universes and find out the dark truth about this project and your connection to it.

Solve various puzzles and trick enemies using physics interactions and your special tool - the Portable Energy Manipulator.
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Wild Bastards Announced

Modus Games and Blue Manchu announce Wild Bastards, a strategic first-person shooter follow-up to Void Bastards coming next year to PC. Like its predecessor, this features cel shaded graphics and a science fiction setting. But this time we go planet-side for gameplay that harkens back to the old west in a Firefly/Outland sort of way. This can all be seen in the Wild Bastards Announcement Trailer. Here's word:
Wild Bastards’ debut trailer showcases its titular gunslinging bandits in high-stakes firefights, as well as an evolution of the series’ core gameplay as the group flies between the stars, rides across planets and performs heists. Each character wields distinct weapons, stunts and traits, but to make best use of these, players must understand their match-ups against the huge variety of enemies they’ll encounter and the role of the different environments they must fight in. Thoughtfully calling the shots is just as important as a steady aim in this sci-fi shooter.

Wild Bastards finds its lawbreakers hunted and nearly eradicated by Jebediah Chaste, a ruthlessly puritanical magnate. After killing all but two of the Bastards, Jebediah’s final targets are miraculously saved by a mysterious, sentient spaceship known as The Drifter. The Bastards flee an unwinnable standoff, exploring an ever-changing and lawless galaxy rife with precious weapons and spoils as well as grisly fates in a grand attempt to resurrect their compatriots while living to steal another day.
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Pacific Drive in February

Ironwood Studios and Kepler Interactive announce a release date for Pacific Drive, saying players will be able to start up their pacific cars on PC and PlayStation 5 on February 22, 2024. But dismiss any thoughts of a pleasant drive up the PCH with the top down. This is set in the Olympic Exclusion Zone, suggesting this could have been titled D.R.I.V.E.R.: Shadow of Tacoma. The Release Date Trailer offers one of those dystopian PSAs that will seem so ironic in the future along with a few nods to other games crowbarred in along the way. Here's word:
Take a brief glance behind the curtain of the Olympic Exclusion Zone's past, the engrossing expanse at the heart of Pacific Drive. Once a shining jewel in the Pacific Northwest, it now sits behind a 300-meter wall, closed to the outside world and left to mysterious phenomena and the forces of nature. Explore distinctly fascinating new biomes as you drive deeper into the unknown; chart the Zone, uncover its hidden history and try to outrun the deadly anomalies of this surreal place.

Get behind the wheel of a uniquely capable station wagon, maintaining and upgrading your ride with life-saving tools while navigating treacherous terrain, gathering supplies and surviving tense encounters with the land’s dangerous hazards. Mysterious voices reach your car’s radio the further you drive, offering questions and dire warnings - leaving you to wonder who or what remains in this desolate place. Will you survive or become another relic in the Zone’s haunting landscape?
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ULTROS in February

Publisher El Huervo and developer Kepler Ghost announce ULTROS, a Metroidvania action/platformer that will land on PC and PlayStation on February 13th. The PC edition will support Windows and macOS when it arrives on the Epic Games Store and Steam, where it's now available for preorder. ULTROS is filled with color as well as action, as seen in the Release Date Announcement Trailer, which recalls the psychedelic ramblings of 60s icon Donovan. Here's more on the trailer and the game, which will introduce the cosmic uterus:
Today’s newly-released trailer introduces would-be adventurers and space gardeners to all-new gameplay showcasing new extractor-based mechanics that can be used to unlock new abilities to assist in exploring the stunning, multicolored world of ULTROS. Within glimpses of new locations and scenery, fans are also introduced to mysterious new characters that will expand their world and reveal undiscovered depths to the giant, space-drifting, cosmic uterus of The Sarcophagus.
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Tchia Coming to Steam in March

Tchia will come to Steam in March, as developer Awaceb and publisher Kepler Interactive prepare to bring their open-world adventure to even more gamers. This comes a year after its launch on the Epic Games Store, where it quickly sold over a million copies. It will receive some brand new features on all platforms at that time, and a new trailer takes a look at what to expect. Here's more:
New for the Steam release in March 2024, and available at the same time via a free in-game update for players on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC via the Epic Games Store, players will be able to enjoy a variety of exciting, new features to enhance their journey through the beautiful archipelago, including:

  • Outfits Perks System – Each piece of equipment Tchia finds in the world now provides various boosts and benefits, such as extra environmental resistances or stamina boosts. Explore the world and discover new items to suit your playstyle – looking stylish (or sometimes goofy) to boot.
  • New Cosmetic Items – Search for brand-new costumes and accessories hidden within the island locales to stand out from the crowd and show your personality, such as a classy top hat, or a hilarious clown costume.
  • New Soul-Melodies – Play your ukulele and unlock new abilities to help explore the world around you in whole new ways, like a blast of powerful energy to knock fruit out of trees or leaping to new heights and performing tricks in the sky.

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TEVI and Demo Released

TEVI is now available for Windows on Steam and for Switch, offering an action platformer that can't decide if it's fetishizing furries or schoolgirls. There's a playable demo to help you decide. A new Nintendo Switch Launch Trailer is here with a look, filled with action, music, and Japanese dialogue. Here's a description:
The protagonist Tevi is nimble and agile, wielding both her trusty dagger and an oversized wrench for dishing out melee damage in style. Alongside her, companions Celia and Sable manifest as two floating orbitars, ready to unleash a variety of ranged offensive and supportive magic in battle. Adapt your combat style to suit any situation and bring down foes with flashy, dazzling combos!
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Out of the Blue

Well it's December already, which, as always, seems too soon. But the late fall has gotten very wintry around these parts, making it hard to maintain a state of denial about this. The temperatures drop below freezing every night, we've already seen a couple of very light dustings of snow, and at various times ice has started forming on the pond. What's funny is that this has triggered an influx of ducks, who have been hanging out elsewhere for the past few months. They've been out there frolicking a few times lately, and seeing them splashing around in the frigid water like it's nothing is about the only illusion of warmer days I have at this point.

Obituary: Ex-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor dies aged 93.

December Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Stories
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