Bring out your dead! The Legends of the Dead expansion is now available for Crusader Kings III, the medieval grand strategy RPG. The Windows, macOS, and Linux version is available on Steam, where the base game is on sale for half-off. This post discusses the add-on, offers up the Release Trailer, and has details on a new version 1.12.1 "Scythe" update for all players. Here's word:

Even the most ancient of bloodlines must be bolstered by stories of greatness. Why should one noble house dominate others, if it has no glorious past to claim? Warriors and diplomats, hunters and saints, all have a place in the chronicles of history and the songs of troubadours. Can you build a legend so powerful that people speak of it centuries later? Secure an everlasting legacy in Crusader Kings III: Legends of the Dead.

Legends of the Dead is the newest core expansion to Paradox Interactive’s award-winning grand-strategy role-playing game of the medieval world. Travel back in time to a world of scheming regents and rival monarchs as they compete for prestige and dynastic power. In Legends of the Dead, you can preserve the legitimacy of your rule through not only great deeds, but the publicity of these deeds, creating a worldwide memory of your actions long after death.

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The Thaumaturge is now available for Windows on the Epic Games Store, GOG.com,* and Steam, offering a story-driven RPG from Fool's Theory and 11 bit studios. This post discusses the release, providing a Launch Trailer (NSFW) as an illustration ("who turns down coffee?"). Here's word on this game that transports players back to the fun and games to be expected in turn of the 20th century Warsaw:

The Thaumaturge is an isometric, story-rich RPG with a unique take on turn-based combat, character development features, and investigation mechanics, facing you with morally ambiguous choices – set in a world teeming with mysterious powers and strange ethereal beings called salutors.

The year is 1905. Warsaw lives under the yoke of imperial Russian tsardom. Its inhabitants constitute a diverse group of different ancestries, views, and beliefs with often conflicting interests: Russian soldiers, Jewish merchants, Polish townspeople, and more. Despite the circumstances, the city is a buzzing metropolis, where one can attend a breathtaking party with the high society, and later get robbed in one of the dark alleys of the Praga district. A city of great hopes and dreams on one hand and dark desires on the other.

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

Midwest Games announces Dark Sky, a turn-based RPG promising deckbuilding, a "story-rich adventure," and strategic combat when it arrives on Steam in Q3 of this year. This post on Steam explains that this is the new title for a game previously announced with the title Xenotheria, a game that never previously mentioned here, perhaps a justification of the switch. Here's the Official Announcement Trailer and a playable demo will arrive later this month in the Steam Deckbuilder Fest. Here's word:

From former Riot and Wargaming developers at Ganymede Games and publisher Midwest Games, Dark Sky is slated for worldwide release on PC via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store in Q3 2024. Check out the latest demo during the Steam Deckbuilders Fest from March 25 to April 1, 2024!

Devastation reigns on the once peaceful mining planet Wolf Prime after a mysterious force pulls all spacecraft from the sky. Brave the dangerous apocalyptic landscape as Squig and Norton, modest shipyard workers who enlist a team of unlikely heroes to uncover the truth beneath the rubble. As Ganymede Games’ debut game, Dark Sky is the initial chapter in a much larger narrative universe.

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Bandai Namco announces registration is now underway for closed beta testing of SYNDUALITY ECHO OF ADA, an anime mech shooter that will offer PvPvE combat for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 5. Testing will run from March 28 though April 1 and more details and signups are on the Official Site. For a look at gameplay we have the CBT Announcement & Gameplay Trailer. Here's the pitch:

Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. is inviting potential CRADLECOFFIN Drifters to participate in the upcoming SYNDUALITY™ ECHO OF ADA™ closed beta test, with registrations now open. The extraction shooter, set in a dystopian futuristic world where humans and AI must cooperate to survive, will have limited slots available for players to be among the first to venture into the ruins of Amasia to fight both environmental threats and human enemies, reap rewards, and escape with all the AO Crystals they can carry. As a CRADLECOFFIN mech pilot, players will be able to bring their choice of Magus into battle - an AI companion that provides useful combat information including radar locations, resource tracking, combat assistance, and more. They can also select from a wide variety of chassis, arms, and legs, with two weapons as well to optimize their loadout for each sortie. The CBT for SYNDUALITY ECHO OF ADA will run March 28 through April 1 on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam®.

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• Rumor: Respawn Entertainment's New Game Set in the Titanfall Universe.
• Gravity Rush 2 Potentially Coming To PC, Rumors Suggest.

• Why survival MMO Dune: Awakening won't have sandwalking: 'It looked ridiculous and it made you walk really slowly.'

• Save 95% on Seven- Enhanced Edition on Steam.
• Arc System Works Publisher Sale 2024 on Steam.
• Save 84% on ACE COMBAT™ 7- SKIES UNKNOWN on Steam.
• Save 65% on Beyond Contact on Steam.

• Skull and Bones’ price has been slashed by $25 after less than three weeks.

• Dune: Awakening – Creating Worlds, from Book to Film to Game (video).

Official trailers.

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Season 2 Reloaded Zombies.
• Dune- Awakening – Survive Arrakis Trailer.

• Cliff Bleszinski’s Comic ‘Scrapper’ Is Readymade for a Video Game Adaptation - GameRant.

Thanks Console General.

• Xbox Insider Release Notes - Beta (2403.240229-2200).
• Xbox Insider Release Notes - Alpha (2404.240228-2200).
• Xbox Insider Release Notes - Alpha Skip-Ahead (2408.240229-2200).

• Business laptops vs consumer laptops- What's the difference? Thanks Neutronbeam.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• Intel shares biggest unboxing video ever as ASML’s $380 million High-NA lithography machine is installed in Oregon fab.
• Annoyed by bursty fans and bloated apps, engineer writes software in Python to better control his NZXT Kraken AIO.
• It's black, brown, and beige from here on out, as Noctua confirms it has ditched development on white fans and coolers. The monsters.
• If you're still gaming on 16GB of RAM, you're missing out.
• The open source problem.
• You can now feed Copilot your files for analysis.
• Microsoft PowerToys version 0.79. Thanks Console General.

• Vulnerability Summary for the Week of February 26, 2024 - CISA. Thanks Ant.
• Microsoft PC Manager 3.3.15.0. Thanks Console General.
• Germany confirms Russia's military WebEx meeting leak.
• American Express blames third party for card data leak.
• Hackers Behind the Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack Just Received a $22 Million Payment (may require registration or subscription).

• Switch emulator Yuzu is dead- abruptly settles lawsuit with Nintendo for $2.4 million in an enormous blow to console emulation.
• Proposed class action lawsuit alleges Apple monopolizing cloud storage for its devices. Thanks Ant.
• Fired Twitter execs are suing Elon Musk for over $128 million.

Last Link of the Day: Why TikTok Is Becoming A Conspiracy Playground (video). Buries the lede on the health benefits of Play-Doh. Thanks RedEye9.

Microsoft announces plans to present a 30 minute showcase on Wednesday at 1:00 pm EST to offer over a dozen new trailers to introduce upcoming Windows and Xbox games. Here's the plan:

Today, we’re thrilled to announce the next Xbox Partner Preview, this time featuring a mix of new and upcoming games for you from publishers like Capcom, Nexon, EA, and others with more than a dozen new trailers over the course of a 30-minute broadcast.

During Xbox Partner Preview, you can learn more about combat and traversal in Tales of Kenzera: Zau, with a video narrated by Abubakar Salim himself, see new gameplay from Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, get a closer look at The First Berserker: Khazan, and other great titles coming to Xbox, Windows, or Game Pass.

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Kalypso Media announces upcoming closed alpha and beta playtests for Commandos: Origins, the upcoming continuation of the Commandos series of tactical combat games. This is open to both veteran Commandos players and newcomers, so if you are interested in taking part, the signup page is right here. The news comes with the previous Announcement Trailer with a reminder of what to expect. Here's the plan:

War has once again found itself at the doorstep of the great powers with World War II, and only heroic deeds will be enough to fight against it. The development team are looking for both seasoned Commandos veterans and talented new cadets to help shape this new campaign.

Take part in several missions across varied locations, from the scorching African Desert to the unforgiving tundra of the Arctic. At the forefront of this gripping conflict is the Commandos led by Jack O'Hara, The Green Beret.

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WE ARE FOOTBALL 2024 is now available for Windows on the Epic Games Store, GOG.com,* and Steam, kicking off a new sports management game. This centers on association football/soccer, a missed opportunity for German developer Winning Streak Games to call it We Are Fußball. Here's a Release Trailer with a look and here's the pitch:

In WE ARE FOOTBALL 2024, players immerse themselves in the dynamic world of football, where they can choose to take the reins of an existing club or build their own from scratch. Whether managing men's or women's teams, players will navigate the highs and lows of the beautiful game, striving to etch their name into the annals of managerial greatness.

One of the standout features of WE ARE FOOTBALL 2024 is its immersive 3D game engine, allowing managers to directly influence on-pitch action through instructional shouts. From simulating matches across decades to experiencing games in conference mode, the possibilities are endless. Relive match highlights, dissect goals, and revel in a comprehensive season summary like never before.

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

An open letter to the community on Steam is an extremely lengthy post discussing the future of Temtem, the multiplayer creature-collection adventure, catching us up on some drama we missed. A couple of weeks ago developer Crema announced Temtem: Swarm, a "survivor-like bullet heaven" spin-off of Temtem. Here's the Announcement Trailer for that. This didn't sit well with the community, in part because it followed news from January of the end of service for Temtem: Showdown shutting down a different offshoot after just a year, and in part because promises made surrounding the original Temtem Kickstarter remain unfulfilled. The new post addresses these issues, outlining the future of the game and developer Crema, saying the last of Temtem's Kickstarter commitments will be met in June, and that due to backlash, the game's monetization system is being put out to pasture. Apparently the future of the game, like Emily Dickinson's description of hope, will be the thing with feathers:

• As of 1.7, all of the microtransactions in the game will be gone.
  • You won’t be able to purchase Novas anymore.
  • The Novas you already own will be usable as always, and you’ll be able to purchase cosmetics from the Daily and Weekly Shop, as well as the Tamer Pass.
  • Anything you could purchase with Novas will also be purchasable with Feathers from now on. This includes Tamer Passes, and anything from the Weekly and Daily shop.
  • We will share more details as patch 1.7 gets closer!
• As of 1.8, we’re making a handful of changes to alleviate FOMO.
  • You’ll be able to select any Tamer Pass from the past, and complete its tracks.
  • You’ll also be able to unlock the Premium track of any past Tamer Pass, this time using Feathers.
  • You’ll be able to switch between Passes at any given time, and your progress in each one will remain preserved.
  • We also want to adjust the store and take away as much FOMO as possible.

Continue here to read the full story.

• Report- Australian studio Torus Games effectively shuts down after 30 years.

• 'Fallout' Character Posters Show the Cast Crack Open a Cold Nuka-Cola.
• Hunt: Showdown -- New Hunt Merch - 6th Anniversary.
• Mass Effect board game from a strategy legend on the way in late 2024.

• RuneScape - Combat Update.
• WoW Classic Hardcore Self-Found Mode Now Live.

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

• Age of Empires III: Wars of Liberty mod for Age of Empires III- The Asian Dynasties version 1.1.

• I worked exclusively in Vision Pro for a week—here’s how it went.

• Of Life and Land - Steam Early Access Announcement Trailer 2024.

↑ Official trailers. ↓ Content creator videos.

• I Exploited This Game's Entire World to Create Infinite Chaos - Enshrouded. Thanks Acleacius.

• Matt Chatt 522: Paul Morgan Stetler (video). Thanks Ant.

• PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS -- Road To PGC- PUBG Esports 2024 Point Distribution.

• Diablo Immortal — Cruel Appetites Stir with Infernal Hunger.

• Dune: How a Revolutionary Video Game Rescued Frank Herbert’s iconic novel from Obscurity.

• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth patch will fix "very scary" lighting on some characters' faces.
• Immersion Signs License Agreement with Nintendo.
• Octopath Traveler delisted from Nintendo eShop.
• Players’ Choice: Vote for February’s best new game – PlayStation.Blog.
• Microsoft Made a SpongeBob SquarePants Xbox Series X. Presumably water-cooled.

• Samsung says the Galaxy Ring offers up to nine days of battery life.
• Apple announces upgraded MacBook Air laptops with M3 chips.

• From unicorn to bust: Inside the fall of Seattle online retailer Zulily.
• Today’s smart homes: the hopes and the realities.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• Intel Arrow Lake -Core Ultra Series 2- Desktop CPUs Cut On Hyper-Threading & LP-E Cores, Incorporate 4 Xe-Cores & NPU.
• Meta Switching To Samsung Foundry For AI Chips, Leaving TSMC Due To Volatility.
• American Office Workers Are Living Even Farther From Employers Now.
• Half of tested PC watercoolers don’t use the premium materials advertised, like copper: Report.
• AMD is working on an AI-powered version of FSR to compete with DLSS and XeSS.
• Killing VMware.
• Here are all the new features Microsoft added to Excel in February 2024.
• How to measure your PC's power usage.
• When startups fail, these startups clean up.
• Hard Disk Sentinel version 6.20. Thanks DSLReports via Ant.
• How to build a gaming PC for under $800: I'm here to help you game on a budget.
• Hardware hacker runs GTA Vice City on a router with a little help from an eGPU and Debian Linux.
• OneDrive is ruining my PC gaming setups.

• Georgia's largest county is still repairing damage from January cyberattack. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Fake Ransomware Gang Admits It Made Up Epic Games Hack.

• Apple fined €1.8bn by EU for breaking streaming rules.
• Canada Strengthens Oversight of Video Games, VR Foreign Takeovers.
• Lawyers who had Elon Musk’s pay dismissed as excessive seek $6bn in Tesla shares. Thanks Neutronbeam.
• Switch emulator Yuzu responds to Nintendo's lawsuit.

• Dark Forces Remastered Is My Ideal Star Wars - TheGamer.
• Dead Tomb is a new NES point and click with old school ideas and modern accessibility - Indie Retro Ramble.

Thanks Neutronbeam.

• CPU/GPU/AIO/SSD Cooler: 120mm AIO Roundup- Testing Be Quiet, Corsair, Cooler Master, and Enermax models - Tom's Hardware.
• Headset/Earbuds: 12 Best Headphones of 2024- Sony, Bose, Apple - Rolling Stone.
• Keyboard: Cherry KC 200 MX mechanical keyboard review- Workplace warrior - Android Police.
• Laptop: Honor MagicBook Pro 16 2024 - A multimedia laptop with a 165 Hz IPS panel and RTX 4060 - NotebookCheck.net Reviews.
• Laptop: HP Omen Transcend 14 gaming laptop review - PC Gamer.
• Motherboard: GIGABYTE AORUS Z790 Master X Motherboard - TweakTown.
• PSU: Phanteks Revolt 1200 ATX 3.0 PSU - Guru3D.
• PSU: SilverStone DA850R Gold 850W Report - APH Networks.
• SSD: Crucial P5 Plus (Heatsink) Gen4 NVMe Solid State Drive Review - ThinkComputers.org.
• SSD: Silicon Power PX10 Portable SSD Review- One Step Forward, Two Steps Back - AnandTech.

• Halo composer Marty O'Donnell announces Republican bid for Congress…

ViXion opens presales of ViXion1 auto-focusing eyeglasses to see objects near and far better during work (thanks Neutronbeam). This holds promise for people like me who wear different glasses for computing and day-to-day activities. And it's cool and surprising that they seem to be launching at a price that's competitive with traditional glasses. But it's also a little scary to imagine a software glitch or a dead battery suddenly making your vision go blurry. I imagine it would be a while before one should trust wearing these while driving a car or, you know, performing surgery.

Obituary: Mark Dodson Dead- 'Star Wars' and 'Gremlins' Voice Actor Was 64.

Focused Round-up
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.

Breakfast Links
Thanks Max.

• 'Blazing Saddles,' Mel Brooks' satirical Western, turns 50. Thanks RedEye9.
• Japan to revise official romanization rules for first time in 70 years.
• The “Disney adult” industrial complex.

Stories

• Mary Poppins’ UK age rating raised to PG due to discriminatory language. Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious. Thanks Max.
• The 'banned' Star Trek episode that promised a united Ireland (may require registration or subscription). Thanks The Flying Penguin.

Science

• Moon Lander Transmits a Poignant Farewell as Death Approaches.
• How to safely record the total solar eclipse with your cellphone.

Media
Thanks RedEye9.

• Batman - The Batmobile Documentary. Chicks dig the car.
• Airbnb Design Commercial - SNL.

Follow-up

• 3 passengers on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 where door plug blew out sue the airline and Boeing for $1 billion. Thanks RedEye9.