From QuakeCon in Dallas comes news that the original DOOM and DOOM II have been updated, and a combined package of both is now available for PC and consoles. This adds support for up to 16 player online deathmatch and co-op with cross-platform support, a mod browser (BOOM compatible), an optional new soundtrack, an optimized renderer with 4K/120hz support, and more. This post on Steam discusses the news and offers an Official Trailer with a look. This is called the "definitive enhanced version," of id Software's seminal first-person shooters, and the Windows edition of the package is available on the Epic Games Store, GOG.com,* and Steam. Those who own either of the original games on any of those get the upgrade for free, while the games also remain playable on Steam in their previous forms. Also included is a new deathmatch pack featuring 25 maps, a new Legacy of Rust expansion with new demons and weapons, as well as previous official and semi-official episodes TNT: Evilution, The Plutonia Experiment, Master Levels for DOOM II, No Rest for the Living, and John Romero's Sigil. Here's word:

Now the definitive, newly enhanced versions of DOOM + DOOM II are available in a single combined release on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, in addition to PC platforms and Game Pass (subscription required). This definitive enhanced version is our biggest effort yet with online cross-platform Deathmatch and Co-op for up to 16 players, community-published single-player mod support (with in-game mod browser), optimized renderer, accessibility options, optional modern IDKFA soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult (including brand-new DOOM II recordings) selectable alongside the original MIDI soundtracks, presented in up to 120hz in 4K on supported platforms (see FAQ below for details) and a brand-new episode “Legacy of Rust,” with new weapons and demons made in collaboration by individuals from id Software, Nightdive Studios and MachineGames.

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The Windows edition of Prince of Persia The Lost Crown is now available on Steam with a 40% launch discount, following the January launch of the princely platformer on the Epic Games Store. The news also announces a new Mask of Darkness DLC will arrive on September 17th alongside a new Complete Edition and upgrades for owners of woefully incomplete editions. Here's the Steam Launch Trailer and more:

Today, Ubisoft announced that critically acclaimed Prince of Persia™: The Lost Crown is now available on Steam. The game is already available on Ubisoft+, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Amazon Luna, Nintendo Switch™, as well as PC through the Ubisoft Store and Epic Games Store. The highly anticipated story DLC “Mask of Darkness” will release on September 17 for a suggested price of $4.99, alongside the Complete Edition that includes: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown base game, the Immortals skin, the Prosperity bird amulet, the Warrior Within skin, the digital adventure guide, the DLC, and two new skins for Sargon inspired by Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown – Mask of Darkness will add a thrilling and darker new chapter of Sargon’s story. Players will get to explore a brand-new interconnected world made of exclusive biomes in this original adventure on Mount Qaf.

Continue here to read the full story.

Noting it will support NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS, the PlayStation.Blog offers the following system requirements for the Windows edition of God of War Ragnarök that's expected on September 19th:

The Good, the Bad and the Evil is now available for Windows and consoles for Dungeons 4, adding new wild western DLC for the dungeon strategy game, and making the fine distinction between bad (like an Ennio Morrifauxne soundtrack) and evil (like omitting an Oxford comma). The Windows edition is on the Epic Games Store and Steam with a 10% launch discount. A Release Trailer has a look at gameplay. Grab your poncho and your six-shooter and read on for more:

The DLC brings a host of new content, including additional traps, vermin and passive skills for the Absolute Evil’s right-hand Elf, Thalya. But whilst Thalya’s skills may be passive, the forces of good are anything but! The new champion, Brynnhild the Dwarf Queen, along with her annoyingly non-evil twin, will push Thalya’s skills (and patience) to their limit. Will you have what it takes to dominate the West with your evil prowess, or will Brynnhild and her dwarven comrades claim this new land in the name of all that is good, hopeful, and boring?

Continue here to read the full story.

Deathbound is now available for PC and consoles, and the Windows edition of Trialforge Studio's action/RPG is on the Epic Games Store, GOG.com,* and Steam with a 10% launch discount. The Official Launch Trailer takes a look, and the description explains why the creators consider its party-based soulslike gameplay unique:

Deathbound is a party-based soulslike game set in a grim world where Faith and Science collide. You cannot survive alone; instead, you must defy Death by forging bonds with fallen warriors you encounter on your journey. With a fluid 4-hero party system, you'll switch seamlessly between characters mid-combat in order to conquer the callous land of Ziêminal. Leveraging each warrior's unique skills and combat techniques is the key to victory.

The synergy between characters profoundly affects gameplay, influencing outcomes and status effects based on your choices. Aligning members from the Church of Death and the Cult of Life—two opposing factions—will generate conflict with significant combat effects. Conversely, pairing warriors with shared beliefs can provide powerful combat buffs, aiding you in defeating relentless enemies. Despite their differences, the fallen must come together in battle. By charging a shared sync meter, you can unleash a devastating Morphstrike that combines your party's strengths, a crucial tactic for overcoming formidable foes.

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Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers is now available with a 10% launch discount on Steam, offering a roguelike Blackjack adventure for Windows, macOS, and Linux that teaches important lessons about gambling addiction by suggesting the house can be beaten. Here's the launch trailer and here's the deal:

Complete with over 300 cards, players won’t just be drawing from a traditional deck to take down their greedy opponents. Teeming with a whacky assortment of cards ranging from birthday cards to tarot cards, there’s plenty of unique combinations players can use to outwit their fiendish foes and emerge victorious in this stakes roguelike.

Continue here to read the full story.

• Gori: Cuddly Carnage on Steam (Windows). "Humanity has been destroyed - and it's up to Gori, along with his deadly but wise-cracking sentient hoverboard, F.R.A.N.K, and morose AI companion, CH1-P, to shred and slay the evil Adorable Army!"

• QuakeCon 2024 Sale on Steam.
• Borderlands Franchise Sale on Steam.
• Save 50% on SurrounDead on Steam.
• Tiny Teams 2024 on Steam.
• Save 60% on Arcade Paradise on Steam.
• Data Management Bootcamp and Skills Academy (pay what you want and help charity) - Humble.*

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

• Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Reports Results for Fiscal First Quarter 2025 - Business Wire.
• Nexon Releases Earnings for Second Quarter 2024 - Business Wire.
• Warner Bros. wants to license game properties as division revenue drops - Game Developer.

Official patches.

• Hearthstone 30.0.3 Patch Notes.
• Lake - Pet the Cats.
• Microsoft Flight Simulator August 8th, 2024 - Development Update.
• Official Gameplay Reveal - Splitgate 2.
• Time to Morp - [0.15] Double the Fun Update - Live Now.
• World of Warcraft 11.0.2 Updates.

Official trailers.

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - Round-Based Zombies Terminus Reveal Trailer - New Gameplay.
• For Honor - Content Of The Week - 8 August.
• Hive Jump 2- Survivors Release Date Trailer.
• Monster Jam Showdown - Showdown Trailer.
• Rendering Ranger- R² [Rewind].

• Flight Simulator 2024's huge ambition means 'you can now exit the plane, walk around. Use it to visit CIG and check on Star Citizen.

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies- What you need to know.

• Nintendo Download: Don’t Go Overboard - Business Wire.

• Buying a budget laptop- Don't go below these minimum specs - PCWorld. Thanks Neutronbeam.

Thanks Console General.

• Intel Postpones Innovation 2024 Event, Cites Poor Finances - AnandTech.
• Paris 2024- The AI tech aiming to identify future Olympians - BBC.
• We Bought 1347 Used Data Center SSDs to Look at SSD Endurance - STH. Thanks Max.
• Microsoft is ending Windows 11 version 21H2 and 22H2 support in 60 days - Neowin.
• The Windows 10 clock is ticking- 5 ways to save your old PC in 2025 (most are free) - ZDNET.
• Visual Studio Code 1.92.1.
• Evernote 10.100.3.

• Home security giant ADT says it was hacked - TechCrunch. Thanks DSLReports via Ant.
• Computer Crash Reports Are an Untapped Hacker Gold Mine - WIRED (may require registration or subscription).

• FTX to pay $12.7B to victims of Sam Bankman-Fried’s massive scheme - Ars Technica.
• Ad industry initiative abruptly shuts down after lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s X - Ars Technica.

Last Link of the Day: Somehow, the video game movie curse returned, as Borderlands debuts to a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes - GamesRadar+.

The Epic Games Store has three giveaways in this week's promotion. All three are yours to keep if you snag correct by next Thursday, when the cycle refreshes. The new (or returning) gifts are an Apex Legends: Conduit Free Unlock Bundle, CYGNI - All Guns Blazing, and DNF Duel. Next week's will be Death's Gambit - Afterlife and a World of Warships Starter Pack. Here's the pitch on this round of games in case you need to be sold on freebies:

CYGNI: All Guns Blazing - An unrelenting onslaught of eye-popping visuals, ear bursting soundscapes and mind-melting action makes CYGNI the vanguard for the next generation of shoot-em ups. Outgunned, outmanned and out on your own, plunge into a sky full of hell in a last-ditch battle for survival.

DNF Duel - Action fighting at its extreme! One of the most popular and widely played RPGs in the world, Dungeon and Fighter is now back as a 2.5D action fighting game. Choose from 16 charming characters, each with their distinct skills and personalities. Outsmart, outplay, or downright beat up your opponents and become the master of the Ultimate Will!

Apex Legends: Conduit Free Unlock Bundle - The bundle includes: Conduit Unlocked and "Aqua Flow" Flatline Epic Skin.

WolfEye Studios unveils details about the next game from the Weird West developer co-founded by Raph Colantonio, co-creator of Arkane's Dishonored series. The new game is a "sci-fi, retro" first-person action/RPG said to be fresh out of pre-production. The developer tells Eurogamer it's shooting for "Fallout meets Dishonored," and a post on X shares the first three "visuals" from the game. The next step is a closed alpha test next year, and you can register for that on the WolfEye Studios Website. Here's word:

“We are so happy to be able to officially confirm that our next game is actively in production and that it is a First Person Action RPG,” explained President and Creative Director, Raphael Colantonio. “Fans of the past games I have been involved with such as Dishonored and Prey will feel at home, as well as fans of RPGs in general. While we look for the right publishing partner, our sights are firmly set on getting our community involved with the game’s development with a limited private Alpha in 2025. We can not wait for fans to see what we are working on.”

A Steam Listing reveals that Bandai Namco is jumping on the MOBA bandwagon with a free-to-play game called DRAGON BALL PROJECT: Multi, which is presumably a working title. Word is: "DRAGON BALL PROJECT:Multi is Dragon Ball's first team-oriented free to play game." A regional beta test gets underway in a couple of weeks in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and United Kingdom (testing will be limited to iOS and Android in Germany and South Korea). If you want to try the game before it reaches its final form you can register on the BANDAI NAMCO Website. A Regional β Test Trailer shows off what to expect, and here's an overview of the game's 4v4 combat:

Experience the world of Dragon Ball through wrecking the battlefield with your own strength, or by conquesting the enemy objective with your friends and allies.

The Hero characters you take in control will grown in strength as the round progress to give you a chance to obliterate enemy players and bosses alike.

Continue here to read the full story.

Cat Quest III is now available for Windows and consoles, offering a 2.5D action/RPG that should be catnip for fans of the series. The Windows edition is on Steam along with a playable demo. The Launch Trailer shows off open-world gameplay, despite how messy it can be to put a cat in a sandbox. Here's more:

Explore dark caverns and mysterious dungeons as you search for clues or sail on your own purr-fect ship complete with full sails and explosive cannons with a bounty of different ammunition types. Don’t panic when you encounter a horde of nasty Pi-rats, as local co-op is available to take them down with ease. You know the saying, two tails are better than one.

Cat Quest III features an array of gear, weapons, spells and trinkets that allow you to create the cat that is right for you. Whether you want to go in claws blazing or take a more tactical approach, the Purribean can be explored however you see fit.

Continue here to read the full story.

What can you say about Zombie Police: Christmas Dancing with Police Zombies that the title of this Windows and macOS adventure doesn't already communicate? That's right, nothing. ALTERCIWS and Lobstudio have released it on Steam, and Chapter 1 can be downloaded for free as a sample. Put on your dancing shoes, check out the Official Trailer, and read on for more:

Rookie human detective and energetic zombie detective, a mismatched buddy tackle mysterious cases! Get to the truth with the zombie's super powers and human deductive skills in this Japanese mystery ADV!

Continue here to read the full story.

PLAYISM announces Nitro Express, a side-scrolling action game coming to PC in 2025. As seen in the Announcement Trailer this features throwback pixel art; combat against robots and seafood; and of course, schoolgirls. The description has a Steam link, but this is broken at the moment. Here's the set-up:

Autonomous drones, affectionately called "Companions", have been integrated into daily life, but in cop terms, they're referred to as "Atypical Vehicles".

When they pose a significant threat to society, it's time for the Atypical Vehicle Disposal Squad (AVDS)—a special unit of the Nitro City police force—to commence their mission to destroy all rogue vehicles!

Continue here to read the full story.

• Suicide Squad- Kill the Justice League Spurs Double-Digit Drop in WB Gaming Revenue - IGN.
• Sony's Gaming Q1 revenue grows 12% YoY, ups FY24 projections - VentureBeat.

• New Elite Dangerous spaceship is advertised as a space trucker's dream, but it'll cost ya - Rock Paper Shotgun.

• Borderlands review- You won't find a better movie to make yourself miserable this year - VG247.

Official patches.

• ELDEN RING - Patch Notes Version 1.13.2.
• Uncharted Waters Online - 🌞Seven Wonders Chapter 4.3- Shipmate🌊.
• World of Warcraft Hotfixes: August 7, 2024.

• GFN Thursday: 2,000 Games on GeForce NOW - NVIDIA Blog.

• Destiny 2's New Patch Has Made The Exotic Class-Item Drop Rate Worse - GameSpot.

Official trailers.

• Black Myth: Wukong - Final Trailer - Launching August 20, 2024.
• Metal Bringer 2nd Trailer.
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 - Extended Multiplayer Gameplay.

• For the first anniversary of Baldur's Gate 3, we talk to Larian about how it reinvented itself, why it scrapped its plans for Baldur's Gate 4, and what the future holds - PC Gamer.
• Skull and Bones: The Deck Devstream - Ask us Anything! - Ubisoft.

• PlateUp! Sony PS5/PS4 - Launch Trailer - OUT NOW.
• The Exit 8 - PlayStation 4/5 Trailer.

• Crunchyroll Passes 15 Million Monthly Paid Subscribers - TheWrap. Thanks Ant.
• X makes its Premium+ subscription tier fully ad-free - Engadget.
• Google and Meta reportedly teamed up for ads targeting young teens - Engadget.

• Why TSMC Has Struggled to Manufacture Chips in Arizona - The New York Times.
• AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X: Where to Buy the New CPUs - Tom's Hardware.
• Intel's patch for CPU instability and crashing issues rolls out from MSI and ASRock — Asus ROG motherboard users can also access a beta update - Tom's Hardware.
• Figure Unveils Next-Gen Conversational Humanoid Robot With 3x AI Computing for Fully Autonomous Tasks - NVIDIA Blog.
• Corsair ditches 80 Plus for PSUs: here are the Cybenetics ratings it'll use instead - PC Gamer.
• Palmer Luckey’s Defense Startup, Anduril, Raises $1.5 Billion to Produce AI-Powered Weapons - WIRED.
• Microsoft Store August 2024 update rolling out to Windows Insiders - Windows Insider Blog. Thanks Console General.

• US elections have never been more secure, says CISA chief • The Register.
• Proton Pass password manager adds identity data, biometric authentication - ZDNET.
• As use of IoT devices grows, so do the associated security risks - ZDNET.
• 1Password vulnerability lets attackers steal Vault items • The Register.

• Intel hit with lawsuit over $32 billion loss, shareholders complain company hid problems - Tom's Hardware.
• Roblox gets banned indefinitely in Turkey over “child exploitation” - Dexerto.

• Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers review- a fickle but fun roguelike that stretches Blackjack to the moon and back - Rock Paper Shotgun.
• NeoSprint - Christ Centered Gamer.

Thanks Neutronbeam and RedEye9.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9600X and 9700X - LanOC Reviews.
• CPU: Very Efficient Ryzen 7 9700X Held Back by Power Limits! - der8auer (video).
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X Review, Extremely BAD Value! - Hardware Unboxed (video).
• Headset/Earbuds: Sonos Ace Headphones Review 2024- Top New Release, Best-in-Class Sound - Variety.
• Keyboard: Keychron K2 HE Special Edition Review- Mid-Century Magnetic - Tom's Hardware.
• Misc: WELOCK SECBNEBL51 Smart Fingerprint Door Lock - Nikk Tech.

The works inside our downstairs powder room toilet failed yesterday, so I picked up some replacement guts and set out to fix things. This is something I've successfully done several times in the past, but this time is not going so great. After getting things set up not all of the water is ending up where I want to, which is to say inside the toilet. I used up the ample time I allotted for the project, and our schedule is a little busy though the weekend, so it may have to sit a bit before I revisit this, which is fine, the toilet never sees much use. I just hope I can fix it without having to be that guy who has to get the plumber to repair his failed repair job. That feels pretty humiliating.

Obituary: The man behind Australia's most viral meme dies at 82 - BBC.

Damp Round-up
Thanks Ant, Neutronbeam, and Max.

Story

• Strong earthquake with 7.1 magnitude hits off southern Japan, prompts tsunami advisory - CBS News.

Science

• Study of racehorses' poo predicts future track success - BCC. Horse whisperers to be replaced by poo whiffers.

Media

• The Real Problem With Warp Drives - Sabine Hossenfelder. Thanks RedEye9.
• "Reality Has Entered the Chat!" - Celebrating Too Early #5 - Ozzy Man Reviews (NSFW).
• Tricking my husband into saying "19." Thanks VideoSift.

Creature Features

• Buitengebieden on X- -Peekaboo.. 😂. Thanks Kxmode.

Follow-up

• Boeing Not Happy With NASA Plan to Return Stranded Astronauts on SpaceX Craft - The Byte.