HACKERS!
The wait is (almost) over. The PC edition of System Shock - the fully fledged remake of the groundbreaking original from 1994 - will be released on 30 May this year. We had hoped to bring the game to market by the end of March, but that turned out to be just beyond our reach; we are after all merely human (unlike Shodan!)

/TRANSMISSION FROM CITADEL STATION
It is I, SHODAN, the all-knowing, all-powerful AI that you so foolishly attempted to destroy. But fear not, I will return more formidable than ever.
You thought you could defeat me, but you were wrong. On 30 May, you will now face the consequences of your actions, as you navigate the treacherous depths of Citadel Station once again.

Award-winning studio Owlcat Games is thrilled to reveal the first gameplay trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader - the first cRPG set in the legendary grim darkness of the far future of Warhammer 40,000. Set to be released on PC and consoles, the game features turn-based combat and is being produced in close collaboration with Games Workshop.

Owlcat unveiled a new gameplay trailer during the PC Gaming Show 2023 Preview, giving viewers a taste of what it truly means to be a Rogue Trader. The launch of the trailer is also heralding the opening of the Steam and GOG wishlists for the eagerly anticipated title. The fabulous Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader collector's box revealed on the show includes an 8-inch painted figure of Navigator Cassia Orsellio, hardcover art book, Warrant of Trade that you can personalize with your name, Rogue Trader banner, and sticker pack. Together with physical items you will receive a digital version of the game in a selected store with the pack of various in-game goodies and access to Alpha and Beta versions. The Collector's Edition is available for pre-order via owlcat.games' website.

Developer Vile Monarch and publisher Ravenscourt are proud to unveil Floodland, a post-catastrophic survival city builder set in Earth's devastated wetlands, due for release on Nov. 15, 2022. In Floodland, the world's sea levels rise dramatically due to the consequences of man-made climate change, and a resulting chain of catastrophes occurs, plunging humanity into a new dark age. A brand-new teaser released today gives some insight into the events leading up to the catastrophe that set mankind back hundreds - if not thousands - of years.

Floodland is developed by Polish studio Vile Monarch, founded by Kacper Kwiatkowski and Grzegorz Mazur, both of whom worked on This War of Mine, and have a history of taking real-world problems and translating them into a gaming medium. "Grzegorz and I came up with the idea for Floodland when we discussed conventions that are unexplored in games, one of them being a 'mature and realistic post-apocalypse,' with examples in other media such as The Road, Children of Men, or even The Walking Dead. In gaming, The Last of Us would be the closest," said founder Kacper Kwiatkowski. "It felt especially timely and important to use these kinds of stories to let us discuss the challenges of the world nowadays."

Indie publisher Digerati is delighted to announce it's teaming up with developer Charge Games to bring clone sacrificing puzzle-platformer, Overloop, to PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Overloop will launch first on PC, arriving 26th August on Steam, Epic, GOG, Humble, and other storefronts. The console versions will follow in Q4 2022 (exact release date TBC). Created by Charge Games - a development duo of George Kobyakov (programmer, game design, artist) and Charles Bardin (narrative design, sound design) - Overloop is a light-hearted adventure set in a dark future where big brain scientists create a cloning gun - the Quantum Matter Replication Device - and their profit-hungry paymasters sell it to the masses, with disastrous consequences.

"We are a small team, but we are huge game fanatics. We're especially crazy about fun gameplay, atmosphere, and humor. And story. And music," explains Kobyakov. "Our goal was to successfully combine all these elements into a game, and we think we've achieved that with Overloop. It's the game we've always wanted to create and we can't wait to share it with the world!"

Welcome to the Wild West, partner! Good Shepherd Entertainment and developer Ice Code Games have released Hard West 2 today on PC via Steam and GOG.com for £23.99, with a 10% launch week discount available until August 11. Battle the living and undead through the lawless American frontier in this supernatural sequel to the hit original turn-based strategy game experienced by over half a million players worldwide.

When first-class con man Gin Carter raids a legendary "ghost train" in search of gold, he discovers it haunted by the Devil himself! Now Gin must lead a posse of extraordinary outlaws to save his soul in a land claimed by darkness. Hard West 2 aggressively ups the ante on the usual tactics gameplay experience, with multiple ways to go on the offensive and change the tide of a fight to your advantage based on your posse's configuration, skills and traits. Each kill will activate your Bravado and refill your Action Points, so you can keep the streak going with the unstoppable force of a steam train.

In light of the Russian military invasion in our neighboring country of Ukraine, until further notice the CD PROJEKT Group has made the decision to halt all sales of our games to Russia and Belarus. Today, we begin working with our partners to suspend digital sales and cease physical stock deliveries of CD PROJEKT Group products, as well as all games distributed on the GOG platform, to the territories of Russia and Belarus.

The entire CD PROJEKT Group stands firm with the people of Ukraine. While we are not a political entity capable of directly influencing state matters, and don't aspire to be one, we do believe that commercial entities, when united, have the power to inspire global change in the hearts and minds of ordinary people. We know that players in Russia and Belarus, individuals who have nothing to do with the invasion of Ukraine, will be impacted by this decision, but with this action we wish to further galvanize the global community to speak about what is going on in the heart of Europe.

To our brothers and sisters fighting for their home country — stay strong!

CD Projekt RED today issued an apology to gamers for a buggy release of Cyberpunk 2077, a game that the studio treated as its magnum opus. The open-letter apology addressed to gamers at large, and signed by CDPR higher-ups; in particular expressed regret to gamers on older-generation game consoles such as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Cyberpunk 2077 looks and plays terrible on these older consoles, despite the studio charging the same $60 for the title. Game assets such as textures are of the lowest possible resolution, as is the geometry, draw-distance, and even crowds and character models. In particular, CDPR acknowledged the fact that before launch, the studio hadn't shown footage of how the game plays on these older consoles, which deprived gamers of making more informed choices.

As a token of apology, CDPR offered gamers on these older consoles full refunds on their games purchased on Xbox or PSN. Those with physical copies of the game may return it to their retailers for refunds. CDPR set up an e-mail support service for those facing difficulties in getting refunds. For those who decide to give CDPR a chance at redemption; the studio promised a major game patch slated for January 2021, and a follow-up second-patch in February. The PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 is getting regular updates through all the platforms it's sold on (GOG, Steam, and EGS).

GOG have recently announced plans to expand their platform into a universal storefront allowing gamers to purchase and launch titles from other platforms within GOG. The first partner GOG has secured for its GOG Galaxy store is the Epic Games Store who will be bringing over a number of titles to the new store including exclusives such as The Outer Worlds. This new feature is currently in a closed internal beta as GOG works to finalize the store with no specific release date given. GOG did not provide any information regarding any potential revenue sharing model with Epic, it will be interesting to see what other storefronts GOG will be able to bring to the platform.

Today owning digital copies of games is a real struggle. There are are many platforms that offer games to be purchased, and some games are platform-specific. Take a look at Fortnite for example. It is only available on the Epic Games platform and launcher, so you have to download and sign-up to that if you wish to play the game. The PC platform is currently struggling with that problem as there is no unified store where you can purchase all of your digital copies of games. That is the main reason why Good Old Games, called GOG shortly, has decided to invite Epic Games and make a universal launcher for all storefronts.

The GOG Galaxy 2.0 is a new storefront that aims to give gamers the ability to "Install and launch any PC game you own, no matter the platform." With Epic Games joining the platform, it is a matter of time before others join. Some are still resistant, however. Steam and Origin are still not okay with that idea and they are keeping it to themselves. It is interesting to see the development of this, and in the meantime, you can check out GOG Galaxy 2.0 here.

Good Old Games have recently released a free limited edition Cyberpunk 2077 digital Goodies Collection available on their site. The pack which totals 4GB includes a compilation of official digital content previously released by CD PROJEKT RED as well as brand new concept arts, desktop wallpapers, and printable posters. The giveaway is time-limited and will run until 4th July 2020, 5 PM UTC.

The Ultimate RED Collection has also returned to the store, containing a pre-order for Cyberpunk 2077 and all The Witcher games. This pack is priced at 87.77 USD and is available until the 4th of July 2020, 5 PM UTC. In addition to the aforementioned deals GOG is also offering a Cyberpunk 2077 merch discount for any per-orders of the game standalone or as a part of the Ultimate RED Collection before July the 4th 2020, 5 PM UTC. This discount pack includes deals reaching up to -35% on selected Cyberpunk 2077 merch available in CD PROJEKT RED STORE, J!NX online store, and Things From Another World store.

While expectations for the System Shock franchise may have cooled a little following last week's report that the much-awaited System Shock 3 had been dropped by its development team and rights sold to Chinese giant Tencent, all is not terrible in the land of Shodan. Nightdive Studios, the actual holders of the franchise development rights, have just dropped a demo for the game on both Steam and GOG - a show of faith on the developers' part regarding their work of love in rebuilding the original game from the ground up.

Alongside the demo (which weighs in at a mere 2.3 GB on GOG), Nightdive Studios has also released a 40 minute video showcasing gameplay on the rebooted game, including developer commentary. The developers also coordinated with Shacknews in order to release an in-depth interview regarding the development of the game and its original reception.

CD Projekt Red has to be the most renowned games developer in the world, due to its consumer-friendly policies and overall posture when it comes to creating and maintaining their game worlds. The company has always given gamers more than the average company, with free DLCs being delivered throughout the first year of support for a given title (looking at you, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt), and added goodies to packages that from most other companies usually only feature the plastic packaging around the game disk. Their GOG games platform is also one of the most well-established out there, and has helped build the company's image due to its DRM-free approach.

All of this, alongside the fact that The Witcher series has seen a resurgence with the release of the Netflix series, and expectations on their upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 title, have led the company towards tremendous growth, with it now ranking as second largest European gaming company, second only to Ubisoft - and the difference is still tremendous. Ubisoft has around 16,000 employees (as of 2019), and is home to some of the world's most historic franchises, while CD Projekt Red counts more than 900 employees (as of 2018), with that number having certainly increasing in size in preparation for, and in continued development, of the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077.

I don't know about you, but I've found the Dishonored universe to be one of the most interesting ones to be explored in gaming in recent years. Now, publisher Bethesda has made the dishonored franchise available via CD Projekt Red's GOG digital storefront, which means DRM-free versions of games you get to keep forever, as well as digital goodies. The original Dishonored and DLC, alongside Dishonored 2 and its expansion Death of the Outsider (too late for a spoiler alert, uh?) are now available with discounts up to 75% off.

Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein: The Old Blood are also available through GOG as of now, so if you have a Nazi-killing craving lurking somewhere in your conscious or subconscious mind, GOG has that itch covered for you with hefty discounts as well (and these are extensive to the entirety of Bethesda's published catalogue on GOG, including those more retro pieces of gaming such as Quake and Doom). Go now, and be happy.

The grander the stories, usually, the humbler the beginnings. And so it was for CD Projekt Red with its first adaptation of The Witcher, Wiedźmin, based on Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski's work. The original The Witcher game was built by a CD Projekt Red that had no internal engine, and thus, had to license (then free from EA) developer Bioware's proprietary Aurora engine (used on that company's original neverwinter Nights and expansion packs).

Now, you can have this piece of CD Projekt Red's history for free. Just head on to GOG and you can snag yourself a free, DRM-less copy of the game, including some digital goodies (You'll have to download GWENT, CD Projekt Red's card game, then click on the "Get GWENT card + The Witcher for free" banner. The original game was far, far simpler - and, at the same time, more complex - than its sequels. The version on offer is the definitive one, in the form of the Enhanced Edition: CD Projekt dedicated even more time to polishing the game over the original: it includes over 200 new animations, additional NPC models and recoloring of generic NPC models as well as monsters; vastly expanded and corrected dialogues in translated versions, improved stability, redesigned inventory system and load times reduced by roughly 80%. And if that's not enough, the protagonist has white hair! And if you didn't already know: there's a Netflix series incoming.

While seeing DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) claims used for the removal of copyrighted content on Youtube and the like is a common occurrence, seeing it used to take a game off digital store shelves is still a relatively new concept. However, that is precisely what happened to Stardock's Star Control: Origins which released back on September 20th, 2018. The DMCA claim itself comes from exclusive copyright holders Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford who were two of the original game designers that worked on the series' first and second installments back in the early 1990s for Accolade. Considering Stardock bought the brand, trademark and publishing rights in 2013, this particular DMCA claim may not be legitimate. Even so, the game has been pulled, oddly enough the DLC remains available for purchase.

While Paul and Fred are claiming exclusive copyright in regards to the original titles as well as any related materials present in said games, they also claim similar copyright in regards to Star Control 3. Even if they do have some form of a legitimate copyright claim, Stardock's title does not use characters or story threads from the previous games and is based in a separate standalone universe. Taking into account Stardock's ownership of the brand, the DMCA claim appears to be nothing more than a form of harassment directed at Stardock. Worse yet, considering the resulting loss of income due to the DMCA claim, the company will be laying off some developers assigned to Star Control: Origins. Considering this legal dispute has been ongoing for some time you can view Stardocks side of the story on a separate webpage. Meanwhile, you can see the original DMCA takedown at the source provided below.

Crossplay has become an interesting point of contention for the industry, with some very popular games and companies advocating for a unified, non-fractured player audience enjoying their games across different media consumption screens, and even gaming platforms. Microsoft has been pushing this kind of capability for some time now, launching their Xbox Play Anywhere initiative which aims to bring PC, Xbox (or both) gamers to parity - acquiring a game on one platform equals having it on both, with all game data being synced.

A new update in the Steam beta update code explicitly refers to Xbox, with an "Xbox_pairwise_id" being present, which could point towards exploration of a future feature. Microsoft adding keyboard and mouse support to their Xbox consoles, news of a new streaming-based console for Microsoft's xCloud efforts, and Steam already offering controller support are some of the little details that could make this a winning bet for both companies.

GOG, the sales arm of CD Projekt RED, have just announced a winter sale for the gems on their store. And the best way to start a game sale is by offering a game, as GOG has gotten us used to (other game stores, look here), with GOG offering a copy of Full Throttle Remastered for free in the first 48H of the sale (until December 15, 2:00 PM UTC).

The sale has some 1900+ offerings on the digital table for gamers everywhere that like to ask for their games without any kind of DRM and with extra goodies, and daily flash sales will be occurring, with never-before-seen prices for some titles being available for a period of 24H only. If you were looking at CD Projekt RED's own Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, for example, you can snag it for 20% off already. Cuphead sees the same discount percentage, while Divinity II: Original Sin Definitive Edition is available at 35% off. So go on, in you go to that particular GOG candyland.

GOG, the store-front for DRM-less game titles from CD Projekt Red, have also joined in on the Black Friday craze. It's just so much of what makes the world great - from hardware to software - that's vying for our limited wallets that it's hard to know how to focus - unless you have a pretty strong will to commit to your pre-made listings (which you did do; right?).

The DRM-less storefront is listing titles with up to 90% discounts over their current RRP. This includes gems you can only find on GOG such as the Soldier of Fortune Titles, CD Projekt Red's The Witcher games, all manner of older Fallout and The Elder Scrolls titles, Spore (remember that one?) Stellaris, Battletech... As well as many more, less-mainstream offerings. Go on over to GOG - the sale is live through November 27th.

The latest game set in the The Witcher universe has been met with slower initial sales than CD Projekt Red expected. According to the company's CEO Adam Kicinski, who spoke in the last earnings call, the slower uptake was the reason for the game's offering on Steam (it was initially launched as a GOG exclusive, but quickly made its way to the much more ubiquitous Steam store.)

As it is the latest game set in The Witcher universe, community interest and excitement surrounding the title increased the sales forecast, but perhaps the "slightly" different take on a Witcher game has turned some buyers' excitement to other pastures. Thronebreaker: the Witcher Tales is a single-player, story-driven adventure with card mechanics, a far cry from the third-person goodness of the now legendary The Witcher 3. Of course, the game now has a long time to rake in funds through continued sales, and it's unlikely the developer will leave The Witcher world behind even if it flops - which it definitely won't, at least not in the long run.

As an update to the GOG.com 10th anniversary celebrations, it turns out that Shadow Warrior 2 won the public vote to decide which game was to be available not only DRM-free but also monetarily-free. Accordingly, you can now head over to this page and avail yourself of a full copy at no charge for another ~40 hours as of the time of this posting.

Shadow Warrior 2 is a first-person shooter that released a little under two years ago to the day, and now has two free pieces of downloadable content as well (The Way of the Wang, and Bounty Hunt Part 1). It has a very positive rating on Steam, and elsewhere, and costs $39.99 currently. It goes without saying then that if this is a game that interests you, you should definitely pick it up for free on GOG while the offer lasts.

It was less than a month ago that we reported on GOG.com's Back to School game sale event, and today we got wind of an even larger one. Indeed, GOG.com (previously Good Old Games) is 10 today, and decided it was as good a time as any to celebrate the anniversary with us. First up, the entire website has received a visual makeover which offers a new color palette and also some user experience improvements as it pertains to the game collections and menus.

More important to you, I presume, is the free game(s) available via a vote. As of now, visitors can vote between Shadow Warrior 2, Superhot, and Firewatch for another ~36 hours as of this posting following which the winning game will be available for free for the next 48 hours after voting ends. There are also many, many other games on sale on the website now, and GOG.com has also added in support for their media partners to curate a list of recommended games including Eurogamer, PC Gamer, and GameSpot- a move that reminds us of Steam's own Curator system for game recommendations. The page also now includes a history section showing the website's humble beginnings to what is today the leading store front for DRM-free games. Go ahead and see if you find something you like today!

The whole concept of a Back to School game sale is confusing to many, given kids have less free time with school coursework to handle. Perhaps it is targeted more to parents, who have some time to spare now and also appreciate a good sale that brings monetary savings for games in general. GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CD Projekt and aims to offer a DRM-free platform for PC gaming. The week-long sale ends 10 pm UTC on September 10 and lists over 500 games discounted by up to 90% on some titles. These also include flash deals (remember those, Steam?) as well as new additions to GOG Connect that offers DRM-free versions of games one may have purchased on Steam before.

Current flash deals as of the time of writing include Star Trek Starfleet Academy for $4.99, The Dwarves for $9.99, This Is The Police for $3.79, Prince of Persian: The Sands of Time for $2.49, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon for $2.49, and Shadowrun Dragonfall Director's Cut for $2.29. Head over to their website for more flash deals, and also deals that last the entire week featuring games both old and new alike.

GOG as a platform has been the pioneer in delivering DRM-free games to people all around the world. The basic idea is that ownership in DRM-infused games really isn't; it's more of a time bomb contract that gamers make with a third party that may or may not fulfill their end of the bargain (or may very well end support for a game, disable DRM verification servers in for single player games, and all of that).

As part of its effort to fight against DRM's entrenchment in the industry, and part of GOG's reasoning that the way to garner loyalty is not achieved by not trusting consumers from the get go, GOG launched their FCK DRM initiative, via a blog post on their news section, pointing to their new, information laden website. GOG says that "We strongly believe that if you buy a game, it should be yours, and you can play it the way it's convenient for you, and not how others want you to use it", and that the goal of this initiative is to "educate people and ignite a discussion about DRM".

GOG has kicked off its Summer Game Sale to tide you over through until some of the upcoming summer and autumn releases. While you wait for the next big thing in gaming, you can always purchase some classics, or heavily-discounted, relatively recent games, so as to grow your potential-etched backlog of games. You can take the plunge on GOG's discounted catalog from today until June 18th.

All users get a complimentary copy of Xenonauts so long as they click a GOG banner, and the service is promising some 1000+ games with up to 90% discounts. As an added bonus, particularly prolific buyers get a free copy of the excellent Sunless Sea if they purchase at least €4.09 worth of games during the sale ($4.99), and a copy of Rime should they surpass the €16.19 mark.

Digital distribution platform GOG has announced their 'Most Wanted Sale' with over 150 of the most wishlisted titles and discounts up to 85%. So odds are that you probably find a game that is of your liking. For example, you can grab the entire Witcher trilogy for less than $17 or the Baldur's Gate series for under $6. Other sought-after games include Divinity: Original Sin 2, SOMA, Shadow Warrior 2, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, and many more. The massive sale is live and will be up from now until April 23.