Paws and Claws, a pretty wholesome DLC for the fantastic and stylish Children of Morta has managed to raise a rather nice lump sum for charity.

"We have a piece of truly wonderful and heartwarming news for you today! The Paws and Claws charity DLC has proven to be a huge success and ever since its launch, we've been able to raise MORE than $130K for animals worldwide!" - Dead Mage & 11 bit studios

Not an essential DLC for the game by any measure, and it's a completely different experience to the main game overall. However, it's just so wonderful that you should probably buy it anyway. It adds in an animal shelter system, a herd of various animals to visit you, a new treats mechanic for animals, animal-related character boosts and quite a bit more. 100% of the proceeds of Paws and Claws goes to the Humane Society International (HSI) .

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The developer confirmed the figure is PC platforms and Consoles combined for the total. Considering the low £2.99 / $3.99 / 3,99€ price - it means it's sold quite a number of copies.

You can buy Children of Morta from GOG , Humble Store and Steam . We can easily recommend it.

Hidden Variable, Future Club, and Autumn Games have confirmed that the next fighter entering Skullgirls 2nd Encore is Umbrella, who carries a huge hungry brolly around.

Sounds like a really fun character to try out too, and the second DLC character to appear as part of the Skullgirls: Season 1 Pass following on from Annie. They're not sharing exactly when we can expect to play Umbrella but it is being developed for 2nd Encore and Mobile at the same time so we get this new character earlier than usual. They're estimating an Alpha test in about a month, with the full release in Q4 this year.

"Umbrella is a small character with BIG swings thanks to her living weapon, Hungern. While she is slow with limited movement options, she can use special moves to approach with some risk.

Most of her attacks will involve Hungern in some way. Hungern will get hungrier as the match goes on or after performing certain actions, and his hunger level will influence his move properties."

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Two more characters will eventually be revealed as part of the pass but the next two are scheduled for 2022.

You can buy a copy of Skullgirls from Humble Store and Steam .

Gaming Minds Studios and Kalypso Media have released Railway Empire - Japan, the latest DLC pack for the popular rail-network building and management sim.

Railway Empire - Japan transports the series to late-1800s Japan where an industrial revolution is booming and the people are crying out for a nationwide railway. After the successful restoration of the Meiji rule, the Land of the Rising Sun’s long-term ambition to develop its own modern, nationwide railway network has become a reality and people from formerly feudal regions are yearning to travel to booming metropolises. Players can lay tracks between mountains and hot springs, using foresight, planning and clever strategy to establish a railway network and facilitate the 'great commute', moving Japan into a new industrial age.

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Features:

• 2 new scenarios: ‘Rising Sun’(1870 – 1890) and ‘Twisted Paths’ (1900 - 1920)
• Map expansion: 3 new maps of “Japan” (All, Mid and South) available in Free Game and Sandbox modes.
• 8 historical engines including the D51 Degoichi, Class 9600 Kyuroku and Class 8620 Hachiroku
• 28 new tradeable goods (e. g. sake and rice) and 35 more cities to discover.
• Added ‘ticket’ feature playable on all Railway Empire maps - cater to tourists and commuters to increase your profits.
• 11 iconic Japanese landmarks including Osaka Castle, Hells of Beppu and the Itsukushima Shrine
• New music, buildings and reworked mini portraits for characters

You can buy Railway Empire from Humble Store , GOG and Steam .

Ready to explore a bigger universe? The upcoming X4: Cradle of Humanity expansion along with the big free 4.0 update for all players is now confirmed to launch on March 16.

Taking the X series from Egosoft back to Earth, it will significantly increase the size of the game's universe giving you new sectors to explore along with two Terran factions to X4: Foundations, along with their economy, ships, weapons and stations.

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What Cradle of Humanity will include:

• Big expansion of the X4: Foundations universe with new sectors
• Return of Terran factions with economy, ships, weapons and stations
• Thrilling new story missions and adventures to experience
• New game-starts that allow new perspectives on the X4: Foundations story
• Introducing a new terraforming gameplay feature, evolving the endgame
• Visual improvements such as volumetric fog, making the X universe look better than ever

As for the big 4.0 free update, Egosoft continue mentioning it will be the biggest free update in the game's history. You can even try a Beta for it on Steam right now . It does sound pretty expansive with a new coordinated attack system for fleet commanding, volumetric fog graphical feature has been added, a new transaction log to see a good breakdown of your monies, a new message system for important communication with NPCs, new Escorts missions, an option to declare war on a faction and absolutely loads more.

X4: Cradle of Humanity is probably one of the biggest, or perhaps actually the biggest and most in-depth single-player space sim around.

For the full game right now you can buy it on Humble Store , GOG and Steam .

For The King: Lost Civilization Adventure Pack is the first ever expansion to For The King, a challenging blend of Strategy, JRPG styled combat, and roguelike elements.

Released originally back in 2018, For The King is actually really good and its certainly a game that deserved to have a whole lot more content to play through. Popular too, as they confirmed they've now seen over 3 million players (although that is across all platforms).

"This hard-as-nails fantasy experience melds challenging turn-based combat, deep roleplaying game progression and procedurally generated maps, quests and events to ensure no playthrough is the same. This potent gameplay mix is matched with a captivating artstyle and options for players to tackle the campaign on their own or in co-op with friends."

This Lost Civilization Adventure Pack gives you a brand new Jungle Falls zone, two new playable character classes and lots more. Check out the trailer below:

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What to expect from it:

• Explore the lost Jungle Falls Realm - A lush jungle forest beckons adventurers to explore its dense wood, but what dangers lurk under its thick mysterious canopy?
• Two New Playable Characters - Go on the offensive with the glory-seeking Gladiator or harness dark energy from the heavens with the wise Astronomer!
• Spectacular Arena Battles - For Glory! Defeat waves of enemies before a cheering crowd in the new gladiator arenas.
• New Weapons - Throw caution to the wind with devastating dual-wield weapons or gamble on the destructive power of the versatile wands.
• New Enemies and Loot - More than 90 new items closely guarded by over 50 new enemies. From giant snakes to petrifying golems, the rewards are great but the stakes are even higher.

You can pick up a copy from Humble Store or Steam , the Linux version is not on GOG .

Ready for one more attempt? Paradox Interactive and Paradox Tinto have announced he newest expansion to Paradox's flagship grand strategy game about the early modern world with Europa Universalis IV: Leviathan.

Leviathan offers new tools that allow you to play “tall” with smaller and more focused realms with a few centres of power. Paradox aren't yet giving away everything that's in it but they did say it also has a host of other changes to well-established game features like Regencies and Colonies. Additionally you will get new ways to quickly develop your capital, drawing resources and power from vassals or newly conquered territories, and allows you to build beyond your province's construction limit if you are willing to pay the price.

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As per usual, a big free update for everyone will be dropping at the same time as we've come to expect from anything Paradox do. This free update will rework  the Southeast Asian and Australasian maps, with new nations, new cultures and new religions offering up plenty of new ways to play through.

You can wishlist / follow Leviathan on Steam .

Stellaris: Nemesis is going to boost some very exciting things for the grand space strategy game from Paradox, with a huge new endgame crisis coming where you get to pick a side. Not only are we get a whole espionage and spying system, we're also getting a big boost in endgame content with the Stellaris: Nemesis DLC.

Players will be tasked with either helping to keep the galaxy under control, or become the actual endgame crisis directly by eating up stars and possibly destroy the entire galaxy. Okay then.

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How will this all work? You will be able to pick a new associated ascension perk aptly named "Become the Crisis". It will be available to most types of empires but it will need at least two other ascension perks unlocked first. However, be warned, Paradox said in the new dev diary if you pick it you will "forfeit other opportunities to focus on your newfound goals" so everything you do will lead to destruction.

You will then need to go on a glorious path of destruction to earn Menace, unless you're working to stabilise the galaxy that is but where's the fun in that? Each level of the crisis progression needs a certain amount of Menace and finishing a special project. As you go through you get new types of ships with the last one being a Star Eater, that you need to use to gather Dark Matter by destroying stars and eventually wiping out the galaxy.

Sounds wild, I love it.

You can wishlist / follow Stellaris: Nemesis on GOG and Steam .

Joining the list of DLC available for Civilization VI as part of the New Frontier Pass is the Vietnam & Kublai Khan Pack that's now available with a big game update. Available to buy individually like the rest of the packs, or buy the New Frontier Pass to get access to all of them.

In addition to the new civilization and leaders details below, there's also the big new "Monopolies and Corporations" game mode. The whole idea here is to create industry around luxury resources to get powerful buffs, and eventually turn them into a full corporation to create products. If you manage to dominate a luxury resource you get a monopoly, which then gives addition tourism and gold. The idea of the mode is to give a little more fun and depth to the resources.

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As for Kublai Khan, here's their details:

• Leader Unique Ability: Kublai Khan’s unique ability, “Gerege,” provides one extra Economic policy slot in any government. It also grants a random Eureka and Inspiration when establishing a Trading Post in another civilization’s city for the first time.
• As a leader of China, Kublai Khan’s science boosts are even more powerful, and his extra policy slot empowers economic strategies. As a leader of Mongolia, Kublai Khan leverages trade routes for military might.

Up next is a major free update for everyone which is due out likely during February, and then the final DLC as part of the New Frontier Pass in March. After that? Not a clue, perhaps a whole new game?

You can buy Civilization VI with Linux support from Humble Store and Steam .

Plague Inc: Evolved just got the biggest expansion it's ever seen with Plague Inc: The Cure. You can play it free right now too, as there's no cost until 'COVID-19 is under control'.

Really great stuff from Ndemic Creations who worked together with global health organisations including the WHO, CEPI and GOARN. The idea here is to simulate how the world reacts to fight off a deadly disease so it's very much the opposite of what you do in the normal Plague Inc: Evolved. You can read more behind the scenes work on the CEPI website page for the game. It tries to keep to real science often, although there's often plenty that has to be simplified due to such a real thing being vastly complex.

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Features:

• Hunt the Disease: Dispatch research teams around the world to find patient zero, track the spread of the outbreak and support local responses.
• Control the Outbreak: Implement measures such as contact tracing, lockdowns and border closures to limit the spread of the outbreak, whilst getting people to wash their hands and preparing hospitals to prevent them getting overwhelmed.
• Support the Economy: People won’t comply with poorly designed quarantine measures; use furlough schemes and other policies to drive community support and consensus.
• Develop a Vaccine: Research, manufacture and distribute a vaccine to stop the disease. Work carefully and promote global cooperation to accelerate development.

Grab it on Steam now as a free DLC . Plague Inc: Evolved is also 60% off on Steam to help more people have a go until February 4.