Ready for a new adventure? Set in the far future on an abandoned planet Earth, Mutropolis is now confirmed to be launching on February 18.

"It is the year 5000, and the greatest achievements in human history are forgotten. The pyramids, the Mona Lisa, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air – forgotten.
Forgotten by everyone except Henry Dijon and his ragtag team of archaeologists. They left Mars to dig up lost treasures on the wild and inhospitable Planet Earth. Life is sweet, until Henry’s professor is kidnapped, and thing start to get... weird."

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This is the debut game from Madrid-based artists Beatriz Gascón and Juan Pablo González who make up Pirita Studio. Mutropolis will combine together classic point and click adventuring, with a modern interface.

Feature Highlight:

• 50+ hand-drawn scenes, crammed with cute, weird characters.
• Full voice over in English, text localizations in Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
• Archaeological puzzles with a sci-fi twist.

At release on February 19 it will be available on GOG and Steam . There's also a demo up on Steam until January 25 for the Big Adventure Event.

Note: the Steam page currently for me says February 19 but the publisher mentioned February 18 as the confirmed date on Twitter .

Stellaris from Paradox Development Studios gets a lot right in how it deals with grand space strategy but some parts of it are still being expanded.

Paradox have continued their regular development diaries on Stellaris for the next big upcoming update. Looks like things are again about to get more interesting, especially when it comes to communication and information gathering on other space civilizations.

Spread across three development diaries ( #1 , #2 , #3 ) they go over changes to First Contact, Fog of War, Intelligence Gathering and Espionage systems that will all see a revamp and expansion. I'm excited for all of this, because Stellaris a good story-teller and expanding on that is a great idea to invite more playthroughs.

For First Contact, there's going to be more options to make it a more engaging process with new First Contact Protocols to pick how you deal with such a huge situation that previous Stellaris made pretty normal. The whole system expands from there, with it being a longer process and much more like the dig site system for relics as it goes through stages. Exciting!

Information gathering becomes hugely more important too. The newer Fog of War system will block out more info on other races, making them that little bit more mysterious. Gathering Intel directly is now a bigger part of exploration in Stellaris, as you will need to do it to get much more details on each race. You get an Intel value from 0 to 100 based on lots of things and Intel will be split into different categories including Government, Military, Diplomatic, Economic, Technology. To go along with that, there will be an Intel Report system, allowing you to gain information in a category over time.

Just as exciting is their new Envoys and Spy Networks system coming, allowing you to put spies to work passively gain intelligence needed due to all the other changes. On top of that you can also give them active roles to work in including:

• Subterfuge - Information gathering and operations that improve the spy network itself
• Sabotage - Ruining things (physical or immaterial)
• Manipulation - Replacing the truth with your own improved version
• Provocations - Don't do these, they're bad

Since empire security can now be a bigger problem Paradox are also giving players and AI new technologies to research, like having telepaths walking around reading the minds of everyone around them or tracking implants to ensure increased local security.

All of the changes make Stellaris sound properly interesting again, and a lot more sci-fi. Looking forward to seeing the full announcement on the next update!

You can buy Stellaris on GOG , Humble Store and Steam .

Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight is something of a classic, a game from my childhood and it has returned to GOG to give you an easy way to grab it and GOG are running a huge sale on RPGs .

Created by Rob Anderson and originally released in 1991 for the Amiga (my first gaming love) and Moonstone was later ported over to DOS in 1992. If you're interested, GOG also did an interview with the creator. I have fond memories of it, playing both solo and in co-op with my brother, back then it was probably one of the goriest games we had and the real-time battles were great.

You can grab the classic Moonstone here , which GOG have nicely packaged up for Linux with DOSBox.

If real retro classics aren't your thing, do check out the big RPG sale on GOG too including some good stuff like:

• Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition - 80% off
• Shadowrun Trilogy - 75% off
• The Dwarves - 75% off
• Torment: Tides of Numenera - 70% off
• Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark - 66% off
• Vaporum - 60% off
• Iratus: Lord of the Dead - 50% off
• Pillars of Eternity - 50% off
• Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - 50% off
• Tyranny - 50% off
• Hellpoint - 30% off

Möbius Front '83, the difficult turn-based strategy game from puzzle masters Zachtronics has seen a big free expansion adding in quite a lot.

So far, it seems like possibly the only Zachtronics title that hasn't become some kind of instant classic. However, they're clearly trying to make big improvements to it. Personally, I enjoyed it though and it is good but the challenge was tough and that's what put a fair amount of people off. This update is a nice step towards making it more approachable since you can dive in for a battle against the AI whenever you want to learn more, or against others online.

That's not the only addition. Because your ability to play as the enemy "Americans" is only unlocked when you complete the single-player campaign, they also added a brand new Soviet Army faction with over 20 units, including the T-72 Ural (an old tank but cheap tank that can be used to overwhelm your opponent), the paratrooper team (which can deploy directly to any open hex on your side of the map), and the BM-21 Grad (which launches four artillery attacks at a target in a single turn).

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"The year is 1983 and the United States of America must defend itself from an enemy it could have never imagined— an America from an alternate universe that will stop at nothing to seize control of the country’s heartland!"

If you missed it you can buy it on Steam and itch.io (which went live 2 days ago) with the GOG release still tagged as coming "soon".

WRATH: Aeon of Ruin is a dark fantasy-horror FPS powered by the original Quake engine from publishers 3D Realms and 1C Entertainment and developer KillPixel Games.

The full release across all platforms (Windows currently supported in Early Access) has been delayed until "Summer 2021", this is due to COVID-19 as some of their team sadly caught it and needed recovery time. Even so, they've managed to push out a third content update.

“While delays are never ideal, we wanted to release one awesome final update before going heads down to knock this out of the park,” said Frederik Schreiber, Vice President of 3D Realms and Producer on WRATH. “Summer may seem far away, but we are working diligently to make WRATH the best game it can be.”

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The good news is that direct Linux support is still planned, with 1C Publishing mentioning to us today that "The Linux version is planned for the full launch of the game in Summer.".

Until then you can either try with the Steam Play Proton compatibility layer, or perhaps even better is using the open source wrath-darkplaces game engine! The latter of which our contributor Samsai previewed in a previous article and it's looking really good.

You can buy WRATH: Aeon of Ruin from Humble Store , GOG and Steam .

Getting real close to release now is the huge 2.6 upgrade for the Beamdog classic RPGs now including Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition.

They've gradually moved from one game to the next, opening up an opt-in Beta you can try for each right now on Steam. Each of them needing some feedback to ensure you can properly play it including double-checking the save system is working correctly.

2.6 is a big upgrade for Beamdog's enhanced version of the Infinity Engine and while it won't solve every last issue in each of the noted games, it's still a needed update for them all.

Want to get involved? They need Linux testing too (the Beta is Steam only, other stores when ready). We've reported on the Baldur's Gate Beta testing before but now  Icewind Dale is included and the Baldur's Gate titles also got fresh updates. See the links below for each for more info:

- Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
- Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
- Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
- Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition

You can see the full changelist here . Some highlights for all include:

• Changed to 64 bit executables; 32 bit operating systems are no longer supported
• Hundreds of bug fixes including many spell fixes
• Improved pathfinding
• Improved multiplayer stability
• Added Adventurers of Neverwinter content to all games
• Added French, Italian, German, Ukrainian and Polish text localizations to Siege of Dragonspear
• Added French text localization to Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition
• Added Brazilian Portuguese and Chinese (Simplified) text localizations to Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition

Need to buy a copy? Links below:

- Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition - GOG / Steam
- Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear - GOG / Steam
- Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition - GOG / Steam
- Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition - GOG / Steam

Paradox Interactive and Double Eleven have announced the next expansion and free update for Prison Architect with the Prison Architect: Going Green DLC launching on January 28.

Seems like bit of a theme with Paradox published games. We had the Cities: Skylines - Green Cities DLC in 2017, the Surviving Mars: Green Planet DLC in 2019 and now prisons are going green too. You will be able to create a more environmentally friendly prison with farming and all sorts.

Here's the key features to expect from it:

• Fruits of Labor: Farming introduces a new type of Prison Labor, allowing prisons to grow potatoes, wheat, apples, and more. Produce can be exported or used as ingredients for inmate meals.
• Room to Grow: Three outdoor rooms facilitate farming: Fruit Orchard, Farm Field and Vegetable Allotment. But that’s not all, players can recruit staff Farm Workers, build a Pantry to store produce, and construct a Shed to house farming-related items.
• Best Buds: Inmates who enjoy nature’s beauty can grow flowers and other plants recreationally. Gardening affects inmates and gives them a positive recreation activity.
• Trouble is Brewing: With new crops comes new contraband. Prisoners can now secretly grow herbs in the fields and swipe kitchen ingredients to brew Booze. Fields can also become Gang Turf, so keep your guards on alert!
• A Greener New Deal: Prisons get an eco-friendly makeover with Solar, Wind, and Solar/Wind Hybrid power sources. Excess power created by these sustainable methods can be sold back to the grid using the Power Export Meter.

Have a look at the announcement trailer below:

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As for the free update everyone will see, this will be called The Glasshouse which will bring with it "additional objects, quickrooms, community improvements and two new top-notch employees - K9 units Shepherd and Bowtie Bandit." additionally Wardens can "create a more sustainable prison with Recycling Systems and objects like recycling bins or solar lights" and improvements to sorting methods and dump / demolition tooling - all of which has been highly requested by the community.

“Going Green continues Prison Architect’s history of riffing off popular prison fiction seen in movies, TV, and other media. This will be the third Prison Architect expansion we will have launched since Paradox took over the IP in 2019 and we can’t wait to see your latest creations,” said Steacy McIlwham, Product Manager for Prison Architect at Paradox Interactive. “The Glasshouse also kicks off a series of updates we will make to the game’s interface, starting with the dump and demolition tools, making it more user-friendly. We understand this is something the community has been asking about for a long time and we want you to know your voice has been heard.”

You can buy Prison Architect from GOG , Humble Store and Steam .

Ready for more Dead Cells? I know I am! Motion Twin and Evil Empire have announced the Dead Cells: Fatal Falls expansion will release on January 26.

This is the third expansion, although only the second that's paid as Dead Cells: Rise of the Giant was released free and comes after over 20 major updates to the game that have been released free. At release, they're also putting up a 'complete the set' bundle to save you 15% on The Bad Seed and Fatal Falls DLC together.

So what to expect from Dead Cells: Fatal Falls? There's two new mid-game biomes, which are alternative paths to Stilt Village / Clock Tower and Slumbering Sanctuary / Forgotten Sepulcher. "One is the Fractured Shrines, which is a load of floating islands connected by ledges that are covered with traps and ready to drop you into the abyss below. When you're not falling you'll be dealing with pagan snake people and giant statues with even bigger axes. After that you'll enter The Undying Shores where you need to descend a cliff in the middle of a storm. Some caves offer a way out of the rain but they're full of weird experiments and undead healers, so good luck getting out!"

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You're also going to be facing off against a boss at the end too, where you face off against a gardener who loves flowers and mushrooms apparently - with you being neither you're in for a fight.

To buy the DLC you can find it on GOG and Steam .

The SteamOS-like big-screen Linux gaming distribution GamerOS has a fresh release out, with some surprising new features integrated and it's looking slick.

Providing an out of the box couch / sofa gaming experience, thanks to the Steam Big Picture interface along with their own homebrew integrations for using things provided outside of Steam, GamerOS continues to be a fine choice for a dedicated big TV box.

GamerOS 22 went out on January 12 upgrading the main internals like Linux Kernel 5.10.5, Mesa 20.3.2, NVIDIA 460.32.03 and updates to their web-based Steam Buddy tool and the Steam Tweaks tool. It gets more exciting when you look at the rest of the work done which includes:

• New Steam Buddy platforms: GOG, 3DO
• Automatic download and installation of Proton GE
• Added Boxtron compatibility tool for DOS games
• Improved reliability of Steam Tweaks database file updates
• Adjusted some default emulator configurations for better performance
• Improved GameCube game compatibility
• Fixed DualShock 3 configuration for emulated games
• Added Xbox Series X|S controller configuration for emulated games
• Added support for Hyperkin Duke Xbox controller
• Improved handling of Bluetooth dongles
• Compositor fix to allow Far Cry 5 (and possibly other games) to launch correctly
• Compositor fix to hide system tray icons
• Fixed failures when uploading many large ROM files
• Added podman to allow for running additional background services

With the GOG support now hooked up, it does include some caveats like DOS games not launching, no download progress and updating games not yet being supported. GOG support for GamerOS is only "preliminary", so hopefully we will see it improve in the next release.

The developer has also "certified" more games to work with GamerOS, which means they've been setup and tested working properly (both native Linux supported titles and Windows games run through Steam Play Proton ) including: Children of Morta, Indivisible, Overcooked! 2, Shining Resonance Refrain, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Gris, Struggling, Yuppie Psycho, Path of Giants, Ancestors Legacy and BattleBlock Theater.

Want to download and try GamerOS? Find out how here .

If you missed it, the developer did a talk at the last Arch Linux Conference to go over the main details. You can view the video below:

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