Ink Stains Games have released a major upgrade to the challenging turn-based RPG Stoneshard, one they've been working on for some time now and it's quite the overhaul.

Sounds like it's almost a different game too, all the big main parts of the game have been changed in some way.

Here's the highlights:

• Complete rework of the dungeon generator with lots more variety.
• Basic AI was completely reworked: new decision making system so enemies don't act randomly, new and better pathfinding system, enemies know to swap places in tight spaces, archers and mages will try to keep distance, aggressive animals warn try to warn you away from their territory before attacking, enemies can retreat now and more AI upgrades.
• Animals gained new behaviours too like foxes hunting rabbits and deer will run away
• New content: new secret rooms to find, 100+ new containers, new enemy skills, 25 new undead enemy types and other bits

I really love the artwork in Stoneshard.

Apart from all the new content, generation and AI upgrades they also improved the tech behind the game with a better light rendering system, a new culling system, a new fog of war system, they added fireflies, for new music tracks and some visual updates to the Prologue.

That's a huge amount of work that went into it, lots of new systems going on as you play that make for a way more exciting experience overall. So much new stuff that they're going to be raising the price. They didn't give a clear date as to when but they mentioned the next major update late this Winter or early next year which will add in the first major city and it's surrounding area. Before that's ready though, a few smaller updates will drop. The price will be raising by 30% so you might want to grab it soon.

You can buy it DRM-free on GOG and also Steam .

Never seen it? Check out the trailer below:

Watch video on YouTube.com

The day no doubt many of our readers have been waiting for is here, as Valve worked with the community to create a brand new update to Left 4 Dead 2 named The Last Stand.

Made in partnership with over 30 members of the modding community, it's been a long time since Valve came back to Left 4 Dead 2 in any sizeable way which is why it's so exciting. What exactly does it include? A lot. Seriously, there's loads. Some highlights include: The Last Stand Campaign and over 20 survival maps, new melee weapons, new animations, new voice lines and so much more.

Watch video on YouTube.com

If you want to see the full list of changes, Valve put up a list here with some of the details.

Note: while I've seen plenty across the net call it a "DLC", and it is when you think about what DLC literally stand for, it actually comes in the form of a standard free patch for everyone to update their game with and not as a DLC item you need to download separately on Steam.

The player count is already spiking up dramatically compared to the usual amounts. Looking on SteamDB, it took all of 15 minutes to jump another 15,000+ players on top of around that amount already online. Considering it's one of Valve's most popular games, it's not exactly surprising. This new update might even keep those counts up for some time.

Play for free on Steam for a few days, with an 80% discount if you still somehow don't own it. Our livestreamer, Sin, is also checking it out right now on Twitch - live until around 10 PM UTC.

If you're working with sprites and pixel-art, you need to pay attention to Pixelorama as this free and open source program is coming on nicely and another massive upgrade is out now.

As an editor for artists, the 0.8 release that went up on September 23 has made it that step closer to an all-in-one solution for all your sprite needs. There's now a lot of different built in tools you can use, different pixel modes, animation support and much more.

Pictured - Pixelorama 0.8, town image credit .

The list of new features in v0.8 is long, here's a few quick highlights:

• The Web (HTML5) is now a supported platform of Pixelorama! It is now possible to save .png and .pxo files, as well as load image and palette files in the Web version.
• Project tabs! You can now have multiple projects open at the same time, and access each one with tabs.
• Gradient generation. A new option under the "Image" menu that lets you generate a RGB gradient.
• Added previews in all image effect dialog windows with a checkerboard background. Also placed checkerboard backgrounds in the cel buttons of the timeline, and the Export window.
• A new isometric grid.
• You can now drag & drop files into the program while it's running to open them. You can open .pxo files, image files and palette (json, gpl and pal) files this way.
• You can now draw on the tiling mode previews!
• Added Symmetry Guides. They let you change the axis of symmetry for mirroring.
• Palettes can now be created from the colors of the selected sprite.
• You can now preview how the frames of the spritesheet you are importing will look.
• You can now import image files as layers. Their size will be cropped to the project's size.
• You can import image files as brushes, patterns and palettes.
• Added Scale3X algorithm as an option to scale sprites
• Selection region and size are now being shown when making a selection on the top, next to the position label.
• A play button has been added for playing the animation exclusively on the small canvas preview area. A zoom slider for the preview area has been added, too.
• Added support for importing PAL palette files.

This release also cleans up the UI some more with added quality of life fixes, like more options where you expect them to be for ease of use. It's looking quite lovely now. While there are a number of other pixel art editors out there - plenty of them are either too basic, too expensive, overly complicated, don't work on Linux and so on - having Pixelorama support Linux and be open source is great.

What's interesting is that it continues to show how Godot Engine can be used nicely for apps and not just games too, since that what Pixelorama was created with.

Learn more about it on the GitHub and it's also on itch.io (which has a web demo). They also have a Patreon to support it.

With the blessing of Epic Games, the team at OldUnreal continue maintaining the classic Unreal Tournament and they have a big new release out.

To this day the original Unreal Tournament still stands up exceptionally well, because Epic really had the feel of the gunplay and the level design nailed down quite nicely. On modern platforms though, the original is a bit — uh, well it has issues. The OldUnreal team thankfully continue pushing out upgrades. And if you weren't aware, the original did have a Linux build available too.

OldUnreal release 469 is out now with tons of bug fixes for this classic. It's a long list , with plenty of attention given to the Linux version too. Here's some Linux fixes:

• Fixed an issue where the mouse would get stuck in the middle of the game window on Linux and Mac.
• Fixed several issues that caused network connections to be terminated unexpectedly on Linux and Mac.
• Fixed a bug that caused the game viewport to have the wrong dimensions after resizing the game window on Linux or Mac.
• The ucc make commandlet now works on Linux and Mac.
• S3TC/DXT1 texture compression should now be available in the ucc tools for Linux and Mac (though obviously not in UnrealEd).
• The Linux and Mac clients now have clipboard support.
• The Linux and Mac clients finally support unicode! The most visible consequence is that player names with non-ascii characters in them will now display correctly when playing on Linux servers (provided that you use font textures with the proper unicode glyphs).
• Added selectedcursor support to the Linux and Mac clients.
• Added the -SETHOMEDIR= command line option. Normally, the game looks for the UnrealTournament.ini and User.ini files in ~/.utpg/System (on Linux), ~/Library/Application Support/Unreal Tournament/System (on Mac), or in UnrealTournament\System (on Windows). With this option, you can override the preferences path (e.g., ./ut-bin-x86 -sethomedir=~/.loki/ut/System).

For those curious, the OldUnreal patches also add in numerous other enhancements including a more modern OpenGL rendering system, SDL2 for Linux which should make the experience so much nicer, PNG support for screenshots, faster server downloads, raw input support and much more. You can pretty much considering it the ultimate version of Unreal Tournament.

The great news is that the 469 release is network compatible with "all previous public releases of UT (down to 432)". See more on it here .

It does need the original data files of course, which you can buy easily on GOG.com or Steam . You need to add the OldUnreal 469 release on top of an existing install. If you need help installing the original first, Lutris has a few installer scripts available.

Move or Die, probably one of the funniest party games around that supports both local and online play has a hit a huge milestone with 1 million sales.

That sales mark is just on Steam, which sounds like a lot but this is spread across quite a few years since it released back in 2016. Fantastic for an indie developer though, and well deserved because it's a genuine delight to play through. Move or Die is an absurdly fast-paced, 4-player local and online party game where the mechanics change every 20 seconds.

Watch video on YouTube.com

Spread across lots of different modes, where you can also pick various mutators - it's a game of fast-paced constant change. A game where the name describes it perfectly, if you stop moving you will quickly die. With the mechanics, it turns it into an absolute riot. Especially when the mutators really mess with you. For collectors it's a lot of fun too, with the progression system that allows you to continually unlock new character skins, game modes and all sorts.

It's an easy game to get into too, with wonderfully simple controls that you can blast through a few rounds during a coffee-break and have a laugh.

Note: if you have more than one monitor, be aware it has a few issues with resolutions. I don't recommend doing it in normal fullscreen there, stick to borderless or windowed. If you do need to manually adjust some settings, you can find the configuration file in "/.local/share/love/Move Or Die/startup.ini".

Try it free until September 24 on Steam , with a 75% discount too.

Chuck's Challenge 3D 2020 is out now, as a free update and a major revamp to the tile-based puzzle game from the creator of the classic Chip's Challenge.

What is it? A fiendishly addictive puzzler that’s packed with features that will tease the brain and challenge the fingers. It also comes with a level editor that lets you upload and share your levels for everyone to play and rate, all from within the game. From what Niffler Ltd said about it: "The game walks the player through the evolution of gaming: move from A to B, collect items, the red key opens the red door, and much more. But, like Lego, knowing what each piece does is only the beginning of the fun, as players can also create and share their own levels using a simple paint-style interface and seamless cloud storage."

Over the last 14 months Chuck’s Challenge 3D 2020 has been rebuilt for desktop and includes:

• Remastered Graphics
• Redesigned GUI with more options
• Refined Gameplay

Watch video on YouTube.com

"We're so excited about releasing Chuck’s Challenge 3D 2020." said Niffler’s – Puzzle Master – Chuck Sommerville. "We’ve decided, as a special thank you to fans who’ve supported us over the last 30 years, to make Chip's Challenge 1 free on Steam . Plus it allows new fans to start playing my puzzle games: Chip's Challenge 1 + 2 and Chuck's Challenge 3D 2020."

It comes with over 150 levels made by the developer and with such awesome dedication so long after release, along with it supporting Linux they're a developer worth giving over your monies to.

You can buy x from Humble Store and Steam .

Left 4 Dead 2, the nearly 11 year old shooter from Valve now has a set release date of September 24 for the huge update made along with a community of modders.

A collaborative effort from both Valve and over 30 different people from the community to improve on an already fantastic game. This update has been in progress for a long time now, and it will be available free to all owners of Left 4 Dead 2. Not only that, it will get a long free weekend when it goes live.

See the new official trailer:

Watch video on YouTube.com

As for what to actually properly expect from it? Brace yourself, because it's an exciting and long list of new content that's coming. Here's the highlights ( source ):

• The Last Stand Campaign - The survivors decide to take an alternate route in hopes of salvation, but will this path truly steer them away from total devastation?
• 30 Brand New Achievements - New and unique milestones to strive for! Show us what you’re made of!
• 26 New Survival Maps - How long can you survive against the endless and relentless hordes?
• 2 Brand New Melee Weapons - Hunt a witch with the pitchfork, or whack a Jockey with the shovel. Satisfaction guaranteed!
• L4D1 Infected Revival - The L4D1 infected are back, and they're bloodier than ever!
• New and previously unused survivor voicelines - Who would’ve guessed it, Rochelle has a personality now!
• New character animations - New, improved and overhauled animations! So smooth it’s criminal.
• Reworked gun models and animations - The guns now behave more realistic than ever!
• PvP enhancements and balance changes - New attack spots, new tank spawns, and hundreds of new infected ladders for the competitive modes just waiting for you to explore!
• Official Implementation of CSS weapons - The CSS weapons are now available to everyone! Hurray!
• Brand new mutations Rocketdude and Tank Run - Ever wanted to launch yourself around with a grenade launcher, or challenge hordes of tanks to a race? We've got you covered.
• Additional Gamemode Support - Every gamemode now offers the singleplayer option, and Versus Survival is officially brought forth to the main menu. Time to team up!
• Hundreds of bug and exploit fixes - The days of falling through elevators are gone!

It might not be Left 4 Dead 3 but it sounds like it's close enough for now, that's a lot to look forward to.

We will do a special event livestream for it when it's all live and verified working, so be sure to follow us on Twitch . Our streamer, Sin, is seriously excited about this.

You can find Left 4 Dead 2 on Steam .

Beamdog have released the latest development updates to Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition for everyone, and it comes with some wonderful upgrades.

As we reported on before during the Beta, several noteworthy graphical boosts have been added to it. These can really change and improve the RPG experience found here. Beamdog are absolutely comitted to making it the best it can be, with this update being the biggest since the Enhanced Edition release back in 2018.

What's inside? For starters, a whole new lighting engine with:

• Physically based rendering (PBR), with emulation of specular reflection, surface “roughness”, Fresnel-effects and gamma correction. All in all, this gives a more realistic and “natural” look.
• Tone mapping that prevents color distortion of bright lights and enables overbright.
• Per-pixel lighting rather than per-vertex of the old setup, yielding much more precise light illumination levels relative to distance.
• Full dynamic lighting, supporting up to 32 dynamic lights (previously NWN effectively only supported 6).

Check out a quick example of the difference some of it can make:

Left old / Right new. See a bigger comparison on this dedicated page .

Plus new water rendering, new grass rendering, plenty of other smaller graphical fixes and improvements. There's also some huge pathfinding improvements, getting stuck on random objects should be a thing of the past. Big improvements to modding once again, like access to the full SQLite API to get into campaigns, modules and the player. Loads more to be found in the patch notes .

Really great to see Beamdog continue to make such a great RPG constantly better. Will be very fun to see what else they have cooking up for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition.

You can pick up Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition from GOG and Steam .

GNOME 3.38 "Orbis" just landed today, which brings in another 6 months of hacking away at all the tech behind the GNOME desktop for a fully modern Linux environment. The Orbis code-name is to recognise the team behind the GUADEC 2020 conference, which the GNOME team said "is only possible thanks to the hard work of many volunteers".

This latest release brings in some big stuff too, here's some highlights:

• The application grid got new tools along with drag and drop support for setting it up how you want
• A newly design fingerprint dialog and better login support for it, along with new parental controls
• Special QR codes to give other devices access to your WiFI easily
• A better Maps application with a night mode too
• Improved screen recording with PipeWire
• Better multi-monitor support
• Updates to the Games app

Check out their seriously slick release video:

Watch video on YouTube.com

Full release notes can be found here .

As for when you will be able to get it, that depends on your distribution. For Ubuntu, which has GNOME as the default, it will be in the Ubuntu 20.10 release and the same for other distributions with regular release cycles. For distributions based on Arch Linux, it will no doubt arrive in updates shortly.