We're into the second stage of the World Cup now, meaning two more weeks of increasingly intense football. That's "we" in the global sense. I don't know how your country of origin performed, but England did not. If you're in a similar position, there are options available to help survive such national disappointment. You could pick a better team to live vicariously through. Or you could download Kerbal Space Program's official 'Kerbin Cup' mod. With it, you're able to take your footballs and hide away in the most desolate reaches of space away from the harsh reality of underperforming athletes.



"The Kerbin Cup pack contains Kerbal-sized and rocket-sized soccer balls with the physics to match, as well as the flags of all 32 World Cup participating countries," explain SQUAD on the mod's download page. "It s both a small token of gratitude and a way to capture the excitement of one of the world s biggest sporting events, but in the grand stage that only space can provide."

This is the first 'official' mod for KSP, created by developers SQUAD. Of course, there are also plenty of unofficial mods out there. Find a round-up of the best right here.

Thanks, PCGamesN.

We've now been living and breathing the Steam Summer Sale for a week, losing sleep for every flash sale, antsy with anticipation every time the new deals tick over. We're feverish from the savings, but it would be madness to stop saving now. Today's deals fuel our appetite for strategy, shooting, and launching valiant little green men into space on absurdly oversized rockets.

Don t forget to check out GOG s summer deals, too.

Reminder: if a game isn't a daily deal or a flash sale, it could pop up later in the sale for an even lower price. If you want to be safe, wait until June 30 to pick up a sale-long deal.
5 - The Banner Saga
50% off: $12.49 / 9.49 - Steam store page
One of the biggest artistic achievements in gaming this year. We love The Banner Saga s hand-drawn characters and how they animate on the battlefield, but we especially enjoy the way its detailed, Nordic landscapes parallax as your caravan of warriors and survivors march on. The Austin Wintory score is a cherry on the top.
4 - Kerbal Space Program
40% off: $16.19 / 11.99 - Steam store page
We ve murdered a lot of aliens in games, but only in KSP have we stranded little green guys in planetary orbit due to our grossly incompetent management of a budding space program. The Early Access rocket physics simulator is one of the best games still under development, and already has a large community of engineers sharing stories of harrowing space missions, ship designs, and mods. KSP has even made its way into classrooms.

Read Ian s five-part Kerbal Space Program chronicle to see how he learned rocket-building basics and launched a mission to the M n.
3 - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
50% off: $7.49 / 5.99 - Steam store page
The best competitive FPS on PC owes a lot to its skill-based matchmaking format. At any skill level, five-on-five Counter-Strike narrows the range of tactical choices available to you and the time you have to make them, creating a wonderfully concentrated competitive mode. Otherwise, CS:GO is mainly a vehicle for microtransactions: beware the allure of $400 virtual knives.
2 - Tomb Raider
75% off: $4.99 / 3.74 - Steam store page Flash sale: Buy it before 8 p.m. EST
Lara Croft returns in a gorgeous action game heavily inspired by Naughty Dog's Uncharted series. This younger, rebooted Lara doesn't have her predecessor's confidence or predilection for interesting puzzles the only tombs in this game are disappointingly short and simple but the shooting is by far the best in the series. Exploring Tomb Raider's island and crafting survival gear is also fun, as Lara is a nimble climber and each area is packed with interesting treasures to hunt down. For a challenge, forgo the assault rifle and grenade launcher for Lara's incredibly satisfying (and silent!) bow.
1 - BioShock Triple Pack
83% off: $10.19 / 6.79 - Steam store page
If you haven t explored the ruins of Rapture, you re in for a treat. BioShock s world is a revelation, an under-the-sea society that s crumbled under its own weight, and exploring what remains of it and shooting its crazy inhabitants in the face with fireballs is a delight. BioShock 2 goes even further, changing your perspective and adding a surprising amount of depth with its own story. Irrational s swansong, BioShock Infinite, may still be polarizing, but Columbia is just as beautiful and terrifying as Rapture, and well worth exploring. All three are included here in a bundle that s too cheap to pass up.

Other great deals today
Remember that games not categorized as Daily Deals or Flash Sales may be reduced further later in the sale.

Bastion (40% off) $8.99 / 6.59
Killing Floor (50% off) $9.99 / 7.49
Mirror's Edge (75% off) $4.99 / 2.49
Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition (66% off) $6.79 / 5.09

Squad, the developer of the excellent space-flight sim Kerbal Space Program, has just announced that it will partner with Curse.com to set up a new database for its active modding community. The existing website, the Kerbal Spaceport, will no longer be accepting mods, and community members will transfer their work over to the new site.

The functional-but-not-great database at Kerbal Spaceport has been a source of friction in the community, even as it grew and created a lot of great content. Squad told us in December that they were looking for a new home for its modders, but they couldn t confirm anything at the time. Modders have helped make Kerbal Space Program a more open, more rewarding game experience for our players, Squad chief operating officer Adrian Goya wrote in a press release. Curse is an important partner because their team is passionate and experienced in caring for and growing online game communities, such as our amazing playerbase for Kerbal Space Program.

For any PC game that prides itself on a huge, open, explorable world, mods are essential to keeping players coming back and talking about the game. Skyrim is the most famous example of this principle, and it s only working with a single region of one continent. With the entire universe at its disposal, Kerbal Space Program has that much more room for great community content.

Squad's Felipe Falanghe is the creator and lead developer of Kerbal Space Program, and his work space feels a lot like a command module in a rocket soaring to Mun. When he's not busy developing one of PC gaming's most delightful simulators, he's using a gigantic array of peripherals to play games. Felipe was kind enough to take a few moments away from firing Kerbals into space to tell us about his setup.

What's in your PC?
On the inside, my current PC specs consist of an Intel Core i7 3820 CPU, 32 GB DDR3 RAM, a GeForce GTX 690 GPU, a Samsung 840Pro 512GB SSD, a 2TB 7200 rpm HD, a 1kW PSU, all aboard a CM Storm Trooper Case.

What's the most interesting part of your setup?
I have to say, I love my peripherals. I have a thing for human interface devices, and I ve been collecting them since I had my first PC. As for a favorite, I really had to think about that for a while but if I had to pick one thing, that would have to be my Matrox TripleHead2Go and the 3 screens.



What's on your desk?
On the "main deck," we have a Logitech X550 5.1 Surround System, Another 1TB Toshiba external drive, a G19s Keyboard, 3DConnexion s SpaceMouse and SpaceNavigator, RAT 7 Mouse, F350 Gamepad, the Saitek X52 Pro, a 4-port USB Hub, TrackIR 5, MS VX1000 webcam, and the monitors, 2 LG 1920h LCDs (left and right), and an LH E1910 at the center. The three used to be the same model, but one of them sadly burned out a while back. On the "lower deck," I have a Logitech G13 and a Razer Nostromo, plus my trusty Wacom Intuos 3 Tablet. Under the desk, sit the ProFlight Rudder Pedals and the pedal set for the Driving Force GT Wheel. The wheel itself takes the desktop front and center when it s time to drive, and the right rudder pedal doubles as a clutch pedal. For flying, the Saitek X52 Pro takes center stage.

What are you playing right now?
I really haven t had much time to play much at all in these last few months I did manage to get a few hours in on Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag these last couple of days, and before that, I was playing Just Cause 2, Skyrim some indies as well, like Papers, Please and The Stanley Parable. And DayZ, lots of DayZ.



What's your favorite game and why?
Now that is a properly hard question I m very picky about games, because I usually dedicate a lot of time on a single title, so I definitely have a few favorites of recent times, DayZ being one, but I ve always been a big fan of all of Bohemia s Arma series all the way back to the original Operation Flashpoint.

An all time favorite though, that s very hard to pick I do have a few which have stuck with me since I was little, some of which I still get around to playing every now and then, on emulators or VMs. I think Fragile Allegiance, from 1995, has to be my favorite strategy game. I was playing it again just a few weeks ago on my laptop, running DOSBox. For RTS, I would say Total Annihilation. For flight sims, Microsoft s Flight Simulator series, definitely. I ve had all of them since MSFS 4.1, which came on a single 3.5 floppy, all the way through FSX. I couldn t leave out Orbiter either. I ve been an Orbiter fan ever since I first played it back in the early 2000 s.

I have a few console favorites too, although you can probably tell from those pictures I m not a console gamer most of the time. My favorites are from the N64 era. Of all those, I would put GoldenEye 007 at the very top. I actually never owned it, I used to rent it at Blockbuster pretty much every weekend, and I got so many hours into it, I have some of the levels forever burned into my brain, to the point I could map it out by memory. And of course, I couldn t not mention SimCity 2000, 3000 and 4, and The Sims as well.

I know this is hardly a definitive answer, but these games were the worlds I would live in when I was a kid, then through my teenage years and college days, so they ve all influenced me as a game designer now, and I still refer to them as my role models for fun and immersive games.

Confession: I m playing imaginary NASA every time I play Kerbal Space Program. The brilliant space exploration sim can be customized with any flag, so I could be playing as the Federation of Planets, the Empire or Rebel Alliance, or as an independent Browncoat. But no. I fly my toy rockets under the NASA flag, and I don t care who knows it.

So it was with immense pleasure that I checked out the upcoming update for KSP, which has grown from goofy experiment to one of Steam's most popular Early Access games. Produced in collaboration with NASA, the Asteroid Redirect Mission adds asteroids to the Kerbal universe. The rocket part inventory has swelled to over 180, including several new super-heavy lifters and enormous fuel tanks. The NASA logo is now officially included in the default flag roster, and the new rockets have NASA emblems painted on. It makes a nerd heart flutter.

The main event for this update, though, is the opportunity to capture an asteroid. To find these new objects in the deep black, I bring up the satellite tracking station and zoom way, way out. Asteroids of various sizes classed A (tiny) through E (huge) pop up as unconfirmed sightings across the local area. Clicking an asteroid gives me the option to track it, which assign it a unique name and adds it to my map as an orbiting body. I m on the look-out for an easy target, as Squad s PR manager, Miguel Pi a, warned me that Catching an asteroid is probably one of the hardest things to do in KSP now... I would strongly recommend you go for a class B or lower, as larger ones are truly hard to move around.

A slow arc near the orbit of the Mun makes FNW-501 relatively easy to reach.

I dismiss a few potential targets hurtling through the local system too fast. Most of the asteroids I see are too big, and a few are on a collision course for Kerbin. I skip those as well; Jebediah Kerman is a good pilot, but he s no Bruce Willis. Finally, I spot Ast. FNW-501, a class A asteroid on a slow, lazy arc through the Kerbin neighborhood. Perfect.

The business end of the asteroid capture mission is the new mechanical grappling claw. The claw is an ungainly nose attachment that, when deployed, treats the surface of an asteroid as a docking port and latches on.

Let s pause and reflect here. I m building a colossal rocket to fly to a lonely piece of space rock and, once there, my plan is to... headbutt it. It s ridiculous. And actually based on a real-life, future NASA mission.
My space rock
Jeb takes a break from piloting to pose with his new ship and on-board NASA logos.

When I spoke to lead designer Felipe Falanghe in December, he mentioned that the team was close to solving the wiggle problem, where larger rockets and space stations tend to flex at the joints, sometimes catastrophically. They ve done it in the newest build. With the help of the new NASA rocket parts and the super-solid rocket connections, I built the largest rocket I ve ever made in KSP and flew it to orbit without reinforcing every joint with struts. The added stability makes flying much more fun.

Arranging an accurate flight plan for a small target was beyond tricky.

Flying out to meet FNW-501, the somewhat fiddly maneuver node controls become a problem. The slightest adjustment means missing the asteroid by hundreds of kilometers, even while using my mouse s scroll wheel to fine-tune the trajectory. I spent too long trying to make tiny changes to the flight plan; in the end, I just got a plan that was kind of close, then made a series of short burns to correct my flight path.

The orbital control plan is already a little tricky when you re aiming at a planet; trying to hit a rock five meters wide was a bit frustrating. I d love a new control scheme here or possibly a mod from the prolific fan community.

The mechanical grappling claw extended, Jeb closes in for contact.

When all was said and done, meeting FNW-501 for my billion-dollar headbutt was a lot like docking with a space station in low Kerbin orbit. Once the claw engaged, I slowly turned the huge rock around, then lit my engines until our orbit brought us home. It flew like a brick, and I m once again thankful that I tried my hand at a relatively small asteroid. FNW-501 is now in orbit, ready to be tested, mined, or deorbited and flung at Buenos Aires.

Players who have been in Kerbal Space Program for a while will find new things to do, new rocket parts, and a new rigid-body rocket system that will make it easier to build truly monstrous spaceships. Personally, capturing FNW-501 was the most white-knuckle piece of KSP piloting I ve had to do since I landed on the moon the first time and I got the same rush of accomplishment afterward.

The Asteroid Redirect Mission is currently going through bug fixing, so Squad isn t willing to give a firm release date just yet. Expect to hear a date announced sometime in the next few weeks.

Unity 5, the latest version of the popular game development engine, was unveiled at the Game Development Conference in San Francisco today. The new update will include big updates to Unity s audio and lighting tools and 64-bit engine support, according to Unity Technologies. Unity 5 will be available for pre-order starting today, and is accompanied by a trailer featuring lots of flashy light rendering and a wub-wub distortion soundtrack.



Every time we ship a new version of Unity, we re looking to empower developers with technology that's more powerful and easier to apply than ever before, David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies, wrote in a press release. With the huge additions of physically-based shading, lighting workflows, a new platform, and a new built-in method for user acquisition, we re improving Unity dramatically from both a creative and business perspective.

Unity has also partnered with Mozilla to bring the game engine to WebGL, meaning that Unity games could run inside Firefox without any additional plug-ins. Mozilla has written up a full post about the collaboration here, and the Unity booth will be showing off this ability with in-browser builds of Dead Trigger 2.

Users who pre-order will also get access to the current build of Unity 4 and all planned updates. Unity 4 launched two years ago, and has provided the base for games like Rust, Kerbal Space Program, Gone Home, and Surgeon Simulator.

Thanks to Aaron San Filippo, developer of Unity game Race the Sun, for the tip.