Fractured Space was announced last month as a multiplayer tactical combat game between capital-class spaceships, developed by the team behind Strike Suit Zero, now known as Edge Case Games. The studio said in the announcement that Fractured Space would be on Steam Early Access before the end of the year, and sure enough, here it is.

It's still fairly early in the development process and thus there are a number of known technical problems, ranging from "rare" lockups when in the in-game ship selection menu to network stability and frame rate issues. There are also balance issues to work out; to that end, the teams asks players to "please head to the forums to speak your mind." That, of course, fits in nicely with its promise of an "open development ethic," as does its request that players join its forums to discuss the game and make use of the fracturedbugs.com site to formally report any technical problems.

I'm not in the habit of recommending games I haven't played, especially Early Access releases, and I'm certainly not going to do so here. But Strike Suit Zero was reasonably cool and this Early Access trailer is pretty sweet, so I will say that I'm cautiously optimistic. Valve recently updated its Early Access rules and guidelines with a section asking developers not to make "specific promises about future events" like release dates, and as far as I can see there's no indication as to when Fractured Space will be out on the Steam store page. But Edge Case said in the original announcement that it should be ready to go sometime in 2015.

A narrative-driven puzzle game set in "the mysterious world of subatomic particles" is an unusual pitch for a video game, but that's what Particulars is. Developed by Sydney indie studio SeeThrough Games, Particulars follows protagonist Alison, but you'll actually be playing as an elementary particle. Yeah, I know. It's confusing. But it looks really nice.

Described by the studio as a blend of arcade and puzzle gameplay, you guide your particle through 100 levels based on actual particle physics. Meanwhile, the narrative component will trace Alison's "journey through the subatomic world". As you solve the puzzles you'll unlock more of Alison's memories. 

Check out the launch trailer below. It's on Steam right now for Windows and Linux. 

Samsung has announced that its first AMD FreeSync-enabled monitors will arrive early next year.

In March 2015, Samsung's UD590 and UE850 Ultra HD (aka 4K) monitors will support FreeSync, AMD's open-source answer to Nvidia's G-Sync technology. Like G-Sync, FreeSync removes tearing and reduces stuttering for a much smoother gaming experience at refresh rates below the monitor's maximum. G-Sync and FreeSync dynamically alter the monitor's refresh rate to match the output of the graphics card.

But unlike G-Sync—a proprietary Nvidia tech that adds roughly $200 to the cost of the monitor, judging by Nvidia's DIY kits—FreeSync uses an open-source protocol that is free for anyone to implement on a compatible monitor. The royalty-free FreeSync works as a modification of the DisplayPort standard with a compatible AMD graphics card.

"We are very pleased to adopt AMD FreeSync technology to our 2015 Samsung Electronics Visual Display division's UHD monitor roadmap, which fully supports open standards," said Joe Chan, Vice President of Samsung Electronics Southeast Asia Headquarters. "With this technology, we believe users including gamers will be able to enjoy their videos and games to be played with smoother frame display without stuttering or tearing on their monitors."

The UD590 will be available at a 23.6-inch size as well as the already-available 28-inch version, while the UE850 comes in 23.6-, 27-, and 31.5-inch variants.

Tripwire Interactive has released a new content pack for the Second World War FPS Red Orchestra 2 and its stand-alone expansion, Rising Storm. Armored Assault 2 adds a brand new map to the game, updates a couple of old ones, and fixes a handful of bugs. And it's free!

The central feature of Armored Assault 2—Armored Assault 1 came out in September, by the way, and was also free—is the new Demyansk map, based on the 1942 battle in which encircled German troops held off a much larger Soviet force from early February to late April, before successfully breaking out. The expansion also incorporates the recent addition of light tanks to the game, adding T70 and Panzer III tanks to the Gumrak and Barashka maps.

And even though Red Orchestra 2 came out in September 2011 (and to be fair, Rising Storm is much more recently, having been released in May 2013), there are still some bugs to deal with: A couple of map exploits have been taken care of, a bug that let Soviets spawn with the MG42 and allows Germans to spawn on them has been fixed, and it's no longer possible to minimize or turn off weapon bob.

The free Armored Assault 2 content pack is available now on Steam. Tripwire has also put Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad and Rising Storm Game of the Year Edition on sale for 75 percent off, dropping them to $5 each until November 24.

Early Access can be a boon to developers and gamers, but it has risks. You are, after all, paying for a game that's not finished and may never be—or that may not turn out to be exactly what was promised when it's done. Valve took steps earlier this year to clarify the realities of Early Access games for consumers, and now it's updated its rules and guidelines for developers as well.

Giant Bomb reports that Valve recently distributed updated Early Access policies to developers, broken down into separate rules, which must be followed, and guidelines, which should be. The rules are fairly straightforward: Developers must specifically label their games as "Early Access" when distributing Steam keys off-site (through a Humble Bundle, for instance), and are no longer supposed to make "specific promises about future events," like when a game will launch or a particular feature will be added. Finally, Early Access launches must take place at the same time as releases on other digital storefronts, and developers cannot charge more for their Early Access releases on Steam than they're charging elsewhere.

While the rules are designed to protect consumers, the 'guidelines' seem aimed more at keeping overly-optimistic developers from getting themselves into trouble. They recommend that developers don't launch in Early Access if they can't afford to continue developing the game with few or no sales, and that studios "set expectations properly" when talking about their projects. Developers shouldn't launch into Early Access without a playable game—"If you have a tech demo, but not much gameplay yet, then it's probably too early to launch in Early Access"—and on the other end of the scale, games that are effectively finished are also not appropriate for Early Access.

Even with these new rules and guidelines in place, there's still (and always will be) an element of risk to Early Access games. Some will be success stories, others will be smash-and-grab disasters, and a lot of them may just run out of gas and fade into a limbo.

Yesterday, Nvidia released the latest driver for its top-end Maxwell line of graphics cards. The driver, GeForce GameReady release 344.75 WHQL, activates multi-frame sampled anti-aliasing (MFAA) on the GTX 980 and 970, a feature which Nvidia says delivers the equivalent quality of 4x multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA) at only 2x the performance cost.

MFAA was one of the key features Nvidia touted when they announced the new Maxwell cards back in September. A common anti-aliasing technique on today's graphics cards, MSAA reduces the prominence of jagged edges but at a substantial performance cost. MFAA improves on the technique by varying the sample patterns used per pixel both spatially in a single frame and interleaved across multiple frames, delivering four times the quality at only double the performance cost.

MSAA vs. MFAA performance, according to Nvidia:

With the new driver and MFAA finally active, Maxwell users should see a 10-30% performance jump compared to MSAA. Just in time for Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Telltale Games has released the first teaser for  Game of Thrones, confirming that the screens that leaked earlier this week are legit—and that several well-known characters from the television series will appear in the game.

Game of Thrones will play out from the perspectives of five different members of House Forrester, which finds itself in a "precarious position" as the War of the Five Kings unfolds around it. Telltale said players must be "mindful" of how the actions of one member of the House affects the rest as they seek to save it from destruction. "The actions of one character can ripple out to affect the rest of House Forrester," Telltale said. "Multiply the actions of one character by five, and you're truly playing the Game of Thrones... where you win, or you die."

Events in the game will begin near the end of the third season of the HBO series, and conclude immediately prior to the start of season five. Several actors from the show will reprise their characters for the game, including Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Lena Heady as Cersei Lannister, Natalie Dormer as Margaery Tyrell, and Iwan Rheon as Ramsay Snow. Additional characters from the series will appear in later episodes.

One thing Telltale didn't reveal is when Iron From Ice, the first of six chapters in its Game of Thrones series, will be out, saying only what it's already said: soon.

Update: 13 websites also had exclusive character reveals today. Here they are, but on one website, with links to 13 other websites.

• Lady Elissa Forrester
• Lord Gregor Forreste
• Mira Forrester
• Talia Forrester
• Ethan Forrester
• Rodrik Forrester
• Ser Royland Degore
• Asher Forrester
• Ryon Forrester
• Maester Ortengryn
• Gared Tuttle
• Duncan Tuttle
• Malcolm Branfield

Battlefield Hardline takes the long-running shooter series in a different direction, trading war for crime. But EA Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said recently that the next game in the franchise will return to its more familiar military roots.

Battlefield 5 will be a "fun, new Battlefield," Jorgensen said at the 2014 UBS Global Technology Conference, via GameSpot. But it apparently won't be all that new: "That will be a return to a Battlefield military-style game; more to come on that," he said.

Executive Producer Patrick Bach told the New York Times last year that Battlefield 5 will have "More features. More extras. More destruction," but beyond that, EA has revealed virtually nothing about the game beyond its existence. Even the title is presumptive, of course, and would set Hardline outside the "core" Battlefield franchise. Whatever it's called, we won't lay eyes on it until sometime in 2016.

Warner Bros. Interactive is giving away another free Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor DLC pack, this one called the Power of Defiance bundle. It's not a particularly huge collection of stuff—a skin, a rune, and a new challenge mode—but hey, it's free.

The new Epic Rune, Defiant to the End, grants an additional Last Chance to return to combat, while the Test of Defiance Challenge Mode has players square off against Sauron's Warchiefs without the power of the Wraith. Finally, the new skin allows players to become Lithariel, the Commander of the Tribesmen of Nurn and daughter of Lady Marwen, Queen of Nurn, who threw an assist to Talion during the events of Shadow of Mordor.

In case you missed it the first time around, this is actually the second "Power of" DLC freebie Warner has released for Shadow of Mordor. The Power of Shadow, which includes three Epic Runes and a Black Hand skin, came out last month. The Power of Defiance bundle arrives today—it might even be out by the time you ready this—as a free update on Steam.