Evoland developer Shiro Games has revealed its new project, a strategy/exploration game based on Norse mythology called Northgard. Players must establish settlements, assign tasks to Viking warriors, manage resources, expand and discover new lands, survive enemies and the elements, and achieve multiple victory conditions against either the AI or other people.

Northgard is a strategy game deeply ingrained with Norse mythology in which brave explorers have discovered a new world filled with mystery and danger, where players are tasked to help them survive and thrive in a hostile land, the announcement says. They will face mystical creatures like dire wolves and undead warriors roaming the land, giants that they can befriend or defeat, and winters so harsh even the boldest Vikings will shiver!

It's all a bit vague, even with the help of the trailer, but at this point it strikes me as at least superficially similar to the medieval colony management sim Banished, with a touch of The Banner Saga thrown in for flavor which is actually something I'd really like to play. There's no release date yet, although it's expected to come out this year, nor is there a price, but the system requirements are listed on Steam and they're really quite minimal.

• OS: Windows Vista or better
• Processor: Intel 2.0ghz Core 2 Duo or equivalent
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia 260 GTS / Radeon HD 4850 or better
• DirectX: Version 9.0
• Storage: 150 MB available space

One worth keeping an eye on, I think. More information is up at northgard.net.

The fandom surrounding Overwatch can't be contained. First it was the mountains of fan fic and artwork (some more family-friendly than others), and now it's even beginning to seep into other games entirely. Starbound is the latest to be bit by the Overwatch bug, and thanks to the effort of two Steam Workshop modders, SolarPug and Spectral Minister, you can now play as your favorite Overwatch hero as you scour alien planets for resources.

Simply called the Overwatch Mod, this pack contains a pretty wide selection of armor and weapons inspired by 11 members of the Overwatch team that you're free to mix and match as you choose. The weapons aren't just simple skins either, but are pretty faithful to their functionality as seen in Overwatch. Soldier 76's Heavy Pulse Rifle, for example, comes equipped with a secondary grenade launcher that you can spam similar to his right-click ability only without the cooldown. Others, like Mercy's staff, have been changed to compensate for what's possible in Starbound, instead creating an area of effect heal rather than a constant beam. Still, after a few hours spent hopping around I'm fairly impressed both by the quality of the skins and the fact that the weapons feel useful and fun to use blasting away aliens as Reapers is quite a joy.

There's even a few extra nifty add-ons, like sprays that you can plaster on the walls of your ship, a storage box that resembles the loot chest you get Overwatch skins from, and a special healing item modeled after the canister Roadhog drinks when he heals up.

The weapons are meant for players who are at or near Starbound s endgame, but the clothes can be crafted easily with any tier one spinning wheel which shouldn't take all that long to get if you're just starting out. Alternatively, SolarPug and Spectral Minister have provided the item IDs so you can spawn all the gear right away if you don't feel like waiting. Open the chat bar and type "/admin" to enable privileges for your character and then type "/spawnitem" followed by the item ID of the equipment you want to make it appear. Just remember to type in "/admin" a second time to switch off privileges once you're geared out otherwise you'll be invincible unless you're into that sort of thing. Hooray for cheating!

To get a look at the armor and guns in action, I threw together some quick little gifs for you to enjoy.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign back in July of 2015, Diluvion, a deep sea exploration and submarine combat game, is now due to be released this fall. Above, you can watch the announcement trailer, where after about a minute of introduction and story setup, you can see some gameplay: sub-to-sub combat, crew management, and a fight with what appears to be some sort of monstrous Dire Crab with a sunken battleship on its back.

As the story goes, the last remnants of humanity are struggling to survive underwater thanks to a massive flood and an impenetrable layer of ice keeping them from the surface. In addition to exploration and combat, you'll also be able to be able to hunt for salvage, trade goods, and collect bounties. You can establish as a base as well, upgrade it, and use it to store additional crew members.

"As submersible captains, players must explore the uncharted reaches of the open sea, brimming with distinct harbors, factions, mercenaries and secrets," reads the press release from Gambitious Digital Entertainment and developer Arachnid games. "Players can recruit officers of varying skill sets and personalities from ports around the sea to helm the different battle stations of their vessels. Ships can be enhanced with new weapons to change the tide of a firefight, as well as new components to increase their range and survivability. "

You can visit Diluvion's official site and Steam page, and cast your net below for some more screenshots.

Spoilers begin beyond IF YOU WATCH ONE MATCH , below. This was a heartbreaker of an opening day that saw longstanding champions fall and new forces rise to challenge the world s most talented teams. It s clear now that this is going to be the closest-run International in the history of the game. Discover that truth as it emerges below, and find highlights in the sidebar.

IF YOU WATCH ONE MATCH…

...watch Secret vs. LGD.

THE MATCHES

Upper bracket: MVP Phoenix vs. OG 

Although this is MVP Phoenix s second year as underdog darlings, OG were the clear favourites going into this set. They re an enormously consistent and talented team, able to adapt to the meta and build around their opponent s weaknesses. MVP Phoenix ignored considerations of this kind going into game one, drafting themselves heroes that they (and in some cases, only they) like: the crit machine Phantom Assassin, charging space cow Spirit Breaker.

Picking well-loved but off-meta heroes into a top tier team shouldn t work and, initially, it didn t. OG support Cr1t put in a star turn on Earth Spirit, one of his best heroes, while superlative midlaner Miracle established dominance as Timbersaw. But as items and levels came online for MVP it all started to slowly turn. One huge fight got them back into the game, then a phenomenal counter-play in the Roshan pit put them ahead. OG had no answer to the staggering critical hit damage being put out by MVP.QO on Phantom Assassin and OG found themselves one game from the lower bracket.

OG rallied in game two, drafting greedily around a support pair in Naga Siren and Oracle that specialised in shutting off MVP s phenomenal aggression. And it worked: Naga Siren in particular ensured that MVP Forev, who had such a strong game on Dark Seer in the first round, never got a good Chronosphere off as Faceless Void. This wasn t a one-sided game by any means, but it was far more in OG s control and they equalised the series 1-1.

Perhaps MVP s issue had been that they simply didn t have enough RNG-based heroes. Phantom Assassin and Ogre Magi returned for game three, along with an unexpected Invoker and Axe pairing. And it was Forev s Axe that defined this game in an astonishing, game-conquering performance that propelled the underpicked hero into the spotlight. Dunk after dunk came down as Forev contained Miracle s Tinker and claimed the top spot on the net worth chart, proving something that I ve always believed but can t really back up: that Axe is the best hero in the entire game, god damn it.

At thirty minutes and close to thirty kills in the hole, OG s upper bracket run ended. The team that won two Majors and their group going into the International had fallen to the Korean dream. It was a spectacular start to the day.

Upper bracket: Wings vs. Digital Chaos

Digital Chaos pulled out the second Axe of the day against Wings, part of a smart aggressive draft designed to counter Wings Drow Ranger, a favourite of the current meta. At the start, it worked: Drow struggled in the laning phase and DC had free reign of the map for the first ten minutes. But a solid counterplay by Wings evened things out shortly after, and after that both teams became more cautious about engaging one another.

DC got split up and outplayed in a major teamfight at the thirty minute mark, the beginning of a decisive momentum swing in Wings direction. This time, Axe didn t work and some fantastic play by Wings.bLink locked out the game in the young Chinese team s favour.After a cautious but relatively conventional first game, Wings set course for clown town. They picked up Pudge in the draft, a lesser-seen support (yes, he s a support, people) who they ve nonetheless run effectively before. Then they picked Techies. There was no good reason to pick Techies at this point, except that they have some synergy with Pudge and I guess if you can win with your hands tied behind your back then you re sending a message that you can win it all.

Wings did not win it all. Techies had almost no impact, given what the hero is supposed to do, and while Pudge pulled off a few good hooks he had nowhere near the impact that a good standard defensive support could have had. DC took the game, but it felt very much like Wings had given them the game.

Having presumably gotten it out of their systems, Wings departed Silly Dota for the third game. Despite having iceice s Chen counterpicked by Riki (also a support, by the way), absolutely phenomenal play in the laning stage put the Chinese team ahead. Centaur Warrunner made his tournament debut as a solid counter to Riki, and Wings picked up a big lead that let them deathball into a straightforward victory. They advance, DC drop to the lower bracket.

Lower bracket: TNC Pro Team vs. Vici Gaming Reborn 

The first of the brutal lower bracket best of ones pitched underestimated SEA team TNC against Vici Gaming Reborn, a powerful Chinese team struggling with a last-minute roster switch. VGR drafted the day s third Axe, along with Weaver, Mirana, and Storm Spirit: all heroes vulnerable to silence. TNC drafted Silencer.

Good early rotations from VGR put the game in their hands until TNC had the levels and farm they needed to bring their fight online. The game entered a passive phase with both teams trading relatively evenly, but the combination of Batrider initiations and Silencer s global silence created pressure on VGR s vulnerable core heroes. This game came down to pickoffs rather than teamfights, with a snipe on Weaver at 35 minutes opening up VGR s base to TNCs surging forces. It was the opportunity they needed. With Batrider controlling the back line, TNC.Raven s Terrorblade became a battering ram that smashed VGR s International hopes. TNC advance to face OG today.

Lower bracket: Team Secret vs. LGD

This was a clash of titans: two of the greatest drafters and captains in the history of the game, Secret s Puppey and LGD s xiao8, going head to head in one game with everything on the line. Both teams had underperformed in the group stage Secret more so but there was no clear favourite here. It was simply too close to call.

And then, after only a few quiet minutes, LGD picked up a surge of momentum unlike anything scene in the tournament so far. A spectacularly well-judged first blood on Secret.Arteezy s mid Alchemist by LGD.Maybe s Juggernaut broke the game open for him in particular, as he abandoned the farming carry role in pursuit of a map-wide reign of terror. For fifteen minutes straight, LGD dominated Secret. This game that was supposed to be so close gods colliding on a mountaintop had become a beating in a carpark.

But Secret held the line. They got a few much-needed kills, split the map, and picked up the farm they needed on Alchemist and EternalEnvy s Terorrblade. Radiance and illusion spam, reinforced by Shadow Demon, helped them withstand push after push. What looked to be a 20-minute stomp became a 45-minute slugfest, and it just kept going.

A godly turn by Secret.pieliedie on defensive support Shadow Demon was illustrative of the phenomenal good judgement that kept Secret in this game. They proved that Dota doesn t have a surrender option for a reason: that any game can be won, approached in the right way. Yet that judgement lapsed from time to time: pressure to make a play and get back on an even keel lead to mistakes, and mistakes lead to sieges that trapped Secret in their base. Despite the farm being picked up by Secret s carries, LGD s Ember Spirit and Juggernaut were getting fatter too. LGD also had their own phenomenal defensive support payer in MMY! on Winter Wyvern, whose Cold Embrace ensured that Secret couldn t turn a defense into a disaster for their opponents.

65 minutes in, LGD.Agressif made the call and picked up a Divine Rapier on Ember Spirit. This was the damage spike LGD needed, making Secret s cautious defensive positioning far less secure. A few careless deaths and buyback expenditures raised the stakes higher than the western supergroup could deal with, and finally with Envy and Arteezy dead and their final lane of barracks under threat Secret called it. They took a 20-minute dumpstering and turned it into a phenomenally tense game of Dota, but it wasn t enough. Given the team s instability over the past year, Secret s future was uncertain as they left the stage.

Lower bracket: Fnatic vs. Escape

Wildcard second-place Escape pulled out another Axe what a time to be alive in this game, and it almost bought them the momentum they needed to overcome their better-established opponents. But Fnatic had better lategame prospects in Phantom Lancer and Templar Assassin, better pushing power in Shadow Shaman, and the ability to turn any fight into a gold lead with Bounty Hunter. All of these factors conspired to put Escape, with their midgame focused draft of melee strength heroes, at a disadvantage.

As the game tipped ever more in Fnatic s favour it seemed as if nerves had gotten the better of Escape. Their drafted suggested all-in aggression what do Night Stalker, Axe and Slardar do if not dunk people but they never really committed to it, seemingly too afraid to lose the lead they built up in the early game. They lost it anyway. A cautious Axe is a sad Axe, after all, and an Axe getting two-shotted by a farmed up Templar Assassin is even sadder. Fnatic were pushing high ground at 22 minutes and Escape crumbled. Fnatic didn t have the best group stage, but this was a definite sign of life for the South East Asian team.

Lower bracket: Team Liquid vs. Na’Vi

The heartbreaker. Liquid and Na Vi are fan favourite teams for many good reasons: their playstyles, their players, their legacy. Liquid captain KuroKy and legendary Na Vi midlaner Dendi were both crucial parts of classic Na Vi, a team whose fame and popularity is unlikely to ever be surpassed. A couple of months ago Liquid would have been the clear favourite going into this matchup, but meeting like this after a rough group stage for both teams was unexpected and uncertain.

It started off very well for Na Vi. Their signature aggression came online around the map. They took trades, but they got the better deal in most cases. KuroKy s Bounter Hunter wasn t allowed to control the pace of the game as Dendi s Queen of Pain and GeneraL s Faceless Void created opportunities and capitalised on them. The first real fight was a wash, however, revealing that Liquid weren t out of it yet. Liquid struck back with a pickoff on Ditya Ra s Nature s Prophet, but Na Vi snuck Roshan. Then, KuroKy countered a Na Vi smoke play and killed their courier, opening up the map for Liquid.

Yet the fights were still very close. Once again, defensive supports became the key: Liquid.JerAx s Shadow Demon and Na Vi.SoNNeik0 s Oracle acting as rocks for each of their teams. And once again also Axe, in the hands of Liquid.MinD_ContRoL, became the hero that his team needed. Suddenly the only heroes that Na Vi could pray on became Liquid s supports, while Liquid s cores took the better half of the trade every time they fought. Culling Blade after Culling Blade shifted the advantage over to Liquid, but it was a clutch defensive Disruption at the foot of Na Vi s base by JerAx that won it. After 35 minutes, Na Vi s resolve crumbled. Dendi followed his old captain, Puppey, out of the International. Of that legendary lineup, only KuroKy remains.

While most of us are resigned to the fact that our personal information is treasured by various corporate and government entities, the question of how that information is used continues to be a concern. That's what Orwell is about, a forthcoming narrative adventure developed by German studio Osmotic Studios.

As part of a secret security organisation called The Nation, the player is tasked with using a fancy data-mining application called Orwell to get to the bottom of a terrorist attack. Orwell grants access to the personal communications and files of any likely suspects, and it's up to the player to decide what information is relevant to the investigation and what isn't. But that's an ambiguous distinction sometimes, and that ambiguity appears to be the crux of Orwell's theme.

"Acting as an impartial outside, the player must choose what information to provide to security services, and what to hold back," the announcement pitch reads. "These choices will have consequences for those involved and affect the outcome of the story as it unfolds towards its dramatic conclusion."

Orwell releases in late 2016 via Steam. Check out the announcement trailer below:

Off the back of its recent Plantoids DLC release, Paradox has launched a series of developer diaries which outline where Stellaris is headed next. Via its Heinlein 1.3 patch set to arrive in October the Swedish 4x-meets-grand strategy specialists will focus on addressing community feedback as it installs a large number of interface and quality of life improvements moving forward.

For example, exploration, while remaining important in the early stages of campaigns, can be automated in mid-late games by way of researching new technologies. We've said previously that we don't want the automation fully automated away, explains Paradox. Though we know that there are are people who want automation options from the very start, we believe that there is always a cost involved in automating core parts of the game experience.

Rally Points will provide a more efficient way to manage newly built ships. Ultimately, this means you ll be able to mark any star and war fleet you own as a rally point meaning that when warships are first constructed, they ll seek out the nearest rally point instead of hanging around their planet of birth, and will in turn automatically merge with the nearest fleet.

In addition to changing how newly built ships behave, rally points also alter the 'return' order given to ships instead of returning to the nearest spaceport, they will return to the nearest spaceport marked as a rally point, says Paradox. If no spaceport is marked as a rally point, they go to whichever one is closest, as before.

The Heinlein patch will also rework Strategic Resources, and will also introduce an expansion planner interface that let makes colonisable planets easier to spot as well as locations for building resource and/or observation stations on. [This] is currently planned to be a tab in your empire screen, explains Paradox. Where you can filter by what you are looking for and easily see the best candidate planet for whatever it is you are looking to do.

Stellaris Heinlein patch 1.3 is due at some point in October, with more of this developer diary series expected in the coming weeks.

In other Stellaris news, a hotfix was issued earlier today aimed at Xeno Integration and special project research. Full details on that can be found this way.

Last month, Riot officially unveiled Kled League of Legends latest yordle champion otherwise known as The Cantankerous Cavalier during its EU LCS stream. Partnered up with his mount Skaarl, Cassandra then detailed the duo s skill set and noted the newest addition represented a new frontier for League s champion design. Kled s now been given his champion spotlight trailer, which shows off his skills in action.

Let's look at that first:

As you can see, the ranged top laner boasts some pretty effective combos, has pretty good mobility and can seemingly engage with the best of them. Although not all too obvious up there, Cassandra notes that Kled s health scales separately from Skaarl s in her handy champion overview which can be read in its entirety here.

According to the official League of Legends service maintenance page, the game s latest patch number 6.16 is set to be deployed on August 10 at 3am PT, and at 5am BST. That's also when you'll get the chance to welcome Kled into the fold.

The League of Legends Oceanic Pro League finals will take place in Brisbane this Saturday, with The Chiefs and Legacy to go head-to-head at the Courier-Mail Piazza at 5:30pm. Thankfully, you needn't actually be in Brisbane to see the final: there will be a bunch of viewing parties at Hoyts cinemas on the day, with the full list of participating cinemas listed over here.

If you do have tickets to the sold out event in Brisbane, there will be the usual signings, cosplay and photo opportunities, and some pro-players will even cop a lungful of water in the dunk tank. These proceedings kick off from 2pm.

You'll be able to watch the final on Twitch as well the relevant channel is embedded below.

Although Chiefs won the OPL final in 2015, the team has lost one of its key performers with the departure of Derek 'Raydere' Trang (who I interviewed last year). The Chiefs lost to Legacy in the sixth week of this split, but the two finalists have remained at roughly equal footing throughout the season.

In my time with fiddly, complicated strategy games, I ve pulled off some pretty unlikely feats. I ve built empires to rival the height of Rome from the most down-and-out, hardscrabble noble houses of medieval Europe. I ve won the space race as the Iroquois. I ve ended World War II in the fall of 1940 by marching Belgian commandos into Berlin. But when I heard Supreme Ruler Ultimate s Trump Rising DLC allowed me to take control of the United States in 2017, after the hypothetical victory of The Donald in this year s election, I felt I might be facing my greatest challenge yet.Not only is Supreme Ruler one of the most complex and impenetrable strategy games I ve ever laid eyes on, the task before me would be a daunting one in the best of circumstances. Leading the United States effectively in the modern day is a feat that makes one long for the comparatively simple court intrigue, assassinations, dynastic blood feuds, and horrible plague outbreaks of the Middle Ages. Even our real-life politicians don t seem to know how to make it work. Doing it all as a reality TV star with no foreign policy experience is another order of difficulty above and beyond the norm.

Running through the tutorial took me less than a half hour and taught me the bare basics of what I might need to know, which felt appropriate. I was taking the reins with about as much practical knowledge as Trump himself would have with this whole Leader of the Free World thing. Since Supreme Ruler is a very open-ended game, I set some broad goals for my Trumpministration:

• Build a wall across the Mexican border. (Also probably the Canadian one, too: They come here, bringing their Tim Horton’s, their maple syrup. They make us look bad at hockey…)
• Destroy the greatest Enemies of Freedom™: North Korea, ISIS, and Switzerland. We’re not buying the whole neutrality thing, you watch-making scoundrels. No one needs that many army knives if they’re not planning to use their army for the downfall of democracy!
• Maybe if we have time, shrink the national debt and fix the economy.

Cumbersome as it is, Supreme Ruler gives me the option of doing what an actual President Trump would be wise to do: Put cabinet ministers who are more competent than myself in charge of almost every aspect of running the country. I tell State Department head Dan Johnson to focus on trade relations, because The Donald loves to make a deal. George Thompson, head of my Treasury, is given a standing order to increase taxes and aim for a balanced budget. Mostly because I know this wall is going to get expensive. Harold Burton great guy, just the best Secretary of the Interior, really is told to focus on profitable commodities. I set my science focus to Military, so we can hopefully invent some kind of terrorist-hunting terminators or something, and my Joint Chiefs of Staff are told to increase military readiness.

Part 1: Crusades and barricades

On my second day in office, work begins on the Wall That Was Promised, stretching from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas. Can the economy really support such a huge engineering project? I haven t the slightest clue. That s for my good friend George Thompson to worry about. The under-construction bulwark is represented on the map by a long chain of dollar signs arrayed neatly along the border. I believe this is the icon for all unfinished buildings in Supreme Ruler, but it s also how I imagine Trump would want his wall to look from space if he had his druthers.

With wall-building underway, it s time to go after ISIS with the full force of the US military. I ring my good pal Bashar al-Assad of Syria to negotiate for military access. He literally tells me to drop dead. Sad!

I could try to invade through friendlier Turkey and Kurdistan, but The Donald always deals from a position of strength. We won t brook that kind of attitude from the likes of Assad. On my third day in office, the United States declares unilateral war on Syria.

I m not quite sure how military invasions work yet, so I just mobilize all 1,600 of the United States inactive divisions, draw a box around them, and right-click on the Syrian capital. That should do the trick, right? Just to be safe, I launch a bunch of nuclear ICBMs. We ve had those things sitting around for so long. It s about time we used them for something.

On February 26, the first US ground forces arrive on the beaches. The Navy has been bombarding Tartus for a couple weeks, so they have a fairly clear path inland. It seems like the Syrian air force, for what it was, has already been removed from existence by our carrier-based fighters. Two days later, Damascus has fallen and by March 15, Assad has surrendered. We re given a choice to Liberate, Colonize, or Annex the country. You know, it s been a long time since a major, imperialist power set up a colony. I think it s about time we bring that concept back.

American Syria is already looking to be the best Syria there ever was. By some fluke, toppling Assad also destroyed ISIS (possibly because they are modeled as a rebellion against Syria rather than a proper state), and we own what used to be their base of power. Two birds with one stone! USA! USA! But we re not done yet. It s about time to have a chat with our friend Kim Jong Un.

Once again, my very nuanced strategy involves selecting every unit I have and right-clicking on Pyongyang. It worked against Assad, didn t it? Issuing the order causes the game to hang for a good, solid minute while my units sort out the finer details. It s as if my general staff are collectively confirming: Wait, are you freaking serious? Do I look like a joker to you? Okay, don t answer that.

As I wait for my troops to arrive for Korean War 2: Korea Harder, I open the geopolitical notification window to find that my imperialism has inspired some copycats. Putin has outright conquered Estonia, and China is simultaneously at war with Japan and Mongolia. Isn t Estonia in NATO? I think we were maybe supposed to protect them. Did we get a memo about that or anything? I don t know. Too late to cry over spilled leivasupp at this point.

Part 2: Ring-a-ding, Kim Jong

On March 26, we gain a powerful friend for life. German Chancellor Angela Merkel declares war on Switzerland, clearly privy to their depravity just as we are. I announce my public support for the war and hope this means I can hand off another of my campaign promises to someone who has a better idea of what they re doing than I do. By April 10, Geneva falls to the Bundeswehr and Switzerland becomes a province of Germany. Merkel has accomplished what not even the Third Reich dared, and another Enemy of Freedom is wiped from the map. Two down, one to go. But there s a slight problem. North Korea, while being bombed by the USAF, has declared an offensive war on China because reasons. This has now become a race to crush them before China does. We won t give them the credit!

It s the first of May and the marines have come ashore outside Pyongyang, mere days after a round of nuclear bombardment. I realize I m not actually sure at this point if I know how nukes work. I have yet to see their effects on the map. But I keep hitting the big, red button anyway. Even if it doesn t do anything, it makes me feel better. I imagine it s possible the joint chiefs are just telling me they launched our full nuclear arsenal to keep me happy. In any case, it takes less than a week to capture the capital, and the Chinese are nowhere in sight. They ve recently declared war on India, which I m sure has nothing to do with the destabilizing effects of the world s major superpower going on an imperialist rampage, so I imagine they re somewhat occupied with that.

The war in North Korea drags on until June 26 as we wipe out the last pockets of resistance, but we beat China to the punch and force Kim to surrender. The logical thing to do might be to reunify Korea, handing over the liberated North to our long-time allies in the South. But I think we can build a better Korea. The best Korea. An American Korea.

Epilogue: A greater America? 

American North Korea has been established, and the world is now safe for democracy. Kinda. Russia and China are in a mad dash to eat up all of the territory of the former Soviet Union like military-industrial Hungry, Hungry Hippos, because I guess all bets are off at this point. Meanwhile, alliances are forming in Europe to oppose U.S. imperialism. But guess what? That beautiful wall? Finished as promised. It only cost something like 80% of our cash reserves. ISIS? A thing of the past. The people of Seoul sleep soundly at night absent the threat of a madman with his finger on the nuclear button. Okay, maybe they get a little restless thinking about the new guy in charge. That s their right.

As for the economy? Uh well, the national debt has ballooned a bit. But that s just the price of freedom. And we have a whopping 24% approval rating, which is pretty respectable considering we ve raised taxes to over 50%, backpedaled on anti-colonialist foreign policy ideals in place since the 40s, and launched two of the most costly wars of the 21st Century. What can this tell us about a potential, real world Trump presidency? Probably nothing. Except, perhaps, that it could make a hell of a historical strategy game some day if society survived it.

Quadrilateral Cowboy is a retro-hacking heist game in which you dial into security systems with your trusty 56K modem to open doors, disable security, and perform other feats of digital derring-do in the service of the highest bidder. It's quite good, a smart puzzle game, overflowing with personality, and now developer Blendo Games is giving players the opportunity to hack it up for real by releasing the source code.

Quadrilateral Cowboy uses the idTech 4 (Doom 3) engine. The source code is written in C++ and includes the solution files for Microsoft Visual C++ 2010, the studio said in a note on the FAQ, which includes the download link. The source code is released under the GPL license.

Putting out the source code like this is unusual but not actually unexpected at least for those of you who were paying attention three-and-a-half years ago, when developer Brendon Chung committed to doing so. He also offered a pretty good idea for what someone with the appropriate expertise might want to do with it:

@floatvoid Yup. Quadrilateral Cowboy source code will be released with the game. Sooooo if you want to add Oculus Rift support that'd be radFebruary 26, 2013

Chung also recently committed to providing deleted scenes from the game as extra levels, which will be available for free via the Steam Workshop.