Buckle up, everyone, we're going to France! By "we," I mean digital big-riggers who own Euro Truck Simulator 2, and by "France" I mean the upcoming expansion Vive la France! that will add 20,000 kilometers of new rues and highways in the land of liberté, egalité, fraternité. 

"Discover famous landmarks, deliver to expansive industrial areas, navigate complex intersections and interchanges, enjoy visually unique roundabouts inspired by real locations," developer SCS Software said. "Transport a variety of new cargo to service new local French companies as well as connecting the region to the rest of Europe." 

More specifically, here's what's in store:

• Extensive map of France to explore
• 20,000 km of new roads and highways
• Famous landmarks, recognizable places
• 15 new cities
• Rural French villages and scenery
• Enhanced vegetation, new forest ecosystems
• New local companies to work for
• French tollgate system
• New industries including nuclear plants
• New cargoes to haul

"Get a job hauling nuclear waste through France's baffling autoroutes" is one of the most PC gaming-est box blurbs I've ever stumbled across, but I don't judge: If anything, I think it's great that no matter what your particular itch might be, somewhere out there is a game that can scratch it. Euro Truck Simulator 2: Vive la France! will be out on December 5, and will sell on Steam for $19/€19/£14.

Like a putrid fist punching through well-tended cemetery sod in the wee hours of a clammy, fog-enshrouded October morning—but in a good way—Hello Games recently sprung back to life to announce, and then quickly deliver, a No Man's Sky update of considerable substance. I'm still not convinced that building bases is entirely compatible with my fantasies of sailing amongst the stars, but coupled with the new Survival mode, teleport-equipped freighters, and improvements to the inventory management, the Foundation update sounds like a big step in the right direction.

Hello Games said when the Foundation update was announced that it represents "a foundation for things to come," and it seems that it may have meant the point literally. Poking through the No Man's Sky files after the update, a Redditor by the name of eegandj discovered the presence of a folder named "Buggy," which further investigation revealed was not a sly comment on the state of the game but rather a land-based vehicle, confirmed by the presence of references to "tire textures." He also found what appears to be an unused "specialist terminal" for ground vehicles, and models of buggy wheels that he was able to import into the game.   

Obviously this doesn't mean that we're on the cusp of a No Man's Mako, but the fact that this much of it exists within the confines of the game would certainly suggest that the wheels are turning. (That's right, I went there.) I've emailed Hello Games to ask if we can look forward to doing some interstellar burnouts in the future; for now, you can kick the tires yourself with the "Land Vehicle Test" mod (which, to be clear, just places the tires into the game so you can look at them) available from nomansskymods.com. Our own Chris Livingston is exploring the Foundation update as we speak, and will report on what he's found soon.

It's Cyber Monday, and that means sales—including No Man's Sky, which is currently down to $36/£24 on Steam. We've got tons of top deals for you in our roundup of Cyber Monday PC Game Deals.

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Project Reality is an ambitious user-made mod that's served to keep Battlefield 2's multiplayer component active since the closure of GameSpy in 2014. It's now launched its version 1.4 which adds the Falklands Conflict—a ten-week war between the UK and Argentina that took place in 1982.

Featuring both the British and Argentinian armies, Project Reality's v1.4 adds authentic kit and weapons consistent with the conflict, including infantry weapons such as L4A4 Bren LMG, the Sterling submachine gun, and the Shorts Blowpipe, among others. Beyond firepower, both factions also have a "varied arsenal" of new aircraft and vehicles. 

"Alongside all the new content; We are also introducing new gameplay systems such as the CLOS SAMs, retarded bombs and more," reads an update post. "Both factions will be playable on 2 maps; Goose Green, a 2x2km map focused on infantry combat and The Falklands, our first 8x8km map featuring the entire Falklands Islands and an overview of the entire war, with lots of airspace for the aircraft to fly around in."

The mods creators note that while naval features were teased before now, v1.4 will not feature them as a result of "real life circumstances of key-developers"—however suggest these features will be added to a future update. Here's some of the above in motion: 

Project Reality's version 1.4 is out now—a full list of features and download instructions can be found this way. 

If you've ever wanted to see the inhabitants of Skyrim or Fallout 4 wage war in a way that's reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings' penultimate battle, then Neil "Cosmic Contrarian" Hendry has what you need. The committed YouTuber spends much of his time creating ludicrous battles between thousands of NPCs from Skyrim and Fallout 4. 

Perhaps his largest war was when 30,000 Deathclaws went up against 300 Brotherhood of Steel soldiers (above). These battles have accrued millions of views on YouTube, something that Cosmic Contrarian is happy to see for something he's always loved doing.

"I remember a long time ago, when I was maybe eight or nine years old, I played Age of Empires 2, and I'd use the map editor to place a lot of units down and have them fight it out in a real battle," he told me. "The map editor for that game was really innovative at the time; after creating the terrain you could fill the map with war elephants vs cataphracts as an example of the crazy stuff you could make.

"The reason I make battles as large as possible is that the more things that are going on at once, the more likely something novel or unexpected will occur," he continued.

Cosmic explained his process of turning wars into cinematic showpieces to me, which he says is "fairly simple." Using his 100 Dragons vs 1000 Imperial Archers video as an example, he says he first has to test NPC types in small numbers to observe what they do in combat and make sure the two sides will actually interact with each other. Next up for Cosmic is picking a location.

"Open fields are the hardest because there is a lack of structure, so you have no idea where to put the camera," he explained. "A fort, like in the video, is much easier to film around; there is already architecture and a clear attacker versus defender perspective that is obvious to the audience—Imperial archers in the castle, with dragons attacking all around and above it." 

Once he's got his location picked, he moves all of the characters into the space and makes a save file to ensure he's safe in the event of a crash. Then he's off to the races: the NPCs start attacking each other, and he rolls the camera, using dev console commands 'tai' and 'tcai' to pause the action and switch angles.

"Then when I have a good, new angle, I can resume the battle, much like how a movie is shot," he explained. "Yes, it takes forever, but I love making these videos, so I don't mind."

Since Cosmic doesn't have the control that a Hollywood director has over their movie, his angles and shots are purely instinctual. He places the camera in a nice spot, hoping for something exciting to happen. He noted that because characters in both Skyrim and Fallout 4 react in emergent ways, it makes for some "really awesome moments." One example of placing the camera in the right place at the right time comes from his 20,000 Robots versus the Commonwealth video (below), in which a Minuteman jumps over a barricade "like a badass" to join the fray.

"I just do what feels right, and that seems to work well for the experience," he said.

As for how long a video usually takes him, Cosmic told me that shooting takes around nine to ten hours, while editing can take up to 10 times the recording time. The aforementioned video that stars the badass Minuteman took him 120 hours across three weeks to complete. That may seem like too much time to devote to a single video for some, but Cosmic says he's encouraged to put in the effort to make wars that people enjoy.

"The only goal I really have is to make content that people enjoy," he said. "A lot of YouTubers are obsessed with releasing a video a day or two videos a day because Pewdiepie does it. They have artificial video quotas to meet, which is fine for them, but in my experience the less videos you release the more views you get, assuming you invest your energy in one video instead of ten.

"Personally, I'd rather have one video that people enjoy instead of hundreds that no one enjoys."

In addition to his huge battles, Cosmic Contrarian spends time making "high-skill" videos that mostly revolve around him executing impressive kills in the Dishonored games. We recently reported on his latest video, in which he kills Dishonored 2's clockwork inventor Kirin Jindosh in 80 different ways.

Dishonored 2 is the kind of game that puts great stock in player freedom, encouraging you to express yourself by means of creative killing. If you want to take care of a bad guy in a specific way, then it's probably possible if you have the dedication and perseverance for your nefarious plan. 

For me, I couldn't decide how to take care of the smug Kirin Jindosh, who lives in a mechanical, living mansion that's just oozing with possibilities. And it seems YouTuber Cosmic Contrarian couldn't either. He dealt with the inventor in 80 different ways and archived his exploits in a pretty cathartic video (above). If you disliked Jindosh as much as I did, it's definitely worth a watch. Extra credit goes to the choice of music, which will delight fellow 2001 fans.

I think the most exciting thing about Dishonored 2 is the fact that it's so easy to be surprised by the approach other players take. Perhaps my favourite kill in Cosmic Contrarian's showreel—which I didn't even know could be done—is around the 2:30 mark, when the YouTuber is in a duel with the mustachioed jerk. Instead of doing the honourable thing and keeping the contest strictly between steel, he swiftly kicks Jindosh in an area that needs no elaboration. The inventor then drops his weapons, falls to his knees, and grabs the affected area, before a sword is pushed through the side of his neck. Sucks to be him!

For more funny kills from Dishonored 2, you can check out our roundup of some of our favourites from last weekend.

You won't be surprised to learn that free-to-play action RPG Path of Exile is getting another enormous update, this one adding inter-dimensional portals that transport you to a Hellish world known as the Breach. If I'm reading this correctly, they're basically the Oblivion portals from Oblivion, only with hopefully fewer scamps. (Man, scamps were annoying.) Anyhoo, developer Grinding Gear Games has detailed the Breach update here, ahead of its imminent release on December 2.

Breach lobs in a bunch of Breach Challenge Leagues, new 'orrible bosses named Breachlords, magical whatsits called Breachstones, and a big pile of shiny loot for you to find inside monster intestines. Revamped cloth and fog physics are also to be expected, the former being shown off with the new cloak accessory items.

"Tears in the fabric of reality have formed throughout Wraeclast" Grinding Gear explains. "Engage them to expose an alternate realm and reveal those who dwell there. Slay monsters inside the Breach to keep it open long enough to reap your bounty."

Well, I wasn't expecting that promised No Man's Sky update to arrive quite so quickly. Foundation is here, and it lets you build bases on abandoned outposts. It also allows you to recruit alien settlers to those outputs, and adds two new game modes including a Survival option. More importantly, update 1.1 introduces item-stacking to the spacey survival/exploration game. Item-stacking. Item-stacking. You can now stack items in No Man's Sky, or you can when you've downloaded the update, anyway.

You can also now play No Man's Sky in one of three modes: the Normal one we're all familiar with, a Creative mode that lets you "build a huge base" and explore the universe "without limits", and a Survival mode that obviously makes more of the game's survival elements. To make not dying more achievable, you can now stack items up to five times, and make use of a new Quick Access item menu.

You can purchase enormous freighter ships, and summon them to your position from "anywhere in the galaxy". You can also teleport resources directly to your freighter, while you tramp around on planets looking for heridium.

Base-building, meanwhile, will let you farm crops and research technology, among other things. You'll be able to teleport back to your base from space stations, and vice-versa, and dismantle bases easily when you come across a more attractive planet you'd prefer to settle on.

Have a read of the full patch notes for more.

We're still deep in the Black Friday deal mines, despite it literally being Saturday, and the Ubisoft Store is offering a good one that you may have missed. Buying a big new PC game like Dishonored 2, or preordering Watch Dogs 2, will score you a free game of your choice of four big Ubisoft releases from the past two years.

The four games that are available to choose include the standard editions of The Division, Rainbow Six Siege, Far Cry Primal, and Assassin's Creed Syndicate. The eligible games which you can buy or preorder to complete the deal are listed below:

• Battlefield 1
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Dishonored 2
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
• FIFA 17
• For Honor
• Ghost Recon Wildlands
• South Park: The Fractured But Whole
• Steep
• Titanfall 2
• Watch Dogs 2

All you have to do to take advantage of the deal is add both the new game you're purchasing and the game you want free to your cart. The deal lasts until Sunday, November 27, and you can check it out for yourself here.

The Division received a score of 68 in PC Gamer's review, in which James Davenport called it "a challenging co-op cover shooter and a gorgeous open world diminished by bloated and unnecessary RPG tropes." James also reviewed Rainbow Six Siege and awarded it a 90. He called it "an accessible and deeply satisfying shooter that rewards planning and teamwork over a quick trigger finger."

Far Cry Primal, on the other hand, was scored a 79 in its review. Andy Kelly concluded that Far Cry Primal is a "very decent Far Cry game, but its handful of genuinely fun, original ideas are overshadowed by an overriding feeling of familiarity."

And finally, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate earned a 66 in our review. Chris Livingston said, "New toys and strong characters freshen up the Creed formula, but only for a while."

After literally months of silence, No Man's Sky developer Hello Games has announced that something called the "Foundation update" is just about ready for release. The update is so named because it will add "the foundations of base building," the studio said, "and also because this is putting in place a foundation for things to come." 

"Coming from five years of intense development, immediately after No Man’s Sky released the team spent six weeks updating the game with 7 patches across both platforms (the last of these was 1.09 on Sept 24th which you can read about them all here http://www.no-mans-sky.com/log/). These fixed many of the most common or critical bugs and issues post-release," Hello Games wrote. "In the nine weeks since then our small team has been hard at work on development, testing and certification for the Foundation Update. It won’t be our biggest update, but it is the start of something." 

The studio also copped to being "quiet" since the game came out, but said that it is paying attention to the "intense and dramatic" discussions about No Man's Sky, and is continuing to work to improve the game. "Positive or negative feedback, you have been heard and that will truly help to make this a better game for everyone," it wrote. "This update will be the first small step in a longer journey. We hope you can join us." 

It's great that the wheels are still turning, but is base building really what NMS players are hankering for? It seems a bit mundane to me. I want to explore a vast and strange galaxy, unlock its secrets, and ascend to godhood—or, you know, at least see some cool stuff along the way. Why would I want to build a base when I could be out cruising the stars? 

Hello Games said detailed patch notes, and the update itself, will both be released soon.

In case you'd forgotten, today is Black Friday, and we have ongoing roundups of all the best deals: PC game sales here, and gaming hardware bargains here.

Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.

Photo credit: Abraham Engelmark for Dreamhack. Click here for the full version.

Although Dota 2's Boston Major and the World Cyber Arena are just around the corner, there’s still plenty to watch, from top-tier CS:GO to the semi-finals of Overwatch’s Challenger Season. We even have further action from this year’s Dota 2 Dream League. All the details on this weekend’s action can be found below. Have a great weekend!

Heroes of the Storm: Gold Club World Championship – European qualifiers

The 2016 Heroes of the Storm Gold Club World Championship, is a premier international invitational tournament jointly hosted by NetEase and Blizzard Entertainment. Between now and December 3rd, battles will be waged by the top Heroes of the Storm teams from around the world as they battle it out for the GCWC title and a share of the $300,000 prize pool.

The Heroes of the Storm GCWC European qualifiers kick off this Saturday at 05:00 PST / 14:00 CET and will continue at the same time on Sunday. The qualifiers serve to determine the second two teams that will qualify for the HGC League starting in January of 2017. Be sure to watch the live broadcast over on Twitch.

Overwatch: DreamHack Winter 2016

Eight teams will compete for the DreamHack Winter trophy in Sweden. Two qualified European teams, two qualified American teams and four teams from the BYOC qualifiers will battle it out to claim glory. There will be a bunch of familiar faces as panel host Soe will be joined by Jason Kaplan, Ubershouts, ZP, MrX and Hexagrams as casters. It’s sure to be an exciting experience that Overwatch fans won’t want to miss. All times and streams can be found over on DreamHack’s official site.

Overwatch: APEX Challengers Season 1

Currently living and competing in South Korea for OGN’s APEX Season 1, EnVyUs are headed to the semi-finals after they created an upset by defeating Rogue on November 21st. The American team is now the only non-Korean group still standing in the tournament and will face KD Uncia today at 02:00 PST / 11:00 CET. You can check out all the action over on Twitch.

Dota 2: Dream League Season 2

Dota 2 fans will be pleased to know that the Dream League Season 2 Winners’ Final is kicking off this Friday. A double-elimination affair will determine who is worthy enough to walk away with the trophy for Season 6. Each match will be best of three, with a best of five grand final. Matches start today at 02:00 / 11:00 CET, while the grand final will be broadcast this Sunday at 07:00 PST / 16:00 CET. All the latest information and links to the streams can be found here.

CSGO: DreamHack ZOWIE Open Winter 2016

Eight CS:GO teams from across the globe will compete at DreamHack Winter in Jönköping, Sweden for their share of a $100,000 prize pool. Both Cloud9 and OpTic Gaming could again mark another big tournament win for North America, but the Swedish team GODSENT are looking to prove they can perform well despite no longer holding a spot in the ELeague Major. More information about the event and its schedule can be found here.