Lucky number 13, eh? Sure, the last 12 blew up on the launchpad, but I’ve got a good feeling about this one. Tonight, the absolutely spiffy accessible-but-deep comedy spaceflight simulator/management hybrid Kerbal Space Program updated for both Windows and Mac. While light on new content, this update promises massive improvements in performance, with load-times up to 5x faster, and up to 20x smoother gameplay for some. It’s also going to be the last free update – everything from 0.14 upwards is going to be for paying/donating customers only with full access currently costing $7 in the newly opened KSP store.

Killing Floor has come a long way since its days as a relatively awkward Unreal Tourament 2k4 mod. Rather than flare out and fade into obscurity like so many indie multiplayer shooters, it has risen again and again, becoming one of Valve’s own favorite holiday fixtures. It was even the focus of a great amount of attention during the Portal 2 ‘Potato Pack’ event. Tripwire Interactive are nothing if not giving, either. December is here, and with it a free weekend for the game, starting tomorrow. On top of that, a horde of Christmas-themed monsters to slay (sleigh?), a boatload of new weapons to play with and even a new level and all for the price of free.

While not as huge as Minecraft yet, Terraria is catching up fast. Over 1 million sales in a few short months, compared to Minecraft’s 4 million over several years – it’s a definite contender for indie megahit of the year. It’s hard to believe that it was rushed out early to help fund repairs on the developers car, and that the previous release by the developer was Super Mario Bros X, a Mario fan-game. Rags to riches indeed. ReLogic haven’t been squandering their newfound fortune, either. Released today is an update for Terraria so huge that it effectively doubles the size of the game. Trailer and (update) release change-log after the break.

Minecraft isn’t the only building/mining/fighting game on the block – or made of blocks, for that matter – but I digress. It seems like an age ago now, but Terraria was released just six months back and has since offered several major updates, adding new areas to explore, new weapons to use, new features and new bosses to fight. Things have been quiet on the development front since the big ‘V1.0′ update a while back. The reason just became clear; this next update is going to be huge.

Zeboyd Games has passed along initial sales data along with a couple of news tidbits concerning their recently released title Cthulhu Saves the World.

First, sales-wise things have started off well with 3,637 purchases and 10,369 trial downloads across the first five days. That comes out to a nice 35% conversion rate, which I’d wager is well above average for a $3 title on the channel where you simply don’t get the same impulse purchase benefits that a (decent) game with a $1 tag enjoys.

Zeboyd will be releasing a patch in the next few days to fix some bugs that were discovered after the game made it through peer review and onto the Marketplace. Perhaps more noteworthy, the dev mentions that they “haven’t decided yet” whether they’ll be putting together another patch down the road that would bring “new content” to CSTW.

Color us intrigued. New quests? Perhaps a dungeon or two? Who knows, whatever the case we sure hope they decide to go for it.

Also, I missed this when it came out upon launch (too busy reviewing) so check out the “Hey There Cthulhu” music video:

[Try/Buy on Xbox Live Marketplace]

Hi-Rez Studios is nowhere near giving it up with their MMO shooter Global Agenda. The developer has yet again launched another patch, featuring enhancements, such as an all-new achievement system, bug fixes, the ability to switch between weapon/armor/skill tree profiles, updates to the Auction House, new vanity items, missing queuing updates, and even more. The update is free for all players.

Hi-Rez teamed up with Iceberg Interactive earlier this month (September 10th) to bring European gamers the retail version of Global Agenda, which also includes the Sandstorm expansion. You can purchase this version for €29.99 at the Iceberg Webshop, but also make note that a discount of 20% will be applied for any of Iceberg’s Facebook friends.

[Hi-Rez Studios.]

[Source: GamesPress]

DnS Development has announced the release of a new update for its 2D action shooter title Booster Trooper, adding new maps ‘Apartment Block’ and ‘Abandoned Asylum’ to the game.

Additionally, the patch brings several improvements including a more powerful shotgun, improved aiming with a controller, better BOT behavior and more. If you own the game, you can grab the file as an automatic download now on Steam.

From the change log:

Booster Trooper

Added: new map – Apartment Block

Added: new map – Abandoned Asylum

Fixed: Geforce 8800GTS flickering/crash

Improved: speed optimized. BT is up to 20% – 70% faster

Improved: BOT behavior

Improved: aiming with Controller

Improved: remapping of left & right mousebutton supported

Improved: shotgun power increased

Improved: serverlist sorted by player count first and then by ping

Ntronium has released a new update for its strategy title Armada 2526, now available for download via Impulse.

The major patch brings the game to v1.302, adding two new campaign and four battle scenarios, improved graphics for the star map, battle backgrounds and menus, improved UI with new features, and more. The file is available as an automatic download for owners of the game on the Impulse client.

From the change log:

Armada 2526 v1.302

Improved graphics for the star map, battle backgrounds and menus

New feature to fight a one off battle where you choose the setting and forces

Powerful new UI features to help manage your empire

Much improved battles, including improved ship behavior, AI, pacing and interface

Battle UI shows ships as icons when zoomed out.

Two new campaign scenarios, and four battle scenarios

Many small improvements and fixes

Cold Beam has released another new update for its music library-powered arcade shooter Beat Hazard, now available for download on Steam for those who own the title.

The update brings a handful of bug fixes to the game, including a pair of crash fixes, a fix for a high score data issue and a couple of patch-ups for a couple of gameplay snafus. The file should appear automatically, if not simply restart the Steam client to grab it.

From the change log:

Beat Hazard

Crash fix for long tags strings

Crash fix for unknown characters in song titles and folders

Fixed high score data in song select screen – How just updates on highest score

Fixed Suicide level available before Elite 10

Fixed Head to Head bug where the game ends early if one player dies

Egosoft has announced the release of a new update for their space simulation and strategy title X3: Terran Conflict, now available for download via Steam and manually through The Patches Scrolls.

The v2.7 patch brings the re-enabling of using more than 2GB of RAM if your rig supports it, some tweaks and improvements to the M6, M8 and TM ships and more. Also of note are a large amount of bug fixes sought out by the community of the game.

The file can be downloaded automatically through the Steam client, if its not immediately received give it a restart.

From the change log:

X3: Terran Conflict Version 2.7

Re-enabled use of more than 2GB RAM if supported by the operating system

M6, M8 and TM ships now travel through gates like smaller ships

Enabled M7 and M8 ships to spawn in more missions

Added chance of Xenon during a Defend Station mission

Reduced flak explosion volume

Included a large amount of bugfixes, investigated and provided by our community