My Serious Sam 3 giveaway contest has ended, and the winners will be announced at the Serious Zone forums on the 23rd.

My december's been a rollercoaster of up's and downs. The ups include getting a lot of stuff for the holiday season, pants, jacket, games, PC peripherals, studio headphones and biggest of all, I got my hands on a Roland SD-50 synthesizer/sound interface. The down part is, well, I am hesitant to mention this because, this has commonly been used to garner sympathy, and I really don't want it, but my mother passed away a month ago on her 62nd birthday after surviving almost 2 years in a crippled bedridden state following a burst aneurysm event. In every sense, she's in a better place now. I got through seeing her for the last time, the funeral event, and the cremation. Now I think it's time to let you folks know.

Not to end on a down note, here are some links you should check out:

Back to Saturn X - As of the time of writing, version 0.99e is out. It is a ZDoom megawad featuring large challenging maps and a sweet soft rock soundtrack. Requires the latest SVN Build of ZDoom and a copy of Doom2.wad to run.

Winter's Fury - An 8 level campaign for Doom 2 set in a winter-ish landscape. The latest official build of ZDoom should run this.

Samsara - As of the time of writing, version 0.27b of this mod is released. It is a gameplay modification for ZDoom and Zandronum that allows you to play as BJ Blazkowicz, Doomguy, Duke Nukem, Security Officer from Marathon, Corvus from Heretic, Parias from Hexen, Chex Warrior, and most recently, Ranger from Quake 1. Works with any Doom 2, Heretic or Hexen levels.

WGRealms 2 Siegebreaker - This is a fantastic standalone TC based on Duke Nukem 3D, massive hub worlds, intense firefights. If you felt that there isn't enough Serious Sam flavour in Duke Nukem 3D then grab this game and blast away!

Duke Nukem : Attrition - An invasion style mod for Duke Nukem 3D that has you pitted against ever increasingly deadly waves of enemies, and the objective is to survive and kick ass! If you have Duke Nukem 3D, there is absolutely no reason not to pick this up.

Humble Indie Bundle 7 - Snapshot (Puzzle Platformer), The Binding of Isaac + Wrath of the Lamb DLC (Morbid Zelda-style Roguelike), Closure (Light/Dark Puzzle Platformer), Indie Game : The Movie (Pretentious Video Wank about making indie games.), Shank 2 (Action Shooter/Platformer) in a pay-what-you-want package. Legend of Grimrock (First-Person Dungeon Exploration RPG) and Dungeon Defenders (Action RPG/Tower Defense) is also included if you pay above the average. Aside from Indie Game : The Movie (and quite frankly, Phil Fish can take a long walk off a short pier.) everything in this bundle is very good. You owe it to yourself to pick it up.

Street Fighter X Mega Man - As much as I hate Capcom for shitting on its fans, its unscrupulous business practices and being overall arrogant and complacent, this is the ONE thing that they did right. Release a classic style mega man game made by a fan for free. Check it out and have fun!

That's all for now! How has your December been?