Let us give thanks... for games! With the Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition (finally) hitting later this month on top of all the news this week, it looks like 2012 is planning to go out with a bang and shows no signs of letting up just yet! So let's celebrate with punching some mimes, ending the world with basketball, growing our global restaurant empire, and creating a fragile colony of humans constantly under threat of attack by aliens and a hostile environment... just like grandma used to make!

Remember, Remember, The DLC's In December Zeboyd's Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode Three was a pretty stellar off-kilter old-school RPG, and has continued to receive free DLC that expands and enhances the game in a variety of ways. (Like with furries.) Welp, all that is drawing to a close, but there's one last piece of free DLC on the horizon for December, and Zeboyd has just released the first screenshots for it... with a mysterious third party member edited out to avoid spoiling the surprise! Hmmmmm, says we. If you don't already own the game, $4.99 USD for a remarkably big and challenging RPG adventure filled with parodies and humour available on everything from PC and Mac to iOS and Android is a pretty sweet deal, and you can wrap it all up in time for this next bit of DLC in December.

'Tis the Season For Post-Apocalyptic Dystopias Also arriving in December is Wadjet Eye Games and Wormwood Studios' fantastic looking adventure game Primordia, and if you've been waiting to pre-order then now's your chance. Priced at $8.99 USD for a pre-order discount, the gorgeous and grim looking game follows a reclusive robot who just wants to be left alone with his droid companion in post-apocalyptia, but when someone steals the power source they need to survive, he's forced to go on a journey to a city with more secrets and revelations about the world that came before and our hero himself than anyone could expect. This one looks like it's definitely going to be a keeper, so check out the brand new launch trailer and get excited for when the game hits the proverbial streets this December 5th.

Sure, A Hostile Planet Sounds Like A Great Place For a Colony! If you love simulations that let you build, defend, and come under constant threat of annihilation by angry alien forces, Simon Roth's Kickstarter for Maia, projected for PC, Mac, and Linux, should definitely be of interest. Billed as "Dungeon Keeper meets Dwarf Fortress on a primordial alien world", the game puts you in charge of building and maintaining a colony on a planet categorized as "mostly harmless", with mining, resource management, dark humour, and more. Check out the official website to learn more and see some gorgeous screenshots and concept art, and then head on over to Kickstarter to throw in your support!

My Hot Dog Has A First Name, It's P-A-P-A-APOSTROPHE-S If the ratings are any indication, you guys love the Papa's Series of time-management restaurant sims, so you'll be glad to hear that Flipline Studios is going to take you out to a ballgame with the upcoming installment Papa's Hot Doggeria! Though details are scarce, you can expect it to include all the same tricky, addictive gameplay you've come to love as you take and build orders from a huge pool of 46 ingredients. I don't know about you guys, but onions, relish, and mustard is about the extent of my dog adventurousness, but maybe I'll change my tune after we get a hold of this one!

That Title's A Mouthful And A Half Remember the bizarre RPG Barkely, Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden? We'll refresh your memory. "Charles Barkley in a post-cyberpocalyptic Neo New York where basketball has been outlawed due to the use of a catastrophic Chaos Dunk". No, you read that correctly. The game was something of a cult hit, and now the story will be continued in the upcoming sequel titled... *sigh*... "The Magical Realms of T�r na n�g: Escape from Necron 7 - Revenge of Cuchulainn: The Official Game of the Movie - Chapter 2 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa". I'm tired just typing that out! But also excited. You can expect more surreal post-apocalyptic action as you play "X114JAM9, an amnesiac baller with no recollection of his past and no concept of his incredible b-ball destiny". Keep your eyes open for more information and a Kickstarter coming soon, and then go brush up on your ballin' skills in the meantime!... is that what they call it? Ballin'? Man, I don't know. How do you basketball?

We Jammin' Game Jams can lead to some pretty sweet projects, and now Shaun Inman wants to take the concept to the next level with his Kickstarter for Retro Game Crunch. Players who back the project will get to vote on a theme each month for six months, and Shaun and his team (Rusty Moyher and Matt Grimm!) will build and release each game in three days, then spend the next thirty polishing and developing it further based on player feedback. It sounds like an interesting experiment to say the least, and with some serious talent backing it up, this is definitely one retro train to consider boarding if you like the idea of shaping the development of the games you want to play!

Remember, Remember, The DLC's In December Reader Sean wanted to let you know about My Life As A Video Game, a Kickstarter for a proposed webseries about a slacker named Don who gets pulled into an alternate reality, and must team up with a princess who's fed up with being rescued and her sidekick (The Menu System!) to try to find a way back home as they leap from game to game, through different genres. Getting a webseries off the ground and making it succeed is always a challenge, but it looks like there's some serious talent and dedication behind this one, and the concept could lend itself to some seriously cool episodes. If this sounds like something you'd watch, head on over to the official Kickstarter to show your support!

Do you know an upcoming indie project or some community gaming related news you think deserves some attention? Send me an e-mail with LINK DUMP FRIDAY in the subject line at dora AT casualgameplay DOT com with the info, and we'll judge it with the all-seeing glare of our own self-importance for inclusion in a future Link Dump Friday article!