Michel Ancel, the co-creator of Rayman and creative director of Beyond Good & Evil, today announced that he’s stopping working on video games. The French designer started at Ubisoft when he was a teenager and, after over 30 years in the industry spent mostly at Ubi, says he wants to focus on his second passion, wildlife. Come for the announcement, stay for the video of a fox stealing brioche.

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Rayman is now a bit part player. Like Ubi stablemate Sam Fisher, his days of being the main attraction are over. Despite the quality of 2013’s Rayman Legends, the limbless wonder seems confined to making sporadic appearances in games that just aren’t as good as his own.

Although, it’s not like Ray’s a stranger to a comeback. After many years on the shelf, his act was modernised in 2011 and we were gifted the exceptional Rayman Origins.

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Fresh off the heels of Tom Clancy goes anime, Ubisoft have announced yet another collaboration with their new pals at Netflix. This time, it’s a feature-length adaptation of Beyond Good And Evil from Detective Pikachu director Rob Letterman – and with the long-dormant game sequel still no closer to release, there’s a good chance this film may even hit screens first.

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The god game genre hasn’t had many breakout hits, and it’s hard to argue From Dust is one of ’em. But despite a load of hoo-ha about DRM when this first released on PC, back in 2011, it’s probably the most meditative god games I’ve ever played. You’re not omnipotent, you see. You don’t actually have a lot of powers. You can move sand around like nobody’s business, though.

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“Is it friendship? Or is it something more?” goes a common sentiment, particularly on days like today, when we celebrate the anniversary of Captain Cook getting stabbed to death. Well, that’s a stupid question, because there is nothing more than friendship.

Games are, for once, not much worse than other media at depicting and exploring themes of friendship. In fact, some of the best stories about it are in games. But since society is still too backwards to give those relationships their own day, I’m hijacking this tiresome profit-motivated holiday in their name.

What are my favourite games about friendship then? Well, they’re below, obviously.

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The biggest names in platforming used to live only on console, but it’s on PC now that the genre is thriving. Indies have taken the simple ingredients and spun them off in umpteen directions (but still normally from left to right). Below you’ll find a collection of the very best platform games on PC – including puzzle platformers, physics platformers, platformers with roguelike elements, and platformers about absolutely nothing but pixel-perfect jumping.

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Ubisoft have announced that the next game they will give away as part of their 30th birthday celebrations is mediocre racing game The Crew, so consider this a warning that you’ve only got another few days to grab the wonderful, lovely, delightful platformer Rayman Origins for free.

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Humble Bundles normally pass me by these days, but this week’s Humble Tom Clancy Bundle, is worth a second look. For whatever fee you fancy you can get Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Rainbow Six 3, Rainbow Six Vegas, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Ghost Recon and access to the multiplayer beta for Rainbow Six Siege. Pay over the average of $8.09 ( 5.29) however and you also get Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Splinter Cell, and Splinter Cell Conviction.

Less Patriot Games, more Pay-What-You-Want Games, eh? Eh?

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Yesterday, I noted that I haven’t played many god games lately, so I suppose it only makes sense that some RPS-reading deity would start flinging the things at me. “Know my burden>,” it seemingly bellows from on high. “With great power… you know the rest>.” And hey, remember that neato whizz-bang pow space streaming technology that allowed Bastion to run in your browser – as if by teleporter from Mars and also the future? Well, it’s back to from said future, this time with Ubisoft’s once-DRMed, still poorly ported From Dust in tow. So maybe it could’ve brought a better god game, but still, I can’t entirely knock something of this fidelity when it’s playable in my browser almost instantly.

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Ding dong, the witch is dead! As promised, Ubisoft have now removed the legitimate consumer-punishing always-on DRM from the disappointing PC port of their strategy/puzzle/sorta-god game From Dust. Let Steam auto-update it and the unpleasant eggy stench of a constant internet requirement will be gone, plus it’ll grab your savegames from Ubi’s servers and sync them to your PC. (more…)