The die has been cast. Purple smoke is billowing from the chimney of the RPS treehouse. The Alices have shuffled out of the choosing parlour to deliver the news. The best games of 2018 have been selected and trapped behind the doors of an advent calendar.

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Anodyne 2 is an odd looking thing, channelling the uncanny style of N64 and PSX games, except when it’s not. Folks following the development of the action-adventure sequel have spotted that some of the screenshots appear to be in the chunky, 2D early 16-bit style of the original Anodyne. Oh, and it’s also a rhythm game too, and a driving game, somehow? It’s probably for the best that dev Sean Han Tani of Analgesic Productions has gotten trapped in the video dimension. His new form allows him to explain what’s going on in a lovely bit of internally narrated footage below.

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You can’t get much more indie than breaking up with a small publisher to go entirely solo, and that’s exactly what Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone is doing with his enormously popular farm ’em up Stardew Valley. As of December 14th, he’ll be sole developer and publisher of the game on PC, Xbox, PS4 and Vita. The break with Chucklefish seems amicable and not all-encompassing too, with the publisher still handling the Nintendo Switch and Android versions of the game. In his statement, he also teases “announcements concerning the future of Stardew Valley soon” – exciting!

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Steampunk zombiefest RTS They Are Billions may not have a campaign yet (it’s coming), but I reckon this latest early access update might be more important in the long run. Released yesterday, developers Numantian Games rolled out their Steam Workshop-integrated editor after a couple weeks of testing. Players can build scenarios both hand-crafted or procedural, with custom rules, complex scripting and new victory conditions. They also released a new official challenge scenario – even with reinforcements, can you finish your defences when the horde is only 50 days away?

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In 2007, I was in a bar in Soho. I was waiting to order a drink. Two guys in their early twenties were standing next to me. They were gamers. One was talking loudly about an old guy he had befriended. He bought a Commodore 64 the day it came out he said, with clear wonder and delight, I have a friend from back in time.

Hi. I m Kieron Gillen. Today, I will be your friend from back in time.

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War may never change, but diplomacy sure could use an overhaul in the Total War series. The upcoming Total War: Three Kingdoms is going to be shaking things up a bit, if Creative Assembly’s massive two part dev-blog post on the subject is any indication. Personal relationships are going to be important if you plan on uniting China under your reign, and while two nations may be friendly, their leaders may have their own axes to grind, souring negotiations. Take a peek at the how all this ‘not sending soldiers to stab people’ stuff works in a pair of explanatory videos below.

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While Epic have done well kicking down boundaries between platforms to allow Fortnite servers to be shared by PC and console folk alike, those with multiple systems still have a wait ahead of them. While you’re still free to hop between platforms and link accounts to share all present and future rewards, plans to let players merge old hoards and progress between systems have been delayed. Originally meant to be rolling out this month, Epic have announced that Account Merging won’t be landing until early 2019. Not ideal, but they’ve not done badly at all this year, to be fair.

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Project Nova, the Eve Online spinoff FPS, isn’t quite ready for public alpha testing – invite-only or otherwise. Developers CCP and Sumo Digital have opted to put the game back in the oven for a while longer, after the game met lukewarm response at fan-convention Eve Vegas. In a rather grim-looking announcement on its official page today, CCP state that “the gameplay experience in its current form does not live up to our original vision”. The spiritual successor to Dust 514 once more returns to the shadows for retooling, with no set date as to when we’ll next hear of it.

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X4: Foundations, the latest in Egosoft’s long-running series of enormous sandbox space sims, is out now. Claiming to be a return to form after the notoriously wonky and limiting X: Rebirth, X4 aims to be more of a systems-driven sandbox, rather than a story-driven space adventure. Players can walk around inside vessels and seamlessly onto stations, pilot almost any ship type, build up fleets and their own corporate empires, trade on a massive scale or just putter around in a fighter doing odd jobs. An info-dense overview trailer is in the ready room below, captain.

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There are normally two kinds of trading card game players: Those that like to construct decks and then challenge other players, and those that like to draft packs and build viable decks from their limited pool. With the variety of drafting modes on offer in Artifact, including a no-risk, free variant that is good for those who like to practice. This guide has some tips to get you started, such as some things to think about when drafting, as well as the best cards that you can draft.

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