Developer Bluehole has released a new update for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on PC, this one aiming to improve the divisive play experience of the game's recently released desert map, as well as offering enhancements to its new anti-cheat system.

Battlegrounds' desert map, also known as Miramar, now features more off-road routes for easier vehicle navigation, changes to item spawning in certain areas for better loot balance, and additional buildings and cover across the map - all designed, says Bluehole in its latest patch notes, "to improve the engagement experience".

Many players in the Battlegrounds community have expressed dissatisfaction with Miramar and have, in the absence of an in-game map selection option (although one is apparently incoming), taken it upon themselves to find ways to remove it from play - ranging from manually deleting the relevant game files to deploying tools that automate the process.

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Master Chief, Microsoft's biggest gaming icon, is now available in Minecraft on Nintendo Switch.

Characters from Banjo Kazooie (which was, obviously, originally released on N64), plus Fable and Gears of War franchises are also included in the skin pack, which launches today for both Switch and Wii U.

Xbox owners will likely have the pack already - it's been available for years on Microsoft's own consoles - but it also arrives for the new, unified version of Minecraft today across all of its platforms.

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Arc System Works' superb fighting game Dragon Ball FighterZ (it really is great - check out my review for more) has been out for a handful of days now, and so advanced players are starting to get to grips with its thrilling combo system, pulling off high-damage, multi-string attacks that incorporate assists and burn plenty of super meter.

Now, one player has taken this to the next level, nailing a combo that literally does over 9000 points of damage. In fact, it does 10,000 points of damage - downing a character with full health.

William Peter Hjelte, better known as Leffen, is a Swedish professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player who has taken to Dragon Ball FighterZ and discovered a "one touch kill" with his team: Android 18, Beerus and Vegeta.

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Humans have gazed up at the sky and wondered about their place in the cosmos since the very beginning. Do the same in a game like, say, Breath of the Wild, and you're presented with vivid images of clouds, stars, the sun and the moon. It's an important part of this and many other games that helps to create an illusion of a continuous space that stretches beyond what we actually experience within the confines of the game. The sky implies that Hyrule, despite being a fantasy world, is a part of a cosmos very much like our own, and we accept this even though we cannot fly up and check.

Since it matches our own experience of the sky so closely, we won't spend a lot of time thinking about how the universe around Hyrule is structured. There are quite a few games, however, in which the cosmos moves from the margins to the centre. These games take a close look at, for example, how their worlds were created or might end, the rules by which they operate, or simply how the experiences of the player fit into a larger world view. In other words, they create and explore cosmologies.

Cosmology, the attempt to describe the nature of the universe, didn't start with the advent of modern astronomy, but was present throughout all of human history. Always, real observations about the world were seen and interpreted through lenses of ideology and assumptions about how the world works (even our 'objective' study of the cosmos cannot help but be coloured by our very human perspectives).

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Spoiler warning: This article discusses the ending of Assassin's Creed Origins.

With Bayek and Aya, Assassin's Creed Origins' husband and wife duo, Ubisoft is on to a very good thing. The main game's best story moments occur when the two interact, when they are allowed time to live on screen as a mature, authentic couple. But it's a difficult balancing act, because the meat of a typical Assassin's Creed game is seen through the eyes of one character - the series' stereotypical roguish loner who roams rooftops righting wrongs single-handed, while looking moody in a hood.

Origins plotted its way around Aya and Bayek's relationship by finding excuses to send Bayek off alone, by giving him jobs to do while Aya was off-screen doing other things, and sometimes - just sometimes - by letting you see what she was up to as well. Until, that is, the game's rather abrupt ending - when Aya, newly rechristened Amunet, ditches Bayek for good to oversee a new chapter of the fledgling Assassins in Rome. (Fans were not pleased at Baya's breakup.)

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Today brings another update to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on Xbox One - this one themed around vehicles. In short, it's now a lot better to be on foot.

Weapon damage to vehicles has been increased, and "significantly" increased if you manage to get a shot in on a vehicle's tyres. Grenade damage to vehicles has also been buffed.

Alongside these changes, you'll take slightly less damage if you get rammed by a vehicle. Finally, for those behind the wheel, you'll take more damage if you crash into objects or other cars/buggies. The full patch notes can be found over on reddit.

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UPDATE 11:30 AM GMT: The issues are now resolved. Rare tweeted as much and the game works for me again.

ORIGINAL STORY 9:30 AM GMT: I have been happily bobbing along on the foaming waves of the Sea of Thieves closed beta, which is scheduled to end tomorrow, but was told this morning I couldn't log in.

"Sorry," the game said, "but you are not authorised to play Sea of Thieves right now."

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Developer Cardboard Computer has released a new Kentucky Route Zero "interlude" mini-episode ahead of the game's long-awaited fifth - and final - instalment.

Kentucky Route Zero is a magical realist road trip adventure focussing on the titular secret highway and its strange surrounding areas. Five episodes (or "Acts", as Cardboard Computer would have it) are planned in total, and the game's final episode is scheduled to release soon, seven years after development began.

Interlude episodes have become a bit of a tradition now for Kentucky Route Zero, and are low-key, often highly experimental, narrative experiences that loosely tie the main episodes together - and offer an excuse to explore other peculiar corners of the game's richly textured world. Previous interludes - Limits and Demonstrations, The Entertainment, and Here and There Along the Echo - are entirely free to play, if you're curious.

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Excellent twitch-based platformer Slime-san is getting a second slab of free DLC on PC next Monday, February 5th, developer Fabraz has announced.

The free new DLC, known as Sheeple's Sequel, follows on from last year's Blackbird's Kraken update, and adds 20 normal and 20 new game plus levels, five remixed levels from the main campaign, and two new play-styles: Shadow and Marble mode.

Here's the Sheeple's Sequel feature list, courtesy of Fabraz, in full:

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A note from the editor: Jelly Deals is a deals site launched by our parent company, Gamer Network, with a mission to find the best bargains out there. Look out for the Jelly Deals roundup of reduced-price games and kit every Saturday on Eurogamer.

If you're currently in the process of building a new gaming PC or simply looking to upgrade an existing setup, you'll already be well aware that this is a pricey activity and any way of saving a few pennies helps.

Enter this 155 discount on an Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2 GHz QuadCore processor, which is currently cut down to its cheapest ever price. This particular model happens to be last year's model and it'll still cost you 260.33, but the saving is notable.

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