I’ve played Dishonored enough times to know that, as I return to the Hound Pits pub in the penultimate chapter, I can start to game the chaos system a little bit. I’ve undertaken this latest, perhaps final playthrough to see off a game I love before the arrival of its much-anticipated sequel. I also wanted to have completed a run where I made all the decisions that I now know to be “canon”—branding but otherwise sparing the High Overseer, letting Daud go, and so on. Given that Arkane’s official version of Corvo is a merciful sort, this has meant taking a predominantly stealthy approach. 

Which, in turn, means leaving most of Dishonored’s most lethal gadgets and techniques behind. Yet at this late point in the game I know I could kill more or less every corrupt guardsman patrolling the Hound Pits and have no impact on the ending, which is determined by the amount of chaos you cause over the entire campaign. So that’s what I do. 

Perhaps Corvo has simply had enough. Betrayed by two successive groups of conspirators, left for dead and forced to reclaim his gear by doing a jumping puzzle, it’s time for him to demonstrate why he bothers to carry a sword in the first place.

I sprint out of the apartments opposite the pub and slide towards a low wall with two guardsmen and a tallboy walker on the other side. As I do I freeze time, pull out my crossbow, and aim a bolt at the neck of each guardsman. Then I leap into a magic-assisted double jump, grabbing the tallboy’s pilot and skewering him through a gap in his armour. Time resumes as the tallboy and I crash to the ground, both guardsmen yelping in surprise as the bolts find their mark. 

There’s a shout, and a guard emerges from the pub. I blink behind him and slit his throat. Another guard lowers a pistol. I dash, slide beneath the shot, knock him off-balance, and slash his belly. A few exhilarating, bloody minutes later every single adversary in the pub is dead. The last kill is almost an anticlimax: the final guardsman patrols the stairwell, sword drawn, easy prey.

I’ve done this many times, and written in praise of this game many times, but it’s a testament to Dishonored that after all this time I’m still surprised by how well-built it is. It’s easy to fixate on the big things, but Dishonored is as good as it is because of the little details other developers might overlook. Sliding feet-first into enemies knocks them back. There is a split second between when an enemy has seen you and when they overcome their surprise and react, during which they are vulnerable. Sword swings collide with scenery appropriately, and this can be manipulated when you know that guards are right-handed—particularly in an enclosed space like a bar. 

The more I learn about game design, the more impressive these small but vital touches become. Each new interaction you discover increases your willingness to experiment. The key to immersive sims like this is the notion that if something should work, it does work, and the fact that Dishonored still rewards experimentation four years on is testament to Arkane’s talent—which I suppose is a fancy way of saying “it’s not a real immersive sim if you can’t slide-tackle somebody in the balls and have them react accordingly." 

If this supposed leak/over-the-shoulder peek at a commuter's laptop is to be believed, the next Tomb Raider game is to be named Shadow of the Tomb Raider (minus contributions from Rhianna Pratchett). Tomb Raider 4: The Last Revelation HD, on the other hand, marks the work of several TR enthusiasts who plan to reimagine Lara's fourth main series outing—now over 17 years old—with "sharper textures, higher quality objects, brand new effects and additional gameplay features."

The Last Revelation was arguably the most realised Tomb Raider of the PlayStation One era, and its HD remaster promises modern effects such as dynamic fogs, smoother shadows and high quality sprites. It's in its early stages of development, however its team, who form the collective Raiding the Globe, have already compiled a few 'before and after' shots which can be found below. 

Here's the blurb as per the Raiding the Globe site: 

"Tomb Raider 4: The Last Revelation HD allows players to experience Core Design's original and unparalleled classic game remastered with sharper textures, higher quality objects, brand new effects additional gameplay features and much more. Experience Egypt like never before, walking (and running) through ancient tombs populated with fierce traps and deadly foes. More information to be revealed. Happy Raiding!"

More information on Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation HD can be found via its site or the Raiding the Globe Facebook page. 

It's been a year, but the Super Meat Boy any% speedrun record has finally been bettered. Achieved yesterday as part of Awesome Games Done Quick 2017, Hamb's 17:41 run only shaves two seconds of the previous title holder (vorpal's 17:43 run), but that's how records work. It doesn't matter how seemingly unimpressive the improvement is.

According to some interesting discussion on the speedrunning subreddit, the factor that often determines a successful Super Meat Boy run is the Larry boss encounter in the Rapture. Basically, the three foes in that encounter whip across the screen at random, meaning the RNG can make or break a successful run. 

Whatever the case, watching Super Meat Boy played well is a sight to behold, so you might as well behold it:

It's the final day of play at Hi-Rez Expo. Starting at 10:00 EST/16:00 CEST and continuing throughout the day, Atlanta will host the conclusion of the biggest Paladins tournament to date followed by the third Smite World Championship grand finals. Here's what you need to know about the teams and how they got here. You'll find the livestream, as ever, on Twitch.

Smite World Championship finals: Obey Alliance vs. NRG 

Obey Alliance's semifinal slugfest against NA top seed eGr was one of the best series of this event so far. Two confident wins for the European team suggested that they might sweep the set, sustaining the unstoppable momentum that has carried them through the event so far. But a set of mistakes and a strong recovery by eGr cost them two games in a row, evening out the score line and leading to a nail-biting finale. Obey found their form and triumphed in the end, but it was a closer-run thing than they'd like.

The European metagame has been hugely influential at this year's world championship, despite there being more NA teams in contention. This is almost certainly a factor in Obey's success: they've played phenomenally well, but they've also been playing a kind of Smite that their opponents having seemed ready for. Eager got closer, finally banning out Nike, but too late to change their championship fates.

On the other side of the semifinals bracket, Luminosity vs. defending champions NRG also went to five games - and again, the European team prevailed. The swing in momentum in this match was less dramatic, with both teams trading wins starting with an early lead for the NA hometown heroes. NRG triumphed when it counted, however, suggesting that they're still in championship shape. Even so, this is a team that many expected to sweep their way into the grand finals - the fact that they didn't suggests that we might get a grittier grand final than expected.

NRG vs. Obey Alliance isn't just an EU vs. EU showdown. It's a rematch of the 2016 European Regional Championships, where NRG saw off Obey 3-0. It's also a throwdown between scrimming partners: these two teams practice together and the metagame they're playing is something that developed between them. As such, this is likely to be a different flavour of Smite to what we've seen so far. There'll be no more struggling to adapt: this will prove which team is the master of the meta that won Worlds.

The Smite finals begin at 17:00 EST / 23:00 CEST.

Paladins Invitational finals: Burrito Esports vs. District69 

The Paladins scene is still very young, but District69 have emerged as one of the game's strongest early squads. They've picked up plenty of titles over the last year and as such it's not necessarily a surprise to see them make it this far. They're the team that managed to arrest the seemingly-unstoppable advance of Abyss, the Australian squad that surprised everybody with a fantastic performance in the early days of the contest.

Their opponent is Burrito Esports, another strong European team that has earned their place in the finals with a striking 4-0 victory over top NA seed MatchPoint. They're extremely confident for a team that started out as a running joke, and don't seem to have broken a sweat while breaking the best of North America. Yet District69 and Burrito are scrim partners and know each other extremely well: today's game is likely to be much closer-run. That's right! Both the Paladins and Smite finals are all-EU contests between practice partners.

Bonus fact: Burrito Esports captain Bird was previously the analyst for SWC 2015 finalists Titan. Given that there are two more former Titan members in Obey Alliance, that means that every PC final taking place today includes somebody from that old Smite squad.

The Paladins finals begin at 10:00 EST/16:00 CEST. 

Square Enix offered a bunch of digital goodies as bonuses for pre-ordering Deux Ex: Mankind Divided: an additional in-game mission, a few character and weapon skins, and a bunch of free consumables to sully the balance of the game. That's not uncommon these days, but it's usually followed a few weeks or even months later with those same bonuses cropping up as paid DLC.

That hasn't happened here. Square Enix has instead made the pre-order content available for free, for everyone (it will be automatically added to your game via an update, the next time you load up Steam). The bundle comprises "the Desperate Measures extra in-game Mission, a compilation of skins for Adam's armor and trench coat, a re-skinned pistol and combat rifle, and various consumables", along with some digital books including a novella and comic that you can download gratis here.

But wait, there's also a small patch that "fixes an issue where the weapon inventory bar would not be saved online", that "fixes some crash issues occurring with specific save files from users", and that also properly aligns the 'Quit Game' option on the menu. I haven't played Mankind Divided, but that last one would bug me, so hooray.

We haven't heard much about Project Cars 2 since its crowdfunding campaign kicked off in the summer of 2015. But it may not be too terribly far away, as Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell said in a recent forum post that it could be released as soon as September. 

"It's still a very tight run as we're a bit behind on GUI and Career so nothing is set in stone yet. Current guess is Septemberish," he wrote. In a follow-up post, he said he gave the September target "because the leaks are getting worse and a lot of misinformation was building." He also denied that "Septemberish" indicates a delay, since a release date hadn't been announced in the first place. 

Bell also indicated that we'll be hearing more about Project Cars 2 soon. "We have a very carefully planned marketing and information release program and anything that wasn't already out there by me (like our late 17 release 'aim' which I'm on record here stating from over a year back) has to stay under wraps," he wrote. "[It will begin in] weeks not months. So as per our tweets, very soon now. The ancient screenies are killing me BTW. It looks so much better now with more to come until beta." 

In December, Bell said that QA testing on Project Cars 2 had already begun, and that Slightly Mad planned a minimum of seven months of testing. He also promised that "none of the famous brands are missing this time." That could even include Porsche, whose exclusive licensing agreement with Electronic Arts expired late last year.

Picture the world of Fallout 4, only instead of centuries after the apocalypse it's the time period just after the bombs fell. The overworld is still heavily radioactive and will quickly kill any unprotected human, so the few survivors remaining cluster underground in subway tunnels along with freshly-created ghouls and mutated dogs. The NPCs and story you know from Fallout 4 aren't present, and there's only a single quest: don't die.

It's a mod called Frost Survival Simulator, and as you'll see below I repeatedly failed that one quest. The mod is pre-alpha, though very playable and extremely difficult. It's also pretty darn fun playing Fallout 4 with the story stripped away, some survival elements added, combat overhauled, and the challenge ramped through the roof.

Naturally, my first inclination was to see just how deadly Frost was above ground. Since the mod starts you in front of a few doors, one of which leads to the surface, I take a quick stroll outside. It is a bit Metro 2033 out there, and I immediately begin taking a large dose of rads. I don't die from the radiation, though, thanks to a bug that scuttles over and quickly (and explosively) chews one of my arms off.

Okay! I'll be sticking to the subway tunnels then, at least until I've got some rad-proof gear and maybe a small tank to deal with the wildlife. After some scrounging, I come away with a mildly protective outfit, a smiley-face mask, and some odds-and-ends for crafting. The mod makes resources scarce, so don't expect to quickly load your pockets with useful gear. I'm a fan of this: there's just so much junk in vanilla Fallout that few things feel really precious. In Frost, every empty bottle feels like a treasure.

I skulk over to a door, open it, and find myself staring at a pack of ghouls who are dining on the remains of some poor former survivor. I'm spotted and decide to crabwalk away as fast as I can, since I haven't found so much as a letter opener to defend myself with yet. I manage to elude the ghouls and finally find a weapon: a frag mine. Unfortunately, I find it by stepping on it. There goes my arm again.

I'm skulking far too quickly, I decide. I need to slow down even more if I'm going to have any chance of making it. Eventually, I locate a pipe wrench, and even enough cloth and antiseptic to craft some bandages at a chemistry bench. Then I continue skulking.

Apparently there are factions you can interact with in Frost, but my only interactions thus far have involved a free exchange of head wounds. Every NPC I've met has immediately brandished a weapon: while scurrying around, I come across a small collection of survivors who have made a home out of a subway station. One of them immediately detects me and charges, though I'm able to drop a frag mine I've scavenged and blow him up as I'm backpedaling away.

In a somewhat comical fashion, I'm introduced to the rest of the gang as they emerge one by one over the battlements, like prairie dogs. 

Enemy AI has been tweaked in Frost. NPCs don't have unlimited ammo: they have a fixed amount and can only shoot as long as they have shells. Plus, low-level enemies will fire a bit more inaccurately than high-level ones. I'm grateful for this: one of the gang members takes a few shots at me, but misses.

I do what any sensible person would do with the odds stacked against them: I take a nap. Since the only way to save my progress is by sleeping in a bed, and the only bed I've found is in the mod's starting chamber, I run all the way back through the tunnels and sleep for an hour before returning to fight the crowd.

When I return, I figure I'll just chuck a Molotov into the room and set everyone on fire, but I wind up hitting the raised floor right in front of my face, which drops me instantly.

Reloading from nap-time, I manage to kill another two survivors with a better throw, but there are still a few left, including the one with the gun.

I'm a fan of mods that make combat damage more realistic. While it's not exactly fun to be dropped with one shot, it feels fair, especially when your enemies are subject to the same damage models. Bash someone's torso with a pipe wrench in Frost and they'll probably keep coming at you (especially if they're a ghoul). Bash their unprotected head, though, and they drop like a stone. With a little accuracy, you can mow through a crowd of goons in a matter of seconds. But then again, your own head is much softer too. You can barely see it below, but after clonking two goons into the sweet beyond, the remaining one gets off a lucky swipe with his stick. Again, my arm falls off. Why is my arm always falling off?

I give up on trying to take down the survivor colony, and head in a different direction. I manage to beat some mutated dogs to death, and even wipe out that first collection of ghouls I encountered with a well-thrown frag grenade. Unfortunately, another ghoul, who drops through a hole in the ceiling, pummels me to death (this time it's my head that gets detached). I'll spare you the gif: I'm pretty sure you get the point by now. This mod is tough.

Frost is the successor to Dust, a mod that gave Fallout: New Vegas a similar survival overhaul. It's got revised perks, rebalanced combat, and changes to the crafting and settlement systems, which I would write about at length if I could only survive long enough to check them out. While it's still in its early stages of development, I think the mod is both fun and challenging. If Fallout 4's vanilla survival mode doesn't feel tough enough for you, I'd recommend checking out Frost. You can find it right here at Nexus Mods.

Red Thread Games has announced in a Kickstarter update that Dreamfall Chapters, the five-part episodic sequel to The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, will be released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in March. This is of interest to us because coinciding with that, the studio will also put out an updated "Final Cut" edition of the game for the PC. 

"We’re very excited about this opportunity to revisit Chapters one final time. There are several improvements and changes we’ve wanted to make for years—along with requests and suggestions from our players and community—and we finally have the time and resources to address them," Red Thread wrote. "There are changes to character art and animations, music, sound-effects, shaders, lighting—and gameplay. We’ll be talking specifics soon, and we’ll have more on the console enhancements and special features before March 24th." 

The update also apologizes for the delay in a couple of patches, one incorporating a German language pack and the other with overdue in-game rewards, that were promised in September. "Staffing challenges, particularly in project management and QA," are blamed for the holdup, but those have been cleared up and the first of the promised updates is now in QA testing. 

"Things Take Time—almost four years now—but we haven’t left  Dreamfall Chapters behind," Red Thread wrote. "Far from it! We’re still very much focused on  completing the journey in a way we can all be proud of."

The Dreamfall Chapters announcement trailer for the PS4 is below.

Update: There's only four days left to sign up for February's Humble Monthly Bundle, which includes what is likely the lowest price XCOM 2 will be for a very long time. Still no word on the seven other games included, but by the time they are revealed it will be too late to sign up. According to the countdown timer, the deadline is around 10am Pacific Time on Friday, February 3.

Original: As part of Humble Bundle's monthly subscription service, you can get XCOM 2 today for $12. You'll have until February 3 to grab it, along with all the other mystery games that will be revealed once the entire bundle is released. It's still a bit of a gamble, but even if the other games don't float your boat, a 100 percent chance to grab one of the best strategy games released last year for a fraction of its normal price are pretty great odds.

On Steam, XCOM 2 is currently listed at its usual $60 price, so if you've been on the fence, now might be the best time to give it a shot. It means signing up for Humble Bundle's subscription service, but you don't have to commit to anything more than single month since you can cancel at any time. Personally, I've kept a subscription since the service launched. Even if every month isn't a banger, for $12, I almost always get a few games I'd never played before, and on occasion, there's a big surprise game nested inside a la XCOM 2. 

If you do commit, be sure to check out our guides for decking out soldiers and getting your base up to a professional commander's standards. Once you're feeling cozy, check out our selection of the best XCOM 2 mods and get to saving the world exactly how you want to.

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It's no secret that Morrowind is my favorite Elder Scrolls game of all time, and so I very much hope that this Reddit thread, which claims to have datamined a map of Vvardenfell in The Elder Scrolls Online, isn't some sort of hoax. What it teases isn't exactly the land of Dunmer and the Tribunal as it was—there are no Imperial outposts, for one thing, because the island isn't an Imperial colony during the time of TESO—but it comes awfully close. 

The poster claims to have found "a ton of new tilesets" for Redoran, Telvanni, and Hlaalu towns, Vivec (the city, not the God-King), Dunmer strongholds, and Dwemer ruins. Seyda Neen, the town where Morrowind begins, is also in there, and apparently uses custom assets that make it look exactly as it did in 2002. Red Mountain appears to be inaccessible, and the foreign quarter in Vivec, the largest city on the island, isn't there either. (Which, like the absence of Imperial castles, makes sense: The Elder Scrolls Online predates Morrowind by roughly 1000 years.)   

But there will also be new places to explore, including Redoran and Hlaalu towns, one near the Andasreth stronghold and the other close to Caldera, that weren't present in Morrowind. Based on the development maps, it will also be the largest PvE zone in the game, even with Red Mountain cordoned off—possibly close to twice the size of the Wrothgar zone. 

It's all unverified, but as VG247 points out, it's awfully detailed for a hoax. Also relevant is that May 1 will mark Morrowind's 15th anniversary, and given that it's the game that really pushed The Elder Scrolls series into the gaming mainstream, I'd be truly surprised if Bethesda didn't do something to celebrate. Giving players a chance to return to return to Vvardenfell, even centuries prior to the Septim Dynasty, would serve the purpose nicely.