In a game series that seemed to be dominated by male stories, Assassin s Creed Odyssey is a beautiful, sapphic dream by comparison. Women in Assassin s Creed Odyssey play a huge role. Whether they re your mother, your lover, your sister or your friend, women are significant in a way that s always been needed in one of Ubisoft s biggest games.

So, imagine my delight that the role of women isn t just embedded into the story, but in your role-playing experience too. While playing as Kassandra and getting my smooch on with every woman I could see, I realized that I had an option that would change the game forever: I could invite them on my ship.

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There are certain games that over time become more like magical runes than memories. For me, Shadowgate is one such game. I couldn’t tell you a single thing about what happens in Shadowgate, but every screenshot I see, every crude pixel inventory item, is like a magical invocation to my childhood.

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Enter The Gungeon developers Dodge Roll have announced via Reddit that their plans to release a paid expansion to their popular bullet hell roguelike have been cut short. Instead, they’re going to re-focus on producing one final update to polish up the game as much as they can before they go all-in on their next game. The devs say that just looking at their latest internal work “shows just how shaky our foundations for Gungeon truly are” – it’s just become impractical to add more to the game, short of completely redesigning it from scratch, as The Binding Of Isaac did.

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If you’re after an NVMe SSD that doesn’t cost the earth, then Adata’s XPG SX6000 Pro is a tempting budget alternative to the high-end Samsung 970 Evos and WD Black 3D NVMe SSDs of this world. With prices starting at just 57 / $60 for its lowest 256GB model, this is one of the cheapest NVMe SSDs going right now, but is it worth the extra saving over the more expensive Samsung and WD? Let’s take a look and see if it deserves a place in our list of best Black Friday SSD deals.

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You can’t go a week without an intriguing tactics game popping up – today’s is Element Space, a story-driven tactical RPG from Sixth Vowel, debuting into early access. This one breaks away from XCOM’s familiar combat grid, offering familiar cover systems, but free movement. Set in a vaguely Mechwarrior-ish universe of modern Earth nations stretched into caricatured space empires, there’s real-time exploration, turn-based combat, choices to be made and a branching mission structure that they hope will result in a shorter, more replayable game. A combat trailer lies below.

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If you notice, says the catfish, everyone is smiling around me.

It s true. This huge fish person has been waddling through crowds of people who grin even as they duck under the beast s massive barbels. Several people are taking photographs. I peer into the gaping mouth of the fish. Two human hands suddenly lurch out, gripping onto the creature s lips from the inside.

I m a namazu, says Missy Allan, the 32-year-old woman in the costume. It s a giant catfish and they re generally really dumb-looking, and I love them… I thought it would bring a lot of happiness.

When I suggest that it is also slightly terrifying, Missy is unfazed.

That s a part of their joy.

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Somehow, there are still people out there who don’t own Blizzard’s sci-fi superhero team shooter Overwatch. This is despite the game being free approximately a quarter of the time (or at least it feels like it) and heavily discounted half of the remainder. If you’re one of those people, now seems as good a time as any to try it, as Blizzard have flung its doors open once more. From now until 8am GMT on November 27th, the game is free to try for anyone with a Blizzard account. Full details of the free week are here, and a pile of animated shorts plus my thoughts on the game below.

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It’s easy to forget that human civilisation has only been around for a tiny fraction of Earth’s history, and that mother nature is a stone cold killer. Our planet and how we affect it is the focus of Gathering Storm, the second major expansion for Sid Meier’s Civilization 6. There are natural disasters capable of levelling entire kingdoms, and the constant, looming threat of man-made destruction if the environment gets too damaged through humanity’s reckless ascent. The new expansion launches on February 14th. Check out the announcement trailer below.

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Have you had enough of Black Friday yet? I know I have and it’s only Tuesday! Still, as the deals train powers on through, so must I, your (hopefully) beloved deals herald, bring you the best Black Friday deals the internet has to offer. This time, they’re in the shape of gaming mice and gaming keyboards, so come and join me as we click and clack our way to ever greater discounts.

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Nu-Hitman’s time-limited Elusive Targets are nothing new, but this latest is worth a spot of ballyhoo because a) it’s the first one for the simply sublime Hitman 2 2 b) it’s only bloody Boromir himself.

Sean Bean’s famed for meeting a great many sticky Hollywood ends, which the Elusive Target nicknamed ‘The Undying’ makes a huge theatrical wink towards. We already knew the other Mr Bean’s head was due to appear on Agent 47’s chopping block (too soon?), but today’s the day. Go forth and stick something sharp into Sharpe. (more…)