You look weary, friend. Is it all these great games? I’ve got just the thing. Pull up a stool and let me serve you a drink.

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Is there anything quite so glorious as being right? The smug playground-satisfaction of pulling out an “I told you so,” or (even better) the long-con revenge of living well? Of course, every good thing has its price. For every instance of being right, there must exist an equal and opposite instance of being wrong. The less enjoyable forfeit of “You were right, and I was wrong. Vanessa Hudgens does play her doppelg nger, Lady Margaret Delacourt, Duchess of Montenaro in hit Netflix original film The Princess Switch, and she doesn’t have a heretofore unknown identical twin.” Sometimes it stings to be wrong. But it means you put yourself out there — and that’s commendable.

When we’re having trouble juggling responsibilities, decisions, and judgement, our good friend Video Games comes in. For some, the holidays are looming ahead. For another few, this means spending time with family. Your experiences could run the gamut! Tensions might be running high. Maybe you need to practice admitting you were wrong. Or maybe you need to practice being right. Maybe you just need a break from deciding anything at all. For whatever you need, I hope here lies the remedy. You decide.

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Christmas is coming and the goose, my friend, is getting fat. Come quick! Look at this fat goose! Whip your phones out and take photos of the big boy wobbling along, this porky honker, the jiggleduck. What a great goose. Get this goose on This Morning.

What are you playing this weekend? Here’s what we’re clicking on!

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Excellent stealthy-stabby sequel Dishonored 2 and its also-excellent standalone expansion Death Of The Outsider have followed in the steps of other games late in their lives and removed Denuvo DRM. Arkane and Bethesda likely figure that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar – those who buy the game and provide a Bethesda store or launcher login will get a pair of new (if minor) perks. You get a Disho-noired black, white & red graphics mode and the option to replay any mission with your choice of powers, plus the pre-order bonus items for Dishonored 2.

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Subnautica – Unknown Worlds Entertainment’s excellent aquatic survival adventure – is currently free to grab and keep forever on the Epic store, making it probably the most tempting reason to look at the shop after exclusives like Hades and Ashen. Released less than a year ago after a lengthy ride through early access, Subnautica is a gem. As someone who doesn’t ordinarily like survival craft ’em ups, I still got into it, exploring its thoughtfully designed cavern networks and alien ruins as I delved deeper underwater. The game is free for the next two weeks, so swoop on down and grab it for free before it goes back up to 19.49/ 20.99/$24.99.

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Seemingly in response to Epic’s grand announcement of their own games store and subsequent PR barrage at The Game Awards, Discord have announced they’re going to be offering a better cut on games distribution too. As of next year, the recently-launched Discord game store will be open for self-publishing, with the company taking 10% (less than Valve’s 30% and Epic’s 12%, more than Itch’s split-how-you-want), leaving developers with 90%. In their announcement, Discord state that “>it does not cost 30% to distribute games in 2018“, >and I’ve doubts it ever did once we went digital.

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Welcome one and all, your deals herald has returned from her Day That Shall Not Be Named mini-break. There’s still a bit of residual trauma associated with that dark, dark day (dealsdealsdeals), but a week spent playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for reasons even I can’t fathom has been one heck of an antidote. It’s probably because I’ve been challenging all that endless, repetitive deals-checking frenzy into Odyssey’s equally repetitive stabbing objectives. All I’ve got to do is loot one treasure you say? Sure! That’s like a big fat 80% off sticker compared to some objectives I’ve previously completed, I will do that right away, no problem. Anything to get one more golden proclamation across the screen that makes it feel like I’m accomplishing something.

But enough Odyssey rambling. You’re here for the deals! And man alive are there some good ones, particularly if you’re looking for some cheapy cheap games. And it doesn’t even involve any murdering random foot soldiers in the bushes either. Result.

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Videogames are awesome (and also one word), but the industry making them has some undeniable problems. The newly-established Game Workers Unite UK, now an official branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) hopes to make things a little better for folks in the business, reduce worker exploitation and improve diversity. We’ve all heard tales of soul-shattering crunch, unpaid overtime and people axed from jobs with little warning and even less severance pay, so as far as I’m concerned, this is a good, sure step in the right direction.

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Black Future ’88 is a 2D action-platformer in which you’ve got 18 minutes to fight your way to the top of a procedural tower in order to defeat its architect in a “synth-punk” post-apocalypse. If that sounds like your kind of thing, you’re in luck – we’ve got 1500 beta keys for the game to give away below.

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Splendid deck-building roguelikelike dungeon-crawler Slay The Spire will leave early access and launch in full on January 23rd, 2019, developers Mega Crit Games have announced. If you’ve foolishly been waiting for the full launch–it’s been one of my favourite games of the year for months so holding off is daft okay–there you go. Mega Crit also note that they’ll bump the price up a touch before launch so look, get it now and start scaling that tower of oddities.

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