I imagine most of you have done your Christmas shopping already given its December 21 and just four days before a whole sleigh of stuffed turkey and roast potatoes arrives on our dinner plates, but just in case you’re in need of a few last minute emergency gift ideas, your deals herald is here to provide. To that end, this is a slightly more rounded edition of our usual best PC gaming deals round-up, including a few bits of other so-called ‘gaming merchandise’ in addition to our game and hardware deals. Don’t worry, though, I promise there isn’t a Funko Pop in sight, mostly because I’ve already burned them all in a fiery pit of boggle-eyed despair. Happy holidays!

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The end of the bizarre and troubling year 2018 is close, and with it comes a time of reflection. I hope you’re enjoying the RPS Advent Calendar, but even that cannot hope to contain the bounty this year provided.

When I joined Unknown Pleasures a year ago, I was a little fatigued with games. There were both too many to see and none that were grabbing me. This isn’t the critic speaking – I’d written only one article in a year – but the player. 2016-17 were by no means bad years for the PC, but despite all the industry drama (not to mention wider sociopolitical troubles) I think this is the best year we’ve had for PC games for absolutely ages.

The games are out there. The weird, the funny, the clever, the silly, the exciting, the touching, the unambitious-but-plain-good> games are positively sloshing about the place. But which ones were the best? So here it is: the pick of picks. A selection of the very best, weirdest, most original, and plain fun> Unknown Pleasures of 2018.

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Darksiders 3 seems like a game with an identity crisis, but it latest patch looks to align the Souls-inspired sequel a bit more with its predecessor’s less punishing combat. In its second major patch (noted here), Gunfire Games have added an optional “Classic” combat option, intended to feel a bit more like earlier Darksiders games. In this mode, players can now cancel out of attack animations by dodging and use items instantly. Outside of the new mode, Vulgrim now sells stat respecs, the level cap has been raised and they’ve added a few more checkpoints to the world.

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With Steam’s Winter Sale raging all over the store, where does one even start? Other than Dominic Tarason’s recommendations yesterday. Why, more recommendations of course! The RPS treehouse is a bit empty today, with many folks already sacked it off for the year, but I’ve shook the remaining few by their ankles until recommendations fell out.

Lots of our picks are cheaper than a Greggs lunch too, if you fancy tossing your virtuapals some games as digistocking stuffers.

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Monster Hunter: World has seen a fair number of collaborations, the latest one on PC will be between Capcom and Square Enix. The Behemoth update comes with some new armour, emotes, references to Final Fantasy, and a new Elder Dragon in the form of Behemoth. While not a siege battle like Kulve Taroth, this creature is perhaps the toughest single monster that you can kill in Monster Hunter: World to date. This will be a permanent addition for the game, with an extreme version used for limited time events, so you’ll need to know how to kill this hulking giant. This guide will go over the strengths and weaknesses, as well as all these interactions that you should be aware of going in, while of course keeping your distance.

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Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valve’s venerable squad-based esport FPS, has recently done a couple of very interesting things. The first is that it’s gone free-to-play in a major update released on December 6, 2018. The second is that, in this same update, a brand new game mode was released called Danger Zone, Valve’s response to the ridonkulous success of recent battle royale games such as PUBG and Fortnite.

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CSGO’s Danger Zone mode is a new competitor in the Battle Royale genre, but it turns out it does quite a lot different, not least because of its tiny-but-meticulously-detailed map, Blacksite. After spending an unhealthy number of hours in Blacksite, I’ve put together the below Danger Zone guide on the best locations for loot and safety in Blacksite.

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ANOTHER ONE. I know. But wait! Counter-Strike: Global Offensive‘s battle royale mode might be the most interesting take on the genre I’ve yet seen. It’s snappier, shoppier, and laces every moment with a tension stemming from one eternally nagging question. Do you peek at the Ipad that tells you roughly where your enemies are, or nah?

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To fully defox the following enlargeable geofoxer, identify all ten locations plus the theme that links them. (more…)

A is for Altitudinous apogee. When Mudspike’s major-domo heads for the edge of space the resulting write-ups are always worth reading. Chris Frishmuth’s latest trip into the wild blue-black yonder involved X-Plane 11 and a $10 SpaceShipTwo recreation. Although the lightly modelled add-on doesn’t animate SS2’s ingenious pivoting wings – the premature activation of which caused the disintegration of VSS Enterprise in 2014 – the dev’s cunning use of inconspicuous drogue chutes mean convincing simulations of SS2’s ‘feathered‘ reentries are possible. (more…)