I am an excellent skateboarder. In the year 2000, I took my skateboard to school and showed everyone in class what the trucks were. They were astounded and definitely did not ridicule me. Since Tony Hawk s Pro Skater, I have been an eminent skateperson in the virtual realm too. I am the 44th best player of OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Ollywood (on the PlayStation 4). I am the only one at RPS who knows how to sundergrind. It s a thing, but don t google it, it’s under a lot of other results.

So I am happy to play Skater XL, a skateboarding sim that recently came to early access on Steam, because I must show you how unrealistically it presents the hobby which I love, the pastime at which I excel without peer. It is a shocking distortion of the sport.

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An eclectic mix of decent games including local multiplayer sillyfighter Gang Beasts, head-spinning puzzler Gnog, and everything simulator Everything are bagged up together in the latest Humble Bundle at a good price. The Humble Double Fine Presents Bundle is its name, gathering games Double Fine published rather than ones they’ve made themselves. They have an unusual eye like few other ‘indie’ publishing labels, though they often don’t seem to capture the public’s eye, so maybe you’ll have a look now their games are cheap, aye?

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Assassin’s Creed Odyssey takes us into a war torn world in Ancient Greece. Set during the conflict between Athens and Sparta, it is absolutely colossal in scope. Since a lot was introduced in the latest Assassin’s Creed, our guide hub will go everything you need to know to get started on your odyssey: From which gameplay mode to choose, the huge number of side quests, getting the best weapons and armour possible, how to hunt the pesky Cult of Kosmos, and how to deal with those relentless mercenaries.

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Remember that ill-fated Star Wars game codenamed Ragtag that was being made by Dead Space developers Visceral? It was supposed to be an Uncharted-inspired single player action adventure, helmed by Amy Hennig, director of the first three Drake em ups. But it got cancelled (amid various development problems) and the whole project was thrown to Canadian studio EA Vancouver who were then told to make an open world Star Wars game out of the bits and bobs. Remember all that? Yeah, that open world game is cancelled too now, according to folks who ve spoken to Kotaku.

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I’m a big fan of Hades. You’d think an early access roguelike wouldn’t be a great fit for the Bastion devs, but I should never have doubted Supergiant’s ability to knit a story around whatever genre or development structure they please. Last night saw the release of the Chaos Update, and there’s something else lurking among the balance tweaks, art changes and new room types. That something is Primordial Chaos, and she’s got a deal for you.

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The first time I pushed someone downstairs in Hitman: Blood Money, I felt faintly guilty. Not because I’d just killed a person, but because The Agency, my bar-coded assassin’s employers, had gone to the trouble of providing me with a wealth of lethal equipment. Yet here I was, sending people to their deaths without touching a single item. Was I putting someone out of a job?

Five minutes later, my concerns had vanished, replaced by a sense of malevolent joy as I explored the lethal potential of Agent 47’s “shove” ability, a feature that’s strangely absent from subsequent Hitman games.

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Sometimes, there are game announcements that sound perfect. The creator of Mega Man and the director of Metroid Prime? Yes please. I don’t care what it’s about. Whatever it is, I want it. Then you see another trailer, and another, and you think: “Hmm this isn’t quite> what I had in mind when I imagined a Metroid Prime meets Mega Man mash-up, but I’m sure it will be brilliant anyway! It’s got to be, right? RIGHT?”

Then you play it and realise your mistake. This isn’t Metroid meets Mega Man at all. This is ReCore, and it’s one of the biggest disappointments of your entire existence.

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Another visual novel in Mages’s Science Adventure series (Steins;Gate et al) is headed to PC, and very soon. Chaos;Child launches next Tuesday, January 22nd. It’s a dark teen psycho-thriller mystery set in the aftermath of an earthquake that wrecked Tokyo’s Shibuya ward. There’s a series of grisly murders to be investigated, and they probably related to a group of youths whose delusions and fantasies can rewrite reality itself. It’s all very anime, but the Science Adventure series is typically good stuff, even if nothing can quite top the original Steins;Gate. See the trailer below.

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The next game bringing far too many Gokus to PC is Super Dragon Ball Heroes World Mission on April 5th. Unwieldy title aside, this one’s a bit different from the usual fighting game fare – it’s a collectable card game, though it doesn’t bear much resemblance to Hearthstone and its ilk either. It’s the latest in a series of arcade and 3DS CCGs by Dimps, featuring a mixture of strategic positioning, button-mashing and timing challenges to boost attacks. World Mission, fittingly enough, is the first in the series to see an English release. Take a peek at the reveal trailer and a look at the game from its debut live-stream below.

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The past year has been rough for a lot of smaller studios, and the latest casualty may be Forgotten Key, developers of the rather lovely exploration adventure Aer: Memories Of Old. Despite the game being well received, the obviously talented studio say here that they’ve struggled to find investors and keep the lights on. Unless something changes soon, the team will disband. Kindly, they’ve released prototype demos of two games they were hoping to make. Vind is a spiritual successor to Aer (though not a sequel), and Down The Well is an exploration adventure inspired by Scandinavian folklore. Trailers for both are below.

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