that we spend so much time thinking about time: setting alarms, making dinner reservations, meeting deadlines, missing deadlines, scheduling due-dates, planning for investments and interest rates… A 30-year mortgage? Will I even be alive then? I mean, I wasted a solid ten minutes between writing the first and second sentences of this very article marvelling at what I imagine must go into the infrastructural maintenance for the Wikipedia entry for “time,” so who’s going to trust me with a mortgage? Sometimes it seems like the whole concept is one big existential prank we’ve conned ourselves into playing along with. Time, that is. Not mortgages. Hell, you know what, them too. It’s around this time that I’ll probably fix myself a drink. It’s five o’ clock somewhere, right?

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It’s almost time for the Game Developers Conference again, kicking off Monday week in the city locals call Sunny San Fran. If you yourself intend to confer on the subject of game development, hey, swing by The Mild Rumpus – the lovely chill zone organised by a group which I am part of but so inactive within I can claim no responsibility for, so I recommend just cos it’ll be nice. GDC is becoming more of a stage for marketing too (I mean, more than self-promotion), with a number of showcase events and announcements around it. Paradox’s tease better chuffing well be a new Vampire: The Masquerade or I’ll send our roving reporters out to loudly sigh and groan as they follow anyone they see in a Paradox shirt.

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

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The good news is that you won’t have to travel far to find The Politician, the latest elusive target in Hitman 2, as she’s holed up in the compact little tutorial (and demo) map of Hawke’s Bay. Those shooting for a Silent Assassin rank will have to do a little sleuthing to figure out which is the real target, however, as she’s there with a body double, and killing both wouldn’t be classy. This new one-off challenge mission (being an elusive target, you’ve only got one shot) is just the start of a busy month of updates for Ian Hitman in Io’s excellent murder sim. Take a peek at the briefing and upcoming goodies below.

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The first big update for Subnautica: Below Zero is out now. Unknown Worlds have added new areas, new sea-life, and a big modular submarine truck to build in their early access survival adventure. The Seatruck update introduces your un-glamorous flagship vessel of this new game, an upgradable hauler that starts out with just a front cab, but you can add extra holds with new functions. There’s two new biomes inhabited by new creatures, such as the massive, toothsome Squidshark. It may not be creatively named, but it can still kill you. See it and more in motion below.

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My first videogame memory is about falling. I remember a blue sky and green land and some yellow rectangle where I was supposed to land, but couldn t, because I was three or four years old and videogames were new and confusing. Unable to control my plane, I could only watch it spiral and crash. The game was Hellcats over the Pacific. I learned this only twenty years later, when I recognised it in a video compilation of old games. The name of this flight sim evaded me for so long because I grew up with a Mac, and no one ever talks about the few scrappy games that were available to us, the children of the nineties who, for one reason or another, got stuck with the uncool operating system.

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Memories are fragile, ephemeral things, and the new memory-dungeons in Path Of Exile‘s latest update – Synthesis – start crumbling the moment you look at them. In Grinding Gear’s free-to-play action RPG’s latest league, players will have to blaze through these new optional areas quickly in hopes of stabilising them, because the reward is the chance to build your own loot-filled labyrinth to raid. This will be the first league in a while not to remove anything, either. The Shadow of Mordor-ish Betrayal system of the previous league is still available, but has been shuffled to later in the main story.

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Contains spoilers.>

Metro Exodus works poorly as a morality tale, a thriller, a horror, or an epic hero s journey. Played as a lyrical ballad, however, a Soviet drinking song belted out around an oil drum camp fire, complete with bad jokes, questionable embellishments and drunken operatic flourishes, it starts to make sense. It is a profoundly odd game, I found, though not in the same ways as its predecessors. It relinquishes the series supernatural elements in favour of a campy uncanniness, a blas chuckle in the face of desolation, and a childlike optimism at finding a slightly shinier variety of shithole at the outskirts of a doomed world.

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Improbable, the networking boffins most recently known for their public spat with Unity, are getting directly into games development. While they’ve previously produced some tech-demos such as Survival, it was a means to an end to sell their SpatialOS technology to other studios. Now they’re opening up two studios. The first is in Edmonton, Canada, and led by former BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn. The second studio, based in London, England, will be led by former Call Of Duty producer John Wasilczyk. Not bad, but it’ll be down to what kind of teams they build.

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Apex Legends players tend to fall into two categories: the people who agree that Mirage is a fairly lacklustre Legend to play as; and Matt. So, this is for you, Matt.

Kidding aside, Mirage has his issues but when things go right for you, and you pull off that perfect bamboozle or distraction… Man, it feels great. What’s more, there’s a fair amount more utility to Mirage’s abilities than you might think, and while they lack the strength of the abilities of a Legend like Wraith or Bangalore, a decent Mirage can change the outcome of an entire teamfight with a single well-timed play.

Our Apex Legends Mirage guide will walk you through how to make the most of Mirage’s abilities every time you use them. We’ll walk you through each ability in turn and offer a multitude of practical tips and strategies on each, along with overall tips on adapting your style of play to suit Mirage’s skillset with each game of Apex Legends.

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Not to be outdone by Dante and co, space-ninja loot n’ shooter Warframe has finally rolled out the first part of its long-awaited melee overhaul. Digital Extremes have banished the dedicated melee stance, replaced by having full access to all your combos through your melee quick-button. You can even combo into and out of ranged attacks, punctuating a series of swings with a shotgun blast, then resuming your beatdown exactly where you left off. The update includes a new story quest digging deeper into Fortuna’s past and powerful new tank-frame Hildryn. See some videos below.

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