If you listen quietly at this time of year, you’ll hear a faint jingling on the breeze. It’s not Santa though, oh no, it’s Valve’s jolly pockets jingling with anticipation as a Steam’s Winter Sale begins. That’s right folks, the seasonal deals are upon us: between now and January 5th, thousands of games will be discounted across Steam. The 5th annual Steam Awards are kicking off too, so go get your votes in while you can.

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I’m pretty confident that all developers that released a game in 2020 would see that as their proudest moment. Just launching a video game during a pandemic is an incredible achievement.

However, the second proudest moment for them, of course, is being recognised at the most flash and prestigious video games awards ceremony of the year: The Spotty Awards!

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A white Christmas would be a lovely way to end a bit of a rubbish year, alas, I live in southern England, so it’s unlikley I’ll even get a peek at some real-life snow. I can, however, look at some lovely virtual snow in Microsoft Flight Simulator today. Asobo’s open air fly ’em up adds the white stuff in today’s free update, along with a smattering of ice and VR support.

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Merry Christmas, it’s time to hop in a mech and trash a city. For 72 hours, digital games store GOG are giving away Brigador free for keepsies, and it’s well worth grabbing. Brigador’s an isometric shooter about blasting through a futurecity in a variety of customisable mechs and other vehicles, going stealthy if you want or deploying massive munitions if not.

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Before we head through door 22 on the RPS Advent Calendar, do check you’ve put fresh batteries in your camera. And you’ve got all your lenses? And you’re sure the mech battle is over? Alright, let’s go.

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I really wanted to review Iron Danger back in March, but the world was in the middle of going totally cowabunga at the time, so it rather fell through the cracks.

And you know what? I’m damn glad I reversed time and pulled it back from the oblivion of the “want to play it one day” pile, because it’s an impressive little number. A lot of games market themselves as being built around a “unique” mechanic. And while 90% of the time these mechanics are not in fact unique, every so often you get one that’s the real deal, and this tactical RPG with functional time travel is certainly one of ’em.

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You know what old Father Christmas is missing in all those festive films and games we know and love? A katana with which to sleigh (sorry) his enemies. But that’s ok, because Dead Cells‘ latest update will let you don Santa’s jolly red coat and unleash some holiday murder onto loads of monsters – including a new crossbow-wielding beastie. You could also dress up as a snowman, if you prefer.

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I don’t want a lot for Christmas, but I certainly am glad to receive the gift of a new Destiny dance performance from Husky Raid. This group of players have thrilled and delighted with hot moves and clever staging in their “Saw something weird…” machinima videos for five years, and their latest weird encounter is fittingly festive. Come, pour yourself a steaming mug of egg nog, and enjoy.

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The Amazon Prime series The Expanse is great. It’s really excellent sci-fi, and shares many parallels with one of my most loved game series, Mass Effect. Today, I would like to tell you about how The Expanse made me less annoyed at one of the major plot points in the very first Mass Effect.

Fair warning, I’m about to drop some spoilers for The Expanse here (not for Season 5 though! I haven’t seen any of that myself just yet), so read on at your own risk.

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I love watching the ecstasy of an athlete who’s just realised they’ve won gold at the Olympics. It’s a very special moment. I bet all gold medallists have an annual swanky dinner or something, where they swill Lucozade and delicately spoon energy gel into their mouths. Maybe it’s time I went along. I mean, I beat the World’s Hardest Game over ten years ago.

Let me tell you my story, my legend.

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