Dear reader, allow me, if you will, a moment of honesty. I truly, wholly did not know that Skull and Bones was still going. Not only is it still going, but yesterday Ubisoft shared a look at the game's impending second year of updates, so I really missed the boat on this one - pun intended, of course. The first season of the pirate game's second year has already kicked off, introducing a few new features.
It was always going to end badly for Thillmann The Braggart. 30 gold, he told the brigands. He'd pay them 30 gold each if they could knock up a stew so disgusting that even he - Kobmanhaven's most famous glutton - couldn't keep it down. Whether Thillmann actually had the coin on him, they never found out. Seconds after he raised the first reeking spoon of what he suspected was mostly reindeer shit to his lips, he projectile vomited straight in the face of their leader, and they jumped him.
Death comes quickly in the turn-based tactics and open-world merc work of Battle Brothers, and victory comes hard. Really, it's the stories of the mercs you hire, and their emergent traits and peccadilloes, that make the game what it is. Still, Thillman was possessed of the sort of cocksure spirit that makes a man far less cognisant of sharp objects than he should be, although you couldn't fault his reasoning: he was still alive, so as far as fate had proven to him up until now, nothing could kill him. I can only apologise for adding to the bastard's delusions. The boys and I happened to be passing by at just the right time to save him from those brigands, and he's been with us ever since.
I like to think I’m immune to sales like this, then Fanatical drops its Level Up Sale and my wishlist instantly turns into a shopping cart. And it's not just filler, either. These are standout games, including recent releases, with discounts deep enough to make me forget (briefly) about my backlog.
I want fewer cables in my life: Fewer plugs, fewer dongles, and definitely fewer moments spent wondering why something isn't charging. That's why I own the ASUS ROG 65W Charger Dock. And for thirty big ones, it can also save you from the cable spaghetti and gives your ROG Ally X or Steam Deck some actual desktop or TV stand respect. It's down to $29.99 at Best Buy, or £39.99 at Amazon in the UK.
Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week - our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! While cleaning under my bed recently, I once again discovered my copy of the smallest physical book I have ever owned. It's a tiny handheld edition of the I Ching. What a wonderful thing. I mean, I haven't actually read it, but wisdom is owning at least one very small book, is what I assume the gist is.
Sundays are for ousting your editor from his throne while he's on holiday. Here's a roundup of some good writing from the internet last week.
This list of Games Writing Words I Hate by Riley MacLeod at Aftermath sets out some words games journalists would do well to avoid. I wrote a similar list over ten years ago, and it's interesting to see many of the examples ("immersive", "IP", "franchise") are still used by enough writers to merit continuing complaints from professional editors like MacLeod.
Lots of good newsies this week from Triple-I, weren't there? Catching up on it all after the fact, I was making lots of appreciative rumbles. Makes me wanna, I don't know, play games or somesuch.
Here's what we're all clicking on this weekend!
SanDisk has one of the best offers going right now if you're looking for a massive storage upgrade on your handheld gaming device. There's already a discount on these memory cards, but if you buy two 1.5TB SanDisk Ultra microSDs directly from SanDisk today, you'll get an extra 20% off at checkout. That drops the price to just £74.45/$90 per card (2 for £148.90, or $179.98) which is wild considering these were going for a whole lot more during Amazon's Spring Sale a couple of weeks back.
Sifu and Absolver team Sloclap stuck a release date on their multiplayer footie game Rematch today - June 19th. Meanwhile, we've been shouting at each other in joy and defeat - sometimes both in the same six seconds - in the >open beta>. I'm leaving the article name open to sequels in case James and I ever kick a different thing together. >
I’ve been keeping an eye on the Alienware Area-51 reboot ever since Dell teased it at CES. It looked sharp, had decent specs, but for a while, your only GPU option was the RTX 5080. That changed, and honestly, it changed for the better. You can now get it with an RTX 5090 paired with Intel's new Core Ultra 9 285K, and yes, the starting price is $5,499.99. It's not cheap, but if you’re aiming for a high-end rig without spending weeks chasing down parts or dealing with shipping delays, it’s one of the more straightforward options out there.