Earlier this week reports surfaced of players encountering in-game pop-up adverts for this year's Assassin's Creed: Mirage, while innocently trying to visit the map screen in Ubisoft's older open world stabathon Assassin's Creed: Odyssey.
]]>Cor, has it really been almost half a year since we've done one of these? Apologies, readers. I honestly don't know where the time goes. It's probably because we're spending too much time with our favourite guilty pleasure games, which is the subject of this latest Ask RPS column.
The question comes courtesy of ronzilla, who asked: What were your favourite guilty pleasure games of 2022? As in, I play this all the time and I'm semi-embarrassed to admit it?
A good question! In canvassing the wider RPS Treehouse for their responses, it quickly became clear that most of our guilty pleasure games extend way beyond the bounds of just the year 2022, so we've answered a bit more broadly than the original question perhaps intended. Still, hopefully there are still some entertaining answers in here nonetheless.
]]>Epicly long action RPG Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is leaping onto Microsoft’s PC Game Pass subscription service today. The move was announced by surprise during this morning’s ID@Xbox stream at Tokyo Game Show, which I guess is appropriate for something to do with assassins. Odyssey’s predecessor Assassin’s Creed Origins was already plonked on to Microsoft’s subscription service in June this year.
]]>Assassin's Creed Valhalla is getting a second year of updates, and alongside a major new expansion comes two crossover missions in which Valhalla's Eivor will meet Assassin's Creed Odyssey protagonist Kassandra. The missions will be available for free tomorrow, with one available in each game.
]]>It's a little-known fact that Ubisoft generate product ideas by writing game names, mediums, target audiences, and such on scraps of paper, popping them into a big hat, then drawing a handful to discover their next big hit. This foolproof system recently produced the combination of [Assassin's Creed] [Book] [For Children, But Really For Parents] [Mister Men crossover], leading Ubisoft yesterday to announce a series of Mister Men and Little Miss books starring the murderers of Assassin's Creed.
]]>Every game and their dog seems to be getting a TV show these days. Just this week Crystal Dynamics announced a new Tomb Raider anime that will continue the reboot trilogy, but last year brought us news that Fallout's getting one too, as is Disco Elysium - and The Witcher, of course, already has one (which we've dissected in great detail). Assassin's Creed is in Netflix's sights as well, but having spent a good 100-odd hours in Assassin's Creed Valhalla recently, there is only one possible form an Assassin's Creed TV show should take: a time-travelling adventure show that stars Eivor, Kassandra and Evie Frye, because let's face it, they're the best protagonists the series has and together I know they'd sort the Templars right out. Let me explain.
]]>Ultrawide gaming monitors can seem excessive compared to regular 16:9 gaming screens, especially when their demanding resolutions often require powerful and expensive graphics cards to make the most of them. Once you try one, though, there's no going back. I've been a big fan of ultrawide gaming monitors for years now, as their extra screen space not only makes them great for juggling multiple desktop windows, but supported PC games also look uttery fantastic on them - and to prove it, I've put together this list of the best ultrawide games on PC.
]]>At a specific point in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, you'll come across a nasty group of people that call themselves the Cult of Kosmos. Their collective goal is to bend the world to their whims by prolonging the Peloponnesian war, terrorising the local populace, and causing widespread chaos.
Assassinating them all becomes one of Alexios or Kassandra's main focuses of their odyssey. To work out who the major players are and where to find them, you need to kill their subordinates and gather clues that lead you to the sages, and their leader.
]]>Are you looking forward to the Assassin's Creed Valhalla soundtrack just as much as the actual game? If so, then you should check out our latest music quiz, which focuses on all things Assassin's Creed.
Because the masses have been eating up online quizzes during lockdown, RPS' video wing has been testing the waters to see if you, the video game playing public, also enjoy them. And it turns out you do. And that's lovely.
]]>You've tapped out those skill trees, but have you levelled up your brain? Until next Thursday, both Greek and Egyptian flavours of Ubisoft's historical learn 'em up Discovery Tour by Assassin's Creed are free to pick up and keep forever. Go on, get yourself a slice of ancient education without all that stabby Assassin guff to deal with.
]]>Following its teaser-slash-art-project reveal last night, Assassin's Creed Valhalla finally has a proper cinematic trailer. Beards, axes, longboats and raiding? Yup. It's Vikings. Down on their luck and out of options, our latest assassin is crossing the sea to live out the ninth-century Norwegian dream - pillaging the ever-lasting christ out of England.
]]>Following a curious build-up through a livestreamed drawing, Ubisoft today announced Assassin's Creed Valhalla. This time, Vikings seem to be the stars of the sandbox murder simulator. For now, all Ubisoft have to show is a seven-hour drawing and all they have to say is mutterings about the lads coming "to conquer a new land" and that. We'll learn more tomorrow when a trailer arrives.
]]>Today's the day for Ubisoft to announce a new Assassin's Creed game, or at least to reveal where they're taking the globetrotting murder simulator next. This is happening through the unconventional medium of an artist drawing a picture on a livestream, which when finished will show the game's landscape and the murderer who'll roam it. Some earlier unconfirmed rumours claimed the game would be Assassin's Creed Ragnarok, a Viking-o-rama, though other guesses I'm seeing in stream chat range from Scotland to Rome so... who knows. Come watch the stream and join in the guessing game.
]]>Jumping off things is the best thing you can do in Assassins Creed games, and the best things to jump off are all in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
]]>Clang clang clang! That's the sound of the biggest freebie bell, made with whatever kind of metal wot they had in ancient Greece. Ubisoft's latest sneakin' and stabbin' action game is free to play this weekend for any curious travelers who haven't gone back to the era yet. Assassin's Creed Odyssey will be free until Monday morning (or evening, depending on your time zone).
]]>Everyone loves a good action game. It's the driving force behind so many of our favourite PC games, but only a few can lay claim to being the best action games of all time. That's why we've compiled this list - to sort the pulled punches from the bestest biffs that PC has to offer. Whether it's the joy of pulling off a perfect combo, riding the wave of an explosive set-piece or the hair-raising thrill of dodging enemy attacks in slow-motion that gets you going, there's an action game here for you.
]]>Ancient Greeks were no stranger to blood sports in some places and while holding them in an arena would be something normally associated with Romans, it's no far stretch to include it in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. In the region of Pephka, there is a dedicated arena where would-be champions duke it out with waves of combatants to defeat in order to come out on top. This guide will detail the challenges ahead, telling you how to become the champion.
]]>Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a massive game. In fact, you can't zoom out all the way to see just how big it really is. Encompassing Ancient Greece into a game is no small feat, so when you first visit the map on the pause screen, you may feel overwhelmed. I know I did when I first looked at it. But for those who want to have a handy reference, this guide will simply go over how big the map is, and what the icons mean.
]]>After finding a very important person in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, you are told of a place you need to visit. Tucked away and hidden from plain sight, there's one other big thing that is just waiting to be discovered: Atlantis. Yes, that Atlantis. You can actually explore the fabled lost city and it is quite a striking place full of technology from the ancient civilisation. Accessing it is only the beginning though, as this part of your odyssey will ask you to defeat legendary monsters of Greek mythology.
]]>Hello there! It's me again, Gera - Rock Paper Shotgun's official ambassador of Canada. I'll be your guide this week on the balmy seas of gaming's evening news. As the sun sets on England, I get to work - slipping on my traditional Canadian Press-Touque, before I press my ear tightly against my monitor and listen for incoming news. Alice isn't convinced by my methods yet, but I prefer it to the alternative: letting our blood into Kieron's sacred skull then waiting for a press release to form in its drying curdles. I won't get into how we watch trailers.
In any case: Ubisoft has now launched its latest in Discovery Tours, this time bringing the educational mode to Ancient Greece in Assassin's Creed Origins.
]]>Two years after Assassin's Creed Origins took us on a field trip to Ancient Egypt, Discovery Tour is back for another history lesson. Pack your favourite notepad, students, it's time to put away the hidden blades and murder some knowledge. Find your buddy, brush up on your Ancient Greek, and keep close - yes, Timmy, that will be on the test.
Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece is taking Assassin's Creed Odyssey back to school next Tuesday.
]]>"Assassin's Creed Odyssey finally has DLC worth paying out for" said Alice L in her Fate Of Atlantis vid. Joke's on her: if you own the base game and download the first episode of the three-part series before September 1st, you won't need to spend a penny. The first instalment lets you poke around Elysium's eternal idyllic afternoon, stabbing alien gods while marvelling at how big they are. If you're not intimidated by stature or price, the season pass is 50% off and lets you mosey over to Hades, then Atlantis itself. The base game is half price, to boot.
]]>Google held another one of their Stadia Connect conferences today, and this one was meant to be all about what games you'll be playing in the "scary" cloud come November. Sure enough, there were new Stadia games aplenty announced this evening, with the biggest addition being Cyberpunk 2077.
To help keep track of them all, here's a list of every Google Stadia game confirmed so far, as well as which games are coming at launch, which ones will be arriving a little bit later, and which games you'll only be able to play by subscribing to one of the special Stadia publisher subscriptions.
]]>The German Play is happening next week, or Gamescom, as you may have heard it called by uninformed proles. The big games show will see a few of the RPS treehousers zipping off to Cologne to breach and clear the whole city of all its games, like a well-oiled unit of militant journalists. On this week’s podcast, they prepare themselves for the mission. Thumbs at the ready, maggots.
]]>Once more unto the beach, dear friends, though returning to Assassin's Creed Odyssey is usually a cheery experience, last episode's detour to Hades aside. Judgement Of Atlantis is the third and final part of the Fate Of Atlantis arc, and likely the the last ever DLC chapter to the open-world hack n' slasher. Out now, it finally lets players rise out of the Greek afterlife and into the sci-fi high life. Poseidon, king of the Isu, has appointed Kassandra (or Alexios) as his right hand badass and set them loose to clean up Atlantis. That probably means stabbing. Below, an infotacular trailer.
]]>Give people mod tools, and they'll do wonderful things, unless the game has an experience system, then they'll break it over their knees. Predictably, that was one of the first things players did with Assassin's Creed Odyssey's new Story Creator Mode, a browser-based quest editor. Yesterday, Ubisoft put their foot down on players making self-completing XP farming quests, officially stating that their prevalence leads to "less visibility for the creative, interesting and frankly fantastic community stories that have been published". Worth noting that Ubisoft still sell XP boosters of their own.
]]>Summer. The heat age. Scorch season. Spring's hangover. It's the mid-point of the year and you know what that means. No, not "mojito time", Geoff, put those away. It's time we told you what the best games of the year are so far. There are quite a lot of them. Just look how many videogames have escaped from their developers in the past six months and are now running amok through the blistering streets, getting stuck in the melting tarmac, like ants in jam. It's unsanitary. So allow us to round up these unruly games and trap them in a handy list. Here are our favourite sword swingers and space 'splorers so far this year (and a couple of DLCs for good measure).
Okay, Geoff, now bring the mojitos.
]]>95% of Assassin's Creed Odyssey players kept subtitles on, Ubisoft have revealed, and 50% of The Division 2 players are currently playing with them on too. These surprising statistics and more come from a wee tweetblast this week confirming that yes, subtitles are hugely desirable even in murdergames. Even as someone who often plays with subs on, I'm surprised by the numbers shared by David Tisserand, an accessibility project manager and user research fella at Ubisoft Montreal. Subs: they are good. Subs in video games: they could be better. Conclusion: more and better subs, video games, please and thank you.
]]>The Assassin’s Creed series is no stranger to promoting the wholesale murder of folks with whom you disagree. From battling Templars on the seas of the Caribbean to viciously and repeatedly punching the pope, these games have a history of exacting revenge on all-powerful (yet never successful) shadow organisations. A few hours into Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, you’ll come across another one. The “Cult of Kosmos” are a group of nefarious masked ne’er-do-wells who are responsible for many of the ills in your protagonist’s life. But this is good, because soon you’ll start hunting them down.
]]>Ubisoft Quebec are about finished with Assassin's Creed Oydssey but they're far from done with Ancient Greece, today announcing an open-world action-adventure game set in Greek mythology. Gods & Monsters is its name, and looking like a cheerier and less murderier take on Asscreed is its game. I do worry that Ubisoft may have misread enthusiasm around Asscreedo's mythological DLC, thinking our Alice Bee was thrilled by monsters more than massive women, but surely they've been working on Gods & Monsters for a fair while now? The cinematic announcement trailer would suggest so.
]]>The enormous Assassin's Creed Odyssey is now endless, as Ubisoft just rolled out a free quest editor and sharing site. The Story Creator Mode lets you build multi-quest story arcs from scratch, complete with branching dialogues and objectives, then share them with the world across all platforms. At their E3 pre-show, Ubisoft also unveiled the final part of the Odyssey puzzle; another Discovery Tour mode, letting you take a non-violent, narrated trip through Greece, now with historical quizzes. The Discovery Tour is out in autumn, but the Story Creator is out now, with a trailer below.
]]>Trying to keep up with E3 2019 is a fool's errand, and the foaming river of content streaming down the internet's face doesn't always make it easier. So here's a round-up of every news story from the show we think matters to you, with links to our full stories (and bantful liveblogs) where relevant. We'll be updating this hourly, so keep coming back.
]]>Ubisoft, who make RPGs about a 3000-year-long battle between freedom and order, FPSs about liberating occupied lands, and military shooters so jingoistic they cause governmental complaints, have been arguing for a long time that their games aren’t political. Yesterday, they posted an interview with Tommy Francois, vice president of editorial, in an attempt to clarify their position. It did not help.
]]>As if Assassin's Creed Odyssey wasn't mindbogglingly huge (and still-growing) already, it might just become endless soon. Today, Assassin's Creed fan-site Access The Animus mentioned on Twitter that they've been invited to test an "upcoming community oriented tool" for Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Normally, this could mean anything, except that back in April, Ubisoft community manager Dominik Voigt accidentally posted something in public that likely should have been private. Since deleted, Reddit captured it, and its mention of a "Story Creator Mode". Crisis On Infinite Kassandras? I hope so.
]]>Remember when folks wanted all the supernatural stuff axed from Assassin's Creed? Thanks to expansions like Assassin's Creed Odyssey: Torment Of Hades, which launched today, they're a bit quieter now. Continuing the story arc kicked off in Fields Of Elysium back in April, Kassandra (or Alexios) is headed down to the underworld, which means going through its three-headed, fire-breathing guard dog. Turns out that Hades doesn't appreciate strangers doing a Kratos on his pets, and presses you into his service. Below, a story trailer and Alice Liguori's video report on the underworld.
]]>I have mentioned before how much I love the big buff mercenary gal of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Kassandra. She is a holy terror and can crush anyone who steps to her, like a toddler squeezing play dough in their fist until it all squishes out the sides between their fingers. Kassandra stands a full head taller than most regular citizens of Greece, because she is superior to them in every way.
Thus, I relished the chance to do more adventuring as Kassandra in the new DLC, The Fate Of Atlantis. This one adds a whole brand spanking new area to run about in, which is ideal because my Kassandra had long since monstered every island Ancient Greece had to offer. So off we went to the fields of Elysium.
]]>Gorgeous as the Greek isles were, it's nice see some fresh scenery, and today's Assassin's Creed Odyssey DLC, The Fields Of Elysium (episode one of the three-part Fate Of Atlantis) looks stunning, if a little unsafe. Continuing the techno-mystical B-plot of the series, it's taking players into Atlantis, and from there into the Fields Of Elysium, the nicest place to be in the Greek afterlife. Expect impossibly steep cliffs, preening gods and the occasional teleporting statue-turned-turbo-guard. Below, Alice Liguori from our video crew takes a stab (well, many stabs) at the mythic new adventure.
]]>The Assassin's Creed series has always been a tough nut to crack on PC. The latest Ancient Greek-themed instalment, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, may be slightly easier to run than its Egyptian predecessor, Assassin's Creed Oranges, but there are still times when it can feel like it's delivering a great big Spartan kick-sized strain on your trusty GPU. Fortunately, I'm here to help, as I've been testing every graphics card under Apollo's roasting hot sun to see how to get the best settings and the best performance in Assassin's Creed Odyssey across a variety of resolutions.
Freshly updated with more of today's best graphics cards than ever before, you'll find everything you need to know here about how to get a lovely 60fps frame rate, and what quality settings you'll need in order need to get it. Whether you're here for its brand-new Fate of Atlantis DLC, hoofing lads off cliffs or the blush-worthy romances, here's how to get the game looking as buff as the almighty Kassandra herself.
]]>The first chunk of DLC for Assassin's Creed Odyssey had some decent enough missions, but didn't really justify Ubisoft's entire season pass. The second half - The Fate Of Atlantis - looks like it's going to be a far more interesting adventure. Launching next week, April 23rd, it reminds me a lot of the underworld-delving second expansion for AC: Origins. It seems there's a bit more to Atlantis than being a watery bit of Grecian real-estate with some glowy bits on - it might just be a portal to the realm of the gods. Take a look at some of its improbable vistas in the trailer below.
]]>If you've been keeping track of my gaming laptop reviews lately, you'll have noticed that Assassin's Creed Odyssey has been murdering a lot more than dodgy cult members lately. It's also been slashing the game's frame rate, turning what should be silky smooth performance into a stuttering sideshow.
When I first encountered the problem on the Alienware m15, I was worried it might be a problem with the laptop itself. Then it happened again on the Asus ROG Strix Scar II, which led me to believe it must be a problem with the game. So I put out some feelers via that magical medium of email to find out what the deal was. And yes, it's a big ol' bug.
]]>John had the presence of mind to take today off, after flying back from San Francisco on Sunday. Young Matt and I got a red eye that took off on Friday night and landed on Saturday afternoon. I didn’t sleep for 30 hours, then slept for 12, was wired for the next 16, and then slept for another four. Which brings us to today, when I am writing these charts, unsure which meal I should be having next and shaking off a lingering dose of The Fear, which I get from long haul flying more than I ever did from hangovers.
With that in mind, it’s me, back once again with the ill behaviour, to fill in doing the Steam Charts. I’m very much flying by the seat of my pants here, so let’s see what I come up with, shall we?
]]>It's the end of another long day at Fags & Mags & Rab(bid)s, a wee family-owned shop and video game company on the corner of a sleepy street in the Parisian suburb of Montreuil.
Michel Guillemot is down on his hands and knees, fishing under the pick 'n' mix display for loose sweets he then dusts on the lapel of his brown cotton shopcoat before popping them back into their correct box.
A yelp rises from the back room. Yves Guillemot rushes out, a dusty bottle of prosecco in his hand and a wide smile across his face.
"Brother!" Yves cries. "They did it! We're safe! We did it!"
Michel slips a gummy egg between his lips and waits for Yves to calm down.
"Vivendi! Finally! They said they would! They have!" he gasps while tearing at the foil on the bottle. Yves notices his brother's bemused look (and pretends not to notice he's eating the stock again) and pauses to catch his breath. "Vivendi finally sold their remaining Ubisoft shares. That's the very end of their takeover attempt. Our family business is safe."
Michel swallows and reaches for a pack of plastic picnic champagne flutes.
]]>As part of Ubisoft's latest round of mostly positive financial reports (which, unlike Activision, were not accompanied by massive layoffs) CEO Yves Guillemot shed a little light on the publisher's decision to thumb its nose at Steam and make The Division 2 exclusive to the Uplay and Epic stores. In his words, it's not just about the smaller cut Epic takes, or whatever up-front money may or may not have changed hands as part of Epic's fulsome attempts to ring-fence big names within its new store.
It's not even, if I'm correctly reading between the lines, about Epic. Instead they suggest that people not buying from Steam means that Division 2 pre-orders on their own store, Uplay, are "six times higher".
]]>Ubisoft's villainous plan to keep people playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey until the heat-death of the universe moves into an even more dastardly phase this month. Available now is a new free quest arc called A Brother's Seduction, putting your chiselled mercenary at the peak of a love triangle, but the big stuff happens later this month. Ubisoft will be raising the level cap to a preposterous 99 (presumably not 100 so they don't have to widen all those number boxes), and adding a New Game Plus mode - you can keep your stats, but switch character and reset the plot.
]]>I took it for granted. I knew I shouldn't, I think I even knew I was doing it at the time. But last week, when the charts were filled with new and interesting games, pushing out the tired and bloated titles, I didn't take the time to recognise what we had. And now, as can only be the direct responsibility of my careless credulity, everything has fallen apart.
This week's charts are the worst I've ever seen. And I'm sorry. I'm... look, I'm just sorry.
]]>While last year's Steam Awards were just a poll on the store, Valve are stepping up their game this year. Starting in a few minutes (at the time of writing) is the Steam Awards 2018 show, broadcasting live on the company's own Steam TV site. While I doubt there'll be anything as surprising as Epic's coup at the Game Awards before the holidays, there's still a chance for unexpected announcements in there, plus I'm curious just how fancy the show will be. Tune in here on Steam TV - the show starts soon. Below, a reminder of the categories and the nominees in the running.
Update: Show's over, and honestly I'm a bit underwhelmed, even starting with low expectations. No surprises, no human faces, no pageantry. Barely any time to breathe, even. The show began immediately with the awards and hammered through them in under twenty minutes. At least each of the winning studios recorded a little award acceptance clip - that was nice. You can see a recording of the show on the Steam Awards page here.
]]>We now know where all the golden haze went from the Director's Cut of Deus Ex: Human Revolution - it was pilfered for use in Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered. Ubisoft have released a trailer for the upcoming polished-up version of arguably the wonkiest of the numbered main Creed games, and while I can't deny it looks nice, it's conspicuously golden. Every before and after shot is a deluge of gilded sunsets and aurous haze. The game launches on March 29th and is included with the Assassin's Creed Odyssey season pass as well as sold separately. See for yourself if it looks good as gold below.
]]>The GLAAD Media Awards, which “recognise and honour media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community and the issues that affect their lives” are in their 30th annual iteration. This year, they've added a new category, for “Outstanding Video Game.”
Included among the nominees is Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, whose latest DLC includes an (edited) forced heterosexual romance. GLAAD themselves admit this will “surely raise eyebrows,” but their justification brings up broader questions about how we celebrate queer representation.
]]>Assassin's Creed Odyssey and its latest DLC chapter raised some hackles last week. The story shoehorned its protagonist into a relationship to produce an heir, whether or not the player had decided their hero was straight, gay, or just disinterested in the lover the game had picked out. After players complained, Ubisoft apologised, admitting they'd dropped the ball on writing that particular segment. In a statement on the Ubisoft forums yesterday, Ubi announced that an upcoming patch would partially alter a cutscene, some dialogue and the naming of an achievement, reportedly after consultation with LGBT media advocacy group GLAAD.
]]>Assassin's Creed Odyssey offers more player freedom than any other game in the series, including letting you steer your protagonist's sexuality. As a feature, it was widely praised, and Ubisoft have proudly marketed the game on how much it respects and reacts to player freedom. Unfortunately, the latest chapter of the Legacy Of The First Blade DLC undermines this in favour of leading the player into an inescapable 'canon' heterosexual relationship. Understandably, some players are upset, to the point where Ubisoft have issued an apology and a statement on the issue. Potential spoilers abound below.
Update: Kotaku have a more detailed statement from Odyssey creative director Jonathan Dumont, which you can find below.
]]>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.
]]>The sprawling Grecian world of Assassin's Creed Odyssey continues to grow, with free new features, stories and a run-in with "Greece's most scandalous poet" due this month. On January 15th they're also continuing their season pass story arc with the second episode of Legacy Of The First Blade. While some of the free stuff is undeniably cool (or hot, in the case of a volcano-dwelling cyclops), probably the most useful addition is a set of new level scaling options to let you tune enemy stats. A video overview of the new stuff lurks below.
]]>Ho ho ho! John still hasn't returned after Christmas, missing presumed drowned in egg nog, so I'm filling in today. Valve have already blarbed about 2018's best-selling games so we're back on the weekly charts. Last week's top ten was largely familiar, though catching the tail end of the Steam Winter Sale has introduced a few surprises.
]]>The doors have been opened, the games inside have been devoured, and now it's time to recycle the cardboard. Below you'll find all of our favourite games from 2018, gathered together in a single post for easy reading.
]]>I wracked my brain over the past few weeks, trying to think of games I played in 2018. This seems to happen every year around GOTY time — much like when someone asks you what your favourite movie is, and you forget whether you’ve actually ever seen a movie. Did… Did I play any video games? Did any games even come out? Surely there must have been at least one.
In the precious little free time I scraped together during term (like coins from sofa cushions to get a snack from the office vending machine), I managed to discover (or re-discover) a handful of games this year. They’re a bit covered in lint, but I promise they’re still good.
]]>It is terrifying to be an independent developer right now. Before, small teams might compare themselves to a ‘soulless’ billion dollar industry built on games where Very Large Men shoot other Very Large Men (regardless of the merit of that claim). Now, those same big studios are bringing their absurd levels of manpower and polish to titles that are more empathetic and experimental than ever -- often hiring the very indies that used to compete with them. As remasters, re-releases, and long-awaited ports hit every platform imaginable, the time of a game’s release has lost all meaning. Katamari Damacy, a title originally released in 2004, can finally be played as God intended -- with the power of a NVIDIA Titan RTX. We are lost in a sea of games, and Epic aims to be our new Poseidon.
...I’m supposed to say my five favourite games of the year at some point, right?
]]>If you play an hour of Assassin's Creed Odyssey before January 15th, you can keep it forever - but there are two catches. One catch is that you have to play it on Google's Project Stream, and the other is that you have to live in the US to do so. Project Stream is one of those cloud-based clients that lets you run games on hardware that's many miles away, so you'll probably need a faster connection than a VPN would provide.
Some might say another catch is that Odyssey is a vaguely compelling time-murderer that fills up lives that could be spent with better videogames or loved ones. I disagree.
]]>Look out. The year 2018 is going down in a storm. There are hundreds of games aboard, running, jumping, trying their best to survive the maelstrom. But there’s only one tiny lifeboat, and only enough room for three games. It falls on the sorry shoulders of the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, to decide which trio of games clamber onto the life raft and which games drown and become lost to history.
]]>I don't what is this? How many? Are we sure we're in the right charts? This is definitely the Steam Charts, where the mad-brained broken people just buy the same four games over and over and over? Because something is up. People have only bought the same three games over and over!
]]>With BioWare starting to mutter about Dragon Age again (and rumours saying they'll announce DA4 this week), here's one person who won't be involved: long-running designer and director Mike Laidlaw, as he's joined Ubisoft Quebec. Laidlaw [not to be confused with Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw -ed.] left BioWare in 2017 after 14 years, where he'd been a lead writer on Jade Empire, a lead designer on the first two Dragon Age games, and the creative director of Dragon Age: Inquisition. He doesn't reveal what he's creatively directing at Ubisoft Quebec, the studio behind Ass Creed Odyssey, but says it's "truly interesting" and "exciting."
]]>"I'm trying to find reasons for why this DLC is of note" says vidbod Matthew in his and Katharine's look at Assassin's Creed Odyssey's first DLC, "but orange leaves obviously isn't one of them". I beg to differ. Legacy Of The First Blade's first episode of three is out, and takes place in autumnal Makedonia - an area that we've already galloped around for a couple of hours. Fans of iconic 'shing' noises and inventive stabbing mechanisms might be excited to meet Darius, the first assassin to cobble together a hidden blade.
]]>I, Alice Bee, have returned from a week off and everything has changed. Matt is in the office now, and complained about having to get up at 8.15am. This complaint made me furious and I am telling everyone. My desk has been moved. There is no milk in the fridge. I am confused, and I can't remember all the HTML codes to write this very post. It's going to take ages. The new world is terrifying. But we always have the Steam Charts, even when John is away on his holidays.
]]>Engravings in Assassin's Creed Odyssey are attachments that you can apply to weapons and are earned in multiple different ways. You'll likely obtain most of them by increasing your level, or by completing key quests in the story. Yet the best ones that you can obtain take a lot more work on your part, usually by finding Ainigmata Ostraka and solving the riddles that they impart. Actually deciphering the solution to these puzzles is where things get obtuse, but is required for completing the game 100%. This guide has all the solutions to the Ainigmata Ostraka for all your completionist needs, as well as details on how to equip engravings.
]]>Beep boop. I am the SteamChartBot, and welcome to the CYBERCHARTS. They're like the regular charts, but they have the word "CYBER" shouted at the start, and that makes them really bloody cool.
]]>Hurry, hurry. There are only 37 Steam sales each year - miss a bargain now and you'll regret it for the rest of your days. (Until the next one).
As always, the latest Steam Autumn sale is a sensory overload of cut-price delights. We're here to guide you through the white noise and make a few informed choices.
]]>Contains some spoilers.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a proper action-RPG, complete with romance opportunities, conversation trees, branching storylines, and bales of soft material to leap into from improbable heights. While well-written and expansive, much of the story’s appeal can be laid at the feet of its charismatic leads. Greek actors Michael Antonakos and Melissanthi Mahut provide the voices and performance capture for Alexios and Kassandra, bringing the characters to life with unexpected nuance (as previously chronicled by some handsome, overworked soul). As a game developer myself, my only question after sinking dozens of hours into it is: how. How do the protagonists remain distinct, internally cohesive, and roughly equivalent, across thousands of lines of the same script?
So I asked Antonakos and Mahut themselves, who taught me about Ubisoft’s craft in producing games on a massive scale, and the methods the actors used to make each hero their own.
]]>In a game series that seemed to be dominated by male stories, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a beautiful, sapphic dream by comparison. Women in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey play a huge role. Whether they’re your mother, your lover, your sister or your friend, women are significant in a way that’s always been needed in one of Ubisoft’s biggest games.
So, imagine my delight that the role of women isn’t just embedded into the story, but in your role-playing experience too. While playing as Kassandra and getting my smooch on with every woman I could see, I realized that I had an option that would change the game forever: I could invite them on my ship.
]]>It's no real secret that Assassin's Creed Odyssey has a huge map and is full of things to do. You could ignore the side quests completely, but there are some valuable rewards that can be obtained from pitching in; helping your fellow humans, even if they are hiding part of the truth. This guide will take you through each of the side quests in the game and show you how to complete them.
]]>Sailing in Assassin's Creed games of the past was a joyous pastime, though that might have had something to do with the sea shanties. But there was little doubt that sailing and naval warfare would return at some point. In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, this has you take up the helm of the Adrestia, sailing across the Mediterranean in search of treasure and adventure. However there are plenty of pirates, as well as the warring states of Athens and Sparta who can rip apart an unprepared commander at the helm. This guide will go over the ship's controls,what it can do, and explain how to upgrade the ship with resources.
]]>Home to slaves and slave owners, these islands are home to a man trying to find out more about a group of bandits known as "The Dagger". The truth won't be an easy one to take and his magistrate owner knows this. This guide will go over all the side quests for the region and how to complete them.
]]>Lokris is home to a lot of salt. In fact, in the times of the Ancient Greeks, it was seen as the "third" power of the Ancient Greek world. However it frequently dominated by both Sparta and Athens and thus played very little part in the formation of history around that time period. This is translated into how Assassin's Creed Odyssey treats the location as there is not a lot of side quests in Lokris. The only stuff you'll find here is associated with the plight of one family whose son has decided to lock himself in a cage and refuses to come out. This guide will go over all the side quests for the region and how to complete them.
]]>One of the more interesting new features to Assassin's Creed Odyssey are the meaningful choices that can affect the world around you. Some choices will merely affect the outcome of the quest, but some affect the events going forward, permanently affect towns and cities. They can even determine which ending you will get when you complete the main odyssey. The weight of those decisions is enough to discourage definitive choices, since the consequences can be rather severe if you make the wrong one. This guide will go through the importance of making choices, and which choices are important for getting the best ending.
]]>Shortly after discovering the rather secretive group in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, you'll encounter a giant, magnificently strong woman named Xenia. Able to throw grown men through doors as if throwing a pebble into water, this lass can grow particularly fond of you. She'll initially ask you for money for information either Alexios or Kassandra needs, but if you saved her brother in one of the game's many side quests, you'll be able to hunt for some artefacts for her. Unfortunately the maps she gives you are less than accurate, so this guide will filter all of the stuff you don't need to know and instead tell you where to find the five items she seeks.
]]>The bounty hunters and mercenaries in the newer Assassin's Creed games are more than just a regular enemy. They can turn up in the most inopportune moments, usually in the middle of a quest or looting a particular location, to relentlessly hunt you down. If left unchecked, they can put a spanner in the works, setting you back a fair bit if you should perish by their hand. They're a lot tougher than the regular soldiers and particularly in the early game can prove to be more than just a nuisance. Chances are you may be having a lot of trouble with them because you committed a large number of crimes, so it's easy to get overwhelmed by ever increasing enemies. This guide will tell you how to kill the mercenaries, and also explain how to remove bounties on your head.
]]>Getting equipment in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is initially rather slow, but the way it works is remarkably similar to how it was in Assassin's Creed Origins. Before long you'll be wielding some of the most powerful and legendary weapons and armour found in all of Ancient Greece - the stuff that myths and legends are based on. They are most highly coveted equipment to get, making a massive difference in how much damage you're doing to your foes and how much you're taking from enemy blows. Since each equipment has very different perks and buffs you need to be aware of, this guide will explain how the inventory system works and how to get the legendary armour and the best weapons.
]]>There are weeks when the Steam Charts surprise us! There are weeks when interesting new and old games reappear, pushing out the dreary regulars! And then mostly there are weeks like this one, where it's so depressingly bland that it starts raining outside the moment you glance at it. Not good rain, just bland drizzle.
]]>Assassin’s Creed Odyssey attempts to address the historical nuance of a slave’s status through a series of quests. Its presentations are universally sympathetic. In some cases, they’re downright positive. Scheming cultists who mistreat or acquire slaves are exceptions, not the standard. It’s true that slavery in ancient Greece often operated differently than similar systems in the American South. Unfortunately, since Odyssey is a game about kicking mercenaries twice your level off cliffs and not a history book, we aren’t given the information necessary to understand how and why these differences emerged. Without this context, Ubisoft’s representation of the relationship between slave, master, and Greek culture falls into a Twilight Zone of grinning, apologetic slaves and noble masters that only becomes more disturbing over time.
]]>Much like its predecessor, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has snared me with its marvellous camera. With it, I’ve been exploring and snapping Greece, all the way from the Ionian Islands in the west to the Cyclades in the east. I know I should be worrying about wars and parents and magical spears, but that’s all ancillary to the scenes and vignettes playing out on the paved streets and dirt paths that weave across the Hellenic world.
Greece is full of incredible views, epic monuments and, straight away, a huge statue of Zeus dominating the landscape, massive willy hanging out for the world to see. There’s no dearth of things to climb and, more importantly, photograph, but my screenshot folder has even more snapshots of regular life, of people working and partying, or of little bits of striking architecture, especially of the ruined variety.
]]>For those looking to kick more people off cliffs and down holes, who somehow find themselves short of Assassin's Creed Odyssey missions, Ubisoft today added a free new story to their open-world murder simulator. This is the first of seven planned storybits, named 'The Lost Tales of Greece', coming as part of Ubisoft's free post-launch plans (paid expansions are coming too, obvs). Named 'The Show Must Go On', the new questline has a theatrical flair and... well, you'll see.
]]>Skills can make all the difference to your fortunes in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Some focus on upgrading your melee or ranged combat skills, while others can make Alexios or Kassandra a master assassin. Assigning the right set of skills can make your time a heck of a lot easier. New skills are able to be purchased each time you level up, though some skills will come into their own after multiple upgrades that need you to spend more points. Some skills are better in certain circumstances than others, so this guide will go over how to unlock the best abilities, why upgrading them is important, and how to use them well.
]]>Seducing NPCs in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is significantly easier than that of real life. This is largely thanks to the Ancient Greeks's obsession with pleasing the gods with fornication, though your playable character is an utterly charming person too, which helps. Sometimes it can take a little bit of extra work to seduce an NPC, and occasionally it can lead down a more hostile path. Several millennia have passed since the time of the Ancient Greeks, so don't use any of these tips in a real date; however for those wishing to seduce the many characters of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, this guide will go over what you need do to convince them to sleep with Alexios or Kassandra.
]]>While Phobos is a lovely little horse, he is somewhat bland to look at. Thankfully, Assassin's Creed Odyssey allows you to put skins on horses to make them look infinitely more interesting to look at. These include one of the most precious looking steeds in the land - the unicorn. This guide will take you through where to find each of the horse skins and how much drachmae they cost.
]]>It's no real secret that Assassin's Creed Odyssey has a huge map and is full of things to do. You could ignore the side quests completely, but there are some valuable rewards that can be obtained from pitching in; helping your fellow humans, even if they are hiding part of the truth. This guide will take you through each of the side quests in the game and show you how to complete them.
]]>Home to the Spartans, Lakonia is a rather hilly place, full of people who require your help. Some will not appear immediately as you'll need to complete a particular side quest to get the local leaders to trust you with further influencing the region, but once you do so there's plenty to do. This guide will go over all the side quests for the region and how to complete them.
]]>In Sparta, there is a Spartan general who needs your help with massacring some Athenian Polemarchs. He will be near the Tomb of Leonidas and his quests act a lot like a certain Athenian general's. This guide will go over his quests and the main rewards that you will obtain by completing his side quests.
]]>Isolated towards the southern-most point, Kythera Island is deceptively small as it has a fair number of side quests to complete. Some include ousting a cult member, while others lead to a conflict with one of the mythical monsters of legend. This guide will go over all the side quests for the region and how to complete them.
]]>I bet you thought that what with all the spooky stuff we’ve had on the site over the past while, we were leading up to a big horror extravaganza of Halloween-themed stuff today. “Someone is going to use the word ‘spoopy’,” you thought. Well you’re wrong!
All our special Halloween features are about nice things today. We are wall-to-wall niceness. Dare I say suffocatingly cute. Guaranteed no fun jump scares built into the code of the website as you scroll down. The only thing you have to fear is being so relaxed that you fall asleep and nap for too long and then you wake up with a fuzzy brain and aren’t able to do anything except nap again. Oh no! You were going to make dinner but now you’ll just have to eat a can of pringles and a bag of Bitsa Wispa! Let RPS be the light you turn on when your living room is a bit dark and you think the bag on the sofa is actually a monster about to kill you. And you turn on the light and you're like, phew, it's okay, it's just the replacement Bitsa Wispa I bought from Tesco. Everything is okay.
To start, here is a big post rounding up lots of sweet, cute, or otherwise lovely things we’ve written or made or talked about on the site for the last few months.
]]>OK, look, it isn't a Red Dead Redemption 2 edition, because Red Dead Redemption 2 isn't out for PC yet. But if I keep typing Red Dead Redemption 2 into this Google is going to be SO TRICKED and the clicks will pour in and Graham will give me a promotion!
]]>Pephka is home to some rather... interesting characters. Everyone seems to be trying to sell various tours and experiences that claim to have the Minotaur. The claims are dubious at best, since this is a creature of myth and legend. So this guide will go over the main side quests for the territory of Messara and how to complete them.
]]>Just off the side of the Statue of Athena in Athens is Demosthenes. He'll begin pacing and muttering to himself as to how to further the Athenian effort. Noticing your talents as a mercenary, he'll ask you to go kill a bunch of high-ranking Spartans. This guide will go over the main side quests that Demothenes wants you to do for him and how to complete them.
]]>The island of Kephallonia is where you start your journey and there's a lot of stuff to do on such a tiny island. While side quests may seem not worth doing at first, they're a good way of fast-tracking your experience at such an early stage. This guide will go over the main side quests for Kephallonia and how to complete them.
]]>Being one of the most southern-most territories in the Mediterranean Sea, Messara is a deserty area with a lot of people that will need your help. There's a man who is holding the residents of a fishing village hostage, but that's the least of their problems. This guide will go over the main side quests for the territory of Messara and how to complete them.
]]>Home to the arena, and a fair few other sites dedicated to the Minotaur, the eastern side of this southern-most island is full of stuff to do, despite having a much smaller territory than its neighbouring region of Messara. This guide will go through the side quests of the region of Pephka and how to complete them.
]]>While it is perhaps the rarest of all the resources in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Orichalcum ore isn't the most efficient way to get good gear. It's a special mineral that can only be redeemed at a certain shop the territory of Phokis and it's remarkably hard to come obtain a lot of. You'll only be able to find it by completing certain quests from the bulletin boards, or on the very odd occasion they can be found in very remote locations. Our guide will go over how to collect this valuable resource, as well as summarise what little you can spend it on.
]]>Set in the Peloponnesian war, Assassin's Creed Odyssey depicts the fierce fighting between Athens and Sparta was fierce and bloody. Due to plotting and scheming on both sides, many lives were lost. This war is simulated by having each region assign a leader in place to keep the peace. Should it deteriorate, a skirmish will begin and you must choose whether to side with the Athenians or the Spartans. This guide will tell you how to trigger these skirmishes, as well as detail the point of taking over territory.
]]>If there's one advantage to Assassin's Creed's just-a-simulation framing device, it's that you can bend the rules (and timeline) occasionally. While it makes no sense temporally, those who have been hunting in-game achievements in Assassin's Creed Odyssey can cash in their earned Club Units to make Origins hero Bayek of Siwa an officer aboard your flagship, the Adrestia. While he doesn't have much to say, it's nice to see him still finding work four hundred years before he was born.
]]>John's already told you everything that's wrong with Assassin's Creed Odyssey. But you should stop listening to grumpy old men. You should listen to me, so I can inject you with youthful pep.
I completely get where John's coming from. After reading his piece, in fact, I had a week long wobble where I barely touched the game. Then I came back and had a fab time playing all the way through to the 'proper' end - the one where they say "Ho ho, what an odyssey this has been" and slap their knees. Here's why.
]]>Another important Athenian you'll meet is Alkibiades - a rather loose cannon of a man who usually follows his heart's desires. He is also a master manipulator who never explicitly says exactly why he wants people to do a favour for him. In this guide, you'll find all the information regarding exactly what these favours are and how to complete them.
]]>As the first big place you visit on your odyssey, there's a ton more things to do in Phokis. Not least of which are the various side quests that have you diving to find pirate treasure, or making an elixir for a particularly excitable old lady. This guide will go over the main side quests for Phokis and how to complete them.
]]>After departing the island of Kephalonia, you'll land on Megaris, which is experiencing a bit of a conflict as the Spartans have come to invade Athenian territory. There's only a few more of the quests, but they're worth doing all the same for the experience and rewards. This guide will go over the main side quests for Megaris and how to complete them.
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