Archetype hint at the narrative implications of relativistic effects Revealedduring last week’sGeoffening,Exodusis the first game from Archetype Entertainment, a new studio that includes former members of BioWare and Naughty Dog. It’s a sci-fi odyssey with third-person shooting that looks and sounds a lot likeMass Effect, but it has one differentiating Big Idea (aside from Matthew McConaughey): time dilation, whereby time passes different in different places, depending on relative velocity and local gravity....

If there’s one thing worse than E3, it’s NotE3 They won’t, of course. They can’t. E3’s death was a long time coming, but I still think E3 could’ve held on as an anchor event had its organisers, the Entertainment Software Association not blown it when covid-19 hit. But oh, the experience was so much worse. While I was glad to see several showcases dedicated to games which traditionally had little presence at E3, everything combined was all too much....

Need a hint for today’s Connections? Read our guide for help with Connections #185 This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out theConnections hint and answers for Thursday 12th December! Want a hint for Connections today?Piggybacking off the monumental success of daily puzzle gameWordle, the New York Times has another fantastically popular word game out now. It’s calledConnections, and if you haven’t played it before, now’s the time to start....

“We understand that it may be a meme, but please refrain from this behavior for the safety of your health” Valve have askedSteam Deckowners to stop inhaling the fumes from the Steam Deck’s air vent, after the portable PC’s uniquely moreish smell became an obsession among the community. Dozens of posts over on the Steam Deck subreddit show players discovering the aroma from their fresh Decks; I’ve seen posts comparing its scent to a new car, US DIY store Lowes and a fresh PlayStation 1 controller, among everything in-between....

Bring back the old boss gauntlet, I say Back in May when I first played Ubisoft’s new Metroid-like Prince Of Persia game,The Lost Crown, ahead of itsrevealat this year’s Summer Game Fest, I got to sample several hours' worth of some of the early areas inside its cursed mountaintop citadel of Mount Qaf. Some of protagonist Sargon’s powers had been unlocked early to give us a taste of his abilities, and on the whole, I had an exceedingly good time with it....

Follows a free virtual escape room based on Portal Escape Simulatorhas added a free virtual escape room based onAmong Us, letting you puzzle your way out of the backstabby party game’s spaceship The Mini Skeld in a bit of crossover DLC. The escape room follows the rough format of Escape Simulator’s other puzzle rooms (and, indeed, real-life escape rooms), in that a group of friends will need to hunt high and low for the clues they need to crack various riddles and escape - ideally in under 60 minutes, if you’re up for a challenge....

OK, it has turn-based combat Othercidefrom French developer Lightbulb Crew is one of my favourite recent tacticsRPGs. It’s an atmospheric and rewardingly meticulous experience that typically pits you against overwhelming numbers, where victory comes about by carefully exploiting reaction abilities, positioning your troop of weary warriors just-so, and manipulating the initiative bar. At times, for me, it’s up there withInto The Breach. But I do acknowledge that it’san acquired taste, not least because the narrative and extra-dimensional setting are relentlessly unpleasant - a terrible soup of mother metaphors and Penny Dreadful imagery, in which you pit clones against Silent Hill monsters, then liquefy the survivors to spawn new characters....

Guitar hero What’s that I hear behind today’s Advent Calendar door? A sweet guitar riff and a sick drum beat that makes me want to snap my fingers forevermore? Man, I’m tapping my toes just thinking about it! Yep, it’s time to break out those rhythm sticks, folks, because here comesHi-Fi Rush! A rhythm-action game where all your hitsautomaticallyland on the beat might sound like it defeats its own purpose – or, at least, its own challenge....

Cancelled A good parry mechanic is a kind of redemption. Where blocking - aka holding a button to avoid damage - is a concession to the tedious attritional undertow of manyaction games, parrying - aka pressing a button on cue to cancel damage and often, prep a counter - is the act of cutting through the bullshit. It passively reduces any and all visual and thematic overwhelm the game would have you experience to a question of timing....

Vote now as we continue deciding the single best thing in games Last time, you decided thatricochet attacks are better than blue shadows on dodges and dashes. I expected this outcome but am still glad to see a good quarter of you favoured cool essence over cool effort. We continue. This week, in honour of Doom’s 30th birthday (we’ve already written aboutJohn Romero’s memories,motion sickness, andinviting monsters to a birthday party, with more to come), I ask perhaps an impossible question....

Stuck on today’s Wordle word for December 13? Read our hint or find the answer below! This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out theWordle hint and answer for Thursday 12th December! Need a hint for today’s Wordle answer?We have you covered with a list of hints followed by today’s word to help you keep track of your daily streak. Every day,Wordlepresents its legions of players with a deviously simple quandary: can you guess the right five-letter word within just six guesses?...

Here’s how long it takes to complete Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora Wondering how many quests are in Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora?Ubisoft’s open-world extravaganza in the alien world of Pandora offers a good chunk of quests to keep you busy. As you fight against the RDA (the human militant force on Pandora) and learn what it is to be a Na’vi, you’ll have access to a range of main quests that introduce three major Na’vi clans....

Here’s how to complete Finding Home Part One and Two in Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora Wondering how to complete Finding Home Part One and Two in Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora?Finding Home is an optional side quest in Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora that follows the life of an RDA botanist who wrote a selection of sci-fi comics. During these quests, you’ll be given a photo and asked to find the location it was taken from within the world of Pandora....