Eurogamer

Square Enix is currently using a work-from-home system due to the coronavirus pandemic, but this will now be offered as an option on a more long-term basis, as the company has committed to a permanent work-from-home programme.

In a press release, Square Enix explained that working from home would be established as a "permanent and core programme" alongside other work styles starting 1st December. "In so doing, the company hopes not only to create a flexible and diverse working environment, but also to further bolster productivity and help employees achieve the optimal work-life balance," the press release said. "The additional options this programme creates will also enable the company to recruit more diverse human resources, as well as to establish an organisation capable of adapting to unexpected developments such as disasters and changes in employment models."

Many have predicted that the coronavirus pandemic will force long-term changes in the way we approach work, with remote work (or a hybrid system) becoming a more accepted model. The hope is that greater flexibility could open doors to those who would have found it difficult to work in an office, such as those living in remote areas, working parents or those with disabilities (via BBC).

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Remember the Mortal Kombat movie? The original one, from 1995? It's a guilty pleasure of mine. I loved the silly fights and silly dialogue and ropey sets, and I loved Christopher Lambert's silly performance as Raiden, the famous Thunder God.

Now, 25 years later, Lambert has reprised his role as Raiden for a Klassic MK Movie Skin pack for Mortal Kombat 11 - and it's fantastic.

Here we have Lambert's likeness as well as his voice, delivering new dialogue just for the game. His character model looks great, and developer NetherRealm has even added different colour lightning depending on which version of Raiden you're using (Dark Raiden included!).

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Currys PC World is offering a deal on nearly all Nintendo Switch games for Black Friday, taking 10% off their total price when you order two or more.

There is one marked exception to this discount - the recent release Mario 3D All-Stars, but that's just one against many, with a lot of high-demand Switch games under this deal umbrella. We've laid out the best of them below to pick from just below. To apply the deal successfully, add the games you want to your basket and enter the code SWGAME10 at checkout.

If we had to pick the best out of all of these, it wouldn't be easy to say. Most of the games above ranked as "Essential" in their reviews, and many - like Animal Crossing and Breath of the Wild - have become icons in their own right over the last few years, or even just a few months. Honestly, any of them would be worth adding to your gaming library, and considering they're discounted, now might be a good time.

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We've seen a few discounted headsets so far this Black Friday, but SteelSeries have outdone everyone with a sale on basically their entire lineup - including perfect headsets for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and PC. These are the best prices we've seen on these headsets since last Black Friday, and therefore we don't expect them to be repeated any time soon!

We've gone through each sale item and tried to find it cheaper elsewhere, and if we spotted a better deal than SteelSeries is offering we've linked to that instead - you'll see a couple of examples from Amazon and Currys, for example. If we missed any, do let us know in the comments and we'll update accordingly! For the deals, you'll need to sign up for an account on their store to access the deals, but this is free and only takes a few seconds.

We've also rounded up the SteelSeries keyboards, mice and mouse pads in the sale too. These are great choices for PC gaming, including our #2 highest-rated mechanical keyboard in two sizes and several mice that have earned a Digital Foundry recommendation.

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EA has claimed the ongoing row over footballer image rights is an attempt to draw FIFA 21 into a dispute between footballers, their agents and the players' union - and has nothing to do with the game itself.

This week, football superstar Zlatan Ibrahimović claimed EA was using his name and face in FIFA 21 without his permission, and declared it was "time to investigate".

In a tweet, the 39-year-old AC Milan striker wondered who had given EA permission to use his name and face for their billion dollar a year mega-franchise.

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Fallout 76's much-anticipated Steel Dawn update, which introduces the Brotherhood of Steel faction to Appalachia, was originally scheduled to launch on 1st December - but those who logged in yesterday may have found themselves checking the date. That's because the whole update has now been released early, and it's all due to an error which caused Xbox players to download the update a week ahead of schedule.

As explained in a blog post, not only did the error cause Fallout 76 players on Xbox to download the update early, it also prevented them from actually playing the game, making the situation a little more urgent. It seems Bethesda considered simply reverting the update and making everyone wait another week, but settled on bringing the launch forward instead. "We immediately investigated ways to get our Xbox players back in-game as soon as possible, but, through our discussions, the entire BGS team felt confident that Steel Dawn is ready to go," Bethesda said yesterday. "As a result, instead of rolling back the update and making everyone wait another week, we've decided to release the Steel Dawn Update on all platforms."

This week it seemed appropriate to look back at some of our favourite launch titles ever. And today we have a classic.

"Sonic doesn't work in 3D". There's a phrase that would see a rise in popularity throughout the 21st century. As the years turned into decades, our collective memory has been warped. We've lived through Sonic 2006. We've been made cynical. But in 1999, Sega were primed to usher in a new generation, and a more modern take on their beloved mascot.

Sonic Adventure was the first mainline Sonic title since 1994's one-two punch of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Sonic and Sega were back, and more bombastic than ever. This was 128-bit, baby! Ask anyone what the coolest moment on the Dreamcast was, they would confidently respond with Sonic being chased by a killer whale in Emerald Coast, Adventure's opening level.

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December's just around the corner, meaning we're thankfully entering the final stretch of 2020 (surprise alien invasion or Elder God awakening notwithstanding); it also means there's one last wheeze of effort from Xbox Games With Gold before 2021, which closes out the year with developer Double Fine's Stacking, Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, and more.

Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell - originally released as a standalone expansion for Saints Row 4 - will be available, in its Xbox 360 guise, from 1st December to 15th December, and offers a decent blast of entertainment for fans of developer Volition's increasingly irreverent open-world series. Eurogamer called it, "very obviously a budget Saints Row adventure," back in 2015, "[but] a likeable one, where both time and pennies have been spent wisely."

1st December also marks the arrival of The Raven Remastered on Xbox Games With Gold, where it'll remain available until 31st December. This one's an Agatha-Christie-style mystery turned point-and-click-adventure, in which a bumbling Swiss police constable, Anton Jakob Zellner, becomes embroiled in a conspiracy, circa 1964, after he's tasked with guarding an Ancient Egyptian treasure as it travels cross-country on a train.

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Developer Asobo's Flight Simulator is, as even the swiftest glance in its direction will confirm, a staggeringly beautiful game, but it's not always the best at capturing the finer details; that's where its semi-regular World Updates come in, and its latest, available now, gives the vast sprawl of the United States a much-need upgrade.

Fly over Manhattan or Disney World and it might feel like Flight Simulator's rendition of the US is plenty detailed enough already; head out to admire the country's countless geological wonders, though, from the staggering depths of the Grand Canyon to the iconic majesty of Monument Valley, and the illusion can start to fall apart rather dramatically thanks to the somewhat woolly satellite and elevation data used to generate the Earth in the launch game.

Enter Asobo's second World Update, which follows on from its gorgeous overhaul of Japan back in September, introducing a significant number of welcome improvements to the United States' multitudinous geological and man-made landmarks, turning an already beautiful game into an even more breathtaking one, if at all possible.

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World of Warcraft's eighth - eighth - expansion, Shadowlands, is out today! To celebrate, we've joined with Blizzard to offer two lucky winners a grand prize that Blizzard is calling a 'WOW streamer starter kit': a WOW-branded Blue Yeti microphone, a Secret Labs Titan gaming chair in either Horde or Alliance flavour, and of course Shadowlands itself in the sold-out-everywhere physical Collector's Edition.

The Collector's Edition packs in an art book, four Covenant-themed pins, a mouse mat, a soundtrack key and all the content from the digital epic edition: a character boost, a mount, a hearthstone effect, an armour set, a weapon enchant, a pet and 30 days of game time.

Shadowlands takes players to a new adventure in Warcraft's typically outlandish version of the afterlife, as well as a deep levelling revamp and the endgame-transforming Covenant systems.

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If you've ever eyed up Red Dead Redemption 2 but walked away on the basis that there's just too much darned single-player game in there for your tastes, Rockstar has good news; it's giving the game's multiplayer component, Red Dead Online, a standalone release next Tuesday, 1st December, on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

Red Dead Online, you might recall, initially launched in beta form around a month after Red Dead Redemption 2's October 2018 release, giving players the chance to root and toot against fellow humans across the single-player game's expansive map. It didn't have the smoothest of starts, admittedly, particularly as Rockstar struggled to remedy what many felt was an especially egregious griefing problem, but by the time it left beta the following May, there was a sense it was beginning to move in the right direction.

This is impressive stuff. Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War manages the cross-gen transition gracefully, delivering excellent performance whether you're gaming on PS5 or Xbox Series consoles. The premium machines also benefit from two key features: 120Hz and ray traced shadows, both of which are transformative to the experience. Microsoft's pint-sized new console - the Series S - is also impressive enough, but appears to lack the signature next-gen features its more expensive counterparts deliver.

Let's kick off by digging into the features that separate Series X and PS5 from all of the other versions. That stars with ray traced shadows, which - as the video below demonstrates - replace the baked shadow maps enjoyed in the other versions of the game. In terms of overall effectiveness, RT shadows are often overlooked, but the effect in Cold War is exceptional, almost as if the game's art designs are built around the technology. Scenes that look perfectly fine with traditional shadow maps look so much better with ray traced shadows enabled: soft and diffuse at distance, ultra-sharp close up, just as they should be. Series S does allow you to download an 11GB RT pack, but there is no option in-game to enable it - though we've asked Activision for clarification.

Hot on the tail of last week's first look at Cyberpunk 2077 running on consoles, courtesy of Xbox One X and Xbox Series X, developer CD Projekt has released a second helping of console gameplay, this time focusing on PS4 Pro and PlayStation 5 via backward compatibility.

For its latest trailer, CD Projekt has opted to showcase a section of gameplay from right at the start of the adventure, focussing on an early portion of the Nomad Lifepath, one three Lifepath options (alongside Streetkid and Corpo) available in-game. Notably, some of this footage was leaked online over the weekend, but it's much better served by this official gameplay capture.

CD Projekt's preamble begins with a glimpse of Cyberpunk 2077's character creator (remaining strictly PG and firmly above the collarbone for this PlayStation showing) and a brisk vehicular tour of Night City as seen on PlayStation 4 Pro.

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Neither Microsoft or Sony were happy with how next-gen pre-orders went this year, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said.

Amidst early morning rushes, online queues, numerous retailer fails and stolen deliveries, the launch of multiple next-gen consoles has been a bit of a mixed bag.

Speaking on The Verge's Decoder podcast, Spencer said both he and PlayStation head honcho Jim Ryan had "lamented" how frustrating an experience it had been for people simply trying to put down money for a console - and suggested something would have to change next time around.

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With both the Xbox Series X/S and PS5 having launched this month, Black Friday has come around at an impeccable time for early console adopters in the UK. Though most sales have been focused on the PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, that doesn't mean next-gen has been completely neglected either.

There's been a much larger launch line-up for both consoles than we've ever seen with previous generations, though a large part of this is due to a greater selection of cross-generation titles being available, many of which also offer a free next-gen upgrade. That isn't limited to just digital editions either - existing disc copies can be freely upgraded too, so some linked deals will take you to Xbox One or PS4 copies.

Keep in mind that some titles here haven't yet launched their next-gen versions but are due to soon, so you're essentially pre-ordering that copy while obtaining the existing version for cheap. You can find Sony's full PS5 list of digital discounts and Microsoft's entire selection here, but here's our top next-gen picks so far:

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Ever on-brand, it seems that professional footballers' agents, go-to villains of the sporting world, are at it again.

For once it seems their antics have bled over to the non-sporting world, however - or at least the sport-adjacent one of Football Manager.

Speaking on The Football Manager Show, a podcast by The Athletic, Sports Interactive studio head and long-time FM director Miles Jacobson mentioned a few of them have been in his ear, even going as far as to offer bribes to boost their representee's ratings - only to be swiftly denied.

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UPDATE 3.30pm UK: Amidst a flurry of activity unveiling Fortnite's new monthly subscription offer, Epic Games appears to have inadvertently revealed a major Star Wars crossover character set for the game next month.

Images showing off skins from next season's battle pass include a certain popular character front-and-centre, though reliable leak source Shiina has said this does not mean the game's next season is Star Wars focused, as the current Marvel season has been. Instead, this character is the equivalent of Aquaman a couple of season's back - a guest in a battle pass otherwise filled with original characters.

ORIGINAL STORY 3.10pm UK: Epic Games has confirmed it will introduce a paid subscription tier to Fortnite, beginning in December.

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Hitman 3's third location has been shown off today for the first time - and it's the Chinese city of Chongqing.

Developer IO Interactive has created a version of the neon-lit city which shows off Hitman 3's shinier next-gen visuals. It all looks especially nice at night and in the rain, when drops dribble down the side of Agent 47's bald head.

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and capable PCs will all run Hitman 3 at 4K and 60fps, with HDR support, IO said today.

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EA Sports has outlined all the new features for FIFA 21 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.

In a presentation attended by Eurogamer, representatives from EA Sports revealed a raft of new mechanics for FIFA 21 next-gen, which is a free update for existing owners of FIFA 21 or a standalone $70 purchase due out 4th December. These features are not coming to the PC version of the game (here's EA's explanation for why).

On the visuals side, FIFA 21 next-gen runs at up to 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, and has deferred rendering and runtime lighting, which improves the realism of textures, including players. Some top players have new strand-based hair tech. Eurogamer was shown Liverpool keeper Alison with this tech enabled, and as he moved you could see individual hairs bounce about. It was a bit exaggerated, in the way video game hair tech tends to be.

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FIFA 21 on PlayStation 5 makes use of the DualSense controller's adaptive triggers to simulate player fatigue.

It means if you try to sprint with a tired player, you'll feel resistance from the right trigger.

During a preview event attended by Eurogamer, FIFA producer Sam Rivera said this new feature will tell the user how tired their players are through feel alone. The more tired the player, the more RT resistance you'll feel.

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FIFA 21 on PC will not get the next-gen features coming to the game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S in order to keep the game's minimum specs down, EA has said.

Today, EA Sports outlined some of the eye-catching features coming to FIFA 21 on next-gen consoles, including ball deformation, muscle definition and a new camera angle. Current-gen console players get all this and more as part of a free update - but none of it will be made available to PC players.

During a recent preview event attended by Eurogamer, representatives of EA Sports were asked why the PC version will be left behind with "gen four" features as PS5 and Xbox Series X and S gets "gen five" features.

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Mojang has announced a new season pass for Minecraft Dungeons which will contain four additional DLC packs on top of the two already launched.

The enjoyable Diablo-lite spin-off first arrived earlier this year and quickly added two extra packs, Jungle Awakens and Creeping Winter, which you could buy separately or with a "Hero Pass".

Dungeons' next and already-announced DLC Howling Peaks will arrive on 9th December, Mojang announced in a blog post it tweeted last night but which is currently offline. (Google's cached version is still visible.) As with other packs, Howling Peaks will add a new biome, fresh story missions and enemies, plus more gear and items.

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The Razer Blade Pro 17 is one of the most popular gaming laptops, with high-end performance in a slim aluminium chassis, and it's also part of the best Black Friday laptop deal we've spotted so far. Right now you can pick up a fully kitted out model from Ebuyer for £1600, down from its usual price of £2300, a savings of £700.

That's a lot to spend on any laptop, but for a high-end laptop with RTX 2070 graphics card, 10th-gen Core i7 processor and 300Hz screen it's an excellent price - especially given how much better the Razer Blade Pro looks and feels compared to more barebones options from the likes of Dell and HP, thanks to its 20mm thick aluminium unibody design. That's the same basic concept as the MacBook Pro, but in a black finish that looks and feels ultra high-end.

We actually tested the 15-inch version of this laptop with the same specs (see the YouTube video embedded below), and were thoroughly impressed with how much performance is squeezed into such a portable machine. You won't be able to hit 300fps in every game, for sure, but the Core i7 and RTX 2070 combination is potent enough to unlock extremely high frame-rates in esports titles while still having enough firepower to hit a solid 60fps with RTX effects in most - if not all - recent and upcoming AAA releases, like Cyberpunk 2077.

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Given the enormous commercial success of GTA 5, it feels almost inevitable we're going to see a sequel at some point, but that hasn't stopped fans from trying to read tea leaves to figure out exactly when GTA 6 is going to release. Once again, fans think they've found a reference to GTA 6 - and this time it's centred on a dirt road in the middle of Virginia. That's certainly a little off the beaten track.

The wild theory began when Rockstar published a teaser for the new GTA Online update, at the bottom of which fans spotted a set of GPS coordinates:

Popping these coordinates into Google Maps or Earth lands you at Middle Mountain Trail, a deserted track in the middle of Virginia. Yet as noted by Kotaku, fans think the shape of the road is actually a clue for GTA 6. The trail looks a little like the Roman numeral VI, and this has sent fans into a bit of a tizzy.

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I'm a night fisherman bobbing up and down on the open sea. Suddenly, a larger boat appears from the darkness alongside me. The younger man on board hails me. I can see the butt of a shotgun protruding from his back. "Haven't seen any immigrants out here, have you?" he asks me (words to that effect). "Only, we've had reports..."

The thing is, I have.

*

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It's always tough to secure a new console at launch - but it has seemed particularly difficult this time around for the in-demand PlayStation 5, which remains out of stock in the UK almost everywhere.

But while limited availability and huge demand are nothing new, a Business Insider report has revealed the sheer scale and organisation of scalping present, which saw thousands of consoles scooped up by organised groups.

One scalper ring claimed to have worked together to amass a haul of nearly 2500 PS5s when the console went on sale in the UK last week, on top of "just under 1000" PS5 pre-orders placed back in September.

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Football superstar Zlatan Ibrahimović has claimed EA is using his name and face in FIFA 21 without his permission, and declared it's "time to investigate".

In a bizarre tweet, the AC Milan striker - who is still banging in goals left, right and centre at the ripe old age of 39 - wondered who had given EA permission to use his name and face for their billion dollar a year mega-franchise.

Ibrahimović pointed the finger at FIFPro, the global representative of professional football players, who he claims to be unaware of. EA - and indeed PES developer Konami - license the use of thousands of footballers' faces via FIFPro each year. Teams and leagues are negotiated separately.

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If you want a pristine copy of Super Mario Bros. 3, I hope you've been saving your coins, as a sealed version of the game has sold for auction at $156k (£117k) - earning it the title of most expensive video game ever sold at auction.

The sealed variant of the NES game was sold by Texas-based auctioneer Heritage Auctions last Friday, beating the previous title-holder Super Mario Bros., a copy of which sold for $114k (£85k) back in July.

Beyond being in excellent condition, the Super Mario Bros. 3 copy was also exceptional due to the layout of its packaging. "Exceedingly rare are sealed copies with the word 'Bros.' formatted to the left, covering one of Mario's signature white gloves," Heritage Auctions explained. "Collectors have spent years looking for such a version - the earliest in the Super Mario Bros. 3 production history - and usually come up empty-handed."

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Good news for those who want to catch 'em all - the Expansion Pass for Pokemon Sword and Shield is discounted on ShopTo, meaning that players will get to explore whole new sections of the Galar region, filled with new and old Pokemon alike.

An important thing to note - what's actually being sold to your is a code to download the Expansion Pass to your Nintendo Switch. That's all well and good, but there's two Expansion Passes available - one for Pokemon Sword and one for Pokemon Shield. They're not compatible with the opposing game, so buying the Sword Expansion won't do anything for your copy of Pokemon Shield.

Fortunately, ShopTo has said that once you install the code on your Switch, you'll have the choice on which version you want to download. Pick the one that's compatible with your game! You can't reverse this decision and you can only download one.

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Update (7:30PM): After briefly offering stock, both Currys and Game have now confirmed their Series X supplies have been exhausted. The next opportunity will come via a limited amount of stock at Argos, available "EARLY tomorrow morning" (emphasis theirs), on Wednesday the 25th of November. Follow @dealsfoundry for more stock updates as we have them. Original article continues:

Trying to find an Xbox Series X? Game currently have pre-orders of the console in a range of bundle deals, making this a good chance to pick up a Series X and whatever games, accessories or merchandise you planned to buy in one fell swoop.

The Xbox Series X is also available to purchase via Xbox All Access, which hasn't been available since the chaotic initial per-order period in September. (All Access bundles the console with 24 months of Game Pass Ultimate for £28.99 a month, making it slightly cheaper than buying both upfront.)

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I'm writing this after losing my first game of the season. I'm managing United, as always - I'm an 'always manage the team you support' kind of FM player, as opposed to your Bundesliga hipsters or local club saviours, whom I have infinite admiration for but not a shred of envy - and of all teams to finally collapse against, I've lost away to Liverpool.

The first two goals were an injustice. Two penalties, both awarded by VAR, neither - and I mean this, neither - were anything close to a pen, and yes I'm aware of the irony and yes that does make it worse. The first was a clean tackle, a Wan-Bissaka classic, the second about a yard outside the box. After that the lads collapsed, as they have been alarmingly wont to do in the real world, and that was that. A good 20 games unbeaten and the one match I care about we lose 4-0, all thanks to some VAR nonsense and United bottling it. Once again, Manchester United brings me only pain.

But that's football! And that's Football Manager. With FM21 the two are closer than ever and, Klopp-inflicted drubbings aside, the result is pretty special. The team at Sports Interactive has had to weather an especially turbulent year, what with football itself being as disrupted as the studio trying to simulate it, but nonetheless they've excelled with FM21. It's a wonderful effort. Much of it down to that incredible closeness to the real thing.

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Surgeon Simulator developer Bossa has suffered a round of redundancies as its co-founders target a fresh start for the studio in 2021.

Bossa confirmed to Eurogamer that initially 13 positions out of the 85-strong London company were at risk, but this figure has reduced to 10 and could be lower by the time the consultation period ends.

A source at the studio told Eurogamer Bossa had suffered a number of internal issues throughout 2020 as the company shifted to work from home and then crunched in the months leading up to the August release of comedy physics game Surgeon Simulator 2.

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This week it seemed appropriate to look back at some of our favourite launch titles ever. And today we have a real treat.

Just before the new school year began in 2005, I took some birthday money and whatever was left over from selling my PS2 (a STUPID decision, yes) to purchase a PSP, a device I'd been salivating over for almost a year. As my brother went into Toys R Us to buy his own toy (a flashy, Sony MP3 player), I was waiting with my mum in the car.

I couldn't resist opening the box up, slowly slotting in the handheld's battery and tying up the included wrist strap. And then I couldn't resist firing up the most recognisable game I had in my bundle - and ignoring Mercury and Lumines until I got home. Wipeout Pure. The anticipation and relief almost made me pass out.

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If you're the kind of person that's frequently frustrated by the fact your game-assigned Crusader Kings 3 ruler isn't, say, sufficiently beardy, minuscule, or Ugro-Permian enough to suit your own highly specific tastes, developer Paradox now has the answer in the form of its robust new Ruler Designer, which arrives tomorrow, 24th November, in the free 1.2 update.

Crusader Kings 3's Ruler Designer does pretty much exactly what it sounds like, providing a wide range of in-game tools and tweakable parameters so that players can quickly and efficiently create the ten-foot-high bald tyrant (or otherwise) of their dreams.

The first step in your quest for perfection is to define your ruler's background, with options available for sex, sexual orientation, faith, culture, name (which can be auto-generated based on your selected culture if you're feeling uninspired), as well as coat of arms.

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It's been two years since Lara Croft's last video game outing - developer Eidos-Montréal's grim trilogy capper Shadow of the Tomb Raider - and now, finally, Square Enix is teasing Lara's long-overdue return in the form of next year's Tomb Raider Reloaded. You might wish to immediately temper your expectations, however, given that it's a free-to-play mobile game.

Square shared its Tomb Raider Reloaded announcement news on Twitter, but offered little in the way of additional information regarding its new "action arcade" project, aside from it being the work of developer Emerald City Games (most recently responsible for free-to-play effort G.I. Joe: War on Cobra) and Square Enix's London mobile team.

Those absolutely desperate for additional details, however, do have the option of dissecting the 40-second long teaser trailer accompanying the announcement, which offers a dramatic slo-mo pan across some menacingly posed foes - including a wolf, rock monster, giant spider, and T. rex - before settling on Lara herself, guns a-blazing.

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It's a big day for The World Ends With You fans; not only has Square Enix revealed that the 14-year-old cult classic fighting-and-fashion JRPG is getting a very long-awaited sequel next year, it's confirmed that its previously announced anime adaptation is launching in April 2021.

The World Ends With You: The Animation, as the adaptation is matter-of-factly known, takes its narrative cue from Square's much-loved 2007 Nintendo DS game, telling the story of teenage protagonist Neku Sakuraba, as he becomes unwittingly embroiled in a deadly contest known as the Reaper's Game, which plays out across Tokyo's fashionable Shibuya district.

"Neku awakens in the middle of Shibuya's bustling Scramble Crossing with no memory of how he got there," explained Square at the time of the adaptation's unveiling, "Little does he know he's been transported to an alternate plane of existence known as the Underground (UG)".

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While we eagerly await some cheap consoles in the round of Nintendo Switch Black Friday offers arriving later in the week, you can pop over to the Nintendo Official UK Store where all Super Mario Lego sets are 15 per cent off in the Black Friday sale.

Yep, that discount is on every set (that's in stock, at least). Probably the most exciting of the lot is the Lego Super Mario Starter Course for £42.49. In it, you'll find everything you need to get creating and playing your own Mario levels in their new blocky format.

Or, maybe, you could be tempted to plump for the Lego NES now it's £178.49. That'll give you a big project to get on with over the upcoming holidays.

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When you need a pause from clambering over mossy hillocks and skewering things with swords, Assassin's Creed Valhalla offers up Orlog - a game of beans, bowls, and dice-chucking that's now set to make the jump into the real-world with a physical version next year.

Throughout Valhalla, protagonist Eivor encounters characters only too happy to break out Orlog, and players that accept must attempt to whittle down their opponent's lives by rolling symbols on dice to either attack, block, or gain a God Favour - used to modify basic rolls at the end of each round. Dice can be thrown up to three times per round, and players can select which symbols they wish to keep between rolls, bringing a layer of strategy to proceedings.

Although there's evidence to suggest real-world vikings did enjoy dice games, Orlog is actually an original creation designed specifically for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. As co-development game director Benoit Richer explained to Eurogamer's board-game-focussed sister site Dicebreaker, Ubisoft's research failed to uncover any authentic viking game rules, so the goal with Orlog was to create something "that would be 'credible' rather than historically accurate".

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For some reason people seem hell-bent on porting Doom to every device on the planet - there's even a Tumblr blog dedicated to keeping up with this obsession - and the latest to get the Doom treatment is the Nintendo Game & Watch. Or its re-release version, at least.

The original Game & Watch was first released in Japan in 1980, introducing the d-pad controller and providing Nintendo with its first big commercial success. Nintendo recently re-released the handheld to celebrate Mario's 35th anniversary, and the new hardware has allowed hackers to mess around with the tech and port more games to the device.

YouTuber stacksmashing managed to get Doom running, but not without some serious compromises: he had to remove lots of textures, disable the sound, and slightly reduce the screen resolution (thanks, Kotaku). Despite all this, the game is playable, as you can see in the video below:

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Bad news first: you'll not find any great deals on the Xbox Series X or S this Black Friday. Microsoft is unlikely to dramatically cut the price of a console so soon after launch - even now, during the capitalist holiday to end all capitalist holidays. But don't despair yet, Microsoft fans! There is at least one sparkly new thing you can get your hands on for cheap. The new Xbox Wireless controller - hardly a month old - is £10 off pretty much everywhere it's sold.

Promotional materials boast of 'sculpted surfaces' and 'refined geometry'. But why would you actually want to splash out on one of these sleek goobers?

Cross-compatibility is probably the biggest draw. The new model works not just on the Xbox One, Series S and Series X, but also PC, and (sometime in the near future) Android and iPhone, so you can enjoy that delectable geometry no matter what machine you're playing on. There's also a dishy new D-Pad (dish shaped, I mean), a dedicated 'share' button for influencers and influencer wannabes, and a USB-C port so you can charge and play simultaneously. Plus, matte finish. Everyone loves a matte finish.

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