Author: Trafficblast

Steam may have revolutionized how PC games are sold, but it’s no longer the only big player in town. The latest challenger to Steam’s dominance is the Epic Game Store, where you can pick up titles like Fortnite and Ashen, as well as exclusives like Supermassive’s early access title Hades. To help spark interest in the new digital storefront, Epic is giving away a different game for free every two weeks. The first freebie is the open-ocean game Subnautica, which is available until December 27.

Normally selling for $25, Subnautica kicks off as you crash-land on a submerged alien world. Your first job is to make sure you can survive by finding food, fresh water, and crafting materials you can use to make everything from diving gear to underwater living quarters. As you progress, you’ll assemble tools that let you venture further into the depths of the open world, acquiring better materials and finding clues to what made you crash in the first place.

In our Subnautica review, critic Brett Todd gave the game 9/10, writing, “Subnautica’s story, scares, and beautifully rendered underwater setting make it one of the most fascinating survival games around. You will always have to grind away to a certain extent to gather necessary resources, but the overall experience is both accessible and refined. Subnautica may not make you eager to get back to the beach this summer, but right now there is no better virtual way to experience the beauty, and the terror, of the deep blue sea.”

After Subnautica goes back to regular price, the Epic Game Store will make Super Meat Boy free to own between December 28 and January 10.

Discord also recently threw its hat in the PC game distribution ring, and it’s not letting the Epic Game Store off without a fight. The company announced that in 2019, it will undercut every other competitor in terms of revenue sharing with developers. If competition is good for customers, let the games begin.

Destiny 2‘s weekly Exotic vendor is back again, bringing a fresh batch of Exotics to help you fill out your Year One collection. This week, you can find the enigmatic servant of the Nine on Io, where he’s waiting with his usual crop: an Exotic weapon, a piece of Exotic armor for each character class, and a Fated Engram, which gives you a single Year One Exotic that you don’t already have in your Collections.

Watch how to get to Xur and what he’s carrying in the video above, and read our Xur guide for this weekend for all the details

With Destiny 2’s holiday event, The Dawning, taking place this weekend, there’s another reason to visit Xur while he’s around. This year’s holiday activity has you gathering ingredients from enemies you kill and putting them in a special oven to create cookies to give to the characters of the solar system. You’ll want to make sure to bring a batch of Strange Cookies to Xur in order to knock out all the Triumphs that come with the event.

If you aren’t sure how to make Strange Cookies, good news–we have a complete guide of Dawning recipes and a rundown of how to earn the special Exotic sparrow, Dawning Cheer.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix

Titan has published a variety of comics based on Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise this past year, but one of the more notable has been Assassin’s Creed: Conspiracies, a two-part standalone series previously only available in French. If you missed out on the individual issues and would like to experience the saga in its entirety, Titan has announced it is releasing both parts together as one graphic novel, and it hits comic stores next week.

The Assassin’s Creed: Conspiracies collection releases on December 18, and it combines both issues of the series into one 104-page graphic novel. Unlike any of the video games, Conspiracies is set during World War II and follows the story of Eddie Gorm, a rookie member of the Assassin Brotherhood who must stop the Templars from unleashing an atomic weapon. Here’s Titan’s synopsis of the series:

“Europe, World War II: On the sidelines of the race for the atomic bomb, discover the story of Eddie Gorm and his integration into the Assassin Brotherhood while he infiltrates the Templars to foil their plan to create a devastating weapon.”

Assassin’s Creed: Conspiracies is written by Guillaume Dorison, with artwork by Jean-Baptise Hostache and Patrick Pion. Ahead of its release, Titan has provided GameSpot an exclusive preview of the upcoming collection. You can click through the gallery below to read a 10-page excerpt from the graphic novel.

Conspiracies certainly isn’t the only Assassin’s Creed comic from Titan this year. The publisher has also released new issues in its Assassin’s Creed Origins series, which picks up after the events of the Assassin’s Creed Origins game and features historical figures such as Cleopatra. Most recently, Titan published the final chapter of Assassin’s Creed Uprising, which concludes the Phoenix Project saga introduced in Assassin’s Creed Unity.

Need a good reason to return to Dishonored 2 and its standalone DLC episode, Death of the Outsider, over the holidays? Bethesda has one–fire up the games and you’ll unlock free new content, plus an old preorder bonus from before Dishonored 2 was released.

Publisher Bethesda announced the release of new content for Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider in a blog post. It runs down the two new offerings for both Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider. First is a Black and White mode that can change the feel of the game pretty significantly. Only one thing maintains its color when you turn on the black and white filter: blood. Sounds suitably noir, and as Bethesda puts it, extremely moody.

The second content addition is a Mission+ mode. Fire that up, and you can revisit any of the missions from either Dishonored or Death of the Outsider with all weapons and powers unlocked. The idea is to let you mess around with the full compliment of killing abilities available in the game, so you’re free to experiment as you see fit with no constraints.

Finally, you can also get the Imperial Assassin’s Pack in Dishonored 2, which was originally offered as a preorder bonus that comes with various in-game goodies:

• Duelist’s Luck bone charm
• Void Favor bone charm
• In-game Antique Serkonan Guitar for Emily or Corvo to interact with
• In-game book: Goodbye, Karnaca – A Musician’s Farewell
• 500 bonus coins

While the new stuff in Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider is free, it does require a step to unlock. You’ll need to login to a Bethesda account from the main menu screen of both games to get your new content. If you don’t have one, you can register for a Bethesda account on the publisher’s website, Bethesda.net.

(Presented by Oculus) In the second episode of the Change the Game VR Charity Challenge, MissesMae and STPeach live their worst nightmares in Face Your Fears. Will they be able to stomach the terror to win $100K for charity? Visit http://www.vrcharitychallenge.com for more info!

Learn more about our two awesome charities:

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When you weren’t looking, Titans somehow became the best DC adaptation on TV. Now, with it’s Season 1 finale, the DC Universe original series looks to be doubling down on just how insane things can get in this world of vigilantes. Thus far, we’ve met two Robins–Dick Grayson and Jason Todd. And it’s about time Batman showed up.

The Batman shown in the trailer, though, likely isn’t the one you’re used to. This Batman has snapped, and he’s on a murderous rampage. As the two-minute clip reveals, Commissioner Gordon is dead and, as a means of revenge, Batman is set on killing the Joker.

This dark turn fits in well with the tone of what we’ve seen from Titans so far, but pitting Robin against Batman is a major moment for DC lore. With Bruce Wayne so off the rails and only Dick to stop him, the Season 1 finale could be one of the most epic DC moments we’ve ever seen play out in live action.

Of course, that all depends on just how willing Titans is to show Batman. Thus far, he’s been mentioned quite a bit and shown in the shadows. The trailer includes a lot more of the Caped Crusader, though we never see his face–every shot is from behind.

Given that this episode is being promoted at Robin vs. Batman, it seems as though they’ll have to show Batman–and give him a voice. At this point, though, no casting for the Dark Knight has been announced.

Whatever the case, the trailer of blood he’s leaving throughout Gotham city–we see the bodies of Two-Face, Riddler, and the Joker in the trailer–is pretty disturbing. The death of Commissioner Gordon would surely impact Batman on a deep level, but will Titans commit to making him the villain he’s painted as in the trailer?

Thankfully, you’re only going to have to wait a week to find out. The Season 1 finale of Titans premieres on Friday, December 21, on DC Universe.