As Christmas approaches, your opportunity to buy gifts for friends, family, and--perhaps most importantly--yourself, shrinks by the day. To help encourage people to finish their holiday shopping, many retailers are running sales right now. And one of the best gaming deals we've seen is at Walmart, where you can save $100 on Xbox One S and X console bundles. That means you can pick up an Xbox One S with a game for just $200, or an even more powerful Xbox One X and a game for $400. It's unclear when this deal will end, so don't delay.Xbox One S consoles are available with a wide array of pack-in games, ranging from Battlefield V and Fallout 76 to Minecraft and NBA 2K19. That's perfect for anyone who hasn't upgraded to a 4K television set and doesn't plan to anytime soon. Here are the Xbox One S bundles available now for $200.Xbox One SXbox One S 1TB with Battlefield V -- $200Xbox One S 1TB with Fallout 76 -- $200Xbox One S 1TB with Fortnite -- $200Xbox One S 1TB with Forza Horizon 4 -- $200Xbox One S 1TB with Minecraft -- $200Xbox One S 1TB with NBA 2K19 -- $200Xbox One S 1TB with PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds -- $200If you or the person you're buying for has a 4K television, you'll probably want to get an Xbox One X instead. The most powerful video game console on the market, the Xbox One X can push true 4K graphics, which means you'll get the most out of your TV and the console. Here are the discounted bundles available at Walmart right now.Xbox One XXbox One X 1TB -- $400Xbox One X 1TB with Fallout 76 -- $400Xbox One X 1TB with NBA 2K19 -- $400Xbox One X 1TB with PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds -- $400If you need help choosing which model to get, check out our Xbox One S and X console comparison, which goes over the differences between the two hardware configurations in detail. And if you'd like some help picking which bundle to buy, you can read our reviews of the games below.Battlefield V reviewFallout 76 reviewFortnite reviewForza Horizon 4 reviewNBA 2K19 reviewPlayerUnknown's Battlgrounds review Info from Gamespot.com

Rockstar continues to tweak and refine Red Dead Redemption 2's multiplayer mode, Red Dead Online. A new update for the game is now available on PS4 and Xbox One, and along with making general stability improvements and other fixes, it enables microtransactions.As Rockstar detailed on its blog, Red Dead Online's in-game store is now live as part of the latest update, giving players the option to purchase gold using real-world money. The gold is sold in various bundles, ranging from 25 bars ($10) to 350 bars ($100). You can see the prices for each bundle below:25 gold bars -- $10 US / £9 / €1055 gold bars -- $20 US / £18.49 / €20150 gold bars -- $50 US / £45 / €50245 gold bars -- $75 US / £70 / €75350 gold bars -- $100 US / £90 / €100In addition to these bundles, Rockstar is offering a special one-time deal on 25 gold bars for $5. The developer is also gifting everyone who has participated in the Red Dead Online beta thus far an additional 15 gold bars. To qualify for this gift, you'll need to play the mode by Thursday, December 20. Rockstar says that all gold bars should be delivered to players by December 24.That isn't the only freebie Rockstar has for players. As an added bonus, those who pre-ordered Red Dead Redemption 2 or purchased the game's Special or Ultimate editions will receive extra RDO$. Players who picked up the Special edition will receive $100 RDO$, while those who bought the Ultimate edition will get $1,000 RDO$. Finally, everyone who pre-ordered the game will take home an extra $100 RDO$ on top of the other bonuses. Rockstar says the cash will automatically be added to players' accounts starting December 21.There are plenty more updates on the way for Red Dead Online in the near future. Rockstar says it will continue working to address the community's feedback, noting that new anti-griefing measures and gameplay balance improvements are coming. The developer also says it will introduce new features, modes, and other content for Red Dead Online in the new year.Info from Gamespot.com

Another weekend is here, and with it, another visit from Xur, the strangely tentacle-faced Destiny 2 vendor who offers a chance to buy Exotic weapons and armor each week. The start of the Destiny 2 holiday event called The Dawning means that many of us have been baking special cookies to give to the game's characters, so make sure to give Xur a gift before you get one for yourself.This week, you'll find Xur hanging out on Io, in the Giant's Scar region. Load into the area and then ride your sparrow north, past the machinery, to find a cave set in the wall of the area. Check out the map below for his exact location. Don't forget to make some Strange Cookies to bring him as part of Eva Levante's baking quest.As is always the case, Xur is packing Exotics from the Year One collection--sorry, still no Forsaken or Black Armory Exotics for sale. Your option for an Exotic weapon this week is Sweet Business, along with one piece of Exotic armor for each of the three classes. If you don't already have it, Sweet Business is a great weapon to snag because it's a Primary auto rifle that basically functions as a minigun, picking up firing speed the longer you hold down the trigger. You get increased accuracy when firing from the hip, and the gun will automatically load any ammo pickups from the ground into the magazine while firing, all of which makes it a pretty devastating bullet hose.On the armor side, Hunters have the Orpheus Rig leg armor, which adds more shots to the Moebius Quiver of your Shadowshot super, and gives you ability energy for every enemy you tether with it, which is great for encounters with tons of enemies, like Escalation Protocol. Warlocks get the Claws of Ahamkara gauntlets, which grant a second melee charge to the user, and Titans can grab the Hallowfire Heart chest armor, which makes solar abilities recharge faster, especially when using a solar super.Here are all the Exotics Xur offers this week and what they'll cost you:Sweet Business (Exotic auto rifle) -- 29 Legendary ShardsHallowfire Heart (Exotic Titan chest armor) -- 23 Legendary ShardsOrpheus Rig (Exotic Hunter leg armor) -- 23 Legendary ShardsClaws of Ahamkara (Exotic Warlock gauntlets) -- 23 Legendary ShardsYou can also buy a Fated Engram, if you can afford it. Dropping 97 Legendary Shards on the item will grant you one Year One Exotic you don't already have for that character. You can also snag a Five of Swords challenge card for free, which allows you to add difficulty modifiers that increase your score in Nightfall runs.We're still waiting for Xur to start offering Exotics from Year Two, although it's not clear when, or even if, he'll start selling the new Exotics from Forsaken and beyond. We do know that Xur will soon start to offer something new, though: weekly bounties. According to Bungie's content map for Destiny 2, annual pass holders will be able to start getting bounties from Xur starting in Season 6, which runs from March through May. What those bounties will entail isn't clear yet, but maybe they'll finally shed some light on what Xur's deal is, and his enigmatic masters, the Nine.In the meantime, there's plenty to do in The Black Armory expansion that recently dropped, which packs an additional five Exotic weapons. We know that at least one of them will come from an Exotic quest launching later in the season, and it seems a second is part of an Exotic quest hidden in the forges. Info from Gamespot.com

Over the next few days, we will reveal what we believe are the 10 best games of 2018, organized by release date. Then on December 19, we will reveal which of the nominees gets to take home the coveted title of GameSpot's Game of the Year. So be sure to come back then for the big announcement, and in the meantime, follow along with all of our other end-of-the-year coverage collected in our Best of 2018 hub.Best known for 2013's Papers, Please, developer Lucas Pope has a knack for crafting memorable and evocative games that engage your deductive reasoning. His latest game, Return of the Obra Dinn, once again puts you in an administrative role--you're an insurance adjuster for the East India Company in the early 19th century--and tasks you with identifying who or what a person is based on limited information. In this case, you have to discover the fates of all 60 crew members and passengers aboard the Obra Dinn, which was lost at sea only to drift back to harbor several years later with no one on board alive.Armed with a magical pocket watch that allows you to see and explore each victim's final moment and a mostly empty notebook to fill in--as well as your own detective skills and possibly a real-life notebook--you go from corpse to corpse gleaning what you can from short snippets of voiced-but-not-animated scenes frozen in time. Your notebook includes a passenger manifest with names, jobs, and countries of origin as well as an artist's rendition of life on the ship, and differentiating between one seaman and another is no small feat. Return of the Obra Dinn does not hold your hand, and you have to pay very close attention to keep track of who's who, how they died, and, if they were murdered, who did it.At first, you won't be able to make sense of much. You might see one man shoot another in a scene but not know either of their names, or you might be unsure whether an attack counts as being "knifed" or being "killed (sword)." But as you uncover more and more memories and explore the ship within each, the pieces will begin to fall into place. There's an incredible amount of detail packed into Obra Dinn's mostly still, hauntingly beautiful world, and the smallest of those details--like who is standing next to whom in a memory--give you insight into relationships and roles aboard the fated ship. An omniscient, voiceless narrator confirms your conclusions in groups of threes, and as you enter the third fate into your notebook, the screen goes dark, the music changes, and text appears: "Well done." This same narrator warns you from the start that some fates will be clearer than others, and some will require you to more or less guess. But sometimes all you need is one piece of information to start a domino effect of deductions--process of elimination and educated guesses go a long way if you know you have two fates correct--and it's those "aha" moments that make Return of the Obra Dinn so compelling.As you deduce more and more fates, your investment in the small details gives way to investment in the broader story of the Obra Dinn. Someone's accent might give you a clue as to who they are, but hearing them speak or, in some cases, die, makes them more of a person than a puzzle piece. Understanding relationships helps you determine who's a high-ranking crew member and who's a steward, but seeing those relationships play out over dozens of memories gives life to those nonmoving, disparate scenes. Eerie music and sound design are the final flourishes that bring everything together, and by the end, you'll find that even the right answers don't tell the full story.As you're told at the beginning of the game, sometimes you won't have all the information you need to confidently draw conclusions--you will, at points, have to guess. Return of the Obra Dinn is brilliant not just because its puzzles are satisfying to solve but because it challenges you to make assumptions rather than flawless deductions, and then it challenges your assumptions in turn. Info from Gamespot.com

Over the next few days, we will reveal what we believe are the 10 best games of 2018, organized by release date. Then on December 19, we will reveal which of the nominees gets to take home the coveted title of GameSpot's Game of the Year. So be sure to come back then for the big announcement, and in the meantime, follow along with all of our other end-of-the-year coverage collected in our Best of 2018 hub.Marvel's Spider-Man is special, if for no other reason than that it's the closest a video game has come to capturing what it feels like to be everyone's favorite friendly neighborhood wall-crawler. It's exhilarating to step off a skyscraper and hear the orchestral score begin to swell, only to crescendo and level out as you start swinging towards your next objective; there's never a moment in the game's 20-hour run-time where you don't want to be flying through the air. You're constantly unlocking or discovering tricks that Spidey is known for pulling off in the comics--like firing out a web from both shooters to slingshot yourself through a hanging pipe--that make traveling from point A to point B the most thrilling part of the game.The game knows what it's good at too, and wastes no time throwing you straight into its traversal system after a brief opening cutscene leaves you hovering over a city street. Pulling the right trigger on your controller fires out a web from Spidey's shooters with a satisfying thwip, and web-zipping, vaulting, cornering, and wall-running add stylish flair to your journeys across New York. All of the web-slinging mechanics are very easy to grasp, and it won't be long before you're careening over traffic and leaping off buildings with all the natural grace of the Spider-Man from the comics.This same level of accessibility extends to the game's acrobatic combat, which utilizes a collection of dodges, punches, kicks, and throws to create an enjoyable zen-like flow of counters and strikes. Unlocking new skills and gadgets, such as web throws and electric webbing, allows Spider-Man to be more versatile. Spidey can be stealthy too, and it's fun to quickly zip through the rafters of a building or between the shadows of a warehouse while taking out enemies with trip mines and impact webbing. And regardless of whether you sneak or swing into a situation, Spider-Man is always ready with a collection of clever quips to liven things up.All of this isn't to say that the game is solely good for being a Spider-Man simulator. Far from it. There's a well-written story in this game too, and it delivers a compelling retelling of the origin of one of Spider-Man's lesser-known enemies, Mister Negative, before transitioning into its own take on the formation of the more notorious Sinister Six. Side missions flesh out other characters from Spider-Man's rogues gallery as well, from familiar faces like Tombstone to relatively unknown ones like Screwball.Much like the comics, Marvel's Spider-Man is as much a story about Spidey's villains as it is about the wall-crawler. Some people might recognize the names of several of Peter Parker's acquaintances, from his boss at work to his ally on the police force, as supervillains and murderous vigilantes from the comics. One of the game's greatest strengths is how it lays the groundwork for these characters without actually giving away if those you begin to care about are doomed to their fate, because the story leaves you guessing right up until the end whether they're going to follow their comic book origins or not.An unforeseen, but no less welcome, surprise is the amount of agency the game gives to several of the women in Peter's life, something that's not really been done in other Spider-Man games. Aunt May runs a business that a male antagonist dumps into her lap, while Mary Jane gets her own campaign missions where we see her ingenuity at work. Unfortunately, in the main storyline, Silver Sable is just annoyingly evil, Black Cat is heard but never seen, and Yuri Watanabe is mostly dependent on Spider-Man's help. However, the latter two are fleshed out and have more prominent roles in The Heist and Turf Wars post-launch expansions.The cookie-cutter nature of Marvel's Spider-Man's crime activities that randomly pop up around the map can get tiresome--especially since you need to tackle dozens of them in order to fully complete the game. But even these side missions fulfill an important purpose, as their inclusion allows you to immerse yourself in Peter's life.The game makes you feel bad for not being there for the citizens of New York, as they'll rage against you or express their feelings of betrayal on J. Jonah Jameson's podcast if you fail to stop crimes. Their words push you to try and be greater--even if it's 2AM and you should really be going to bed because you have work in the morning. But it's that nagging feeling that you should be trying to do more, even if it's stopping a store robbery for nearly the dozenth time, that defines Peter's life. The inclusion of these activities captures an important part of the fantasy of being Spider-Man, a role which frankly shouldn't be fun all the time, and the entire experience of playing the game is made better as a result.Marvel's Spider-Man isn't just one of our favorite PS4 games of 2018, it's one of the best titles to come out this year. Between the traversal mechanics, acrobatic combat, and story about a young man trying to shoulder a city's worth of responsibility, Insomniac's newest game captures the essence of what it's like to be Spider-Man.Info from Gamespot.com

The recently revealed Mortal Kombat 11 is bound to have guest characters, and we may already know the identity of one of them. Spawn creator Todd McFarlane has indicated that the grim and gritty comic book character may be coming to the game.In a Reddit AMA, McFarlane was asked to allow Spawn in MK11. His answer was a simple, "I believe he's on his way..." The answer was cryptic and hedging, so this isn't an absolute guarantee that Spawn will be a guest character. McFarlane may have simply not realized the announcement wasn't public yet.Spawn has appeared in a fighting game before, as a guest character in Soulcalibur 2 for the Xbox. The other two console versions, for PlayStation and GameCube, had separate guest characters Heihachi and Link, respectively. McFarlane also created the original character Necrid for that game across all platforms. Mortal Kombat has also started adding guest characters, with inclusions from horror franchises like Jason Vorhees and Leatherface. Netherrealm's other fighting franchise, Injustice, included a guest appearance from the ninja turtles.Mortal Kombat 11 was announced at The Game Awards with a trailer that teased a time-hopping plot. It's already around the corner with an April 23 release date, and a beta will be coming in March. A January 17 event will serve as the gameplay debut. Check out everything we know so far about Mortal Kombat 11.Info from Gamespot.com

Less than a week after it first arrived, Fortnite's controversial new weapon, the Infinity Blade, has been removed. Developer Epic Games announced that it is vaulting the sword across all modes due to its notable impact on the game's balance and the lack of any reliable counters to it."We messed up and rolled out the Infinity Blade overpowered / without good counters, especially in the end game," Epic wrote. "The Infinity Blade has been Vaulted and we are re-evaluating our approach to Mythic items. Thanks for calling us out on this!"The Infinity Blade arrived in Fortnite earlier this week as part of the game's 7.01 update. Unlike other weapons you can pick up in the game, only one sword spawns per match, and it appears in the same location each time: in a pedestal atop Polar Peak, which makes the start of every round a mad dash to get the sword.Much like the Infinity Gauntlet from the short-lived Thanos LTM, the Infinity Blade grants its wielder incredible powers, including increased max health and shields, increased movement speed, and more. While it's still possible to kill the player wielding the sword, it's clear that the first person who manages to pick it up is at a big advantage. Epic's decision to remove it completely from the game comes shortly after the developer had said that it would reduce the Infinity Blade's effectiveness.It's unclear if or when Epic plans to reintroduce the Infinity Blade to Fortnite, but the developer mentioned that it is "re-evaluating [its] approach to Mythic items," suggesting that other special types of weapons may be in the works for the game.Info from Gamespot.com

With Christmas rapidly approaching, Bandai Namco Entertainment's asked Santa Claus to deliver a gift early. He's obliged, and on December 18 the company's 3D fighting game, SoulCalibur VI, will add NieR: Automata's 2B to its growing list of playable characters.The announcement comes via the company's official UK Twitter account. As noted by Comic Book, no price for the additional character has been revealed yet, but there's speculation that she could cost an estimated $5.99 (or free for those who purchased the Deluxe Edition). Stand ready for battle: @NieRGame’s 2B will bring her blades to the stage of history on December 18th! Get your copy of @SOULCALIBUR VI: https://t.co/qasTVeNWN5 pic.twitter.com/QlLi9arNa2 — BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment UK (@BandaiNamcoUK) December 13, 2018Bandai Namco initially revealed the addition of Yoko Taro's character back in October. The official SoulCalibur Twitter account posted a video of the announcement to the social media site, confirming that "2B from @NieRGame joins the battle of souls and swords in #SOULCALIBUR VI!" This came just seven months after The Witcher's Geralt of Rivia was confirmed as a playable character.2B, whose full name is YoRHa No.2 Type B (with "B" standing for Battle), is the game's third DLC character. The game's season pass includes five DLC packs--three additional characters, two sets of creation parts--and Tira as a bonus playable character.In our SoulCalibur VI review, we called it "a fighting game that's easy to recommend" with "a low barrier to entry and high skill ceiling" that has "some of the most substantial single-player content in any fighting game today." Soul Calibur VI is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.Info from Gamespot.com

It wasn't long ago that Warner Bros. Entertainment released a statement regarding rumors of Henry Cavill's exit from the Superman role. Now, nearly three months after those rumors began circulating, Aquaman star and fellow Justice League member Jason Momoa has attempted to dispel any uncertainty about Cavill hanging up the cape.According to Entertainment Tonight, Momoa talked to the publication during a premiere of the recently released DC film, Aquaman. In the exclusive interview, Momoa said Cavill isn't going anywhere anytime soon. "I just talked to Henry... He's absolutely not [leaving the character]," he told ET. "[Cavill] loves the character. He's not. One hundred percent."It was rumored back in September that Cavill would no longer play the role of Superman after negotiations of a cameo in the forthcoming Shazam film fell through. What followed was a series of posts from both Cavill and Warner Bros., with the British actor posting a bizarre video to Instagram and Warner Bros. saying, "While no decisions have been made regarding any upcoming Superman films, we've always had great respect for and a great relationship with Henry Cavill, and that remains unchanged."What caused Cavill to pull out from the Shazam cameo was not a lack of interest from the British actor or a fallout between him and Warner Bros., but a scheduling conflict between Shazam, which stars Asher Angel (Jolene, Andi Mack) and Zachary Levi (Tangled, Thor: The Dark World), and the latest entry in the Mission Impossible franchise, Mission Impossible: Fallout.Neither Henry Cavill nor Warner Bros. have commented on Momoa's statements. In our Aquaman review, we called the film "a movie with its own over the top, tongue in cheek, inconsistent, massive, irreverent, CGI-soaked tone, aesthetic, and world."Aquaman is scheduled to hit theatres on December 21.Info from Gamespot.com

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.Info from Gamespot.com

(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:Stack Up Website: https://stackup.org/Take This Website: http://www.takethis.org/Info from Gamespot.com

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 charmVoid Favor bone charmIn-game Antique Serkonan Guitar for Emily or Corvo to interact withIn-game book: Goodbye, Karnaca – A Musician’s Farewell500 bonus coinsWhile 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.Info from Gamespot.com

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.Info from Gamespot.com

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.Info from Gamespot.com

Niantic has announced a new holiday event for Pokemon Go. The festivities kick off next week and run into the new year, during which time players will be able to earn bonuses, hatch Eggs more easily, and even encounter more Pokemon originally from the Sinnoh region.The third annual winter event begins on Tuesday, December 18, and once again, it brings back the festive hat-wearing Pikachu for a limited time. On top of that, Niantic says that more Ice-type and Gen 4 Pokemon will appear during the event; the promotional image the developer shared features Snover and its evolution Abomasnow, along with Munchlax, Chingling, and Croagunk.Even more interestingly, the image also features three Legendary Pokemon from the Sinnoh region--Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit--suggesting the trio will make their debut in Pokemon Go soon. On top of that, Niantic says the rare Ice Pokemon Delibird will also be available during the winter event, as will its Shiny variant.Along with the new Pokemon, Niantic will offer a number of bonuses throughout the event. These will be metered out every few days. From December 18-22, players will earn twice as much Candy for catching and transferring Pokemon; from December 22-26, they'll receive twice the usual amount of Stardust for catching monsters; from December 26-30, players will get double catch XP; and from December 30 to the end of the event on January 2, Incubators will be twice as effective as normal.Rounding out the bonuses, Niantic is giving players one Incubator each day when they spin their first Photo Disc. The developer also says that more types of Pokemon will be able to hatch from 7 km Eggs, and players will have a better chance of hatching monsters like Smoochum and Azurill. You can read more about the event on the official Pokemon website.Before the holiday festivities begin in Pokemon Go, Niantic will host a special Raid weekend event from December 14-17. During that time, Ho-Oh and Lugia will reappear in Raid Battles at Gyms. Players will also have a chance to encounter their Shiny forms.Info from Gamespot.com