Last month's PlayStati?on Plus Game Catalog add?itions were decent. But this month, PlayStation really brought the goods if you're an RPG fan. While the headliner for the month is the newest Need for Speed title, Need for Speed Unbound, the true gems in my opinion are the addition of Tales of Arise, The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

An RPG-loaded Month

Tales of Arise is the latest entry in the Tales series and is an absolute banger of an RPG. Our very own Eric Van Allen scored it an 8.5 when it was released back in? 2021, ??calling it "a strong step forward for a series with a bright future ahead of it." I've still yet to beat it and actually think a friend is still "borrowing" my copy so this is certainly a case for me to get back in and finish it.

Meanwhile, The Outer Worlds continues to be probably my favorite Obsidian Entertainment RPG, at least up there with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. O?ur Managing Editor Chris Carter reviewed it back in 2019 and gave it a score of 9, praising the open-world RPGs "charm and succinct vision wit??hout much bloat."

And then there's also Assassin's Creed Valhalla which while not an RPG in the traditional sense, certainly has RPG mechanics in a massive open world. It got a bit too repetitive for me near the end, but overall it's a fun ride and up there with some of the best in th??e series.

Here are a??ll the games coming to the PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium Game Catalog on February 20:

• Need for Speed Unbound (PS5)
• The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition (PS5)
• Tales of Arise (PS5 and PS4)
• Assassin's Creed Valhalla (PS5 and PS4)
• Roguebook (PS5 and PS4)
• LEGO Worlds (PS4)
• LEGO Jurassic World (PS4)
• Rogue Lords (PS4)
• Tales of Zestiria (PS4)

Those with PlayStation Premium will also get four? new Cl?assics titles:

• Resistance: Retribution (Playable via PS5 and PS4)
• Jet Moto 2 (Playable via PS5 and PS4)
• Tales of Symphonia (Playable via PS5 and PS4)
• Tales of Vesperia (Playable via PS5 and PS4)

As you can see, plenty of RPG options. Especially if you are a Tales fan. I hope someday we get a more modern opportunity to revisit Tales of Graces, it was one of my favorites!

/

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There are some solid additions for Xbox Game Pass subscribers to enjoy as we kick off 2024. With the headliners of the month being Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Resident Evil 2.

One title, Close to the Sun, is out now for Game Pass owners. The rest will be spread out through the rest of January. Close to the Sun is a first-person adventure game from 2019 that has a bit of a Bioshock feel to it. It earned a 75 on Metacritic upon release, with critics coming away impressed for the most part with its atmosphere a??nd story.

Following that is Hell Let Loose, which arrives January 4. It's a World War 2 shooter that touts 50 v. 50 battles on large-scale maps. It's a game that demands teamwork, but with a Metascore of 84, it??'s said to be pretty fun for those who take the time to learn the ropes.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla (the Viking one) comes to subscribers on January 9. Destructoid gave it an "Okay" when it hit in 2020. Also on January 9, there's Figment from Bedtime Digital Games. The indie action-adventure game was received pretty favorably back in 2018.

The line-up continues with Super Mega Baseball 4 arriving on January 11 via EA Play. It's an arcadey alternative to MLB The Show that gets steadily stronger with each iteration. We Happy Few makes a return to Game Pass on January 11, too. But that's also the same day Resident Evil 2 arrives, and if you haven't played, you're going to want to. Chris Carter considered it "superb" when Capcom released it in 2019.

Finally, Those Who Remain arrives on January 16. It's a horror title that earned middling reviews when it launched. And with Resident Evil 2 in the mix this month, it's probably a skip.

Alongside new additions, there are also games that are being pulled from the Xbox Game Pass library. And this month is no exception with some big boys being removed from the subscription service. Grand Theft Auto V leaves Game Pass on January 5. And on January 15, players lose access to both Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden.

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The Internet has no shortage of lists depicting the creepiest enemie??s you can find in video games. Yeah, the Pyramid Head is very scary, but what about NPCs that, due to glitches or wacky design, become just as monstrous as the most intentionally scary monsters in gaming?

Sure, we already covered the creepiest glit?ches in video games. But for those who need even more cursed content, ??here's a list just for you.

Kids in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

‌In previous Assassin's Creed games, Ubisoft generally modeled regular-looking kids. But in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the company ??m??anaged to come up with a bunch of monstrosities when it came to portraying Viking children.

Did the devs have a huge bone to pick with Scandinavians? At best, these N??PCs only look okay. Most look extremely scary.

And that's not even the glitch. That's the feature. The glitch is one that makes these kids grow as large as adults.

Babies in Bioshock Infinite

‌Eerie children have been a staple of horror movies for the longest time, so it's no surprise that video games would eventually follow that trend. Granted, the world of Bioshock Infinite is weird. ?But it never gets worse than when you look at some of its babies.

‌What the hell is that? Why does the game have some normal babies in it, and then some have the bodie??s of children but the heads and faces of adult men? Is this a side effect of taking plasmids during pregnancy? That could've made for such a great side plot.

The super-human drone controller in The Division 2

Upon release, the drone controller NPC in The Division 2 was just something else. She was just too good, like, impossibly good. Please see if you notice anything strange about her mannerisms in the clip above. Imagin?e being a poor criminal or rebel and knowing that's what you're up against.

‌I'm not keen on drone warfare in real life, so I actually enjoy Ubi?soft's accidental attempt at making it look gross and wei??rd in games.

The mannequins in Skyrim are straight out of a horror movie

‌If you look closely at the mannequins in Skyrim, you might notice that they look back at you. In? fact, they never stop following you with their uns??eeing eyes.

That's because those goddamn mannequins aren’t objects, they're secret NPCs. Sometimes you gotta make some shortcuts when you're developing a game, but some shortcuts will do more harm than good. This is not one o??f those cases, because I absolutely love these cursed monstrosities.

The soldiers�wives in Medal Of Honor Warfighter

‌Remember Medal Of Honor? That series met its demise after the launch of Medal Of Honor Warfighter, a big-budget game that came ou???????????????????????????t in 2012 with NPCs that look straight out of the early 00's.

The male models don’t lo??ok great, but they have on?e thing going for them: short hair. Their wives, on the other hand, have both really weird faces and hair animations. Also, how old are they? They manage to look both 30 and 60 at the same time.

The? cutscene looks like an attempt to make one of those creepy AI-?made deepfakes long before that was a thing.

Stalker Watson in Sherlock Holmes Nemesis

Watson in Sherlock Holmes Nemesis is always following players around, and teleporting behind their backs when they let him out of sight. It's a good thing that this man loves Holmes.?? Otherwise, there'd be serious cause for concern.

This odd feature grew into such a classic that the devs behind the vastly superior Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments made an in-engine short film star??ring Sh??erlock Holmes' creepiest friend.

Red Dead Redemption 2’s Bald Man

‌The Bald Man is a weird NPC that has appeared for many Red Dead Redemption 2 players seemingly just to haunt them. Nobody knows why he’s there or how he showed up. He's become the Slenderman of the RDR2 community.

The only thing we know about the Bald Man is that sometimes he's floating, and sometimes he shows up in a see-through manner, just like a ghost. I don't really know anything about him, as nobody does, but I recommend that you don't engage with him in a shootout. We know how well shoo?ting supernatural entitie??s turned out for John Marston.

This poor man from Assassin’s Creed Unity who is is immune to hanging

Assassin's Creed Unity caught a lot of heat upon release due to the pres?ence of a variety of obvious glitches, but I believe tha?t more discrete glitches make for better horror.

What you see above is not an NPC that you'll learn later was faking his death. That's supposedly a very hanged, very dead, man. Still, a? weird? glitch forced him to be conscious and hilariously nonplussed about the fact that his neck was broken.

I just find it very interesting that the Assassin's Creed series, one that I'm assuming is?? made by people who know a lot about death, don't always ma??nage to kill their NPCs dead.

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The Steam Stealth Fest sale is now live through July 31. In particular, this festival highlights games ?with sneaking in mind. You'll find discounts aplenty, as well as some exclusive demos for upcoming games. Steam users interested in stickers can also?? claim a free sticker for every day of the event.

After looking through the sale, there are a ton of Ubisoft games discounted for this event. Pretty much every game in the Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Tom Clancy, and Watch Dogs franchises are on sale for 60% ?off or more. I don't think I've ever quite realized just how much Ubisoft likes making stealthy games. Thanks??, Steam!

Overall there are some pretty decent sales in here with most discounts being at least 75% off or more. To commemorate the start of the Stealth Fest, Steam has sneakily rel??eased a trailer for th?e event.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LzmKFJgwWg

I've gone through and found some of the more notable ??deals as part of the Steam Steath Fest.

Steam Stealth Fest notable sales

• A Plague Tale: Innocenceâ€?$7.99 (80% off)
• Assassin's Creed Odyssey â€?$11.99 (80% off)
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla â€?$14.99 (75% off)
• Batman: Arkham Knight â€?$11.99 (80% off)
• Far Cry 5 â€?$8.99 (85% off)
• Far Cry 6 â€?$14.99 (75% off)
• Generation Zero â€?$7.49 (70% off)
• Hitman 3 â€?$34.99 (50% off)
• Little Nightmares II â€?$9.89 (67% off)
• Sniper Elite 5 â€?$16.99 (66% off)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpointâ€?$11.99 (80% off)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Reson Wildlands â€?$9.99 (80% off)
• Watch Dogs: Legion â€?$8.99 (85% off)

Even if none of these titles tickle your fancy, there are a ton of games currently on sale for the Steam Stealth Fest. ??You can view the full list of discounted games here.

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Better luck next year, Extreme Paintbrawl

Tonight is the biggest night and music, and for composer Stephanie Economou, it might be one of the biggest nights of her career. The seasoned musician was one of five people up for a Grammy this year for video game music. This is the first year the category has been a part of the show, and given how instrumental music is to the gaming industry and how easy it is to access your favorite scores on Spotify and Apple Music, one would hope it will be here for many years to come. The award for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Gam??es and Other Interactive Media, which is the award's official name, was handed out in the Grammy's pre-show, going to Economou for her work on the score soundtrack for Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok.

Dawn of Ragnarok is the expansion for AC Valhalla that was released in March of last year to decent reviews. Clearly, the music from the game was more than just decent as Economou managed to take the gramophone over some pretty tough competition. Other nominees including in this inaugural batch were Austin Wintory for Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Bear McCreary for Call of Duty: Vanguard, Richard Jacques for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, and Christopher Tin for Old World.

Expect to see Bear McCreary up for this award again next year with his work on the Game Award-winning score to God of War: Ragnarok. Here's to hoping with this category around, we'll start seeing every video game publisher releasing their scores and soundtracks commercially. I know I would appreciate having the entirety of the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 soundtrack at the ready for wh?en I take my walk??s every day.

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Ubi catalog to roll out on Valve platform once again

Following on from recent rumors and speculation, publisher Ubisoft has confirmed that it will be rolling out its catalog of recent releases in a return to Valve's popular PC storefront, Steam. The lead title will be Viking adventure Assassin's Creed Valhalla, whic??h will arrive on the Steam?? platform December 6.

"We're constantly evaluating how to bring our games to different audiences wherever they are, while providing a consistent player ecosystem through Ubisoft Connect," said Ubisoft in a statement to Eurogamer. "Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Anno 1800, and Roller Champions are among the Ubiso?ft ti?tles that will be releasing on Steam."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eCw20F0zmA

Ubisoft had been regularly releasing its games on Steam since the platform's advent back in 2003, but chose to separate from the storefront in 2019 to publish its wares through its in-house Uplay service �and then later via Epic Games Store. Ubisoft's return to Steam was heralded by several database leaks spotted by known Ubisoft leaker YoobieRE, before the publisher finally conf??irmed its storefront comeback yesterday.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla, originally launched in 2020, is getting set to receive its final DLC update �titled The Last Chapter. As such, this is a smart time for the game to make its Steam debut, allowing new players to pick up the epic adventure alongside all previously released DLC content. The next Assassin's Creed title, Mirage, is currently in development at Ubisoft.

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I got the music in me

A few months ago, the Recording Academy announced it was adding five new categories to its annual Grammy Awards, including a new category solely for soundtracks to video games and other interactive media. A video game grammy award has been a long time coming, given how the medium has produced some of the most outstanding musical scores of the past 20 years. Just yesterday, The Game Awards announced its top picks for Best Score with Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Metal Hellsinger, Elden Ring, God of War Ragnarock, and A Plague Tale: Requiem making the cut. Non??e of those games are up ??for the inaugural video game soundtrack Grammy, but that probably has to do with release scheduling and other requirements that might not have been met.

Instead, the five games nominated for Score Sou??ndtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media ??are:

• Aliens: Fireteam Elite (Composer: Austin Wintory)
• Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok (Composer: Stephanie Economou)
• Call of Duty: Vanguard (Composer: Bear McCreary)
• Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (Composer: Richard Jacques)
• Old World (Composer: Christopher Tin)

Your guess is as good as mine as to what Old World is, but there are few recognizable names on that list. Bear McCreary is perhaps best known across the industry for his work scoring films like Godzilla: King of the Monsters, as well as video games like God of War and God of War Ragnarok. Austin Wintory is also a name you should know, given his work on titles like Journey and The Banner Saga trilogy.

To find out who ta??kes home the inaugural video game Grammy, tune in to the Grammy pre-show on February 5, where t?his award is most likely to be handed out.

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A new report indicates a smaller game will arrive before Infinity

It looks like another Assassin's Creed game could arrive before Infinity. A new report from Bloomberg indicates that Ubisoft has turned a Valhalla expansion ??into a standalone game, in order to fill out a thin rel??ease schedule.

According to Bloomberg's sources, the game is code-named Rift and will star Valhalla's Basim. Rift will be smaller in scope than recent open-world Assassin's Creed games, and will reportedly focus m?ore on stealth gameplay. It's also apparently planned for either later this year or sometime in 2023.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=gncCKXqjtaE

Rift is set to arrive before Assassin's Creed Infinity, the previously reported-on Assassin's Creed title which would take a live-service approach to the series. It's indicative of a waning production lineup, as according to Bloomberg's sources, several projects are still struggling; Beyond Good & Evil 2 is reportedly still in pre-production, and the Prince of Persia remake has already been delayed out a while.

Ubisoft has also seen higher turnover, and employees have claimed the publisher hasn't done enough to fix its internal problems.

Alongside internal issues and delays, Ubisoft has also been under scrutiny for its movement into NFTs. Reports indicate employees are questioning the strategy, and an Ubisoft exec responded to public backlash by saying that gamers '??don't get' the benefits of NFTs.

A smaller, stealth-focused Assassin's Creed ga?me? certainly sounds like it could be fun to play. But it also comes off as a way to win back some goodwill after many public missteps.

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When in doubt, go mythical for DLC

Ubisoft has a long history with "going mythic" for Assassin's Creed premium DLC to help sell the need to pay more for it, and that's just what they're doing next year. Ubisoft has revealed the company's Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 2022 plans: a new expansion called Dawn of Ragnarok, out in March.

With Ubisoft Sofia handling developmental duties, Dawn of Ragnarok is out on March 10, 2022, and will be priced "as a separate purchase" at $39.99. It'll deal with Eivor once again as you deal with the fading dwarven kingdom of Svartalfheim, and Surtr (that big fire thing from mythology that was also in Thor: Ragnarok).

There's also ?this bonus, too, reminiscent of those Nintendo "pre-order?? now, get bonuses early" promos:

"All players purchasing Dawn of Ragnarok between Dec 13, 2021 and April 9, 2022 will receive the Twilight Pack and will have immediat?e access to the items in the main game*. This exclusive bo?nus includes the Dellingr's Envoy Raven Skin, the Havardr Lynx Mount, the Twilight Gear Set and the Algurnir Dane Axe Weapon."

When all these smaller studios are delaying games into 2022, the bigger ones are raking in the dough with expansions on exi?sting ones.

There's a bit more to this announcement, too, taking place before the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 2022 DLC. Ubisoft is releasing an "Eivor and Kassandra" crossover update on December 14, which consists of two stories: one based around the Valhalla protagonist, and the other around Odyssey's hero. They are av??ailable for the owners of "the respective base games."

Apparently the event is being sold as "What happens when two Assassin’s Creed heroes meet?" which sounds like an extremely '90s car??toon T?V special event, with all the good and bad baggage that comes along with it.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wiclO4a60A&feature=e??mb_title

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Who would have Thort it?

Ubisoft announced that 2020 release Assassin's Creed Valhalla �the latest chapte??r in the long-running stealth-action franchise �has been an incredible ?success, turning the second-highest profit in the publisher's entire history.

As revealed in Ubisoft's most recent quarterly earnings report, the Viking epic, which celebrates its first anniversary next week, has already surged past the sales trend of every other release in the Assassin's Creed series, enjoying a higher "daily engagement" across PC and console platforms. Ubisoft plans to roll out content for the axe-swinging adventure across 2022, whi?ch should keep the die-hards in the audience looting and pillaging for a second year.

Elsewhere in the document, Ubisoft announced that its free-to-play title The Division: Heartland, as well as its development limbo remake Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and music maker Rocksmith+, have all been delayed to unspecified dates in 2022-2023. The remainder of Ubisoft's 2021 slate, including alien shooter Rainbow Six Extraction, Nintendo crossover Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, and pirate adventure Skull & Bones are scheduled to ?meet their previously disclosed release dates.

The quarterly financial round-up comes the same week as a damning report from Kotaku, in which former and current Ubisoft employees claimed that their complaints about the company's work culture remain mismanaged. In the summer of 2020, Ubisoft was placed under the microscope after miserable testimony of sexual harassment, bullying, and discrimination within the company's walls. While CEO Yves Guillemot released a video message promising to make Ubisoft a safer and more inclusive work?ing environment, Kotaku's source report continued frus??tration and dissatisfaction from several of the studio's employees.

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Switch it up

It's another Nintendo-friendly week in the UK Charts this week, as social adventure Animal Crossing: New Horizons retains the number ?one spot for a third week running, leading a slew of sales on a wide range of Nintendo Switch releases.

The adventures of Tom, Nook, Isabelle, and all the critters of Nook Island sit proudly in the number one spot, followed up by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, still shifting physical copies some four years after release. Lounge workout Ring Fit Adventure moves up to number four, while the Switch edition of Minecraft is nestled in at number five. Just Dance 2021 moves up one place to number seven, while retro compendium Super Mario 3D All-Stars retains its se??at at?? number nine. A very good start to the year for the House of Mario.

Elsewhere in the charts, steady sales continue on AAA mainstays such as Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War at number three, Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto V at number six, and Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which returns to the premier league at number 10. The only new physical release this week was nocturnal gnasher Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood, which unfortunately failed to make an impact at n?umber 36.

U.K. video game sales chart w/e: February 7, 2021
(Chart reflects in-store physical sales only)

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Nintendo
2. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Nintendo
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War - Activision
4. Ring Fit Adventure - Nintendo
5. Minecraft - Nintendo
6. Grand Theft Auto V - Take-Two Interactive
7. Just Dance 2021 - Ubisoft
8. FIFA 21 - Electronic Arts
9. Super Mario 3D All-Stars - Nintendo
10. Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Ubisoft

U.K. video game charts [GamesIndustry.biz]

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1.1.0 fixes some stuff but far from all

Assassin's Creed Valhalla just got its second major patch this morning, another much-needed Band-Aid as Ubisoft marches toward making this game function as inten??ded. It really highlig?hted how long this is going to take.

As expected, the update 1.1.0 patch notes are all over the place. There's a bunch of general stuff like optimization and performance stability.?? There's broad-reaching gameplay tweaks like adjusting enemy power levels. As far as new content, this update also paved the way for a??n upcoming Yule Festival, which hasn't been detailed yet.

Most important, there are fixes for a ton of quests that were bugged. Ubisoft seems to be prioritizing the quests that affect actual progression while backburnering World Events that won't actually prevent people from continuing to play the game. Just like the first pa?tch, there are approximately 100 different issues that are addressed. Check out the patch notes to see if your specific problem was tackled.

How long will it take until Assassin's Creed Valhalla is in a perfectly acceptable state for the majority of players? A long time. On the game's forums, the mega-thread of known issues seems to be growing faster than bugs are being moved to resolved. In the Player Support sub-forum, people are posting their new bugs with a new thread popping up approximately ev?ery minute. There's obviously a ton of overlap with the same problems being reported multiple times, but it's crystal clear that so many people have so many issues that they need fixed.

Me? I've still got a few lingering bugs that are blocking 100 percent completion even though I haven't done everything in all the areas yet. Ther?e's not a ton of motivation when I know that? I need to wait for Ubisoft to squash my particular problems. I'm going to leave this one on the figurative shelf for a few months and cross my fingers that Ubisoft gets around to them eventually. There's certainly a ton of other bugs that are higher priority.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla -- Title Update 1.1.0 [Ubisoft]

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FIFA 21 remains the title to beat

While we have already passed the typically lucrative Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, the UK Chart remains relatively stagnant this week. The same ten titles occupy almost the exact same ten spots that they did last week, with Electronic Arts' FIFA 21 retaining the coveted num??ber one position for a third week running.

The Top Ten is rounded out with some of 2020's most recent releases, including Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Sony's pseudo-sequel Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Nintendo regulars Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Mario 3D All-Stars are p?resent and correct, maintaining the st?eady sales that each Switch title has seen since launch.

There's a new gun in town however, and this week's launch of the long-in-development and highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 is guaranteed to cause a stir when it launches December 10. With the UK high street temporarily out of lockdown, and Ho??liday shopping in full effect, it is very likely that next week is CD Projekt RED's for the taking.

U.K. video game sales chart w/e: December 5, 2020
(Chart reflects in-store physical sales only)

1. FIFA 21 - Electronic Arts
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War - Activision
3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Nintendo
4. Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Ubisoft
5. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Nintendo
6. Spider-Man: Miles Morales - Sony Interactive Entertainment
7. Just Dance 5 - Ubisoft
8. Minecraft - Nintendo
9. Super Mario 3D All-Stars - Nintendo
10. Marvel's Avengers - Square Enix

U.K. video game charts [GamesIndustry.biz]

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Title Update 1.0.4

Assassin's Creed Valhalla got a lot better on Thanksgiving from a quality of life standpoint. Ubis??oft released a massive title update patch that addressed issues from all corners of the game. 

Some of it was really necessary like "Corrected some instances where Load Game would not display save games correctly" and "Addressed an issue where allies would not help Eivor to open a door during Raids." Some of it was kind of silly like "Players can no longer use the fishing tool or the horn during the drunk walk with Tewdr" and "Fish in Norway will now spawn in bad weather."

Seriously, this patch does a lot. There are over 100 bullet points of varying fixes and reworkings. One o??f the more crucial aspects is that it resets some bugged quests so that they can finally be completed. They're mostly open-world events, as the widespread big critical path-blocking bug in "A Seer's Solace" was patched out a few weeks ago.

After firing up Assassin's Creed Valhalla, I found it to be a mixed bag. I was finally able to complete the "Winchell the Robesfree" quest as the crate respawned after it had fallen through the floor of the lake. However, the "Demon Odour at the Tithe" que??st is just as broken as ever, as the sliding blocks are permanently stuck in unmovable positions. Similarly, the Alpha Animal in the Sciropescire region is still impossible as the bear spawns above hi??s lair rather than inside it.

These are things that I can only pray Ubisoft gets around to fixing in due time. I'm marching toward my ill-advised ever-onward attempt at reaching 100 percent completion in every Assassin's Creed game. To get there in Valhalla, you ?need to do everything in every region. It's a massive undertaking, one that I hope won't be cut short by a few pesky qu?ests that don't work.

Here are the full patch notes for T?itle Update 1.0.4. They're beefy, so there's a good chance that whatever you have a problem with has been addressed one way or another. If you have an outstanding issue, her?e's the running laundry list of stuff ?Ubisoft has its eye on. It's also beefy. Lotta stuff is broke ?so there's a lotta stuff to fix. 

Assassin's Creed Valhalla -- Title Update 1.0.4 [Ubisoft forums]

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Roll them bones

In the context of Assassin's Creed, the word "dice" is usually a synonym for all the different ways you can murder with a blade. Stab, shank, skewer, slice, chop -- you get the picture. In Valhalla, it's more associated with a? charming little side activity??.

All throughout Assassin's Creed Valhalla's villages are random townsfolk who are eager to challenge Eivor to a game of Orlog. This isn't a real Viking game. It's something that Ubisoft designers created themselves that ended up being a fan favorite. Its legend is a lot like Gwent in The Witcher 3.

It'd be easiest if you just played Valhalla to get the Orlog tutorial, but here's a simplified overview. Players take turns rolling six dice across three rounds, choosing each time which ones they want to keep. The die faces have symbols for attack, block, or for stealing currency used for God Favors which are like special abilities. The goal is to drain the opponent's health p?ool of 15 points. It's a little complicated, and then devilishly simple, and then surprisingly deep ?(once you get into the strategies of the various God Favors).

Orlog is good enough that it's being turned into a real game. According to an interview in Dicebreaker, Ubisoft is teaming up with collectibles manufacturer PureArts to create a physical version of? Orlog tha??t will launch in 2021. No other details were given.

However, the interview has a lot of other interesting tidbits about the creation of Orlog. For ?instance,? it started as a collectibles-based deck-building game. It also offers insight as to how a bunch of video game designers went about balancing a dice game. It's all the Orlog background info you didn't know you needed.

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla's Viking dice game Orlog wi?ll get a physical version in 2021 [Dicebreaker via Eurogamer]

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The next-gen holiday season is officially underway

After weeks, even months of stagnation, the UK Charts have finally been shaken up with debuting hardware PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Now available on UK shores, the new consoles and their respective releases have been battling it out in the Top Ten, with Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War coming out on top, at least for this week.

The '80s-set first-person shooter usurped Ubisoft's Viking adventure Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which drops to number four having spent only one week in the premier position. Sony's open-world pseudo-sequel Spider-Man: Miles Morales holds firm at number three, while Electronic Arts' endlessly selling FIFA 21 climbs back up the c?harts to roost at number two.

In regards to new releases, Epic Games phenomenon Fortnite returned to the Top Ten, thanks to a physical release of the DC Comics-themed bundle The Last Laugh. Nintendo's Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity only made a modest impact in regards to physical sales, debuting at number six. For some reason, given all the great titles on offer this week Ubisoft's Watch Dogs: Legion m??anaged to climb back up the Top Ten, and sits at number seven.

With the UK mired in lockdown for the foreseeable future, retailers will no doubt be hoping that online sales will bring the lucrative Christmas cash rolling in. Given the proven ?ongoing trend in digital sales, this holiday season may prove to be the physical gaming industry's last hurrah.

U.K. video game sales chart w/e: November 21, 2020
(Chart reflects in-store physical sales only)

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War - Activision
2. FIFA 21 - Electronic Arts
3. Spider-Man: Miles Morales - Sony Interactive Entertainment
4. Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Ubisoft
5. Fortnite: The Last Laugh Bundle - Warner Bros. Interactive
6. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - Nintendo
7. Watch Dogs: Legion - Ubisoft
8. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Nintendo
9. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Nintendo
10. Minecraft - Nintendo

U.K. video game charts [GamesIndustry.biz]

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Thanks for axeing

In the first major shakeup in months, the UK Charts welcomed a fistful of brand new releases into its ranks, all vying for the coveted number one spot. When the dust had settled, in what could be seen as something of an upset, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Valhalla beat out Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War to become t???he best-selling physical launch of the week.

Ubisoft's head-cleaving open-world adventure debuted at number one, with the rockin '80s Cold War settling for number two. In third place was Sony's pseudo-sequel Spider-Man: Miles Morales. PS5 releases Demon's Souls, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Godfall also debuted at numbers six, 13, and 16 respectively. Quite a feat cons??idering the new hardware hasn't even launched?? on these shores yet!

Once we are past the typically lucrative holiday period, things may start to get a little tougher for the physical sales charts. With a year-on-year shift toward online sales; cheaper, disc-less hardware, and the?? ongoing string of high-street lockdowns, 2021 and the ninth console generation are set to very much be the era of the digital download.

U.K. video game sales chart w/e: November 14, 2020
(Chart reflects in-store physical sales only)

1. Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Ubisoft
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War - Activision
3. Spider-Man: Miles Morales - Sony Interactive Entertainment
4. FIFA 21 - Electronic Arts
5. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Nintendo
6. Demon's Souls - Sony Interactive Entertainment
7. Super Mario 3D All-Stars - Nintendo
8. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Nintendo
9. Minecraft - Nintendo
10. Watch Dogs: Legion - Ubisoft

U.K. video game charts [GamesIndustry.biz]

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Not great, but not Thorrible

About 35 hours into Assassin's Creed Valhalla, I unlocked the "Silent Viking" achievement for killing 10 consecutive enemies without alerting anyone. It really drove home how different this Assassin's Creed is from all the other Assassin's Creeds. In previous games, maybe Origins or Odyssey, I would??'ve methodically disman??tled entire fortresses and earned that same achievement within the first few hours.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is indiscreet and inelegant. It's a brash spectacle that's more interested in glorifying the toils of war than with quietly subduing and destabilizing the enemy. It's more Viking than assassin, so much that Valhalla feels out of place in the Assassin's Creed lineage. It's a wayward-growing branch ?on the family tr??ee.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey was the Least Assassin's Creed Game Ever two years ago to great effect. Valhalla strayed too far to its own detriment.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla (PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One [reviewed], Xbox Series X)
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Released: November 10, 2020
MSRP: $59.99

The Vikings are going to England! After an extended prologue in Norway, Assassin's Creed Valhalla protagonist Eivor and his/her brother Sigurd take on the Saxons in England. (I played as male Eivor, so, in the name of simplicity, let's just use he/him pronouns for the rest of the review.) It's a beautiful land, and the Vikings intend to take every square i?nch of it.

That's the real impetus for this entire tale. Assassin's Creed Valhalla trades a compelling plot for all-out conquest. The Vikings are Hel-bent on forcefully annexing the entirety of England, making it their home and taking over the land. The entire game is literally about expansion for the sake of being bigger. In that sense, this is the quintessential Ubisoft game.

To that end, each of England's distinct regions tells its own narrative. Eivor needs to curry favor or overthrow whoever reigns in each area in order to forge a Viking alliance. Assassin's Creed Valhalla ends up feeling like a collection of mini-stories instead of a grand overarching epic. Certain threads pop up to string the whole thin??g together, but it's a largely disjointed plot and usually only serves the immediate cause.

It's a problem because Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a very large game and it often feels as though there's nothing irresistible enough to keep pulling you along. It extends beyond the critical path. There's a tangled web of Templars who need assassinating (exactly like Odyssey's Cult of Kosmos) but there's no fascinating side plot t??hat'll leave you wondering who's at the head of it all. There's a thematic bent toward Norse mythology, but it's not apparent in the overworld; that stuff seems ?to be mostly confined to interactions with a single resident at your base camp.

The combat -- and there is a lot of it -- is generally excellent. Valhalla carries over the same combat system from Origins and Odyssey, a straightforward iteration of the From Software-style light-and-heavy stamina-based ?attacking. It also continues the trend of outfitting the protagonist with a suite of abilities that hinge on an adrenaline meter. It's good that the fighting is fluid and fun because Ubisoft really quadrupled down on the number of frays you'll find yourself in.

However, Ubisoft also scaled back almost everything else from the way it was represented in Odyssey. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is much less of an RPG. Eivor doesn't feel as though he's given much autonomy over the story's direction, and the dialogue choice conversations fall short of making an impact more often than not. The ?gear system has been significantly stripped down, as the equipment Eivor receives is mostly found as semi-major rewards for exploration. In my view, saving us from juggling dozens of not-special piece of gear is? nothing short of an improvement.

Similarly, the leveling structure has been overhauled. Gone are ?the days of an overall character level, instead replaced by a total count of the number of skill points earned. Every time you fill the progress bar, Eivor is awarded two skill points to spend on a gigantic sprawling constellation map of perks. It's mostly minuscule gains to facets of gameplay (health, light attacks, melee resistance, etc.) but there are also abilities mixed among each cluster of skills. It's a fine enough system, although it usually seemed like I wasn't speccing toward any sort of build because most of the skill points just went toward increasing the behind-the-scenes numbers a tiny bit.

This renewed approach to leveling also means that there's no real grinding required due to mid-game level gates. The regions of England each have their own suggested power level but that's a soft gate to discourage tackling something that's meant for later-game stuff. Through the main campaign and moderate side-questing, you should be properly equipped to keep progressing without any major detours. Ubisoft also learned its lesson from Assassin's Creed Odyssey and isn't selling an XP-boosting microtransaction this time. (Although, to be fair, I beat Odyssey withou??t that time-s?aver and always felt like the controversy was overblown.)

Even though I wasn't especially enamored with the narrative design or the gameplay loop, I still found a lot to like throughout the rolling hills of England. Some of the more interesting parts of Assassin's Creed Valhalla are hiding among the many encounters in the open world. These world events are little two-minute distractions that tell a quick story. Finding a cat lady, and letting the felines chase away the mice in a field. Helping a man toss all his possessions off a cliff before he stuns you and throws himself off the cliff. Sometimes it's simpler like going on a magic mushroom trip or destroying a cursed object. These interactions are when Valhalla is comfortable getting weird for a little bit, and they're among the best this ?game has to offer.

While Assassin's Creed Valhalla falls into a rote routine, it isn't without its exclamation-point-worthy "Holy shit" moments. The story crescendos at certain junctures in ways that inject life into this long romp. Odin overseeing a late-game death sequence left me stunned. A mid-game battle atop a cliffside is among my favorite sequences in any Assassin's Creed.

But I also found myself making excuses for Assassin's Creed Valhalla until I couldn't any longer. It mimics the Odyssey formula but takes a step backward in almost every way. It sacrifices story for scale. It's designed to discourage stealth in favor of epic battles. It's true to the Viking experience, but it isn't true to the Assassin's Creed experience. That's why it comes off feeling like the least essential game in the whole series. Impressive in some of its accomplishment?s, but inessential all the same.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Interpret this as you will

Just like Phil Spencer and the new Xbox, Ubisoft isn't interested in talking sales. Assassin's Creed Valhalla came out Tuesday, and Ubisoft says that it already has twice the number of players that Assassin's Creed Odyssey launched with.

Even then, we have no firm numbers. Ubisoft only confirms that Valhalla doubled Odyssey's launch day player count, but doesn't mention ?what that number is. It's data ??that's seemingly positive but impossible to draw any real conclusions from.

The reason Ubisoft isn't giving sales specifics is because a good chunk of Valhalla's players probably didn't buy the game. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is available on subscription-based streaming services Google Stadia, Ubisoft+, ??and Amazon Luna. We don't know how many people are playing on those platforms.

But then again, it's very feasible that Valhalla has outsold Odyssey to this point, just not two-to-one. When you factor in that Valhalla's one of the most highly-touted next-gen games during a console launch and an active pandemic that's keeping people indoors, it seems like a formul??a f?or success. 

I guess the takeaway is that Assassin's Creed Valhalla is doing fine. We won't know how fine until February when (and if) Ubisoft gives sales figures as part of its third-quarter financial report. But, given this vague and incomplete information, Valhalla's doing fine enough.

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We tested out the Series X version

As Brett noted in our full review, Assassin's Creed Valhalla falls short in several respects.

That's especially true when you directly compare it to its predecessor, Odyssey, which see??mingly set an impossibly high bar for the series. ?The next-gen experience doesn't really make up for any of those shortcomings.

Valhalla is a very strange game visually. When you're just focusing on the rural environments, it looks absolutely stunning on paper. I ended up taking a screenshot of 90% of the cinematic views from picking up the fast-travel lookout points, some of which allow players to gaze longingly into the sun's rays without proper eyewear. 4K at 60 FPS on Series X is technically impressive. The stable framerate is what I admire the most, especially during some of the more hectic battle scenes. Yet, after a few hours, I found myself longing for the pyramids of Origins or the meticulously-crafted city-states of Odyssey (or even the more robust and interest?ing c??haracter models).

While Valhalla tries to pull off its own look, England as a whole feels wasted, held back by design and potentially, historic limitations.  Odyssey was especially bold with a distinct, sometimes tastefully cartoony style. While I'm sure that turned some people off, you could tell Odyssey was Odyssey. If you put a helmet on Valhalla's hero Eivor, it would be tough to divine what Assassin's Creed game it even was in some zones if you walked into a room with someone playing it. A lack of emphasis on seafaring and sea battles also hurts Valhalla, as it keeps the focus off of that aspect of the series; which has become more and more inviting since Black Flag.

Speaking of; after finishing up Valhalla's story, I couldn't help but compare my moments with it to my experience with booting up Black Flag on the Xbox One for the first time. In late 2013 that  was "next-gen," and Kenway and his crew blew me away with how amazing everything looked. Given how Black Flag is often touted as one of the best games in the series with one of the most vivid worlds, it makes sense. Valhalla lacks that ??same sense of wonder. Its sterili??ty is not helped by a better resolution.

Load times are also not super impressive when looked at through the lens of next-gen, ranging from 10-15 seconds for ??everything from fast-traveling: a far cry from the instant loads of several other next-gen launch titles (by comparison, my Xbox One tests put load times anywhere from the 25-45 second mark for fast travel or loading into the world).&nbs??p;I also encountered a few of the same (thankfully not game-breaking due to the sheer number of auto-saves) bugs that Brett also witnessed on Xbox One.

If you're on the fence about Assassin's Creed Valhalla, again, give Brett's review a read. Just know that if you do decide to pull the trigger, the next-gen version isn't going to feel particularly m??esmerizing.

_{[These impressions are based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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