Hello from Richmond.
The holidays may be just about over, but Microsoft's Xbox Countdown Sale is moving into its second week, and there's lots of savings to be had in the Xbox Store and Windows Store. Watch Dogs 2, for example, is just $35.99.
Week 2 of the Xbox Countdown Sale includes ‘Watch Dogs 2’ for $35.99
I don't know about you, but it's after 6PM the day after a four-day weekend, and I'm dying here. I've got no more steam left for this year. I might even call it a day and go back into hibernation. I Joke, you know I missed you folks. You probably don't miss me though because you're too busy playing games on your new Xbox One.
Now that it's the end of the year and you've survived all of the major video game launches, Microsoft is hoping that you have space for just a few more titles. Don't fret, it's willing to heavily discount them , all in the name of filling out your library before January's dry spell. The Xbox Countdown sale kicked off today, and the company is offering big deals on Titanfall 2, Forza Horizon 3, Battlefield One and more.
$10 ‘Batman Arkham Knight’ among the Xbox Countdown Sale deals
Perhaps it's fate that Polygon would choose this week of all weeks to run a piece of longform concerning the gaming industry's practice of using contractors to save on game production as much as possible. We're now comfortably in the awkward lull between the big hits of November and the silent but important February releases that are coming our way in 2017. Right now seems a perfectly good time to reflect on how our games get made. Especially as people who work for Crytek examine what to do now that it's announced plans to close five different studios.
Remember when motion pictures based off film franchises were good? I'm sure that you don't; they've always been terrible. Mortal Kombat was hot trash. The Tomb Raider movies were uninteresting and wooden. Some thought that Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed movie might meet the same fate. They might have been right.
Reviews of Assassin's Creed began popping up today from the usual suspects and they're not kind.
The Culture: Oh boy, the Assassin’s Creed movie reviews are in!
Dominion Multiplayer from Ubisoft's For Honor, coming to Xbox One, PS4 and PC on February 14th 2017.
I have to admit that I had a very hard time resisting the urge to start this month’s Ask The en with a quote from Albus Dumbledore’s end of term speech in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. First, I’m a geek. Second, it feels like only yesterday I was sitting down to pen the first 2016 edition of the column. It also seems odd that already we’re talking about holiday Xbox One price cuts, the last few game releases of the year and other random musings. Yet here we find ourselves.
Ask The en: Steep, Xbox One Price Cuts & Leaving Groove Music Pass
Frontier Developments' Planet Coaster for Windows PCs is the best theme park game available right now, maybe even ever.
So where was I last week? Out in the San Francisco Bay area checking out a game I'll have more to share about soon, Ubisoft's For Honor. Shout out to everyone that I met there, including some really great Ubisoft PR folks, my host with the most Stone Chin and all the community members of Xbox and PlayStation.
Having cornered the market for quality original program, Netflix is about to deal DVRs, Amazon Prime Video and PlayStation Vue a huge blow. The house that House of Cards built revealed that you and anyone else with a subscription can store television shows and movies on your device for when an internet connection is scarce. Put more plainly, you can watch Netflix without internet. That sound you hear is the Hallelujah Chorus playing in the background.