Xbox Live The Deals with Gold this week offer up discounts on several critically-acclaimed titles, with a mix shooters, RPGs, racing games, indie titles, and a few backwards-compatible games: - Destiny 2: Forsaken Legendary Edition (R584.35) - Battlefield 1 & Titanfall 2 Ultimate Edition (R179.85) - The Bioware Bundle (R329.67 – Dragon Age: Inquisition GOTY & Mass Effect: Andromeda) - Burnout Paradise Remastered (R179.60) - Grand Theft Auto IV (R99.60) The Fallout 4 Sale offers exactly what you’d expect, everything Fallout-related on the Xbox one is discounted, including the last-generation games (and their expansions) thanks to the backwards compatibility feature. For less than the price of a new game, you could pick up Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Fallout 4, with all the DLC included, and say goodbye to your life. - Fallout 4: GOTY (R449.50) - Fallout 3 (R99.50) - Fallout: New Vegas (R74.50) The Focus Home Interactive Publisher Sale has a little bit of everything, mostly from mid-tier developers, most of it great in its own, if somewhat clunky way: - Vampyr (R424.50) - The Surge: Augmented Edition (R375.60) - Styx: Master of Shadows + Styx: Shards of Darkness Bundle (R224.75) - The Technomancer (R99.80) PlayStation Network First up, the Deal of the Week is the enjoyable but microtransaction-laden NBA 2K19 (R779). The Halloween Sale is the big one this week, and you can check out Vincent’s round up here. Sony seems to be arbitrarily alternating values for the “Games Under” deals. This week’s Games Under R330 promotion offers discounts on a short list that covers a bit of everything (FPS, ARPG, racing, local coop). Here are some highlights: - Battlefield 1 & Titanfall 2 Ultimate Edition (R329) - Onrush (R269) - Victor Vran Overkill Edition (R329) - Unravel Yarny Bundle (R239) The Games Under R160 offers up much of the same but with more indie titles and some DLC thrown in: - Battlefield Bundle (R159 – Battlefield 4 & Hardline) - Gauntlet: Slayer Edition (R109) - Overcooked: Gourmet Edition (R109) - Velocity 2X: Critical Mass Edition (R159) The “70% off when you buy 2 games” promotion is apparently endless, so you can see my suggestions in a previous sales round up. Nintendo eShop The Nintendo eShop continues to be a navigational nightmare (good luck finding prices unless you’re logged in) but at least they’re catching on to the idea of more frequent sales. Switch owners have several genres to choose from: - Overcooked! 2 (R262.40) - Mega Man X Legacy Collection (R239.25) - Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 (R239.25) - Ikaruga (R131.95) - The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ (R260) - Darkest Dungeon (R243.75) GOG The Defies Classification Weekly Sale is a real mixed bag of titles (hence the name I guess), offering up a bit of empire-building, turn-based strategy, military flight sims, and open-world adventuring, all at up to 80% off: - Tropico 5: Complete Collection ($8.74/R126) - Eador: Masters of the Broken World ($2.99/R44) - Jagged Alliance 2 ($2.49/R36) - Enemy Engaged: Apache vs Havoc ($1.19/R18) - O.R.B Off-World Resource Base ($1.49/R22) - Outcast: Second Contact ($13.99/R202) The Role-Playing Tactics Weekend Sale says it all in the name, primarily offering turn-based and action RPGs at up to 75% off: - Torchlight ($3.74/R54) - Torchlight II ($4.99/R72) - The Banner Saga ($14.99/R216) - The Banner Saga 2 ($18.74/R270) - The Banner Saga 3 ($22.49/R324) Steam A fairly quiet week for the Specials page, only 2070 items listed. Steam is also running a Fallout 4 Weekend Deal, offering discounts on games going even further back in time: - Fallout 4: GOTY (R399.50) - Fallout 3 GOTY (R131.40) - Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition (R131.40) - Fallout Classic Collection (R109.50 – Fallout, Fallout 2, Tactics) The IO Interactive 20 Years Publisher Weekend is all about Hitman, with both the new and classic games are heavily discounted: - HITMAN 2016 – Game of the Year Edition (R178.80) - Hitman Absolution (R54.75) - Hitman: Blood Money (R22.25) - Hitman Contracts (R21.25) - Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (R21.25) - Hitman: Codename 47 (R19.75) If you want to take advantage of the Xbox Live Gold deals this week, AWX is stocking 3- and 12-month subscriptions vouchers here. They also have PlayStation Plus subscriptions and PSN currency vouchers available here.

SPOILER WARNING: If you don't wished to be spoiled of the awesome mythical creatures present in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, we recommend you turn back now. Otherwise, welcome! The Assassin's Creed series' supernatural elements aren't exactly at the forefront of the experiences, usually being sidelined to well-hidden quests or fun Easter eggs. However, since Origins, the series has dabbled in the supernatural a bit more prominently - including fighting a giant cobra in Egypt - but it was Odyssey that wholeheartedly embraced it, and made it an integral part of the world. While Ubisoft promises more to come, there's certainly enough mythical creatures to encounter in the base game; four, in total. Join us as we explore each encounter, providing locations as well as the recommended levels necessary to take them head-on. The mythological creatures (not to be confused with Legendary Beasts) are a constant looming threat in the game, cleverly placed around the massive world of Ancient Greece and teased through shrines, cults, worshipers, and clues. The only way to access these dangerous quests, however, is mid-way through the game. Once you stumble upon the island of Thera near Messara, completing a few puzzles gains you entry into the ruins. Here, you meet someone who bestows the quest Between Two Worlds, which tasks you with finding four lost Isu artifacts scattered around Ancient Greece. The catch? Well, you can see where this is going. Before even thinking about taking on this quest, though, don't make the unfortunate mistake I made of diving head-first into the battles without the right gear and weapons. As such, I highly recommend at least completing the main story first and getting your level up before setting out to slay these creatures. The Sphinx Location: Southern Coast of Lake Koapis Recommended Level: 35 Keep in mind, if you're at a decent enough level, you'll be able to tackle the first three of four main creatures in any order you want. However, this order is the one most players follow according to general consensus. The Sphinx will be your first mythical encounter, and recommends you're at least at level 35 before tackling it. You'll be able to find Lake Koapis in Boetia; head to the southern coast until you find the Isu ruins. You can't miss them because they're always shrouded in a thick fog. Before you can simply walk in, though, an NPC will instruct you to do a side quest on the other side of Boetia. After completing that, return to the ruins where you'll notice that the NPC is gone and the statue of the Sphinx has disappeared. Make sure you have an important relic acquired from the previous quest with you before heading into the ruins. This will trigger a cutscene in which you encounter the mythological Sphinx, a stunning creature who takes more pride engaging in mind games and riddles than physical fighting (pay attention to the riddles, as they come into play in the next phase). The conversation eventually ends and you're tasked with completing a risky and difficult puzzle - failure results in instant death, so tread wisely. Use those riddles and answers to help you through the puzzle and, technically, beat the Sphinx. The Cyclops Location: Forgotten Isle, South of Phokis Recommended Level: 35 Curious explorers may have already found this location earlier on in the game. The island in question, the Forgotten Isle, is just off the coast of Phokis where you accepted the quest to save a sailor's brother from bandits. If you dived into the cave, though, you may have noticed a huge stone wall blocking your path on the other side, with a crack split down the middle. Kassandra/Alexios suggest players come back to this place later, and so you do after accepting Between Two Worlds. You'll have to first accept the quest A God Among Men, which triggers the cutscene to fight the Cyclops. At first, he does look intimidating, but rest assured, he's a bit of an idiot. He hits hard and has a wide range of attack, but he is also terribly slow, leaving plenty of room to attack him speedily. Aiming for his eye with a decently buffed bow is the best strategy here, as it can chip away at his health but also deal great damage. The second phase of the fight adds falling rocks, though it's relatively easy to dodge once you've got the lay of the land. Aim high, attack hastily, and you should be fine. The Minotaur Location: Island Southeast of Messara Recommended Level: 40 Now we get to the insanely challenging ones. The Minotaur resides on an island southeast of Messara, suitably named Minotaur Hills. You'll want to be at the Knossos Palace ruins, where the Minotaur's predictably obvious labyrinth is situated. You'll need to tackle two branching quest lines to unlock the fight: Myths and Minotaurs, and Of Minotaurs and Men. Completing all the tasks for various NPCs gives you the key to the labyrinth, where you can encounter the mythical beast. The Minotaur is no push-over, and can be relentlessly difficult to predict at first. His moveset mostly involves rush attacks and erratic swings with his huge axe. You can, however, bait the beast to performing his ram attack into an obstruction, which will stun him long enough for you to rush in and deal some decent damage. Rinse and repeat. Ranged attacks do prolong the fight, but they're your safest bet if you can't get a hang of his volatile movement. With enough patience and a weapon with great damage output, you'll come out victorious. Medusa Location: Island of Lesbos Recommended Level: 47-50 This is technically the final boss of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and the one fight that the marketing team at Ubisoft vehemently pushed towards release. It's highly recommended that you leave the Medusa fight for the final stretch of the game, as even the area itself is dangerously high-level. Once on the island of Lesbos, head to the town of Eresos to accept a quest called Romancing the Stone Garden, which subsequently unlocks the quest Shadows of Serpents that leads you to the Medusa fight. This particular fight is a royal pain if you aren't prepared. Medusa prefers to fight at range, as she can easily petrify you or throw deadly magic attacks your way. On top of that, she summons stone mercenaries to fight alongside her, so you'll be dealing with a few blockheads while trying to constantly close the gap between you and the mythological creature. It's a lot to juggle, and timing is crucial if you want to make it out alive while balancing all enemies at once. You'll have to defeat her minions in order to get her into a weakened state, where you'll be able to deal damage - granted you keep up with her teleportation. After slaying Medusa, you'll have successfully completed all the mythical quests in the base game. You can pat yourself on the back, or take a victory lap around the house. Dark Souls has taught me to take my winnings in earnest, so I enjoy a Twinkie and sit outside on my lawn chair for a bit. Assassin's Creed Odyssey is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Make sure you pick up your copy here.

We all have that moment when we start planning towards something in advance because we absolutely have to make the situation work out. In some sad cases, the situation doesn’t go the way we had hoped and this can be said for store owner Zach Gieg. He has reportedly been told by a distributor that he would not be getting Red Dead Redemption 2 on time, and his store won’t be the only one affected by this. The story goes as follows: Zach Gieg spent well over $3 300 decorating his video game stores with billboards, flyers, posters, and other displays revolving around the highly anticipated western open-world adventure. This was done through the store’s expense, but Gieg was hoping that would bring with it an extra form of profit. However, he was told by his local distributor that he would not be getting the game on time for its upcoming release. That would hinder sales dramatically, and across the country, other stores were getting told the same thing. In an interview with Kotaku, Gieg said gamers don’t like to wait. “We have a very loyal customer base, per se, but I don’t think I’d want to wait for a week. It’s ridiculous. They’re gonna download it or go elsewhere and buy it at a big box retailer.” Gieg then continued to share his predictions on sales between the four stores he owns. He said he would sell more than 1 000 copies which is $60 000 in lost sales. To put that into perspective, if a South African retailer were to sell Red Dead Redemption 2 at a retail price of R935, that would equate to a staggering R935 000. That is a large quantity of money to be losing out of. The stores are unsure as to why, with some stating it is an issue with supply. Two longtime store owners have said nothing like this has ever been an issue before, even for big games. That being said, this is two discs per copy. That is a lot of discs. Store owner, Derek Holland, isn’t sympathetic to the situation whatsoever. To get an edge over bigger stores, he offered a pre-order bonus. Holland got a local artist to draw up designs for a custom Red Dead Redemption 2 T-shirt. So basically, the store has a bunch of handmade T-shirts and no stock of the game on release day. Thankfully, Holland has accepted the situation and is okay with waiting. “We have pretty great customers,” he said. “We’ve reached out to everybody who pre-ordered the game and told them the deal. A lot of them have been fine waiting the extra week to support our business and help us out.” That being said, this isn’t going to help the current situation revolving around retail stores. Many gamers are already shifting toward digital releases, and this will cause a lot of them to buy the game digitally instead. In turn, retail stores will suffer from this. Physical sales have dropped rapidly this year, and an issue with supply is not going to help improve the situation. Red Dead Redemption 2 is set to release on October 26th, 2018 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The SoulCalibur franchise finally makes its triumphant return, but can it stand with the other numerous fighting games that have been released over the past few years on our current-gen systems? It’s been 6 years since the last mainline SoulCalibur game was released, and this is our first look at the franchise on current-gen systems. SCVI takes us back to the start, retelling the story that has been built upon over the years; it's the perfect start for newcomers of the franchise and there is still plenty new content for those familiar with SC lore. SCVI has 2 story mode options. The first is Libra of Soul; players will play through the SC timeline with their own custom-made character - an RPG-esque type mode that involves levelling up your character as you travel through the map, obtaining new items that can be used in combat, granting you various perks. This also lets you obtain new weapons as well as comrades who will fight with you in battle. This particular mode lets you forge your own destiny with your character and gives you various choices that will tip the scale towards good or evil, altering how the story plays out as well as the weapons your character acquires. Main quests and side quests are scattered around the map; side quests require you to travel around various points on the map, and doing so will cost the player gold, which can be earned in combat, to travel to these points. As you level up, you gain additional health as well as being able to equip higher level weapons assisting you in combat. Weapons also have various attributes such as their damage output, as well as special attributes like health recovery or additional critical hit damage, which can all be enhanced or combined to create new weapons with various attributes. It’s quite an enjoyable mode where players will find the most depth in terms of single player content. However, it is heavily text-based and unlike the other mode, has very little voice-over dialogue which did get a bit tiring for me at times. The other story mode is Soul Chronicle, the retelling of the main story which follows a few of the cast members while also integrating other characters as you progress through the timeline. This mode is fully narrated and is accompanied by some of the best artwork you will find in any game. There are 20 chapters within the mode, but in addition to this, every character also gets their own timeline you can go through, telling their story of where they were and what they were doing during a specific time. It all comes together to re-tell the great story of SoulCalibur. Each character has about 6-7 chapters to get through within this mode. Completing these also rewards players with SP currency which can be used to purchase additional items for use in customization. SCVI allows for 100 custom characters as well as 100 player downloaded characters to be saved. Best of all, everything can be customized, from hair and outfits to colours and pattern designs - even blood type. On the topic of customization, SCVI has quite a few choices, giving players the option to choose between a male or female character based on 16 different races, from human to demon to skeleton. There should be something here for every player. Existing characters can also be customized, and players are able to download other players customizations (ed - a neat little addition because I'm always curious of other players' creativity). SCVI allows for 100 custom characters as well as 100 player downloaded characters to be saved. Best of all, everything can be customized, from hair and outfits to colours and pattern designs - even blood type. My only complaint with the character creation mode is the list of items; there aren’t as many items as there were in the previous title and this seems to have been left out as incentive for players to purchase the season pass. The most important part of a fighting game is its combat, and SCVI is better than ever. The 8-way run system combined with a 3-button attack configuration for horizontal and vertical attacks which can be used in high, medium and low attacks, as well as a kick attack and a block button that have been retained, but a new mechanic has been added to the combat system. A new defensive mechanic called Reversal Edge allows players to counter incoming attacks. The most important part of a fighting game is its combat, and SCVI is better than ever. Reversal Edge has its own button and the longer it is held, the more attacks it will absorb - if you land the attack from the Reversal Edge after a successful counter, both players will enter a slow timed state. Here, each player will press a button and guess what the other player may do. It could end up in a clash and a return to neutral state or allow for you to dodge an attack and retaliate. Reversal Edge can be beaten by unblockable attacks so that is one thing to keep in mind; it seems to be a more beginner-friendly mechanic and something that players use instead of guard impact which repels incoming attacks, putting the attacker in a staggered state. Just remember that the staggered player can also guard impact back so think about your follow-up carefully. Critical Edge and Soul Charge also make a return. A Critical Edge is a super move that costs 1 bar and is great for punishing whiffed attacks or opponents in a negative state. Soul Charge also costs 1 bar and puts the player into a charged state. This powers up normal moves but also gives you access to additional attacks and combo strings, causing chip damage to any blocked attacks. Choosing what to spend your resources on is a big part of the mechanics. Additionally, there is an arcade mode. However, this is just a series of 8 random fights and has no story tied to it. Other modes also include VS mode, training mode and online battle. Online can be done in ranked or casual and is a lobby-based system. Museum mode lets you unlock all sorts of information; movies and artwork related to story, characters, music, etc. There are 22 playable characters - many fan favourites return and, surprisingly, only 3 new characters are present. Groh and Azwel join the cast with Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher series appearing as the guest character. Annoyingly, Tira, who is in arcade mode as well as Libra of Soul, has been held back for season pass buyers. While I am in favour of DLC for fighting games, I am not in favour of completed characters being kept behind a pay wall. Geralt’s Kaer Morhen level is a great addition to the game and features one of my favourite soundtracks to fight to. On the plus side, the iconic announcer is back and better than ever. He really adds to the hype of matches (ed - *shivers*). There are some great stages in the game as well with fantastic soundtracks; Geralt’s Kaer Morhen level is a great addition to the game and features one of my favourite soundtracks to fight to. From grassy planes, to castles to snowy mountain tops, each stage is unique and has a great atmosphere around it. Unfortunately, there is very little in terms of a tutorial, apart from some text based information detailing the different mechanics - there is nothing that will show you or teach you the uses for these mechanics. All in all, SoulCalibur VI is a fantastic addition to the series and has quickly become my favourite fighting game of this generation. It looks amazing, sounds incredible and runs great. Combat is easy to get into and its simplified mechanics encourage players to dive deeper into the combat system. The game has some basics missing which points towards its overall budget but hopefully the game sells well and the developers put a bit of those profits into updates and some additional free content for early adopters. I’m looking forward to watching this game grow in the competitive scene and can highly recommend this to both casual fighting game fans and tournament players.