Ubisoft’s EXTREME!!! sports game, Steep,  launched last Friday, but with the hustle and bustle of The Game Awards 2016 and PlayStation Experience 2016, we wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t know. Today, reviews for the game started rolling in. Currently, the PS4 version is sitting at a 71 on Metacritic, which isn’t too bad. Here are what reviewers have to say:

Destructoid (6/10)

It is, however, those adrenaline-filled moments that are the best Steep has to give. When it can display a real sense of speed and danger, Steep can be engrossing. It’s in these times that it feels infinitely replayable, like this reckless catharsis will never grow old. It’s these challenges that you don’t mind trying again and again because skidding down a cliff face of snowless rocks never ceases to entertain. And, these moments are fantastic reminders of how navigating a half-pipe where it’s a struggle to maintain any speed is such a goddamn waste in this game.

Xbox Achievements (78/100)

The jumping and the tricking aspect of Steep is surprisingly deep when you get used to it. It can be a little daunting at first, as a lot of things come into play really quickly – especially timing that launch off an edge or ramp – but once you’ve got used to the basics, you’ll be Double Cork 1440 Popairing in no time! It’s a case of fairly easy to pick up and play, but a lifetime to master. Well, a few hours at the very least.

Digital Spy (3.5/5)

The problem with Steep, however, is that, while you may well love it, that love begins to fade with time. Partly, this comes down to niggling irritations. The 3D map, for a start, is hard to navigate, often making it unnecessarily awkward to find your next event. The rest of the UI isn’t much better, turning simple character customisation into a bit of an ordeal.

God is a Geek (5.5/10)

There is some fun to be had in Steep. The crux of the game, the actual snowboarding and skiing, do feel good and are fun to play and there are a whole lot of varied challenges to do in the frosty Alps. But a whole bucket load of bizarre design decisions distract from that. Ubisoft tried to innovate, but instead just over-complicated.

PlayStation Lifestyle (6.5/10)

The sheer idea of a gigantic extreme winter sports sandbox is extremely compelling. While the game manages to live up to some of its potential by offering up an expansive, beautifully detailed map and an extensive collection of modes, it falls short on several fundamental elements, critical to the success of a new franchise. Odd storytelling, inconsistent controls, practically non-existent tutorials and imprecise collision detection all combine to derail what should have been a new premier franchise for Ubisoft.

Let It Die released a few days ago with a low barrier to entry. Anyone with a PS4 can download and play the game and there’s a lot of fun to be had for people who like action-oriented games where button mashing won’t save you. You may have heard the game described as a “Souls-like” on the internet thanks to its stamina-based combat system, but there’s a lot more here than just an action game.

Saturday was a huge day for PlayStation fans around the world. In addition to being the start of the PlayStation Experience fan expo, it also meant a lot of game announcements and trailers pouring out of Sony’s conference at the event. Since we wouldn’t blame you if you can only remember a few past The Last of Us Part II, we’ve grabbed every trailer from the conference to refresh your memory.

There was a lot going on last night at The Game Awards 2016. Geoff Keighley got very emotional about Hideo Kojima, Overwatch won Game of the Year, and we saw some weird cross-promotion with Schick because these things don’t pay for themselves. In all the commotion, you might have missed a trailer or two, but that’s ok. As always, we have you covered with a rundown of every trailer you might have missed  from last night’s award ceremony.

In the early days of gaming, it made sense to walk into GameStop and put down $5 on a game you wanted to purchase. Before digital downloads were a thing, games could actually be hard to find. Today’s internet-enabled landscape has changed that and with the prevalence of digital downloads and rushed development cycles, you’re actually hurting yourself in the long run when you pre-order a game.

At least one Spanish site has gone on record stating that Koch Media (who handles distribution for Square Enix in Europe) contacted them directly about the state of their Final Fantasy XV review, which they gave a 7.5/10. They stated that the outlet was crossed off the list of media to receive embargoed games because of the disapproval of the score.

This practice of blacklisting sites with unfavorable reviews is a publisher strong-arm tactic that would not be acceptable in any other industry. Cars couldn’t be sold before they were properly tested. The same with any other consumer electronic or appliance. But because video games are digital code and entertainment, the experience you get at launch is the one the publisher can get away with. There’s very little the consumer can do to return a game once it’s released and publishers know that.

Players are quickly discovering that No Man’s Sky’s new Survival mode is no joke. The mode is punishingly hard because of how little provisions you’re given to work with and how quickly your meters drain compared to the game’s “Normal” mode. That shouldn’t keep you from playing it, though. To help you have a bit more fun while trying to be Bear Grylls in space, we have five handy tips to survive in Survival mode.

One of the most useful features in No Man’s Sky is the ability to scan a planet from orbit. This allow you to get a peek at what resources you might find on that planet. As you probably should know by this point, resoures are very important, especially in Survival mode.

4. Keep track of your resources

We’re going to assume that you played No Man’s Sky’s “normal” mode before rolling the dice with survival mode. If not, then props to you. If you did though, then you should have a basic understanding of what each resource does and how it can help you refill your various meters. Use that knowledge to your advantage. Keep important things like Carbon, Thamium, and Zinc on hand just in case you find yourself in a pinch and need to refill a meter or two quickly.

3. Know your meters

Speaking of meters, you should probably take a minute or two to really understand them. They’ll help you out. On the ground, you have your life support, shield, and hazard protection meters. Each of these meters is affected by different conditions.

Life support drains as you move around in an environment (we’ll cover this more in a minute).

Shield is rather self-explanatory. Anytime you take damage, your shield will absorb those hits until it runs out. At that point, the life bars below your shield will begin to deplete until you die. In the event that you’re able to escape any damage for a few seconds, your shield will begin to regenerate, just like most games today.

Hazard protection depletes in hazardous conditions. Really, just being on a planet will cause it to drop, but staying out during a storm, cold night, or hot day will see the gauge tank. In that instance, you’ll want to duck into a nearby cave or building, wait it out in your ship, or (if you have the spare ammo), burrow deep enough into the ground so the weather doesn’t harm you.

2. Don’t be afraid to restart

Let’s face it, we all make mistakes; whether that’s forgetting to turn the oven off before you leave for work, or misjudging the distance between you and your ship in No Man’s Sky. Whatever your situation may be, mistakes are a part of life. No Man’s Sky is no different. A large part of Survival mode, even with this guide, is trial and error. You have to crawl before you walk, and in this case, you need to die before you can learn.

If you start out on a hellish planet, hit that reset button and try again. Since everything’s procedurally-generated, there’s no guarantee that you’ll have a better planet on the second or third try, but keep going until you’re in an environment that is comfortable. Or you can try your luck in a hellish starter planet. Those can yield a lot of lessons too.

1. Walk, don’t run

Those first few moments as you’re trying to survive long enough to make it to your ship are grueling and after a few retries, we wouldn’t blame you if you gave up. However, like we already said, use this as a learning experience. Now that you know your meters, you need to know how basic movement impacts them, namely life support, because that’s pretty important.

When running or using your jetpack in No Man’s Sky, your life support drains faster than normal. This is indicated by the arrows right next to the meter. Three arrows are the max, indicating you should probably chill out. Walking is the most cautious way of traversing a planet (outside of using your ship) because it only drains a small portion of your meter at a time. Staying still doesn’t effect it at all, so don’t move when you’re mining something.

Ground transportation has long been a problem in No Man’s Sky. Either you’re taking advantage of a boosting mechanic to get to your destination faster or precariously walking on the ground, waiting for your next opportunity to boost. However, No Man’s Sky’s next update might actually fix that.

Now how the ATV will use fuel is unknown at this time, but we can expect more information the deeper eegandj digs or as we get closer to this update…whenever that may be.

Eegandj also notes that they found information about a 4th race called the “Diplomat” and some new information about freighters. There’s a lot more in their post, so go check it out.

One of the best new additions to games this generation has been photo modes. By giving players free control over a frozen world, developers have been able to allow players to take incredibly creative photos of the worlds they’ve inhabited. No Man’s Sky’s Foundation update finally brings Photo mode to this gorgeous game. Although the process could use some simplifying, accessing Photo mode is as simple navigating to the options menu, turning it on, and accepting the confirmation. From there, No Man’s Sky sheds the UI you’ve probably grown accustomed to, dawning a cleaner look almost as if from an other-worldly

When Sony released the PlayStation 4 back in 2013, it made one important change to how it operates its network. While the PlayStation 3 featured free online multiplayer no matter the game, Sony decided to put online multiplayer behind the PlayStation Plus paywall similarly to how Microsoft operates with Xbox Live Gold memberships.

All right, so I’m cheating a little by including this one on the list because technically, it’s not available yet. The same studio behind Smite is developing Paladins for PC, Xbox One, and PS4 and you can sign-up for the PS4 Smite closed beta to test the game out when it’s available.

Right now the game is in beta on PC and to call it an Overwatch clone would do it a disservice, but there’s plenty that the game borrows. Some of the heroes feel similar to Overwatch characters and the way map progression works is the same as well. Hi-Rez intends to offer Paladins on the same model as Smite, with some heroes available for free on a rotating basis and an all-included pack available at a specific price-point.

This game is the closest you’ll find to a free-to-play Overwatch that won’t require PS+ to play, so you’ll want to sign up to see if you get into the beta if you’re a fan of hero shooters like this one.

After 10 years of waiting, Final Fantasy Versus XIII Final Fantasy XV is finally here. Almost. Ok, there’s another day before the official launch, but various outlets have published their reviews. Now the big question on everyone’s mind: Is it good? Well, if you go by Metacritic, then yes! Final Fantasy XV (on PS4) is currently sitting at an 86 from 25 Metacritic-approved outlets. Here’s what some of them had to say about the game.

IGN (8.2)/10

When I’m riding chocobos across the beach at dusk with my three friends and hunting iconic Final Fantasy monsters in a huge, picturesque open world, Final Fantasy XV feels like nearly everything I could want from a modern Final Fantasy. But when it funnels me into linear scenarios and drab, constricted spaces that plunge the simplistic combat into chaos, my blood boils a bit. There is so much good here, so much heart – especially in the relationships between Noctis and his sworn brothers. It just comes with some changes and compromises that were, at times, difficult for this long-time Final Fantasy fan to come to grips with.

Destructoid (9/10)

As I’m typing this up now, I’m seeing a future where people buy Final Fantasy XV due to some of the more positive assessments (like this one), and walk away disappointed. Because if you loathe JRPGs, XV is not going to make you a believer. In a way it’s silly that Square spent 10 years making this, and it feels like a really shiny version of something it would have actually made 10 years ago. While a complete overhaul of the genre would certainly suit someone’s needs, XV suits mine just fine.

Videogamer (8/10)

Final Fantasy XV is about adventure and excitement. There are oddities, and it’s not the FF you’re used to, but it’s a good time with some good boys, and has an unexpected emotional resonance to it. Sometimes it seems like it shouldn’t work, but it does.

USGamer (4/5)

I was really skeptical that Final Fantasy XV could ever be successful; but despite some real flaws, it ultimately won me over. I warmed to the characters over the course of many camping trips, found more than I was expecting in the open world, and even enjoyed the bombastic set pieces. I have no doubt that it will be harshly criticized in some circles, but it also has some real merit. Stick with it even if you find yourself rolling your eyes at the opening hours: You may be surprised by how much you end up enjoying yourself.

Gamespot (8/10)

One of the first things you see when you boot up the game is this claim “A Final Fantasy for fans and first-timers.” It’s a strange statement; fans can’t agree on what makes a good Final Fantasy game, and who knows why newcomers shied away from the series in the past. It’s been a long ten years since Final Fantasy XV was first revealed, and tastes have changed in the meantime. While it’s safe to assume fans and outsiders will find some aspect of Final Fantasy XV disappointing–be it the shallow story or finnicky Astrals–it would be hard for anyone to deny that Final Fantasy XV is a fascinating game after giving it a chance. Where its characters fail to impress, Final Fantasy XV’s beautiful world and exciting challenges save the day.

Eurogamer

This troubled history is one of the reasons Final Fantasy 15 is so difficult to pin down. For a series universally known and loved for its emphasis on storytelling, can I recommend a Final Fantasy game despite its unsatisfying story? Instinctively I’d say no, but even as someone who prized the narratives of previous games I still found myself going back to 15’s early stages to seek out new challenges after I’d concluded the main campaign. And it’s clear that Final Fantasy 15 benefits from a vision, one that emboldened its developers to try new things and reinvent a series while reclaiming the scale that its most ardent fans are used to. In chasing that scale the bigger picture can sometimes get a little obscured, but importantly Final Fantasy 15 retains that love of smaller stories, the ones that often prove to be so much more memorable.

Kotaku

I don’t know how Final Fantasy XV will be remembered when held up to the rest of the Final Fantasy pantheon. But I do know that it’s got everything I want from a Final Fantasy game. I know that it’ll be yet another snapshot in a life filled with Final Fantasy. Another grand adventure, another gang of worthy heroes; another tale of crystals and magic and betrayal and love, all beautiful melodies and lush scenery and the finely honed complexity of carefully choreographed combat. Onward to secrets beyond the horizon, and don’t forget the Phoenix Down. If that’s not Final Fantasy, I don’t know what is.

Black Friday, one of the largest holiday shopping days of the year, isn’t for another two days but that hasn’t stopped thousands of retailers from putting some or all of their deals up early. So you don’t have to go from store to store, looking for that game that will make your new console-owning friend or relative especially happy, we’ve rounded up a list of where to get the best deals on console-exclusive games this Black Friday.

• Bloodborne — $15 — Best Buy, Target
• Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD — $8 — Walmart
• The Last of Us Remastered — $10 — GameStop
• LittleBigPlanet 3 — $15 — Best Buy
• MLB The Show 16 — $15 — Best Buy, Walmart, PSN
• No Man’s Sky — $20 — GameStop
• Ratchet & Clank — $10 — GameStop
• Street Fighter V — $15 — Walmart
• Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection — $15 — Best Buy, Walmart
• Until Dawn — $15 — Best Buy | Target
• World of Final Fantasy — $35 — Walmart

Xbox One

• Gears of War 4 — $30 — Target
• Gears of War Ultimate — $15 — Best Buy
• Recore — $15 — Target, Walmart
• Titanfall — $8 | Walmart

Wii U

• Pikmin 3 — $15 — Walmart
• Pokken Tournament — $35 — Best Buy, Target
• Splatoon — $35 — Walmart
• Super Mario Maker — $35 — Target
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD — $25 — Walmart

Here are some other ways to save big on Black Friday:

Use your credit card

If you have a credit card that offers price protection, use that for your Black Friday shopping. Depending on the terms of your specific card, you’ll be able to get the difference between what you paid and the price wherever said item may be cheaper. If you have a Discover card, you could purchase your Black Friday items right now, then call up Discover and price match everything when the deals go live to save you the hassle of fighting with rabid Black Friday goers later this weekend.

Gamers Club Unlocked

Also worth noting is the fact that if you’re purchasing something from Best Buy and you’re a member of Gamers Club Unlocked, you can get 20% off new games and 10% off used games. This deal gets even better if you price match a game first, then use your discount.

Price match

And finally: price match. If you’re at Walmart, but Best Buy has a game cheaper, don’t bother going to Best Buy unless you have to. Instead, try price matching. This saves you gas money and time you could be spending with your family or picking up a new set of bed sheets.

It’s no secret that both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets are expensive, considerably more than the $399.99 PlayStation VR. however, leading up to the launch of the PlayStation VR, many wondered if it would be possible to use the headset with a capable PC. With the PlayStation Camera requiring a proprietary connector to connect to the PS4, rather than a standard USB, this didn’t seem likely. Until today that is.

Reddit user “loxai” has come up with a solution that allows you to use your PlayStation VR with Steam VR games, providing a cost-effective workaround to getting a Vive or Oculus Rift.

Although loxai says they haven’t done much testing, it seems that after some quick troubleshooting, various Reddit users are having success with the workaround.

Redditor “The-Moncast” says they managed to get the headset working with Sayonara Umiharakawase, although sound wasn’t available.

Another Reddit user, “ozzeruk82,” says that they too got it working and that the experience is “near identical to the PSVR version the game.”

You can download loxai’s application from the Reddit post here.

Ubisoft is a company that finds itself heading into a new year on uncertain footing. French conglomerate Vivendi has been eying the company for a while now, slowly gobbling up shares so that it holds a 22.8% stake in the company. That’s enough to set current CEO and founder Yves Guillemot on edge, as the company has started buying back shares.

While Vivendi said on July 18th that it would not consider a full takeover bid for at least six months, that six months grace period is coming to a close in December. That means the next few releases that Ubisoft brings need to nail it with consumers so its current shareholders are happy and less likely to sell out to Vivendi. Here’s a look at some of the ways Ubisoft is attempting to nail that strategy.

No more annual Assassin’s Creed

Assassin’s Creed as a series didn’t really hit its stride until Assassin’s Creed II with Ezio, who Ubisoft managed to squeeze three games out of his storyline before letting him go. Ezio games were the start of the annualization of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, which saw a story-rich game reduced to a series of gimmicks for each new year, similar to how Call of Duty operates.

Black Flag was a part of this annualization effort, but it’s widely considered a pearl on an otherwise heap of shit of games that came after the last in the Ezio trilogy. Largely, that’s true. Assassin’s Creed III was a buggy mess in terms of production values and the armageddon aliens stuff it introduced in the modern setting did nothing to make the modern corporate battle between Assassins and Templars any more interesting.

The release state of Unity pretty much sealed the game’s fate on the chopping block for a few years, but Syndicate was still in the pipeline so it was released before the series ground to a halt. Now a company that once famously said customers “will tell us” if they’re sick of annualized Assassin’s Creed is saying it doesn’t see the need to return the series so quickly to the root of what killed it in the first place.

Why? Ubisoft has to get Assassin’s Creed right when it comes back. Even long-time fans of the series who enjoyed the historical setting were tired of it by the time Syndicate came out and sales showed it. Miss-steps with the modern story made it unappealing to most, despite the upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie featuring Michael Fassbender that will feature that angle prominently.

Ubisoft can’t afford for its shareholders to lack confidence in the company, so whatever the next Assassin’s Creed game happens to be, it will need to capture gamers’ imaginations and hearts similarly to the way Assassin’s Creed II did when it was released.

No more compulsory DLC

Ubisoft learned a quick lesson from the way it has been handling online updates for Rainbow Six Siege. The game underperformed when it released, yet Ubisoft has been careful about releasing map packs and expansions that might further fragment an already small community. Instead, map packs are released for free, while extra customization items and guns are what you pay for.

The practice of fragmenting a community as large as Call of Duty works in Activision’s favor, since it’s a way to require people to purchase DLC to stay up to date as the developers move through creating content for their game. It guarantees a revenue stream with each new release and is in general, a better business model for the company making the content than for those consuming it.

By bucking those trends and making sure that all the maps are available to the player pool regardless of what they’ve purchased, it means everyone stays on level playing ground. It keeps customers happy and lets Ubisoft focus on creating content that can support their revenue stream without dividing the player base.

Watch Dogs 2 is an amazing sequel

One of the major criticisms about the original Watch Dogs is how little effort Ubisoft put in re-creating the world of Chicago for players to run around in. The driving felt uninspired, Aiden Pierce himself was an unlikeable character, and the story the game told just wasn’t that compelling. It was enough for me to write off Watch Dogs entirely.

Thankfully, Ubisoft didn’t. They went back to the drawing board and came back with a sequel that is the same quality jump we saw in Assassin’s Creed to Assassins’ Creed II. Marcus Holloway is an all around more likeable character than Aiden Pierce and Ubisoft has given him a pretty accurate rendition of San Francisco to hack.

There’s a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor in Watch Dogs 2 and the driving is noticeably improved over what we saw in the first game, which shows Ubisoft is working on getting better with time. Watch Dogs 2 is the sort of game that we should have gotten when the first game debuted.

3D platformers are a dime in a dozen these days. For whatever reason, that genre seems to have nearly died. That’s why I was so excited to see FreezeME pop up last Tuesday while I was browsing the PlayStation Store. 3D platformers are a genre I grew up with and loved. And if the level design and general aesthetic of FreezeME is anything to go by, it seems like the developers feel the same way.

The first thing you’ll notice while playing FreezeME is how familiar it all feels. You wouldn’t be wrong to think that FreezeME is a copy of Super Mario 64 with elements of Super Mario Galaxy mixed in for good measure. The moderately-sized levels, gravity sections, and 2D segments help further this claim, yet there are certain elements that push the game more toward homage than copy.

FreezeME, like other 3D platformers, is light on story. There’s a short introduction sequence to pull you into the world and set up the events of the game, but otherwise, there doesn’t really seem to be much thought put into the overall narrative. Although the events of the intro set up protagonist R’s objective, there isn’t a reason to remember any of that once you’re in the game.

Instead of limiting players with a linearly-structured mission pool, you’re given free reign on how to tackle each of FreezeME’s three or four worlds. Once you hop in, you select a mission and are transported into the chosen world. However, this mission select is simply a vehicle to drop you into the world and give you an objective to go by, if you so choose. You might have to race a rabbit for the default mission, but there’s nothing stopping you from searching high and low for 150 red coins.

An homage to the past

If this is beginning to sound familiar, it should. This heavily resembles the structure of Super Mario 64. Even the first level with its bright colors, races against NPCs, and giant, easy boss will make Mario fans feel at home. And like in Super Mario 64, there are bright and shiny objects waiting for you at the end of each mission. In Mario, they’re stars, in FreezeME they’re golden cubes. Get enough golden cubes and you’ll unlock the next world.

Where FreezeME begins to differ from its predecessors are the freezing mechanics. By using R’s camera, you can freeze enemies and platforms in their place. This adds a unique element to platforming segments as you try to freeze them before they leave you behind, or so you can continue jumping toward your destination. After some fiddling around, I’ve grown pretty comfortable with the camera controls, but not enough so that I can use them with little effort. There are still moments when I wrestle with the laser pointer of the camera because it starts above R rather than in front of her.

Not all sunshine and rainbows

As much as I’m enjoying my time with FreezeME, the game is far from perfect. I haven’t encountered any game-breaking glitches, but playing FreezeME for about four hours has opened my mind to the central problem of 3D platformers, something that this game can’t shake: time management.

Getting around in FreezeME takes a while. Because the worlds and hub are large, getting from point A to point B can be tedious at times, especially when you fail a mission. Remember in Super Mario 64 when Mario would get thrown out of the level and land just outside the painting portal? That was fine. What FreezeME does isn’t. FreezeME decides to throw you to the center of the hub world. This means you have to walk all the way back to the portal leading to each world if you fail a mission.

You probably won’t fail often, in fact, the only way to fail is by dying which isn’t very easy, but that’s not the point. The point is that the easier solution would be to throw you just outside the portal, allowing for immediate access and encouraging something we’ve all learned as children: try, try again.

Watch Dogs 2 has only been out for about a week now, but already we’ve spotted several easter eggs littered around San Francisco for you to find. It goes without saying that this list is full of spoilers, so if you want to have fun discovering them on your own, read with caution.

FreezeME, a 3D platformer in the vein of Super Mario 64, launched this week on the PS4. While the Wii U and Steam versions have been out for a little while now, there aren’t too many guides to help get started. So, we’ve decided to fix that. Below, you’ll find some helpful tips to maximize your efforts while you enjoy the beautiful worlds of FreezeME.

R’s movement is somewhat slow, especially if you’re in a hurry. The first world throws three, time-based missions at you, so speed is something you need in this game. Since there isn’t a faster way to run, the next best thing is to jump and dive. While this may seem like it would take longer than walking, it’s much faster and lets you close the gap between you and the next platform with ease.

6. Forget the objective

Don’t let the game make you feel like you have to stay on the objective. Just because you see that cinematic pan toward the next golden cube doesn’t mean you can’t do something completely different. In fact, we highly encourage you to do the exact opposite: just forget it for a while.

Most of the golden cubes we acquired were found either on the way to our objective or while we got lost trying to get to the objective. This helped quite a bit as we were able to tackle some of the harder challenges early on, making later playthroughs in each world less time consuming.

5. Explore the worlds

FreezeME has some very large worlds, as you probably saw in the gif above. Because of this, one of the first things you should do whenever you unlock a new world is explore. It might seem tedious, but you’ll thank yourself later on.

Exploring each world first allows you to familiarize yourself with the layout, take note of the red coin gears, and find any green coins for later.

4. Freeze objects below you

Sometimes getting the timing right with your freezing camera can be a bit tricky. To help make that a lot easier, we suggest freezing a platform while you’re standing on it. This still takes some quick reflexes (and practice), but mastering this technique early on makes later platforming segments a lot easier.

3. Kick for a soft landing

You’re going to fall from some pretty high altitudes in this game; that’s just the nature of a 3D platformer. Since R starts out with a measly three hearts, it’s far too easy to mess up and die. To prevent yourself from losing a heart, kick in the air, either just before hitting the ground or sometime while you’re falling. This will negate any damage you would normally take from a freefall.

2. Look for hearts

Speaking of hearts, you’ll probably want to get more. As we said earlier, exploring the worlds will pay off later in the game and this is exactly what we were talking about. Hidden in each world is a heart that’s just waiting to be found. Grab that heart and you’ll increase your life gauge by one. That might not seem like much, but that could be the difference between life and death.

1. Don’t let the red coins scare you

We’re going to go ahead and assume that most of you people reading this will tackle the “150 red coins” mission last. This mission can take a while — our first time was 22 minutes — but no worries, because it’s super easy. Unlike in Super Mario 64, red coins in FreezeME are anything but scarce. You’ll stumble upon gears that, when ran around, drop multiple coins. Every time you kill a non-exploding enemy, they’ll drop coins. There are even platforms that drop multiple coins after you step in a sequence.

So, don’t sweat it. This mission is incredibly simple. The only other advice you’ll need is to keep an eye on that golden cube. Once it pops up, don’t forget where it is or you’ll be wandering around (like we were) trying to find it.

One of the unique aspects of the Dishonored series is that it can be approached from just about any method you want. If you want to go in guns blazing and murdering everyone in your path with your supernatural powers, you can definitely do that. However, there’s more joy and challenge to be had trying to complete the game completely stealthy.

If you absolutely can’t find a way through an area that’s littered with guards, a distraction might be in order. There are objects in the game you can interact with that will create noise, which the guards will investigate. You can set an alarm clock or throw a bottle to distract them from the area you need to pass through long enough to give you enough time to Blink through.

Don’t be afraid of save scumming

Even the most carefully laid plans can go awry if you miss spotting a guard or you’re not careful with your timing. That’s disastrous if you’re trying to perform a stealth run, so you should make frequent use of saving the game and reloading should you get caught. Make note of the thing that threw you off so you can account for it in your next go.

Some people consider this cheating, but there’s nothing worse than getting to the end of a mission and getting spotted by a guard you didn’t realize was there, which ruins your ghost achievement. Save frequently and often so you have to repeat less just in case your carefully laid plans end up with you getting caught.

Video games are no stranger to controversy. It seems like with each new entry in the Grand Theft Auto, someone, somewhere finds something to say about it. Violence in video games and how it impacts youths is still a hotly-debated topic among media outlets and parents around the globe.

From no used games to requiring users to sign into the system once every 24 hours, Microsoft’s original vision for the Xbox One was less than stellar. The unveiling was met with ire from the gaming community due to its focus on apps and less so on video games.

Former Microsoft President Don Mattrick didn’t make things any easier for the company when he insulted members of the armed forces stating that if you didn’t have an internet connection, you could always get an Xbox 360.

After reversing some of the system’s policies, dropping the price from $500 to $300 and introducing the Xbox One S, it’s safe to say that Microsoft is in a much better position than they were in 2013.

4. Kojima vs. Konami

In March 2015, rumors began circulating that Hideo Kojima, father of the Metal Gear Solid series, had left Konami. These rumors began to make a lot more sense throughout the year as Konami first removed any Kojima branding from marketing materials and Metal Gears Solid games, then put them back, followed by removing Silent Hills from the PlayStation Store, and so on. Although Hideo Kojima was awarded the

Although Hideo Kojima was awarded the Industry Icon Award at The Game Awards 2016, Konami barred Kojima from accepting the reward at the event, leading to host Geoff Keighley’s rather blunt statement on the whole affair.

Things came to a close earlier this year when Kojima began touring the world for inspiration for the upcoming project Death Stranding.

3. PSN hack of 2011

In 2011, there were about 77 million accounts registered on the PlaySation Network. Between April 17 and 19th, those accounts were compromised in a network-wide hack that Sony didn’t acknowledge until April 21st. In the meantime, on April 20th, Sony shut down the PSN, resulting in millions of users who couldn’t go online and play with their friends for reasons they weren’t aware of at the time.

It wasn’t until April 26th that Sony announced that users’ sensitive information (birthdays, addresses, emails, passwords, etc) had been obtained by the hackers.

Credit card details were encrypted and safe.

The PlayStation Network was brought back online in waves starting on May 14th with a “Welcome Back” package of PSN games given to users. All in all, the hack cost them about $170 million.

2. GTA “Hot Coffee” mod

Mods can be a good or bad thing, depending on how you look at them. They can either expand the scope of a game, creating things the developers might never thought possible, or reveal things that they never intended you to see. The legendary “hot coffee” mod is the latter.

In 2005, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was released on the PC. As we’ve come to know, PC releases are oftentimes quickly cracked open as the modding community gets to work. A group of modders, in this case, were able to revive a minigame that Rockstar Games had left out of the final release on PC and consoles. That mini-game is activated when C.J.’s chosen girlfriend asks the protagonist if he wants to join her for some “hot coffee.” Of course, now we know this as a euphemism for sex.

With the mod enabled, you got front-row seats to the whole shebang, as CJ and his lady had clothed intercourse. And because it was a minigame, you also got to play along, controlling the sweaty actions of both characters.

The files for the minigame were also re-enabled in the console versions of the game thanks to various hacking tools. Understandably, news outlets pounced on this story like vultures, leading to the game’s re-release as an Adults Only (AO) rated game in the US, banning it in Australia, and a patch disabling the mod for the PC version.

1. Mortal Kombat leading to the ESRB

The year was 1993, the game: Mortal Kombat on Nintendo’s SNES. The game turned heads during its arcade debut in 1992 for being a video game with lots of blood, gore, and “realistic” character models. Since video games were mostly seen as children’s toys, this title in particular stood out like a sore thumb.

After seeing the content in Mortal Kombat, on December 1, 1993, Senator Joe Lieberman called together a group of people to discuss the controversy. Five months later, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board was founded, forever changing the gaming landscape.