The best festive buys for the gamer in your life
ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY (XBOX ONE, PS4, PC)
HAVING dipped in and out of the Assassin’s Creed franchise for years, I think this may just be my favourite.
Set in ancient Greece, this is written on an epic-scale, with action taking place in a vast, open-world that is as daunting as it is beautiful.
It begins at the start of the Peloponnesian War, which saw Athens and Sparta battle for decades over who would rule the ancient Greek world.
The campaign is lengthy – 60-plus hours of rampaging through glorious environments to wage full-blown war on land and sea.
BARGAIN BUY: £43.91 from 365games.com Splash Cash: Medusa Edition – including The Fallen Gorgon statue, hand-drawn map, artbook and soundtrack – £89.99 from very.co.uk
HITMAN 2 (XBOX ONE, PS4)
AFTER enjoying success with its episodic approach, developer IO Interactive has gone back to basics with a great sequel to 2016’s slick reboot.
Picking up where the last game ended, Agent 47 and his handler set off to uncover more details about his past.
The game offers six missions set in six distinct sandbox locations, with the first taking place in
Hawke’s Bay.
Sitting alongside the main game is
Sniper Assassin, a multiplayer co-op, which sees players tasked with offing targets against the clock using a sniper rifle.
Ghost Mode gives you the chance to hunt targets in the same location, seeing a ‘ghost’ version of your rival player.
Time-limited Elusive Targets missions are back, with Game of Thrones star Sean Bean lending his face to the first.
While Hitman 2 feels more like a continuation of it predecessor, it still offers genuinely deep and interesting maps to lose yourself in.
BARGAIN BUY: SPLASH CASH:
focuses on the backstories of the various different ‘specialists’, six of who are returning from Black Ops III, and four new faces to add to the roster.
In a bid to discourage lone wolves, this year’s multiplayer boosts teams that play together, and stay together, with rewards for all players that contribute as well as for individual performance.
The ‘Guns Still Up’ system means you’re always prepared to defend yourself, and the addition of ‘Fog of War’ really keeps you on your toes, essentially rendering all but the closest enemies invisible.
For me, personally, the best part of CoD is always Zombies mode, and Black Ops 4 boasts one of the most fun ever.
Blackout is the campaign mode which has been causing the most excitement – essentially a Battle Royale, which sees 88 players dropped into a sprawling map and fighting till the last specialist’s standing. A must for CoD fans in your life.
THIS brooding DC tale emerges from the Dark Nights: Metal, and sees Bruce Wayne come face to face with the horrors of the dark Multiverse.
He discovers that not only did the Batman Who Laughs survive the battle with The Joker, but he is now hellbent on enacting his sinister plan across the Multiverse.
But Bruce will come to the realisation that the only way to stop the madman is to kill him – and violate the very rule that Batman won’t break.
Written by Scott Snyder, with art by Jock, Batman Who Laughs #1 is out now priced £4.25.
EASILY one of the funniest trailers to debut at Comic
Con this year, if you’re unfamiliar with Shazam, now’s your chance to learn more.
This is the first monthly Shazam title from DC in nearly 20 years, and it promises to be a good one.
Teen-turned-superhero Billy Batson is struggling to balance school and superheroics – and when he unlocks the secret of the Rock of Eternity, things get even worse.
Kicking off the Shazam and the Seven Realms run, you’ll also see the strange team-up of Dr Sivana and Mr Mind.
Written by Geoff Johns, with art by Dale Eaglesham, Shazam #1 is out now priced £4.25.
THE hauntingly beautiful game gets the comic treatment in this new mini series.
Set a year after the events of the first game, this four-part story continues the ‘Sacrifice Arcadia’ ending.
Torn between universes, can a splintered Max reckon with the sins of Arcadia past… and is there any future for Max and Chloe when time itself is against them?
Written by Emma Vieceli, with art by Claudia Leonardi, Life is Strange #1 is out now priced £3.25.
BARGAIN BUY: £44.84 from ShopTo.net Splash Cash: Specialists Edition – including rare skins, bonus in-game points and emblems – £54.99 from game.co.uk