Happy Wednesday! What are you playing lately? I mean, besides Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.

I just received the quest in Horizon Zero Dawn to start The Frozen Wilds DLC, so I’ll be playing that this week. In November I mostly played GTA V. I’ve been missing NieR: Automata so I’ll pick that up again, too. Let us know on Twitter or in the comments what games you’re playing and looking forward to! Here’s some of the gaming news and links we’ve been thinking about this week:

Marvel Heroes shuts down

The developer of Marvel Heroes, Gazillion Entertainment, has laid off all of its employees. Gazillion had announced Marvel Heroes would shut down at the end of this year but apparently the end date was moved up to last Friday.

Speaking of layoffs, in case you missed it, Telltale Games laid off 90 employees—a quarter of its workforce—last month.

Destiny 2 and Clicker Heroes 2

As noted last week, there’s been renewed focus lately on loot boxes and other types of paid progression in games. Due to players’ complaints, Destiny 2 is changing its progression system. It previously limited XP gains on some events.

In related news, the developers of Clicker Heroes 2 have ditched the free-to-play model entirely.

So you want to buy a console?

• While many Black Friday sales have ended, as of press time, GameStop has the PS4 Pro for $350 instead of $400.
• Microsoft is selling the Xbox One S for $189, down from the usual $249.
• Expanding on Cyber Monday as a major sales day, Target has a number of Cyber Week deals this week.

Recent releases

• Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Here’s a list of their differences from Pokémon Sun and Moon, including a new minigame and a new online mode.
• Fantasy Flight Games just released Fallout: The Board Game.
• 8 Vignettes from the Tech Industry is a new Twine game by Elizabeth Sampet about sexism in the tech industry.
• World of Final Fantasy, which was previously available on PS4 and PS Vita, was released on Steam for PC.

Upcoming releases

• Sega will release Valkyria Chronicles 4 for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch in 2018.
• Nintendo will release Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on Switch on December 1st.

• Activision is releasing Destiny 2‘s first expansion, Curse of Osiris, on December 5th.

• Also out December 5th: The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection, which includes seasons 1-3, 400 Days, and the Michonne miniseries.
• Fallout 4 VR for PC releases on December 12th.
• Microsoft Studios is releasing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on Xbox One on December 12th. Here’s how the console version differs from the PC release.
• The latest expansion for Final Fantasy XV, Episode Ignis, comes to PS4 and Xbox One on December 13th. Here’s the trailer:

News and tidbits

• Here’s a rundown of literary references in Life is Strange.
• Namco Bandai’s virtual reality arcade in Tokyo, VR Zone Shinjuku, is adding a Ghost in the Shell team shooter.
• Revenue from free-to-play games rose to $22 billion in 2017. It was $11 billion in 2012.
• Here’s a massive list of resources for game developers and aspiring game developers. It includes tutorials for Unity, Unreal, coding web games, making 2D and 3D art, and much more.
• Stardew Valley‘s soundtrack is on Bandcamp and you can buy it for $5.

Games Bleat

Welcome to Games Bleat! I’m Joesph, your local games warlock, and I’m gonna jump right in this week!

This year’s Black Friday sales are on their last legs, meaning you only have a few hours to catch most of those vivacious deals. I’ve gone through and listed some of my favorites so you don’t have to waste any time looking.

• Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition is on sale at GOG at $4.99 for an unknown amount of time.
• For those who still haven’t had a chance to try the Orange Box classic, Portal is on Amazon for $0.99, along with a few of my favorite games: The Talos Principle ($9.99), Mass Effect 2 ($4.99), and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider ($14.99) for god only knows how much longer.
• If you haven’t had a chance to try out the Dishonored series yet, the kind of clunky, yet critically acclaimed, first game in the series is available for $2.50 at Green Man Gaming.
• GameBillet has The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim available for $3.25 for a few more hours, in case you’re not feeling its recent Switch port.

We also have a couple of interesting releases for you to watch out for this week. You’ve probably seen at least one of your friends tweeting their friend codes for Nintendo’s new free to play mobile game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. It may have been released in October, but the game—based on the hit slice-of-life simulation franchise—has burst in popularity over the last week!

And that’s not even all Nintendo’s been working on. The long awaited sequel in the Xeno franchise is finally here, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 releases on December 1 for the Nintendo Switch.

Finally I’ve heard some good things about Fariwalk: The Prelude, a game just released on Steam this week. It has some reports of glitchiness, and is supposedly very short, but it offers a fun few hours exploring a darkly atmospheric forest.

Draven Katayama

Writer at Sidequest and WWAC; past: Newsarama, Comicosity, executive editor of Kollaboration. I’ve watched over 200 hours of Life is Strange playthroughs. Talk to me about LiS, The Last of Us, and the games and fandoms you love! Twitter: @loudlysilent