Epic Games is celebrating the holiday season with the "12 Days of Free Games" promotion. Kicking off the event yesterday was the popular turn-based strategy game Into the Breach. 

Today, Epic Games is offering players TowerFall Ascension for free until tomorrow at 11AM EST. Usually $20, this is a great deal for any PC gamer that's looking for a new title to explore. 

Based on the classic platformer games, TowerFall Ascension is meant to be played with friends, as the game supports 4-player local play. However, there's one or two-player cooperative Quest mode, which takes you and up to one friend through the game's main storyline. 

TowerFall takes you on a wild ride through monster-riddled lands. The indie title features 120 unique maps and arenas, as well as eight total playable characters. 

Along your journey, there are a variety of power-ups and secrets for you to uncover. Though, if you choose to play the 4-player local mode, there are options for 75 different variants to make each match unique and fresh. 

Included in this version of TowerFall Ascension is the Dark World Expansion. This DLC adds an all-new storyline as well as the Dark World Mode, which lets you play the story with up to four players. 

To download TowerFall Ascension, head over to the Epic Games Store and click on the 12 Days of Free Games promotion. 

Nintendo is on a roll as of late with its Switch console. At last count, it’s already sold more than 41 million units worldwide. Several of its games have followed suit, with Mario Kart 8 just over 19 million copies sold, per this chart. But a new report suggests that the Legend of Zelda franchise is about to cross a significant sales threshold in its own right.

The report comes from Reddit, in which the poster, u/Lattie1, notes that the popular series will clear 100 million total sales once this winter season is concluded.

“At the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2019, the franchise was sitting at 97.72 million sales, including all mainline and spin-off Nintendo games. With heavy-hitters such as Breath of the Wild and Link’s Awakening and the holiday season combined, the franchise will surely greatly exceed those 100 million units,” it says.

A big part of that is the Breath of the Wild. Rejuvenation of the series that launched alongside the Switch in March 2017 continues to be one of its biggest sellers. Thus far, 16.04 million units have been sold.

And Link’s Awakening isn’t doing too shabby either. In its first week and a half of release, it cleared 3.13 million units sold worldwide. Once the holiday season ends, it could be well over six million — and keep rising, based on strong reviews and good word-of-mouth.

It helps that a lot of the Zelda video games lived up to its legendary status. The original that started it all on the NES is still heralded as a classic, and A Link To the Past is considered one of the best Super Nintendo games ever made. There are also other standouts, including Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask for Nintendo 64; A Link Between Worlds for the Nintendo 3DS; and The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, both re-released for other platforms like the Wii U and the Wii. 

The report should be good news heading into what will likely be the biggest game for the series yet, Breath of the Wild 2. The sequel, confirmed earlier this year, is heavily in development, though it doesn’t have a release date. We could, however, see one announced sometime next year.

When Telltale Games closed its doors in September 2018, it did so in controversial fashion. It left employees very little severance, while some execs ended up pocketing a hefty departure bonus. There were also reports that many were left in a poor state of health by the company, due to its “crunch culture,” the pressure to get games done in a timely fashion that often leads to 12- to 20-hour shifts.

With the announcement of The Wolf Among Us 2’s return last week, and Batman: Shadow Collection releasing this past Tuesday, LCG Entertainment, which bought the rights to the company's name and assets, is working on bringing Telltale Games back in a whole new light. In an interview with IGN, CEO Jaimie Ottilie assured the same mistake will not happen twice.

“We are taking a measured and methodical approach to growth in order to ensure we can provide a stable, non-crunch work environment,” he said. “We are building this into our culture from the outset.”

Ottilie figures that there will be a fair share of people that have their doubts, considering Telltale’s troubled history. “All we can do is be forthcoming; we can't control whether critics hear or believe us. The truth is we are a new company—with different ownership and management, and a different approach as to how we structure a studio in today's market."

Ottilie also made a point to ensure fans and onlookers that acquiring the rights to Telltale was not a cash grab. "We're frustrated by people who have suggested this is opportunistic or simply a money grab for the catalog of games without even giving us a chance," he said. "We have all jumped into this with the intention of standing the company back up and continuing the legacy of telling stories that people want to play."

The Wolf Among Us 2’s return is a great start. Since the game’s announcement on The Game Awards, social media has been abuzz about what Telltale has in store. Here’s hoping this time around, it takes better care of its teams.

Winterfest continues in Fortnite, as we now find ourselves on Day 3 of the Winterfest challenges. After searching your Holiday Stocking in the Winterfest Cabin, you will find you need to get five eliminations with an unvaulted weapon.

Thankfully, this is quite easy to do, as long as luck is on your side. Each day of Winterfest, a new weapon is unvaulted for 24 hours. To get your hands on these weapons, you will need to search chests in the game, or perhaps get lucky with some fishing. 

Today's unvaulted weapon is the Flint-Knock Pistol, a powerful handgun that will knock you back quite a bit when you fire it. It is best to make sure you are landing a killer headshot, due to the long reload time, or at least use the knockback effect to keep you safe while you reload. You might want to wait until a weapon that is more your style is unlocked to do this challenge. Below, you will find a list of the leaked unvaulting for each day of Winterfest.

• Heavy Sniper Rifle - 12/17
• Double Barrel Shotgun - 12/18
• Drum Gun - 12/19
• Flint Knock Pistol - 12/20
• Stink Bomb - 12/21
• Infantry Rifle - 12/22
• Dual Pistols - 12/23
• Tactical Submachine Gun - 12/24
• Shockwave Grenade - 12/25
• Drum Shotgun - 12/26
• Boom Bow - 12/27
• Hand Cannon - 12/28
• Suppressed Submachine Gun - 12/29
• Heavy Sniper Rifle - 12/30
• Boogie Bomb - 12/31
• Flint Knock Pistol - 1/1
• Drum Gun - 1/2
• Infantry Rifle - 1/3
• Hand Cannon - 1/4
• Tactical Submachine Gun - 1/5
• Boom Bow - 1/6 

Keep in mind; these weapons were vaulted for a reason. Generally speaking, they were either very good, or very bad, and were considered by the devs to be upsetting the game's balance. As such, it is best to expect the balance to go a little bit out the window throughout Winterfest. 

By this point, most Nintendo Switch owners are aware of “drift” issues that have affected some JoyCon controllers. It’s been (mostly) remedied by the company, which is finally offering to repair these JoyCons—even without a proof of purchase—and working on fixing current models so they don’t have that problem. Or so they claim.

Still, a situation has arisen with the system’s recent release in China, as one retailer attempted to blame something besides the hardware's build quality.

Based on a report from NintendoLife, a complaint was recently shared on the Weibo social media site. This consumer notes that, after purchasing a system with the JoyCon issue, they reached out to the retailer that sold it, JD.com.

The story they got for it was odd, to say the least. “Is my Joy-Con not drifting?" the OP wrote in Chinese, which has been translated. "I talked to customer service and they told me the behavior of Joy-Cons are not guaranteed on import games and that I should test with New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. Utter nonsense.”

Nonsense, indeed—JoyCon drifting is clearly a hardware issue, and games have nothing to do with it.

Nintendo did begin offering free repairs of JoyCons earlier this year to remedy the “drift” issue. We’re not sure what kind of reach that has internationally, but considering the potential size Chinese gaming market, Nintendo should probably give it consideration—and prepare itself for a bunch more comments like these.

Nintendo Switch-owning fans of the fighting game Kill La Kill: IF have a new content update to dive into. The DLC brings a brand new character to the game, as well as some bug fixes and feature updates.

The headliner of this content is the addition of fan favorite character, Mako Mankanshoku. Mako is a close-range kind of fighter, using short range attacks and speed to close distances quickly. She will become more successful throughout the battle, with her Tension meter responding to her success. 

This update was made available on other platforms in November, but the Switch version remained out of the loop, until now. Today, fighters from all platforms can enjoy the new character and balances that have come to the game. 

You can read the full patch notes for the update below.

New Contents

• Added new playable character, Mako Mankanshoku.
• *Playable in all versus modes and Gallery mode.

Balance Changes

• Adjusted the actions of each character.
• Fixed a bug where displayed damage values weren’t added for some moves.

Character Balance Changes

• Universal Balance changes 
  • Fixed a bug where SP gauge spenders could sometimes be used even when the SP gauge was not quite full enough.
  • Fixed a bug where in training mode, enemies hit by certain attacks would go through damage animations after their position was reset.
  • Fixed camera issues in training mode and tutorial mode
• Ryuko Matoi (Single-blade) 
  • Long-range dash
  • Long-range ground attack
  • Ground break
  • Air break 
    • Fixed a bug where if the target’s limit value was 0, further attacks would not change the limit value.
  • Time up defeat 
    • Character size adjusted.
• Satsuki Kiryuin (Single-blade) 
  • Long-range ground attack
  • Long-range air
  • Ground break
  • Ground break attack 
    • Fixed a bug where if the target’s limit value was 0, further attacks would not change the limit value.
  • Long-range ground attack 
    • Added 25 to the limit value when the limit value was 200 or less with Ketsui Lv1 or higher. In addition,
      attacks other than mash cancels can now be chained under the circumstances above.
  • Close-range ground 1 vert 
    • Adjusted the timing for long-range cancels.
  • Close-range air attack 
    • Adjusted Ketsui Lv 1 and higher movement and close-range attack collision detection.
  • Close-range special 
    • Fixed a bug where characters would move toward the center of the stage before the last attack after hit animations.
  • Time up defeat 
    • Character size adjusted.
• Ira Gamagoor 
  • Close-range special (Whip throw finish) 
    • Fixed a bug where if the target’s limit value was 0, an attack would not change the limit value.
  • Time up defeat 
    • Character size adjusted.
• Uzu Sanageyama 
  • Action camera 
    • Adjusted camera behavior when Sanageyama is close to the screen.
  • Break attack 
    • Fixed a bug where pursuit dash inputs were not registered during guard breaks and counter hits.
  • Close-range air 1 
    • The cancel route into a break was changed into a dash break.
    • Fixed the cancel route during counter hits so that it is the same as during normal hits.
• Nonon Jakuzure 
  • Concussion shot 
    • Changed the timing so that when equipped, the shot fires at the start the action when performing a pursuit dash.
    • Added horizontal tracking when the equipped shot is fired.
  • Ground break
  • Long-range special
  • Long-range super
  • Special break 
    • Fixed a bug where if the target’s limit value was 0, further attacks would not change the limit value.
  • Time up defeat 
    • Character size adjusted.
• Houka Inumuta 
  • Close-range ground cloak 2
  • Close-range ground cloak 3
  • Close-range air cloak 
    • Fixed a bug where if the target’s limit value was 0, further attacks would not change the limit value.
  • Long-range ground cloak 1
  • Long-range ground cloak 2
  • Long-range air cloak 
    • Fixed a bug where bunshin attacks would not activate when the target blocks the cube.
    • Fixed an animation but with bunshin attacks.
  • Air cloak break 
    • Adjusted behavior for close-range air attacks after pursuit hits.
  • Special break
  • Super break 
    • Damage is now displayed along with hit count during demo animations.
• Ragyo Kiryuin 
  • Special break
  • Super break 
    • Fixed a bug where if the target’s limit value was 0, further attacks would not change the limit value.
  • Time up defeat 
    • Character size adjusted.
• Nui Harime 
  • Close-range air 2
  • Dash break 
    • Fixed a bug where if the target’s limit value was 0, further attacks would not change the limit value.
• Ryuko Matoi (Dual-wield) 
  • Close-range ground form 2
  • Long-range ground form 1
  • Long-range ground form 1
  • Long-range air form
  • Long-range special 2
  • Long-range special 3 
    • Fixed a bug where if the target’s limit value was 0, further attacks would not change the limit value.
• Satsuki Kiryuin (Dual-wield) 
  • Air break
  • Long-range special 
    • Fixed a bug where if the target’s limit value was 0, further attacks would not change the limit value.
  • Air step cancel 
    • Fixed a bug where an update to increase attack power by 50% was not implemented correctly.
  • Time up defeat 
    • Character size adjusted.
• Nudist Beach D.T.R 
  • Close-range ground 2 horiz
  • Close-range air 2 
    • Fixed a bug where if the target’s limit value was 0, further attacks would not change the limit value.
  • All long-range attacks 
    • Additional damage from accumulated sticky shots now increases the combo count.
    • The amount of accumulated sticky shots to deal additional damage adds up each time.
      However, at Ketsui Lv1 or higher, this count is reset.
    • The amount of sticky shot hits are counted separately for Ketsui Lv0 and Ketsui Lv1 and higher.
  • Close-range super 
    • Accumulated sticky shot hits are now reset after the animation is complete.

Xur shows up in Destiny 2 every Friday. He does this to try and sell us the latest Exotic wares he has found in the void, and also to remind us that he only works on weekends. What he does during the week, nobody knows, but we assume it involves trying to figure out what he should try to sell us the following week. 

Xur no longer gets a map icon in the game, so it is up to us to hunt him down and find out where he is. To save you time, this guide will tell you where he is hiding and what he is selling, so you can decide if you want to part with some of your Legendary Shards or not. 

Where Is Xur

This week you can find on Titan.

What Is Xur Selling

This week Xur is selling the following Exotic items. As always, he is selling one Exotic weapon and a piece of Exotic armor for each class.

This week Xur is selling the following items:

• Two-Tailed Fox - Exotic Rocket Launcher
• Dunemarchers - Titan Leg Armor
• Contraverse Hold - Warlock Gauntlets
• Assassin's Cowl - Hunter Helmet

What Should You Buy From Xur This Week

The Two-Tailed Fox is a must get weapon if you don't have it. A Rocket Launcher that fires two rockets for the price of one, it also does both Void and Solar damage, making it incredibly useful against various Majors in the game. 

Dunemarchers are immensely fun for Titan's, giving an increase to sprint speed while also building a static charge that will be unleashed on enemies when you melee attack them. Contraverse Hold can be quite strong for Warlocks, as it offers damage reduction when charging your Void grenades, while also returning a random amount of grenade energy when your grenade hits an enemy. 

Finally, the Assassin's Cowl is a solid PvP option for Hunters, granting invisibility when you kill an enemy with a melee attack or a finisher. It will also restore some of your health and shields, which can turn certain death moments into surprising victories. 

As always, grab anything you don't have this week, as all these Exotics can be a fun and useful option.

Kingdom Hearts is one of the most popular video game series of this century, with the first title releasing in 2002. Since then, the series has built a hungry and passionate fan base that craves the Disney and Final Fantasy crossover. 

The latest installment, Kingdom Hearts 3, is considered the best title in the series by many. It released to raving reviews, in part because the game was no longer exclusive to PlayStation, as it also launched on Xbox One. 

That said, it appears Kingdom Hearts could be made available on another platform - PC. The upcoming ReMind DLC for Kingdom Hearts 3 is expected to release in the early months of 2020. However, the listing for the DLC indicates more than just new content is arriving. 

On the Microsoft Store, the ReMind DLC listing says: “Get this app while signed in to your Microsoft account and install on your Windows 10 devices.” Many expected the listing to include instructions on how to install the game on Xbox but that's not the case. 

While this could be a simple mistake, the listing hasn't been taken down as of the time of writing. This wouldn't be the first time we've seen a console exclusive come to PC this year. Red Dead Redemption 2 released on PC one year after launching on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. 

A PC release would certainly increase Kingdom Hearts' popularity but things are only speculative as of right now.

If you have been playing Warframe for a while, you more than likely have every segment in your Orbiter upgraded at this point. This means you might not even be aware that there can be some very cool animations involved in upgrading them. Most of us will have been used to older, bugged animations, but the new interior for the Orbiter has introduced some fixes and replacements for those animations. 

Redditor A__Whisper was kind enough to make a recording of one such animation. In the clip, they are just finished making the Nutrio Incubator Upgrade, and then bring it over to the Incubator to install it. 

Segment animation from r/Warframe

As you can see in the clip above, a panel opens up and slides out of the Incubator, the character model then places the Nutrio Incubator in an empty slot, and it all closes back up again. It may not seem like much, but when most of us have watched our Tenno randomly shove the upgrade into the floor near the segment we are upgrading, it's nice to see this level of detail.

If you have yet to upgrade your Incubator with the Nutrio segment and want to see the animation for yourself, then get to the Tenno Lab in your Clan Dojo, where you get the blueprint for it, as long as you have hit Mastery Rank 5. It's a great upgrade, especially if you keep a lot of pets in the game, as it grants instant recovery from stasis, reduces the cost of DNA stabilizers, and reduces egg incubation time. 

Having played the game for some time, I am very curious to see what other animations are hidden away in the Orbiter, but sadly I'll be relying on kind Redditors to get a glimpse of them, it seems. 

The many directors and writers who have worked on the Pokémon series have gone mostly unnoticed by the general fandom. Since the franchise is based in Japan, and it is a series mostly aimed at kids, many of the creative people who actually work on the multibillion-dollar franchise don't get their moment in the spotlight.

It may be long overdue, but the screenwriter for Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back will soon receive posthumous recognition for his contribution to the series. The award will be presented at next year's Tokyo Anime Award Festival.

Takeshi Shudo was a Japanese screenwriter who worked on multiple anime series, but is most famous for writing for the Pokémon anime in the early years. He was also credited as the writer for the first three movies, which includes Pokémon: The First Movie. He passed away in 2010. He will be receiving the lifetime achievement anime award at the 2020 Tokyo Anime Award Festival.

The late Hisao Shirai, who was the director of Photography for the Pokémon anime and movies for years, will also be receiving a posthumous lifetime achievement anime award at the festival. Shirai passed away earlier this year.

It is satisfying that the years of work in the franchise has been given the respect it deserves. The early Pokémon anime were instrumental for the franchises massive success; like many others, we were obsessed with it as children. The First Movie continues to be a fan favorite, with many fans praising Mewtwo's complex motivations in the original Japanese translation (perhaps less so in the dub translation).

Below is the full list of recipients, as presented by Crunchyroll.

• Shoji Sato, Producer, Future Boy Conan
• Junzo Nakajima, Producer, Heidi, Girl of the Alps
• The late Takeshi Shudo, Screenwriter, Pokémon the Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back, Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution
• The late Kazuko Nakamura, Animator, Astro Boy, White Snake Den
• The late Hisao Shirai, Director of Photography, My Neighbor Totoro, Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie, Pokémon TV anime
• Akiko Koyama, Color Design, Little Women, Soul Eater (episodes 14 and 22)
• Michio Mamiya, Composer, Gauche the Cellist, Grave of the Fireflies
• Masako Ikeda, Voice Actor, Maetel in Galaxy Express 999, Sharon in Space Brothers
• Seiki Co., Ltd., for precision filming equipment used in animation, the company is dissolved

The Tokyo Anime Award Festival 2020 will be held in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, from Mar. 13 to 16.

A leak concerning Pokémon generation 4 shows how different the series could have been. Game Freak was tinkering with the idea of implementing gender differences among a multitude of Pokémon. 

Whether or not this leak is accurate is up for debate. However, it does come from Dr. Lava, someone who has a long history of analyzing Nintendo titles. According to Dr. Lava, this leak originated on /VP/, a 4chan forum where anonymous users post about Pokémon prototypes. 

On Dec. 19, one user posted images of what looks to be gender differences for several Generation 4 Pokémon sprites. 

While there were only a handful of images shared, supposedly, every generation 4 Pokémon was going to feature some gender difference.

The gender difference would exclude Pokémon like Dialga and Palkia, of course, as they are genderless like all legendary pocket monsters.  

Some of the differences were minor, such as the female Charizard having one horn instead of two. Others, however, were quite noticeable, as we can see with Wobbuffet and Pikachu above. From the images, it appears that females differed the most from their original male counterparts. 

If Game Freak actually went through this, Pokémon would look completely different today. Mega Evolutions would have an entirely new look to them, as Game Freak would have had to account for each gender. 

Of course, this is just a leak, so we can't know for certain if this was actually in development or not. Though, it is interesting to ponder, true or not.

Fans of The Witcher universe may soon be able to take the strategy RPG card game Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales on the go. In South Korea, the game was spotted in a Nintendo CSV file from November, suggesting a Nintendo Switch release.

The game was released in 2018 by CD Projekt Red, bringing a focus to narrative and exploration to their standalone card battler spin-off Gwent, which was created after the unexpected popularity of the card game from The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. 

Thronebreaker was originally released on PC, with an Xbox One and Playstation 4 version coming very soon after that. While being a stark change from the gameplay and mechanics of the main Witcher series, the game was met with positive reviews and gained a strong player base. Now, the possibility for that base to grow is here, if this spotting ends up trying to be true. 

The Nintendo Switch just recently got its first foray into the world of The Witcher, with the release of the massively popular third game on the console. While being technically held back by the limitations of the smaller console, the port still offered new players and veteran players to explore its rich world on the go. 

This South Korean file does not confirm that the game is coming to Nintendo Switch at all. We will have to wait for an official announcement from CD Projekt Red to know for sure whether or not Switch fans can dive back into the Witcher universe. 

The team behind Star Wars: Battlefront II has released a new Community Update video detailing some of the new characters and locations coming to the game as part of its December Rise of Skywalker content drop.

With the new film releasing today, Battlefront II has, naturally, been gearing up to bring content to the game to tie in with it. The new update has brought new characters to the game, a new map to play in, and some new appearances for the heroes of the sequel trilogy. 

The update brings four new reinforcements from the sequel era films to play as. The first is the Infiltrator Class Sith Trooper, donned in its striking red armor that specializes in speed and advanced weaponry. The Aerial Reinforcement and revamped First Order Jet Trooper can use their jets to fly, dodge, and engage in aerial combat above the battlefield. Finally, there will be anew "Gunner" and "Spy" unit to take to the battle as well, based on two new alien species from the new film. 

A new planet, Ajan Kloss, is coming to the game as well. A lush, jungle planet, Ajan Kloss will have players either playing as the Resistance or the First Order, as well as the game's co op mode. Some new maps will also be joining this mode, including Jakku, Takodana, and Starkiller Base. 

New appearances are available for some iconic characters from the new trilogy. Rey, Finn, and Kylo Ren are all getting new outfits to reflect their characters in the new film. 

But this just the content that is coming this month. The stream of content extends into next month as well when the game brings the Capital Sumpremacy mode to the sequel era maps, having players fight on the ground before heading up to a their starship to either defend or destroy it. For fans of the droid sidekicks of the film, the little ball of bracery, BB-8, is coming to join the Heroes as a playable character, with his sinister counterpart, BB-9E, joining the villains. 

Battlefront II was hit with massive controversy when it first launched due to its mishandling of microtransactions and pay to win mechanics. The team at DICE quickly removed those microtransactions and have worked hard to bring the game a steady stream of free updates and content, turning the game into, honestly, a really fun Star Wars shooter. If you are looking for a really authentic game to replicate the feelings of those iconic battles from the movies, Battlefront II has become the best option for that. 

Star Wars: Battlefront II is available now for PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4. 

Every two weeks in Warframe, Baro Ki'Teer comes sliding out of the Void to provide us with all manner of wares. Mighty Primed Mods, cosmetics, quest items, and fancy weapons, Baro stocks it all. From time to time, he will also sell the most sought after item in the entire system, Pedestal Prime.

Well, today is our lucky day, as Baro has managed to find this magnificent objet d'art, and he is willing to part with it for a mere one million credits. While this might seem like a lot, you need to understand the true beauty of this piece, and seeing is believing. 

If you are wondering exactly how fancy this pedestal is, check out the in-game description. "Behold, the singular vision of a great artist and the life's work of a master craftsman." it reads, "An artifact so refined, so imbued with the finest material that it has no equal in the system. This is the plinth that all others aspire to be. This is Pedestal Prime."

In all honesty, the Pedestal Prime is just a money-sink for people with more credits that sense, and I can assure you the header image was certainly not taken in my Orbiter. No, sir. It is highly prized, though, as the Warframe community loves a good meme, so people do like to buy them and use it to decorate their Orbiter, making it as fancy as possible for their visitors. 

It doesn't do anything else except sit there and look nice, and its only in-game function is for putting your other decorations on, so if you are new to the game and cannot afford it yet, have no fear. Baro will no doubt have it in stock again at some point next year. 

The competition for best headset was pretty stiff this year, but the SteelSeries Arctis line ultimately stole the show, providing several strong contenders across various performance and price ranges.

When it came down to it, it was a struggle deciding between the Arctis 7 and the Arctis Pro Wireless options. While the Arctis Pro Wireless revealed itself as the superior option, the price ($330) is, frankly, a bit too high to fully embrace. 

A dual wireless connection (2.4G lossless + Bluetooth connection) provides crisp sound, along with the Hi-Res (40,000 Hz output) speaker drivers and a high-quality surround-sound system. The headset is comfortable and light while remaining sturdy. A dual battery system guarantees the headset is always charged, and a desktop hub acts as an equalizer and a charger at once.

The Pro undoubtedly has top notch performance in pretty much every regard, but unless you’re a hardcore audiophile, the increase in sound quality over our actual winner is likely to be lost on you.

At half the price ($150), the Arctis 7 still has stellar performance, with options for both wired and wireless use, and the same surround sound system. It still has quite good audio drivers (S1 ultra-low distortion) and the same design for the shell, remaining comfortable and sturdy for long periods of use over many years, if you take care of them.

The Arctis 7 might take a bit of a performance hit over the Arctis Pro, and it may be missing a couple of fancy features, but the value is an undisputed win over its more powerful cousin.

We could absolutely see someone who wants the best of the best jumping for the Pro and being very satisfied with its performance, but we feel that there is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to performance over cost, and the Arctis Pro Wireless exceeds that, providing less bang for your buck than the other top notch model, the 7, available from the same brand. 

With that in mind, our final choice for best gaming headset of the year is the Arctis 7.

For more of our Year in Review 2019 series, head to our hub page.

Today is a big day for Witcher fans. Not only does theWitcher TV series premier on Netflix, but a new agreement has just been signed between CD Projekt Red and Andrzej Sapkowski, author of the Witcher books.

Over the past year, there has been a long dispute between Sapkowski and CD Projeckt, the developers of the highly successful Witcher games. In October 2018, it was reported that Sapkowski was demanding further payment from CD Projeckt. The author desired at least 6 percent of profits that were earned from the property, which some reports indicated was around $16 million USD.

Today, however, CD Projekt released a statement revealing that the company signed a new agreement with Sapkowski. The press release doesn’t go into specifics because of a “non-disclosure provisions.” However, the new agreement is said to be part of “further solidifying their relationship”.

The press release claims that the new agreement “satisfies and fully clarifies the needs and expectations of both parties… and sets out a framework for the future cooperation between the two sides.”

Related: CD Projekt RED Replies To The Witcher’s Creator Demands Of $16 Million For Rights

The agreement also grants CD Projeckt the rights to the title of The Witcher intellectual property in video games, graphic novels, board games, and merchandise.

The new agreement between author and developers shouldn’t necessarily be taken as a tease for a new Witcher game coming out anytime soon. It is simply an end to a yearlong dispute between the two parties.

Whatever deal they made, it satisfies both parties. Hopefully the author will be a part of further corroborations with future projects, if any do come, in the Witcher video game franchise.

Today's example of "opposites attract" comes to you via Elon Musk. According to a tweet by the prolific loudmouth, indie darling Stardew Valley is making its way onto Tesla vehicles.

Tesla holiday software update has FSD sneak preview, Stardew Valley, Lost Backgammon & a few other things

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2019

If you own a Tesla Model S, Model X, or a Model 3, you can play certain games on the dashboard of your vehicle. The dashboard comes with a touchscreen that you can use to play the games, and you can even connect a controller to your vehicle with an USB port.

If you’re afraid that playing while driving will end up becoming a driving hazard, don’t worry. People can only play games when their vehicles are in park. You can currently play games like Asteroids, Centipede, Virtual Chess, and even Cuphead in your Tesla.

It appears that Stardew Valley will be a part of that growing list soon. Elon Musk tweeted out a sneak peak what’s to come in a future software update, showing Stardew Valley is part of the update.

Stardew Valley is a farming simulation video game where players can plant crops, and develop a life in the nearby town. You can pursue romantic relationships, and even pursue hobbies like fishing or cooking.

The game was originally released on PC in 2016 before porting over in consoles and mobile devices. You can now play the game on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, and, apparently, Tesla vehicles in the near future.

Your keyboard is by far your most important peripheral when playing games on PC. Mice are nice, but the importance of your mouse and its tracking ability are going to vary based on what kinds of games you play. For FPSes, their performance is absolutely critical; for MOBAs, you just need it to work; and for some games, you can get away with a $5 mouse you got out of the bargain bin.

Not so with keyboards, all of which are going to be used heavily in whatever game you’re playing, and your preference for them is going to vary wildly based on your own biases and what kinds of games you typically play.

We tend to like keyboards that are responsive and quiet, while being pretty unobtrusive overall. Other people like their keyboards to be loud enough to wake the dead and flashy enough to blind them afterward, with preferences falling everywhere in between.

So what makes for the best keyboard? To us, one that’s modular in every aspect of its use, and provides enough high quality customization to satisfy anyone’s needs. Quite a lot of high end keyboards provide this, but we eventually settled on the Steelseries Apex 7.

The overall construction is excellent, made of aircraft-grade aluminum and sporting a detachable magnetic wrist rest that is comfortable and doesn’t take up too much space. 

The software provides a lot of customization, from the color and arrangement of the LEDs to custom macros, and its OLED smart display provides several types of notifications on the board, preventing you needing to tab out.

Last but certainly not least, the Apex 7 comes with the choice of three types of keys, in red (linear and quiet), blue (tactile and clicky), and brown (tactile and quiet). We prefer the red switches, but the others are valid options as well. 

Add its number of other quality of life options (out-of-the-way cables, on-board media controls), as well as its quite reasonable price for a keyboard of this quality ($160), and we have a true winner for our hands.

For more of our Year in Review 2019 series, head to our hub page.

Saint-14 is back in Destiny 2, and to celebrate, he has decided to instantly be very useful. He has three new quests available, and completing the Cornerstone quest will allow you to unlock the Tower Obelisk. To get started, head to the Tower Hangar, where you will find Saint-14 near his ship.

Step 1 - Some Assembly Required

To complete this step, you need to collect crucial components from different types of enemies:

• Crucial Fallen Components 0/10
• Crucial Cabal Components 0/10
• Crucial Vex Components 0/10

To get these components, you will need to kill yellow bar enemies. This means bosses and majors, so make sure you bring some weapons that pack a punch. A pretty good way to do is to farm some Lost Sectors or run some Strikes quickly. For Cabal, the easiest place to kill majors quickly is still on the Leviathan, so load up there and take out the guards, then respawn and do it again to finish up that part. 

Step 2 - Delivery Pending

Once you have all the parts you need, return to Saint-14 in the Tower Hangar, and he will give you a piece to place in the Obelisk near the main Tower spawn point. Place it to activate the Obelisk, and the mission is complete. 

The Tower Obelisk serves a great function, as you can manage all the other Obelisks, so it removes the need to travel between different areas of the game. You can collect all the Obelisk Bounties from the one in the Tower as well. It will also open up access to some useful new items that can boost your XP earned from Timelost Bounties and the Polarized Fractaline that you earn. 

When it comes to playing PC games, you want to make sure you have a handle on things. That’s why it helps to have the proper gaming mouse. With additional functionality and precision with aiming in games like Fortnite and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, it’s best to have the right one for the job.

So where to start? A number of peripheral companies released great gaming mice this year, with most of them providing fairly good performance. We dug in and came up with the top pick, but before that, let’s take a look at a few other standouts:

Razer Naga Trinity

At $100, Razer’s latest mouse is one of the most expensive on the market, but you get extra functionality out of it, namely with the numbered keypad on the side. Though it has a slight learning curve, this is actually helpful with certain games, should you need to make a switch right away. On top of that, the Trinity is sleekly designed and has many customizable features, making it a proper choice no matter what your gaming forte.

SteelSeries Sensei 310

A bit more reasonable at around $50, the SteelSeries Sensei 310 is one of the company’s most reliable peripherals to date. With a slick design that showcases the company logo in beautiful colors, this mouse is built with agility in mind. It’s easy to use and has great built-in features, like the split-trigger button design. It’s comfy too, thanks to the pure silicone side grips. Even during the intense match-ups, this mouse is a cinch to use.

Corsair Ironclaw RGB

If you’re into MOBA or first person games, the wonderfully nuanced Corsair Ironclaw RGB is right for you. Featuring a rock solid 18,000 DPI performance and a very light body that makes it easy to move around, it also features a contoured shape that won’t wear down on you, even after hours of play. The multi-colored Corsair logo and the accessible buttons are cool as well, especially for larger hands. For $60, this mouse is well worth the cash.

HyperX Pulsefire Surge

Clocking it at a very affordable $50, the Pulsefire Surge is one of the best choices available for gaming mice. It features beautiful 360 degree RGB effects built-in, along with three custom light profiles to choose from. And it performs like a dream, thanks to its 6-button set up and the ability to set frequently used functions. Plus it has built-in LED lights that detect movement beneath the mouse, so accuracy won’t be a problem. The Surge has a lot of value when it comes to both price and performance.

While all of these are great products, one mouse did stand out among the rest. Our choice for the best gaming mouse of 2019 is the...

Logitech G502 Lightspeed Wireless Mouse

This Logitech model is the most expensive on the market, clocking in at $150. That may be a bit much to ask, but let’s consider what you get. 

First off, the mouse is wireless, and detects pinpoint movement without losing any accuracy. Secondly, it’s very well designed, with 11 programmable buttons and a scroll wheel that you can let roll loose if needed. It delivers with its Hero 16K sensor, with no loss in DPI performance. 

And, finally, its customizable lighting will set you up for success, no matter what your game is. The G502 is like the Mercedes of the gaming mice for 2019—and it certainly performs like it.

For more of our Year in Review 2019 series, head to our hub page.