As has become the annual tradition, the Winter 2018 Steam Sales have begun! Brace your wallets, friends, for the game deals are rolling in harsher than ever. Featuring more than approximately 15,000 titles and lasting from December 20, 2018 - January 3, 2019, this year's winter sales stars the Extremely Cozy Cottage of Surprises theme where for every day that passes, Steam owners will be able to open doors granting in-game items, emotes, and wallpapers courtesy of Valve. 

For your reference, we've compiled the list of our personal favorite games currently on sale this winter 2018:
​- Assassin's Creed Odyssey - $29.99/£24.99 (50% off)
- Assassin's Creed Origins - $19.79/£16.49 (67% off)
- Hitman 2 - $41.99/£31.49 (30% off)
- What Remains of Edith Finch - $9.99/£7.49 (50% off)
- Killing Floor 2 - $9.90/£6.59 (67% off)
- Donut County - $9.74/£7.71 (25% off)
- The Division: Gold Edition - $13.49/£11.24 (85% off)
- Little Nightmares - $5.99/£4.79 (70% off)
- XCOM 2 - $14.99/£8.74 (75% off) | War of the Chosen - $19.99/£17.49 (50% off)
- Monster Hunter: World - $39.59/£32.99 (34% off)
- Bomber Crew - $5.99/£5.99 (60% off)
- Portal 2 - $1.99/£1.43 (80% off)
- Rising Storm 2: VIetnam - $8.24/£6.26 (67% off)
- Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - $8.99 /£7.19 (70% off)
- Megaquarium - $18.74/£14.61 (25% off)
- Don't Starve Together - $5.99/£4.39 (60% off)
- Rocket League - $9.99/£7.49 (50% off)
- Hitman 2: Standard Edition - $41.99/£31.49 (30% off)

The 2018 Winter Steam Sales is available now on the Steam launcher platform as courtesy of Valve, and is set to end on January 3, 2019 at 10AM PST.

This past week rumors surged stemming from a Reddit post that China has placed bans on various popular games, standout names including PUBG, Fortnite, Paladins, and H1Z1, while issuing a warning to other popular titles "in need of corrective action" such as League of Legends, Overwatch, Diablo, and World of Warcraft. These regulations, as purported by the Reddit post, originate from the new Online Gaming Ethics Review Committee that was established in China earlier this December 2018. From an assessment, they concluded that there were 20 online games that posed "ethical risks" to the China's population, where 9 are to be outright banned and 11 are in need of immediate remediation. Detailed below are the titles, causes, and recommended actions: 

World of Warcraft, oh World of Warcraft, I miss the times you would keep me up all night; never wanting to let you go till the grasp of slumber dragged me away from you. How when I was forced to go to school I spent the time in class thinking about what I was going to go do with you next. Alright, a tad bit dramatic and romanticised but somewhat true. I spent most of my ‘teenage-hood’ trying to evade my parent’s wrath playing vanilla WoW till five in the morning, almost every waking moment was spent thinking about the game, quite the unhealthy obsession now that I think about it. I even got a group of friends to play and create a guild with me; printing off raid boss strategy guides and discussing it during our lunch break. Good times, but as Garrosh* said in the Warlord’s of Draenor cinematic “Times change”.
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The 2018 Game Awards have come a long way since the years of Mountain
Dew and Doritos hustling at every corner. Here are my top 5 picks for this year’s best reveals:

Everyone's favorite free-2-play builder/shooter battle royale online game, Fortnite, is entering its 7th season on Thursday December 6, 2018. What do you think you can expect? For one, Fortnite's ongoing and ever-evolving story line is sure to continue with the arrival of Season 7. As apparent by the teaser images, Season 7 will be bringing along a winter-based theme of skins and items. Whether we'll see developments on the map is yet to come. Alongside the multitude of speculative developments, Fortnite streamers and content-creators have already made announcements to stream the coming of the new season live on their Twitch and Youtube channels - a tradition not unfamiliar for the coming of Fortnite's previous six seasons. As always, Epic has done a good job in keeping a tight lip on what we can hope to see out of Season 7, though the December 3 teaser that reads "A bitter ice spreads..." definitely hints at snow hopefully making a return to the battle royale game.

As the drop of the new season approaches, we are reminded that the Winter Royale open tournament, which is Fortnite's first open competition involving cash prizes, has already been going on since November 24 and will culminate on December 12. Whether the tournament's rules or play style will be affected by the new season is yet to be seen, but the expected theme change would definitely make the tournament name more fitting. In addition to having won the Ultimate Game of The Year award at the Golden Joystick awards earlier this year on November 17, Fortnite's dominating presence is clearly not waning anytime soon.

Fortnite Battle Royale Season 7 is expected to drop on December 6, 2018 early in the morning. Fortnite was developed by Epic Games and initially released on July 25, 2017.

It's not every day you get to witness gaming history. 2018 has been a year of terrible releases, from Sea of Thieves to Fallout 76 to Battlefield 5. Recently, it seems developers have lost touch with what makes a game fun, opting instead to release half-assed games riddled with microtransactions or overpriced DLC. I am happy to announce that Red Dead Redemption 2 IS NOT one of those games. Red Dead Redemption 2 is fun, really freaking fun, stop-reading-now-and-go-get-it fun. I have been gaming all my life, and during that time, there have only been a handful of games that glued me to my seat: The Witcher 3, God of War (2018), Red Dead Redemption, and as the newest entrant, Red Dead Redemption 2.