The comically large map of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which players can spend well over 100 hours exploring without doing all of its quests and clearing all of its caves and forts, won’t expand outward with the game’s first expansion. That’s a change from how the series has handled downloadable add-ons in in the past.

I don't like getting lost in video games. I love to explore and find secret treasures in the depths of a virtual world, but I'm methodical about it. It's why I use the map in Metroid, and it's also why I only travel in straight lines in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Even when it makes no sense and results in a slower and more inconvenient journey.

Support for the Australian dollar is finally live. Some studios are still getting around to making their games available locally, but for the most part, prices and games have remained largely untouched.

But then everyone got to work, and very quietly, prices started going up.

I have Assassin’s Creed Odyssey installed and updated on my PS4, but every time I boot up my console, I select the game right next to it: Assassins Creed Origins. I want to beat the older game and move on to the newest one, but I can’t, because I keep accepting new side quests.

Of the many differences between last year’s Assassin’s Creed Origins and this year’s Odyssey, the changes to upgradable abilities have the most dramatic effect on gameplay.

Origins’ skill trees were a convoluted mess even at the time, and Odyssey’s refinements bring that messiness into sharper relief.

I'm enjoying Assassin's Creed Odyssey so far, but I've been struggling to find a difficulty setting that I like. More specifically, I'm struggling to find a setting that I like equally for every activity.

At a glance, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey looks a lot like last year’s Assassin’s Creed Origins. Despite swapping Egyptian pyramids for Greek temples, the surface-level similarities are numerous. There are plenty of subtle differences, however.

Back when last year’s Assassin’s Creed Origins was still a fairly new game, Ubisoft found an unusual way to brag about it. In a press release three and a half months after it launched, the company noted: “Average playtime per player expected to almost double.”

Bayek’s motivation in Assassin’s Creed: Origins gets revealed early on: He seeks revenge for the death of his young son. He isn’t alone among video game protagonists in wanting revenge. Samus Aran lost her parents; Joel Last-Of-Us lost his daughter; Mario Mario lost multiple girlfriends to multiple muscle-bound monsters.

Somehow, though, Bayek has kept his sense of playfulness, even as he carries his grief with him.

Assassin’s Creed Origins was a slow burn. The ancient Egyptian adventure didn’t grab me in its earliest scenes, didn’t immediately hook me with its stoic hero Bayek. It felt fine at first. Solid. But it also felt plain. I kept playing and grew to marvel at it.

When I start a new Ubisoft game for the first time, I don’t immediately play it. No, I find the Ubisoft Club option in the game’s menu, load it up, and start unlocking rewards. The rewards are rarely good and they sometimes imbalance my game, but I can’t help myself.

Last week, I realised I have a problem. I'd just finished browsing the Nintendo Switch's entire eShop for a second time in search of a new game. That's a weird thing to do, especially considering that I still haven't finished Breath of the Wild. I should finish it, but I can't bring myself to do it. Hours and hours and hours later, I'm bored.

This is Aussie cosplayer Yeliz taking on the star of Assassin's Creed Origins, Bayek.

Assassin's Creed: Origins still costs a motza on PC: just under $90 if you're buying through Steam. Alternatively, you could pay half that price right now.

The next Assassin's Creed is going to turn heads. That won't just be because it's set in ancient Greece, nor simply because it lets you play as a man or a woman. It's also changing the series' combat yet again, offering more options for stealth, and even fleshing out the modern-day stuff that's been lacking in recent games in the series.

Hello - my name is Jason Schreier, and I am now officially a PC gaming snob.

Curse of the Pharoahs, the second big expansion for Assassin's Creed Origins, has been one of 2018's most pleasant surprises, in big part because it includes some very weird shit. Here's a look where some of that came from.

Ubisoft's personal gaming assistant, previously only available in Canada, is now out worldwide. Its name is Sam, a nod to Sam Fisher of Splinter Cell fame, although Michael Ironside doesn't do the voice (sorry, Stephen). Embedded in the Ubisoft Club app, Sam sounds like any other AI that might reside on your phone, although instead of giving you directions to the nearest coffee shop it tells you about Ubisoft video games.

Upon turning on my PS4 most days, I hope to hear the telltale trill that one of my games has been updated. A patch! My game has changed! Hopefully for the better.