Usain Bolt will be playable in PES 2018

Well, maybe the second most important feature.

Yes, you can pet the cat in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

It may be the Dark Ages, but there's always a little light. Yes, you can pet cats in Assassin's Creed Valhalla

#ACFacts #AssassinsCreed pic.twitter.com/eK0xCfbMq9

— Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) August 3, 2020

That’s it. That’s the news.

Also, have you seen how big that cat is? That is clearly an ancient descendent of the Norwegian Forest Cat, a very large, hairy Scandinavian breed. (Like cat Vikings, really.)

Here’s the launch trailer for Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. It’s funny, cute, and weirdly inspirational in these uncertain times?

Fall Guys, our favourite video game from E3 2029, is out today on PS4 and PC.

It’s a charming little riff on the battle royale model, but instead of shooty murder, it’s rooted in Takeshi’s Castle and soft play areas. (In fact, publisher Devolver Digital’s E3 2020 setup for Fall Guys was set in a soft play area and had a ball pit. It was lovely!)

Following an enormous beta, in which tens of thousands of keys were given away, the scrappy little game, developed by Mediatonic, has bumbled its way to the top of the Twitch stats, unseating Fortnite, Call of Duty, and even the ‘Just Chatting’ category. The Fall Guys launch hasn’t been without issue, however, as the game’s servers are creaking under massive player demand. Nicer problems to have, we guess?

To go along with the game’s launch – and following the theme of a bumbling little underdog, doing their best – Mediatonic and Devolver have put together a Fall Guys launch trailer.

It’s a video about a jelly bean who, at first, doesn’t do particularly well. But with some time, experience, and perseverance, they succeed in the end. It’s strangely inspirational?

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Want to know if your PC can run it? (You know, when the servers have the capacity.) Check out the Fall Guys system requirements.

We’re always looking for new blood at Thumbsticks. Right now, we need some freelance video game news writers.

At Thumbsticks, we’re (almost) always looking for new writers. It’s just a thing we do. One of our key goals is to provide opportunities for new talent and different voices.

But every now and then, we’re looking for something in particular. We might be looking for a new group of reviewers or some new feature perspectives, for instance. Right now, though, we’re looking for new freelance video game news writers.

So have a read of this, and if it sounds like something you might be interested in? Get in touch.

What we’re looking for

People who can write short news stories, to a high standard and in keeping with the house style, with minimal supervision. Ideally, this will be within UK business hours.

These stories will be very light reporting and will typically cover things like new game announcements, trailers, releases and updates, sales and discounts, and general industry news. (That’s not to say that longer, more heavily reported work isn’t available, but those pieces are commissioned on a case-by-case basis.)

Who we’re looking for

We’re looking for people who want to be writers, first and foremost. Yes, most people who want to write about video games also tend to love playing them, but that is not, in itself, a qualification.

You don’t have to be experienced, have any journalism qualifications or a background in professional writing, but that desire to be a writer first and foremost is key. As a result, this would be ideal for journalism students or graduates, or for anyone looking to get into freelance games writing as a main career or side hustle.

Other than that? We don’t really care who you are! We would, however, love to receive applications from people from diverse backgrounds. This industry needs some new voices and we would like to help with that where we can, thank you very much.

You can be based anywhere in the world, as long as your written English is to a high standard and you can produce news during UK business hours. We do need you to be at least 18 years old, though, so we’re not accidentally exploiting child labour.

What the process looks like

You’ll apply by email, including a little bit of information about who you are and why you’d like to write for us, and include any clips of relevant published work. (Don’t have any clips? That’s fine! Write a short sample to show off your skills.)

If you’re successful you will receive your first couple of assignments by email from one of our commissioning editors. Once you’ve got a couple of pieces under your belt and we’re all happy working together, we’ll create you an account on our CMS so you can prep your own articles, and also invite you to the Thumbsticks Slack. (If you’re not familiar with Slack, it’s like Discord, but for work.)

We use Slack as an informal way of pitching stories. This is so you can be sure we’re interested in the piece you’re planning to write, but also so you don’t end up clashing or doubling up with another writer who might have had the same idea.

An informal pitch is usually a writer asking if we’re looking for coverage of something they’ve seen, perhaps with a summary of the angle they’d like to approach it from, or it might be the Thumbsticks editorial team asking if anyone is available to cover something. Once you’ve got the nod from one of the editors you will prepare your piece then submit it for review. We’ll take a look over it and, assuming there are no major changes required, add the finishing touches and publish it.

That’s it. That’s the process. The whole thing is really simple and straightforward. An experienced writer can easily bash out a short, 250-word news story in 15 minutes and, depending on content schedules and editor availability, you’ll often see it live on the site within an hour or two.

How much we pay

At the time of writing (July 2020) Thumbsticks pays £0.02 GBP per commissioned word. You can always check the main “write for us” page to see if we’ve updated our rates since this advert was first written.

We typically commission articles based on three standard lengths:

• 250 words – news story, short guide – £5 GBP
• 500 words – guide, review, op-ed – £10 GBP
• 1000 words – feature, interview – £20 GBP

The majority* of news stories we commission will be 250 words long. This means at our current rate – £0.02 GBP, as of July 2020 – you will earn a flat rate of £5 GBP for every news story you write for Thumbsticks. (We wish we could pay more! But that’s honestly all we can afford. It’s probably more than we can afford, but we’re an independent site and we’re doing our best.)

Sometimes they come out a little under 250 words. Sometimes they’re a little over. It tends to even out over time and we’re not precious about it being exactly 250 words. (But if you go well over a commission length that’s on you, and if something is really short we might ask you to flesh it out.)

*If you’re planning something that’s longer than a standard news story – like a piece with an interview component, or a round-up report on an event – then we will, of course, pay you a rate commensurate with the longer word counts listed above. Just make sure you agree this with us in advance before you start writing it!

How much you can earn

We don’t have a dodgy pay-per-view model or pay you in tokens or chits. We don’t make you write a minimum number of pieces before you can start earning. We don’t set a monthly quota that you need to stay above in order to keep earning.

You will be paid, properly and promptly, for everything you write for Thumbsticks.

We don’t set a minimum quota on writers because we know circumstances can change. The flexibility on offer is one of the things our writers tell us they love about working for Thumbsticks. You can write as little or as much as you have time and availability for, up to a budget ceiling that is agreed at the start of each month.

We will agree with you an upper limit on the number of news stories for the coming month. This is so we can assess our revenue from the previous month, then carve up the freelance budget accordingly amongst news, reviews, features and guides.

All we ask is that you don’t go over your limit without asking first, and that you try and space the work out evenly through the month as best you can. (Submitting 20 news articles on the final day of the month to hit the agreed-upon ceiling isn’t particularly useful to us!)

How we pay

For an individual, one-off commission, we’re happy for writers to invoice us immediately once the commission has been completed. We’ll pay promptly via bank transfer or PayPal, whichever is most suitable at the time. (We might use bank transfer for writers in the UK but PayPal for writers overseas to minimise currency conversion charges, for example.)

If you’re doing a body of work, like a month of news coverage, we ask that you hold off on invoicing until the end of the month. This saves us paying any associated charges more than once, and it also saves everyone a bit of admin, too. (This is a freelance gig, so you’re responsible for your own admin, taxes, and everything else that comes with it.)

But once we receive your invoice for the month’s news work – and anything else you’ve written in the period, if appropriate – we’ll turn it around very promptly. We’ve got editors who have done a lot of freelance work over the years. We know how frustrating it can be!

Anything else?

We’re always open for feature pitches, though our budget is limited, and there’s always room for new voices on our reviews. Guides are also in demand. The pitching process for those is fairly informal and similar to the news process described above.

Ready to get started?

Fire an email over to [email protected] with something sensible about news writing in the subject line. Make sure you tell us a little about yourself, why you think you’d make a good freelance news writer and would be a good fit for the Thumbsticks team, and don’t forget to include links to your clips or writing samples.

We look forward to hearing from you.

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If you want to support Thumbsticks – every penny we earn goes into our freelance budget – then please consider buying us a coffee or becoming a patron. (Patrons also get access to a speedy, ad-free version of the site.)

This week’s crop of Xbox One video game discounts include Red Dead Redemption 2, The Division 2, and an assortment of games from Bethesda.

There’s an impressive range of games in this week’s Xbox Deals with Gold lineup. Heavy hitters include a clutch of titles from Ubisoft, headlined by The Division and The Division 2. Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2, which recently received a significant update to its online component, is also reduced by a generous 65%. And the two-game Yooka-Laylee bundle is great value at 67% off.

Bethesda fans looking to fill some gaps in their game library should take a look at this week’s QuakeCon sale. Titles from each of the publisher’s major console franchises are on offer, including Doom Eternal, Prey, and Rage 2.

Finally, this week’s Spotlight Sale includes every game – and various bundles – from 4A Games’ popular Metro series.

All three promotions run through to August 11 on the Xbox digital games store and Microsoft online store. Here are some more highlights.

Deals with Gold Highlights

• Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition – 25% off
• Blood Bowl 2 – 75% off
• The Division Gold Edition – 70% off
• The Division 2 – 67% off
• Donut County – 50% off
• Etherborn – 50% off
• Galaxy of Pen & Paper +1 Edition – 20% off
• Golf With Your Friends – 25% off
• Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Deluxier Edition – 67% off
• Legend of the Tetrarchs – 40% off
• Mordheim: City of the Damned – 75% off
• Outbreak: Lost Hope – 50% off
• Overwatch Legendary Edition – 67% off
• Red Dead Redemption 2: Special Edition – 65% off
• Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 Season Pass Edition – 80% off
• South Park: The Fractured But Whole – 70% off
• South Park: The Stick Of Truth – 60% off
• The Monster Couch Party Pack – 60% off
• The Walking Dead: A New Frontier – The Complete Season – 75% off
• The Walking Vegetables: Radical Edition – 80% off
• Woodle Tree Bundle – 25% off
• Yooka-Laylee: Buddy Duo Bundle – 67% off

QuakeCon Sale Highlights

• Arkane 20th Anniversary Bundle – 70% off
• Dishonored 2 – 70% off
• Dishonored The Complete Collection – 70% off
• Doom – 50% off
• Doom (1993) – 50% off
• Doom + Wolfenstein II Bundle – 50% off
• Doom II (Classic) – 50% off
• Doom 3 – 50% off
• Doom 64 – 50% off
• Doom Eternal Deluxe Edition – 40% off
• Fallout 4 – 70% off
• Fallout 76 – 50% off
• Fallout 76: Wastelanders Deluxe Edition – 40% off
• Prey – 70% off
• Rage 2 – 80% off
• The Elder Scrolls Online – 50% off
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition – 67% off
• The Evil Within – 60% off
• The Evil Within 2 – 70% off
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus – 70% off
• Wolfenstein: The New Order – 70% off
• Wolfenstein: The Old Blood – 70% off
• Wolfenstein: The Two-Pack – 70% off
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood Deluxe Edition – 35% off

Spotlight Sale Highlights

• Ailment – 20% off
• Anoxemia – 60% off
• Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling – 10% off
• Defunct – 90% off
• Demon’s Crystals – 60% off
• MechaNika – 40% off
• Metro 2033 Redux – 75% off
• Metro Exodus – 67% off
• Metro Redux Bundle – 75% off
• Metro: Last Light Redux – 75% off
• Murder Miners – 25% off
• Mushroom Quest – 25% off
• MXGP2 – 75% off
• Outbreak Ultimate Apocalypse – 50% off
• Reus – 90% off
• Steel Rain X – 50% off
• Transcripted – 80% off
• Vaporum – 60% off
• Woodle Tree Adventures – 80% off

For the latest video game savings, bookmark our dedicated sales page. You can also follow Thumbsticks on Twitter and Facebook.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout headlines this week’s lineup of new PlayStation 4 video game releases.

You’re excited about Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, right? You should be. Mediatonic’s game comes to PlayStation 4 on Tuesday and is also part of August’s PS Plus free game lineup.

Fall Guys gives the battle royale genre a colourful refresh with stumblin’ bumblin’ gameplay inspired by the likes of Takeshi’s Castle. It’s a 60-player online game so delightfully executed that everyone is a winner, no matter where they finish.

We’re also rather enchanted by Skully from Finish Line Games. It’s not a video game adaptation of the classic kids street game, rather a 3D adventure in which you must hop, skip, and roll a skull round a mysterious island. An intriguing narrative and some wild environments make Skully a game to keep in mind.

Also racing onto PS4 this week is Fast and Furious Crossroads. We have a suspicion the game will be neither fast nor furious. Other new PS4 games include Wizards: Wand of Epicosity, Roguecube, and Clan N.

Release dates are not locked in for every new PS4 release, but we’ll update this page as news filters through.

New PlayStation 4 releases: August 3-7, 2020

Monday, August 3, 2020

• No releases

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

• Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
• Family Mysteries: Poisonous Promies
• Relicta
• Skully
• Spitlings
• Pixelbot Extreme!
• Wizards: Wand of Epicosity

Wednesday, August 5, 2020

• The Mean Greens: Plastic Warfare
• RogueCube

Thursday, August 6, 2020

• Clan N
• Train Sim World 2

Friday, August 7, 2020

• Fast and Furious Crossroads
• Inerial Drift
• Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? – Infinite Combate (EU)
• Swimsanity!

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Bookmark the Thumbsticks new releases page for the latest video games. You can also follow us on social media via Flipboard, Facebook, Google News, and Twitter.