Magic: The Gathering Arena's New Timeless Format Allows Every Single Card

The festive period is finally upon us, and what better time is there to kick back on the sofa and work through your watch list? As usual, too, this Christmas is jam-packed full of great new releases on streaming, meaning that there will be plenty to keep you occupied after stuffing yourself with turkey. Among the highlights are a festive Doctor Who special to kick off Ncuti Gatwa's season as the Time Lord as well as Zack Snyder's hugely-anticipated new sci-fi adventure, Rebel Moon Part One. 

The Finals is the popular new FPS on the block, meaning the topic of skill-based matchmaking was bound to pop up sooner or later. With a recent patch tweaking just that for "better quality games" happening not long after the The Finals' full launch, that time would be now.

Broadly speaking, when you play Magic: The Gathering via its digital incarnation in Arena, you choose a format to decide whether you want to play with just new cards (Standard), a mix of new and old cards (Historic), or a mix of new and old cards but none older than the popular Return to Ravnica block (Explorer). There are other formats like Brawl, which lets you add more players, or Alchemy, which includes digital-only cards, but if you want to play a traditional one-on-one game of constructed Magic in Arena just like you would at the table, those are the three formats you pick from.

With the introduction of three entire new experiences – LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival – Epic’s unstoppable “everything” game Fortnite has taken a huge stride closer to becoming its own platform. But with so much new content available, the developer has to find ways to monetise it – and the latest microtransactions are attracting criticism for their obscene prices.

If you’re wondering what confidence feels like, try releasing your free-to-play shooter with no warning during The Game Awards, two days after CoD: Warzone's biggest free update in a year.

Tekken 8 hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC in just over a month, on January 26, 2024. As the release date nears, developer Bandai Namco has been releasing more and more about the latest entry in its flagship fighting series. We learned about newcomer Reina last month, and recently went hands-on with the game, too – read Game Informer's Tekken 8 preview here. Now, Bandai Namco has revealed the first gameplay trailer for its «mechanized space ninja» Yoshimitsu. 

Spiders’ 2019 RPG GreedFall is what you would call a diamond in the rough- a game that certainly had its issues, but one that endeared itself massively to those who played it nonetheless. Naturally, then, when GreedFall 2: The Dying World was announced last year, the news was met with plenty of excitement. But with it having been well over a year since the game’s announcement, many are beginning to wonder when we’ll be hearing more news about the RPG.

Another weekend means another batch of streaming recommendations, and there's plenty of variety to choose from this week. Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, and Mahershala Ali star in new Netflix thriller Leave the World Behind, while Todd Haynes' May December, which is already generating Oscar buzz for actor Charles Melton, has made its way to the UK via Sky Cinema. If you're in the mood for something a little more festive and lighthearted, try animated movie Merry Little Batman or Christmas rom-com Your Christmas or Mine 2, both on Prime Video.

Good news, Mana fans. After years of remakes and remasters, Square Enix have announced the first all-new Mana game in 15 years. Visions Of Mana will return to the series action-RPG roots, and pop you into the boots of Val, who - all right, deep breath - is a soul guard chosen to be the Alm Of Fire, and whose job it is to go and revive the mana flow at ye olde Mana Tree. Got it? GOod. Let's watch the reveal trailer.

Earlier this year, Supermassive Games, the team behind The Quarry, The Dark Pictures Anthology, and Until Dawn, announced it was collaborating with Behaviour Interactive to create a single-player game set in the latter's Dead by Daylight universe. After teasing an appearance at The Game Awards 2023 yesterday online, the teams have officially revealed The Casting of Frank Stone. It hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC sometime in 2024.

Rise of the Ronin has received a new trailer and a release date at The Game Awards.

Behaviour Interactive announced earlier this year that it had partnered with Supermassive Games (Until Dawn, The Dark Pictures Anthology) for the development of a new single player narrative-driven horror title set in the Dead by Daylight universe, and as recently confirmed, the game was formally unveiled at The Game Awards.