Be warned: this game is not for the faint of heart.
Welcome to JOE Gaming Weekly, your weekly round-up of all things gaming.
Or, specifically, the one big game you should play this week, the one big piece of gaming news you need to know about, and the one big deal available to purchase this week.
So off we go!
MUST PLAY OF THE WEEKTom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction
Working from the same stellar FPS gameplay of 2015's Rainbow Six Siege, this Extraction spin-off puts an almost horror spin on the usual set-up, as you play one of three team members sent into a cityscape that has been overrun with aliens threatening to devour mankind.
You choose from your set of characters (some have better weapons, some have better secondary skills like extra health packs or infra-red vision), select the mission, and from there you're dunked into a constantly shifting set of operations that usually stick close to many Rainbow Six missions that have come before. Extract a scientist, plant explosives, defend a stronghold, you've done this before in many online team-based shooters.
What makes this stand out from the crowd is the significant difficult spike that will feel like home for Siege veterans, but could turn off newbies to the series, as well as that grimy, sticky, gross-out horror setting.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, PC and Stadia from Thursday, 20 January.
BIG NEWS OF THE WEEKMicrosoft continues to buy all of the things
In recent years, Microsoft has taken to buying up video game developers left right and centre. Since 2019, they've snapped up Ninja Theory (Devil May Cry, Hellblade), PlayGround Games (Forza, Fable), Obsidian (The Outer Worlds, Fallout New Vegas), Bethesda (The Elder Scrolls, Starfield), id Software (Doom, Quake), Arkhane (Dishonored, Prey), Tango (The Evil Within), and even more besides.
This week, they announced the record-breaking purchase of Activision Blizzard, which means they know own the rights to - deep breath - Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Guitar Hero, the Tony Hawk's series, Spyro, Skylanders, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch and Candy Crush Saga.
While this does not necessarily mean that PlayStation owners will never get to play the future instalments of these franchises on the PS5 going forward, we should expect some of them to remain Xbox Series X/S exclusive, or at the very least, timed-exclusives, meaning PS5 players might not get them until several months or even years after they've initially launched.
DEAL OF THE WEEKMarvel's Spider-Man: Game of the Year Edition
Rubbing shoulders with Batman: Arkham Asylum in terms of the greatest superhero video game ever made, this take on Spider-Man is consistently fun, exciting, original and gorgeously presented.
The Game of the Year Edition also includes the post-launch DLCs, such as The City That Never Sleeps, The Heist, Turf Wars and Silver Lining.
Marvel's Spider-Man: Game of the Year Edition is available on the PS Store, marked down from €49.99 to €19.99 until 26 January.
Clips via Playstation & Ubisoft
