Game Informer December 2nd 2017 Newsletter

   [Latest Newsletter from GI](     12.02.2017 In addition to covering all of the most important news coming out of the video game industry, we do our best each week to bring you the most informative and entertaining previews, video features, and editorial content you won’t find anywhere else. Here are the biggest stories from the past week:       Top News Stories   [Game Informer’s Holiday Buying Guide 2017]( by Ben Reeves It always feels good to give and to receive, but nothing feels worse than giving or receiving the wrong gift. To help you out this year, we compiled a roundup of the best geek-related toys and tech this holiday season. Get out your pens; you’re going to want to circle some stuff. ---------------------------------------------------------------   [Nier’s Yoko Taro On Success, Drinking, And Death]( by Kimberly Wallace Best known for directing the Nier and Drakengard series, Yoko Taro reached a new level of success after teaming up with Platinum Games for Nier: Automata, which sold over two million copies. We chatted with Taro about his newfound success and what's next. Just like his esoteric games, our talk was anything but ordinary. --------------------------------------------------------------- [10 Under 10: The Best Short Games Of 2017]( by Joe Juba This year has delivered an abundance of excellent, massive gaming experiences. You can easily lose yourself for days in titles like Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But if you don’t have dozens of hours to sink into a digital world, 2017 also has a fantastic selection of quality games with less daunting commitments. [Opinion – Overwatch Should Be On Game Of The Year Lists]( by Andrew Reiner A game that launched in 2016 shouldn’t be eligible for a 2017 list, right? Wrong. I know this is a strange thing to say, but some of the best games of the year may not have hit in 2017. The landscape of gaming changed long ago, and lists that just celebrate new releases don’t tell the entire story for the year. The more accurate way to breakdown the best games of the year is moving beyond new releases to new content. Any new content, whether it be a new release or a new map, should be eligible for consideration. [Funny To A Point – The Great Breath Of The Wild Debate]( by Jeff Marchiafava The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is easily one of 2017's biggest games, and you'll find no shortage of fans who consider it winning Game of the Year a foregone conclusion. But the fact that Zelda fans love the new Zelda game isn't exactly a revelation, and they aren't the only ones with opinions about Link's new adventure. - - [Visit GameInformer For More]( - [Visit GameInformer For More](       This Week’s Top Ten Must-Read Stories   - [Playing Super Mario Odyssey With My Daughter Makes Me Happy]( - [L.A. Noire Review – The Gumshoe Diaries]( - [Battle Chef Brigade Review – A Tasty Treat For Puzzle Fans]( - [Steven Universe: Save the Light – Plagued By Centipeetles]( - [The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR – The Worst Way To Experience Skyrim]( - [RPG Grind Time – Seven RPGs You May Have Missed This Year]( - [Check Out This Exclusive Hearthstone Kobolds and Catacombs Card Reveal]( - [What The Heck Is This? Episode 16]( - [Nine Things Super Mario Odyssey Takes From Sonic]( - [Blog Herding – The Best Blogs Of The Community (November 30, 2017)]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Still craving the latest news? Head to [gameinformer.com]( for your daily dose of video game information!         GI Community   Check out our Game Informer Online community blog picks! Here you’ll find a sampling of the great content our community members have to offer. Not a member yet? Want to have your voice heard? [Sign up here and get blogging!](   [Puzzle Racers](   StarterPack has a challenge: write about which two genres should fit. He got to thinking about this when trying to race through Portal, and wondered, are there "any puzzle racing games?" I'm guessing you have puzzles in games with timers, much like in the original Resident Evil, but I'm not sure of too many. StarterPack takes us through his idea for such a game, and challenges others to doing the same. [The Beauty of an Empty World]( Haley Shipley is here to write about how different it is to feel emptiness in a self-reflective way, versus one that makes you search and yearn for more. It's made her rethink her relationship to Breath of the Wild. Heck, I like a less is more approach, and often just like discovering...well, views in Breath of the Wild. Finding Koroks and other things is cool, but I just loved exploring so much. While in California and Oregon for my honeymoon, I couldn't help but think how Breath of the Wild could take inspiration from what I saw there, but just how fun exploring without a purpose can be. [Skyrim VR: Exploring the World Again for the First Time]( When it comes to VR, Kyle Wadsworth was all for the experience combined with Skyrim. And though it seems to have some major glitches early on, it is something to behold in VR. It's not the best version of the game, but Kyle is still enjoying the experience enough to keep playing. "...the VR version is icing on a delicious cake," he writes.       This message was intended for subscribers of the GameInformer Online Newsletter only. To unsubscribe, click [here (](. [GameInformer](