You can play Assassin’s Creed Mirage now and Forza Motorsport next Tuesday, and the Battlestorm Brawl live tournament bracket is set.

Forza Motorsport ditches the number, becomes a platform

While this is the eighth Forza Motorsport, Turn 10 has made the decision to get rid of the iteration numbers and just admit that the racing sim is a platform.

That means that while the game launches next week with 20 tracks and 500 cars, including electric cars like the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray, additional tracks and cars will be added and the game improved without needing to release a new game. Necessarily.

The Motorsport versions of Forza have always been about pure racing and tuning a car for the job and that has never been more true than with this 2023 edition. Any of the fluff has been burned away to reveal the hard, fast core of Forza. This is about racing, against others, and going for victory.

What distinguishes the modern Motorsport is the attention paid to accessibility enhancements to allow everyone to experience the thrill of automobile racing. There’s even something called “blind drive assist” that allows people with visual impairments to play.

Accessibility consultant Brandon Cole, aka Superblindman, helped develop the features and has created videos to help people learn how to use the audio cues to drive.

Forza Motorsport is available on October 10 for Windows and Xbox Series X/S, and is a part of Xbox Game Pass. Rated everyone.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage scales back, slows down

I’ve already shared my thoughts about Mirage, the new Assassin’s Creed game from Ubisoft.

What’s become more clear to me now that I’ve been playing the final version of the game without any breaks in the narrative is how effectively the game slows down what had become a frenzied pace of action in these adventure games.

Playing as Basim the game encourages thoughtful, intentional action. You are rewarded for paying attention to what’s going on, capturing (and appreciating) detail, and assembling the puzzle pieces.

It’s an appealing way to play, especially when the visuals are so lush, and the characters acted so well.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is now available for PS4, PS5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Rated mature.

Eight qualifying Battlerealm Brawl players have been identified for live Vancouver video game competition

Vancouver’s Kabam games has named the eight Battlerealm Brawl players who will be traveling to Vancouver for an in-person mobile gaming tournament.

The competition has players competing against each other in one-on-one fighting in Marvel Contest of Champions, the game built for Android and iOS devices.

The finalists are identified by their gamer tag and the team they belong to:

• Fintech [NewN] 
• andrewtheruff [4L0ki] 
• Ҏepe 
• MANA•NAGASE [iBrg] 
• Lagacy [4L0ki] 
• zurafa [NewN] 
• Mclz1nkz [GT40] 
• •₮Ɽ₳₱₱Ɏ• [sålty]

The tournament finals are being held at the Gaming Stadium in Richmond, and will also be broadcast live on Twitch.

If you’re in the Lower Mainland, you can attend for free.