It's Saint Patrick's Day for some of you, and you know what they say in Ireland: "Kiss me, I write about video game news." Think I heard that somewhere. This week we've got Mass Effect's animation woes, an ultra-detailed sailing simulator, confirmation that Quake Champions will be free-to-play, a Civ VI demo, more free Planet Coaster content, and a collection of Capcom's licensed Disney platformers for the NES. Recently released RTS Halo Wars 2 now has a try-it-out option on the Windows 10 Store, featuring the opening campaign mission (it's pretty short) and the Blitz Firefight mode that also showed up in the beta earlier this year. I wouldn't be surprised if the game's sales are a bit sluggish, so it makes sense for Microsoft to try and snag players.

Lydia Ainouz draws a small crowd to watch her playing the Yakuza video game during the opening day of the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The Electronic Entertainment Expo wrapped Thursday, giving retailers, distributors and video game fans a taste of what interactive fun is arriving this year and beyond. Women are playing more key roles in video games beyond just serving as damsels in distress, or worse, as discarded victims. And game makers are including a few more lead characters who aren't white. More women took the biggest stages at E3, including Electronic Arts' Jade Raymond, whose EA Motive Studio is working on a series of Star Wars games, and Microsoft's Shannon Loftis, the head of Microsoft Studios Publishing.