Ethan Gach

The Westworld mobile game has been removed from stores and will shutdown completely on April 16, 2019, the developers announced yesterday. Bethesda sued the publisher of the game, Warner Bros. Interactive, last year claiming it had ripped-off Fallout Shelter, but the two announced reaching an “amicable agreement” in late December.

Valve’s Card Game Artifact Is Running Out Of Players

The collectible card game Artifact released on November 28, and had 60,740 concurrent players that day. A good start—but it was all downhill from there. Last night, its total concurrent players dipped just below 1,500 for the first time ever—a 97.5 percent drop from launch. Yes, many online games struggle to find an audience on…

YIIK Is A Throwback 90s RPG I Just Can’t Get Into

Alex, the protagonist of YIIK: A Postmodern RPG, is a burned out liberal arts major who returns home after graduating college just as the year 2000 is looming. The player explores his small town of Frankton, stumbles upon a stray cat in the woods, and is soon plunged into a rabbit hole of creepypasta-inspired mysteries…

Microsoft Removes Carlton, Floss Dances From Forza Horizon 4

The Carlton and Floss dance emotes are no longer available in Forza Horizon 4 following changes made to the game as part of today’s big Series 5 update. Although publisher Microsoft won’t say why it removed the emotes, both dances are the subjects of lawsuits against publisher Epic Games for using them in the mega-popular…

Fallout 76 Players Are Punishing People They Suspect Of Duplicating Rare Items

As a post-apocalyptic online survival sim, Fallout 76 allows players to team up, trade with one another, or try to kill each other. This freedom is part of the game’s appeal, but when it’s coupled with exploits that allow some players to become ultra powerful, the result can be a game world that feels inhospitable…

Super Dragon Ball Heroes World Mission is coming to the West on Switch and Steam on April 5. The tactical role-playing card game is the tenth in the Dragon Ball Heroes series and the first to get released outside of Japan. It’s like Yu-Gi-Oh! but with Dragon Ball characters.

A Tour Of The Animal Crossing Town One Woman Spent Nearly 4,000 Hours Building

Animal Crossing games are meant to be played in regular, relaxed sessions, creating a life for yourself among the annual ebbs and flows of each game’s village. In just about every regard, it’s designed to be playable, theoretically at least, forever. 85-year-old Audrey, who’s spent thousands of hours playing the game, is proof of that.…

Turning The DS Sideways For Giant Fights Was One Of Mario & Luigi‘s Most Creative Tricks

When Bowser dies at various points in Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, the brothers have to revive him by shooting adrenaline into his heart. Doing so leads him to get back up and become giant Bowser for a special mode that requires players to hold the DS sideways like a book. Suddenly, the game’s…

Rocket League Now Has Cross-Play Across All Consoles

Psyonixannounced today that Rocket League has entered the PlayStation Cross-Play Beta program and is playable with people across PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and Steam, making it only the second game to do so after Fortnite By default, players on any of those platforms will randomly matchmake with one another for online play. The ability to…

Competitive Halo Goes Old School With The Halo 3 Classic Tournament 

While the competitive Halo scene has been losing some steam in recent years, there’s no end of love and nostalgia for the earlier games in the series, especially Halo 3. This weekend a mix of pro teams and grass roots teams will duke it out in St. Louis in the first of many Halo 3…

RollerCoaster Tycoon Ride From Hell Lasts 12 Years

The point of RollerCoaster Tycoon is to create a successful theme park. Usually that involves keeping people coming back with fun attractions, like elaborate roller coasters, and charging high margins on food and drinks. One player decided to throw that logic out the window and dedicate most of their park to a truly nightmarish abomination:…

Bowser Jr. Finally Gets His Due

When Bowser Jr. came onto the scene in 2002’s Super Mario Sunshine, the first words out of his mouth were “Leave my mama alone!” He’d kidnapped Princess Peach because Bowser had told him she was his mother and was trying to stop Mario from rescuing her. After Mario eventually defeated him, Bowser Jr. confessed to…

Actress Minnie Driver said on Twitter that she was once fired from doing voice work on Gears of War because she couldn’t shout loudly enough. “Only job I was ever fired from…never liked the game tbh,” she said, to which Gears of War series producer Rod Fergusson responded “Sorry about that.” 

Bowser’s Inside Story Holds Up Nicely 10 Years Later

Anyone who hasn’t played the original on DS shouldn’t bother at this point. The remake is better-balanced and better-looking, arriving with a fair bit of extra side content as well. For everyone else, it’s worth remembering that you can still play DS games on your 3DS, and unlike 2017’s remake, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga,…

Romantic thriller and psychological horror puzzle game Catherine is now available on PC for $20. This version of the game has options for higher resolution, customizable controls and an unlocked frame rate. Unfortunately though here’s still no online multiplayer. Meanwhile, Catherine: Full Body, the remake, comes to PS4 later this year.

Xbox Game Pass Quests Give You Money For Earning Achievements

Today, Microsoft announced a new slate of quests for Game Pass games in January. Earning certain achievements in particular games available through the monthly subscription service will net you rewards points. It’s a small but interesting new development in how the company has been trying to gamify how people play games on Xbox. Announced over…

Artist Turns Sega Master System Into The Steampunkiest Console Ever

Modern video games are almost entirely played on black, plastic boxes. The Xbox One, PS4, and even the Switch sans colorful Joy-Con are non-discrete electronics designed to be as visually unobtrusive as possible. Form can be as important as function, though, and I like a little bit of color and whimsy in the objects I…

I Really Like The Darkwing Duck Game That Capcom Rejected

Here’s a failed game concept that I really wish had managed to survive the gauntlet of development: Headcannon’s Darkwing Duck pitch. Earlier this week, the developers of Sonic Mania revealed that they’d previously approached Capcom about making a spiritual successor to the company’s 1992 NES game. Obviously, they were unsuccessful. The studio has since released…

Top Smash Player Gets Temporary Twitch Ban For Drinking Too Much On Stream

Joseph “Mango” Marquez, one of the “five gods” of Super Smash Bros. Melee, is on an unpaid vacation this week after Twitch banned his channel for allegedly drinking too much during a weekend stream and passing out. Marquez shared the news on his Twitter account, tweeting out a screenshot of the email from Twitch letting…

The Week In Games: Mario Brothers Of Days Past

Not one but two older entries into the Mario Bros. canon resurface this week, because in the world of video games what’s old is eternally new again. And I do hope you like new old games, because otherwise you’re out of luck. In a test of just how many Nintendo fans will buy games they…