Ethan Gach

Yoshi’s Story Is Back In This Weekend’s Smash Tournament

“Yoshi’s Story” is an extremely small Super Smash Bros. stage that first appeared in Smash Bros. Melee. Now it’s in Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the organizers of Genesis 6 have decided to make it playable in one of Smash’s biggest annual tournaments this weekend, showing a healthy willingness to experiment when it comes to the…

Four Months After Release, Super Mario Party Has Never Gotten An Update

These days, most video games get a regular stream of updates full of bug fixes, balance tweaks, and new content. Even Nintendo has made a habit of patching all of the games it publishes. There’s just one glaring exception: Super Mario Party, which is still on version 1.0. Few major first-party Nintendo games have felt…

Someone Got Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Working On A Sony Watchman

Sometimes gaming enthusiasts are so preoccupied with whether or not they can, they never stop to think if they should. How else to explain one Smash Bros. fan’s decision to create an elaborate retro electronics setup so they could play 10 rounds of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the 1.8 inch screen of a Sony…

For Honor’s New Fighter Leans Into The Game’s Simple Pleasures

For Honor got its first new fighter of 2019 yesterday: Black Prior. I could talk about how it’s cool that Black Prior is sort of emo and brooding and has a weird affection for skulls. Or how the character puts an interesting emphasis back on turtling, a strategy that almost strangled the fun out of…

Anthem‘s Fragmented Launch Risks Ruining What Makes Online Games Great

Remember when games used to just, come out? They had a release day. On that release day, or potentially the night before, you’d go to the store, hand a person some cash, the same amount as everyone else, and walk out with a game that you could then go home and immediately start playing. That…

Nintendo’s Internal Data Shows That Smash Bros. Ultimate Is Pretty Balanced

We already suspected that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s roster was pretty evenly matched, and now we’ve got data from the game’s lead creator to prove it. r. In a new column for the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai shared some data on the wins and losses of many of the game’s…

Blind Player Uses Sound Cues To Play Gears Of War 4‘s Horde Mode 

Video games are usually made up of visual and auditory components. Most people rely on a combination of both to make sense of a game, but blind player SightlessKombat has gotten really good at maximizing what he can do with a game’s sound, most recently in Gears of War 4. Previously known for his skill…

Fallout 76 Players Throw Up Their Hands At The Return Of Heavy Bobby Pins

Like some cruel and bewildering joke, Fallout 76 players have discovered that the game’s latest patch accidentally re-broke something that had previously been fixed, and they are not happy Bobby pins, used in Fallout 76 to pick locks, originally weighed a ridiculous 0.1 pounds. Earlier this month, Bethesda finally patched them to make them weigh…

Some Smash Bros. Ultimate Players Still Can’t Access Piranha Plant [Update]

Piranha Plant, Smash Bros. Ultimate’s first new DLC fighter, went live last night as part of the game’s 2.0 update, but Nintendo’s unusual way of providing fans access to the character has left some players frustrated and plantless. Piranha Plant is free for anyone who buys Smash Bros. Ultimate before January 31, but the character…

Shadow of the Colussus-inspired Praey For The Gods will come to Steam Early Access on January 31. The last we heard of the icy survival game its developers were being forced to change the title because Bethesda owned the Trademark for “Prey.” Based on the trailer, Praey appears to be coming along nicely.

Dreams Beta Players Are Building Jupiter’s Moons And Beautiful Fried Eggs

Dreams, Media Molecule’s sandbox for people to create, share, and play one another’s games, has been in closed beta since December 2018. Now that the non-disclosure agreement for that initial beta has expired, Dreams beta players can finally give everybody else a better look at what the game actually is, and it looks pretty damn…

EA has announced it will stop selling FIFA Points on January 31 in Belgium after previously saying it would fight claims by the country’s regulators that FIFA’s loot boxes constituted gambling. The company apologized to players in the country “for any inconvenience caused by this change.” 

Chrono Trigger’s Writer Made A Mobile JRPG That’s Not Defined By Its Microtransactions

Can two of the people who helped make Chrono Trigger one of the most amazing games of all time find a balance on mobile between the nostalgic appeal of classic Japanese role-playing games and the economics of free-to-play? Based on a couple hours with Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space, the answer is:…

Fallout 76‘s patch 5 goes live today bringing a ton of much needed balance changes In addition to reducing the damage bonuses for explosive and two shot mods by more than half, players are now limited to carrying no more than 1,500 pounds over their weight limit and Bobblehead effects no longer stack 

Tetris World Champion Tries To Play With A Dance Dance Revolution Mat, Does OK

Sometimes it’s all about having the right tool for the job. On a recent Twitch stream, Tetris champion Jonas Neubauer decided to hell with that wisdom and tried to play the 30-year-old NES game using only the arrows on a DDR mat. It went well for a little bit. Starting on level five, Neubauer, who’s…

Anthem’s First Demo Weekend Was A Mess

Anthem, BioWare’s upcoming online loot shooter, has some cool ideas. Unfortunately, the game’s demo last weekend was so busted, it was hard to get a good feel for the game. The problems started as soon as the demo went live on Friday, January 25. Many, myself included, were greeted by an error message that read,…

Even 20 Years Later, Dance Dance Revolution‘s Competitive Scene Has Still Got It

Dance. All. Night. That’s what Dance Dance Revolution pros from around the world will be doing this weekend when they compete at the Konami Arcade Championship event in Japan. Tonight there’s the Super Extra Exclusive DDR tournament pulling in 32 players based on rank and qualifying points. On Saturday, the six best players in the…

Two Hours With Anthem‘s New Demo

Today BioWare’s demo for their upcoming online coop shooter Anthem went live, sort of. An apparent problem on the back end and some weird infinite load screen bug have made it difficult to actually explore the game for any sustained period of time. At the time of writing, the game still isn’t accessible for a…

If you’re trying to play Anthem’s VIP demo today, like we are, you might have happened upon the error message above. We sure did. Apparently a lot of other people haven’t been able to get into the demo, which was supposed to go live at 12:00 p.m., either. Apparently they didn’t make enough Javelin suits…

Some Fortnite Guns Fire More Slowly On Switch

It turns out that people playing Fortnite at 30 frames per second are at a slight disadvantage in shootouts compared to opponents who are operating at higher frame rates. Speculation on the subject has been going on for some time in the Fortnite community, but a recent test by Digital Foundry has introduced some interesting…