Joshua Rivera

 Blizzard says it is bringing back Overwatch’s seasonal co-op event with Storm Rising, an all-new story mission about Overwatch’s pursuit of the Omnic Talon boss, Maximilien. With Storm Rising, the previous two Overwatch Archives events (Uprising and Retribution) will also be repayable, with “more than 160 cosmetic items” in seasonal loot boxes.

All Of My Games Are On Different Schedules And It’s Impossible To Play Them All

One of the nice things about being an adult—or even a teenager with a reasonable level of autonomy—is the freedom to decide to do whatever you want with your free time. The older you get, the odder your windows of free time get. This is one of the reasons I like video games. I seldom…

Photographs Is A Clever Puzzle Game With A Disturbing, Misguided Story

For the first two hours I spent with it, Photographs came close to being one of my favorite puzzle games of the year. It was everything I could want: Aesthetically beguiling, with a surprising story and puzzles that offered the perfect amount of challenge. Then the story took a turn that was so fucked up…

Destiny’s Books of Sorrow Changed Its Lore For Good

“Video game lore” seems like an oxymoron, at first. “Lore” suggests mystery, something known only to a few. Yet here we are, drowning in the stuff. So much of it taken for granted that it’s often a surprise when we look at a game’s lore and notice, like we did with Destiny five years ago,…

An Easy Mode Has Never Ruined A Game

In video games, easy is a dirty word, even when it shouldn’t be. There’s something about the word “easy” that rubs some players as condescending, something that we should maybe leave behind—except where we shouldn’t. Like in FromSoftware games and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, a game that finds itself plagued by a debate that is, by…

Elder Scrolls Online Used To Be A Bad Theme Park And Now It’s A Great Theme Park

I flippin’ love theme parks. I loved them as a kid, and I love them as a grown-ass man. I also love anything that reminds me of a theme park—and for me, the game that feels most like a theme park is The Elder Scrolls Online. Unfortunately, when it first launched on consoles four years…