Nathan Grayson

Steam Controller Used To Help Disabled Skyrim Player

The Steam controller, for all its flaws, is insanely customizable. One user put that versatility to extremely good use. Responding to a request, Chris Hepburn—clearly some kind of controller wizard—managed to whip up this shockingly functional one-handed Skyrim control scheme: In short, Hepburn mapped basic look functionality to the right haptic pad. What about movement,…

Nintendo just announced Pokemon Picross. It’s a “free to start” downloadable 3DS game with a purchasable currency called Picrites. You can capture Pokemon by playing Picross and use their support skills to help you. It’s coming to the 3DS eShop in early December.

Blizzard Has Big Plans For Overwatch‘s Story

Overwatch is a competitive team-based shooter—not exactly the genre people go to for stirring tales and convincing characters. Blizzard wants to change that. For now, there’s no plan for a single-player Overwatch campaign. How, then, can Blizzard tell a story without tossing up roadblocks to the fast action people seek in these sorts of games?…

Kero Blaster, from the creator of indie classic Cave Story, is now on Steam. If you haven’t played the retro-style sidescroller on other platforms, now’s as good of a time as any. The latest version has more stages and a new mode and story. Also you are a frog. Frogs are cool.

Saying Goodbye To One Of MMA’s Most Terrifying Fighters

I recently saw Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic referred to as “the myth who turned into a man.” That’s so accurate that it’s painful. Yesterday, Cro Cop—a UFC heavyweight hopeful and, before that, the Croatian version of The Fucking Terminator in legendary Japanese MMA organization Pride—made a sudden retirement announcement. This only a couple weeks out…

Fallout 4 Is Having Shipping Issues [Update]

You probably haven’t heard, but Fallout 4 is out. After months of eager expectation, countless fans are tearing into it. Some, however, still don’t have their copies, and they’re not sure why. Today was supposed to be the big day. Fallout 4 fans of all shapes and power armor sizes planned to “call in sick”…

It’s Not Clear Who Alienware’s Steam Machine Is For

Alienware’s Steam Machine is on the right track, but I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it. [This post originally ran on 10/15/15. It’s been updated to reflect changes (primarily to Steam) that have occurred over the past month.] Alienware’s Steam Machine officially launches today. I really like what it tries to do. Since time immemorial, PC gaming…

One Month With The Steam Controller

Valve’s new Steam controller is a bold experiment: an attempt at fusing a PC mouse with a traditional console-style controller. It still hasn’t entirely clicked with me. [This post originally ran on 10/15/15. It’s been updated with some more impressions, brought about by The Inexorable Passage Of Time. The Steam controller officially launched today.] This…

Steam Game Lets You Drop From Space To Earth

Space Engineers is a tremendously popular Steam construction game. In a few days, it’s adding planets. Wanna get out of your spaceship and freefall through the atmosphere to a planet’s surface, without a single loading screen? Be my guest. To announce the long-awaited addition of hulking landmasses to Space Engineers’ galaxy, developer Keen Software House…

How Blizzard Is (And Isn’t) Changing World Of Warcraft‘s Combat

World of Warcraft’s been around for more than a decade. Combat is one of its cornerstones, but also, perhaps, a bit of a relic. In light of recent MMO evolutions like Destiny, I asked Blizzard how far they’re willing to push WoW’s combat. Over the years Blizzard has, of course, added all sorts of new…

Why Overwatch Isn’t Free-To-Play

Everyone thought Blizzard’s excellent new shooter, Overwatch, was gonna be free-to-play. Then it wasn’t. It’s going for $40 (or $60 for a special edition). What happened? The long and short of it is, while Overwatch—with its expanding roster of MOBA-esque heroes and focus on multiplayer—might seem like a no-brainer for the “party upfront, business in…

The Warcraft Movie Could Revive Classic Warcraft Games

World of Warcraft and the official Shrek origin story (aka the Warcraft movie) are separate. Mostly. However, the movie has gotten Blizzard thinking about older Warcraft games—and how they could bring them back. After a BlizzCon Warcraft movie panel in which, among other things, Blizzard lore maestro Chris Metzen described the film as kind of…

At BlizzCon, not even Hydralisks get to jump the line. Here is a truly inspired piece of BlizzCon cosplay, a Hydralisk from StarCraft. Go below for more images and some video. Apologies for the blurriness. I need a better camera. And here’s some video of Hydralisk and his friend/foe who I think is a Terran…

Heroes Of The Storm‘s New Two-Player Hero Is Actually Great For Beginners

Heroes of the Storm is introducing a crazy new hero, Cho’gall, who’s controlled by two players at once. This has never been done before in any big MOBA—not DOTA, LoL, or HOTS Hi everyone. Quick public service announcement: By this point in the post, you might have noticed that I’m not Yannick LeJacq, our resident…

“IT’S JOHN CENA.” Overheard (about a life-sized Overwatch statue) at BlizzCon. Winston is, of course, a kindly yet terrifying genetically engineered gorilla—not John Cena, who is a different kindly yet terrifying genetically engineered gorilla. I wonder who would win a fight. Here’s the statue up-close: He even has actual hair. Clearly someone cares a lot…

Steam Snapshots: Air Brawl, Brigador, Ironkraft

You don’t have time to check out every game on Steam*. Let me help you with that. Air Brawl The world needs more over-the-top airplane combat games. Air Brawl—in which one plane can fire occult runes like beautiful satan-flavored snowflakes and another is basically a tree with wings attached—fits the bill. The controls are arcade-y…

Ark: Survival Evolved‘s ‘Pimp My Rex’ Mod Sure Is A Thing

So you’ve tamed a dinosaur in the Godzilla of Steam dinosaur games, Ark: Survival Evolved. That’s cool, I guess. I’ll be honest with you, though: it’s looking a little bare. It’s looking a little… un-pimped. Steam user Danco’s new Pimp My Rex mod is here to help you solve a problem you didn’t know you…

When Video Game Romances End In Rejection

You can’t always get what you want. I don’t know about you, but I’m super into video game romances, as popularized by BioWare RPGs and things of the like. They’re my (and, I think, a lot of people’s) secret shame. It’s probably not healthy to get so emotionally invested in watching piles of ones-and-zeroes making…

Steam has added a new ‘item store’ feature. Now, in addition to the player-driven community market, developers can run their own stores (where they set their own fixed prices). Rust is the first game to take advantage, and they’re undercutting some community prices. Hmmm. I’m interested to see how this shakes out.

Parent Needs Christian News Show’s Advice About Undertale

Undertale has finally hit the bigtime. The hilarious, sometimes moving RPG led one gamer’s concerned parent to call popular Christian news program The 700 Club for advice. They said their daughter was obsessed with a hoodie-wearing skeleton. Rev Robertson urged them to get their daughter into less “evil” video games. The concerned parent’s message: Oh…