Nathan Grayson

Tales From The Borderlands‘ Finale Is Its Darkest Episode Yet

Previous episodes of Tales from the Borderlands kicked things off with musical numbers full of upbeat shenanigans and masterful sight gags. Episode five’s was so heartbreaking that I nearly cried. Tales from the Borderlands episode five is a finale, and it takes that responsibility very seriously. Don’t get me wrong: there’s still plenty to laugh…

New First-Person Shooter Will Lock Out Your Steam Account When You Die

It’s called One Life, naturally. One Life recently joined the roster of hopefuls on Steam Greenlight, and it’s got a—I see what I really didn’t mean to do there; too bad it’s impossible to delete words on the internet—killer concept. Die once and you’re done. One Life, its developers told me, will lock out your…

The Steam Controller Can Also Do Motion Control

The Steam controller might make my thumb hurt, but there’s no denying its versatility. One of its lesser-known features? Full-blown motion control, ala Nintendo’s Wiis or recent PlayStations. Aiming with the Steam controller’s right haptic pad can be janky—somehow landing in the sweet spot between too precise and not precise enough. The solution? Motion control,…

Valve fixed one of my big issues with Steam Machines… kinda. Games with their own launchers (e.g. Trine 3, Starbound, and Evoland) won’t, well, launch. Valve has removed the SteamOS-compatible tag from around 35 games. Some devs are working on new launchers. Fingers crossed that everything’s resolved by release day. Update: It’s not just games…

Steam’s Latest Hit Is A Tough-As-Nails Mars Base Building Game

I’ve been playing Planetbase for a couple hours now, and I feel like I’m only scratching the surface. Planetbase is a new outer space base-building game that just hit Steam, and it’s been in the service’s top three best-selling games all day. It takes some time to dig into, but I’m starting to really like…

Valve Explains Why Steam Customer Service Is Still Terrible

At the start of 2015, Valve told me Steam’s crappy customer service would be a big focus for them this year. It’s still terrible. Here’s what happened. During a recent interview with Valve business authority Erik Johnson, I asked why people still have to put up with unanswered support tickets and, sometimes, months of radio…

Even After The Skyrim Fiasco, Valve Is Still Interested In Paid Mods

Earlier this year, Valve sent the mod community into crisis mode with paid mods for Skyrim. It did not end well And yet, Valve never said they were done-done with giving modders the option to charge for their creations. Rather, they concluded that they had some thinking to do about how they presented paid mods,…

MURICA. Sidescrolling action-splosion Broforce is finally out of Early Access. It’s really good shit. Watch me play a bit of it here

Steam ‘Scam Report’ Group Changes Name To Be Less Aggressive

Last week I reported on a Steam curator group called Scam Report, which sought to out sketchy games and douchey developers. Since then, there have been some big changes. First and foremost, they abandoned the old group entirely and made a new one so that they could change the name from Scam Report to Anti-Consumer…

First-Person Shooter Makes Fun Of Players Who Cry About Hacks

Bedlam (not to be confused with the other Bedlam) is a first-person shooter that spans the history of the genre. It has no qualms with giving classics or their diehard fans shit for some of their more irritating habits. (Minor Bedlam spoilers ahead.) OK, so here’s the setup: you’re Heather “Athena” Quinn, a scientist who’s…

A Bomb Defusing Video Game Tested My Relationship

I played bomb disarming Steam sensation Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes with my girlfriend. That might’ve been a bad idea. Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes is a game with an extremely unique premise: one player is on their PC, interacting with a virtual bomb; the other(s) pull up the official bomb manual on their PC,…

Months Later, Elite: Dangerous Players Make Major Discovery About Mysterious Alien Artifacts

You might remember the mysterious alien items that had Elite: Dangerous players stumped earlier this year. Well, they recently made a major discovery. Here’s the gist: a handful of months ago, players began coming across “unknown artefacts” that made bizarre noises—some of which were morse code scans of nearby objects, others of which had players…

The Steam Stealth Sale just kicked off. Heaps of great stealth games are on sale until October 16th. My recommendations: Invisible Inc, Neon Struct, Volume, Gunpoint, and (if you don’t have them already) the original Thief and Alpha Protocol.

Counter-Strike Player Wins Match By Climbing On Opponent’s Head

I feel genuinely bad for the person this happened to. Imagine this: one second, you’re creeping around corners, scanning your surroundings for any hint of movement, any telltale sign of life looking to stop you cold. A flashbang goes off, and you use the momentary distraction to scamper to a perfect position. Everything is going…

The Gamer Who Uses Streaming To Fight Anxiety And Depression

Before we even start talking, General Mittenz asks me if we can stand for the duration of the interview. “For me, right now, I’m having a massive anxiety attack,” he explains while fidgeting nervously. Standing and moving around helps. A little. On Twitch his name is General Mittenz. It’s not his real name of course.…

UFC Fighter’s Twitch Shit-Stirring May Lead To Actual Fight

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson isn’t letting a silly legal battle stop him from getting into fights. He’s calling out people while streaming video games on Twitch, and it’s working. Former UFC light heavyweight champion (and before that, Pride FC legend, and after that, Mr T in the A-Team movie) Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has been stuck on…

Steam Users Form ‘Scam Report’ To Watch For Shady Games

Steam is kind of a minefield. Sometimes mid-development projects get abandoned. Other times, developers try to bury legitimate questions or criticism. The majority of the time, those things do not happen. Games launch, they’re either solid or shitty, and life goes on. But there have been enough instances of sketchy games and abrasive developers on…

I Love When A Steam Early Access Game Gets It Right

Steam Early Access can be a crapshoot, with emphasis on the “crap.” Cryptark bucks the trend. The derelict space ship invader roguelike just hit Steam Early Access, but I don’t think I’d have guessed it was early without the disclaimer. The game’s campaign and presentation are slick as hell—fully voice acted and backed by a…

The New Team Fortress 2 Update Has Some Great Easter Eggs

Team Fortress 2’s loooooooong-awaited alien-themed “Invasion” update is finally out, and it’s all about aliens and, er, Dishonored. Yes, the Bethesda stealth game. Invasion has been in the works for over a year, with Valve and members of the community (the latter being largely responsible for the update’s maps and cosmetic items) dropping hints like…

Player Turns Ark: Survival Evolved Into Messed Up Version Of Pac-Man

Those poor baby dinosaurs. Ark: Survival Evolved player Mitt Gaming tried to recreate Pac-Man in the Steam dinosaur mega-hit, and the result was… well, there’s a reason humans originally invented Pac-Man, as opposed to dinosaurs. It’s a grim spectacle. Instead of inserting a coin into the heartless machine, you drop a small dinosaur into gaming’s…