Nathan Grayson

Valorant’s second “Act” is set to begin this week. Today, Riot announced that Act II will kick off on August 4. It will include a new agent, Killjoy, a battle pass, colorful “Glitchpop” skins, and a much-requested deathmatch mode.

Frog Fractions‘ New $8 Hat DLC Contains A Lot More Than Just A Hat

Yesterday, Frog Fractions, the notorious 2012 browser game that is much more than it appears, came to Steam with a new Game of the Decade edition. There is also a new $8 DLC pack that is, purportedly, just a hat. You will not be shocked to learn that it is more than just a hat.…

Streamers Are Misusing Twitch’s ‘Just Chatting’ Section, But It’s A Symptom Of A Larger Problem

Of all of Twitch’s non-gaming categories, “Just Chatting” seems to have the most clearly defined purpose. It’s for chatting. That’s it. And yet, after the platform dissolved its ill-defined “IRL” section into 13 different non-gaming categories in 2018, Just Chatting became its catch-all successor. Now it’s a juggernaut—Twitch’s top category. But it’s also clear evidence…

Teacher Raises $16,000 On Twitch To Wipe Out School’s Lunch Debt

It is, to still somehow understate things, an incredibly difficult time to be a teacher. Around the country, many schools are set to reopen this fall, but with covid-19 case numbers continuing to soar, danger will inevitably lurk in familiar halls. What will happen once class is in session? Will things even get that far?…

5D Chess Has Completely Broken Me

The other day, my partner and I were discussing time travel, and I brought up recent science surrounding the multiverse theory—that it’s mathematically possible for multiple (though not necessarily infinite) branching universes to exist, and time travel would merely cause us to move between them, sans paradoxes. I felt smart, having said that. Now, after…

An Unreleased Indie Game Took Over Twitch, But It Didn’t Come Out Of Nowhere

You might have had a good weekend—maybe played a video game and then moved to a different part of your home and played another game, because that’s quarantine, baby—but you probably didn’t have as good of a weekend as the developers of Fall Guys. The battle royale party game, which isn’t even out yet, shot…

Oh No, I’m Hooked On Warframe Now

Warframe has been out for over seven years. For the longest time, I looked at it like Destiny or EVE Online—games that I find conceptually compelling, but that now contain so many systems I’m intimidated by the mere idea of starting. Well, I started Warframe the other day. Within a 24-hour span, I played for…

Clarifying Just How Exclusive The Xbox Series X’s Third-Party Exclusives Are

The idea of an “exclusive” has always been imaginary—or at least ephemeral—in the world of video games, but in 2020, it’s less real than ever. Today, Microsoft seemingly announced several new third-party Xbox exclusives. That are coming to multiple generations of Xbox. And also PC. And probably other consoles too, in the future. During a…

Tetris Effect is getting a new multiplayer version. Tetris Effect: Connected is the original audiovisual trance explosion, but with new co-op and competitive modes. Connected will launch on Xbox One, PC, and Xbox Series X later this year, but it’ll come to other platforms as a free Tetris Effect update in summer 2021.

Two Sega Legends Are Making A 3D Platformer For Square Enix

Today, during the pre-show for Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase event, Sonic The Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka, Sonic and NiGHTS Into Dreams co-creator Naoto Ohshima, and publisher Square Enix announced Balan Wonderworld, a new action-platformer in which costumes unlock unique abilities. The game will contain over 80 costumes, each with their own powers. You’ll use them to…

Mixer’s Last Day Was A Ghost Town

It’s been a month since the news of Mixer’s closure hit streamers like a Microsoft-branded bag of hammers. At the time, it was heartbreaking. Some spent years building careers, only for the floor to fall out from under them. Today, the platform shuts down for good. Time for one last hurrah, right? Not really. One…

Amid Backlash, U.S. Army Retreats From Twitch

The U.S. Army has dealt with sustained backlash over the past few weeks against its recruitment-oriented Twitch channel, which has banned viewers for asking about war crimes and hosted supposed giveaways that just dumped people out onto a recruitment page (which the Army has since claimed did enter viewers into a competition through other means,…

Xbox Summer Event Lets You Play Demos Of More Than 70 Unreleased Games

If you’re a fan of trying before you buy and being completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of options in front of you, then you’ll be pleased as punch to hear that you now have over 70 new Xbox games to play, and you’ve only got a week to do it. Xbox’s Summer Games Fest…

U.S. Navy Follows Army In Banning Twitch Viewers Asking About War Crimes [UPDATE]

The U.S. Army and Navy might have different express purposes and a football rivalry, but they’re united in their shared passion for avoiding talk of war crimes. Soon after the Army took flak for banning viewers who asked about war crimes from its Twitch channel, the Navy is employing a similar tactic. Like the Army,…

Rapper Logic Signs Exclusive Deal With Twitch

A few days ago, popular musician Logic, real name Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, retired, saying that it’s time for him to focus on being “a great father.” He must be taking inspiration from people like Ben “DrLupo” Lupo, the daddest man on Twitch, because his post-retirement fatherhood plans now include an exclusive deal with…

Stuck At Home, I Can’t Stop Upgrading My Gaming Setup

If you give yourself an absurd but subtly practical gamer chair, you’ll ask yourself for a new microphone. When you give yourself the new microphone, you will ask yourself for an all-in-one audio mixer with a studio-quality preamp. When you have the microphone and mixer, you will look into your monitor and realize it is…

Twitch Forces U.S. Army To Stop Tricking Viewers With Fake Giveaways

The U.S. Army has a Twitch channel that it uses to fish for potential recruits. Last week, it came under fire for issuing bans to viewers who asked about war crimes. This week, a report by The Nation dug deeper, pointing out, among other things, that the channel had a habit of running fake controller…

How To Reach The Top Of Hyper Scape‘s Lobby Tower

There is a tower in Ubisoft’s new battle royale Hyper Scape. Most people are very bad at climbing the tower. Let me tell you how to reach the top of the tower. There’s nothing particularly special about the tower, aside from the fact that it is there. It’s the centerpiece of the lobby players wind…

Overwatch Update Removes McCree’s Noose Spray

Since 2016, Overwatch’s McCree, a walking amalgam of cowboy movie references, has been able to slap an image of a noose on any surface he pleases, provided players have unlocked the decal in question. Now, as of the game’s most recent update, it’s gone. The noose was always a curious inclusion in a family-friendly game…

Hyper Scape Is High-Flying Fun, But It’s Still Another Battle Royale

In competitive shooters, I prefer to be above my enemies. I grew up playing Tribes, a game about jetpacks and split-second geometry calculations. In Overwatch, my favorite hero is Pharah, whose specialty is jetpack with a side of rocket launcher. Maybe I just really like jetpacks. Still, Hyper Scape is the ideal battle royale for…