Nathan Grayson

Dawn Of Man, As Told By Steam Reviews

Since the dawn of video games—and possibly even the dawn of man—human beings have been creating city-building games. It’s fitting, then, that the latest genre hit is set in prehistoric times and called Dawn of Man. Steam users are loving it. Dawn of Man came out a week ago and has been one of Steam’s…

Rawmen is a Splatoon-like PC multiplayer shooter where naked men fight each other with soup. That description is, in so many ways, a mouthful. The game will contain “numerous food-fueled super weapons” when it launches into early access sometime this year. And lots of soupy little dudes.

Hey, let’s check in on LudwigAhgren, one of the streamers we featured in our post about Pogostuck the other day. I’m sure that, tens of hours later, he’s doing great and— oh. Oh no. (Volume warning.)

The Occupation Is A Thrilling Investigative Game Where Every Second Counts 

I’ve got 10 minutes until my big interview with a member of a group that’s trying to demonize immigrants and radically alter government policy. My leads are solid, but they unravel into an unsightly tangle of loose ends. Oh, have I mentioned that I’m sneaking around inside a ventilation system? And that if I get…

Steam’s ‘Popular Upcoming Releases’ Section Is Easy To Manipulate

On a platform as crowded as Steam, every ounce of visibility counts. For many developers, the “popular upcoming” section is the most reliable way to get precious front-page real estate before release. Some people, however, have figured out how to game it. As it turns out, Steam allows developers to display one release date on…

Valve Removes Rape Day From Steam With Vague, Nonsensical Statement

Yesterday, Rape Day, a self-described “game where you can rape and murder during a zombie apocalypse,” raised new questions about Steam’s laissez-faire release policy. Today, Valve elected to remove it from the store. In a post on Steam, Valve attempted to explain its decision-making around Rape Day, a game that did not cross Valve’s no-go…

Pogostuck Is The Latest Game To Make Twitch Streamers Rage

On the internet, everybody is angry all the time. The 2017 release of Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy, then, marked a special occasion: a time when everybody on the internet was mad at the same thing. Pogostuck is trying to replicate that feat. Pogostuck, a game whose store page unabashedly says it’s inspired by…

Track: Caveat Lector | Artist: A Novelist | Album: Folie

Some Of Overwatch League’s Best 2018 Teams Are Getting Trounced In 2019

When the first season of Overwatch League came to a close, there was a compelling argument to be made that Los Angeles Valiant could have made the finals and even won the whole dang season if things had just gone a little more their way in key matches. This season, they’ve yet to win a…

Jack Black finally did an actual Let’s Play on his “gaming”-free YouTube gaming channel. The game? Brutal Legend, known for its excellent heavy metal soundtrack and—oh yeah—a main character played by Jack Black. Black’s play session is brief, but entertaining. Also confusing, because which one is the real Jack Black???

Ape Out Is A Violent, Musical Game About Rampaging Primates

Ape Out is one of those games where every move could be your last. Ape Out is one of those games where you shout “FUCK, ARGH, NO” all the time, but you actually mean “OK yeah, one more time.” Ape Out is one of those games where you play as an ape who shoves humans…

How A Joke About An Overwatch League Pro Driving A Bus Spiraled Out Of Control

Esports professionals get to play video games for a living, but a job’s a job. Many players pour countless grueling hours into practice and preparation, not to mention actual matches and events. That’s why fans did a collective double take when, during season one of Overwatch League, rumors began to circulate that a Florida Mayhem…

It’s The Perfect Time To Return To Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

Recently, a friend of mine started playing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the first time. This has had an interesting side effect: Any time I try to play anything else, I just wish I were playing Breath of the Wild. My ironclad resolve to continue making my way through games I hadn’t…

Baptiste Is Fun To Play, But He Probably Won’t Shake Up Overwatch Just Yet

Shortly after Overwatch’s newest hero, Baptiste, was announced, I started seeing Blizzard devs position the Haitian combat medic as a counter to GOATS, the game’s unpopular defense-oriented meta. “Alright,” I said to myself. “This seems promising.” But then I played him, and now I have mixed feelings. Overwatch’s current meta is heavily reliant on heroes…

Players Who Hate Overwatch‘s Brigitte Are Harassing Her Voice Actress

For the past few months, the Overwatch community has been belaboring the same point: Many think the HP-heavy “GOATS” meta is tedious and sloggy. They’ve directed much of their resentment toward Brigitte, a hero considered to be a pillar of GOATS. Now some people are even going after her voice actor, who has nothing to…

Video Game Publisher Apologizes After Hosting AMA On 8Chan

Edgy marketing decisions have a way of blowing up in companies’ faces, but rarely do they so immediately and spectacularly detonate like this: THQ Nordic, publisher of games like Darksiders III, decided to host an AMA on 8chan, an image board notorious for everything from Gamergate ties to stalking and harassment to child porn. Bafflingly,…

Overwatch’s newest hero, combat medic Baptiste, is now on the PC public test server. He’s officially classified as a support, with a biotic launcher that fires powerful three-round bursts, a grenade alt fire that heals allies, a regenerative healing field, and an immortality field that stops allies from dying altogether. That, powerful as it sounds,…

Eastshade Has So Much Personality That You Forget You’re Just Painting and Talking

Sometimes, when I’m feeling stressed, my mind instinctively hearkens back to peaceful, idyllic days and just lingers there for a little while: a perfect Sunday brunch. An hours-long walk along the beach. A concert so good that, for just a moment, the outside world vanished. Eastshade is a game that feels like those memories. In…

Overwatch‘s New Hero Is Baptiste, A Haitian Combat Medic

After much teasing over the past week, Blizzard has revealed Overwatch’s newest hero. His name is Baptiste, and he’s a combat medic fighting for a better world. “For some, that means a bandage,” he says in his origin story video. “For others, a bullet.” Jean-Baptiste Augustin grew up as one of 30 million orphaned children…

Popular Horror Game Removed From Steam After Chinese Players Say It Insults China

Less than a week ago, the developers of P.T.-inspired horror game Devotion were riding high. Their game’s February 19 release was met with thousands of positive Steam reviews and hundreds of thousands of viewers on Twitch. However, after a weekend of controversy, Devotion has met an even more untimely end than the game that inspired…