Over the last seven years, at least six high-profile esports players have been struck with a debilitating and serious medical condition called spontaneous pneumothorax—a collapsed lung. Some had to withdraw from matches. A couple kept playing, even though it probably wasn’t a great idea. Why is this, of all injuries, common in esports? Aspontaneous pneumothorax,in…
Nintendo products are primarily known for two things: functioning as portals to wonderlands of whimsy, and being so durable that they can survive being hit by trucks, or more dangerously, children. The Switch is a worthy heir to that legacy. Thin, glossy, and fragile as it looks, Nintendo’s console/portable hybrid is a damn brick. UnlockRiver…
In PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, squads live and die on effective communication and, when all else fails, gutsy bravado. There are worse things you can do, then, than pretend to be an over-the-top military commander. In a video posted over the weekend, StoneMountain64 dropped into a random matchmaking squad and immediately began acting like an absurdist pastiche…
When Prey first came out, players were confused to find that, despite coming in a box that claimed the game was “PS4 Pro Enhanced,” it did not look or play measurably better on PS4 Pro. Same resolution, same framerate, same options. Now, however, Bethesda’s finally added some bells and whistles. Three weeks after Prey’s release,…
Gecko Ridemption, a game about the very real struggles geckos face in captivity, is not entirely “good” in the traditional sense. But it’s extremely good in many others. Published by Adult Swim, it’s a 1v1 gecko combat point capture sports game… I think? Yeah! Sure! Basically, though, you and your opponent are both geckos, and…
At age 16, many teens learn how to drive. When I was 16, I learned the opposite of how to drive, by which I mean I spent hundreds of hours playing Burnout 3‘s Crash Mode. For years, I waited for some kind of successor to that gleeful demolition derby, but it never came. Until now.…
Pyre, the next game from the creators of Bastion and Transistor, is coming to PC and PS4 on July 25. It’s got cool art and a unique battle system that lets you choose from a variety of characters. Our own Stephen Totilo got to play it last year, and he described it as a “sort of…
I just got done spending some time with Vanquish’s newly released PC version, and it’s a solid port. Looks sharp, moves well, and offers an acceptable array of graphics options. There’s just one problem: it has a really, really strange graphics bug. First reported by Wesker on NeoGAF, the bug essentially causes you to take…
There’s a new Sims 4 patch, and it’s a day that ends in Y. You know what that means: extremely good patch notes. The latest patch is centered around Sims 4‘s new Parenthood pack, which means lots of fun stuff involving kids. And by “fun,” I mean seriously upsetting. Let’s start with: We fixed an…
Look at a screenshot of Rime. Any screenshot. Take in the swirling colors, the vast oceanside vistas, the stark, mysterious ruins. It’s all distinctive, and yet somehow familiar. Rime wears its gaming influences on its sleeve, but it lacks their heart. Rime, an exploration-focused puzzle game that releases on PC and PlayStation 4 tomorrow, tries…
Video games look better and better with every passing year. Just in the last few months alone we’ve seen gorgeous technical marvels like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Breath of the Wild, and Injustice 2 (yes, seriously). But while game graphics just keep getting better, loading times—the bane of all impatient players—don’t seem to be improving at…
Turns out, the keys to success in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and family life are one in the same. It’s all about communication. With your dad. PUBG is a game fraught with moments of panic and uncertainty. It’s hard to find a duos partners who can keep it together under pressure—let alone communicate effectively when shit is…
Overwatch’s new anniversary event, which kicked off yesterday, is a pinata explosion of celebration and glee. But who actually cares about that? The only thing that matters is dance emotes. Now Overwatch has turned into a giant dance floor. Overwatch players have started using the game’s custom match tools to host dance parties. A lot…
In recent times, official in-game Counter-Strike events—Operations, as they’re known—have grown rare. Valve only created/curated one in all of 2016. Today, though, without any real warning, they’ve kicked off a new one. It’s called Operation Hydra. Operation Hydra is set to run for 18 weeks. It adds new community-created maps, an Operation pass with a…
Most Steam games come with somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-50 unlockable achievements. Running Through Russia has 4,096. Let me be upfront with you: Running Through Russia, which I found out about thanks to PC Gamer, is not good. It’s actually many unique flavors of bad—like a rainbow shaved ice, except all the flavors are…
There are cool ways to risk your life. For example, being a firefighter, rescuing a wolf from a bear trap, or expressing an opinion on Twitter. Then there’s looking at your phone while crossing the street. That is decidedly not cool Risky Phone (via RPS) is a free game about a thing a lot of…
There’s been quite a bit of discussion around Blizzard’s official Overwatch League and accessibility, given that reports say a slot in the big show could cost between $15 and $25 million. Turns out, that’s not the only Overwatch esports league Blizzard is launching. Today Blizzard announced Overwatch Contenders, which they’re calling “a development league for…
On the latest episode of our Overwatch show, Cecilia, Heather, and I talk about some very particular ways of playing. First, we dig deeper into Cecilia’s experience of paying women to be her in-game BFFs, then we discuss the plight of that reviled creature, the Hanzo main, and finally we talk about esports and Overwatch…
Lonely Mountains: Downhill is a mountain biking game that looks really chill. It’s just you and your bike. Oh, and some mountains. You’re not constrained to any particular path. You choose how you want to explore. Nature, it turns out, is neat like that. The game’s not done yet, but it’s got a page on…
This weekend, Second Life bunnies will starve and die. Ozimals, a popular virtual pet creator, got hit with a cease-and-desist order, meaning no more support for existing products. As a result, many of their bunnies won’t be able to eat. They’ll die on Saturday. Check out the full story on Waypoint.
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