Nathan Grayson

A Game About Building A Gaming PC

If you play games on PC, you’ve probably at least considered building your own at some point or another. Problem: PCs are towering amalgams of chips, screws, and (ugh) thermal paste. The prospect of assembling one can be daunting. Enter PC Building Simulator Currently in a pre-alpha state, PC Building Simulator is exactly what it…

Blizzard Demands $8.5 Million In Legal Battle Against Cheat Maker

Blizzard’s been waging a legal war against cheat maker Bossland, maker of prominent cheat programs for games like Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and Heroes of the Storm, for years. Bossland’s latest tactic? They’ve just stopped responding entirely. Blizzard most recently went after Bossland last summer, when they filed suit over the group’s now-unavailable Overwatch program,…

Streets Of Rogue Is A Roguelike You Can Talk, Bribe, Or Smash Your Way Through

I thought I was done with roguelikes, but Streets of Rogue pulled me back in. The game sprinkles gobs of Deus Ex DNA into the mix, resulting in a series of procedurally generated sandboxes where just about anything can happen. It’s fantastic. Streets of Rogue takes the top-down roguelike antics of games like Binding of…

The remastered version of Full Throttle, LucasArts’ classic biker adventure, is coming out next month It’s releasing on April 18, which is one day after my birthday. I see what you’re trying to do, Tim Schafer. You want to one-up me. Well, joke’s on you because nobody cared about my birthday to begin with. Take…

Overwatch‘s Director Both Loves And Hates The Mash-Up Videos People Make Of Him

In recent times, a YouTuber named Dinoflask has dedicated their life to mashing-up videos of Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan, turning them into everything from enraged rants to stories of Kaplan drunkenly pretending to be Junkrat’s ult at a party. It’s masterful work. Even Kaplan himself thinks so… begrudgingly. As part of a recent Reddit AMA, somebody…

The Future Of Battlefield 1

Battlefield 1 surprised people. The World War 1 setting came out of left field, as did a remarkably deft single-player campaign. At a recent event at EA’s Redwood City studio, I spoke to Valerian Noghin, lead designer of the new They Shall Not Pass expansion, about what’s next for Battlefield 1, as well as how…

Streets of Rogue Makes Fun Of Tutorials That Say You’re Amazing For Doing Basically Nothing

Fuck Video Game Tutorial Guy. Every time you so much as breathe without shoving a brick in your mouth, he acts like you’re a long-dead godking gracing mortals with your presence. It’s cloying and ridiculous, and Streets of Rogue does a nice job of poking fun at the trope. Over the weekend, I spent a…

What To Expect From Battlefield 1‘s First Expansion

Battlefield 1‘s first expansion, They Shall Not Pass, is just around the corner. It’s not about 32 Gandalfs fighting 32 Balrogs for 32 eternities, unfortunately, and instead focuses on the long-awaited French army. The expansion introduces the French army with four maps set on the Western front of World War 1. Fort de Vaux is…

Undead Cafe Game Necrobarista Was Made Out Of Frustration With The State Of Anime

Recently, a game called Necrobarista caught my eye. It’s about a cafe the dead return to for one last cup of coffee, and it’s got an art style that screams Persona. That’s no coincidence. Necrobarista’s developers told me the game arose from their “love-hate relationship” with anime and visual novels. “Back in the ‘90s, you…

Steam Review Scores No Longer Count People Who Didn’t Pay

Steam reviews are changing again. This time, it’s a subtle thing that could have big reverberations. If you got a game for free—say, as a gift, during a free weekend, or what have you—your review no longer counts toward that game’s overall score. Valve, uh, didn’t really explain their rationale in-depth, but here’s the standout…

Blizzard Bans Top World Of Warcraft Players For Trading Dungeon Runs For Cash

It’s one thing to run a friend through a dungeon that might be a little too rough for them because you’re a Cool Pal. It’s something else entirely to do it for a rando and ask for real money in return. In World of Warcraft, the latter is unacceptable, and Blizzard’s started banning top players…

A Very Serious Conversation About Orc Romance In Shadow Of War

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor was a game about attachment in the face of decapitation. You came to love certain orcs, even as you warred against them. It was a game about relationships, more romantic in some ways than games that are explicitly about romance. So I had to know: in Shadow of War, is there…

You Can Make A Game About Government Surveillance, But You Can’t Make People Care

Orwell’s central conceit is nothing if not timely. The game casts players as a fictional Big Brother, sifting through people’s private communications and picking info that might connect them to a terrorist plot. Months after its release, however, the game’s developers are worried about another timely issue: apathy. The team’s goal with Orwell wasn’t to…

Blizzard Cracks Down On Overwatch Players Who Farm XP

Jeff Kaplan sees you, Overwatch XP farmers. He sees you, and he’s pissed. Well, maybe not pissed, but unusually angry by “glittering ray of sunlight transformed into an eternally patient man” standards. Recently, some players have taken to creating XP farming servers in Overwatch’s new custom game browser. Basically, you join one, pick a hero,…

Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War‘s Nemesis System Is About Friends As Well As Foes

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor was a game about guerrilla warfare… and also falling in love with orcs. By contrast, this summer’s sequel, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is a game about full-scale warfare… and also falling in love with orcs. Shadow of War is a painfully generic subtitle, but there is a ring of truth to it.…

Overwatch Players Are Abusing Custom Games To Farm XP

Overwatch’s new custom game browser has given rise to everything from tense “predator” games of cat and mouse to sex role-play rooms. Good times all around, in other words. Other players, however, have taken to abusing the feature. If you take a look around Overwatch’s custom game lobby, you’ll almost assuredly come across at least…

Frustration Can Improve Video Games, Designer Found 

In video games, frustration is often viewed as a dirty word. If you’re feeling frustrated—like you’ve hit a wall and can’t find a way over, under, or around—the designers must have made a mistake. That’s not always the case, though. Sometimes, game makers try to make you feel irritated, or even livid. Last week, Duelyst…

Torment: Tides of Numenera developer inXile is working on a fix for the game’s console performance issues. “We are currently working on an update to solve this issue as soon as possible, and will keep you informed,” they said in a statement to Eurogamer

Nine Things To Do If You Can’t Play Zelda

Like many of you, I failed to order a Switch and instead spent the weekend kicking myself because I couldn’t play Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While the weekend only lasted the usual 48 hours, it felt like 10,000 hours, making me an expert on this subject. I am, therefore, authorized to give…

Blizzard Talks About How They Came Up With Overwatch‘s New Hero, Orisa

Overwatch’s newest hero, Orisa, isn’t what you’d call, er, typical. She’s a quadrupedal robo-tank with horns, and she kinda came out of nowhere. In creating her, Blizzard faced some unique challenges. During a recent GDC session, Overwatch lead writer Michael Chu discussed Orisa’s conception. “Orisa was a character that emerged from game design,” he said.…