Patrick Klepek

Umbrella Corps Is An Interesting Experiment That’s Not Much Fun To Play

Resident Evil 7‘s first-person take on the franchise is a bold experiment that holds tons of promise. The same could be said for Umbrella Corps, a new attempt by Capcom to graft multiplayer onto Resident Evil. Sadly, it doesn’t really work. Umbrella Corps sports mercenary groups of three facing off in constrained maps, both fighting…

Microsoft Altering Its Shady Windows 10 Forced Upgrade System

It’s telling that most of my stories about Windows 10, a genuinely decent operating system, have been about how crappy Microsoft has made the upgrade experience. Microsoft seems to be getting the hint, though. For more than a year, upgrading to Windows 10 hasn’t cost anything. Rather than let people organically upgrade, the company began…

The Banner Saga 2 Headlines Xbox’s Games With Gold For July

Microsoft’s announced their lineup for Games With Gold next month, with an excellent strategy game leading the charge. Remember, though Microsoft advertises these games as “free,” an active subscription to Xbox Live Gold is required to play them. If you own an Xbox One, the Xbox 360 games will also be playable on your machine.…

Twitch Chat Microtransactions Are Now A Thing

You can now pay for a flashy new set of emotes in Twitch chat, though it’s unclear how much streamers will be getting if you choose to buy some. Twitch calls this latest addition to their chat “cheering.” “Cheering is a new way to show support for streamers and celebrate the moments you love with…

Mario Maker Fans Have Built A Better Community Website Than Nintendo

Though Nintendo’s Mario Maker website makes it easier to find cool levels, it remains woefully incomplete. Where’s the ability to make playlists? Search for titles by name? Thankfully, fans are filling in the blanks. Makers of Mario, a collaboration between several members of the Mario Maker community, launched into open beta today. Though a number…

Microsoft has announced plans to shut down Xbox Fitness, starting with the removal of content from the Xbox Marketplace today. Existing users can use Xbox Fitness until July 7, 2017, when Microsoft will shut it down entirely. Why not let people keep using it? To save money, presumably.

Woman Sues Microsoft Over Unwanted Windows 10 Upgrade, Wins $10,000

Microsoft has been forcing Windows 10 upgrades for months now, an aggressive tactic that’s rubbed people the wrong way. The Seattle Times reports one woman’s computer was messed up by the update, prompting her to sue Microsoft. Not only did she win, she got $10,000. Per The Seattle Times: A few days after Microsoft released…

Independence Day: Resurgence Is Worse Than Bad. It’s Boring

Independence Day is big, dumb, and full of heart. The special effects may look a little hokey in 2016, but that’s to be expected. It’s disaster porn, but hey, it’s damn good disaster porn. The sequel, unfortunately, is a turd. When I was younger, it didn’t take much to sell me on Independence Day. Aliens?…

Inside The History Of Mother 3

The past few weeks have been a lil’ busy, but Worth Reading, our collection of the best games writing around, has returned. Let’s start off with a close examination of a beloved RPG that’s never gotten an official release. Hey, You Should Read These “How Mother 3 Escaped Development Hell to Become a Modern Classic”…

Wolfenstein Devs Celebrate Quake‘s 20th Birthday With New Levels

Quake celebrated its 20th anniversary this week, and the developers behind Wolfenstein: The New Order released a new expansion pack. What?! Yes, I’m serious. Here’s a tweet from MachineGames, the folks who made the excellent Wolfenstein revivals The New Order and The Old Blood Quake is only $2.50 on Steam right now, so if you’re…

Oculus Stops Blocking App That Lets Vive Owners Play Rift Exclusives

Oculus has been under enormous pressure in recent weeks over an unexpected decision to prevent competing headsets from playing Oculus games, but the company appears to have reversed course. Games bought through the Oculus store don’t natively support Valve and HTC’s Vive headset, but user-developed piece of software called Revive allowed Vive owners to buy…

Crafty Designer Builds Soccer Game Using Mario Maker

Just when it seems like Mario Maker creators shouldn’t be able to surprise me anymore, along comes a clever level like Get the Ball into the Goal likandooTV on YouTube recently played through the whole stage, which he appropriately dubbed “Super Fifa maker” in his video. To recreate soccer within the limitations of Mario Maker,…

The popular Firefight mode is finally coming to Halo 5 multiplayer on June 29, Microsoft announced today. It’s part of a large package of content that’ll include new maps, Forge options, and more.

Mighty No. 9‘s End Credits Are Nearly Four Hours Long

Every single one of Mighty No. 9‘s backers on Kickstarter are listed in the credits, and a whopping 67,226 different people helped fund the game. In order to watch the whole credits scroll by—I feel bad for anyone whose name is towards the bottom—you’ll need almost four hours take it all in. If you don’t…

After Outcry, Nintendo Says Paper Mario: Color Splash Doesn’t Reference ‘Hate Campaign’

Nintendo has publicly denied that joke from an E3 demo for the upcoming Wii U game Paper Mario: Color Splash is a reference to a harassment campaign that targeted game designer Zoe Quinn. The company says it’s a nod to the Watergate scandal from the 1970s. The jokes drew scrutiny yesterday as they were passed…

The Last Guardian‘s Designer Explains How He Stayed Motivated For Nine Years

It’s been nearly 10 years since development started on The Last Guardian, designer Fumito Ueda’s long-anticipated follow-up to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. I caught up with Ueda at E3 to talk about his lengthy journey. The last time I interviewed the 46-year-old designer was several jobs ago. I’d been sent to Japan to…

The Best Games Patrick Played At E3 2016

Though I didn’t get a chance to play that newfangled Legend of Zelda that everyone was raving about, there was plenty to get excited about at E3. Based on scribbles into a notebook, here’s the games that stood out to me. Outlast 2 Let’s act shocked that Patrick was sucked in by a horror game,…

Mighty No. 9’s Designer Says ‘I Own All The Problems That Came With This Game’

Mighty No. 9 designer Keiji Inafune was deeply frank about his latest game’s development troubles on a stream meant to celebrate its launch. It’s not something you hear very often from typically quiet Japanese game developers. After a lengthy series of frustrating delays (and bizarre marketing), Mighty No. 9 launched today on most of the…

The Reasons Behind God of War‘s Bold New Direction

Sony Santa Monica has big plans to shake up God of War. “We looked at every aspect of this game differently,” creative director Cory Barlog told me at E3, “all centered around the concept of ‘Why? Why am I doing this? Why am I here? Why am I making these decisions?’” Barlog was the lead…

Game That Promised To Map The World With Drones Has Been Cancelled

ReRoll, an open world survival RPG from ex-Ubisoft devs, had a lofty pitch: they were going to map the entire planet with drones to generate its world. Sound too good to be true? It was! The project has been cancelled. “We had high hopes to secure the necessary funds to achieve our final goal,” the…