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OpinionI Have Nothing But Shame: I’m Trying To Trick Pokémon Go [UPDATE]
I have reached my lowest ebb. As I write these words, out the corner of my left eye I can see the eternal rocking motion of my cell phone as it sways within its cradle. I have become all things terrible. I have fallen. I’m trying to trick Pokémon Go into thinking I’m far less…
By John Walker -
OpinionImpressionsSilicon Dreams Is Blade Runner Meets Papers, Please
Silicon Dreams is something rather special. I almost feel bad reducing it to an elevator pitch, but honestly it captures the game so perfectly, and communicates exactly what you need to know: It’s Blade Runner meets Papers, Please OK, that’s not quite perfect. This android interrogation simulator is actually an awful lot more involved than…
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CultureEpic Spent $1 Billion On PC Exclusives By 2019
As the trawl through Epic’s court documents continues, another figure jumps out: $1 billion—the amount Epic had spent on securing exclusives by 2019. Spread across 110 titles, the detail is hidden within a document exploring “revenue assumptions”. In this, while guessing at potential income, they state that for 2019 titles they’d spent $542m, for 2020 $444m,…
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CultureEpic Paid $115 Million For The Borderlands 3 Exclusive
As the bizarro-world bunfight between Epic and Apple enters its second day in court, more extraordinary information is coming out in court documents. Like, how Epic paid Take-Two/Gearbox one hundred and fifteen million dollars for the exclusive rights to sell Borderlands 3 In a document entitled “Epic Games Store: Review of Performance and Strategy, October…
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OpinionMods Make Gaming A Better Place For Everyone
Twitter is abuzz with today’s awkwardly wrong gaming take, this time focused on modding, after disparaging thoughts about a recent Witcher 3 mod led to debate over whether modders are harming the games industry. Which leads me to present the other case: modders are not harming the games industry. I should elaborate: For historical context,…
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ReviewsBacklogWhy Did No One Tell Me About Maneater?
There are backlogs, and there are theoretical backlogs. Those games you never bought, but heard about, thought about getting, and then never did for whatever reason. I’m finding this fallow period for big game releases an excellent opportunity to reach into that pile of potential purchases, and grab something I missed. Like, say, Maneater When…
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CultureToday Is Your Last Chance To Buy Super Mario 3D All-Stars, For No Damn Reason
It’s either one of the most elaborate April Fool’s brand-o-jokes of all time, or today marks the last day Nintendo will be selling Super Mario All-Stars, either in physical form or via the Switch’s electronic shop. From April 1, they still maintain it’s to be taken behind Miyamoto’s barn and shot. As the company made…
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OpinionPokemon Go‘s Eggs Aren’t Lootboxes, They’re Fun Presents
Pokémon Go developer Niantic is testing a feature that lets players see what might be inside the game’s eggs before they walk the many miles to hatch them. It appears this is a response to the argument that the game’s eggs are akin to lootboxes. There is an awful lot that could be better about…
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CulturePokémon Go Holds Make Up Event For Letting In Players Without Tickets, Lets In Players Without Tickets
It’s now officially a trademark move for developer Niantic. Last month Pokémon Go players were accidentally let in for free to the ticketed Kanto Tour event. To make up for it, Niantic announced there would be a special bonus event for those who’d paid. That started today, and guess what: They let people in who…
By John Walker -
OpinionHey Nintendo, A Few More Requests For That Fancy New Switch
As the latest rumors about the Switch Pro/Super Nintendo Switch fly all about us, everyone is focused on the potential for that Samsung 7″ OLED screen, and just how well it’ll pull off its 4K resolution in docked mode . But if Mario HQ is currently piecing together components, we have a few other requests…
By John Walker -
CultureNiantic Announces Bonus Pokémon Go Event After Players Let In Free To The Kanto Tour
Saturday saw one of the biggest paid international events Pokémon Go has hosted, the Kanto Tour. Costing a not-cheap $11.99, it was a celebration of the 25th anniversary of Pocket Monsters, with the hit mobile game going back to the series’ origins for a 12-hour celebration of the OG 151 Pokémon. Except, they accidentally let…
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CultureNo Thank You, Animal Crossing Mario
Stay up to watch the Nintendo Direct they said. Help us with the edits as the stories go live they requested. Sure, sure I replied, I was going to watch anyway, why not. And then they said Mario was coming to Animal Crossing. And now I don’t get to sleep. Ever again. Everything is wrong.…
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CultureThor’s Teeth! Valheim Sells Two Million Copies In Two Weeks
Valheim, a Viking survival game made by a team of just five, has sold two million copies in under two weeks. That’s… carry the five… divide by nine… a million copies a week! It was only Friday that Nathan wrote a post celebrating the Norse nerve-wracker, an article so good I had the game installing…
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CultureThe Room 4: Old Sins Is Out For PC, And Prettier Than Ever
Long before you kids in your short pants and fashionable haircuts were escaping escape rooms, there was one developer far ahead of that curve. In 2012, Fireproof Games released their first game in their The Room series of puzzle games. Last week they just released The Room 4: Old Sins on PC, and it’s a…
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CultureMetro Exodus‘s Free Upgrade Adds 4K Textures And Lots Of Ray Tracing
Last year 4A Games promised us that 2019’s Metro Exodus would be receiving a free next-gen upgrade, for both Microsoft and PlayStation’s new boxes, as well as the series’ home, PC. Today they’ve revealed just how next-gen it’s going to be. Look, I could just pretend for you that I know what a “Fully Ray…
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CultureControl Developers Doubled Their Profits In 2020 Without Making A Game
Remedy Entertainment, they behind Max Payne and 2019’s Control, made more than twice as much money in 2020 as they did the year before. Yet they didn’t release a new game. They just kept releasing an old one instead. If you were to stop me in the street and ask me about how things went…
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OpinionBowser’s Fury Should Be A Template For Future Nintendo Projects
I played Bowser’s Fury this weekend. I’d intended to save it until I’d finished my first run through the Switch’s remake of Super Mario 3D World, having—like most humans—never owned a Wii U. But boy did I get bored of that quickly. And there was Bowser, just waiting on the launch screen, tempting me with…
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CultureOdds and EndsThe 1950 Radio Series Dimension X Has The Science Fiction You’ve Been Looking For
Nine years before Rod Serling brought America The Twilight Zone, NBC had a science fiction anthology series that offered very similar dark tales of potential dystopia and future-set malarkey. It was called Dimension X, featuring stories by some of the most famous sci-fi writers of the 20th century, and the reason you’ve likely never heard…
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CultureKotaku Game Diary37 Days In, There’s No Sign I’ll Stop Playing Grindstone
I have a new love, and its name is Grindstone. We spend time together every night before we go to sleep. I do love a reliable indie developer. Capybara Games certainly meet that remit, having broken away from franchise work in 2011 with their astounding Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. Then came Super Time Force…
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