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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…
By John Walker -
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…
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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…
By John Walker -
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…
By John Walker -
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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ReviewsYear in ReviewJohn Walker’s Top 10 Games Of 2020
The eternally burning tire fire that is 2020 hasn’t exactly been a laugh riot. And yet, as I reflect on what have been some of the most gruelling times I can remember, it’s interesting how much video games have played a part in getting me through. As pure colorful distraction, or even daily pursuits completed…
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CultureThe Best Games Of 2020 That You’ve Never Heard Of
There are so many games. The Nintendo Switch sees 30 releases a week. More than 50 PC games come out a day on Steam. Fifty. A day. And yes, most of them are shovelware or just plain drivel, but that only makes things worse for the little gems that are hidden within. In such a…
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Culture7 Games To Play With Your Kids Over Christmas
For parents, the Christmas vacation is, at its best, a fortnight of Sundays. No school, but also everything else is closed, too, and everyone you know is busy seeing family. 2020’s holiday break is, as is only proper for 2020, all of that but even harder. Two weeks of being at home, unable to go…
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CultureControversial Taiwanese Horror Game Returns, GOG Immediately Pulls It [Update]
In February of last year Devotion, a Taiwanese horror game, was pulled from Steam after a controversy regarding a hidden Easter egg. Today GOG, the online PC gaming store run by CD Projekt, announced it would be selling Devotion. Then, hours later, declared it would not “Earlier today, it was announced that the game Devotion…
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OpinionThe Cyberpunk 2077 Review Drama
Cyberpunk 2077 is out in the wild. After eight long years the whole world can now judge it for themselves, through whichever perspective or tint of glasses they so choose. And best of all, for 99.9% of those players, they won’t ever have to justify their feelings to the rest of the audience. However, for…
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CulturePS5 Owners Say They’re Receiving Bans After Selling PS4 Users Access To The PS Plus Collection
If you’re one of the lucky ones to have been able to buy a PS5 already, you’ll know that with a PlayStation Plus subscription you also get access to the PS Plus Collection, 20 well-loved, properly good PS4 games. But if you’re still on PS4, that bundle isn’t available to you. Well, it didn’t take…
By John Walker -
OpinionImpressionsThat Night, Steeped By Blood River Looks Like Nothing Else You’ve Played
That Night, Steeped By Blood River is one of the most interesting-looking games I can remember This surrealist exploration game has an aesthetic so unique that I’m convinced I’ll dream like it tonight, and as such am somewhat put off going to sleep. Created by Taylor Swietanski, TNSBBR is on one level a fairly standard first-person…
By John Walker
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