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CultureOdds and Ends25 Years Later, Doom II’s Super Shotgun Is Still The Best Video Game Shotgun
Recently, I played through the newer ports of Doom and Doom II. And playing Doom II again, I was reminded of a simple fact: The super shotgun is amazing and is still the best video game shotgun ever made. Doom II’s Xbox One port was one of many Bethesda games that ended up on Game…
By Zack Zwiezen -
CultureOdds and EndsElites In Halo: Reach Contain A Gross Secret
I’ve played a lot of Halo: Reach. In fact, last month I played through the entire game again with my brother via the Master Chief Collection. But I had no idea that inside the playable Elites in the game lurks a somewhat disgusting little secret: Their innards…? Guts? Bones? Hard to tell. In Halo: Reach,…
By Zack Zwiezen -
CultureOdds and EndsIt Takes Less Than 20 Minutes To Eat A Baby In Fallout 3
File this one under Answers to Questions No One Asked: It apparently only takes 18 minutes and 51 seconds to go from the beginning of Fallout 3 to eating a baby in one of the expansions. Speedrunners, folks. Tomatoanus is a well-known Fallout speedrunner with several records under his belt, but he also spends time…
By Ian Walker -
CultureOdds and EndsSony Chose PlayStation’s First Office Location With Late-Night Drinks In Mind
When Sony Computer Entertainment first established its flagship PlayStation brand in 1993, its executives’ chief concern was making sure the company’s first offices were located in an area with late-night bars. At least that’s the story Ken Kutaragi, who’s widely known as father of the PlayStation, told Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada on the latter’s new…
By Ian Walker -
CultureOdds and EndsFortnite’s Awful Banana Man Is Finally Dead
Early (and I mean early) this morning, Epic Games unveiled the next season of its mega-popular battle royale shooter Fortnite. As is often the case, there’s a bunch of cool, new stuff for players to mess around with in-game, but in my mind the biggest development is the death of Fornite mascot Peely, the terrible…
By Ian Walker -
CultureOdds and EndsRatchet & Clank Weapons, Ranked
This weekend, I played through the “re-imagined” 2016 Ratchet & Clank for PlayStation 4 (free via PlayStation Plus this month). And I started feeling that familiar itch, the itch to compile an underexplained list. As such, here’s how I rank the weapons in its arsenal based on various criteria: Omniwrench Pixelizer Buzz Blades Warmonger Pyrocitor…
By Ian Walker -
CultureOdds and EndsExpert Doom Players Continue To Complete Challenges Once Thought Impossible
Classic Doom players are continuing to pick away at some of the hardest remaining community challenges left, beating missions without attacking a single enemy in some of the hardest retail Doom levels ever released. In the early 90s, shortly after the release of Doom II, some of the best Doom players in the world joined…
By Zack Zwiezen -
CultureOdds and Ends14 Years Ago Rockstar Ran Weird TV Ads Of Just A Clock Counting Down
Back in 2007, Rockstar Games teased Grand Theft Auto IV with a series of late-night ads that appeared on channels like FX. All the ads amounted to were 30 minutes of watching a clock tick down, with every second punctuated by a gunshot. Young Zack, ever the sucker, fell for the hype hard. Yes, cast…
By Zack Zwiezen -
CultureOdds and EndsPeeled Pokémon Are Disturbing, But I Can’t Stop Looking
Nothing really prepares you for stumbling upon a Lopunny that has had parts of its fur and flesh peeled off it, leaving a smooth monstrosity. And yet, that happened to me one day on Twitter. Now I can’t stop looking at all the other peeled Pokémon. (Peeled Pokémon gave me permission to share their artwork…
By Zack Zwiezen -
CultureOdds and EndsThe Division 2, Two Years Later
The Division 2 was released on March 12, 2019, making it just over two years old this week. In that time a lot has happened. Multiple updates, changes, bugs, controversies, teasers, puzzles, and more. Here’s what happened since The Division 2 came out. Even before The Division 2′s 2019 release, it started to stir up…
By Zack Zwiezen -
CultureOdds and EndsThe Amazing Astro’s Playroom Soundtrack Is Now Streaming Everywhere, Bringing Joy To All
You can now easily listen to “I’m Your GPU” all day, every day. One of the best things about the PS5 wasn’t raytracing graphics or fast loading times. It was Astro’s Playroom, the short, free, and amazing platformer included in every console. And one of the best parts of that game was the killer soundtrack.…
By Zack Zwiezen -
CultureOdds and EndsMario Kart Speedrunners Are Racing To Blow Themselves Up With Blue Shells
Do you know you can hit yourself with a Blue Shell in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? Speedrunners do, and they’re going all out to blow themselves up with the first place-targeting item as quickly as possible. Skilloz, the current world record-holder for the hilariously named “Blue Yourself” category, uploaded a video yesterday (h/t Polygon) showing…
By Ian Walker
