Odds and Ends

Every Game Should Have A Train Level

Hitman 3 ends with one wild ride. The game’s first five levels are sprawling playgrounds that demand stealth, caution, and careful planning. The final level, “Untouchable,” is a fast-paced race through a train. It is, in a word, awesome. More, please! Actually, you know what? Just go ahead and put a train level in every…

Remedy, Please, No

Control developer Remedy Entertainment, caught up in the Lady Dimitrescu hype, has done something terrible. It made the Former, which is already horrifying, even more distressing by giving the monster a full set of teeth. And it’s smiling Listen, I know we’re all having fun with the tall Resident Evil lady. I even wrote something about…

A Traveler’s Guide To The Best Final Fantasy Worlds To Live In

I’m a few days past my Final Fantasy XV blitz and I’m still enmeshed in a quagmire of feelings and emotions. Since finishing the game, I watched Kingsglaive the prequel movie, I’ve considered re-watching the prequel anime, and I’m one retail therapy session away from buying the novel. I’ve already raided Etsy looking for cute…

I Wish My Switch Would Still Hold A Charge

The Switch was the first Nintendo console I ever bought at launch. Almost four years later, it’s clearly seen better days, which I wouldn’t mind if it could survive out of the dock for more than a couple days at a time. Two things have me thinking about the Switch’s terrible battery life again. The…

Let’s Compare Resident Evil Village‘s Lady Dimitrescu To Other Tall Video Game Characters

Lady Dimitrescu, otherwise known as Resident Evil Village’s Tall Vampire Lady, is very tall. Capcom confirmed yesterday that she stands at nine feet, six inches tall. That got me thinking: How does she compare to other video game characters? First off, let’s take a look at the dudes she’ll probably be fighting in Resident Evil…

Do Not Touch The Mako!

The Mass Effect Legendary Edition will be out May 14th, and amid the myriad of emotions I am feeling right now, one tidbit of information gives me pause. According to reports on Eurogamer and VentureBeat, in addition to all the fancy graphical bells and whistles BioWare is adding to the eldest of the trilogy, the…

How Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Creators Snuck In Connections To Older Games

An assassin in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla shares a small but fun connection to a templar in Assassin’s Creed III, as confirmed by Ubisoft in a recent interview with Kotaku In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla players will quickly encounter two assassins. One is Basim and the other is his younger apprentice, Hytham. That name might sound familiar…

Final Fantasy XV Could Have Had A Much Better Villain

There are a lot of things I love about Final Fantasy XV. Its tale of brotherhood is bar none and representative of some of the best “it’s the little things” storytelling I’ve ever experienced in a video game. But there are, of course, elements I don’t like. In particular, the game’s villain. Final Fantasy XV’s…

Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator 2 Will Put “Millions” Of Characters On The Screen

Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator could do some very cool things with thousands of soldiers/ducks/zombies on the battlefield at once. Its upcoming sequel has only one place it can go to push the envelope. Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator 2, due sometime in the fall for the PC, does all the stuff the original did, like a…

A First-Person Shooter Where You Can Fire 8 Guns At Once

One gun in a shooter is boring. Two guns are a bit more interesting, but still nothing new. Three? You got my attention. Four? Five? Eight?! Whoa… Now we’re talking. As spotted by Warp Door, RAYKA is a small and free first-person shooter made by Voxel for the recently ended 9th Kajam game jam event.…

Hitman 3 Has Some Weird Easter Eggs, Like A Talking Hippo

The Hitman games have always had some weird secrets and Easter eggs. And Hitman 3 continues the tradition, including some truly strange and cool secrets, like a talking hippo, a UFO abduction, and a hidden ending. Also, SPOILER WARNING. I know a lot of folks don’t care about how certain missions end or the overall…

A ‘Cum Dungeon’ Offers The Fastest XP Farming In Bloodborne

Like most Souls games, Bloodborne can be pretty challenging. But hardcore players know there’s one place anyone can go to quickly gather the resources necessary for power-leveling, a magical playground simply known as the “Cum Dungeon.” All players need to do after entering the so-called Cum Dungeon is step out of the beginning area, wait…

GTA V‘s Slink Johnson Shows Us Around The Hollywood Walk Of Fame

In the debut episode of PlayStation Haven’s GTA V Real-Life Comparisons video series, actor, rapper, and comedian Gerald “Slink” Johnson, AKA Lamar Davis, gives us a tour of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Vinewood style. Warning: He gets a little physical. Following up on the live-action recreation of the popular Lamar and Franklin scene from…

This rules. . 

Bernie’s Soul Still Berns In Soulcalibur VI Mod

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) turned heads at the inauguration of United States President Joe Biden. Unfortunately, it wasn’t because he rushed in like Stone Cold Steve Austin to steal the presidency with a folding chair, but simply for sitting quietly in a cozy outfit and practicing social distancing. The moment took over the internet for a…

Rare Magic The Gathering Card Goes For Over $500,000

This week, an ultra-rare Magic The Gathering Alpha Black Lotus card with a signature by artist Christopher Rush sold for $511,100.00. Online auction seller PWCC called the gem mint card, graded at perfect PSA 10, “the single finest” Alpha Black Lotus it had ever brokered for sale. “The fragile black periphery is free of common…

The 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…

Japanese-Inspired Nintendo Switch Is A Work Of Art

When Canadian artist Carmina Castillo isn’t making cool stuff like this, she’s turning a Nintendo Switch into something so exquisite I would never play it, but simply put it on a shelf and look at it for the rest of my days. It’s made by applying some wood-style Joy-Con covers and a piece of very fancy…

Final Fantasy XV’s Photo Mode Captures Everything I Can’t

I’m going through Final Fantasy XV before it leaves Xbox Game Pass this Friday. It’s a game about having adventures with your best friends all while on a road-trip to, inevitably, save the world. Playing FF15, in addition to servicing my goal of finally completing beloved games I’ve left half-done, has become therapeutic. The game…

Here’s A Long Sega Saturn

Take a look at this Sega Saturn. It’s very long. Apparently, this Sega Saturn Address Checker was a development unit that made sure games weren’t violating Sega’s guidelines on memory usage. Anupgraded model had a row of several dozen LEDs mounted on its surface to indicate potential problems. Other than that, the Address Checker functioned…