Odds and Ends Archives - Page 62 of 75

FIFA 21 Has Some Good Looking Hair

I don’t play sports games. I don’t even watch sports. But I’m always impressed by some good looking, next-gen hair. And the latest FIFA game on next-gen consoles like the Xbox Series X has some damn fine hair. I know nothing about soccer games, so it’s possible FIFA 21 is a terrible game filled with…

By Zack Zwiezen Published December 20, 2020

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A Strange Game That Lets You Create A Digital Art Gallery About Anything

Art galleries can be cool. But they are hard to create, so we don’t get as many galleries as we deserve. For example? Where are the galleries and museums for things like broken extension cords? Or people like Keanu Reeves? Well, thankfully, with The Anything Gallery, you can create a gallery about whatever you want.…

By Zack Zwiezen Published December 20, 2020

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The United States Space Force Is Basically Setting Up Destiny

Earlier today, United States vice president Mike Pence announced that the members of the Space Force—a big dumb vanity project by the big wet toddler currently living in the White House—will be called “Guardians,” much like the player characters of the Destiny franchise. Bungie CEO Pete Parsons obviously got a kick out of that. I…

By Ian Walker Published December 18, 2020

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Yoshitaka Amano’s Harley Quinn Cover Is So Good I’m Gonna Cry

Stephanie Phillips, writer on DC Comics’ upcoming Harley Quinn comic series, recently shared an excellent variant cover from the first issue, provided by none other than legendary Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano. I’m not much of a comic reader these days but, damn, if this isn’t a tempting reason to get back into them. Amano…

By Ian Walker Published December 18, 2020

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Cyberpunk 2077 On Ultra Low Settings Looks Like Pixel Hell

Continuing the fine work he’s done on previous games like The Witcher 3, the LowSpecGamer has picked up Cyberpunk, dropped all the settings to low and then gone further, poking around in the game’s code to turn one of the year’s most visually demanding titles into a blurry shitstain. His stated goal is to see…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 16, 2020

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Modified Cartridge Gets Ray Tracing Working On A Super Nintendo

Ray tracing, currently the big thing in video game visuals, is a perk for those running bleeding edge hardware on PC or next-gen consoles. Or, conversely, anyone who owns a SNES. This demo for SuperRT shows real-time ray tracing running on a Super Nintendo—a console first released in 1991—thanks to the use of a modified…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 15, 2020

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Destiny 2’s Latest Quest References A Moment Cut From The First Game

Destiny 2’s new exotic quest for an old Destiny 1 gun makes reference to an alternate version of one of that game’s main characters only seen in an E3 2013 trailer, breathing a little life back into a story that never made it into the finished game. Hawkmoon is a small, agile exotic hand cannon…

By Ethan Gach Published December 15, 2020

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Four Generations Of Xbox Consoles Can Play The Same Game Together

When we think of backwards compatibility we tend to only think of a game from an older system running on its replacement. But as this video shows, in the right circumstances, a console released in 2001 can play the same game at the same time as one released in 2020, as well as the two…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 14, 2020

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WoW Pacifist Picks “Millions” Of Flowers To Hit New Level Cap

Doubleagent, the world’s most famous pacifist (in World of Warcraft), has just hit the game’s new maximum level cap by, uh, doing some intensive gardening on the Wandering Isle. Famous for having never picked a side in Warcraft’s eternal struggle, and as a result remaining forever in the game’s starting area, Doubleagent spends his days…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 13, 2020

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Let’s See What’s Inside A PlayStation 5

We know the outside of the PS5 is just two big-ass white fins, but the inside is still a mystery. So the good people at iFixit have got hold of one and torn it to pieces, ostensibly to judge its repair value, but really just so we could all gawk at the carnage of it…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 13, 2020

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Even The Head Of PlayStation Studios Has His PS5 Upside Down

The PS5 is a strange-looking console. Lots of curves and swoops. It’s easy to accidentally set it up the wrong way, which is exactly what Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, seems to have done in a now-deleted tweet. Whoops! Earlier this morning, Hermen Hulst uploaded a cute little video of his cat attacking…

By Zack Zwiezen Published December 13, 2020

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Running Around During Loading Screens Is An Important Part Of Assassin’s Creed

Loading screens often suck. But they can occasionally become more than just periods of time where you are forced to sit around and wait. In Assassin’s Creed, a tradition has formed of letting players run around in an endless void and it has (mostly) stuck around. (This post was originally published on July 26. It’s…

By Zack Zwiezen Published December 13, 2020

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Low Poly Animals Are The Best

There you are, playing a game, and without thinking about it you run by a bird off in the distance. However, the odds are very high that the bird you ran by was nothing more than a few simply textured polygons pretending to be a bird. And yet it worked. Back in October a new…

By Zack Zwiezen Published December 12, 2020

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Cyberpunk 2077 Characters Won’t Stop Following Some Players Around

Cyberpunk 2077 is having a buggy launch, from the hilarious to the disappointing. Some players are reporting a bug that’s either funny or creepy, depending how you look at it: story NPCs who won’t stop following them around. (Some mild story spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077 ahead.) You meet Maelstrom gang member Dum Dum in an…

By Riley MacLeod Published December 11, 2020

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The Persona And Mario Musical Performances From The Game Awards Kicked Ass

Buried amidst the ads and announcements from The Game Awards earlier this evening were two very cool musical moments. First up, near the beginning of the show was Lyn & the Persona Music Band playing the version of Last Surprise found in the spinoff Persona 5 Scramble: And later on, the London Philharmonic Orchestra set…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 11, 2020

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Jesus Christ, Nintendo, Sephiroth Is Going To Get Someone Killed

Sephiroth has been in Smash for like 34 seconds, and already, he has nearly got both Mario and Princess Zelda killed. This is wildly irresponsible! Considering we’re only a year removed from Smash killing Luigi (Rest In Peace), you would think Nintendo would have been more selective with their roster selections going forwards. But nope,…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 10, 2020

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Shitty Dragon Age Voice Actor Has Me Considering Deleting My Fanfiction Library

Last week, two prominent BioWare employees, Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah, announced their departure from the studio. Following this, Mark Darrah, now the former executive producer of the Dragon Age series, was attacked on Twitter by Greg Ellis, the voice actor for Cullen Rutherford in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Ellis took to his personal YouTube channel…

By Ash Parrish Published December 10, 2020

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Cyberpunk 2077 Doesn’t Let You Change Your Appearance Once You’ve Started

This is hilarious to me. Cyberpunk 2077 is a game set in a cyberpunk future that begins with an incredibly robust character creation suite, letting you modify everything from your cybernetic implant appearance to facial scars to the size of your dick. Almost every single person in the game is a mechanically modified human being.…

By Luke Plunkett Published December 10, 2020

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Four New Short Stories Let Us Speculate About Dragon Age 4’s Plot

This year’s Dragon Age Day was a mess. Two of BioWare’s beloved executives quit, a voice actor for one of Dragon Age’s beloved characters personally attacked one of those executives on Twitter, and then went on an exceedingly unhinged rant on YouTube while performing as that character. The mess unfortunately overshadowed the only good news…

By Ash Parrish Published December 10, 2020

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You Can Turn Down Alcohol In Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 gives players a lot of choices, from how you approach missions to how you deal with interpersonal situations. This freedom extends to character-creator options you’ll never even think about again, like choosing your character’s teeth or genitals. But one bit of choice I wasn’t expecting, and which I can’t remember seeing in a…

By Riley MacLeod Published December 10, 2020