Culture

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…

The Sephiroth Boss Fight Is The Most Fun I’ve Had In Smash Bros. Ultimate In A While

It’s been a rough year for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and me, mostly because with the ongoing pandemic I haven’t been able to play it IRL with anyone. The game’s new limited-time Sephiroth boss fight has helped me fall back in love with it though, by giving me a brief but excellent new single-player challenge…

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…

What Is Even The Point Of Giving Awards To Video Games

‘Tis the season to feel mildly embittered at basically all times. I speak, of course, of awards season, during which countless games take home trophies and plaques (or pictures of trophies and plaques), but not the ones you want to win. What, really, is the point, though? On this week’s episode of the Splitscreen podcast,…

Cyberpunk 2077 Third-Person Bug Reveals V Is A Shambling Monstrosity

Cyberpunk 2077 is a disaster that the executives at CD Projekt knew full well was going to crash and burn. That said, one of its numerous bugs has the benefit of giving players what they’ve asked for since the game’s long-ago 2012 reveal: a third-person mode. In various videos uploaded since the game’s launch on…

Cyberpunk 2077 Refund Options Expand, With Updates From Xbox, Best Buy, And CD Projekt Itself [Update]

Update (3:03 p.m. ET, 12/18/2020): Cyberpunk 2077 refund options continue to grow for disappointed players. In addition to both Sony and Microsoft loosening their refund policies, Best Buy and even CD Projekt itself have promised to make things right for customers. According to a Best Buy social media specialist, the retailer will refund physical copies…

Report: Cyberpunk 2077 Developers Grill Management Over Crunch, Deadlines, And Poor Launch

Staff at Cyberpunk 2077 studio CD Projekt Red asked tough questions of their leadership at an all-hands video meeting on Thursday, including about mandatory overtime and far-fetched production goals, according to a new report by Bloomberg “Developers asked blunt questions about the company’s reputation, the game’s unrealistic deadlines and the relentless overtime in the months…

Ghost of Tsushima is getting new costumes inspired by other PlayStation exclusives until January 15. Playing Story or Survival missions will unlock outfits from God of War, Bloodborne, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and The Last Guardian

Control Comes To PS5 And Xbox Series X/S With Ray-Tracing In February

Remedy Games’ paranormal office thriller Control will come to next-gen consoles digitally on February 2, followed by a full retail release on March 2, the studio announced on Twitter this morning. The next-gen version of the game will include a performance mode to run at 60 fps on both platforms, while the standard 30 fps…

Dota 2 Gets New Hero And Massive Mistwoods Update

Dota 2‘s Mistwoods update dropped yesterday, making a ton of changes to the game and adding its 120th hero: a crossbow toting woodland creature named Hoodwink. Update 7.28 is Dota 2‘s fifth of the year, but arguably also its biggest, adding a completely new mechanic right before the holidays called Aghanim’s Shards: items that can…

Track: Late Evening In Jersey (from Heat) | Artist: Brian Eno | Album: Film Music: Crime Pays

A Final Goodbye To The Last Generation

For the past month we’ve been taking a look back at the winners, losers and defining trends of the PlayStation 4/Xbox One era of home video game consoles as part of a feature series called The Last Generation In that time we’ve covered Nintendo’s smooth exit from the console arms race, said goodbye to my…

Sony Pulls Cyberpunk 2077 From PlayStation Store, Says Buyers Can Get A Refund

Hopefully concluding a rollercoaster few days where PlayStation owners were told to get a refund for Cyberpunk 2077 then asked not to, Sony has confirmed that not only will the company be issuing refunds, but the game itself is being pulled from the PlayStation Store. A short statement posted on the PlayStation website reads: SIE…

Riot Casually Announces League Of Legends MMO

League of Legends fans who would like to enjoy the universe but not keep playing the same game over and over until you die, you’re in luck. Riot just announced a new MMO set in the game’s universe in the most casual way imaginable. In this tweet exchange, Riot VP Greg Street starts off by…

Beat (Stupid Sexy) Sephiroth In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate And Unlock Him 5 Days Early

Sephiroth officially joins the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate cast next week, but players eager to open their presents early can unlock this surprisingly shirtless Final Fantasy VII villain right now by simply kicking the crap out of him. “Sephiroth Challenge,” which can be found on the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate main menu if you pre-purchase…

It’s Weird How Some Games Are Now Too Big To Fail

For nearly the entire history of video games, most title’s lifespans would play out the same cruel, Darwinian way: they would come out and either live or die, sometimes with spectacular consequences. No second chances. This was true of first cartridge and then disc-based games, which would either fly off the shelf or not. But…

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Is Getting Barret, Tifa, Aerith, And Geno Mii Fighter Costumes

During today’s Sephiroth presentation, Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai showed off some of the new Mii Fighter costumes that will be added to Ultimate alongside the Final Fantasy villain. The next Super Smash Bros. Ultimate update will expand the Mii Fighter’s wardrobe with costumes based on Final Fantasy VII party members Barret, Tifa, and…

Streamers Flabbergasted After Twitch Partially Bans The Word ‘Simp’

It’s been yet another long 24 hours for Twitch—the latest in what’s shaped up to be an agonizingly long year for the company (and also everybody on Earth). Yesterday afternoon, Twitch held a live town hall with the goal of illuminating recent policy changes and features around DMCAs, sexual harassment, ads, and other hot-button issues.…

Dragon Ball FighterZ Adds Super Baby 2, Whoever The Heck That Is

Dragon Ball FighterZ has gone off the rails. I can understand, on some level, the thousands of Goku variations that make up its cast. I’ll even overlook the two Brolys, if only because both versions are so popular. But recent reports that the Arc System Works fighting game is getting Super Baby 2 are where I…

Among Us is out on Game Pass for PC today, Microsoft announced in a blog post. The popular betrayal party game will come to the rest of Game Pass for Xbox consoles sometime next year.