Culture

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for processing what happened last week and steeling ourselves for what’s going to happen next week. Video games are the perfect accompaniment to both of these activities. What is this adorable 16-bit dungeon crawler, you ask? Why it’s the third game in Cornfox & Brothers’ Zelda-inspired Oceanhorn series, Oceanhorn: Chronos Dungeon. Set…

Destiny 2 Will Bring Loot Back To The Moon Next Season

The moon was finally added to Destiny 2 back in 2019, but last year’s Beyond Light update made its loot obsolete. Bungie plans to fix that next season by re-issuing some of its old gear with a new infusion cap in the studio’s ongoing dance to try to get the game’s progression just right. Bungie…

Sunrise in South Texas. Ranchito Los Coyotillos, Starr Co., Texas. By Chris Lopez | Instagram | Flickr 

Controlling Mario Kart And Smash Bros. With An Exercise Bike Looks Like Fun/Hell

Look, man, I get the idea here, but I am playing video games to not exercise, not to exercise. But I admire the ingenuity on display, and can fully appreciate that my steadfast determination to die slowly in this husk of a body may not be everyone’s approach to health and fitness. The idea of…

Goldeneye Meets Mario In The Perfect Nintendo 64 Game

This is a custom Goldeneye map and mod by StupidMarioBros1Fan that turns Peach’s Castle into what is essentially a murderhouse. So much murder. It’s funny, when Mario jumps on these guys to remove them it’s fine, but when you shoot them in the face with a silenced pistol it’s…deeply unsettling? If you ahem know how…

Fighting Game Players Create Community-Wide Code Of Conduct

Members of the fighting game community recently unveiled a code of conduct for the competitive scene. Much like a similar (and, as of December 2020, disbanded) project in the Smash community, the document is a list of common-sense rules that includes a firm stance against several forms of abuse and harassment, hygiene standards, and procedures…

Ubisoft Pushes Riders Republic To ‘Later This Year’, Adding To Wave Of Game Delays

Riders Republic, the next game from the team behind Steep, has been delayed until “later this year.” The delay adds to a growing number of games that have been pushed back recently, including Hogwarts Legacy and Outriders Riders Republic was originally scheduled to be released on February 25 but now has no specific date. Ubisoft…

Bethesda Delays Elder Scrolls Online Reveal To Get Out Of The Way Of Presidential Inauguration

The US Capitol was attacked and overrun by a right-wing and neo-confederate mob last week, and according to the FBI, groups loyal to President Trump are threatening to try to do it again during next week’s inauguration where President-Elect Joe Biden will be sworn in. Nerves are frayed, people are on edge, and so at…

New Pokémon Snap Is Out On Switch In April

Photography game New Pokémon Snap will be out on Switch on April 30, Nintendo announced today. Announced last year, New Pokémon Snap is a spiritual successor to the Nintendo 64 game about exploring Pokémon in their natural habitats and snapping beautiful pictures of them. The new game will take place in a region called Lental,…

Fighting Games Have Come A Long Way

It’s common knowledge that fighting game sprites have grown larger and more refined as technology has improved, at least in those rare few games that still use them. But I never truly appreciated how big of a difference there is between the classics and their modern counterparts before now. Modder X68000555 has spent the last…

Abandoned MF DOOM Game Sounded Cool

News of MF DOOM’s death a couple of weeks ago led to an outpouring of tributes from artists around the world, from movie-makers to his peers and fans in the rap game. One that caught my eye in particular was this project by Chafomon, an abandoned fan project for the Game Boy called MF Doom:…

Coheed And Cambria Frontman Writes Mournful Song About PlayStation 5 Shortages

I want a PlayStation 5. I have tried on multiple occasions to acquire a PlayStation 5. I do not have a PlayStation 5. At the rate things are going, these words will likely be the first in my autobiography and on my tombstone—and perhaps yours as well. It is only right, then, that somebody has…

Postal Worker Caught Stealing “PlayStation And Nintendo” Console Deliveries

A USPS supervisor in Middletown, Connecticut has been sentenced to nine months of “home confinement” and a $20,000 fineafter being caught stealing items like iPhones and “PlayStation and Nintendo gaming devices”. Via Polygon, 34 year-old Zoheb Deura, who has since resigned from the US Postal Service, was caught following an investigation by the U.S. Postal…

Fans Finally Crack Made-Up Assassin’s Creed Language

Assassin’s Creed is a neverending series of mysteries and puzzles, the most enduring of which is the Isu language. While it was first introduced in 2009’s Assassin’s Creed II, it wasn’t until last year’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla provided substantial clues that fans were finally able to crack the dead tongue. In a video released on…

CD Projekt Red Apologizes For Cyberpunk 2077 Bugs, Says It’s Avoiding Crunch On ‘All Future Projects’

In a video on Twitter and a Q&A posted on the company’s website, CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński apologized for the state Cyberpunk 2077 launched in on consoles, shared a road map for updates to the game coming in the future, and said the studio would deliver these fixes “without any obligatory overtime.” Here’s…

Hogwarts Legacy Delayed To 2022

WB Games’ upcoming open-world Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy has been pushed back to 2022. It was originally scheduled to arrive on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC sometime this year. “Creating the best possible experience for all of the Wizarding World and gaming fans is paramount to us, so…

Katy Perry Teams With Pokémon For Some Sort Of 25th Anniversary Music Thing

Announced this morning by The Pokémon Company, popstar, American Idol judge, and new mom Katy Perry is headlining P25, a yearlong collaboration with Universal Music Group artists to produce … music of some sort? It’s vague. It’s not clear exactly what the P25 Music program entails. In the official announcement, The Pokémon Company calls it…

The Mega Man X-like 30XX is coming to Steam in Early Access on February 17, Batterystaple Games announced today. It’s got beautiful pixel graphics, chiptune-inspired tunes, and even a Maker Mode for players to design their own levels. 

Luigi’s New Ride Is Just A Penis

Today marks the start of mobile Mario Kart’s 35th tour, transporting players to Berlin, Germany, where Luigi dons knee-length leather shorts and rides about town in a wheeled phallus brandishing a fork-skewered sausage. As the son of a German orphan, I don’t know whether to be offended by Mario Kart Tour’s sausage fest or whether…

Ubisoft Massive Is Making An Open World Star Wars Game

Ubisoft is partnering with the the newly launched Lucasfilm Games to make an open world game based in the Star Wars universe, Wired reports. This apparently signals the end of EA’s previous exclusivity deal regarding the development of Star Wars video games. Ubisoft Massive, the studio behind The Division, will be leading development on the…