Culture

Even Lapsed Overwatch Players Love Pharah’s New Lifeguard Skin

It’s summer. Per tradition, this means that the Overwatch team must give somebody abs, or face dire consequences. So Pharah is a lifeguard now. Cue the entire internet dramatically leaping into the ocean and pretending to drown in hopes that somebody—nobody specific, of course—might come save them. It would be an understatement to say that…

How’s It Going?: Lost Edition

It’s a very rainy Tuesday! Welcome back to our daily open thread. I stayed up far too late last night looking for a document from my past that I don’t think I have anymore but I know I wouldn’t have purposefully thrown away. I could clearly picture it folded up and shoved into some book,…

Snowman’s incredibly chill snow/sandboarding games, Alto’s Adventure and Alto’s Oddysey, are coming to consoles and PC. The two games are combined into one as The Alto Collection, launching August 13 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC via the Epic Game Store, with a Switch version coming at a later date.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Adds Cloud Gaming September 15

As announced in July, Microsoft’s Project xCloud game streaming service is becoming part of the $15-a-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription service on September 15, allowing users to stream more than 100 Xbox games to their Android phones and tablets. In a pair of posts on Xbox Wire, Microsoft details the games subscribers can play…

Sushi Used To Be Much Larger In The Past

During the Edo Period (1603-1868) of Japan, sushi was between two and four times larger than it is today. But why? One of the biggest reasons is that Edo (present-day Tokyo), where sushi was invented, was a metropolis from which large numbers of people were passing in and out. They needed food they could take…

Track: Labyrinth | Artist: Mondo Grosso | Album: Labyrinth – EP

‘Tis But A Flesh Wound

Viko Menezes is an artist from Brazil who has done work for companies like Valve, Wizards of the Coast and Fantasy Flight. You can see more of Viko’s stuff at his personal site and ArtStation page

This 1990 TV News Report Is For The Monkey Island Fans In The House

Amateur games historian Eon Fafnir posted a clip of this 1990 local news story about LucasArts (then still known as LucasFilm Games) yesterday, and while it’s fascinating getting a look behind the scenes of the studio during some its golden years, Monkey Island fans can squint and see some stuff that never made the finished…

Overwatch Cosplay Lights Up The Darkness

Cosplayer Zibartas—who we’ve seen here before with some top-tier Overwatch work—has truly outdone himself here, building a complete set of Mercy’s wings made out of steel and aluminium, that move and really light up. Here’s the finished product: God damn If you’d like to see how something like this was put together, Zibartas has made…

Super Mario 64 Took 622 Days To Develop, Suggests ‘Gigaleak’ Document

Super Mario 64 is arguably one of the best games of all time, not only due to how fun it is but also because of the technological leap it represented for the platforming genre. According to a document included in the recent “Gigaleak,” however, this monumental project took less than two years of actual development.…

Let’s Talk Fields Of Glory, A Forgotten RTS Pioneer

When people hail the pioneering classics of the RTS genre, they go through a list of usual suspects. Games like Cytron Masters, Dune II, Command & Conquer, Sega’s Herzog Zwei…but there’s one I don’t think ever gets its due, and that’s Spectrum Holobyte’s Fields of Glory Released on the PC in 1993, and designed by…

Call Of Duty Is Finally Blowing The Top Off The Warzone Stadium

Warzone’s stadium explosion was officially revealed with today’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare trailer. The teased eventwill finally come to fruition with Season 5, which kicks off on August 5 across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Call of Duty’s Warzone makes a great companion to Modern Warfare’s standard multiplayer, but the battle royale map…

Jumpstart‘s The Only Way I Wanna Play Magic: The Gathering Arena

Magic: The Gathering’s new format Jumpstart is the only way I want to play Magic for the rest of my life. I love playing Magic, both paper and online with Arena. I love opening new cards. I love the art. I love beating dudes who are much better than me, like I did this weekend…

Ghost Of Tsushima Could Really, Really Use A Loadout Feature

Ghost of Tsushima almost has it all. It’s freakin’ beautiful. The quests and characters are endlessly entertaining. The combat’s a blast—a deft blend of skill mastery and power fantasy. You can even pet foxes (aww). But there’s one big quality-of-life feature missing from this action-packed, samurai-themed masterpiece: loadouts. When playing Ghost of Tsushima, you’ll find…

Analogue Pocket Preorders Sell Out Immediately, Leaving Many Disappointed

I woke up early today to make sure I could snag an Analogue Pocket when preorders for the long-awaited handheld went live at 8 a.m. PST. Eight minutes past 8, Analogue’s online shop informed me it had completely sold out. I didn’t even get to enter payment information, and I clearly wasn’t the only one…

Spider-Man Will Be A PlayStation Exclusive Character For Marvel’s Avengers, Reminding Us All How Much Console-Exclusive DLC Sucks

In a move already being roundly criticized on social media, Crystal Dynamics’ Jeff Adams revealed today that Spider-Man will be available as a free update for PlayStation players of this September’s Marvel’s Avengers game in “early 2021.” PC and Xbox One players, apparently, won’t get to play as him. Adams announced the move in a…

How’s It Going?: Home Repair Edition

It’s Monday yet again. Welcome back to our daily open thread. I’m having a bit of a fruit fly problem in my apartment, which is annoying. I just made a bootleg trap out of apple cider vinegar and some plastic wrap, which is proving impressively efficient, if not a little gross. One of the consequences…

Transformers Are Coming To World Of Warships For Some Reason

Popular free-to-play naval warfare MMO World of Warshipshas Transformers in it now. Not robots that transform into warships, mind you, but rather warships piloted by Autobots Optimus Prime and Bumblebee and the Decepticons Megatron and Rumble. Weird. There are Transformers that change from robots to actual warships. Tidal Wave from Transformers Armada immediately comes to…

PS4 Controllers Won’t Work With PS5 Games

In a post on the PlayStation Blog this morning, Sony detailed which PlayStation 4 controllers and accessories will work with the PlayStation 5. Specialty controllers like steering wheels, Sony wireless headsets, and PlayStation Move controllers will work just fine. The PS4’s DualShock 4, however, will only work with supported PS4 games. The good news is…

The Week In Games: Fall Guys Horizons

We’re in a bit of the summer doldrums for big games, but there’s still plenty to get excited about. Fall Guys comes to PS4 and PC this week. There’s a Fast & Furious game. And Horizon Zero Dawn makes its PC debut. Tuesday, August 4 Pixelbot Extreme | PS4 Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout | PC,…