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Tips & GuidesHow You Can Support Black Gamers
More than a week has passed since the brutal police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Rallies and protests have since ensued, rightfully, from coast-to-coast. And it’s not just Floyd. It’s Philando Castile and Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray and Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner (among many, many, many others). The deaths of black…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To Manage All 95,128 Side-Quests In Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
If you know anything about Xenoblade Chronicles, you know it’s 92.7 percent side-quest. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, the spiffed-up version out tomorrow for Nintendo Switch, is no different. There are enough side-quests in this role-playing game to put Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Fallout 4, and The Witcher 3 to shame. In fact, even if you’re the…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To Decipher Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition’s Ridiculously Cluttered Battle HUD
This ain’t Shulk’s first rodeo. Xenoblade Chronicles first came out for the Wii, and was then ported to the 3DS not long after. Now, on Friday, Monolith Soft’s beloved side-quest compilation lands on Switch as Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. It’s a prettier, fine-tuned version of one of the great role-playing games of a previous generation.…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To Have The Best Time Playing Super Mario Party
Mario Party games go poorly when tempers run hot. One minute, you’re about to finally (finally!) grab a star. The next, one of your so-called “friends” uses a Golden Pipe and snatches it from your grasp. Or maybe you’re stuck in a rut of poor mini-game performance. Coming dead last in a dozen mini-games in…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesAnimal Crossing: New Horizons’ International Museum Day Event Is Short But Not Sweet
International Museum Day is a triumph… at least during normal years. That’s when museums across the globe put on seminars, exhibits, and other creative events in line with a theme decided by the venerable International Council of Museums. Last year more than 50,000 institutions participated (theme: “Museums as Cultural Hubs”). Of course, 2020 is no…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To Keep Playing When Sun Glare Won’t Quit
Ever tried to play Control on a sunny day? Though Remedy Entertainment’s third-person shooter is a terrific game it’s also a dark one, both literally and thematically. Trying to gun down Hiss in full view of a sunny window is like trying to look at a solar eclipse without protective eyewear. It won’t work, you…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesWhen To Give Up And Try Again In A Game
Calling it quits is part of the human condition, but more often than not our natural impulse is to press forward in the face of insurmountable adversity. But, as anyone who’s lived in the real world for roughly 0.6 seconds can tell you, things don’t always work out. It especially doesn’t work out that way…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To Squeeze The Most Points Out Of Xbox Game Pass Quests
Xbox Game Pass, like many of the on-demand games it offers, has side-quests. It’s true: By accomplishing tasks relevant to Game Pass, you can earn real rewards. And just like in a real game, you can minimize the effort it takes to maximize your rewards. These Xbox Game Pass quests aren’t to be confused with…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHigh-End Fashion Designers Are Showing Off Their Couture In Animal Crossing: New Horizons
In an alternate universe, the Met Gala happened this week. The hottest and wealthiest people on the planet dressed up in the hottest and priciest clothes on the planet. Then, they descended upon New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they mingled and sipped champagne. It was a sea of leather lapels and unmistakable red…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s New Battle Grid Mode Makes The Game Worth Booting Up
On Monday, May 4, traditionally a Star Wars “holiday,” fans of the galaxy far, far away received some news: Disney+ added The Rise of Skywalker. Fans also received some good news: The Souls-like action game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order received a big, totally free update. Kotaku’s Ian Walker has the full breakdown, for those…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To Walk In Front Of The TV When Someone Else Is Gaming
The social contract, in its purest form, is simple: We agree to stay out of each other’s way as much as possible. That goes for riding the subway, shopping for groceries, and anything else that brings us within arm’s distance of another soul. But this goes doubly—nay, quadruply—when it comes to navigating a room where…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesYou Can Basically Clone Your Fallen Gears Tactics Troops
Gears Tactics, like many strategy games, has a permadeath feature. The three main characters—Gabe, Sid, and Mikayla—are classified as plot-essential Heroes. (Players who pre-ordered the game received a fourth Hero, Augustus “Cole Train” Cole, the popular franchise mainstay.) If any of them die, you get a game over and start fresh from the most recent…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesSome Tips For Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ May Day Maze
Historically, May Day is a holiday with deep-seated spiritual roots, but you may know it more from its modern reinvention as International Workers’ Day. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is lorded over by the most insidiously craven capitalist in animalkind, but Tom Nook is still using the occasion to let players earn some Bells by navigating…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To Make Short Work Of Gears Tactics’ Frustrating First Boss
Gears Tactics, the don’t-call-it-an-XCOM strategy game out this week for PC, flips the long-running Gears of War series on its head. Where mainline franchise entries are all about shooting big guns and having big biceps, this game offers headier fare. Surviving the lengthy turn-based battles calls for a little bit of patience, a lot of…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHere’s How To Exhibit Your Own Photos In Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Fine art is all the rage in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Last week, players of Nintendo’s adaptation of Animal Farm were introduced to an in-game art dealer (in the form of a somewhat fraudulent fox). And in the real world, museums are transforming art from their collections into New Horizons designs. But true connoisseurs know…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesYou Can Download Art From A Real Museum In Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Fact: Every Animal Crossing: New Horizons resident wants a killer art collection. Last week, Nintendo’s pastel capitalist vacation sim introduced its players to a new way to acquire great art: the scurrilous rube, Jolly Redd. This Fantastic Mr. Fox reject was added to New Horizons as part of a sweeping Earth Day update. A traveling…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To Protect Yourself From Unwanted Spoilers
Earlier this week, massive spoilers for Naughty Dog’s hotly anticipated The Last Of Us Part II made the rounds. In addition to ruining key parts of the game for patient fans, the apparent leak also kickstarted a wider discussion on social media about spoilers: Who do they benefit? Who do they hurt? And, really, what’s…
By Ari Notis
