Independent Games Festival 2019 Finalists Announced, Return Of The Obra Dinn Leads The Pack

The Independent Games Festival, known as the IGF, has announced its finalists for 2019’s awards show, which will be held at the Game Developers’ Conference on March 20. Sweeping the nominations this year is piratical murder-mystery-and-insurance-inspection adventure game, Return of the Obra Dinn, the newest game from Papers Please developer, Lucas Pope. With five nominations…

There’s A Massive Tiny House Community In The Sims 4

Tiny houses are, perhaps, one of the greatest/worst legacies of late capitalism. Forced into increasingly minuscule apartments because of housing prices and baby-boomer landlords trying to maximize their income, millennials are getting into house ownership the only way they can: by purchasing (and, sometimes, building) property that crams as much house into a tiny space…

You Should Play Do Not Feed The Monkeys

20th century sci-fi was so hopeful. By now, we should have flying cars, but instead we have Elon Musk. We should have robots that do all our chores, but instead we have a Russian guy pretending to be a robot. We should have stopped pollution, gone to Mars, reversed climate change. Instead, we have… none…

Yakuza 0 Is Really Cheap On PC Right Now

If your New Year’s resolution was to continue building your unplayed pile of shame to unsustainable heights, then you’ll be delighted to know that the first Humble Monthly bundle of 2019 features two excellent games for $12: Yakuza 0 and Tom Clancy’s The Division. Play The Division if you like—although it’s only two more months…

Warner Bros. Pulls LEGO Lord of the Rings Games From Steam, Doesn’t Say Why

Bad news for fans of LEGO, Lord of the Rings, and buying things: Warner Bros. has taken The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit away from us—possibly forever. The saga seemingly began when the two games were free on the Humble Store last month, sparking debate over whether new games were on the horizon—or…

This Week in the Business: Out of Business

QUOTE | “I’m so proud of the team and what it looks like—diversity attracts diversity.” – Bonnie Ross, head of Halo developer 343 Industries and corporate VP at Microsoft, says she wants more diversity both in the games the industry makes and in the people who make them QUOTE | “I predict no next-gen PlayStation…

Overwatch Team Says Player Questioned About Identity Was Impostor After All [UPDATE]

Earlier this week, a player going by the handle Ellie—no first or last name provided—departed Overwatch Contenders team Second Wind after facing harassment and doxxing threats surrounding their identity. This evening, rumors circulated that they may have been an impostor after all. Now their former team has confirmed as much. In a TwitLonger post, Second…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for going to Norway, to live out my bizarre lifelong dream of turning a birthday in the Arctic Circle. My boss dubbed it “a real-life The Long Dark,” which is pretty on-brand for a Riley dream. I will be unable to play very much The Long Dark before I leave, but I…

Twitch Re-Suspends Alleged Domestic Abuser After Fan Outcry

Last month, Twitch streamer Luke “MrDeadMoth” Munday was arrested by Australian authorities after a Fortnite stream during which he seemed to be hitting his partner. Twitch suspended his account shortly after. At the start of this week, however, Twitch viewers were surprised to find that Munday’s channel was already back. His suspension, which some presumed…

Wolf Is One Of Competitive Smash Ultimate‘s Most Popular Fighters So Far

Some of the winter’s biggest esports tournaments are still a ways off, but Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which ended 2018 on a Donkey Kong smackdown, begins 2019 strong with a handful more events taking place across the globe this weekend. Last weekend, I noted that the still-evolving meta around Smash Ultimate meant the Let’s Make…

In case you missed it (we forgive you), Tim and I streamed the Japanese version of Dragon Quest Builders 2! Follow us on Twitch to join us live next time.

HQ Trivia Doesn’t Always Pay Players Their Winnings And Won’t Say Why

For months, players in HQ Trivia, a trivia app that offers cash prizes, say they have been having issues getting their money. HQ Trivia is basically Bar Trivia: The App. Twice a day, every day, there’s a live trivia show, hosted on the app, that has a pool of cash that goes out to the…

How I Killed My Switch Charger

It was 11:54 p.m. on New Year’s Eve when people started screaming at me to put the big ball drop in Time Square on my TV. It’s sort of the “you had one job” of throwing a New Year’s party, and I had completely forgotten about it. Many gin and tonics deep, I made my…

Nintendo Officially Shoots Down Bowsette

Here’s the first heartbreak of 2019: Nintendo has officially made Bowsette non-canon. Last year, Nintendo announced that the Switch version of Super Mario Bros. U would feature a new item, the Super Crown, that turns Toadette into a Princess Peach-esque character called Peachette. Fans ran wild with this idea, imagining it on other Mario characters.…

Welcome To Apocalypseburg Is The Biggest Lego Movie Set Yet

The first Lego Movie introduced us to Bricksburg, an idyllic cityscape where everything was awesome. Arriving on January 16 ahead of next month’s sequel, the $300, 3,178 piece “Welcome to Apocalypseburg” set is awesome in a darker, grittier sort of way. Lady Liberty, or her shattered remains, serves as the centerpiece to the most impressive…