Tetsuya Nomura’s Character Designs For Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Were 20 Years In The Making

Last month, fans following the development of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 spotted something strange. Tetsuya Nomura, Square Enix artist and director of Kingdom Hearts III, was being listed in the game’s credits. It turned out that the creator of some of Final Fantasy’s most iconic characters was designing Xenoblade Chronicles 2‘s Torna organization, a mysterious group…

We’re locked and loaded with frying pan in hand as we try to win a few rounds of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds right now on Twitch

The Weekend In Esports: ESL One Cologne, Dota 2, And ARMS

Evo 2017 hasn’t even started, DreamHack Atlanta is weeks away, and Dota 2‘s TI7 is next month, and yet this post-4th of July weekend is still packed. North America’s Cloud9 have done the unthinkable and won a spot in the ESL One Cologne grand finals, a premier, $250,000 Counter-Strike tournament that’s usually dominated by European…

This 8-Hour Run Of Final Fantasy VII Is A Masterwork Of Planning

Most runs at Games Done Quick events fall in the one to three-hour range. Last night, Final Fantasy speedrunner “Ajneb174,” or Ben, put on an almost eight-hour speedrun of Final Fantasy VII, an endurance run of memorization, routing and insane game knowledge. Joined on the couch by fellow Final Fantasy runners Davesterio and J2_JATWo, the…

Looking Back On A 2013 Tournament Featuring Tekken‘s Bowling Mini-Game

When Tekken Tag Tournament came out in 2000, the game included a bowling mini-game called Tekken Bowl that became a cult favorite among Tekken players. Unlike Tekken, the bowling mini-game isn’t deep or complicated. You just choose a Tekken character and aim your bowling ball down the lane. But it’s still a competitive game… albeit…

This Week In The Business: Tear Down That Rocket League Wall 

QUOTE | “It is inevitable. How long [until] inevitable actually becomes reality, I don’t know. But we think we are getting there. The key is for the community to really get behind the idea.” – Psyonix VP of publishing Jeremy Dunham is confident that Sony will follow Microsoft and Nintendo in allowing cross-platform play for…

The UFC Needs To Figure Out Life After Ronda Rousey

After two nasty losses and more than a year out of the spotlight, Ronda Rousey has likely retired from UFC. Once upon a time, this would have been a death knell for women’s MMA in the UFC, but now the UFC’s got an amazing crop of talent ready to get on with the show. Unfortunately,…

Top Minecraft YouTuber Quits Channel Because He Doesn’t Want To Be A “Fake Piece of Shit”

Over the last six years, Adam ‘SkyDoesMinecraft’ Dahlberg made a name for himself through Minecraft videos, amassing 11 million subscribers on YouTube. He’s now done with it and is retiring from making Minecraft videos. In two notably different videos, one kid-friendly and one not, he said he no longer enjoys the game, has become disaffected…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for packing to move into a new house! So probably not video games. But probably actually video games, because packing is boring. I spent all my money in The Witcher 3‘s Blood and Wine expansion on Geralt’s house, which is pretty similar to my current real-life situation. So I need to grind…

Final Fantasy XII’s New Fast-Forward Feature Is A Godsend

After several hours playing Square Enix’s new Final Fantasy XII remaster, I can confidently say I like it. I can just as confidently say that I like it a lot more because I can fast-forward through it. The remaster’s full title is Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age. It’s out on PS4 on July 11,…

GTA Online’s New Battlegrounds-Style Mode Is A Lot of Fun

With GTA Online’s July update,Rockstar has added a new mode that seems partially inspired by Battlegrounds, some new (and REALLY expensive) skins, and a super car. In the new game mode, Dawn Raid, players are split into two teams who have to track down a supply crate and deliver it to a capture point. Like…

Nobody Can Find The Source Code For Icewind Dale II

The people who make enhanced editions of old role-playing games like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment want to do the same thing for Icewind Dale II. There’s just one problem: nobody knows where to find the code. Beamdog, a Canadian publisher best known for releasing snazzy new versions of old Infinity Engine RPGs like the…

Small Change Impacts How Players Approach Cars In Battlegrounds

Entering a town is a defining moment in any Battlegrounds match. In open fields, you’re safe. You can see for miles, and shots are difficult to track over long distances. Enter a village or town, it’s different. Sixty alive. A car sits vacant in the street. Any other day a gamble, but today, it’s facing…

Speedrunner Beats All Of Link To The Past‘s Dungeons Without A Sword

The highlight of this week’s Summer Games Done Quick marathon happened very early this morning, as the charismatic speedrunner Andy broke the hell out of Link to the Past, beating the whole game without using a sword. The run lasts around an hour and 20 minutes and is mostly a showcase for glitches, boundary breaks,…

The Sims 4 Community Is Fighting About Laundry

The Sims 4 has a hard time pleasing its fandom. Whether it’s launching without pools or waiting nearly two years for toddlers, Sims fans often feel like the team isn’t listening to them. Now, The Sims team has left a Stuff Pack up for a community vote. Guess what? Sims fans are still pissed about…

Some Early Thoughts On Overwatch‘s Doomfist: Fun, Fresh, Flawed

Yesterday, Overwatch’s roster finally welcomedthe gauntlet-wearing supervillain Doomfist. And the question on everybody’s minds is, Was he worth the wait? After a few hours experimenting with him on Overwatch’s public test region, it’s hard to tell how Doomfist will fit into the larger cast. Doomfist is a offense hero whose cybernetic gauntlet deals targeted, up-close…

What We Loved (And Didn’t Love) About Baby Driver

Do you like good music and cool car chases? If so, you will probably find something to like in Baby Driver, Edgar Wright’s new spring-loaded rock ‘n roll heist flick. My colleague Gita Jackson and I handbrake-spun into theaters after the movie came out last week, and decided we’d sit down afterward and talk about…

A New Game That Captures The Cringe Of Middle School Romance

In developer Nina Freeman’s newest game, Lost Memories Dot Net, you play as a 14-year-old girl building her own blog while navigating the social drama wasteland that was middle school in the year 2004. Originally commissioned for the Manchester International Festival, you “play a role based on the young Freeman.” The game centers on a…

Top Pro Dominates Tournament With Street Fighter V’s Newest Character

Justin Wong is one of the greatest fighting game players of all time, and he proved that yet again by using a brand new character for the entirety of a Street Fighter V tournament in Canada this past weekend. Whileopinions have been mixed concerning Ed, who was introduced to the Street Fighter V roster on…