Steven Universe cosplay by Punky Bruiser. Photo by KG Photography

2016’s Most Searched Video Games, According To Google

Google has released its annual collection of top search results for the year, and as always there’s some good video game shit to dig through. Like the fact Pokemon Go was the #1 search topic in the world for the year. And that many of you like to follow up your Overwatch Googling with something…

League Of Legends Cosplay From All Corners Of The Globe

League of Legends’ Elementalist Lux has ten different forms. So of course there are now different cosplayers dressed as each one. The shots were put together by Riot, and feature cosplayers from all over the world, from China to Turkey to Australia to Costa Rica. You can see the full gallery of all ten forms…

Modder Gives Counter-Strike‘s Most Popular Maps A Holiday Makeover

Counter-Strike might have Christmas chickens, but it’s severely lacking in Christmas maps. Enter a selection of phenomenal modded maps by BadtRIP Thanks to their handiwork, you can now play festive versions of Train, Inferno, Mirage, Overpass, Cobblestone, and Dust2. Changes are wholly cosmetic and include snow, lights, sleighs, and even Christmas trees. The weather outside…

Ex-Crytek Artist Looks To Sue Over Unpaid Salary

A former Crytek artist wants to sue the company for not paying its staff—and he’s crowdfunding a lawyer to make it happen. Ludvig Lindqvist, an FX artist who worked at Crytek’s main studio in Frankfurt, Germany, launched a GoFundMe campaign today in hopes of paying his legal fees against the studio. Crytek, he says, has…

Twitch’s AutoMod Is Already A Game-Changer, Streamers Say

Twitch’s crusade against garbage live chats saw a victory on Monday. The streaming platform released an automated moderation feature called AutoMod that is already, some streamers say, a game-changer. AutoMod filters toxicity and slurs from Twitch chat for human moderators to sift through and judge. It automatically flags any messages that may be considered hate…

Pro Wrestler Tweet Gets People Talking About ‘Black Excellence’ 

Last night, the pro wrestler Big E tweeted a picture of himself, Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston, Sasha Banks and Rich Swann holding their respective WWE championship belts with the caption, “#BlackExcellence.” While wrestling is staged, having this many black champions at once is still an accomplishment, and marking the occasion with a photo is appropriate.…

The State Of The PlayStation 4 In 2016

The PlayStation 4 evolved this year. Sony’s flagship console got a little bigger and a little more powerful, though its potential is as yet undertapped. It also got its very own VR headset, though that headset noticeably fails to match its PC counterparts. It’s not clear whether Sony has moved their gaming system in all…

The Overwatch Fandom Is Horny For Widowmaker’s New Highlight Animation

Overwatch’s holiday event, Winter Wonderland, started yesterday, and with it came new character skins and emotes. Widowmaker’s addition is a highlight intro in which she holds mistletoe over her head, then punches the viewer in the throat and steps on them. The fandom is having a moment with this. Widowmaker is a character based around…

Lost Odyssey Is Free On Xbox Right Now

If you like free video games, and you want to play a killer RPG that’s worth playing if only for the fantastic short stories that come packaged in interludes throughout the game, go get Lost Odyssey for free on Xbox One and/or Xbox 360 right now. It’ll be free until December 31.

Slice Robots Into Tiny Bits In Clone Drone In The Danger Zone

Clone Drone In The Danger Zone is a chaotic arena slice-a-thon made by Doborog Games. Players face an unceasing flow of dangerous robots and fight to survive for as long as possible. It is this week’s Cool Indie Game. The gameplay in Clone Drone is simple. You’ll be tasked with defeating enemy robots in increasingly…

Overwatch‘s Holiday Brawl Is A Bit Of A Letdown

Overwatch’s seasonal brawls, the sporty Lucio Ball and PVE-centric Junkenstein’s Revenge, have been almost universally beloved, taking the game in directions nobody saw coming. Comparatively, the latest one, Mei’s Snowball Offensive, is kind of a buzzkill. A snowball fight was, of course, a natural pick for this season’s brawl, but Mei’s is not all that…

Final Fantasy XV‘s Trailers Gave Away Way Too Much

At E3 earlier this year, I asked Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata if he was worried that Square Enix had showed too much of the game. There had been two different demos and tons of footage, I pointed out, which was leading fans to worry that there were few surprises left. Here’s what he…

Old Arcade Machines On The Factory Floor

Every dusty old arcade cabinet sitting in the corner of a pub or rotting in a warehouse somewhere was once shiny and brand new, assembled by workers on factory floors just like these. The Arcade Blogger has compiled a collection of old photos and videos of these production runs, showing how companies like Nintendo, Atari…

Forza Horizon 3‘s Snow Driving Is Almost Too Real

During my first ten minutes in Forza Horizon 3‘s wintry Blizzard Mountain expansion pack, I found myself in a snowstorm so thick I pulled over to wait it out. It was only a few seconds before I remembered that I was an immortal super driver with an army of tree-devouring vehicles at my command, but…

Dishonored 2’s New Game Plus Lets Players Combine Corvo And Emily’s Abilities

Dishonored 2 is adding a New Game Plus Mode as part of its latest free game update. The mode won’t just let you play a new game with your old powers. It will let you play with every power there is. Game Update 1 is the first of two major free updates. It releases today…

Four Years Later, The Wii U Hasn’t Gotten Any Big Price Drops

The Wii U is in an odd spot. It never found the audience Nintendo was hoping for, and after two or three years it was already being phased out in favor of the Switch. Despite that, it’s yet to receive a significant price drop, even as the more-successful PlayStation 4 and Xbox One take detours…