Bloxels Lets You Make Video Games With Colorful Plastic Cubes

My children used to love playing with colorful plastic blocks. Then they discovered iPad entertainment, and there was no going back. Or is there? Bloxels from Pixel Press is a clever learning toy that lets children build their own video games and characters, one block at a time. Bloxels marries the touchscreen magic that the…

The Video Game Horror Of HBO’s Westworld

HBO’s new series Westworld has probably got a lot of people reconsidering their most recent Grand Theft Auto V murder spree. Reconsidering, though probably not regretting. On the one hand, the first two episodes of HBO’s new sci-fi drama have asked us to at least entertain the idea that the computer-controlled civilians we just mowed…

Counter-Strike Pro Gets Best Play Tattooed On His Own Body

Over the summer, Olkesandr ‘S1mple’ Kostyliev pulled off one of the most awe-inspiring pro Counter-Strike plays in recent memory. Now that play lives on in the hearts and minds of millions. And also in the level where it happened. And also on S1mple’s arm. Here’s the play: While falling from a platform on de_Cache, S1mple pulled…

Hello There

Chun Lo is an artist based in Florida who has worked for companies like Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight. You can see more of Chun’s art here and here To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of…

9000 Fans Mourn Pro Gamer In Live Twitch Funeral

Around 9000 fans of Phillip “Phizzurp” Klemenov, a professional Call of Duty player and streamer killed in a car accident last week, have gathered on Twitch to watch his funeral live and pay their respects. Set up on Phizzurp’s own Twitch channel, a camera streamed almost the entire funeral so that friends and fans unable…

An Important Part Of Video Games Happens Offscreen, In Our Imaginations

In 2008, Dear Esther asked players to do more than just press buttons on a controller. The game asked them to use their imagination to build a personal narrative. Eight years later, contemporary titles like Hitman and Mafia III are also catching on to the value of imaginative play. I don’t think the entire experience…

The Hypest Moments From The Weekend’s Big Smash Tournament

Smash tournaments aren’t all about the game. A lot of the Smash hype, especially in the 15-year-old Melee scene, comes from the personalities players bring to the game. At last last weekend’s The Big House 6 tourney in Michigan, personality was there in droves. We clipped some of the hypest moments from the tournament below.…

Unexpectedly, PS4 Tomb Raider Shows The Limits Of What PSVR Can Track

A surprise feature buried in the new PlayStation 4 version of Rise of the Tomb Raider appears to show just how much of your real-life playing area can be tracked by Sony’s new PS VR set-up. An option called “Visualize Play Area” makes the game’s VR-compatible Blood Ties expansion display green grid lines if the…

Skyrim Special Edition PC Requirements Are Much More Demanding

The remastered version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has gone gold in advance of its October 28 release, and Bethesda has released the recommended PC specs for running the prettier version of the 2011 RPG. As anyone who’s played around with mods for Skyrim on PC knows, the set of requirements for the 2011…

Why The Super Mario Bros. World Record Has Been Broken So Many Times Recently

As late as 2013, the record for finishing Super Mario Bros. was held by andrewg1990 at 4:58. In April of this year, it was 4:57.427, and held by Darbian. Last weekendthe record was tied by Kosmic at 4:57.244. He then broke it with a new time of 4:57.194. But only a few days later, Darbian…

Rise of The Tomb Raider‘s New ‘Blood Ties’ Expansion Is A Brief, Melancholy Family Story 

The part of 2015 Xbox One game Rise of the Tomb Raider that will be new to all gamers this week is Blood Ties, an expansion being bundled with Tuesday’s PS4 release of the game and being offered as paid $10 DLC (or part of the season pass) for Xbox One and PC. It’s mostly…

World of Final Fantasy Graphics Comparison, PS4 Vs Vita

World of Final Fantasy arrives later this month, bringing piles of pint-sized creatures to two different PlayStation platforms. Square Enix has put together a pair of videos showing off differences in graphics and loading times between the PS4 and Vita versions of the game. With cross-save support and the promise of hours of tinkering with…

Mini Gaming PCs Are Ready For Virtual Reality

With recent advances from both AMD and Nvidia bringing mobile graphics processors within a breath of desktop power levels, PCs that make use of laptop tech to be tiny are more powerful than ever. I’m currently playing with Zotac’s GTX 1060-powered Magnus Zbox, and it’s handling VR like a champ. Zotac launched the original mini…

Dragon Ball Super Gets Another New Form 

Dragon Ball Super is getting super good and super bonkers. Case in point? The most recent episode. Note: This article contains spoilers. The latest episode did reveal that Black Goku is really Zamasu, while the other Zamasu is from a different timeline. While this episode has a fight that is totally insane, for Trunks fans,…

Your Fall 2016 Anime Guide [Update]

The leaves are changing colors and the weather is cooling down. You can smell it in the air. It’s fall. And you know what the means? New anime. This month a slew of new shows are debuting. Here’s a massive list of what is coming out so you can figure out what you want to…

Dragon Ball‘s Goku Voice Actress Makes It Look So Easy 

It will never cease being amazing to see Masako Nozawa do the original Japanese voices of Goku, Gohan, and Goten.  The 79-year-old began voicing Goku when the Dragon Ball anime started in 1986 and has been involved with the franchise ever since then, voicing a whole host of characters throughout the different series. She’s also…

I don’t like the direction this series is taking…