Steam Machines Can Support Up To 16 Players In The Same Room

The Steam Machine’s controller – and that’s a prototype shot of its new design up top – isn’t designed to be a loner. Indeed, if developers want to push the limits, it’ll be part of a multiplayer experience not seen in almost a decade. Flying in the face of a rush towards online multiplayer, people…

Forklift Balancer Is More Fun Than Shenmue

This is Forklift Balancer. It’s a game on – wait for it – Geocities. And I’ll be damned if it’s not keeping me from working/eating today. All you’ve got to do is tip a forklift without actually spilling the contents. That’s it. But man, these controls, they’re smooth as butter. Forklift Balancer [Geocities, via @terrycavanagh]

Designing A Brand New Game Boy

Reader Justin wants to bring the Game Boy back. So he’s designed a brand new one. It’s not as rugged as its predecessors, but it sure is glassy Taking as many cues from modern phone design as portable games hardware, Justin’s design has a 5.3″ 1080p screen, two cameras, 16GB of flash memory, 4G connectivity,…

Loads Of Local Currencies Coming To Steam

The days of calculating exchange rates are coming to an end: over the next year Valve is looking to introduce a range of local currencies to its Steam marketplace, including tohse of Australia, Canada and Japan. Other nations listed on a slide smuggledout of the no-press Steam developers conferenceinclude the New Zealand Dollar and Mexican…

Think Of The Most Horrible Chip Flavors Imaginable

Last year Lay’s “Do Us A Flavor” contest awarded the wrong person a million dollars for suggesting potato chips that tastedvaguely like garlic bread. Now the contest returns, and we have a chance for redemption. Flavor showdowns. Wayne Brady singing about potato chip flavors. And most important, a place where your bizarre tastes can shine…

​The True Stories Behind Some Of Your Favorite Songs

Have you ever heard the story behind The Who’s “Tommy” or Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”? Did you know that Caroline of “Sweet Caroline” was actually a young Caroline Kennedy? Or that Michael Jackson wrote “Billie Jean” while (allegedly) driving a car that was on fire? This week on Mental Floss, the musical group…

Four-Person Super Metroid Speedrun May Consume Next Hour Of Your Life

Four people race through the Super Nintendo classic Super Metroid. Who wins? Also, how in the world do they do this stuff? The video above, uploaded by YouTuber Charles English, shows the four-person Super Metroid speedrun that went down last weekend as part of the Awesome Games Done Quick charity event. I started watching and…

Oh No, Square Enix, What Have You Done To Final Fantasy VI?

When we first saw screens of Final Fantasy VI on mobile, I was a little worried. The sprites looked faded, as if they’d been accidentally thrown in a washing machine, and like the FFV port before it, the game had an amateur, RPG Makerish feel. But who knew it would get this bad? Today Square…

​A Game That’s Basically All Of The Games At Once

Have you ever wanted to play a game that quickly switches from Mario-style platformer to Ninja Gaiden-style fighting/platformer to Pac-Man-style dot eating to Final Fantasy-style turn-based combat? If so, the upcoming PC game Concursion may be the thing for you. I like the idea here, as developer Puuba Games seems to be saying, “Hey, we…

Psst: Buzzfeed finds that Whisper, an app where users can post all sorts of confessions, has a ton of women who are unhappy with how much they boyfriends ignore them because of gaming. Uh oh!

​Seriously, Why Doesn’t Gandalf Call In The Eagles All The Time

There’s a lot to like in the latest video from How It Should Have Ended, which tackles The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. But the best bit is at the very start, since it re-raises a question that’s been lingering for a while now. Why doesn’t Gandalf call in the eagles all the time? I…

Cat Has Developed The Perfect Chess Game

Watching a true chess Grandmaster at work is a thing of beauty — masters like Bobby Fisher, Garry Kasparov, Deep Blue. And now, Simba the Cat enters their hallowed ranks. See how he approaches the game with grace, how he contemplates his moves with careful consideration! Marvel at his unorthodox play style. Truly we are…

Sales Stink: it’s easy to think that sales are good for players, but what if they’re not? What if waiting for sales affected the way players feel about purchases and actually lessened the amount of money devs make? The Castle Doctrine’s Jason Rohrer explores these questions ina fascinating write-up here.

Grand Theft Auto Online will be down for maintenance beginning tonight at 9 p.m. EST. Rockstar Games says it will return “within 24 hours” after then.