Tropes vs. Men In Video Games

That fedora. So good. This satirical send-up of “Men’s Rights” activists (starring funny video-maker and Mega-64 collaborator Frank Howley) makes a number of valuable points about the gender divide in gaming. Also it’s hilarious. Worth noting: there are certainly valid critiques to be made about Anita Sarkeesian’s “Tropes vs. Women In Video Games” series—and Kotaku…

This Early Video Game Art is Charmingly Primitive

People will find ways to make art with whatever they have — even if all they have is a failed video game console. Enter Human Vectors, a 1980s video art piece unearthed by The New Museum as part of it’s XFR STNmedia conservation project. The piece was made by Dov Jacobson primarily with the Vectrex,…

MSI Debuts The World’s Thinnest, Lightest 17-Inch Gaming Laptop

Razer’s Blade Pro gets its first serious competition in the small form-factor gaming laptop category in the form of MSI’s GS70, a 17-inch gaming laptop that’s only .85 inches thick and weighs less than six pounds. My god. When hardware manufacturers begin battling over who can make the thinnest gaming systems, everybody wins. Not only…

The Most Popular PC at QuakeCon Belonged to This Guy

This past weekend in Dallas, Texas, a gamer known as Chris “Fukubear” stepped away from the PC he had hauled to the cavernous Bring Your Own Computer area of QuakeCon 2013. When he returned, his computer had transformed into a multi-colored display of human nature. Chris’ computer was parked almost directly at the entrance of…

Moneysaver: Xbox 360 E Console, Wii U Deluxe, 4K TV, COD Ghosts, Bond

15 seconds spent reading the Moneysaver could save you 15% or more on video games. Welcome, rather than preamble a specific deal today, we’re testing out a new Deal Leaderboard similar to Dealzmodo’s Top Deals section. I heartily recommend all the deals in that section, even more so than I heartily recommend the deals in…

This Is What Happens When A PC Elitist Joins Your Game

Not everyone that has the PC as a primary platform is a snob. Far from it! But those few that are, boy, can they be snooty about the PC’s strengths sometimes. That attitude is captured perfectly in this silly video by Hank and Jed, where a PC elitist joins a match in Battlefield 3. The…

Well, looks like I won’t be grocery-shopping with a bra on my head anytime soon: Michael Vick’s superhuman 2004 self was indeed named the quarterback of Madden’s “All-25” team, as I guaranteed in yesterday’s column. Vick is rated 90.

Assassin’s Creed Will Actually End One Day

Many of gaming’s biggest franchises have no endgame in mind—ask Nintendo when they’ll stop making Mario games, for example, and you’ll be laughed out of Kyoto. And the actual NFL is more likely to end before Madden ever does. Assassin’s Creed, though? The folks behind Ubisoft’s longrunning action/adventure series say it’ll end one day. They…

GLaDOS Actress and a Portal Gun Help Guy Adorably Propose to Boyfriend

People propose at fan conventions like PAX, Comic-Con or GenCon all the time. And, yes, many of these declarations of love involve costumes. But a very select few—maybe only one?— have the fan-favorite actress who gives voice to Portal series antagonist GLaDOS singing “Still Alive” along with a banjo. The cuteness here is off the…

Moneysaver: Discounted Playstation Plus Memberships and PS4 Pre-Orders

For Michael you. If you own a Playstation 3, or Vita, and don’t have Playstation Plus, you’re doin’ it wrong (do people still say that?). I love using visual aids in the Moneysaver, so just look at that image, the value is ridiculous. Today Best Buy is offering a rare discount on Plus memberships, and…

Taiwan Animators Come Up With Better Gamertags Than Xbox Live Trolls

Next Media Animation has made a good living offering allegorical reenactments of controversies—many of them in video gaming—and setting them to the sonorous tones of a Mandarin voice-over. I wasn’t expecting them to do something on Xbox Live’s new Enforcement United Project so soon, however. Well, hey, it’s Monday in Taiwan, too, I suppose. In…

Tips for Playing Pikmin 3

Pikmin 3 is good at many things. But it’s not so good at explaining the best parts of its control scheme or even how to have the most fun with Nintendo’s new game. Thank goodness we’re here to provide you some tips… Use The Wii Remote, Nunchuk and GamePad You can control Pikmin 3 purely…

Here’s what’s going on Talk Among Yourselves, our reader-written blog: SloopyDrew—who’s new to playing games with a keyboard-and-mouse set-up—wants help from WASD and right-click masters. JJtheTexan continues his catalog of long-lost Nintendo games with a look at Game Boy Color titles. And Cimeas has a great piece about open-world games, focusing on how Rockstar’s approach…

30 Minutes Of The Elder Scrolls Online And The Final Dishonored DLC

Last weekend’s QuakeCon was not only about tournaments and John Carmack. Bethesda Softworks and Arkane both showed new gameplay footages from their upcoming titles: The Elder Scrolls Online and Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches, which will be the final downloadable content for the game. You can check both presentations below. The Elder Scrolls Online During the…

Splinter Cell: Blacklist Won’t Feature Offline Co-Op Play on Wii U

While none can doubt Ubisoft’s commitment to publishing on the Wii U, that console’s version of Splinter Cell: Blacklist will lack a feature the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions all have: offline cooperative multiplayer. In an interview with Nintendo Life, producer Liu Jun of Ubisoft Shanghai said the feature was left out of Splinter…

Apple Rejected This Game To Keep You From Killing Your iPhone

Rejected by Apple for “encouraging behavior that could result in damage to the user’s device”, Carrot Pop’s Send Me To Heaven arrives on Google Play, because no one cares if your Android device shatters on the pavement. “Throw your phone as high as you can” reads the primary instruction on S.M.T.H., a free game that…

A Creepy-Looking New Game Set in the Days Before America Was America

You won’t quite be able to figure out what’s going on in this trailer for new horror/FPS Betrayer. But it’ll still make you feel queasy. Maybe it’s the ghosts flying at the camera in a stark, 17th-Century rural landscape. Or the muskets, crossbows and tomahawks promised on the game’s official site. But Betrayer—which PC Gamer…

I got news for ya, Pete.

Elise the old monkey grandma is finally leaving! (And Catbus fireworks)

Yes, those are Cat Bus fireworks you are seeing. They were real and they were spectacular. Elise finally asked to leave yesterday, which coincided awesomely with the fireworks show! I really shouldn’t be so happy about my neighbor leaving but she’s just so curmudgeonly and old.

QuakeCon 2013’s Most Epic Frags, Summarized In Five Minutes

The world’s best Quake players descended on QuakeCon 2013 this past weekend—guys like evil, Chance, Stermy and DaHaNG. This awesome highlight reel from Youtuber neoQLive showing them all fragging each other with the most precise shots you could imagine. QuakeCon 2013 had Quake Live tournaments for 4 days, so catching the best moments might be…