How Valve Hires, And Fires, Its Employees

There’s no company quite like Valve. Super successful and with an organisation some would call crazy, there’s also no company quite as interesting. So hearing about how Valve hires, and fires people, is far more educational than it would be for just about any other video game company. Writing on Gamasutra, the company’s economist Yanis…

Yup, Patton Oswalt Is Pretty Cool

Feels like everywhere I turn these days, I see Patton Oswalt. He’s on Portlandia, he’s killing it on Justified. He has a role in the hotly-anticipated-by-me game Metro Last Light I like the guy a lot, and so I enjoyed this short documentary “To Be Loved & Understood,” which was released today by The Thrash…

More Games Should Release Their Multiplayer As A Standalone, Like This Indie Game

The Banner Saga—that beautiful strategy game made by ex-Bioware devs—is releasing sometime later this year. But you can play the multiplayer segment of the game right now, if you want. It’s out on Steam, on its own—for free, to boot. Check out the launch trailer above. I’m a big fan of this move. In fact,…

Fire Emblem: Awakening Has One Hell Of A Grand Finale

The grand finale of Fire Emblem: Awakening made me feel things. Emotional things. In fact, it made me feel so many things it kinda knocked me out. This was unexpected. It took me about 27 hours to complete the game. If, about halfway through, you had told me that the ending was going to make…

Bond Takes All Comers In A Real-Life Reenactment Of The N64 GoldenEye

I always figured I’d be pretty crap if I had to survive in a real-life version of GoldenEye. I was pretty solid at the N64 game back in the day (or at least, I think I was), but give me an actual Klobb and set me loose, and I’d be done for. In honor of…

It’s That Goofy Tow Truck From Cars, Destroying Liberty City

I have to say, while I enjoyed watching Woody from Toy Story wreaking havoc in Liberty City, I didn’t really think I’d like watching Mater from Cars do the same. Come to think of it, I think I figured my relative enjoyment would be about on par with the difference between my enjoyment of Toy…

Sony Asked Ubisoft What They Wanted From PS4. Ubisoft Said Make It More Like PCs And Phones.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot likes the PlayStation 4. Otherwise he wouldn’t have showed up at Sony’s big PlayStation 4 event last week, right? He likes the PS4 in part because it’s, well, a little less like a console and a little more like some of those other machines you might play games on: the computer…

If This Isn’t One Of The Most Absurd Classes In An RPG, It’s Certainly Up There

So, there’s new Fire Emblem: Awakening DLC. With it, comes new maps and characters. One of these characters comes with a special item that can transform other characters into a special class. The bride class. I’m serious. Watch the trailer above if you’d like to get a quick glimpse. Curious about the class, I ended…

Natural Selection 2 is getting some free new DLC on February 28. That’s right: free DLC.

This Swordsmith Forged Adventure Time’s Iconic Sword. Then, He Cut Stuff With it.

If you’ve ever watched Adventure Time, or if you’ve played Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage?!, then you’ve probably seen Finn’s awesome sword, Scarlet. Here’s Man At Arm‘s Tony Swatton forging the sword in real life—scratches, dents, golden color and all. Neat. …I want one. For harmless adventuring, of course. Forging…

Minecraft‘s 1.5 “Redstone” update will be out in early March, says the game’s lead designer. More details here

A writer for The Walking Dead has teased ‘a little something extra’ to come in advance of the game’s second season.

The Best Celebrity Appearances in Video Games

Now that we had the Oscars last night, it is time to gather a list of games that enhanced their storytelling by featuring real-life actors, actresses and other celebrities—not just as voice actors, but sometimes even as the main characters. Chow Yun-fat as Inspector Tequila in Stranglehold Bruce Lee as himself in Dragon: The Bruce…

From Estonia to a Top NFL Draft Pick, with Help from Madden

You’ve got to figure there’s a screenplay somewhere in the story of Margus Hunt, from his native Estonia to a potential top-10 pick in the NFL draft. The best detail, according to SB Nation, is that the guy taught himself the basics of football by playing Madden NFL—including how many players are on each side.…

Pizza Hut Big Pizza Sliders: The Snacktaku Review

Only the juggernaut that is Pizza Hut would have the balls to spend millions of dollars on post-Super Bowl advertising to introduce the world to its version of the tiny pizzas they sell in the Wal-Mart freezer section for a dollar apiece. They aren’t bad, but your time to really enjoy them is quickly running…

The People Who Created Call of Duty Imply We’ll See Their Next Game At E3 [UPDATE]

Vince Zampella, one of the studio heads of Respawn Entertainment, says his team will “be” at E3 this year, presumably showing off whatever kind of game you make next after you make Call of Duty the biggest thing going. We scoff at most announcements of announcements, but this is a special one. After all, one…

Runner2, the sequel to the frustrating but awesome Bit.Trip Runner, drops tomorrow. Here’s a trailer.

Watch The Beginning Of DmC‘s Vergil’s Downfall DLC

Vergil’s Downfall, the first downloadable add-on for DmC: Devil May Cry, may not be out until March 5, but that didn’t stop some quick-moving European gamers from redeeming their codes early and documenting the entire expansion. Inferno has uploaded a playthrough of the entire DLC, if you’re inclined to watch. Or, you can watch the…

What Happens When A Comic Nerd Asks About the PS4’s Top-Secret Superhero Game

I knew I wasn’t going to get any real details about Infamous: Second Son out of Sucker Punch’s Nate Fox. But I’ve been a big fan of the open-world PS3 exclusives, especially because their take on superhero action makes great use of the tight thematic bond that a superhero has with his city. Lots of…

Finally, A Game For The Crazy Cat Lady In All Of Us

You’re on the internet, so you must love cats. It’s the law. Though, even if you don’t love cats with the obsessive fixation of a crazy cat lady, perhaps there’s still something for you in Team Meat’s upcoming Mew-Genics? I mean, it’s Pokemon meets Animal Crossing plus a pinch of Tamagotchi and a dash of…