Hands-On With Monster Hunter Wilds, What Makes Avowed's Inventory So Great, And More Of The Week's Takes

Obsidian’s latest RPG, Avowed, is out now on Xbox and PC (for those who pre-ordered the expensive fancy version) and it’s a really good game! But one key thing I wanted to highlight is the RPG’s inventory and item management system because it’s really good and I want more games to copy it. - Zack Zwiezen Read More

Nintendo is currently the only console maker that makes you pay for a monthly subscription to access its classic games instead of letting you buy them a la carte. That needs to change with the Switch 2. - Ethan Gach Read More

I’ve been told for years by friends and colleagues that Monster Hunter is probably not for me. The dense, systems-heavy RPGs grind against my sensibilities. I don’t mind friction as a pillar of game design, but at a certain point, I find it makes games a chore to play. I recently got to play about five hours of Monster Hunter Wilds and I could see why some of my friends had nudged me away from Capcom’s long-running action RPG series in the past, but I also saw that there aren’t a lot of games that feel like Monster Hunter, and now I’m more curious about the series than ever. - Kenneth Shepard Read More

If you watched Sony’s February 12, 2025 State of Play showcase, you might have noticed that there are an awful lot of third-person, melee-based combat games on the horizon for PS5 (as well as Xbox and PC). Some are expected this year, while others are more likely to land in 2026. - Claire Jackson Read More

I never thought I’d become a lapsed Overwatch 2 player, but that’s what I’ve been lately. I barely touched season 14, and that lack of interest was the culmination of years of stagnation and broken promises finally pushing me away. Yeah, Marvel Rivals also showed up and took my time, but even if Overwatch’s most competent competitor in years hadn’t come out, I don’t know that I would have stuck with Blizzard’s hero shooter for much longer. And I don’t think I’ve been alone in feeling that way. For several seasons Blizzard has relied on expensive cosmetics and the occasional high-profile collaborations to hold players’ attention. The game is in desperate need of a change, lest the once-megalithic shooter find itself completely irrelevant in the volatile live-service market. After spending a few hours playing the new Stadium mode and messing around with the MOBA-like Perks system, I’m cautiously optimistic that Blizzard is finally getting the game on the right track. - Kenneth Shepard Read More

One of the funny things about being entrenched in a game’s community for years is that you sometimes forget how it might look to someone on the outside. That happened to me this week when Blizzard announced it would be bringing loot boxes back to Overwatch 2 in Season 15 after dropping the mystery cosmetic packs when the sequel launched in 2022. When I saw that, my immediate thought was “Oh, so the people who wanted those back finally got what they wanted,” and then I mentally moved on to the next thing. - Kenneth Shepard Read More

2024 was one of the quietest years for first-party PlayStation games since the PS5 launched. Instead of a God of War Ragnarök or Spider-Man 2, there were excellent but smaller releases like Astro Bot and Lego Horizon Adventures alongside the historic failure of Concord. And yet despite no aces in the hole, Sony won its biggest hand ever. The company reported that last holiday was PlayStation’s best ever and it’s now shipped 75 million PS5s. So where does that leave us in 2025? - Ethan Gach Read More

Sometimes I think back on the arrival of Achievements, when suddenly every minuscule or major accomplishment in an Xbox 360 game earned you a little congratulatory chime and persistent points to fuel your bragging rights. We didn’t know it then, but it now seems that was a harbinger for the modern era, in which companies give people fake little treats for engaging with all kinds of apps and services. In an effort to build brand loyalty and keep you coming back, plenty of mobile apps reward you for daily logins, completing certain tasks, and making their specific product or service so entrenched in your life that it becomes part of your routine to use it. You see it in everything from Duolingo’s language lessons to Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket’s pack cracking and Snapchat’s streaks, gained by sending pictures and videos to the same person each day. With so many things vying for our attention, this drip feed of dopamine was bound to move into unexpected places. But I gotta say, the last place I thought I’d find dailies was in an app for long-distance sex toys. - Kenneth Shepard Read More