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OpinionImpressionsMagic: Legends Makes Diablo-Style Combat Feel Like, Well, Magic
In the past, every month or so my partner and I would follow the instructions on the box and “gather” with our friends to play Magic: The Gathering. We’d have a casual sealed draft of whatever the latest set was, and at the end of the (at times very long) night, the winner walked home…
By Ash Parrish -
OpinionSo, It’s Been A Year, Huh
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the growing outbreak of covid-19 a pandemic. In the year since, over 120 million people have been infected by the virus worldwide, and 2.5 million people have died because of covid-19. Life has forever been changed. We wear masks. Avoid crowds. Businesses have shut down, and…
By Zack Zwiezen -
OpinionGaming Didn’t Get Me Through It
Before lockdown started, I had another job with a company that made what became the world’s most sought-after product: hand sanitizer. Working there before everything shut down was like watching a car crash in slow motion. Every day, my coworkers would whisper about the spread of the virus, retelling news stories about so many new…
By Ash Parrish -
OpinionDying Light 2‘s Developers Are Indulging Toxic Gamers
As promised, Polish developer Techland put out a video today updating the world on the state of zombie parkour thriller Dying Light 2. It’s actually an extremely concise look at one of the most toxic cycles underlying the video game industry. In the first half of the roughly three-minute video, various Techland developers read expletive-filled…
By Ethan Gach -
OpinionImpressionsThe New Mortal Kombat Movie Starts Off Strong
The new Mortal Kombat film, the first theatrical release based on the fighting games since 1997’s Mortal Kombat Annihilation, opens with a scene that should be quite familiar to fans. Hanzo Hasashi, the man fated to become the vengeful Scorpion, enjoys a quiet moment with his family in their ancestral home. It’s a quiet moment…
By Mike Fahey -
OpinionImpressionsDark Alliance Is A Spiritual Successor To Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance In Name Only
I went into my recent Dark Alliance demo with development studio Tuque Games expecting to briefly relive the grim, bloody hack and slash glory of the original Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance games. The new game, while pitched as a spiritual successor, feels very different, however. Not bad, just different Dark Alliance, priced at $40 and…
By Ethan Gach -
OpinionImpressionsStubbs The Zombie Remaster Retains That Classic Jank
Zombies have been a big part of video games for a long time now. Mostly we kill them in droves. But back in 2005, Stubbs The Zombie shook things up and let you take on the role of a zombie devouring people in a futuristic city. That game is back on modern consoles via a…
By Zack Zwiezen -
OpinionPokemon Go‘s Eggs Aren’t Lootboxes, They’re Fun Presents
Pokémon Go developer Niantic is testing a feature that lets players see what might be inside the game’s eggs before they walk the many miles to hatch them. It appears this is a response to the argument that the game’s eggs are akin to lootboxes. There is an awful lot that could be better about…
By John Walker -
OpinionCall Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s Menus Suck
Booting up the newest Call of Duty, I was greeted by terrible-looking menus, an overwhelming amount of options, too much information, and some ugly-looking ads. It’s not a great first impression and feels like a cobbled-together mess. In other words: It bad. There was a time when I played every new Call of Duty game.…
By Zack Zwiezen -
OpinionImpressionsCrash Bandicoot 4 Runs Great On PS5, Passably On Switch
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time arrives on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PC, and Switch tomorrow, giving us some of the most polished versions of last year’s excellent platformer alongside one that struggles a lot but gets the job done. Digital Foundry compared the PS5 and Switch versions side by side, and the differences…
By Mike Fahey -
OpinionEnough With The Social Hubs In Video Games
Here’s a radical idea: Turn every social space in a video game into a menu. Last month, Kotaku’s Zack Zweizen and I teamed up to power through the demo for Outriders, People Can Fly’s upcoming looter-shooter. Verdict: It rules. (Zack, if you’re reading this, yes, I’m speaking for you.) The shooting is airtight, some of…
By Ari Notis -
OpinionFall Guys’ Season Four Is A Reminder Of How Damn Long We’ve Been Doing This
Today, Mediatonic showed off one of the levels for Fall Guys’ upcoming fourth season. The new stage, “Skyline Stumble,” looks quite fun with its gravity-based hijinks and bean-sized pinball bumpers—but it instilled in me an invasive, immovable thought: Man, we’ve really been doing this for a while, huh? Last August, Fall Guys took the world…
By Ari Notis -
OpinionHades Almost Starred Theseus, Which Would’ve Been Boring AF
Imagine playing Hades, working to escape the underworld, fighting, and succumbing to swarms of relentless enemies. Every time your character perishes, you hear the low, sinister chuckle of the King of the Dead in your ear, mocking you for your weakness. Until finally, after countless attempts, you stand before Hades, preparing for the final confrontation,…
By Ash Parrish
