Opinion

Everything You Need To Know About Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3‘s Big Update

Today’s massive update to Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 adds the first four paid downloadable characters to the game, but it’s not just that. The free update that accompanies the Curse of the Vampire expansion also adds a new game mode, ups the level cap to 150, and gives players the ability to spend in-game cash…

I Just Want To Cuddle Every Damn Animal In This Zoo

Planet Zoo, a new PC game from Frontier, the makers of Planet Coaster, is currently in a beta available to players that pre-ordered the deluxe version of the game. It’s about running a zoo. In order to do that, you have to build enclosures, outfit habitats with the proper flora for the species—species from the…

Mario Maker Level Lets You Compose Music And Play It Back

Some of the best creations in Super Mario Maker 2 often have extremely little to do with the experience of playing a Mario level. Consider the level “Music Maker – write a tune” by user knil (ID: 4MW-PJW-3JF). It isn’t a Mario course at all, but a really clever player piano of sorts that you…

Shenmue 3‘s Demo Is 1999 In A Bottle

Those who backed Shenmue III on Kickstarter, including me, finally got a taste of the upcoming adventure game this week with a “trial version.” While it’s limited, it definitely feels like old-school Shenmue: Stiff and stilted, but charming and detailed. I’m a longtime Shenmue fan. I was there when Yu Suzuki’s landmark adventure game series…

Planet Zoo is currently in a public beta for players who pre-ordered the deluxe edition of the game, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. Here’s a shot of an elusive swimming warthog—I’ll have more coverage very soon.

New Streaming Mic Displays Emoticons, Because Why Not

A large percentage of on-camera streamers share the screen with microphones that do nothing but sit there and capture sound. Razer’s new Seiren Emote, announced today at TwitchCon, comes with a built-in 8-bit emoticon display that can link to Twitch and react dynamically to subscriptions, follows, and chat messages. Using Razer’s Streamer Companion App in…

Pinball Wizard Is The Perfect Game To Play On A Commute

Pinball Wizard, a new pinball game for Apple Arcade starring an actual wizard, has all the elements of a great subway game: It’s easy to learn, challenging as you keep going, and it doesn’t always need all of your attention. Pinball Wizard is basically pinball, but with spells. Your wizard is the ball, and you…

Code Vein‘s Character Creation Has All The Options

There are nearly 500 eyebrow options in Code Vein’s character creator. There is a lot of every option in the robust character creation toolset of Bandai Namco’s post-apocalyptic vampire adventure. Players begin by choosing a gender, one of the creator’s simplest options. From there, they can choose between 32 different premade characters. These serve as…

Mario Kart Tour’s Microtransactions Feel Gross In A Post-Apple Arcade World

Mario Kart Tour is a fine racing game. The graphics are lovely. The simple touch controls are fine once you get used to them. It’s overflowing with colorful Nintendo brand polish. Mario Kart Tour is also a free-to-play game with a microtransaction-fueled gacha collection mechanic and game options and rewards locked behind a paid monthly…

Three Hours With The Last Of Us Part II

I emerged from my three-hour The Last of Us Part II demo session tense and anxious, a coiled fire hose of pent-up adrenaline. I’d just piloted a now-19-year-old Ellie through peril after peril, amassing a grisly body count along the way. Few of those kills were clean. Many were desperate knife flurries, death by a…

Code Vein Is The Chillest Dark Souls Clone

Bandai Namco’s anime vampire apocalypse adventure Code Vein is clearly meant to be a Dark Souls-style joint. It’s got that signature slower, methodical combat and massive, challenging bosses. Hell, it’s even got a Souls-like currency that can be lost when a player meets their untimely end. But Code Vein also has hot anime AI partners,…

Bleak Sword Does Action Better Than A Mobile Game Should

I was not aware that game developers were legally permitted to make action on mobile games that’s as good as the fighting in Bleak Sword. When it comes to games, touchscreen controls are a thing that we just kind of deal with in the hopes that someone comes up with an ingenious use for them,…

Cat Quest II Is The Purrfect RPG For Pet Lovers (And Fighters And Mages)

The Gentlebros’ Cat Quest II, available now forApple Arcade and Steam, is exactly what I wanted from a sequel to 2017’s adorable adventure. It’s got more magic, more armor, more weapons, and more horrendous animal puns, tied together in one approachable action role-playing game. And this time around, dogs get equal screen time. The original…

Noita Is A Delightful Game Where You Can Destroy Every Pixel You See

Noita, out today via Early Access on Steam, comes from some of the creators of the excellent indie games The Swapper and Baba is You. Both are puzzle games focusing on taking rules to their extremes, using the lenses of body-swapping and computer programming, respectively. Noita does the same, but without the puzzle aspect. Everything…

The Surge 2 Is A Bit Of A Mess, But I Can’t Stop Playing

In The Surge 2’s worst moments, when too many enemies clutter too small hallways, it is a slog. But in other moments, everything falls into place, and it suddenly becomes one of the most addictive games I’ve played all year. The Surge 2 has absurd highs and damning lows, creating an inconsistent experience that I…

Apple Arcade Is Mobile Gaming Without All The Bullshit

Entering into the busiest video game season of the year, we didn’t exactly need Apple Arcade, nor did we really want it, given Apple’s mediocre stewardship of video games for the past decade. What a shock, then, that Apple Arcade is one of the best gaming launches we can remember, and that we can recommend…

Crying Suns Is Like FTL But With A Better Story

After raising over €72,000 in crowdfunded donations last year, Crying Suns is set to arrive on Steam tomorrow, September 19. Its art style and core mechanics both draw obvious inspiration from similar, years-old releases, with a narrative that constantly makes promises of answers over the horizon. Despite a dizzying opening determined to beat players over…

Mutazione Is A Super Chill Game About Raising Plants And Talking To Mutants

Mutazione, an indie game from Die Gute Fabrik out tomorrow on Steam, Apple Arcade and PlayStation 4, does a lot of things well, but what really caught my attention was how it captured the magic of growing plants. To see a plant grow from a cutting into a fully formed plant, to see the sprouts…

The First Puzzle Quest Is Still The Best

2007’s Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords combined tile-matching puzzles and role-playing game mechanics to create an incredibly compelling hybrid game that was near impossible to put down. One sequel, several spin-offs, and countless copycats later, the Switch version of the original Puzzle Quest is just as captivating as it was 12 years ago. Launching…

Everything You Need To Know About Ni no Kuni Remastered

This week, the charming role-playing game Ni no Kuni will come to three new platforms. On two of those platforms it’ll be all fancy and remastered, and on the third it’ll be portable. Here’s everything you need to know about this new release. What’s a “Ni no Kuni”? Good question. Ni no Kuni is a…