The New Spider-Man Game Won’t Let You Kill Anybody

This year’s Sony E3 conference closed on an impressive demo of Insomniac’s upcoming open-world Spider-Man game. I checked out an alternate playthrough and on the show floor, and while creative director Bryan Intihar was tight-lipped when it came to specifics, he did give me a handful of interesting tidbits. Spider-Man will never kill anybody You…

Inside The University Of Utah’s First-Of-Its-Kind Varsity Esports Program

Compete’s video team headed to the University of Utah to check out their varsity esports program, which began as a League of Legends fan club that grew into the student-run organization Crimson Gaming, which helped pave the way for the school’s official scholarship program for budding pro gamers. (UPDATE: 5:00 pm- This paragraph has been…

Seen at E3: this screenshot from Fire Emblem Warriors, which asks you to defeat the Cavaliers. Sounds eerily familiar

The Coolest New Gaming Gear Of E3 2017

E3 isn’t just about new games. It’s also about new headsets, keyboards, mice, controllers, speakers and storage solutions. Let’s take a look at some of the coolest new hardware announced during the show. LucidSound — LS15X Xbox One In-Ear Contour Gaming Headset The LucidSound folks have a bunch of new headsets for E3, including a…

The New Super Mario Odyssey Trailer Has Me Messed Up, Man

In the next big Mario game, our favorite plumber has a special hat. This hat allows Mario to take over the bodies of other creatures and objects. The more I think about the implications of this ability, the more I start to question the fabric of reality, if not Mario’s own existence. Here’s the trailer,…

Forty Minutes Of Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Shown off during Nintendo’s Treehouse stream yesterday, here’s a solid chunk of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which looks great and is hopefully more up my alley than the first game. (I imagine the portability will help.) I’ll be talking to the developers of Xenoblade 2 tomorrow here at E3, so let me know what questions you…

Battlegrounds Makes Fan-Made Zombie Mode Official

Normally in Battlegrounds, players crouch behind bathroom doors, waiting to shoot whomever bursts in. A few weeks ago, fans riffed on that theme with Battlegrounds’ zombie mode, where instead of hiding in crevices, players gun down hordes of ravenous player-controlled zombies. It was aninstant successin the community and on Twitch. Yesterday, Battlegrounds devs announced that…

Nearly 20 Minutes of The Life Is Strange Prequel In Action

The first gameplay footage from Life Is Strange: Before The Storm tries hard to recapture the drama from the original game. If you want to ruin something, keep adding to it: this is true of cakes, outfits and most of all fiction. Chloe Price in the original Life Is Strange had a lot of secrets—it…

After a somewhat sleepy show floor in 2016, E3 is very crowded this year, maybe due to the thousands of tickets sold to the public, maybe due to bad booth design. The event opened 15 minutes early on Tuesday to reduce the crush. That’s the Nintendo booth in the photo. A rep told us to…

Lego Worlds Rockets Into Space Next Month

Now that the game save-eating bug issues seem to be behind us, it’s time for Lego Worlds to do happier things, like announcing a Switch version for the fall and a content expansion that explores one of the oldest and most beloved themes in the toy line’s history, Lego Space. Lego’s been transporting children of…

The New God of War Might Finally Make Kratos Interesting

Sony may have shown more of the new God Of War at their press conference Monday, but there’s still a lot they haven’t explained about the game. A few things are clear: Kratos is a dad, and the focus had shifted from Greek mythology to Norse myth. I sat down with the game’s director Cory…

Splatoon 2’s Competitive Scene Has A Strong Showing During E3

An invitational was hosted yesterday on Nintendo’s E3 stream for Splatoon 2, featuring four teams competing for a sweet silver squid trophy. Surprisingly, it was a strong showing for the game’s competitive aspirations. E3 has had no shortage of “esports” presentations, from Electronic Arts showing off Star Wars: Battlefront II with a commentated live match…

Undertale‘s Japanese Localization Is Causing A Fan Frenzy

American indie game Undertale is finally getting an official Japanese release. Good for all the hardcore Japanese fans the game has! Its localization is already causing quite a stir. Namely, the way laid-back skeleton character Sans refers to himself. In English, we use the personal pronoun “I” to refer to ourselves. However, Japanese has an…

New Gran Turismo Racing Wheel Only Costs $800

Thrustmaster’s forthcoming T-GT high-end racing that will be available when Gran Turismo Sport hits later this fall. It will be expensive. According to 4Gamer, GT Planet and TjrSim, the wheel is priced at US＄799.99 plus tax. You get the wheel set up, a three-pedal set, and the power supply that looks like a turbo charger.…

Gotanda Crossing. Tokyo, Japan. By Thomas Ito. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line! 

The Great Cosplay Pool Party

Every June, without fail, the tropical surrounds of the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio play host to Colossalcon, and some of the best cosplay of the year. Why Ohio, of all places? It’s got something to do with the fact Colossalcon combines thousands of cosplayers, a swimming pool, expensive cameras and the first days of…

Splatoon 2‘s Salmon Run Is A Fun Horde Mode

I splatted and swam through a quick session of Splatoon 2‘s new co-op mode today. I played in a quartet, and this might be how I play Splatoon multiplayer when the sequel launches in July. Salmon Run puts 2-4 players on a platform out in the middle of dangerous waters. Players work as a team…