An Entire Fantasy World, Sketched Over One Year

For 366 consecutive days, former Blizzard artist Even Mehl Amundsen drew a series of images sketching out the framework and characters for a fantasy universe. He’s now collecting them into a series of books. They’re called TEGN, and the first of three volumes is now up on Kickstarter, having already gone past its asking amount.…

Persona 5 Confidants, Ranked

Persona 5 is a game entirely about making friends with magic teens and well-meaning (well, mostly) adults. Yet not all friends are created equal. In Persona 5, certain important figures are known as “Confidants”, and are the characters who you’re able to become close to—or at least form strong bonds with—and who over the course…

Phantom Dust’s Remaster Out Tomorrow, Will Be Free

Phantom Dust, which we very recently named one of the best Xbox games, is re-releasing tomorrow on Xbox One and Windows 10. And it’ll be free. The property has had a tortured time at Microsoft of late, with a planned new game killed off and its studio closed A remaster of the original game was…

The Wildest Matches From Compete‘s Street Fighter Pro Challenge

This past Saturday, we opened the doors to the Gizmodo Media Group offices and welcomed any and all challengers to try their hand at beating a Street Fighter V champion. From young newcomers to surprise upstarts, and even other pros lurking in the waters, here are some of our favorite moments from an incredible night.…

The Expanse Season 2: Entertaining if uneven, reaching ever closer to greatness. What it is: The second season of SyFy’s increasingly popular sci-fi political thriller. The show is based on books by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who collectively write under the pen name James S.A. Corey. What I’ve watched: Took my time with season…

Infinite Warfare‘s DLC Maps Are Great, They Just Never Show Up

The $49.99 season pass for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare gets you four map packs with four new multiplayer maps each. What it doesn’t guarantee is that these new maps will actually come up in multiplayer matches online. In my experience so far, playing a DLC map is like finding a unicorn. You can own…

How To Trash Talk

Trash talking is divisive among gamers. If you go too far, you run the risk of sending your friend home crying and never again playing another round of Mario Party against them. Or, if you’re conflict-averse, a few unsavory words over Madden could make you think worse of your good buddy. Some stand by trash…

Topre Realforce RGB Keyboard Review: Life Beyond The Rubber Dome

If rubber dome keyboards are at the bottom of the keyboard hierarchy and mechanicals near the top, where does that leave Topre’s electrostatic capacitive switches, which combine a rubber dome and a spring? While the mechanical keyboard community launches into a massive debate, let me tell you about Topre’s Realforce RGB. Nothing sparks heated debate…

Battlegrounds, As Told By Steam Reviews

Battlegrounds is a battle royale game taking Twitch and YouTube by storm. It’s also generated some wild Steam reviews. Battlegrounds is still in early access and has a lot of optimization issues, but that doesn’t mean that Steam users can’t still see the value in it. It’s been called the best of its genre, wherein…

What Street Fighter Pros Think Of Ultra Street Fighter II For The Switch

This past weekend, Compete hosted several Street Fighter pros and commentators at our offices for a public event where fans could sign up to battle against top SFV players. Since we had this all-star roster of Street Fighter aficionados hanging out at our offices, the Compete staff pulled them aside to preview the Nintendo Switch…

Two Months In, I’ve Barely Taken My Nintendo Switch Off The Dock

The big concept behind the Nintendo Switch is that it can be enjoyed both on the TV, and in handheld mode. Instead, the Switch largely operates like any other console system in my household, and I like it that way. Oh, I’ve tried to take the Switch with me. I’ve braved the dangers of on-the-road…

Destiny Players Kill Every Raid Boss Without Using Guns (Or Dying)

We’re rapidly approaching the end of Destiny, a video game in which players must travel through space, finding dumb ways to entertain themselves. And now a team of raiders has done the dumbest, most impressive thing yet: beating every raid boss, challenge modes activated, without firing a single gun. Oh, and nobody died. To do this,…

People Are Reminiscing About A PS1 JRPG That Didn’t Exist

Two game devs made up a classic JRPG to help promote their new title, a twine game about fandom, nostalgia and Usenet boards. What they didn’t count on was people believing the fake game was real. Sophia Park and Penelope Evans initially gave out jewel cases for Arc Symphony, a “classic” JRPG that they made…

Quake Champion‘s Beta Is A Bloody Disaster

Quake Champions is an upcoming free to play arena shooter that revives the beloved franchise. It is currently running a closed beta. It’s bloody and fun in short bursts but it is also amazingly frustrating. I wanted to enjoy my time with Quake Champions. Old school shooters formed a cornerstone of my time as a…

Dota 2 Patch Makes Death More Punishing

The next mainline Dota 2 patch hit the game’s servers today, and with it came a litany of balance changes meant to address the most pressing concerns in the wake of the Kiev Major. With The International 7 looming on the horizon, it’s time to fine-tune the game that will be played for millions in…

Project Rap Rabbit Is A Rhythm Game With RPG-Style Rap Battles

Traditional rhythm games give players a series of set songs to tap along to. In Project Rap Rabbit, the newly-announced collaboration between Parappa the Rapper’s Masaya Matsuura and Gitaroo Man’s Keiichi Yano, players participate in rap battles powered by RPG-style dialogue trees. According to the Kickstarter video for Project Rap Rabbit, the battle system in…

Smash Champion Loses First Tournament This Year In Wild Match Against Top Player

Super Smash Bros. Melee champion Adam “Armada” Lindgren lost his first tournament this year against crowd favorite Joseph “Mango” Marquez at yesterday’s Royal Flush tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey. After it looked like Lindgren would take home #1, Marquez made an adrenaline-fueled comeback that made the audience go wild. Leaving few openings for Marquez’s…

Elgato’s Stream Deck Is Fancy Tool For Fancy Streamers

Streamers seeking more control over their broadcasts often use external keypads to do things like switching scenes and controlling chat. Elgato’s $150 Stream Deckaims to replace those makeshift solutions with 15 dedicated LCD buttons capable of handling up to 210 different actions. It’s quite fancy. The Stream Deck, launched today and available at Elgato’s website,…

Japanese Game Companies That Won’t Allow YouTube Comments 

Nintendo America, for example, allows comments on its YouTube videos. The company’s Japanese headquarters does not, and some people online in Japan don’t sound too happy. This has been going on for a while now, but a recent 2ch thread shined a light on the discrepancy. It’s kind of strange that Nintendo doesn’t allow comments…