While playing Super Mario Odyssey, you’ll occasionally come across portraits like the one pictured above.They are visual puzzles that lead players to hidden Power Moons. Odyssey calls them Hint Art, and there are 21 of them scattered throughout the game. They’re visually intensive and clever, and they’re a great…
Charlie Brown is hesitant. Marcie is shy. Lucy is cruel. Schroeder is aloof. But Franklin is just…perfect.
Like any community in the world, people who play video games have collaboratively created their own language and slang. Many of these words are international, but different languages have different ways of talking about play.
Whether you’re looking for a dive to drink to your sorrows, a romantic hideaway, or the perfect place for a party, the Continent has the spot for you. Here’s a review of every bar in The Witcher 3.
There comes a time when every person must sit back, think about their life’s accomplishments, and wonder, “What JRPGs should I play?”
Over the last few years, I’ve started playing more difficult video games. Unfortunately, tough video games tend to include tough boss fights, and I don’t really like tough boss fights.
The core innovation of Super Mario Odyssey is Mario’s companion, Cappy. Cappy is a hat that can magically possess everything from non-living objects to living characters. Toss Cappy at an enemy, and the enemy will sprout a Mario moustache and a signature red hat. Mario gains full control over the creature’s movements…
Last December, a 22-year old modder who calls himself Ted52 purged the Steam forums for his Hearts of Iron IV mod, Millennium Dawn. Steam’s infrastructure made it difficult to remove unsavory threads individually, and he tells me he has more control of things over at his Discord channel, where he can eliminate any…
The first and sometimes the only thing people say about Dark Souls is that it’s hard. Really hard, migraine hard, ready-to-shoot-yourself challenging. The players say it (“I can’t take this!”). The people who are scared to play it, say it: “Wait, that’s the one that’s really hard, right?”
If you ever find yourself in the cast of a Dragon Ball fight scene, Christopher Sabat has some advice. “You can either scream once, and make it really epic, and it really hurts, but you only have to do it one time,” explains the man who voices several cosmic soldiers in the Dragon Ball universe. “Or you can kinda fake…
Lucy’s relationship to Schroeder was unfulfilling. She craved emotional validation from the one character who was least equipped to provide it. It was both humorous and sad—a contradictory message that Charles Schulz’s Peanuts conveyed so well.
Call of Duty has returned to World War II. It wasn’t so long ago that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare saved us from drowning in World War II games. Unfortunately, its success meant we spent the next several years drowning in modern military shooters instead, and when we got tired of that, game devs gave us near-future…
Snoopy’s doghouse is so well-known and recognizable that even when there are no Peanuts characters in the frame, it is impossible to mistake it for anything else. The red, wooden structure has a distinctive mushroom profile, with three slats on the top and three slats on the bottom. When it burned to the ground in a…
I never pass up the opportunity to drink in a game. I’ve visited every bar in The Witcher 3. I’ve filled Adam Jensen’s pockets with booze in Deus Ex; I’ve chugged those drinks in the bars in Hengsha and Prague, alone in his apartment, or on street corners just because. I’ve gotten Commander Shepard blackout drunk in…
The Witcher 3’s Geralt of Rivia spends most of his time fighting. But for all the mountaintop battles and magic powers, the best fights in the game are the ones where he gets into a ring and uses his fists.
It’s obvious that parking your butt on the couch for several hours straight playing a game isn’t good for you, but sometimes it’s hard to resist. Here’s how to do it without messing up your body.
Before The Hunger Games, before Battle Royale, there was another movie based on a book about a dystopian future where an evil government distracts the masses with a popular series of gladiatorial deathmatches. Runners, are you ready for... The Running Man?
Here’s a nightmare I’ve actually had: I’m a soldier in a war, and no one’s told me what to do. Bullets are whizzing overhead and death could arrive at any moment. Everyone around me seems to know what they’re doing, but not me. I shouldn’t be here. I’m just some guy. I sit there, paralyzed, waiting to die.
I’m not a gearhead, nor would I ever be mistaken for one. But this past February, I went to a monster truck rally with my wife and 3-year-old son Michael. We all loved it. A lot.
In 1990, Bill Watterson created a Calvin and Hobbes storyline in which Calvin is bullied into playing baseball during recess. Watterson drew a relatable, cautionary tale about the dangers of cramming boys into neat little boxes. Everyone in this story wants Calvin to do something he hates, but even when he commits to…
