Mar 12
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One Friday night last month, some artists at the video game studio Naughty Dog were working on their latest game…
Dec 13 2019
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When I first met the co-founders of Yacht Club Games in October of 2016, at their sleek, ocean-adjacent offices in…
Sep 12 2019
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At E3 in June of 2015, the game designer David Crooks was hanging out across the street from the L.A. Convention…
Jun 26 2019
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One Friday afternoon a few weeks ago, the developers at Treyarch held a happy hour event to welcome the summer…
Jun 6 2019
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After Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, the titular character went into retirement—both in the series’ fiction and real…
Apr 2 2019
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It wasn’t even supposed to be called Anthem. Just days before the annual E3 convention in June of 2017, when the…
Jan 22 2019
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Lucy’s relationship to Schroeder was unfulfilling. She craved emotional validation from the one character who was…
Jan 11 2019
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Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake’s defining attribute is texture. Metal Gear shaped an initial world, and Metal Gear 2…
Nov 21 2018
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On November 2, 2018, Blizzard closed its annual BlizzCon keynote by announcing, to scattered applause, a Diablo game…
Nov 6 2018
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Elizabeth Ballou
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On March 25, 2015, the weather in Bellevue, Washington was just warming up enough to play hacky sack, a favorite…
Oct 23 2018
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In the final year of development on Red Dead Redemption 2, the upcoming Western game, the top directors decided to…
Sep 5 2018
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Metal Gear wants the player to fail. The game’s rough edges are part of the growing pains of an early genre, but…
Jul 31 2018
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Charlie Brown is hesitant. Marcie is shy. Lucy is cruel. Schroeder is aloof. But Franklin is just…perfect.
May 2 2018
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I hated fighting Faith Seed, the highest-ranking woman in Far Cry 5’s fictional cult. She was confusing, annoying,…
Apr 16 2018
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I never pass up the opportunity to drink in a game. I’ve visited every bar in The Witcher 3. I’ve filled Adam…
Apr 13 2018
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In mid-2016, a few months before the release of their first game, Mafia III, the developers at Hangar 13 in Novato,…
Apr 5 2018
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Keza MacDonald
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In the first years of my career as a games writer, I got used to a certain reaction from my parents’ friends when…
Mar 28 2018
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SAN FRANCISCO—Without his mask, Yoko Taro looks like anyone else at the Game Developers Conference. He has a thin…
Dec 15 2017
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Kelly Cardigan
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Overwatch features characters with body types and backgrounds that are not often seen in pop culture, let alone…
Oct 27 2017
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It seemed like a surefire hit: a Star Wars take on Uncharted, published by Electronic Arts and developed by the…