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Artist Reimagines Pokémon Starters As Different Pokémon Types

I’ve played through Pokémon Blue, Red, and Yellow dozens of times. Those games’ starters will always have a special place in my heart. But I’d love to still play with them while having the option to explore different elemental attacks. One artist’s renderings give an idea of what that might look like. Over on the…

Microsoft And Sony Announce Vague Cloud Gaming Partnership

Microsoft said today that it will partner with Sony, its chief rival in the gaming console space, on “new cloud-based solutions for gaming experiences.” It’s unclear what exactly the new collaboration will ultimately lead to, but the move is still a surprising one given that the companies’ Xbox and PlayStation console lines are market competitors.…

Metro Exodus is getting two pieces of story-driven DLC in the coming months. Neither focus on series hero Artyom, but instead shift perspective to other familiar faces from the Metro universe. This summer’s The Two Colonels DLC follows Colonel Miller in a “new linear chapter,” while Sam’s Story, coming early 2020, is a more sandboxy…

Fortnite‘s New John Wick Mode Is Basically Just Fortnite With Nice Suits

Fortnite Battle Royale is having a tie-in event with the movie John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, offering a limited time mode and sleek new skins. The mode, called Wick’s Bounty, doesn’t feel like it has much to do with John Wick—who I once saw kill three men in a bar with a pencil—but it…

The Internet Has Some Ideas For More Mario Maker 2 Game Styles

Leave an empty space on a promotional image, and the internet will fill it for you. This is as certain as the sun rising in the East and setting in the West and gravity keeping us all from spinning out into space. Last night’s Nintendo Direct aboutSuper Mario Maker 2 was a fun reminder of…

New Switch Discount Program Is Unnecessarily Complicated

Rather than simply discount its digital games like every other video game platform, Nintendo is running a new Switch promotion where players can purchase special vouchers that can then be traded in for new games, turning the entire process into a convoluted mini-game of its own. They’re called Nintendo Switch Game Vouchers, and the way…

Family Life Has Turned One Of World Of Warcraft’s Greatest Heroes Into Mel Gibson

In the latest cinematic trailer for World of Warcraft, orc leader Varok Saurfang travels to Outland in search of legendary Horde warchief Thrall, who retired with his wife and children following the events of the Legion expansion. What Saurfang finds is green Mel Gibson, but is it Braveheart Mel Gibson or The Patriot Mel Gibson?…

Apex Legends Players Want Better, Cheaper Skins

Apex Legends players feel that the game is cramping their style. Skins are a frequent source of complaint in the game’s community, cropping up in forum posts every few weeks. As a free-to-play game with a set roster of characters, skins are how players can customize their characters. They’re also how Apex Legends makes money,…

Upstart Epic PC Store Launches Its First Steam-Style Mega Sale

Epic Games’ store has announced its own take on the Steam Summer Sale—the latest spoonful of Steam’s game-selling pie that Epic has shoveled directly into its mouth. The move comes over a month before Steam typically offers its famous Summer Sale. The Epic Mega Sale, launched today, is discounting games up to 75 percent. Right…

Whistleblower Chelsea Manning could face additional jail time today for resisting a grand jury subpoena. Last night, she streamed video games on Twitch including Apex Legends and Red Dead Redemption 2. Apparently, she is a Bangalore player.

TIME’s 2019 list of “Next Generation Leaders” names 19-year-old Overwatch League pro Kim “Geguri” Se-Yeon, the league’s first female player. “Since I am the only female player in the whole league, I think there are a lot of people who look up to me and see me as a role model,” Geguri told TIME. “Knowing this,…

How Final Fantasy IX‘s Strategy Guide Turned Out So Horrible (And Other Answers From A Veteran Guide Writer)

“The thing about strategy guide publishing is that it’s a parasitic industry,” says Doug Walsh, who spent 18 years writing video game guides for the two biggest publishers, BradyGames and Prima. Perhaps that’s why the infamous Final Fantasy IX guide turned out the way it did. Today, Walsh is publishing The Walkthrough: Insider Tales from…

Yokai Watch 4 has been delayed again in Japan. Originally slated for winter 2018, the Nintendo Switch game was delayed to June 6. Now it is scheduled for June 20 to improve quality. No word yet about an international release.

Super Mario Maker 2 Has A Story Mode And Much More

The sequel to Super Mario Maker will have a story mode, unlike its predecessor, Nintendo said today in a Nintendo Direct dedicated to the game. In said story mode, you’ll get to rebuild Princess Peach’s destroyed castle by playing through courses to earn coins for the reconstruction effort. Plus: lots, lots more. Over the course…

A geneticist named Michael California wrote a fascinating blog about Rage 2‘s depiction of mutants and genetic deformity. Check it out here

Riot Games Tells Rick Fox’s Esports Organization To Remove Investor Accused Of Bigotry [Update]

League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) commissioner Chris Greeley said in a statement today that if esports organization Echo Fox doesn’t remove an investor accused of making threats and using hate speech within 60 days, Riot Games would take action that could “adversely impact the future of Echo Fox in the LCS.” “The LCS has…

I’m Still Never Sure When My PS4 Will Automatically Update A Game

If you’re a PlayStation 4 owner, there’s an experience you’ve probably had many a time: Upon waking your console from Rest Mode, you’re greeted by a barrage of new game updates waiting to be downloaded, even though one of PS4’s most-touted features was supposed to prevent that from ever happening. To this day, I’m still…

One Night In Darkwood Will Ruin Forests For You

“Respect the woods,” Darkwood cautions you before you start playing for the first time. It’s part of a warning that mostly uses more practical language, letting players know that they’re about to play a “challenging” game, and that they “will not be led by the hand.” It’s a single evocative line in an otherwise perfunctory…

There Are Some Decent Card Games On The Switch, And More On The Way

Hearthstone, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, and Gwent are nowhere to be found on the Nintendo Switch. While it’s unclear what’s holding the biggest digital card games back from the platform, their absence has opened up space for a handful of other decent card games. Despite being a perfect match for the Switch’s touch screen and…

Ubisoft’s multiplayer pirate game, Skull & Bones, is delayed indefinitely and won’t be at this year’s E3. The game’s creative director, Justin Farren, left late last year, so it’s safe to say development has been struggling. If and when we next see Skull & Bones, it will likely be very different.