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There Sure Are A Lotta Soda Machines In Video Games

Reader Jess should know, he’s been cataloguing them and putting them all on a website This story was originally published in August 2016. The Video Game Soda Machine Project is his attempt to archive the appearance of the trusty beverage vending machine in our digital entertainment. From Monkey Island to Batman, he’s now catalogued 1000…

Metroid Fans, You Should Read This Comic

I was in a “catch up on a bunch of comics I’ve missed” mood over the weekend, so I set aside time for some reading. One of the books I picked up, Corey Lewis’ Sun Bakery, had a very nice surprise inside. I’d grabbed it because it promised a Shonen Jump-style run of highlighting a…

Notorious Elite: Dangerous Troll Ruins Historic In-Game Event

Over the weekend, Elite: Dangerous’ years-long Formidine Rift mystery transformed from a pseudo-ARG into a full-blown event. A character named Salomé, carrying precious info, was set to traverse a treacherous route. Players could protect her ship or try to blow it up. A notorious troll decided to do both. As outlined by Ars Technica, a…

Thimbleweed Park‘s Plot Hole Problem

Thimbleweed Park, a great new adventure game by some of the key talent behind Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island, sets up several mysteries that are never quite resolved. Does that matter? Director Ron Gilbert argues not. WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIMBLEWEED PARK Thimbleweed Park starts off with a dead man in a river,…

Music Makes Mario Kart 8‘s Best Level Even Better

The first time I played Mount Wario, I thought, “Holy shit, that was a really good Mario Kart track.” In the weeks since then, my estimation of the track has only increased. It’s a doozy of a run, a rare single-lap race that doesn’t repeat, but instead is a straight shot through a lengthy and…

A Bug Has Been Killing Lego Worlds Save Files For Nearly Two Months

While neither console version of Lego Worlds has been performing particularly well since the game’s launch, Xbox One players have been dealing with a particularly nasty bug that’s been irreparably damaging save files since mid-March. Lego Worlds is basically Minecraft with Lego bricks. Players explore randomly generated worlds, scanning in Lego buildings, objects and characters…

Sailaway Lets You Explore The World’s Oceans In Real Time, Which Is More Fun Than It Sounds

As I’ve said on this site before, I used to live on a boat, but it wasn’t a sailboat. Playing Sailaway, a sailing simulator that came out on Steam early access last week, I’m learning what it could have been like if we’d had sails: bigger waves, the same absurd amount of ropes, and a…

Toys-to-Life RPG Lightseekers Is Pretty Good Without The Toys

Games that interact with toys generally release around the same time as their plastic counterparts. Lightseekers figures aren’t out until July 1, but you can play the mobile and card games today. Or I can, and you can watch. Either way. Lightseekers is an ambitious toys-to-life (they call it “connected play”) project from a company…

Therapists Are Using Dungeons & Dragons To Get Kids To Open Up

Adam Davis, co-founder of the Dungeons & Dragons therapy group Wheelhouse Workshop, thinks kids with social issues aren’t being asked the right questions. In a dreary school counselor’s office, it can be hard to engage with “Why aren’t you doing your homework?” and “Have you tried joining clubs?” For Davis, more fruitful lines of inquiry…

Someone Bought The Most Depressing Top Gun Game Collection

Everyone makes purchases they regret. You might buy an expensive toy, binge on cartons of ice cream, get a fancy dress, or you might buy too many copies of a Top Gun video game. On March 23rd, games archivist and Video Game History Foundation director Frank Cifaldi noticed an unusual auction on eBay. The listing…

That Time A JRPG Ended In The Middle Of A Final Boss Battle

Over the past few years, there have been many complaints about video game endings—that they’re rushed, that they’re unsatisfying, that it feels like the developers spent more time on other parts of the game (usually true). But no unfinished ending holds a candle to Saga Frontier Saga Frontier, a quirky role-playing game that Square released…

Video Game Companies Are Not Your Friends

I never thought I’d feel intense fanboy-ism for a bottle of ketchup and yet here we are. Remember, brands are not your friends. Wish to tweet words at me? I can be found here @laserfrog

Halo 3 Players Spent Almost Ten Years Trying To Get Into Empty Cage

In 2008, a fan with the username OTfor2 issued a challenge to a forum: in Halo 3’s Sierra 117 level, get inside a barred-off room. For years, Halo fans tried to nail the stunt, but nobody could complete it…until now. Within the Halo community, there’s a concept known as “tricking challenges,” where players dare each…

I Love Zelda’s Leaf

Hi, my name is Mark. This weekend I finished Zelda. I love leaf. Let’s take a look at my current suite of weapons shall we? Quite the line-up I’m sure you’ll agree. I have the Master Sword, of course. I have a splendid collection of ‘++’ Guardian weaponry at my disposal. Axes, spears, swords, claymores.…

Nintendo Shipped Switch Consoles By Airplane To Meet Demand ASAP

Typically, Nintendo ships hardware around the globe by sea. But to quickly meet the high demand at launch, it put a number of Switch consoles on airplanes.  A Nintendo spokesperson tells The Wall Street Journal, “We carried some of the Switches by plane in March to serve our customers more promptly.” Nintendo originally planned to…

Making Zelda’s Biggest Enemies Fight Each Other

Here is a fun thing to do next time you’re running around Zelda with nothing to do: try and make the big guys kill each other. That’s what Dorkly did in this video, doing a lot of mundane dragging and leading to lure bad guys like Guardians and Talus into the same space then trying…

Russian Man Facing Prison For Making Pokémon Go Video Inside A Church

A Russian man might be spending years in prison after his trial wrapped up last week, after being arrested in 2016 for making a video about Pokémon Go while inside a church, a violation of the country’s laws against “inciting religious hatred”. Last year, Ruslan Sokolovsky made a video inside the famous Church of All…

The Glory Of Being Hit With A Blue Shell At The End of A Mario Kart Race

You’re about to cross the finish line. Suddenly, a spiky blue shell starts hovering over you. Now, there are ways to avoid getting hit by the world’s most annoying item, but in that moment, there is only tunnel vision for the goal in front of you. We’ve all been there, yeah? Sometimes, you let that…

Zelda Fan Game Changes Course After Nintendo Issues Takedown

It was only a matter of time before Breath of the NES caught the eye of Nintendo and got pegged with a takedown notice. According to its creator, however, the game will live on. Winter Drake, the developer who once sought to bring to life the vision for a top-down version of The Legend of…

Call of Duty: WWII multiplayer will have women in it, confirmed Sledgehammer’s Michael Condrey. Women soldiers were first introduced to the series in Ghosts’ multiplayer mode. Making up approximately half of humanity, women played a big part in World War II, but some fans are already concerned about the game’s “realism.”