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Overwatch‘s Newest Hero, Orisa, Is Now Live

After an especially lengthy stay on the PTR, Overwatch’s newest hero, “anchor tank” Orisa, is finally live. She’s accompanied by major changes to precious heal boy Lucio, a new tiebreaker system for competitive matches, and balance changes that span multiple heroes and maps. First announced a few weeks ago, Orisa is meant to occupy a…

A Beginner’s Guide To The World Of Mass Effect

Hey, there’s a new Mass Effect game out this week! How about that. While Mass Effect: Andromeda tells a story independent of the original trilogy, there’s enough existing lore, jargon and backstory that you probably want to brush up before you dive in. I’m here to help. I’ve played a dozen or so hours of…

Game Developers Respond To Nasty Tweets By Donating Thousands To ‘Girls Make Games’

Over the weekend, Naughty Dog artist Alex Neonakis started getting nasty Twitter messages from GamerGaters and other internet cretins. Exasperated, she tweeted some screencaps, along with a message: “I just donated to @GirlsMakeGames in honor of these lovely boys. Thanks guys!” Other developers followed her lead. By Tuesday, hundreds of game developers had donated thousands…

Hyper Light Drifter Keeps Me Coming Back

Hyper Light Drifter is backbreaking, but never needlessly so. The dash-and-slash action RPG is in equal parts elegantly designed and punishing, posing the fairest challenge I’ve ever encountered in a game. A year post-release, Hyper Light Drifter’s clean (and ball-busting) gameplay still has me addicted to the adrenaline rush. I picked up Hyper Light Drifter…

I Tried This $70 Sonic The Hedgehog Face Mask So You Wouldn’t Have To

Glamglow, a skincare company, released a special edition of their Gravitymud that’s branded with Sonic the Hedgehog. Last night, I smeared it on my face. It is very blue. The Exclusive Sonic Blue Glamglow Gravitymud is a face mask meant to treat wrinkles and add firmness back into your skin. I’m 27, and while I…

Revival of Dead MMO’s Lead Character Is Bittersweet

As ifkilling off City of Heroes back in 2012wasn’t bad enough, now NCsoft takes one of the dead superhero MMO’s most beloved characters, Statesman, and pits him against characters from more successful games, less cancelled games as the latest champion in PC MOBA Master X Master. Homage is nice. A nod now and then would…

Beloved anime One-Punch Man is now on Netflix. Praise be to the anime gods.

Over the last few days, LGBTQ YouTubers have spoken out about how YouTube’s “Restricted Mode,” a safe-browsing mode used in schools and workplaces, is hiding their videos. In a blog post yesterday, YouTube apologized, explaining that the “feature isn’t working the way it should,” and will be fixed.

The Under-Appreciated Radiant Historia Gets A Full Remake

In February of 2011, Atlus released a DS role-playing game called Radiant Historia that I described as the love child of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy Tactics. It was under-appreciated. And now it’s coming back. This week in Famitsu, Atlus announced Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, a 3DS remake that will come with “a new scenario”…

GTA V Stunt Escalates Quickly

Here’s a driver from Evolve Stunting, ready to make a jump off a ramp and maybe do a few spins and oh he’s got company. If the video below doesn’t start at the right point, we’re looking for 1:54 in particular (though really, as with most of this crew’s videos, the whole thing is excellent).

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Returns With An Even Longer Name

The best Digimon game in ages is getting a follow-up, because that’s how successful games work. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory is coming to PlayStation 4 and Vita in Japan later this year, with a Western release in early 2018. Not quite a sequel, Hacker’s Memory is asaid to follow the events of…

World Of Warcraft Demon Knows Damn Well Who Summoned It

World of Warcraft Redditor LawsuitEsq has crafted an eloquent answer to the question Felguard demons have been asking their Warlock masters over and over again since 2007. “Oh, I don’t know Zhevdarr. Take a wild fucking guess who summoned you. Again.”  I didn’t dabble much in the Warlock class until last year’s Legion expansion pack,…

The Legend Of Zelda Makes For Nice World Baseball Classic Music 

During last night’s World Baseball Classic game, people noticed a familiar song. Make that, they noticed lots of familiar ones, but if you like video games, one in particular stood out. And here is said Zelda music during the Puerto Rico versus Netherlands game. Wonderful, no? Since this was at Dodger Stadium, the organist was…

Nintendo Switch Is Getting Seiken Densetsu Collection in Japan

Following up on yesterday’s teaser, Square Enix has announced a Mana collection for the Switch. Slated for a June 1 release in Japan, it will feature Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana, and Seiken Densetsu 3. You know, the first three Seiken Densetsu games. According to Famitsu, new to the Switch release is a quick…

Why Is It So Hard To Make Video Games For Kids?

“Daddy? DADDY!” I look up from my laptop. This video game was supposed to give me a precious 15 minute respite from the endless drudgery of parenthood. What the hell’s gone wrong now? “DADDY WHAT I DO? “WHAT I DOOOOOO?” It must be really hard to make a good video game for kids. I know…

Popular New YouTuber Also Happens To Be Virtual Anime Girl

It turns out that 2017 isn’t only the year of self-driving cars and robots that rap; now, we have virtual anime girl YouTubers. A.I. Kizuna does everything a meatspace YouTuber would. She debates hot topics like buying friends with money and does Let’s Plays of games like Inside. She talks about furniture she wants and…

It Stinks That Nobody Talks In Diablo III‘s Public Multiplayer

In Diablo III, a good deal of high level play revolves around entering farming runs with random strangers and marching through content to try and get the most items and gear in the shortest amount of time. It’s fun, but it’s disappointing that it seems to exist in a cone of silence. You can easily…

Why Opening Loot Boxes Feels Like Christmas, According To Game Devs

Opening Overwatch loot boxes or Halo 5 REQ packs adds a special drama to a gaming session. The crate shakes. A jingle chimes. Lights peek out from the cracks. It swells with potential. Game developers make subtle design decisions that stoke the hope that keeps players opening mystery boxes, crates and packs. And not just…

Exuberant Backflip Emote In For Honor Can Be Used To Dodge Attacks

For Honor’s emotes give players a chance to be flashy during their duels, even if the new ones are a bit expensive. It turns out that emotes have a bit more use that simply taunting opponents. User TheRealCrayfish took to Reddit to show off some sick emote dodging skills. Using the Berserker, they leap right…

Typeshift Is A Word Puzzle That Rethinks Crosswords

Crossword puzzles are the bane of my existence. I find them obtuse and boring. But iOS game Typeshift is a clever twist on the formula that makes them way more tolerable. Typeshift’s developer, Zach Gage of Spelltower and Really Bad Chess fame, says that this game is part of his “pseudo-quest to re-imagine classic newspaper…