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Here Are Pokémon GO’s Microtransactions

The full, final version of Pokémon GO was released in Australia and New Zealand today. And while the game itself is free, loads of stuff inside it most certainly is not. You start the game with a decent number of Pokéballs and some Incense (to attract Pokémon). You can get more through play (I got…

Cannon Busters, the Kickstarter-backed anime project worked on by folks from Black Dynamite, Darksiders, Legend of Korra and Macross, has actually been made! Here’s the trailer for the first episode, which premieres for backers on July 8.

Ikenfell is an RPG that takes place at a school for witches and wizards. Interestingly, the main character, Maritte, does not have magical powers. The game is inspired by everything from Paper Mario to Harry Potter, and it’s got a soundtrack by folks who’ve worked on Steven Universe. It’s on Kickstarter

How Not To Scam Publishers For Free Games

So: there are loads of kids out there who try and ask publishers for free games. Most of them are at least up-front about their pan-handling, maybe pointing to a YouTube or Twitch channel that nobody watches. But then there’s this guy, who was busted trying to straight-up scam indie publisher Devolver. I hope he…

The Technomancer Is A Bad Game That’s Still Worth A Look

The Technomancer feels like a 90s RPG based on an 80s comic book. It’s not, of course. The game was released this month, and is not based on anything, instead being an entirely new property cobbled together by Spiders (which is the developer’s name…this game was not made by spiders). But compared to the kind…

Just Cause 3 Is Getting A Multiplayer Mod

Just Cause 3 has been out for a while now, but it’s still… missing something. Just Cause 2, you might remember, only reached its true potential when fans created a multiplayer mod that let hundreds of people blow shit up and fly whales together. The Just Cause 3 version, which is being made by the…

YouTuber Meets Pope, Gives Him A Copy Of Undertale

Um. So this is a thing that actually happened. YouTuber MatPat—who you might know as the king of fan theories—got a chance to meet the Pope earlier this year, as a part of a summit that explored how the internet brings people together. When meeting the Pope, it is apparently customary to gift him something.…

The First Ten Minutes Of Riders Of Icarus, The Mount Collecting MMO

You will not ride a majestic unicorn within the first ten minutes of Riders of Icarus, Nexon’s free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game, which launches into free open beta tomorrow. That’s for 20 minutes in. First comes the pegasus. One of my favorite things to do in MMORPG games now that I am pretty much…

Suikoden II Is On Sale For $4 What Are You Doing Why Haven’t You Bought It Yet

This week the PlayStation Network is holding a big sale. As a result of this, the transcendent role-playing game Suikoden II will run you a whopping $4, or $3 if you’ve got PlayStation Plus. There’s really no excuse not to buy this one. I mean, sure, buying Suikoden II means supporting a predatory pachinko manufacturer,…

The Paper Mario Game Not Everyone Wants

The developer was cheerful. The game she had me play was fun. But the title Nintendo producer Risa Tabata was demonstrating last month at E3, Paper Mario Color Splash, has turned out to be the third major video game sequel set for release later this year that has already been walloped with pre-release backlash. August…

Dark Souls 3 Dev Regrets How They Handled The Game’s Controversial Poise Stat

Few things have frustrated the Dark Souls 3 community in the past few months as the ongoing debate overwhat the game’s “poise” stat does. While I don’t have an answer to that question, I can pass on an apology from series director and From Software president Hidetaka Miyazaki. The Dark Souls games are intentionally mysterious,…

Red Dead Redemption Will Officially Be Backwards Compatible On Xbox One This Friday

Back in February, Red Dead Redemption quietly became backwards compatible on Xbox One. It was later removed by Microsoft, who claimed it was part of a “test” that wasn’t meant to be released publicly. Soon, though, everyone will get a chance to revisit one of Rockstar’s best games. Xbox’s Major Nelson revealed the game’s return…

Indie Boss Battler Furi Is The Wrong Kind Of Hard

My issue with Furi isn’t that it’s too hard. For a fast-moving action game entirely built around boss fights, a certain amount of exasperation is to be expected. My issue is that the game is too hard in the wrong ways and, perhaps, for the wrong reasons. Furi, released today for Steam and PS4 by…

What Made System Shock So Special

The BioShock Collection is on the way, promising to return us to Rapture and Columbia. But what about System Shock? It’s been over twenty years since we first met SHODAN and battled through Citadel Station. Night Dive Studios has taken up the cause of remastering the PC classic, but do they remember what made it…

Overwatch Player Takes Mei’s Trolling To New Heights

As a Mei player, I think most of the hate directed at the cute climatologist is just salt. But this? This definitely makes Mei seem like a giant asshole, and it’s amazing. 에마군_김재원 doesn’t just kill enemies: he uses Mei’s ice wall to launch the bodies into the air, like so: And just to rub…

Nintendo’s Shareholder Q&A Is Always Good For A Laugh

Every year, Nintendo holds a meeting where investors can ask the company’s top executives whatever they’d like. And every year, the questions are pretty much priceless. In 2014, for example, one shareholder asked why Nintendo keeps talking about gaming. “I do not understand video games,” he lamented. In 2013 someone complained about the cafeteria. It’s…

Is There A 3DS Charger In The House?

Eeveespiritt’s Summer Games Done Quick speedrun of New Super Mario Bros. 2 had almost reached the final boss, when everything went black. I was watching the run with my wife on Sunday evening, having convinced her the bi-annualweek-long charity speedrunning marathon was much better than not watching a new Game of Thrones episode. Eeveespiritt proved…

The Complicated Legacy of The Original Angry Video Game Nerd

A little over a decade ago, one of the first gaming-related videos was uploaded to YouTube. It wasn’t a Let’s Play or a reaction video. Rather, it was a nearly 10-minute long takedown of an awful NES game by James Rolfe, AKA the Angry Video Game Nerd. Initially meant to be a joke among friends,…

The House of Sonic is now very much the House of Strategy. Sega, which already owns Total War studio Creative Assembly and Company of Heroes studio Relic has acquired Amplitude, the French studio behind the phenomenal Civ-rival Endless Legend and other terrific strategy games. Details here

CSR Racing 2 Does Its One Thing Better Than Before

When it debuted back in 2012, CSR Racing’s bite-sized bouts of drag racing were just the right amount of driving excitement for mobile gamers. CSR Racing 2 keeps the action brief, but gives players a little more control over a lot prettier cars. While games like Real Racing 3 and the Asphalt series aimed to…