Posts

We knew that next-gen consoles were going to be some of the most popular items during the various Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, but few could have predicted that the Xbox Series S would be the biggest “winner” of the holiday season. This information comes from the Adobe Digital Economy Index, which measured over a trillion visits to various U.S. retail websites and found that the Xbox Series S was not only more popular than its next-gen competition but was one of the most popular items over the sales weekend across the board....

Hytale remains an anticipated games in development two years after its announcement. If anything, expectations have grown significantly in 2020 following Hytale Studios’ acquisition by League of Legends developer Riot Games. With those expectations comes a lot of rumor and speculation regarding Hytale’s development, as well as its release date. On Thursday, Hytale Studios releases a community update that dismissed any such rumors. The team behind Hytale frames the update in very clear language: It isn’t going to be what fans want....

This article contains I Care a Lot spoilers. It’s an emotionally fraught conclusion. Before our very eyes, I Care a Lot’s protagonist—its ostensible hero—is bleeding out inside an asphalt parking lot. But then, was she or anyone else ever a hero in this story? Just seconds before she was gunned down, Rosamund Pike’s Marla Grayson is seen, smilingly lying about how great her new predatory company is, and how she’s figured out a way to turn elder abuse into a sanitized illusion of “eldercare....

A Final Fantasy 11 reboot for mobile devices? I never knew her. I’m pretty damn upset over it, too. When I think about my limited experiences with Final Fantasy 11, how much I love Final Fantasy 14, and how I don’t know what the future holds for the older Square Enix MMO - I just feel dread. Sure, Square Enix could keep servers running until the end of time, but even before the frustrating realities of our digital-only gaming future had begun to sink in, I long worried about how I would ever experience the world of Vana’diel....

Recently, notable rumors regarding Nintendo’s plans for Super Mario’s 35th anniversary have been making the rounds. If accurate, it’s going to be a fantastic year for the iconic video game character. However, if Mario is indeed getting a lot of content in 2020, this could indicate the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild won’t be releasing this year. Some have speculated Breath of the Wild 2 could release later this year, but that might not be the case if Mario takes center stage....

Immortals Fenyx Rising is the latest game to come out of Ubisoft’s games gallery. While Ubisoft is already known for many critically acclaimed and commercially successful titles, their newest IP managed to provide a fresh experience and it reminded gamers just what the massive studio is capable of making. Playing this game will really make the players feel that the team behind it have placed much effort and heart to see its creation....

Seasonal events in Overwatch have become very popular since being introduced last summer. While the seasonal events bring new gameplay with them for a limited time, it also signals new and exclusive loot such as character skins and more. While it’s been a couple months since Blizzard has launched a new event, signs have begun to hint that last year’s Summer Games special event, Lucioball, may be making a come back very soon....

If idle hands are the devil’s playground, character creators are the trans community’s. Character creators in games have long since been a respite for closeted trans people. When we’re in the closet, or when we don’t know we’re in the closet, it’s nice to toy around with the “what if.” When I was ten, it felt liberating to design a pink-haired punk princess in Tony Hawk’s Underground. Why? I had no idea....

Fallout fans have been forced to wait patiently for the release of Fallout 4 since New Vegas hit consoles and PC back in 2010. One group of enthusiasts decided to pass some time by creating a Minecraft mod that brings the wasteland to the popular block-building simulator — and the results are very impressive indeed. Project Wasteland is a little more in-depth than your average Minecraft mod. Rather than just putting a fresh coat of paint on the existing game, it’s something of a complete conversion, adding in wholly new elements to properly recreate the Fallout experience....

One seriously devoted Grand Theft Auto 5 fan creates a mod for the open world title that provides top-notch 4K visuals and retunes the entire world of Los Santos. A new Grand Theft Auto 5 PC mod known as “The Pinnacle of V – World Enhancement Project” has been released, offering fans of Rockstar Games’ title incredibly detailed and life-like graphics, as well as subtle alterations to the gameplay. According to mod’s creator, Josh Romito, he has one simple goal with “The Pinnacle of V”, and that is to bring fans the best of what Grand Theft Auto 5 has to offer....

This is not Uncle Walt’s Pinocchio. The little wooden boy has been a symbol of the Walt Disney Company ever since the original animated classic came out in 1940, and not even an ill-advised live-action remake released by the Mouse House just a few months ago could really sully the original’s reputation. But anyone who watches this new, completely separate stop-motion version of the tale, co-directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, is in for a dark surprise—and hopefully, some delight....

For a game first revealed at E3 2018, fans know surprisingly little about Halo Infinite. The next foray into the sci-fi franchise seems to be something of a soft reboot, overhauling many of the mechanics that fans are familiar with, judging by early Halo Infinite gameplay demos. If there’s one element fans know almost nothing about, though, it’s how Halo Infinite’s customization elements will work. However, with the changes that have been made to Halo: The Master Chief Collection, fans may be getting a picture of how Halo Infinite will reward players with new customization options....

In December of this year, 343 Industries and Microsoft will be shutting down the Halo Xbox 360 servers. Effectively, this means that the online multiplayer for Halo 3, Halo 4, Halo: Reach, and Combat Evolved Anniversary will no longer be available as they originally were on Xbox 360, and only playable through Halo: The Master Chief Collection. While the vast majority of gamers have moved on to other consoles, there are still many who have fond memories of playing Halo games on Xbox 360, and those gamers are planning to jump back in to experience the games one last time....

Many fans were disappointed by the visuals presented in Halo: Infinite during the 2020 Xbox Games Showcase. Some criticized the demo for looking like something made for past consoles, not for the next-gen Xbox Series X. The development team at 343 Industries said they “do have work to do” on the graphics, but according to a recent news post, the Halo: Infinite art style is meant to resemble “classic” aesthetics....

This Halo article contains spoilers. Although the Halo TV series puts it front and center for the first time, the planet Madrigal has in fact appeared in franchise lore before. Although its two big appearances take place in separate continuities, with the TV show’s “Silver timeline” opening up new storytelling possibilities, Madrigal is basically the same place in both timelines: a space colony of human insurrectionists, and one of the first to be attacked by the alien Covenant....

This week, the gaming world was shocked by the announcement of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, a forthcoming title for mobile devices. Under normal circumstances a mobile game based in the Harry Potter universe wouldn’t have inspired much excitement, but with Pokemon GO developer Niantic on-board things are different. Since it is relatively early we don’t know how much Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will mirror Pokemon GO, but the initial press release does suggest a similar interactivity with the real world....

[UPDATE: Warner Bros Games has officially announced Hogwarts Legacy at the PS5 event in September. The first trailer is below and the original story follows.] The Harry Potter franchise has grown exponentially since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was published in 1997. It has had movie adaptations, the Fantastic Beasts spin-off series, a sequel in the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, theme parks, and so much more. Video games are a big facet of any multimedia empire, and Harry Potter is no exception....

Hatsune Miku, a virtual Japanese pop idol who frequently sells out stadiums in Japan, has been spotted out of her usual habitat and in the pages of Ireland’s Ordinary Level English Paper - an exam taken at the end of secondary school. If you’ve got questions, get in line. Hatsune Miku was created in 2007 by audio-media company Crypton Future Media as a software called Vocaloid. Her digital avatar, which is often projected as a hologram during “live” shows, takes the form of a 16-year-old anime girl with long turquoise pigtails....

This article contains spoilers for Marvel’s HAWKEYE episode 4, as well as potential spoilers for future episodes and the wider MCU. With two episodes left, Hawkeye has a lot of ground left to cover. The two archers not only have to get Clint home to his family by Christmas, but they also have to contend with the Tracksuit Mafia, Echo, probably the Kingpin, a murder mystery, Black Widow, and whatever surprises are going on with Kate’s mother and Jack....

CD Projekt Red, developers of one of the best RPGs of 2011, The Witcher 2, made big headlines last week for their change in policies regarding software piracy. Despite being known as a fan-friendly developer for their choice not to remove any form of DRM for The Witcher 2 (currently available only on PC), CD Projekt Red took it upon themselves to recoup some of their (potentially) lost sales due to piracy....