Browsing: Gaming

James Bond has never been shy to get his knuckles bloody, and in IO Interactive’s 007: First Light, the rookie MI6 agent will have the opportunity to get into several scraps. This makes for a big departure from IO’s work on the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy–where combat was always seen as a last resort–as the studio has been inspired by some of the greatest action games of all time for its Bond origin story. Taking a few pages from the Arkham and Uncharted playbook, the studio is aiming to create a combat system that’s fast, furious, and flows into…

Video games rule. Sometimes. They can be really cool. It can be tough, though. Finding them. The games are good, but the discoverability? Miserable. Storefronts prioritize what’s already selling in a frenzy despite an intimate record of your playing habits. If your tastes generally lie outside of roguelikes or survival games, you’ve noticed you’re not always being served to your palette. That’s why I love Steam Next Fest. A publicity window, sure, but an easy opportunity to dredge the trenches of the video world. Steam, for all of its resources and data, never seems to match my freak. In my…

Early in “The Morrow,” the season 1 finale of the Game of Thrones prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, battered knight Ser Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings) tells even more battered series protagonist Dunk (Peter Claffey) “The gods don’t favor a fraud.” “Then why have they favored me?” Dunk responds. Viewers who’ve followed the show to this point will understand what Lyonel is talking about — Dunk is despondent over the death of Baelor Targaryen (Bertie Carvel), the heir to the Iron Throne of Westeros, who was mortally wounded while defending Dunk in a trial by combat. Lyonel is furious…

Xbox players and industry observers were surprised last week when Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer announced his retirement, with Xbox president Sarah Bond also announcing plans to leave the company. Now, Bond has shared her reasons for stepping away from the company.In a lengthy post on her LinkedIn page, Bond wrote that she committed to staying with Xbox and guiding it through “a critical period of change” following the Activision Blizzard buyout in 2022. She went on to share her belief that the moment has been “navigated” and Xbox’s gaming division is ready for “what comes next.””With that, I’ve decided…

30 years ago Toy Story chronicled a generational conflict between an old-timey pull-string doll and a fancy new one with buttons. The two toys learned to get along. This week a trailer for Toy Story 5 arrived showing both toys enacting a Butlerian Jihad against tablets. While I agree on the potential detriments of excessive screen-time, it is telling how the creators and intended audience of Toy Story films now identify less with the kid playing with toys and more with the adult who just spent all of dinner hearing about “looksmaxxing.” If you’re a child who wants to watch a movie…

The Arc Raiders Shrouded Sky update is February’s installment on the roadmap that Embark Studios published last month, and it’s the chunkiest one there in terms of the sheer quantity and variety of new content we’re getting. It follows Headwinds in January, which added things like the Trophy Display project and the Bird City map condition, while Flashpoint will come in March, followed by Riven Tides in April. This is all part of an overarching group of Arc Raiders updates called Escalation. Here’s when Arc Raiders Shrouded Sky releases in your time zone, along with details on what to expect.…

The Fractured Kingdom is holding an election in Cavalier Game Studios’ new card-based roguelike Prime Monster. This nation has a three-party system that lets players choose between Viscount Sucksworth of the Vampiric Victory party, Orcs-4-U representative Chopper Badstone, and The Zombified People’s Movement’s prime shuffler, Rotilda De Cay. They’re all monsters here, and there’s no promise too outrageous for them to make in order to gain political power. The demo for Prime Monster is out now on Steam, and the cards let players unleash every dirty trick in the book. Murder isn’t out of the question, but why kill your…

Today marks the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda. Originally released for the Famicom Disk System in 1986, Nintendo’s ambitious adventure kicked off the most beloved high-fantasy video game series of them all. Through decades, the tunic-wearing hero has slain stalfos, obliterated octoroks, and harassed cuccos. But behind all the sword and sorcery lies another campaign in waiting, an adventure Link has never braved but come very close to undertaking: some outer space shit. In 2017, Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, art director Satoru Takizawa and technical director Takuhiro Dohta gave a keynote at GDC. It offered…

Over 10 seasons and counting, Dropout’s trivia quiz show Um, Actually has hosted plenty of big-name nerds from outside the streamer’s usual roster of talent. Critical Role’s Matthew Mercer has a few wins under his belt, Marvel Comics writer Cody Ziglar recently took home the crown in the season 11 premiere, and season 9 ended with an episode where all the contestants were voice actors, like Dante Basco, who played Zuko in the original animated run of Avatar: The Last Airbender. If host Ify Nwadiwe had his way, though, you’d see plenty more familiar guests plop down on the show’s…

Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta – Day One Edition (Switch) $60 | Releases June 30 Preorder at Amazon Preorder at Walmart Preorder at GameStop First released for PS Vita in Japan over a decade ago, Ys: Revelations in Celceta quickly became a hit, garnering rave reviews from critics for its real-time combat and engaging narrative. It would eventually make its way stateside, and now a premium new version is coming to Nintendo Switch on June 30. Preorders are now open for Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta – Day One Edition, which comes bundled with a slew of collectibles. If you…