Atlas, the unfinished, early access, large-scale pirate MMO, suffered through a laggy, buggy, janky lunch that rated an apology from maker Grapeshot Games. That was bad, but nothing as comically bad as what the game saw at the end of the week. Some hacker got control of an administrative account and dumped a bunch of tanks, whales and combat aircraft into the world, enough to take the game offline Thursday morning and force a server rollback of about five hours the next day. Eurogamer has video

Close, now on Netflix, won’t be the film to change that, but it’s proof that, where action is concerned, Rapace could easily match stars like Keanu Reeves and Tom Cruise. Of course, there’s really only one thing that this film is meant to showcase: Rapace. Her physicality spoke volumes when she played Lisbeth Salander, and she still possesses that same magnetism (and sense that she is not to be messed with) here, even if Sam isn’t as compelling of a character. Luckily, Jewson is particularly goo

Giga Wrecker, the 2D platformer from Pokémon developer Game Freak that launched in Early Access on Steam back in 2016, is coming to consoles as Giga Wrecker Alt. Game Freak announced Thursday that versions for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One will launch later this year. Giga Wrecker is a Metroidvania where players solve puzzles to further the game’s sci-fi story, in which the world has been invaded by evil robots and left in ruins. Shinji Hosoe, the composer of soundtracks for Ridge

This spring, he’ll take the writing reins on Major X, an eponymous six-issue miniseries with art from Liefeld, Whilce Portacio and Brent Peebles. Major X himself is “a new character who is certain to mix up everything in the X-world,” the artist told Entertainment Weekly. “It was pretty exciting to put him […] somewhere between New Mutants #98 and X-Force #1,” Liefeld told Marvel.com. “I’m literally writing the Cable and the Deadpool and the Shatterstar of my youth.”Indeed, the cover of Major

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s creative director has apologized for a story choice in the game’s latest expansion that forces the main character into a heterosexual marriage, undoing the promises of same-sex romance options in the main game and reversing the personal stories some players may have built. [Warning: The remainder of this post contains spoilers for “Shadow Heritage,” the second chapter of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Legacy of the First Blade add-on.] On the game’s subreddit, fans decried

Viral challenge and prank videos have been a staple of YouTube for years, but on the tail of the controversial “Bird Box challenge,” the platform announced that it will start to crack down on “harmful and dangerous” prank videos. “We’ve always had policies to make sure what’s funny doesn’t cross the line into also being harmful or dangerous,” reads the YouTube guidelines. Previous uploads with “harmful and dangerous” content may also be removed, but will not receive strikes. Named after Netflix

Make no mistake, while Syfy’s latest series about a secret school for young assassins set in the 1980s might reek of Harry Potter and Stranger Things comparisons, Deadly Class actually has more in common with Mean Girls. Based on Rick Remender’s comic book series of the same name, Deadly Class centers around King’s Dominion Atelier of the Deadly Arts, a secret boarding school for assassins. Wadsworth is charming enough and Marcus fills his role of viewer surrogate pretty well, but what makes Dea

Disney’s adding one more movie to its lineup of live-action remakes: 1996’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Both Menken and Schwartz worked on the music for the animated Disney film. Joining Menken and Schwartz will be Tony-award winning playwright David Henry Hwang, who is set to pen the script. According to Deadline, Mandeville founder David Hoberman, had tried to bring The Hunchback of Notre Dame to Hollywood for over 30 years, starting when he was Disney film president. This led to the animated

Now, thanks to The Batman Who Laughs #2, we know why. note: This piece will contain spoilers for The Batman Who Laughs #2.] But Batman Who Laughs kicked off his own miniseries by doing precisely the opposite: He’s grabbing good versions of Bruce Wayne and bringing them to Gotham. In The Batman Who Laughs #1, Batman examines the remains of a Bruce Wayne who quit being Batman after Bane broke his back, started investing in civil improvements to Gotham, had a daughter named May, and became happy wi

If you played God of War (Polygon’s 2018 Game of the Year), you might have noticed that Kratos, a once prolific double jumper, can’t even single jump. But if you’re like me, you didn’t even jump around, because you were enjoying the company of a different staple of video game mobility: the dodge. Dodging in God of War feels fantastic. It looks cool, it feels cool, but most importantly, it’s indispensable to the game’s combat design. Check out the video above for a deep dive into what makes God o

Valentine’s Day is coming up soon — it’s Feb. 14, in case you need a reminder. Your relationship is unique, and your Valentine’s Day gift to your significant other (or best friend! For the Dungeon Master:Hand-made soap molded into the shape of a 20-sided die is a creative gift for your favorite game master. A vinyl soundtrack of your honey’s favorite movie is a swoon-worthy gift right out of a rom com. For the streamer:An upgrade to your partner’s streaming setup is a thoughtful gift that shows

Blackout, the battle royale mode of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, will get a one-week free-to-play trial beginning Thursday, Jan. 17. The trial is being offered on PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One. The trial headlines news from Treyarch about what’s next for the multiplayer-only game’s post release support, both near-term and for the rest of 2019. Yesterday, Black Ops 4’s Zombies mode, “Dead of the Night,” celebrated an unofficial holiday with the “115 Day” double XP event, which runs throug

On Jan. 8, Bungie released the toughest puzzle it had ever designed for a Destiny game: Niobe Labs. But after 27 hours, Niobe Labs was still unsolved. Niobe Labs, the biggest Destiny puzzle to dateSince the schedule for Black Armory dropped in late November, speculation about what Niobe Labs could be has circled the Destiny community. At the start of the event, waves of Fallen attacked Niobe Labs, including a big Captain protected by shield drones. Posts about Niobe Labs have few interactions an

Instead, EA offered the following statement:There’s been speculation overnight about one of our Star Wars projects. We’re fully committed to making more Star Wars games, we’re very excited about Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order from Respawn, and we’ll share more about our new projects when the time is right. EA and Disney signed an exclusive deal in 2013 to develop Star Wars games. To date, EA has delivered only a handful of games as part of that deal: two Star Wars Battlefront games from DICE, the

Red Dead Online is a work in progress, which means that Rockstar keeps adding new modes and arenas to the smorgasbord of options currently available. Gun Rush legitimately feels good, despite the heft and awkwardness of Red Dead Online’s control scheme. Gun Rush is also a reminder of how many fantastic systems Red Dead Online has that we just don’t get to experience. Overall, it’s intriguing to see this addition to Red Dead Online. Gun Rush has had a promising start, but the gap between its high

Blackout, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s battle royale mode, is getting a new limited time mode. The mode, called Down But Not Out, will introduce respawning to Blackout for the first time. The mode, which appears to be squads-only, will allow anyone in the game to respawn every time the circle resets. Sacrificing yourself to keep a squad member alive when things look bleak no longer means game over; instead, it means that you’ll appear again in just a couple of minutes when the next circle starts.

PlayStation VR now has a “demo disc” offering previews of nine virtual reality games — some of them pretty good! It doesn’t get you 500 free hours of AOL, but it does give you some time with Superhot VR and Astro Bot Rescue Mission. A PlayStation VR rig (with the PlayStation Camera) is needed; PlayStation Move controllers are optional. We’ve been sweet on Superhot, VR or standard, since its concept emerged from a 2013 game jam. Both were included on an actual physical demo disc packed with PlayS

When the original Battlefleet Gothic: Armada came out in 2016, I decided to skip it. This time around, I vowed to make time out of my busy spacefaring schedule to check out its sequel, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2. The original Battlefleet Gothic is a tabletop miniatures franchise from Games Workshop, first published in 1999. Tindalos picked up the slack, releasing Battlefleet Gothic: Armada just three years later to critical acclaim. Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 will be released Jan. 24 on Wind

The third installment in the Metro franchise, Metro Exodus, is about a month out. Moments from that chapter can be seen in the gameplay footage above. One of the most talked-about features of Exodus is its open world, which runs in contrast to the classic, claustrophobic feel of the Metro franchise. The open world of Metro Exodus is, by and large, pretty desolate. There are a few scattered enemies here and there, but generally, it’s just a big, open expanse for me to traverse as I approach missi

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor headlines the new offerings for the rest of January on Xbox Game Pass. The 2014 open-world adventure joins the Xbox 360’s Saints Row: The Third, The Lego Movie Videogame, and We Happy Few. We Happy Few, coming to Xbox Game Pass on Jan. 17, is the newest of the bunch, launching in August (it had been in early access since 2016). Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (arriving Jan. 24) launched in 2014 for Xbox One and was followed by Middle-earth: Shadow of War in 2017. Th