I’ve always loved Metroidvanias and the critical response seemed to imply that Hollow Knight was one of the best ever made. You see, just a month before its February release date, Hollow Knight was announced for Nintendo Switch. Sandwiched among the huge announcements was the shocking news that, yes, Hollow Knight was out right that minute. Hollow Knight was able to seep into every bit of free time I had, and I nibbled at it like a fine steak. I was going to piece Hollow Knight’s mysteries toget

And certainly there are still plenty of games that fit into the idea of a backlog very well, thank you. But the whole concept of the backlog is starting to feel as anachronistic as episodes of The X-Files that were recorded on VHS tapes. The backlog can make video games feel like homework, and that’s a crappy thing to happen in a hobby that’s usually meant to be relaxing. The industry continues to move toward the idea that as many games as possible should be ongoing services, and publishers are

To make matters worse, many of the games released in the U.S. under the Shin Megami Tensei label had other titles in Japan (e.g., Shin Megami Tensei: Persona was called Megami Ibunroku: Persona). Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3/FESShin Megami Tensei: Persona 4/GoldenTokyo Mirage Sessions #FEShin Megami Tensei: Persona 5Dungeon RPGsThese games drop you into a first-person 3D maze and force you to fight your way to the end. Shin Megami TenseiShin Megami Tensei 2Revelations: PersonaShin Megami Tensei

The new Cursed Sails expansion for Sea of Thieves will be active for three weeks. In this guide, we’ll cover everything that comes in the new Cursed Sails expansion, including how to unlock every time-locked cosmetic. We’ll be covering both the details of the regional skeleton ship battles and walking you through how to complete Wanda’s story for a title and three sets of new sails. Skeleton ship battlesThe battles against skeleton ships take place in all three regions at the world. “I heard the

Did you hear that parents are paying for coaching to help their children get better at Fortnite? It seems like the only reason people are talking about Fortnite coaching at all is that they know we’ll click on Fortnite stories. I’m sure there are bad Fortnite coaches and good Fortnite coaches, the same as there are with private lessons for any skill. Blunt evidence of our nation’s decline: #Parents hire coaches to help their children win at #Fortnite. Fortnite coaching is just another example of

Hunting for new planets in No Man’s Sky requires a lot of travel. No Man’s Sky seeks out the boring (yet somehow fulfilling) parts of travel and crafts an experience around them. When being lost feels great“Mundane” travel in games so rarely reflects the way we handle it in reality. No Man’s Sky’s primary travel mechanics, by nature, encapsulate that mental push and pull behind travel almost every time a player moves to another planet. Yet, these personal encounters with the universe of No Man’s

Today, the streaming platform announced that it will bring an entire docket of iconic Korean drama series — K-dramas — to Twitch Presents throughout the month of August. A comprehensive schedule and full list of programs can be found at Twitch Presents. This is the first time that Twitch has officially aired K-dramas, but Jane Weedon, director of business development at Twitch, doesn’t believe the event is without precedent. “Because crossover appeal exists between fans of K-dramas and some of t

Since Carrie Fisher’s untimely death on Dec. 27, 2016, Star Wars fans have wondered how the franchise would handle her absence in Star Wars: Episode IX. Those rumors were shot down by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who initially said that Fisher wouldn’t appear in Episode IX at all. However, it was revealed in late July that we will see General Leia Organa in the film, thanks to unused footage originally shot for The Force Awakens. “We desperately loved Carrie Fisher,” said writer-directo

Infinity Wars, Marvel Comics’ blockbuster crossover by Gerry Duggan, Mike Deodato, Frank Martin and Cory Petit, starts in earnest this week. [Warning: This article is going to be pretty heavy on Infinity Wars #1 spoilers, so turn back now if you haven’t read it.] The Infinity WatchThe bulk of Infinity Wars #1 revolves around the first meeting of the new Infinity Watch, a team made up of all the people who have one of the Infinity Stones. With her identity revealed, Infinity Wars #1’s opening seq

Game of the Year 2018 contender Mario Tennis Aces continues to receive major updates, improving some of its more frustrating parts. He also can’t return balls as easily or quickly; lunge as far for stray balls; or serve up return shots that are both way high and way fast. We’re slowly entering a Bowser Jr.-safe world for lowly tennis players who just want to play as Daisy, it seems. Nintendo and developer Camelot Software Planning haven’t ignored other parts of Mario Tennis Aces, either. And the

Sony will offer open-world crime drama Mafia 3 and multiplayer horror game Dead by Daylight as freebies to PlayStation Plus subscribers in August 2018, the company announced today. Behaviour Interactive’s Dead by Daylight is a 4v1 multiplayer game in which one player assumes the role of a maniacal killer, while four others play as survivors hoping to escape the killer’s rampage. PlayStation Vita owners can download touchscreen-controlled action game Draw Slasher and the Warhammer 40,000 classic

Super Seducer. Despite negative reviews and backlash, La Ruina’s RLR Training Inc. is releasing a sequel to the game, which it tells Game Revolution is supposed to be “more inclusive.” This time, there will also be a female protagonist. It looks like the company is responding to criticism, though, and in a statement to Game Revolution, RLR Training said that Super Seducer 2 “has cleaned up its act and is back to give players a new, inclusive and well-informed” experience. Super Seducer 2 is in d

World of Warcraft is about to get a new expansion, Battle for Azeroth, which returns to the series’ roots of faction-against-faction conflict. Blizzard has rolled out a two-part pre-expansion campaign called War of the Thorns, with two different stories for the Horde and the Alliance. War of the Thorns culminates with the Night Elf world tree, Teldrassil, being burned down. When we learned that the burning of Teldrassil kicks off the newest war between the Alliance and Horde, players were nervou

The company will publishing its next game, the digital card game Artifact, on Nov. 28 via Steam. Artifact will be released for Linux, Mac and Windows PC in November, Valve said in a news release Wednesday. Players will earn Artifact merchandise and earn two keys for free copies of the game when it’s released. The digital card game is based on the world of Dota 2, Valve’s popular online battle arena game, and was designed by Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering. Artifact will shi

As outlined by Xbox Wire, the new Game Pass tab from the Xbox One’s Home dashboard was added on Monday, and will steer subscribers to what’s new on the service every time they turn on their console. Popular games, new additions and deals, to include downloadable content for Game Pass titles, will also be spotlighted. Prior to the new UI, the most recent changes to Xbox Game Pass include FastStart, which Microsoft said at E3 2018 would allow players to begin playing games twice as quickly after s

Frankie, an eight-year-old dog better known to the Twitch community as FrankerZ, died yesterday, and the outpouring of support from the community hasn’t stopped since. Twitch even put a callout on Twitter for users to pay tribute to Frankie by using then FrankerZ emote while watching streams. pic.twitter.com/IyozppNQaq — Twitch (@Twitch) July 31, 2018It clearly worked. The FrankerZ emote was used almost 150,000 times yesterday, according to statistics site TwitchEmotes. People are still using th

As much as we hate to admit it, summer break is coming to an end. Soon you’ll be heading back to class, or maybe starting at a new school. Whether you’re feeling intimidated, excited, or just worried about getting your summer reading done in time, there’s no denying that fall is coming, bringing that first day of school ever closer. Most back to school guides focus on what you need for class, but we know that you’re just as interested in what you’ll be doing with your time that’s not spent in th

That’s basically the concept behind Heaven Will Be Mine, the latest visual novel developed by Pillow Fight Games and Worst Girl Games. First there’s Saturn. Then there’s Pluto, a free and joyous spirit who controls the powerful Krun Macula, a massive mech capable of hurling small stars across the battlefield. Saturn, Pluto and Luna-Terra all have a history together. Heaven Will Be Mine is available on Steam and Itch.io for $14.99, but it’s currently on sale through both platforms.

CCP Games, developer of the massively multiplayer spacefaring game Eve Online, has turned over publishing duties for that game’s Chinese servers to NetEase. Eve Online is unique among MMOs in that the entire world plays together in the same in-game universe called Tranquility. NetEase is among the largest video game publishers in the world, known in China for the Westward Journey series. It operates games from Blizzard Entertainment in the Chinese market, including World of Warcraft, Hearthstone

Difficulty level: I’m too young to dieThe technique: Playing official, sanctioned, contemporary re-releases of classic games. Recommended picks:Difficulty level: Hey, not too roughThe technique: Using emulators to play classic games. Emulators exist for nearly every classic video game console you can think of, as well as for most legacy microcomputer platforms. A TV has to upscale the image to display a classic console’s video output in 720p or above. The pros: If you want to play classic games