But during its first trial period, Mario Tennis Aces seemed like it could be the rare Nintendo game with painless online multiplayer. Mario Tennis Aces’ centerpiece tournament mode gave me everything I wanted from online play: fast matchmaking, quick loading times and a competitive structure that was easy to follow. The stick and carrot of both trying to win your bracket while racking up points to unlock new characters is a clever, catchy loop — one that kept me playing the Mario Tennis Aces tri

PlayVS, a start-up building the infrastructure to support high school esports, has received a massive round of funding from a star-studded collection of high-profile investors. PlayVS is the only private company officially sanctioned by the National Federation of State High Schools (NFHS), the non-profit organization that literally writes the rules for organized sports at the majority of high schools in the United States. So far the group facilitates a total of 17 sports, which are played by 7.9

And that’s the matter of Sumo, the “dog” with human hands. [Warning: Some light spoilers for Detroit: Become Human are below.] Thanks to Polygon news editor Mike McWhertor, we’ve fashioned a better cover for what could have been the optimal version of Detroit: Become Human. None of the above makes Detroit any less of a disappointing, inconsistent, tonally troubling game, of course. But to ignore that even this dog — a good dog!

Destiny 2’s fall expansion, Forsaken, will attempt to breathe new life into the game when it launches Sept. 4 on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. Purchasing Forsaken will net players new abilities to use, a new campaign to play through and new areas to explore. More than just Forsaken is coming in the next year, as Bungie also introduced a new content rollout strategy for Destiny 2’s second year, the Annual Pass. A bundle of Forsaken and its Annual Pass will be available for $69.99. Activ

The first trailer for Paramount’s Bumblebee, a spinoff based on the cutest Transformers star, certainly seems like a regular ol’ Transformers movie. There’s no sign of Optimus Prime or Megatron, but all the traditional elements from Paramount’s Transformers cinematic franchise are present. Bumblebee takes place in 1987, about 20 years before the events of the first Transformers movie. On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Ha

Square Enix is back for E3 2018, and apparently for very good reasons. This is what we expect from Square Enix’s E3 Showcase, which will be a pre-recorded video airing Monday, June 11 at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. Since reintroducing her in 2013, Square Enix has used these showcases to deliver unrelenting action, harrowing escapes and suspense-filled combat. Square Enix has to lay its cards on the table here, and that includes telling everyone when they get this long-awaited sequel. Dragon Quest Builders

NBA 2K19 will launch Sept. 11, 2018 and 14-time NBA All-Star LeBron James will make his second cover appearance for 2K Sports’ flagship series, the publisher announced today. The launch on Switch is noteworthy as it’s the second straight year NBA 2K is on Nintendo’s lead console. He appeared on the cover of 2013’s NBA 2K14, the franchise’s debut on this console generation. 2K Sports also announced that NBA 2K19: The Prelude will be available for download on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One beginning A

BasicsIn this section, we’ll cover the BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle basics — buttons and gauges. ButtonsFor ease of use between PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PC versions, Blazblue Cross Tag Battle labels buttons in its own platform-agnostic manner. Attacking and combosBlazBlue Cross Tag Battle has made basic combos as easy as they’re going to get. In BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle and many other 2D fighting games, there are high and low attacks to worry about. In BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle,

I’ve played Vampyr on and off for a solid week and so far I’m enjoying myself immensely. But, so far, I’m getting by without. Throughout the first third of Vampyr I’ve eviscerated dozens of rookie vampire hunters and mutilated enough slavering, zombie-like scavengers to fill a double-decker bus. The game is encouraging me to commit murder left and right, but so far it’s refusing to punish me for my lack of bloodlust. In that regard, the game feels decidedly retro.

On May 30, the best and biggest of Pokémon blessed us with its presence in Pokémon Go. Alolan Exeggutor does happen to be bigger than Ho-Oh, according to the Pokédex, but it’s funny to see a legendary dwarfed. In the AR view, Alolan Exeggutor ranges from a goofy photo-op to a gigantic creature to a mildly terrifying face. Gone but not forgotten pic.twitter.com/uWsHOKfwKX — ReverseJosh ⚡ (@ReverseJosh) June 2, 2018At least it found its home amongst palm trees. Excellent timing to get people using

Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth is the last Hellraiser film that one could argue is worth seeing, and the series has since descended into straight-to-video oblivion. It turns out that this isn’t a Hellraiser 3 puzzle box, it’s a Hellraiser 3 puzzle blox. But no, this is the puzzle blox that was being advertised. This is the official description:Mezco Toyz is proud to introduce Puzzle Blox — a pop culture game. The Hellraiser Puzzle Blox features Hellraiser — the High Priest of Hell and leader of the

Destiny 2: Forsaken will take us back to the Reef, home of the Awoken and some tentatively friendly Fallen. After beating the Red War campaign in Destiny 2, players are able to return to familiar planets to claim missions leading to special weapons. But before any of that, players come across a Fallen Captain and a Hive Knight in the reactor room on Titan. You can kill Mithrax if you attack him first, leaving you to then kill the Hive Knight. According to the Destiny Wiki, the House of Dusk is l

YouTube’s advertising guidelines include a simple disclaimer: Advertisers “have a choice about where to show their ads.” It’s easy for ads to run on creators’ channels. Many creators are just happy there are ads running at all in this demonetization era. Then there are disturbing cases like what’s happening to some LGBTQ creators. The longstanding general thesis among YouTubers is that LGBTQ content is considered sensitive material. That’s why videos addressing LGBTQ topics may see similar effec

Echoes of Alterac comes with two massive new features: the first is a brand new battleground, Alterac Pass, the first Warcraft battleground in the game. Along with Alterac Pass, a new hero is hitting the nexus: Yrel. Alterac Pass is all about recapturing the spirit of Alterac Valley, one of the most iconic World of Warcraft experiences from the game’s entire history. Expanding on the NexusEchoes of Alterac represents a new step forward for Heroes of the Storm as a standalone product. Yrel, along

Ask any stranger off the street to name a Pokémon, and chances are they’ll come up with Pikachu. While Pokémon were originally envisioned to be more “tough-looking” overall, a few people in the company expressed desire for cuter Pokémon. Nishida wasn’t even on the Pokémon team at first; she was actually working on character designs for a Mega Drive game. In fact, Nishino was so attached to Pikachu’s design that he purposefully made Pikachu harder to find in-game. Indeed, the love of Pikachu has

Pre-orders are now available for Red Dead Redemption 2 itself, and for its Special Edition and Ultimate Edition. (The name is identical to that of perhaps the best horse in the original Red Dead Redemption, which offered high speed, stamina and health.) Red Dead Redemption 2 costs $59.99 by itself. Pre-ordering will get you half a million GTA$ (Red Dead Redemption 2 itself), 1 million GTA$ (the Special Edition) or 2 million GTA$ (the Ultimate Edition). Red Dead Redemption 2 is scheduled to launc

During Clueless Gamer, O’Brien (and sometimes his guests) will play a video game he knows nothing about and make fun of it while doing so. “It was a happy accident when video-game companies started saying, ‘Hey Conan, we’re the number-one video game. Conan isn’t there because Clueless Gamer is fun to make, although it must be; he’s there because video game companies are paying him to make those spots. And O’Brien isn’t shy about his lack of familiarity with or even respect for video games as a w

Along with the reveal of the game’s setting, you can expect that Ubisoft will linger on the promise of enhanced stability and dramatic gameplay improvements. In order to keep fans excited, expect Ubisoft to put new, never-before-seen features front and center. Beyond Good & Evil 2In May, developers of Beyond Good & Evil 2 showed off 45 seconds of pre-alpha footage. From our article:The developers mentioned that Beyond Good & Evil 2 will offer battles between massive airships, dogfights between f

Rockshot, a new free-to-play shooter with a base-building component, hit Steam Early Access today, and if you have any lingering affection for Valhalla Game Studios’ Devil’s Third Online, it might be up your alley. Rockshot is being developed by Soleil Ltd., which has ties to Devil’s Third maker Valhalla and is led by former Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive developers. Rockshot looks like a spiritual successor to Devil’s Third Online, the free-to-play multiplayer shooter based on Wii U game Devil’

The sequel to action-RPG Lords of the Fallen is being developed by Defiant Studios, a New York City-based team founded by former Avalanche Studios leads, publisher CI Games announced today. Defiant Studios was founded in 2016 by David Grijns and Roland Lesterlin, who served as game director and executive producer on Just Cause 3, respectively. Lords of the Fallen 2 was confirmed in 2015, when CI Games said it was developing a sequel without the involvement of the original developer, Deck13 Inter