Like its last post on Elective Mode, the Diablo 4 development team revealed potential changes to the way the series handles items. A new blog post from lead systems designer David Kim touches on item affixes, stats, and the removal of the super powerful Ancient Legendaries. Blizzard will add new affixes to items in Diablo 4. Without meeting a specific threshold of each of these stats, certain item affixes won’t activate. It seems that players can make items even more powerful than basic Legendar

YouTube will no longer restrict violent video game content starting today, as announced in a new Google support post. This means that “future gaming uploads that include scripted or simulated violence may be approved instead of being age-restricted” and that “there will be fewer restrictions for violence in gaming.” Likewise, if the video solely centers on gory content, like “dismemberment, decapitations, [or] showing of human corpses with severe injuries,” it’ll still likely get age-restricted.

The end of the year means it’s time to buzz about what’s been buzzed about for the past 12 months. Overwatch was Tumblr’s top game last year, and continues to hold that spot, but a new challenger emerged for second place. Amanda Brennan, head of content insights on Tumblr, attributes some of this popularity to the game’s ten year anniversary, with popular YouTubers streaming Minecraft. “There’s a lot of aesthetic content around [Minecraft], like the beautiful gifs and beautiful sceneries, people

Arise: A Simple Story is a narrative game with a difference. These have become familiar tropes in the narrative game genre, which has exploded in the last decade. The figure we see is an old man from pre-agricultural times, evidently a beloved tribal leader. But more than that, it’s a moving narrative game that investigates the passage of human life and the importance of companionship. Arise: A Simple Story is out on Dec. 3 for PlayStation 4, Windows PC via the Epic Store, and Xbox One.

2019 has been a great year for Polygon’s video team and the stories we’ve told on our YouTube channel. But if you’ve had a busy year, you might’ve missed some of the videos we’ve released in the last twelve months. Or perhaps you want to rewatch some of your favorite videos with friends and family and don’t want to go hunting for clips. From Unraveled to Overboard, here’s a collection of some of our favorite Polygon videos of 2019. Be sure to head to the Polygon YouTube channel for more.

Pokémon Go has basic missions that players can complete in exchange for Pokémon encounters, items, and Stardust. They’re called Field Research Tasks. Spinning Pokéstops will give players a Field Research Task to complete. After turning in seven stamps, one of these will spawn with a chance to be Shiny. Here’s a complete list of the current Field Research Tasks and the rewards, as of Dec. 1, 2019.

The Legend of Zelda’s Link is coming to Super Mario Maker 2. Nintendo posted a trailer today, which showcases the exciting update — the Master Sword is coming, and it’ll let players transform Mario into an 8-bit Super Mario Bros. styled Link in Super Mario Maker 2. Nintendo showed off all the ways Link can add challenge to Super Mario Maker 2 courses, including a level that’s built specifically around the character himself — a four-player Link adventure. As you’re playing, you’ll see other playe

The Atari VCS, the crowd-funded, retro-styled-but-modern-console/gaming PC, is delayed for those who donated to the venture on IndieGogo. “Our Indiegogo backers are extremely important to us, and the entire team and I would like to thank our backers once again for their loyalty and continued support. The Atari VCS, though it does have a bunch of Atari 2600 ROMs pre-loaded on it, is not a throwback mini-console; it’s effectively a Linux gaming PC, with a state-of-the-art AMD processor. Arzt didn’

Broly, in his Dragon Ball Super: Broly form, closes out the second season of DLC characters for Dragon Ball FighterZ on Thursday, Dec. 5. The Legendary Super Saiyan is the sixth and final fighter for the 2019 season, and winds up a schedule that includes Jiren, Videl, Goku from Dragon Ball GT, Janemba and Gogeta (Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan). Of course, he rates a trailer showcasing a bonkers, over-the-top fighting style that is in serious need of anger management counseling. Broly brings the

Black Friday is, frankly, an overwhelming “holiday,” from the Christmas Creep starting earlier and earlier every year to the massive Black Friday ads promising “unbelievable” doorbusters. It can be hard to sort through all the deals, especially when you’re feeling sluggish after all that Turkey. Polygon will be on hand throughout Black Friday through to Cyber Monday, calling out the best deals in gaming and entertainment. While we’ve got plenty of individual roundups tailored to specific categor

But online games portal Big Fish’s charity drive this year didn’t ask its customers for a cent. Players of Big Fish’s casual games were simply invited to celebrate the charity drive by competing against one another. Each Big Fish community, clustered around one of seven individual game brands, took part in a “game-off” in which they competed to pull the most hours of play time. Big Fish’s casual online games include Toy Story Drop, Cooking Craze and Big Fish Casino. “It started with one employee

Codemasters, the studio behind Grid, Dirt, and Formula 1 racing games, has acquired Project CARS developer Slightly Mad Studios. The acquisition of Slightly Mad Studios gives Codemasters ownership of the Project CARS brand, as well as “an unannounced Hollywood blockbuster title.” Slightly Mad Studios was founded in 2009. It developed two games in the Need for Speed series for Electronic Arts before crowdfunding its own original racing game, Project CARS, which it released in 2015. The studio rel

Share All sharing options for: 40 movies for every kind of family to watch over the holidaysChances are, if you’re home for the holidays, you’ll hit a little downtime where the family just wants to sit around and watch a movie. Streaming on AmazonFor families who love to cookBig Night (1996)What’s better than Thanksgiving dinner? Streaming on AmazonFor families obsessed with twist endingsOK, if your family members are obsessed with twist endings, they probably already know what’s up with Serenit

Two weeks after the Google Stadia launch, Founder’s Edition players can share the service with a friend. People who bought the platform early were promised the ability to share with a friend for a few months using a Buddy Pass that was came with their purchase. Once your friend has redeemed the code on the Stadia app, they’ll be able to create an account and start playing. With Stadia Pro, your friend will have access to Destiny 2: The Collection and Samurai Shodown. Whether you’re gifting a Bud

Xbox Live Gold subscribers and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will get access to four free games in December as part of those subscriptions, including dinosaur theme park sim Jurassic World Evolution, the video game adaptation of Toy Story 3, and the Xbox 360 port of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate, originally released for Nintendo 3DS. For the full month of December, Microsoft’s Xbox Games With Gold program will also offer Insane Robots, a cartoonish card battler featuring on

PlayStation Plus subscribers will get access to two action-packed games this December: Respawn Entertainment’s first-person shooter Titanfall 2 and Milestone’s motorcycle racing game Monster Energy Supercross — The Official Videogame. Both PlayStation 4 games will be available as part of PlayStation Plus starting Dec. 3. If you only know the Titanfall universe thanks to Apex Legends, Titanfall 2 is worth downloading from PS Plus. Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame was released in

One of Death Stranding’s shortcomings, the tiny typeface that permeates the game’s menus and user interface, will be addressed in an upcoming patch for the game, developer Kojima Productions said on Twitter. According to the studio, players will soon have “the ability to increase text size.” Kojima Productions said that’s just one player request it’s addressing; the option to dispose of individual vehicles is another. We are working on another update to address the most common requests from play

Lamar Jackson, the fleet quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens, is rated 96 in speed in the latest Madden NFL 20 update — making him the fastest quarterback in Madden history, surpassing one of the greatest video game athletes of all time. That would be Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons in Madden NFL 2004, remembered alongside Jeremy Roenick and Tecmo Bo Jackson as one of the last great overpowered video game athletes. Jackson’s 7.1 yards per rushing attempt leads all NFL runners, and his 897 r

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint has more than its fair share of issues. The first raid for Breakpoint is called Project Titan, and it appears to have something to do with technology on run amok. In the trailer for Project Titan we can see a squad of Ghosts slowly approaching what looks like a computer that’s encased in glass, or crystal of some kind. When the Ghost reaches out to touch the computer, the screen cuts to black and the image of a black helicopter with four rotors appears. Ghost

When and where players spawn into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare multiplayer maps has been a point of contention since before the original came out in 2007. Some players are spawning into the game in mid air, occasionally causing them to fall to their deaths. These spawn issues are fairly new, however. One video, embedded above, shows a handful of players falling to death in rapid succession. The single-player campaign in particular stood apart, both for its excellent gameplay and its uncomfortabl