It’s certainly not the final release, as the developers has a few more significant additions up their sleeve. But the 1.0 version marks the end of a long road through early access that began in March 2017. According to a tweet sent from the game’s official account early this morning, Battlegrounds will leave Steam Early Access on Wednesday, Dec. 20, at 11 p.m. PST. Players, we will be leaving Early Access and launching PC 1.0 on Dec 20 11PM PST. The maintenance on live servers for 1.0 will start

Activision today boasted that Call of Duty: WWII and Destiny 2 were the top two best-selling games, in terms of revenue, in North America for 2017. The company also said Call of Duty: WWII had earned $1 billion in global sales, and that Destiny 2 had already outsold its predecessor, in terms of units sold. The first Destiny launched on four consoles — PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One — but two of them had a foot out the door. Shortly after its 2014 launch, Activision said Dest

Activision today boasted that Call of Duty: WWII and Destiny 2 were the top two best-selling games, in terms of revenue, in North America for 2017. The company also said Call of Duty: WWII had earned $1 billion in global sales, and that Destiny 2 had already outsold its predecessor, in terms of units sold. The first Destiny launched on four consoles — PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One — but two of them had a foot out the door. Shortly after its 2014 launch, Activision said Dest

Hokuto ga Gotoku, the Yakuza team’s video game based on Fist of the North Star (aka Hokuto no Ken), continues to look amazing and bizarre. One of Kenshiro’s more impressive abilities in Hokuto ga Gotoku is the power to take the dying screams of his enemies — such as “ひでぶつ (hidebu)” — and beat up other opponents with them. “Abeshi” is one of the phrases that appear in the Fist of the North Star manga, often after some unlucky bad guy has his face rearranged by Kenshiro. As seen in the trailer abo

That’s until I spent a few days with the Okami HD re-release, which is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. I’ve always been impressed by how stunning Okami looked, especially as it launched when so many games were dreary-looking and far less visually inspired. Okami was stunning then, and now that the game is in 4K, it’s only become better. Based on the original PlayStation 3 HD remaster from 2012, Okami HD borrows the ability to set the game to widescreen, which is definitely the best

Nyko’s Battery Pack for the Nintendo Switch is an interesting combination of good ideas that are marred by the reality of execution. The Nintendo Switch can burn through its internal battery in as little as 2.5 hours, which means that it’s relatively common to run out of juice while traveling. The battery adds approximately 6.75 ounces to a system that weighs close to 14.25 ounces with the Joy-Cons attached. You also need to remember to turn on the battery pack using the button on the back of th

Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, colloquially known as PUBG (pronounced pub-gee), is if nothing else conceptually efficient. Newcomers who don’t religiously monitor video game trends can grok the beginning, middle and end of their first match. The same isn’t true in Battlegrounds, where players take great pleasure, consciously or not, from spoiling the fun of their peers. Battlegrounds still carries flaws from its earliest daysI am not the first person to say Battlegrounds is broken, nor am I the

Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, colloquially known as PUBG (pronounced pub-gee), is if nothing else conceptually efficient. Newcomers who don’t religiously monitor video game trends can grok the beginning, middle and end of their first match. The same isn’t true in Battlegrounds, where players take great pleasure, consciously or not, from spoiling the fun of their peers. Battlegrounds still carries flaws from its earliest daysI am not the first person to say Battlegrounds is broken, nor am I the

There was a moment during Star Wars: The Last Jedi when I became convinced that the true villain of the franchise had been hiding in plain sight the whole time. [Warning: The following contains major spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.] Then I thought back to the scene with DJ, and a much larger enemy that has existed throughout every single one of the Star Wars films: war. Every installment of Star Wars has naturally involved a variety of wars to push the action forward. We’ve seen plenty of

There was a moment during Star Wars: The Last Jedi when I became convinced that the true villain of the franchise had been hiding in plain sight the whole time. [Warning: The following contains major spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.] Then I thought back to the scene with DJ, and a much larger enemy that has existed throughout every single one of the Star Wars films: war. Every installment of Star Wars has naturally involved a variety of wars to push the action forward. We’ve seen plenty of

American Vandal is juvenile, but it celebrates the notion that high school pranks never go out of fashion. American Vandal revels in its vulgar one-liners and crude drawings, reminding a worldwide audience that teenage, boyish humor isn’t just for teenage boys. Talk of American Vandal spread like wildfire and, before the end of September, everyone was talking about it. After close to eight hours, Netflix’s American Vandal left me with a therapeutic sense of rediscovery, facing the nostalgia that

American Vandal is juvenile, but it celebrates the notion that high school pranks never go out of fashion. American Vandal revels in its vulgar one-liners and crude drawings, reminding a worldwide audience that teenage, boyish humor isn’t just for teenage boys. Talk of American Vandal spread like wildfire and, before the end of September, everyone was talking about it. After close to eight hours, Netflix’s American Vandal left me with a therapeutic sense of rediscovery, facing the nostalgia that

Pokémon Go’s augmented reality feature set is about to expand. The AR+ functionality, once activated, will give iPhone and iPad users the chance to interact more directly with wild Pokémon. Should a trainer move closer or further away to the monster on the screen, for example, it will respond accordingly. The enhanced AR experience has been in the works for several months now; Niantic joined Apple execs on stage during June’s Worldwide Developers Conference, when the company first previewed Poké

Pokémon Go’s augmented reality feature set is about to expand. The AR+ functionality, once activated, will give iPhone and iPad users the chance to interact more directly with wild Pokémon. Should a trainer move closer or further away to the monster on the screen, for example, it will respond accordingly. The enhanced AR experience has been in the works for several months now; Niantic joined Apple execs on stage during June’s Worldwide Developers Conference, when the company first previewed Poké

Magic Leap, a notoriously secretive tech startup that has been working on augmented reality for the past few years, finally offered a peek at its hardware today. Magic Leap said on its website that its software development kit and creator portal will be available early next year. Magic Leap’s augmented reality technology promises to mix real-world vision with computer-generated digital objects, in the vein of Microsoft’s HoloLens or Google’s Glass goggles. On its website, Magic Leap presents a f

13: Final Fantasy 13 (PS3/Xbox 360, 2010)Like FF14, Final Fantasy 13 stands as a monument to the breakdown of Square Enix’s internal processes as the industry moved into the high-definition generation. 12: Final Fantasy 3 (Famicom, 1990)In a lot of ways, this was the first Final Fantasy that really felt like, well, Final Fantasy. 4: Final Fantasy 4 (Super Famicom, 1991)No game in the series has done quite so much to define the what it means to be Final Fantasy like Final Fantasy 4 (released in t

And so we’ve come to the very last episode of Awful Squad in 2017. This week’s Awful Squad attendees include:Justin McElroyChris PlanteRuss FrushtickTravis McElroySpecial Guest Merritt KSpecial thanks to @CapnDee for some great artwork! The part of Simone played by 1990s Al Pacino #awfulsquad pic.twitter.com/GbgbckWC4E — Douglas (@CapnDee) December 6, 2017No idea what Awful Squad is? If you like this sort of video content, perhaps you’d enjoy Polygon’s many video series, including Monster Factor

Bridge Constructor, the smash hit multiplatform physics game, has a new guest star. In Bridge Constructor Portal, the malevolent artificial intelligence is back on Android, iOS, Mac and Windows on Dec. 20, and it runs like a dream. The thing with the original Bridge Constructor was that it always felt confined to the screen. For fans of the original series of Bridge Constructor games it’s a no-brainer, but it’s an extra treat for fans of the Portal games in particular. Portal Bridge Constructor

So far, he’s racked up nearly 36 million views on the platform, serving up hot chicken dinners on the regular. Back in March, the day after the game launched on Steam, we asked him to tell us why he made the decision to switch over to the game from DayZ, where he’d made a name for himself hunting bandits and campers at long range. Ball has spent plenty of time with it, and he said that it requires a dramatically different set of skills. But if you’re new to the game, Ball offered up a few tips.

I don’t put much stock in numbers, but I’m often reminded of the one that we gave to Oxenfree, a game that’s become a cult classic since its release in early 2016. I scored Oxenfree a seven, which isn’t bad by our scale. Life is Strange, is enjoyable despite its often ridiculed dialogue, but Oxenfree does a better job of exploring how teenagers actually talk, or at least how we expect them to. I keep coming back to Oxenfree to tinker with the conversations, try out different directions and piece