First came critical praise for the hit board game Scythe, followed by the first trailer for a video game called Iron Harvest, which is set in the same world. Now comes a short movie based on one of his paintings by Neill Blomkamp’s experimental film studio. Called Gdansk, Blomkamp’s short film is the latest effort from Oats Studios, which was recently profiled by our sister site The Verge. Blomkamp’s studio says that Gdansk is just the beginning of an entire series of short films, focusing on a

Despite the amount of time and money I spent on it, I was never any good at World of Warcraft. Azeroth, its vast open world, is simply too intricate to be contained by the main story. The goal is to create your own stories, and take on your own character in the world. During the opening weeks of the expansion, players would phase in and out of regions almost at random. World of Warcraft also failed to avoid more hostile attitude changes post-GamerGate, the forum and in-game chatter becoming a le

In this week’s Issue at Hand, Polygon’s show about the strange world of comics, hosted by me, Susana Polo, we’re wrapping up a two-part series on Watchmen, the highly influential graphic novel. And any discussion of Watchmen would incomplete without talking about who owns the rights to its characters — i.e., not Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the artists who created them. But if Moore and Gibbons signed a contract giving up those rights, why is the ownership of Watchmen such a controversial notion

Skyrim is out for the Nintendo Switch, and that means a lot of people are experiencing Bethesda’s classic open-world RPG for the first time. AlchemyAlchemy ingredients in Skyrim are pretty cheap, and the potions you create with them can sell for a lot of gold. This also means that the best way to level enchanting is just to make a lot of Iron Daggers and throw enchantments on them. Then go back with your fortified gear and make better enchanting potions, and then make another set of alchemy gear

Jon Shafer, designer of Sid Meier’s Civilization 5, has parted ways with Paradox Interactive, citing creative differences. In March, Paradox announced that it had brought Shafer on full-time to start a new project. Earlier this week they parted ways due to “creative differences.” His tenure there lasted roughly six months. “I’ve parted ways from Paradox. In his post, the designer opened up about the challenges of being a one-man studio with a sprawling project.

Jon Shafer, designer of Sid Meier’s Civilization 5, has parted ways with Paradox Interactive, citing creative differences. In March, Paradox announced that it had brought Shafer on full-time to start a new project. Earlier this week they parted ways due to “creative differences.” His tenure there lasted roughly six months. “I’ve parted ways from Paradox. In his post, the designer opened up about the challenges of being a one-man studio with a sprawling project.

Xbox Live’s Games With Gold series will close out 2017 with the multiplayer team-up action of Warhammer: End Times — Vermintide and Telltale Games’ sequel to the Back to the Future trilogy. Xbox One gets Warhammer: End Times — Vermintide for the whole month. From Dec. 16 to Jan. 15, Xbox Live Gold subscribers get Telltale’s Back to the Future: The Game — 30th Anniversary Edition, comprising all five episodes of the series that originally launched in 2010 and 2011. Child of Eden will be available

Xbox Live’s Games With Gold series will close out 2017 with the multiplayer team-up action of Warhammer: End Times — Vermintide and Telltale Games’ sequel to the Back to the Future trilogy. Xbox One gets Warhammer: End Times — Vermintide for the whole month. From Dec. 16 to Jan. 15, Xbox Live Gold subscribers get Telltale’s Back to the Future: The Game — 30th Anniversary Edition, comprising all five episodes of the series that originally launched in 2010 and 2011. Child of Eden will be available

Steam’s 2017 Autumn Sale is underway now through next Tuesday, Nov. 28. It packs the usual heavy-percentage discounts on almost 5,000 titles, covering some of the biggest franchises in PC gaming. Other highlights include Star Trek: Bridge Crew, the virtual reality multiplayer title, which is down to $29.99, a 40-percent savings. Valve is seeking nominations from players for 31 creatively worded honors, ranging from The “Defies Description” Award to The “Even Better Than I Expected” Award. Nomina

Steam’s 2017 Autumn Sale is underway now through next Tuesday, Nov. 28. It packs the usual heavy-percentage discounts on almost 5,000 titles, covering some of the biggest franchises in PC gaming. Other highlights include Star Trek: Bridge Crew, the virtual reality multiplayer title, which is down to $29.99, a 40-percent savings. Valve is seeking nominations from players for 31 creatively worded honors, ranging from The “Defies Description” Award to The “Even Better Than I Expected” Award. Nomina

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is a good time so far — when it works. On a design level, Animal Crossing has never been about expedience, anyway. But, when I begin to dig into its menus, Pocket Camp starts to lose its grip. There have been several times where I had to close out Pocket Camp a few times for it to cooperate with me on simple tasks like this one. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp mood board pic.twitter.com/eZlXhXXLLf — Katie Hughes (@temporarywhales) November 22, 2017The culprit behind the

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is a good time so far — when it works. On a design level, Animal Crossing has never been about expedience, anyway. But, when I begin to dig into its menus, Pocket Camp starts to lose its grip. There have been several times where I had to close out Pocket Camp a few times for it to cooperate with me on simple tasks like this one. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp mood board pic.twitter.com/eZlXhXXLLf — Katie Hughes (@temporarywhales) November 22, 2017The culprit behind the

Like a typical Marvel movie, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 starts strong. Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 loosely follows the events of 2013’s Lego Marvel Super Heroes but doesn’t require extensive foreknowledge of the series. Unlike the original Lego Marvel Super Heroes, the sequel shows expected deference to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The most disappointing thing about Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 is that it’s still ultimately a Lego game. Sadly, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 is more “stepping on lego

Nintendo doesn’t release sales information for non-Nintendo games on the Nintendo Switch, but chatter among indie devs about strong sales has been common since the system launched. None of these games look the best on the Switch, but Nintendo has made a system that is thriving due to games and ports that look good enough, but no better. You can tell it doesn’t look as good as other versions of the game, but you can play it in the bathroom. This is the beauty of Nintendo; while Sony may think it’

Nintendo doesn’t release sales information for non-Nintendo games on the Nintendo Switch, but chatter among indie devs about strong sales has been common since the system launched. None of these games look the best on the Switch, but Nintendo has made a system that is thriving due to games and ports that look good enough, but no better. You can tell it doesn’t look as good as other versions of the game, but you can play it in the bathroom. This is the beauty of Nintendo; while Sony may think it’

Despite the amount of time and money I spent on it, I was never any good at World of Warcraft. Azeroth, its vast open world, is simply too intricate to be contained by the main story. The goal is to create your own stories, and take on your own character in the world. During the opening weeks of the expansion, players would phase in and out of regions almost at random. World of Warcraft also failed to avoid more hostile attitude changes post-GamerGate, the forum and in-game chatter becoming a le

Like a typical Marvel movie, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 starts strong. Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 loosely follows the events of 2013’s Lego Marvel Super Heroes but doesn’t require extensive foreknowledge of the series. Unlike the original Lego Marvel Super Heroes, the sequel shows expected deference to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The most disappointing thing about Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 is that it’s still ultimately a Lego game. Sadly, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 is more “stepping on lego

First came critical praise for the hit board game Scythe, followed by the first trailer for a video game called Iron Harvest, which is set in the same world. Now comes a short movie based on one of his paintings by Neill Blomkamp’s experimental film studio. Called Gdansk, Blomkamp’s short film is the latest effort from Oats Studios, which was recently profiled by our sister site The Verge. Blomkamp’s studio says that Gdansk is just the beginning of an entire series of short films, focusing on a

Trainers who have completed a larger number of Raid Battles are more likely to be invited to EX Raid Battles. EX Raid Battle start times now take into account popular Raid Battle times at that Gym. Trainers invited to EX Raid Battles will receive an in-game notification if the EX Raid Battle is canceled. Trainers will receive Stardust and Premium Raid Passes when an EX Raid Battle is canceled. These updates will also mark the official launch of the EX Raid Battle system, Niantic said, concluding

In Hawaii yesterday, Reps. Chris Lee and Sean Quinlan held a news conference that assailed loot crates as preying on children, naming Star Wars Battlefront 2 specifically. Loot crates or boxes are not necessarily a new phenomenon — Quinlan, the Hawaii legislator, noted they had largely been the province of mobile gaming. But beginning with Middle-earth: Shadow of War’s launch in October, loot crates have become a top-of-mind controversy among the gaming public. “Now it’s moved into the main even