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The following contains Star Trek: Picard spoilers Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 9 Well, the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is a thing that we have all now watched. Plagued by many of the same problems that have repeatedly cropped up throughout the rest of the season—poor pacing, ill-timed flashbacks, and a bizarre disregard for the basic rules of time travel—”Hide and Seek” is an hour that has plenty of action, but a deeply messy and often pointless plot, as Picard and friends face off against the Borg Queen, a bunch of random paramilitary types she’s assimilated, and Adam Soong, who is also there for some reason....

This Star Wars: The Bad Batch review contains spoilers. Star Wars: The Bad Batch Episode 12 Look at that: it’s a two-parter after all. The Bad Batch take a bit more of a front role in their own show as they reluctantly help out in “Rescue on Ryloth,” directed by Nathaniel Villanueva and written by Jennifer Corbett. The show still feels too entwined with everything else in Star Wars to have mass appeal, but this episode in particular learned more from Rebels than from The Clone Wars in terms of giving characters the time to talk to one another and allowing beats to sink in between all the action....

This Star Wars: THE MANDALORIAN review contains spoilers. The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 1 The Mandalorian’s season two premiere is a well-structured example of the show’s Space Western ethos, showing deft technical skill on the part of its director, showrunner Jon Favreau, a fun menagerie of monsters, and exciting action. While it didn’t move the story forward or offer new characterization for the titular Mando, Din Djarin, or the Child as one might expect from a premiere, the show is certainly good at what it does....

While starting a collection of cool minerals, artifacts, and other items might not be something that gives players incentive to donate things to the museum in Stardew Valley, the gifts that players can get from Gunther should be motivating. After all, some of these items are only available through Gunther, and can’t be bought or found anywhere else. Most of the time, Gunther gives out cool decorations, seeds, and useful tools for collecting a certain amount of items for the museum....

Running a farm in Stardew Valley can be quite an imposing task, especially when you’re first starting out and have no idea what possibilities that game has in store for you. There is a lot you can do with the space granted to you by your grandfather, and many farmers will want to try a bit of everything. Using the space efficiently is definitely a challenge that most will have to face....

Stardew Valley is a favorite of gamers from all walks of life, and with good reason. Even players who prefer action-packed RPGs or first-person shooters can often find something to enjoy in its various daily chores and locales. Its world changes a lot as the player completes tasks and earns money, so that there’s something new to discover with every season. Among one of the early changes to the game is the addition of a kitchen, once the player is finally able to upgrade their house for the first time....

Over the last few years, Bethesda has established a tradition of showing up at E3 with just a few games that will all be released within the next 12 months. The company broke that ritual at E3 2018 and surprised fans with two teasers at the end of its press conference. Both Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 were confirmed, but few other details were included in the teasers. Although the trailers themselves didn’t share much intel aside from titles, Todd Howard has been doing the interview circuit and shared a few small additional details....

Forget bananas, the future of gaming is all about using a fully loaded baguette to gun down enemies in Verdansk. Gaming has evolved over the years to make controls feel more natural and easier to use. A large part of that has been adapting and making more use of a controller’s shoulder buttons. Using anything else other than the left and right shoulder buttons to aim and fire would feel positively archaic at this point....

After spending a year of early access on Xbox and the Epic Games Store, Paradox is finally bringing Surviving the Aftermath to Steam. The strategy-survival-city-building-sim follows in the vein of Surviving Mars, although this time you’re tasked with piecing together a settlement in a post-apocalyptic world. Alongside the Steam Early Access launch, Paradox and Iceflake Studios are releasing Update 11. This sees the addition of quests to the world of Surviving the Aftermath, giving your colonists reasons to head outside of your settlement and explore the dangerous world around them....

While there’s no shortage of pixelated, bullet-hell, shoot ‘em up titles on the market, well-executed games are a bit more difficult to come by. Tanuki Justice—from indie developer Wonderboy Bobi—easily falls into the latter category. Although it has its moments of frustration, Tanuki Justice successfully merges the bullet-hell and shoot ‘em up genres into a wonderful homage to the 8-bit era of gaming. In Tanuki Justice, you’ll fight your way through six levels as one of the two raccoon Tanuki siblings, taking on a variety of enemies ranging from ninjas, Dune-like worms, and demons....

And just like that, Jason Sudeikis’s coaching comedy Ted Lasso has completed the entertainment lifecycle from commercial to TV series back to commercial. Sports streaming service DAZN and Apple have partnered to produce a short clip in which AFC Richmond football (or soccer, if you prefer) coach Ted Lasso of Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso and real life Tottenham Hotspur gaffer José Mourinho share a conversation about the beautiful game. The spot aired during the real life UEFA Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-German (better luck next year PSG!...

Wargame fans will likely have Warhammer 40K as a household name. After all, its grimdark galaxy serves as the perfect setting for brutal skirmishes between the Imperium of Man and other civilizations scattered throughout the universe. Moreover, the abundance of these civilizations - which also serve as playable factions - make Warhammer 40K quite the thrilling experience. After all, players can now play as the vicious Orks, the elegant Eldar, the undying Necron, or even the terrifying Tyranids....

Albums revolve at 33-and-a-third spins a minute. The Beatles’ Revolver seemed to bend time when it was first released, putting more into the grooves than any rock and roll band had done up to that point. This was by design, as the group tried to put a world of musical education into one record in a class all its own. While many fans are rightfully content with the official release, the castoffs and early attempts at the songs are jewels for the more avid Beatlemaniacs who collected bootlegs....

This generation, more than ever, has kept game hacking at the forefront of gamer’s minds. Games aren’t just encouraged to be modded nowadays, they’re expected to be. Big releases like Skyrim and Fallout 4 thrive on their community’s desire and ability to mod and fix things Bethesda either didn’t think to do or couldn’t get around to. Most people mod their games now, but it wasn’t always like that. A game hack was something to be cherished, whether it was one of many brutally hard Super Mario hacks or a translation of an obscure SNES game, there was something special about finding a hack for the right game....

The qunari are one of the strangest races to be featured in Dragon Age 4. Introduced as a playable race in Dragon Age: Inquisition, they are the only playable race that is unique to the franchise, with humans, dwarves, and elves all fantasy staples. While many players enjoyed playing a qunari in Inquisition, there are some particularly good reasons that playing as a qunari in Dragon Age 4 could provide players with a unique story and some great new roleplaying opportunities not afforded to the race in previous installments of the franchise....

Just about everyone has at some point come across a boss in a video game that has made them want to scream. If you grew up playing Kingdom Hearts, you may know that despite being geared towards children, some of the fights seemed to miss that memo. Dragging along Donald and Goofy, two AI companions that at the time seemed to be a bit lacking in the “Intelligence” part of the term, often felt like a herculean effort....

Billy Zane is set to return to our TV screens as part of the star studded ensemble cast of Curfew, a Sky original production coming to Sky One this February. Caught between an oppressive government and dangers that manifest after dark, ordinary British people put everything on the line as they take part in the world’s deadliest street race in a bid to win their freedom and a normal life....

The Elder Scrolls 6 is a long ways away, but the next title in Bethesda’s landmark fantasy series is already hotly anticipated. This is despite the lack of any real news in the two years following the game’s 2018 announcement. As rumors, hopes, and opinions fly back and forth, many are beginning to wonder if The Elder Scrolls 6 will break away from the classic structure of its predecessors. One of the systems that the new title should look at updating is joinable factions....

If you asked somebody to rank all the James Bond movies in order of quality (and it’s the sort of thing we might do), there would likely be many different opinions about which one took the top spot. But definitely up there near the top would be Casino Royale, the Daniel Craig-starring series reboot released in 2006 that was also based on the first Ian Fleming 007 novel. If you went all the way to the other end of the list, and if you were including every Bond film ever made, not just the Eon Productions movies, you’d be likely to run into the name Casino Royale again....

It’s hard to believe, but Epic’s incredible tech demo of Unreal Engine 5 was first revealed seven months ago. Called “Lumen in the Land of Nanite,” the demo showcased what a brand new software engine could do on the PlayStation 5’s next-gen hardware, revealing lighting, textures, and models that went far beyond anything available in current games. We’re still a ways off before Unreal Engine 5 revolutionizes the gaming industry as we know it, but that doesn’t mean Unreal Engine 4 is completely worthless....