Posts

For its fourth season, Stranger Things has gone super-sized. Its episodes are longer, its storylines are multiple, its locations are further flung, and its cast has expanded beyond all reasonable measure. Even allowing for the usual body count replacement rate to fill in the gaps left by last season’s victims of the Upside Down, there are a lot of new faces. (In addition to most of the old faces, plus a couple of faces so heavily coated in terrifying prosthetics you wouldn’t recognise the actors behind them if they sat down to lunch with you in the catering tent....

Super Mario 3D All-Stars’ limited availability seems to be paying off for Nintendo, as M Science is reporting that the game is having a better launch than nearly all other Switch titles. The data only captures the first four days post-launch, but 3D All-Stars is outpacing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate by 70% and last year’s Super Mario Maker 2 by 250%. The report states that this can be viewed as “further evidence of an extremely robust demand environment,” and “optimistic outlook for Nintendo software unit sales....

Super Mario Bros. 35 is quite a spectacle. The 35-player multiplayer game’s release in October surprised Nintendo Switch owners, offering a battle royale experience few could have imagined for a classic Nintendo game. Yet Nintendo delivered something special and Switch players have been enjoying it since. Now Nintendo is building on what’s already available, promising players an extra special Halloween Spectacle special battle in Super Mario Bros. 35. The Halloween Spectacle delivers as spooky of an experience as Super Mario Bros....

Originally released in November of last year exclusively for PC via the Epic Games Store, indie developer and publisher Pillow Castle’s mind-bending first-person puzzler, Superliminal, will finally be making its way to other platforms. In a newly-released announcement trailer, it was revealed that Superliminal will be making its way to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch on July 7th. In Superliminal, players are tasked with exploring a surreal, mysterious world, and - quite literally - change their perspective of the world around them by using different angles and perception depths to solve puzzles....

One of the most immersive gaming genres has to be survival horror. While there are likely many reasons for this such as spooky atmospheres, unnerving visuals, and even mysterious narratives, the standout reason is often down to the creepy sound and audio design. A truly good horror game will set the mood with a harrowing soundscape to keep players invested. Truly good and creepy audio design in horror games won’t just happen when there is a scary moment but also in the more mundane and even disquieting moments....

Following the huge success of celebrity tie-in game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, Glu announces that it will be making a mobile game with Taylor Swift. Country/pop phenom Taylor Swift has had one incredible year. Not only has the international superstar conquered the charts with her most recent album 1989 but she also took on Apple Music (getting Apple to change its payment policy) and her 1989 tour also grossed over $150 million worldwide....

Microsoft previewed a variety of games spanning across different genres during today’s Xbox Games Showcase livestream event, from emotional episodic journies to dark Nordic adventures. One multiplayer puzzle that stood out in the bunch is the upcoming Tetris Effect: Connected. Since its release way back in the 80s, Tetris has seen a number of variants, innovating the game in many different aspects while keeping true to the game’s main puzzle tactics of lining differently shaped pieces as efficiently as possible....

Though many could argue that the Nintendo 3DS console family is now dead, with it being superseded by the Nintendo Switch, it is undoubtedly one of the best gaming consoles ever released. There are many consoles that fall under the 3DS banner; the original 3DS, the 3DS XL, the New 3DS and 3DS XL, as well as the 2DS and the New 2DS XL. Of course, the 2DS consoles don’t have 3D capabilities....

An independent developer from the UK, Splendy Games, releases a trailer for a live-action horror video game called The Bunker that features a star from The Hobbit movies. With Her Story winning numerous awards last year, it does seem as though the gaming industry is willing to embrace the concept of a live-action video game yet again. UK independent developer Splendy Games recognizes this, and has decided to create what seems to be one of the most ambitious live-action video games produced to date, in the form of an exploratory horror game called The Bunker....

The developers of The Division 2 have revealed an early look at The Summit, a repeatable PvE mode that was previously known as “Skyscraper." The new content will be free for everyone who owns the Warlords of New York expansion once the Title Update 11 launches. The Summit is an all new form of PvE content that can be replayed and offers 100 total floors to fight through, each more difficult than the last....

Something strange has happened between the Fall Guys Twitter account and TimTheTatman. Are they… becoming friends? If you’ve been following the Fall Guys Twitter account for the past few weeks, you’d know that there’s a bit of a rivalry between the Fall Guys social media manager and Twitch streamer TimTheTatman. It started as some not-so-friendly roasting of Tim’s inability to win a game and has since become a daily occurrence. At one point, it was almost hourly....

The most award-winning video game and Playstation Exclusive of all time, The Last of Us Part 2, is known for its fair share of recognizably memorable moments and quotes. This is due to the thanks from the development of special characters, both new and old. Character Tommy, brother to Joel, was initially left short of screen time in the first game to the series, The Last of Us Part 1. Naughty Dog made sure to show developments to his character through the new and latest release of the game in 2020....

For years now, the Sundance Film Festival has been a staging ground to announce exciting new voices in horror cinema. The Babadook, It Follows, The Witch, and Hereditary all either got their start or built hellish momentum among the snowy slopes of Park City in recent fests past. So perhaps it’s fitting then that the clear heir apparent in 2019 is a film all about what old terrors can thaw in one’s mind when the ground outside freezes over....

On Thursday, the official website for the Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel, a Japanese anime film trilogy produced by Ufotable, directed by Tomonori Sudō, written by Akira Hiyama, and featuring music by Yuki Kajiura, announced that the third film, Fate/stay night Heaven’s Feel III. spring song, will be released in 4DX in 82 theaters in Japan starting on September 4. The film focuses on Shirou Emiya and Sakura Matou, who must contend with the Holy Grail War....

The following contains Star Trek: Discovery spoilers. Star Trek Discovery Season 4 Episode 10 Star Trek: Discovery goes where few have gone before in “The Galactic Barrier,” taking us out of the Milky Way and into extra-galactic space, a moment of awe that is quietly lovely in a way that little else in the episode is. (How often do we get to see Star Trek show us these kinds of big, humanity-shifting moments?...

In every meaningful way, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds looks to be a back-to-basics Trek TV series. We’ve already been told the series will be more episodic, moving away from the contemporary prestige TV model of serialization and swinging back toward the kind of standalone sci-fi adventures that made The Original Series and The Next Generation so beloved to begin with. And while Picard Season 2 is certainly off to a fan-servicey start, the promise of Strange New Worlds is that it could, in theory, cast a much wider net....

1978’s Star Wars Holiday Special is known for many things: continuing the adventures of Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewie; introducing fans to Life Day and Chewie’s son, Lumpy; and being an all-around terrible TV special. But it also marked the first onscreen appearance of one of the most iconic characters in Star Wars: Boba Fett. In the animated portion of the special, the heroes first meet Boba as an ally, a mysterious man in imposing armor who offers to help Han and Chewie after they crash on a dangerous moon in the Panna system....

The annual Star Wars Celebration event has begun and it is already offering up big announcements for gaming fans of the sci-fi series. While the big reveal of the event is expected to be the first trailer for Stars Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, news of another new Star Wars game is being welcomed too. At Star Wars Celebration, it was confirmed that the Nintendo Switch is getting its first Star Wars game....

Fighting your way through Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order can be quite challenging for the inexperienced. It has a combat system not entirely unlike games under the “soulsborne” moniker, such that players have to be calculated in their actions, dodging and striking at just the right time so as not to meet an untimely demise. Thankfully, just like other games in this subgenre, Jedi Fallen Order allows you to bolster your health pool with additional Stim Canisters that can be deployed by your droid pal BD-1....

Modern farming games aren’t afraid to show where their inspiration springs from. Stardew Valley riffed off Harvest Moon, while Story of Seasons takes the formula from both games and proudly combines them into something truly special. I treat games like this as ways to unwind after a long day, leaving behind my own problems to raise livestock and win over my village sweetheart with daily gifts of onions and fried eggs....