Author: Mara J Powell
Do you recall the Amazon Prime miniseries of short films called Secret Level, which were based on well-known video games? Do you remember the episode when Pac-Man was recast as a stranded warrior that kidnaps strangers to aid in its escape from a prison planet? Bandai Namco developed that concept into a long Metroidvania called Shadow Labyrinth, which has a unique beat reminiscent of Street Fighter: Movie. This strange reinvention of the oldest eater in the business is a really difficult experience. Not necessarily because it’s hard; it’s not always easy, but I have faced more challenging games in the…
Distinct Possibility Studio, a new developer founded by gaming veterans, including former Sony Online Entertainment head John Smedley, has revealed its debut title: Reaper Actual. Currently in development for PC, this large-scale, persistent online first-person shooter is built in Unreal Engine 5 and promises an ambitious blend of PvPvE gameplay. Set on the fictional island of Marova—which is said to be four times the size of Call of Duty: Warzone’s largest map—Reaper Actual drops players into the role of Reapers, mercenaries who take contracts from various factions. Servers will support up to 200 players simultaneously, allowing for the formation of…
What I mean by this is that I play a lot of competitive shooters. Since I was in school many, many (many) years ago, this has been my go-to “gaming night with the friends” genre, whether it’s playing The Finals, Flipping Cards, or being an unfortunate kid in Grey Zone Warfare. Additionally, there is something about the action in the Rainbow Six series that sticks out and feels correct, even after thousands of hours spent playing games like Destiny, Call of Duty, Halo Infinite, and Valorant, among others. Even while some of the new modes may be more flashbang than…
The Orcs Must Die! series and the tower-defense game genre in general seem to me to be related to factory games like Factorio and Satisfactory. While Orcs Must Die! is about feeding hordes of cartoon monsters into machinery to make… mulched cartoon creatures, those games concentrate on feeding raw materials like iron and coal into intricate machines to produce spacecraft parts efficiently. Making that goop is a lot of fun right now, but perhaps we will learn how to use it to construct spaceships in the future. The action-tower defense gameplay of Deathtrap, the fifth OMD game (if you include…
Dragon Ball: Electrifying! The DLC 1: Hero of Justice pack, which includes 11 new heroes and more, will be Zero’s first significant downloadable content release on January 23. The addition was teased by Bandai Namco in the teaser below. The release date was also disclosed, along with the information that anyone who purchases the $34.99 Season Pass—which will eventually include three complete DLC packs—can access it on January 20 at 3 p.m. Pacific, 6 p.m. Eastern, and 11 p.m. UK. Gohan (Super Hero), Gohan (Super Hero, Super Saiyan 2), Ultimate Gohan (Super Hero), Gohan (Beast), Piccolo (Super Hero), Piccolo (Potential…
With the release of Mario Kart 9 and the Nintendo Switch 2, fans have observed that one character in particular has undergone a significant change that appears to have been influenced by the Super Mario Bros. movie. More than a dozen characters were shown in the teaser, and while most of them were just as fans would have expected, Donkey Kong stuck out for looking very different. Mario Kart 8, Mario Tennis, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and other games have all featured the same character style for years, if not decades. However, his plan was upended by the hugely popular…
Half-Life fans have waited years for Valve to do… something Half-Life 3-related. That’s nothing new. But recent weeks have seen a step up in the hunt for clues, with some assuming Valve has already started an intricate alternate reality game (ARG) that will lead to the dramatic revelation that Half-Life 3 is finally on the way. Mike Shapiro, the voice actor behind Half-Life’s enigmatic G-Man, was the catalyst for this next-level fixation, which GTA 6 fans will recognize immediately. Shapiro, in full G-Man gear, posted a mysterious tweet late last year with the hashtags #Valve, #Halflife, #GMan, and #2025, hinting…
The appearance of the Empire of the Ants is remarkable. The amount of detail on the textures of the forest floor is so amazing that you would think for a second that it is actual macro-lens footage of ants from a nature documentary. Although it is a real-time strategy game with swarms of insects on screen at once, you never really command more than seven units, which is fortunate considering how awkwardly its controls need you to cycle through them to give instructions. There is absolutely nothing underneath the nests you are capturing and constructing. Therefore, despite its expansive appearance,…
After more than a decade online, the company acknowledged in a Facebook post that it had made the “tough decision” to sunset its free-to-play mobile game. October 31, 2024, is when The Simpsons: Tapped Out will be taken down from app stores. Although it will remain playable for the remainder of the year, servers will go down on January 24, 2025. Already, in-app purchases are not allowed. In today’s Facebook post, EA stated, “The choice to stop our twelve-year adventure is a painful one.” In collaboration with The Walt Disney Company and The Simpsons, we have had great fun providing…
In November, Six Days in Fallujah will receive a significant upgrade, including the first of its planned documentary story missions. Its two-story missions, dubbed the Command and Control update, will center on the start of the Second Battle of Fallujah, which started on November 7, 2004, and featured some of the worst combat of the conflict. In November, Six Days in Fallujah will receive a significant upgrade, including the first of its planned documentary story missions. Its two-story missions, dubbed the Command and Control update, will center on the start of the Second Battle of Fallujah, which started on November…