Editor's Picks
EA Says It's Not Making The Sims 5 to Be "Player-Friendly." Should We Believe Them?
"First they pushed back on $80 games, then they promised grounded skins for Battlefield, and now this. EA claims they aren't making The Sims 5 because it wouldn't be 'player-friendly' to our massive DLC collections. Is EA having a sudden change of heart, or is this just the most sophisticated corporate spin we've seen all year?
Hideo Kojima Thinks AAA Games Are "Safe and Tremendously Boring"
Hideo Kojima, a man who rarely minces words, just took a shot at the entire AAA industry, and he's not wrong. In a new interview, he called big-budget games "safe and tremendously boring," arguing that all the interesting work is happening in the indie space.
Digital Overtime: Why Are We Paying to Work a Second Job?
We finish our real jobs and immediately clock in for our virtual ones, stocking shelves in Supermarket Simulator or power washing filth for hours. We're paying for the privilege of digital drudgery. But what are we actually buying with our time and money? Is it a sense of control our real lives lack? A meditative escape from a chaotic world? Let's dig into the weird psychology of why we've all become so obsessed with working when we're off the clock.
"HEY, LISTEN!": A TRAUMA-FUELED LOOK BACK AT ESCORT MISSIONS AND THE AI WE WERE FORCED TO PROTECT
Say the words "escort mission" to any gamer over the age of 20 and watch their eyes glaze over. You'll see a flicker of a long-suppressed trauma, a flashback to a time of rage-quits and shattered controllers. For a solid decade, it felt like every other game was determined to saddle you with the world's most incompetent, suicidal AI companion and call it "gameplay." it was a babysitting job from hell, and the pay was shit.
'OVERCOOKED' WITH ADORABLE ANIMALS AND SABOTAGE
If you've ever played Overcooked and thought, "This is great, but what if my partner was a cute, fuzzy animal and I could freeze them solid with a random power-up?" then listen up. A new co-op cooking game called Cook and Play: Animal Friends has just hit Early Access, and it looks like pure, unadulterated kitchen chaos.
FROM CANCELLED AND BROKE TO A MULTI-MILLION SELLER: THE UNHINGED STORY OF 'PEAK'
Let's be real, the games industry is a brutal meat grinder. For every success story, there are a thousand tales of burnout, canceled projects, and creative dead ends. Aggro Crab, the studio behind Another Crab's Treasure, was staring right into that abyss. Fresh off a draining three-year dev cycle, their next big project had just lost its funding and imploded, leaving the team burnt out and resentful. Their solution was a desperate, last.ditch "fuck it" trip to Korea with some friends. That trip created Peak, a game that has now sold 4.5 million copies.
KRAFTON DELAYS SUBNAUTICA 2, POTENTIALLY DODGING A $250 MILLION DEVELOPER PAYOUT
In what might be one of the most brazenly cynical corporate moves of the year, it appears Krafton Inc. is delaying the massively anticipated Subnautica 2 for a very specific reason: to avoid paying its developers a nine-figure bonus. A new report from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has laid out a timeline of events so goddamn suspicious it would make a conspiracy theorist blush, involving ousted founders, a conveniently timed delay, and a quarter of a billion dollars.
GAME PASS IS PROFITABLE, APPARENTLY: A WHIPLASH-INDUCING RUMOR CORRECTION
In a news cycle that gave the entire games industry whiplash, the great "Is Game Pass Profitable?" debate went from a raging fire to a puff of smoke in about 24 hours. After a report from journalist Chris Dring sparked speculation that the service was a money pit, a swift and decisive correction has put the matter to bed: yes, the big green machine is making money.
DEATH HOWL: SHUFFLING GRIEF AND DECK-BUILDING INTO SOMETHING SPECIAL
Ever wondered what would happen if someone mixed Magic: The Gathering with a mother's journey through grief? Death Howl's demo just hit Steam, offering a haunting glimpse into a card battler that's about more than just stacking damage numbers.
GAMING'S TIME TRAVELERS: WHEN GAMES ARRIVED TOO EARLY FOR THEIR OWN GOOD
Remember when your friend tried to convince everyone that kale would be the next big thing in 2005? That's basically what happened to these games, except instead of questionable salad ingredients, they were packing features that wouldn't become industry standards for years to come.
GAMING'S GOLDEN AGE: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE MID-2000S 'PISS FILTER'
Remember when every video game looked like it was filmed through a glass of dehydrated urine? Reddit sure does, and they're getting surprisingly nostalgic about it. A recent viral post on r/gaming has sparked a heated debate about the infamous "piss filter" era of gaming, when developers apparently thought the height of realism was making everything look like it was soaked in Mountain Dew.
FAIRGAME$: SONY'S NEW DARLING OR ANOTHER OVERHYPED DISASTER?
Looks like Sony's got a new pet project, and it's not another generic open-world snoozefest. Fairgame$, the heist game from Jade Raymond's Haven Studios, is apparently making waves inside Sony's ivory towers. But is it the next big thing, or just another case of corporate circle-jerking?
XBOX GAME PASS: SEPTEMBER'S LINEUP IS A MIXED BAG OF TRUCKS, GODS, AND TRAINS
Xbox Game Pass is kicking off September with a lineup that's about as coherent as a drunk gamer trying to explain the plot of Kingdom Hearts. From truck driving in space to mythological warfare, this month's offerings are a grab bag of genres that'll either excite you or leave you scratching your head.
PHIL SPENCER'S GREATEST MISSES: THE ART OF killing BILLION-DOLLAR FRANCHISES
Xbox boss Phil Spencer just opened up about his decision-making skills, and holy shit, it's a doozy. Turns out, the man behind the green machine has a track record of passing on some of gaming's biggest franchises. Let's dive into this clusterfuck, shall we?
DEADLOCK: HOW TO GET YOUR INVITE THE EASY WAY
Valve's new hero shooter Deadlock is causing a shitstorm in the gaming world. Everyone wants in, but scoring an invite is about as easy as finding a competent teammate in a MOBA. But don't worry, I've got the solution that doesn't involve Reddit begging or selling your organs on the black market.
HALF-LIFE 3 COMING TO MOBILE? REDDIT COMIC ROASTS GAMING'S WORST NIGHTMARE
A Reddit user's comic titled "How to start World War 3" is making waves in the gaming community, perfectly capturing the frustration over beloved franchises being turned into mobile cash grabs. The punchline? Half-Life 3 reimagined as a mobile game. It's ridiculous, hilarious, and just a little too close to home for comfort.
GAMERS UNITE: EU PETITION TO STOP PUBLISHERS FROM NUKING YOUR DIGITAL LIBRARY GAINS STEAM
In a world where digital games are becoming as disposable as yesterday's leftovers, gamers across Europe are saying "Fuck this shit" and fighting back. The "Stop Destroying Videogames" petition, launched as a European Citizens' Initiative, is gathering signatures faster than a speedrunner collects coins. With over 327,000 signatures in just a month, it's on track to hit the magic million needed to make the suits in Brussels sit up and take notice.
NVIDIA DRIVER UPDATES: WHEN TO UPGRADE AND WHEN TO WAIT
Ah, Nvidia drivers. The digital equivalent of that friend who always insists on trying the newest fad diet. Sometimes it works wonders, and sometimes it leaves you hugging the toilet bowl wondering where it all went wrong.
CALL OF DUTY'S FILE SIZE: WHEN YOUR GAME TAKES UP MORE SPACE THAN YOUR EX'S EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE
Looks like Activision's latest “masterpiece”, Call of Duty Black Ops 6, is aiming to be the Godzilla of your hard drive. With a rumored 300GB install size, it's not just eating up your storage – it's setting up a fucking buffet.
INZOI: THE SIMS KILLER WITH REAL-WORLD OBJECT SCANNING
Shit just got real. Or unreal. (See what I did there?) Or maybe both? inZOI, the upcoming life sim from the PUBG folks at Krafton, is about to make The Sims look like it was coded on an abacus.