You’d think that the return of a beloved franchise after more than a decade of absence would be a cause for celebration. You’d think a game that has already gone through one of the worst development hells in entertainment history and somehow made it to the finish line whole is something to be carefully studied, scrutinized, explored to the core of its being. You’d think that for developers who’ve poured their heart and soul into this creation, toiled endless hours over the many years since the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition, we’d have more to offer than our offhand dismissal, our nonchalant verdict, our unjustified hate. But then, knowing social media and what it stands for and expecting all of those things has always been something of an oxymoron, hasn’t it? 3r3v38

Dragon Age: The Veilguard came out today to generally positive reviews from critics. The fourth installment in the extremely popular Dragon Age series, a video game franchise by BioWare that defined fantasy RPG as we know it today, the sequel development began in 2015, but due to many internal problems at BioWare, including the release of one mediocre game in the form of Mass Effect: Andromeda and one disastrous launch in the form of Anthem, The Veilguard underwent several lengthy delays, fundamental changes in its design and narrative, and an unprecedented crew turnover, including several directors and executive producers.

But all’s well that ends well, right? Now that the game is out, with an 84 out of 100 score on Metacritic, it might be safe to say that all those trials have been worth it. BioWare is back with another decent if not great game, and we can’t wait to install the game on our platform of choice and dive back into the fictional world of Thedas. Right? Right? If only things were so simple as that.

If you browse through social media platforms like X, YouTube, and even Instagram, you see that a majority of people are locked into a senseless debate about how “woke” Dragon Age: The Veilguard is. It’s almost as if the introduction of identity politics in a conversation is nowadays powerful enough to throw all other considerations out the window. Forget about all those endless hours of creative labor undertaken by hundreds of people. Forget about the fundamental fact that a product like this, reviewed, changed, upended, altered, reworked, and improved over a decade-long process, is never the vision of a single person or even a team of people, but teams of them, hundreds of them, thousands. Forget that any project in the entertainment industry is more than the sum of its parts, whatever the internet might tell you. Some people, streamers mostly, are saying that the game is woke, that it’s trying to push an agenda, that BioWare is now only a shadow of its former glory. What more is there to say? The fate of Dragon Age: The Veilguard is sealed. Your decision to buy it or not already determined. The page is turned, the book is closed.

And all because a vocal minority weaves together a narrative and overwhelms all other voices in its vicinity. Now who cares if they have any proof to their claims? What of it if the person who is bringing the hammer down is not educated, maybe doesn’t know enough about art criticism, or might not even offer valuable, levelheaded insight, and logical arguments? All it takes is to have a following, and you’re almost guaranteed to determine the fate of a work of art, whatever the medium.

An RPG game gives you the option to be non-binary. There are more than two pronouns in the game. This is apparently all it takes to make you want to play a game or not. Never mind that BioWare has always been progressive, and as the kids these days say, the studio was “woke” before it was cool. how Mass Effect became controversial for depicting same-sex romances? How Dragon Age challenged gender norms as early as 2009’s Origins? Suddenly, the online community got it into their heads that BioWare became a sellout and imitated everybody else. No, you guys, you’ve got it backward; everybody else imitated BioWare.

This is not about The Veilguard. I don’t want to talk about the supposed redeeming qualities of a game I haven’t even played yet. (Though it seems the other side has no compunctions about discussing its off-putting qualities in the same circumstances.) Hell, I’m not even that huge of a Dragon Age fan to begin with. The problem is not whether The Veilguard is a great game or not. The problem is that the current narrative, fueled by the angry, careless mutterings of an online mob, shouldn’t be what determines the reception to any product, let alone a game that has been a decade in the making, that will make or break a studio, and decides the future career prospects of hundreds of people. A story that people love. A franchise that has been a cornerstone of our industry for a decade.

It’s easy for that one streamer who itted he’s not a fan of the series and shall go nameless to write off this game just because there’s a cutscene with transgender-affirming shades incorporated into it. It’s easy to look at a YouTube video that claimed the publisher hasn’t given review codes to people who voiced negative opinions about The Veilguard in their previews and think that there must be a scheme underfoot at Electronic Arts. Dig a little deeper and you realize that the whole thing has been haphazard and random, but when said video has garnered a million views, the damage is already done, and there isn’t anything anyone could do to fix the narrative that’s slowly taking shape on social media.

This isn’t the first time such a scenario has played out. You can think of countless examples where the negative narrative on social media has spelled the doom of a certain game, or a movie, or even a television series… and in most cases unjustifiably so. You can also think of countless other examples where the opposite has happened; just because some things randomly clicked together for a studio or a crew or a publisher, their product became trendy and beloved. All it takes these days is a quote. A single stream of that one popular commentator on Twitch. A report by an outlet that’s hated by the community on X.

Ever so slowly, the complexity of the debate is diminished under the shadow of tribalistic posturing on social media. People begin to judge and criticize 40 hours of content, 10 years of labor, and millions of hopes and dreams, just by a single viral post that reaffirms what they want to believe about a particular issue, stripped of all its nuance and subtlety. The discourse is reduced to an absurdist parody of people shouting at the top of their lungs (in this case, ALL CAPS) and trying to think of all the witty ways they could bring down the other side.

For the casual observer, unfamiliar with the conditions of the curdling sphere of fallacious insanity we call the online space, the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, bereaved of all the insignificant and petty squabbling, is an occasion to celebrate. Hell, I’d dare say that many of them might enjoy the game thoroughly if they happen to buy and play it. And even if they don’t, it probably won’t be for the reasons that you and I don’t.

All of the video game company Annapurna Interactive quit their jobs recently after they couldn’t come to an agreement with the owner about spinning off the business. The company, which in the last eight years has published some of the most innovative and popular indie video games on the market, will reportedly continue with new employees.

Annapurna Interactive is one part of the larger Annapurna studio, owned by Megan Ellison. Ellison is the daughter of billionaire Larry Ellison, the CFO of Oracle and the third (and sometimes second) richest man in the world.

Now, former Annapurna Interactive President Nathan Gary said he was negotiating with Megan Ellison about spinning off the company as its own entity when she suddenly stopped negotiating.

“All 25 of the Annapurna Interactive team collectively resigned,’’ Gary and the other employees said in a statement. “This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make and we did not take this action lightly.”

Ellison responded to the resignations by saying that the company’s top priority was “continuing to our developer and publishing partners.” She called the move a “transition” and said Annapurna was looking to “take a more integrated approach to linear and interactive storytelling across film and TV, gaming, and theater.”

Understandably, the move caused some anxiety in the Annapurna Interactive’s partners for projects. Video game publishers typically handle things like game testing, marketing and the adaptation of games for different markets. Still, Annapurna said it was going to honor all existing projects.

Hector Sanchez, the company’s new president, said there will be new hires to complete pending projects. The Annapurna Interactive name carries a lot of weight in the video game community. Games like Stray, Outer Wilds, and What Remains of Edith Finch are some of the most classic indie games ever.

Annapurna Pictures, the parent company of the video game outfit, has produced movies like American Hustle, Her, and Zero Dark Thirty. It had a deal with Remedy Entertainment to help finance the film version of Stray, as well as adaptations of the popular Alan Wake and Control franchises.

It’s not yet known what the 25 employees who resigned from the company plan to do moving forward. Will they start their own publishing company as a direct competitor? Will they all a different company? Also, will Annapurna Studios be able to bounce back from this and produce the same type of content with all-new employees? Only time will tell.

Nintendo is indisputably the king of the handheld console. Starting with the original handheld Game Boy back in 1989, all the way up to the hybrid Nintendo Switch console in 2017, no other gaming company has come close to the type of market share Nintendo enjoys with its handhelds. In fact, the Nintendo DS is the all-time top selling portable console ever, but that wouldn’t have existed if not for its groundbreaking predecessor: the Game Boy Advance (GBA).

Released in 2001, it was a technological leap from Nintendo’s previous handheld, the Game Boy Color. It was a 32-bit system that — unlike previous Game Boy systems — had a landscape orientation with buttons on the side, which were more like a regular console controller.

It had about 15 hours of playtime and a Dual 8-bit DAC for stereo sound (basically, it sounded really good for a handheld). At the time of its release, the system rapidly became Nintendo’s best-selling of all time, until the DS dethroned it in 2009.

Of course, no system is worth its salt without good games, and Nintendo has never been lacking in that department. The GBA had some of the best, most advanced games for a handheld that had all of the inherent charm expected from Nintendo.

It’s probably no surprise that the first three best selling games on the system were Pokémon games, but the GBA really had some gems. Some standouts include: Golden Sun, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, Fire Emblem, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 and even Mario Golf: Advance Tour. Alright enough fluffing you up. Without further ado, here’s a list of the 10 best games for the Game Boy Advance!

10. Mario Kart Super Circuit z27e

Multiplayer is the name of the game here. Mario Kart games are like pizza, it’s hard for it to be bad, no matter how you’re consuming it. This, however, is one of the better ones. Released in 2001, it had all the markings of what makes a kart racing game shine.

As an added bonus, there were a ton of unlockables in the game, including tracks from the original SNES outing and more cups to win. In all, you get about 40 tracks, which is huge considering it’s a handheld game. Nothing really comes close to the multiplayer aspect of this game. If you were lucky enough to find people to play with, it was practically unforgettable.

9. Golden Sun 1b6rq

Every Nintendo console, handheld or otherwise, has top-level JRPGs, and the Golden Sun stands out among the best of any system. Its soundtrack and visuals were ahead of its time, and the game was about as accessible as a JRPG can get.

One of the things that can diminish the experience of a game like this is the battle system, but Golden Sun managed to keep things fresh with its strategic use of the common turn-based system. You really had to think your way through a battle, and that added a whole new layer to what could’ve been just another rote role playing game.

8. Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 4l3r1n

Stack Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 against any other side scroller of its time, and it would rise above the rest. In this gem, you control Yoshi solo for the first time in a Mario game. You’re tasked with transporting Baby Mario across dangerous terrains to safety, and it’s complicated by the fact that one touch from an enemy sends Mario flying away in a bubble.

With a fun targeting system, butter-smooth controls and an art style that was both whimsical and delightful, Yoshi’s Island is a must play for any Nintendo fan. This port kept all the charm of the original without sacrificing any of the depth. Yoshi!

7. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 3r112w

Gamers of a certain age are intimately familiar with the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. Porting a console game is always dicey, especially when it’s from a third-party developer and not Nintendo itself. Fortunately, this manages the feat through a clever isometric view and really impressive visuals (for its time).

What made a Tony Hawk game so spectacular, besides the music, was the seemingly endless possibility of moves during different runs. This is such a great port that sometimes you’ll forget you’re on a handheld. Keep grindin’!

6. Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire 4k704u

When this game came out in 2003, Pokémon fever was at an all time high. The last game, Pokémon Crystal, wasn’t as much a new title as it was a rehash of Red and Blue with some new stuff stacked on. Understandably, people were excited when this was released.

Ruby and Sapphire takes place in a brand new region called Hoenn, and for the first time, players get to choose their gender – something that was weirdly groundbreaking at the time. This giant (for its time) quest ran 40 hours and featured over 350 new Pokémon. It was the most involved game in the series up to that point, and it also had some really fun multiplayer features.

5. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow p4m1h

After Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow is probably the best Castlevania game of its era. It’s eminently playable (unlike some other Castlevania titles) and it came out in the golden age of Castlevania games.

Aria of Sorrow followed up two previous games, and it took the story in an exciting new direction. It’s not the longest game but it is packed with secrets and collectibles which helped its replay value immensely. Instead of the regular Belmont v. Dracula storyline, this game follows Soma Cruz as he travels through a portal in Dracula’s castle. The main thing that helps this game stand out is its “soul absorption” mechanic, allowing for a ton of variety in the gameplay department.

4. Final Fantasy 6 2w1067

A whole generation will never know the origins of Final Fantasy before it became more realistic and lifelike. This game is one of the best of the old guard. It’s cinematic and innovative in a charming way that the series just doesn’t do anymore.

Honestly, it’s one of the best video games that’s ever been made, and worth playing no matter what era of gaming you prefer. It was originally released on the SNES but this port is about as faithful as it can be considering the circumstances. If you only play one FF game ever, it should be this one.

3. Metroid Fusion 3o1k5f

Metroid has always had a special relationship with handhelds, dating back to when Metroid 2 was released for the original Game Boy. This game pits Samus against alien parasites known simply as X, and it captures the atmosphere and sound of a classic Metroid game perfectly.

It’s a worthy successor to the phenomenal Super Metroid game on the SNES and it won a bucketload of awards when it was released in 2002. Nothing about this game doesn’t work. From the story to the power ups, it’s classic Metroid at its best.

2. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap 543u6b

One of the lesser known entries in the Zelda universe, Minish Cap had a charm all its own. Every Zelda game has its own gimmick, and in this one you can shrink down to a smaller size to complete puzzles and fight enemies.

Of course, it could’ve turned out boring and repetitive, but Nintendo made sure to put the care necessary into this title to make it really shine. Most of the fun comes from puzzle solving and figuring out how to use the shrinking mechanic, and once you get the hang of it, it’s an absolute joy to play.

1. WarioWare Twisted 1z2qx

What? WarioWare is number 1? Bear with us here, this game has no business being as good as it is. However, the reason it’s in the top spot is because of what it did to gaming. It ushered in a whole new era of frantic mini games that Nintendo still employs today.

It’s nothing like anything that came before it, and that speaks volumes for Nintendo, one of the most innovative game companies of all time. It was the precursor to Nintendo’s love affair with motion controls, as the game forced you to twist around the system to win at games. It was so fun!

In our era of TikToks and short attention spans, it stands out as a game that was truly ahead of its time.

Nintendo has never shied away from taking chances. The legendary video game company is known for taking innovative, out of the box ideas and giving them life. When it works, it works marvelously. Take for instance, the Nintendo Wii in 2006 and its game-changing motion controls. They hit the jackpot again just six years later in 2011 with the Nintendo 3DS, the first ever 3D handheld gaming device.

While the 3DS isn’t Nintendo’s best selling handheld, it did have some amazing games on it. Classic Nintendo characters like Luigi, Link, Kid Icarus and Samus Aran all got a go on the system, with impressive outings that took advantage of the system’s cutting-edge technology.

In of sales, the 3DS sold about half as much as Nintendo’s top selling console of all time – the Nintendo DS, but let’s be real here, half of 154.02 million units ain’t bad. When the 3DS was released, it was backwards compatible with all DS games and it added the ability to show stereoscopic 3D images, which the player could either increase or decrease with a slider.

It also had augmented reality capabilities and a robust virtual console to games from older Nintendo systems. It’s best selling game was the stellar Mario Kart 7, which will obviously make an appearance on this list. Let’s dive in. Here are the 10 best 3DS games for the Nintendo 3DS.

10. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker 5s3qr

One of the more original concepts in the very excellent Super Mario 3D World was the inclusion of stand-alone levels from Captain Toad, a character first introduced in the also excellent 2007 Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii.

The levels were a delightful change of pace and offered puzzle platforming in a mini diorama that forced the player to use perspective to solve. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is the obvious evolution of that concept. While the gimmick isn’t quite as engaging as it could be, it’s a fun, puzzling adventure that’s a testament to Nintendo’s constant innovation.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey is a literal inside story, as in most of the game finds the famous Mario Bros. actually inside of Bowser’s body. Once inside, they have to help Bowser from the evil Fawful.

It’s one of those games that can only exist on the 3DS, and it’s widely considered the best of the various Mario RPG games. It’s full of colorful characters and some of the best writing around, with humor that stacks up right next to the OG, Super Mario RPG. The addition of Bowser Jr.’s story is just a peach on top of an already frosted cake.

8. Super Mario 3D Land 583b1p

By the time Super Mario 3D Land came around, Mario platforming had already been perfected on the consoles. Would this scrappy little title have anything to add? It sure did. 3D Land has some of the most innovative Mario level design of any side-scrolling game in the franchise, and it took full of advantage of the systems 3D capabilities.

Honestly, it’s an extremely underrated title.

7. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney 1m5x3t

Do you know how hard it is to pick the best Ace Attorney game? Why not go the easy route with a Phoenix Wright title? Put simply, Apollo Justice may have perfected everything we love about these lawyer-simulation masterpieces.

Of all the titles out there, this one is just plain enjoyable. Apollo is a great protagonist, and the animated sequences add a new flavor to the traditionally 2d static of past Ace Attorney titles.By the time you’re through with this one, you’ll be viewing everyone around you with suspicion and just be itching to yell “objection!”

6. Fire Emblem: Awakening 242f2a

It can be hard to keep track of all the JRPGs out there, but you can throw Fire Emblem: Awakening into battle with any of them and it’ll hold its own. The most accessible in the franchise, Awakening eschews the complexity of previous titles and delivers a one-of-a-kind experience that’ll leave you feeling like a general on a battlefield.

The story is also richly textured and ambitiously multi-generational in its scope, but it never loses sight of the ultimate objective: being an extremely fun, engrossing game.

5. Animal Crossing: New Leaf k382q

For a certain type of person out there, Animal Crossing is more important to video gaming than Mario. There’s something about being able to immerse yourself in a whole world where your only limitation is your own imagination.

For the detail-oriented, organizational loving among us, it offers a quiet reprieve from the busy messiness of everyday life. Add to that the portable ability, and it’s an introverts dream! So many games are objective oriented and Animal Crossing: New Leaf just wants you to stay a while, take your time and enjoy the view.

4.  Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate 2i186u

There are no “bad” games in the Monster Hunter franchise. This is probably the best. There’s always a new armor, new kind of monster and new challenge to take on. Whether you’re just a few hours in or more than hundreds, the game also throws something new at you.

Ultimate has no reason being this fun, expansive and absolutely time consuming. A true classic.

3. Metroid: Samus Returns y3c3i

Back in the prehistoric era of 1991, Nintendo released a sequel to the popular game Metroid on its black and white Game Boy handheld system. Where the first game was unfocused, this one was razor sharp. It introduced many of the key aspects of the franchise that still exist today.

This is that game, but so much more. There are new powers, new moves and it looks absolutely spectacular. It’s pretty much perfection in a convenient 3DS sized cartridge. A must have for any Metroid fan.

2. Mario Kart 7 3s4i6p

What can you say about Mario Kart 7? Nintendo rarely misses with these, and Mario Kart 7 proves the rule. It was the first game to introduce gliders, something so inherent to the franchise that it’s hard to when they didn’t exist.

There was also the addition of online play – on a handheld! While it could be spotty at times, it just felt really innovative and very fun. The controls were also fine-tuned so that you didn’t feel any loss of momentum. You can tell Nintendo took its time to get it right with this one. There’s no better Mario Kart game on a handheld system.

1. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 3h3of

This is the one. The game that took the Zelda formula of linear progression and threw it out the window. Without A Link Between Worlds, we never would’ve gotten Breath of the Wild and obviously no Tears of the Kingdom.

It’s not a remake of A Link to the Past; it’s a reimagining. Nintendo showed why its first-party titles are beloved by generations young and old. Also, this was probably the pinnacle of the stereoscopic 3D technology. No other game uses it quite as well as this one does.

Could it be true? Two of the most famous properties around – LEGO and Fortnite, are collaborating? What would such a collaboration look like? Would it be Fortnite characters in LEGO form in the game? LEGO sets based on Fortnite? There are all kinds of rumors floating around, so let’s get to the truth here.

Early in the day on Nov. 21, LEGO’s official X posted a photo of the popular Supply Llama in LEGO form, with the “thinking” emoji and nothing else. Obviously, this got everyone in a tizzy over the potential of a collaboration.

Are LEGO and Fortnite collaborating? 2j6hl

LEGO is no stranger to collaborations, and video game collaborations in general. Over the years, there have been collaborations with Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Batman, and The Incredibles, to name a few.

When you think about it this way, it feels like a team-up between the two was inevitable. It’s looking more and more like that day is upon us. A few days ago, we got a Fortnite leak saying that LEGO will Fortnite on Dec. 7.

Per an X post from HYPEX, the collaboration will have a bunch of characteristics, including:

• Playing as an actual LEGO character
• A LEGO Stud Gun
• A building tool with 9 slots (and a creative mode)
• Beds to sleep on to restore HP
• Vendors that sell items, Camps to sleep and Enemies to fight
• New movements
• Emotion reactions like Sad, Surprised, Worried (etc.)
• Crafting, and an inventory
• Movement that includes Sliding, Swimming, Gliding, Flying, Running, Walking and Falling (with Fall Damage)

A lot of commenters pointed out the similarities to another popular game. “Minecraft but made out of Lego but in Fortnite,” one said.

Regardless, we can look at the Supply Llama post as confirmation that something is indeed on the horizon. Very exciting! While it’s extremely likely we’ll see LEGO in the game, there’s also a very strong possibility that we’ll be getting Fortnite LEGO sets in the future as well.

This would probably include the most popular and iconic Fortnite locations, like Pleasant Park, Tilted Towers, or even Loot Lake.

At this point, what hasn’t Fortnite collaborated with? In the past season alone, we’ve seen collabs with Lewis Hamilton of F1 fame, Eleven from Stranger Things, Alan Wake from the very popular video game, and even Todoroki, Eijiro and Mina vrom My Hero Academia.

In a time when Sony’s first-party exclusives were conspicuously absent and Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest left us wanting more, Xbox bulldozed over the competition with a 2-hour showcase that featured more than two dozen games, not to mention an extensive look at Bethesda’s Starfield.

With no triple-A titles to fight back against Sony and Nintendo’s onslaught, Xbox has recently found itself in a peculiar position. While the blue team kept customers busy through The Last of Us Part I and God of War Ragnarok, and Switch recently delivered the adventure of a lifetime through The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Microsoft waited on its newly acquired game studios to fill the content gap.

To put it in simple , Xbox needed a huge win, and with titles such as Avowed and Starfield still a little ways off, the Xbox Games Showcase 2023 was a golden opportunity to get back into the competition. And boy, did they deliver on that potential.

Microsoft presented a lot of games that are currently under development at Xbox Studios and beyond, so without further ado, let’s give you a recap of everything that happened during those magical two hours.

The new Fable game finally gets another “in-engine” trailer 1i1i2x

The previous Fable game spent many years in development hell until finally getting canceled by Microsoft. Now the company is promising us that this new reboot will be different. Well, given that it’s been in development since 2018, we were really expecting to see gameplay footage at tonight’s showcase. Still, this in-engine clip might be enough to appease diehard fans – for the time being, at least.

Obsidian is going full first-person RPG with Avowed and this is our first look 12513a

Avowed is the ultimate fantasy role-playing experience, especially since it’s coming from developers who are veterans of the genre. Coming from an isometric franchise like Pillars of Eternity might cast Avowed in a dubious light, but we have no doubt that Obsidian will continue to deliver when the time comes. Avowed is coming in 2024, so we might have to wait for next year’s showcase to see a proper gameplay clip.

Clockwork Revolution is a first-person shooter from inXile 495856

At first glance, we could’ve sworn that Clockwork Revolution appeared to be a sequel to Bioshock Infinite, but inXile’s new title is set in a completely different world. Already craving another dose of steampunk elegance? Clockwork Revolution is the game for you, and it’s going to be available for free on Game when it launches.

Microsoft introduces a new carbon black Xbox Series S with an extended 1TB SSD 2z5f5z

Xbox Series S is a compact and stylish home console that’s capable of running the latest games without breaking a sweat. For a lot of people, the only palpable issue with a $250 Game machine was insufficient storage space, but Microsoft is now taking care of that problem by introducing a 1TB version. What’s more, this new Series S will be carbon black, lending it an even more refined look.

CD Projekt showcases Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, inviting players back to Night City 6q6t54

How do you top having Keanu Reeves in a cyberpunk dystopia? Why, you add Idris Elba into the mix, of course. Phantom Liberty is the only DLC for CD Projekt’s Cyberpunk 2077, and it’s going to introduce a whole new storyline to Night City. CD Projekt has been working on this add-on for quite a while, so we can’t wait to see what it works into an already engrossing experience. Maybe Phantom Liberty is also including some of the things that were promised in Cyberpunk 2077 at launch but were nowhere to be found in the game. We can only hope, right?

By the way, if you miss some of that Keanu Reeves awesomeness we talked about, make sure to check out this section from the full stream.

Compulsion Games is working on another absurdist title called South of Midnight, and here’s your first look 3qe3b

If you enjoyed playing We Happy Few — which was one of the most peculiar games to come out in recent years — then you might also find South of Midnight another intriguing venture from Compulsion Games. The game will be a day-one Game launch, but the studio didn’t announce any release dates. South of Midnight is going for a different vibe, certainly nothing like We Happy Few, but we’ve come to know that the writers’ room at Compulsion really knows what they’re about, which makes us excited for this new title.

Star Wars: Outlaws is the first open-world Star Wars game in history 3d2t3e

It’s strange to realize that despite its extensive history in the gaming world, Star Wars has never taken advantage of the open-world genre. Outlaws is soon going to change that. Developed by Ubisoft, the game is being described as an actioner starring a scoundrel named Kay Vess who goes around the galaxy having adventures with her robot pal – who just happens to be a BX-series droid commando. At the moment, we don’t have any details beyond this cinematic trailer, but tune back in tomorrow during Ubisoft’s showcase at 10 am PDT and you’ll get to watch an exclusive first look at the gameplay.

Check out this chaotic gameplay trailer for Payday 3 5k1k49

Heist is going to take on a whole different meaning when Payday 3 comes out on September 21. The developers at Overkill Software shared a gameplay trailer tonight that was full of unhinged chaos. This is no longer a simple matter of robbing a bank and making off with the loot, but apparently that of an all-out skirmish with the SWAT.

Cities: Skylines II gets a release date along with a new trailer 566k15

The gaming landscape is constantly undergoing change. Over the past few years, city-building sims have lost their appeal to a large degree, but that doesn’t mean the community has forsaken it altogether. Cities: Skylines II is the perfect example of why these games are still relevant, and now we have a release date to look forward to thanks to this new trailer. Skylines II is coming out on October 24, and Game subscribers will get to play it for free on launch day.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is giving us the tingles all over again 271h4i

Often referred to as the most technically impressive game from the ninth generation so far, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is one of the most anticipated Xbox exclusives on the horizon. The developers still refuse to show us proper gameplay footage, but this in-engine clip from tonight’s showcase might still blow your mind, especially if you’re into ASMR. The voices inside Senua’s head are only growing in strength — it seems — and we can’t wait to see where the character will go next after her ordeals in the original game.

Other honorable mentions 2r2w1j

Microsoft’s showcase included more than a dozen other games, all hype-fueling in their own right. From the high fantasy-inspired 33 Immortals to the already leaked Atlus games Persona 3 Reload and Persona 5 Tactica, and even a new climbing game by the developers of Life is Strange, the Xbox Games Showcase 2023 was packed to the rafters with Game releases.

The Elder Scrolls Online and Overwatch 2 are also receiving a new season and Bethesda is doubling down on their expansion of the failed Fallout 76 in the hope of redeeming the entry. Also, Flight Simulator is getting another installment in 2024, but more interesting perhaps is the inclusion of a Dune DLC that allows you to roam the deserts of Arrakis.

Other games that appeared include Still Wakes the Deep, Dungeons of Hinterberg, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, Towerborne, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and ultimately — the ever-present Xbox game that has to show face at every conference — Sea of Thieves, now with a Monkey Island season .

Starfield takes the crown of 2023’s most anticipated game 591o4p

And finally, we come to the reason Microsoft held this showcase in the first place. Starfield Direct started with director Todd Howard reintroducing fans to their next big IP, and then the devs took turns explaining what the open-world role-playing game will encom. The footage runs for a whopping 45 minutes, underlining many facets of the spiraling world of Starfield. It also makes something absolutely clear: This is going to be the Game of the Year in 2023.

Yes, I know – you’re shouting, “What about Tears of the Kingdom?” to the screen right now, but let’s think about it in practical . The Legend of Zelda has been around for more than two decades. The games are still innovative and amazing to play through, but Starfield is a completely new beast, and it’s the first project in as many years from the developers of The Elder Scrolls. That’s now a low bar, and it will definitely reflect on the Xbox exclusive when it comes out in September.

Yet, we’re still inclined to believe that Starfield has the chance to live up to the hype, and even sur it to some extent. And if you don’t want to take our word for it, just watch Starfield Direct from the link above, and you’ll understand why we’re really beginning to root for this game.

In the medium of video games, choice is imperative. The freedom of interactivity is one of the defining characteristics of the art-form — players control, the game follows. Even in the most rigid games, the option to not play, not experience the narrative, or not engage with the systems are available. In-game choice, however, is more complex; developers must for all possible permutations of any given choice — those who choose it, those who choose the secondary, those who ignore it completely. Keep adding inflection points and the necessary scripted events grow exponentially out of control. Unless you’re Telltale, that is. 

It’s impossible to discuss the choice-based adventure game without mentioning Telltale: the California-based developer redefined the point-and-click genre with its integration of difficult, heart-wrenching decisions. While its earlier games, particularly Back to the Future: The Game, attempted to draw players in with dynamic actions and simple choices, it wasn’t until the release of The Walking Dead — an adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comic of the same name, not d with the TV series — that choice truly mattered to players. Now, every single decision felt like life or death: Do you kill someone who’s infected, or chop off their limb? Do you give someone medication, or food, or a weapon — and can you trust them? The narrative themes fit perfectly with this style of gameplay, in turn helping propel the style to untold heights. Telltale became a high-profile AAA studio that created must-play adventures, and other games — even Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, an action-adventure blockbuster — felt the need to integrate basic choices for no reason. 

While it felt infinite at the moment, Telltale’s reign spanned only a few years, from 2012 until the studio laid off a majority of its staff and inevitably shut down in 2018. There’s a lot more to discuss, particularly the studio’s horrendous treatment of employees, particularly of those it suddenly and unfairly let go, which led to a lawsuit. As of writing, the company is back — it was purchased by LCG Entertainment in 2019 and has attempted to return to the limelight with The Wolf Among Us 2. Since Telltale’s implosion, some employees went to Skybound Games, who finished development on the concluding episode of The Walking Dead: The Final Season. 

Other employees — mainly five white dudes — founded Dramatic Labs, an “independent collaboration of writers, developers, designers, artists, and producers who are ionate about the future of interactive storytelling” who are releasing Star Trek: Resurgence next week. That game in the article’s title? Yeah, I’m finally talking about it. If you didn’t know there was a Star Trek video game being developed, let alone that it releases so soon, you aren’t alone. The game — which was originally supposed to come out last spring — spontaneously was given a release date in April. Despite being created with Unreal 5, it’s got the same chunky cel-art style of Telltale games, the same slightly jank-looking aiming reticle, and the same promise to revolutionize interactive adventure games. What the people at Dramatic Labs don’t seem to be aware of, though, is that their style of game actually isn’t the future of interactive adventure games. Not anymore. 

Since Telltale’s shutdown in 2018, their slow, methodical wandering of yore has been superseded by dynamic, heart-pounding systems. Since its acclaimed release of Until Dawn in 2015, Supermassive Games has merged the realm of horror fiction with interactive dilemmas. While every game isn’t a masterpiece, they are almost always wildly entertaining and fun to play, using horror tropes to their advantage to create tense moments of life-or-death choices. It may be a slow slog of exploring the area and trying to keep everyone (anticlimactically) alive, but it’s when you try and horribly fail that these games come alive. 

While we are (rightfully) ignoring David Cage in this conversation, former Quantic Dream employee Caroline Marchal created the studio INTERIOR/NIGHT and released As Dusk Falls, a sprawling choice-based adventure game, last year. Although it’s not perfect, the game leaned hard into decision-making while stripping away the gameplay, allowing for dozens of impactful decisions per chapter; it felt like a choose-your-own-adventure novel that was impossible to ever read the same way someone else did.

The most monumental changes to the genre, however, aren’t about massive, flashpoint decisions: it’s all about the tiny ones. Deck Nine understood this when developing Life is Strange: True Colors, the newest entry in the long-running choice-based adventure series. While the original games were directly influenced by Telltale, the newest entry bundled all the episodes into one package from the jump and allowed players to explore the town of Haven Springs, Colorado. Big decisions do exist, particularly in reference to which love interest main character Alex Chen chases, but it’s while exploring that the smaller ones come into play: Do you help a character with dementia slowly come to with her diagnosis? Do you help her granddaughter gain the courage to leave town for a better life? Do you see through the town jolly-man’s exterior and help soothe his broken heart? Most of these moments are intimate and small — offering a dance, starting a conversation, letting someone know their anger is okay — and seemingly never intersect with the main plot. They do, though, as a final confrontation unites all the townsfolk into trusting you or running you out of town. In one fell swoop, these tiny, organic interactions dovetail into a meaningful conclusion.

The underappreciated Guardians of the Galaxy game by Eidos-Montreal — not at all connected with Telltale’s own attempt at a narrative of the same characters — acts in a very similar way: A few major decisions are bolstered by dozens of smaller ones that players must seek out and engage with on their own . As a narrative based around team bonding and fully uniting the found family, these optional interactions — sometimes for something as small as heading in an alternate direction while talking with a character — make the game feel alive. By the end of the story, everyone was united not for plot reasons, but because I personally made them feel loved, cared for, and appreciated. 

None of this is to slam Star Trek: Resurgence before it comes out; it’s possible that the game meaningfully innovates on the old Telltale formula unlike Gearbox’s recent New Tales from the Borderlands, itself a successor to a beloved Telltale series. Choice matters, but it isn’t enough to simply present options and call it a day. That novelty is long gone. Instead of trying to rehash the past and become a novelty from a bygone era, it should take a page from Star Trek’s book and go boldly where no game has gone before.

Waking up this morning, I had planned on purchasing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in person. Something about the return to a previous ritual — walking into a store, molecules vibrating with excitement at the mere thought of playing the new game — enticed me enough to put aside my unfair apathy and finally purchase the game. My plan was thwarted, however, when I learned that my nearest GameStop was closed. Shocker.

With the domination of online shopping (thanks, Jeff!) and the growing reliance on digital storefronts, physical retail stores are at a clear disadvantage. People don’t have the time and patience to drive all the way to a store for a game, let alone wait for it to arrive at their doorstep. So, GameStop struggles, closing stores in America and beyond all while laying off employees — even at its reputable magazine, Game Informer — in an effort to cut costs. Not all hope was lost because for a few brief, shining moments, the failing brick-and-mortar company found itself at the center of attention — just for all the wrong reasons. Back in 2021, some righteous Redditors stuck it to GameStop executives by causing a short squeeze, costing the company and their hedge fund investors billions. In its most recent attempt to make quick cash, the company went all in on cryptocurrency and NFTs, only to lose millions for their idiotic trend-chasing. 

It wasn’t always this way. Back in my childhood, also known as the mid-2000s/early-2010s, GameStop was the place to get video games in my corner of America. There was a skirmish in my local mall where an EB Games, Australia’s flavor of game store, tried to fight GameStop for dominance; it didn’t take long for the EB to become a Claire’s. GameStops were everywhere — sometimes multiple within a few-mile radius, and they were filled to the brim with everything a young gamer could want: new games, used games, retro games, accessories, controllers, and posters galore. It was my immature dream to work at a GameStop, to become the community guru who pointed players onto new series and could hold my own in conversations with the nerdiest folks around. Working surrounded by games, by people who care about games, seemed like something I was made for. …The employee discount was also mighty tempting.

Hopping in my car, I drove an extra 10 minutes toward my second closest GameStop, desperate to reignite the feeling of what it was like to purchase games as a kid: the mystery, the excitement, the euphoric feeling of holding the game I wanted so badly in my hand, my eyes scanning the box over and over again as I willed us to get home faster so I could play the darn thing already. Reconnecting with my youth could cure my art fatigue, or just make me anxious to play Tears of the Kingdom, or at least make up for the fact that I had not pre-ordered on Amazon and didn’t want to wait however long Jeff had determined was appropriate to be delivered. Memories of past purchases played on repeat while my eyes focused on the traffic in front of me. It wasn’t long until I pulled into the strip mall parking lot, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and parked right next to the store. “GameStop” it said — the red, white, and black sign was a sight for sore eyes, a staple of simpler times. 

I walked to the door, braced myself, and walked in. It was… disappointing, to say the least. Save for me and the two employees, the store was eerily empty. No children were running around, excitedly pulling at the games on the shelves; I quickly honed in on the TotK display and grabbed the faux case — a placeholder box with the cover art shoddily taped on that you trade an employee for the real thing. The walls were still stocked with games, consoles, and accessories, sure, but also Pokémon cards, Funko Pops for some mid-tier brands, and various video game-themed clothing items. These extraneous items often had larger displays than the franchises they d. GameStop has been diversifying their stock for years — at one point in 2021, Mr. Beast challenged video essayist Patrick H. Willems to fit the entire store into a triangle, and he succeeded — but there was something heartbreaking about seeing these alternative revenue sources slowly encroach upon the video games the company is supposed to be named after. 

Walking up to the check-out counter, the realization of two more travesties occurred to me. Firstly, there was a lone copy of the most recent issue of Game Informer left haphazardly about. Like most physical publications, Game Informer has grown into a thriving (if at times troubled) digital journalism outlet. Nowadays, I rarely see people discussing the arrival of a new copy of the magazine, but I ed the elation I felt upon seeing one in my mailbox. Game Informer was my introduction to video games journalism, each feature and review showing me exactly what criticism could be and that there was a career (however unlikely it seems currently) where people paid you to discuss video games. It was life-changing. The complete lack of GameStop TV, the company-branded TV network that predated the pivot to video, was the second tragedy. The series was a launching point for many prominent voices within the industry, introducing regular shoppers to the likes of Andrea Rene (What’s Good Games) and Greg Miller (Kinda Funny); the company’s official YouTube channel has been dormant for well over a year. 

In an age before the proliferation of social media, GameStop was a curator, a hotspot, an actual place for critical thought, and a conduit of ideas within the community. You may think I’m being hyperbolic (and I might be a bit), but it was through my proximity to GameStop that I found myself moving from games as a hobby into a possible profession. Now, though, the store is a shell of its former self: an empty, unexciting, sad state of affairs. I purchased the game, briefly chatting with the employee about TotK’s $70 price tag (which I had forgotten about), and left. 

Back in my car, I shuffled the box in my hands. I read the back, a skim selection of brief bullet points for the game’s gimmicks, and studied the box art; the painterly style was at once comforting and captivating. Excitement slowly coursed through my body, energy finally building after months of nothing. I turned the car on and, with memories and game in tow, drove away from GameStop for what I can only assume was the last time. Or maybe not.

It’s Friday, May 12, and while the rest of the world takes to the skies of a newly renovated Hyrule in the blockbuster mega-hit The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I’m sitting in a café, drinking an iced Matcha latte, contemplating why I don’t feel the need to them. The Legend of Zelda has been my favorite franchise since childhood; memories of being psychologically scarred by ReDeads in Ocarina of Time and stealing the official Twilight Princess guide to help me through the game’s difficult (but incredible) dungeons sit fondly within my heart. When Breath of the Wild came out in 2017, I pulled an all-nighter playing it alongside my best friend while we both explored the desolate Hyrule on our shiny, new Nintendo Switch consoles. But after putting dozens of hours into the game, I inexplicably stopped playing, only opening the software a spare few times over the next six years. 

It’s difficult for me to pin down what exactly happened. Was it exhaustion? A steadily-growing disinterest? The allure of a newer, shinier game? All were equally possible, as long games tire out my focus, and newer experiences — from Super Mario Odyssey to Hollow Knight to Hades — beckoned my attention. Still, the inkling to jump back into Hyrule was rarely indulged — or outright rejected when I would realize (again and again) that I simply forgot how to play the game during my time away. It was difficult to enjoy roaming the rolling hills when monsters could easily ruin my day while I struggled to how to fight back. 

I thought everything would change when Tears of the Kingdom — originally blatantly called The Sequel to Breath of the Wild, which has a nice ring to it —  was announced at E3 2019. The trailer was darker, the world familiar, but transformed. Link had long, luscious hair, and Zelda was rocking a bob-cut. I was ecstatic; however, my BotW cartridge remained untouched in my special collector’s edition Sheikah Slate Switch carrying case. Each new trailer sent shockwaves around the internet, sending Twitter ablaze with theories and hopes and dreams and worries. But all the new information left me cold and bizarrely disinterested. I felt like an outsider, a hellhound watching the party under a pile of clothes in a dark closet. Discontent with simply being labeled a grump, something my friends will often do without hesitation, I turned my analytical skills inward: What in my life was keeping me from jumping with joy?

The most straightforward answer would be that my Switch — my beloved, tempestuous home console love — is showing its advanced age. The left Joy-Con drifts like it’s in a Fast and Furious film, the back has slowly twisted, and the fan has been letting out a death knell for months. Handheld play is not impossible but certainly difficult, as even recalibrating the joystick doesn’t make it stop moving of its own accord, and the whining, wheezing fan sounds like a dying animal got stuck within a jet turbine and refuses to perish peacefully, even when it’s docked. Neither of my alternative consoles — my child, the Xbox Series S, and the new-wave alien device that is the PlayStation 5 — struggle so much to fulfill their intended purpose. It doesn’t help that next-gen speed and specs have made the often shoddy performance of Switch games feel like an affront against nature. I can it when I am spoiled, and also when I do not have the monetary fluidity to shell out for the gorgeous Zelda-themed OLED Switch. Although, I’ve absolutely thought about it. (I will not be made a sucker for buying a replacement Switch when its successor is just around the corner… right, Nintendo? Right? Please call me.)

Looking past the physical deformities of my console, we enter the ethereal realm of untouchable problems. At the risk of sounding like a brat, I can partially blame my job as a games journalist, which has slowly mutated my genuine ion for games into article fodder. It might be great to write off games as business expenses, but it’s become difficult for me to enjoy things for the sake of enjoyment, rather than mining the experience for some deeper meaning. I mean, heck, I’m even doing that right now for a game I’m unsure of playing — content is life, life is content. That’s not to say there isn’t any joy that can come from playing games anymore, but it’s few and far between, buried deep beneath layers of critical thought and analysis. Subconsciously, it feels like I’ve been protecting my cherished Zelda franchise from the claws of such deep thought. When I think about my baby boy Link, my head goes empty and I can’t string together a coherent sentence.

Alternatively, the franchise’s sheer juggernaut status has made it difficult to feel like any thought is novel and groundbreaking. There are so many incredible pieces about Breath of the Wild and the Zelda series as a whole, so ing any conversation feels daunting and misguided. What can I say that hasn’t already been said (and probably said better) by a dozen other writers?

Unable to find the words, I venture out of my house on the launch day of one of the most anticipated games of the young decade — one of the highest-scoring games of all time — to sit in a café and write about why, beneath every excuse I could give, it scares me. How much I will enjoy the game, how much I will read into its successes and failures, how many pieces I will draft and redraft in my head while searching for that breakthrough article that sparks a conversation — it all frightens me. Everything is different than it was in 2017 — my Switch is ancient, my friend lives in a different state, I’m not in high school, I’m not the same person. I cannot expect Tears of the Kingdom to be the same, either. In fact, I would be disappointed if it was! But still, here I am, sitting in a café, debating whether or not I will buy a game that, deep down inside, I already know I will purchase. It’s not a matter of “why,” but “when.” It’s not a matter of being hyped; it’s a matter of meeting it on my own .

It’s been a long journey since that first game in 1986 introduced us to Link and asked us to go on a pixelated adventure to save Princess Zelda and Hyrule itself from the evil warlock Ganon. Now — with more than a dozen installments and almost four decades of game design experience backing it up — Nintendo has just released the latest installment in The Legend of Zelda series, titled Tears of the Kingdom, and achieved unanimous acclaim from critics and gamers.

Zelda might remain a humble game in its bearings, but don’t mistake that modest exterior for anything other than pure, unadulterated fun. While Nintendo may have originally set out to depict a high-fantasy story — and succeeded at it to a large extent — the true spirit of Zelda games is in all the fun you can have in their worlds. And even now, were you to pick up a much older game with outdated mechanics, you’d still have as much fun.

Which is why we’ve decided to give you a complete rundown on the franchise from its conception in the mid-80s to 2023’s Tears of the Kingdom.

A brief timeline of The Legend of Zelda 336nl

Through more than five generations of home video game consoles, The Legend of Zelda has remained a relevant cultural phenomenon, starting all the way back with the eponymous 1986 video game. This was a game that never took itself too seriously, so despite building upon fantasy elements, it also incorporated a ton of incongruous features that made the gameplay experience more fun.

In time, those features became a staple of the franchise, and The Legend of Zelda took a life of its own both within the gaming community and outside of it among high speculative fandoms.

Nintendo followed that first game with a number of sequels in the form of 1987’s The Adventure of Link, 1991’s A Link to the Past, 1993’s Link’s Awakening, 1998’s Ocarina of Time, and 2000’s Majora’s Mask – which also garnered a ton of acclaim. Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, in particular, have gone down as two of the best video games in history, so much so that even now, after all these years, they still make it into the top 10 lists as a testament to how well they’ve stood the test of time.

All in all, there have been 19 major releases in the franchise, but that’s barring the HD remasters that have occasionally made their way out on a new console. Here they are in order of release:

• The Legend of Zelda (1986) for NES and GameCube
• The Adventure of Link (1987) for NES
• Link’s Awakening (1993) for Game Boy
• Ocarina of Time (1998) for Nintendo64 and GameCube
• Majora’s Mask (2000) for Nintndo64 and GameCube
• Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages (2001) for Game Boy Color
• Four Swords (2002) for Game Boy Advance
• The Wind Waker (2002) for GameCube
• Four Sword Adventures (2004) for GameCube
• The Minish Cup (2004) for Game Boy Advance
• Twilight Princess (2006) for Wii and GameCube
• Phantom Hourglass (2007) for Nintendo DS
• Spirit Tracks (2009) for Nintendo DS
• Skyward Sword (2011) for Wii
• A Link Between Worlds (2013) for Nintendo 3DS
• Tri Force Heroes (2015) for Nintendo 3DS
• Breath of the Wild (2017) for Nintendo Switch
• Tears of the Kingdom (2023) for Nintendo Switch

Among these, The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword have pushed the narrative and game design forward in meaningful ways, not to mention that they’ve also received extremely positive reviews. So, if you ever wish to play through the franchise, make doubly sure to play these entries.

Of course, that’s not all the Legend of Zelda games out there. Nintendo has also released a few notable spinoffs over the years, like 2014’s Hyrule Warriors, which is a crossover of Zelda and Koei’s Dynasty Warriors series. There’s also the sequel, Age of Calamity, which came out in 2020 and served as the prequel to Breath of the Wild.

The Legend of Zelda has had an epic tenure over the past three decades, and with how Tears of the Kingdom is turning out, we have no doubt that Nintendo will continue riding this wave in the foreseeable future.

Lately, scrolling through Twitter feels like watching the dinosaurs awaiting their demise — the meteor creeping closer every minute, promising to obliterate their very way of life. Were the Triceratops aware of the encroaching catastrophe? Did they spend days mulling over how they would spend their last minutes dominating the Earth — what plants to eat, what streams to drink from, which eggs to protect? Or were they so blissfully unaware that their lives continued unaffected until, suddenly, it was all over?

It’s easy to believe that journalists — writers as a whole, really — are the newest incarnation of the dinosaurs, not because we are cold-blooded and reptilian (although some possibly are), but because we are purveyors of ancient crafts: thoughtful criticism, honest reporting, and artistic license. We face not one but many meteors, as legacy media continues to reject a reportedly $200 billion industry in favor of hobbyists and influencers who by the journalistic boundaries necessary for true ability. The closure of The Washington Post’s Launcher and Vice’s Waypoint confirmed everyone’s fear that no matter how profitable, award-winning, or respectable a publication is, the writers are never safe from the sword of Damocles dangled over their heads by money-hungry executives.

Since I started my career as a freelance journalist a little over a year ago, numerous publications have shuttered or been gutted, some mere months after publishing my byline. While I haven’t been around long enough to consider these writers “friends,” they were all inspirations, and each successive layoff portended the end of an era. Writers like Imran Khan, Gita Jackson, Renata Price, and Patrick Klepek are only a few of the many who created the very industry I wanted to — one full of clever subheadings, insightful commentary, and a dedication to honest introspection. Without a home, these forebears have receded into freelancing, Patreon posts/Substack letters, or have left the journalism industry entirely for PR or Communications. Facing experienced, tenured writers in the job market, it’s obvious that early-career journalists like myself don’t stand a chance; the definition of “entry-level” changes when an influx of overqualified people suddenly apply for the position. 

Aware of the damage they may cause, many writers have decided to avoid the industry entirely and write for themselves, furthering the idea that success only comes to those with an established brand. That brand just happens to be rapidly transforming into the writer themself rather than a publication, an emulation of the hobbyist/influencer market that has wreaked havoc on the journalism industry as a whole. Only time will tell whether or not this shift yields positives or negatives, although it’s easy to imagine how the lack of willing publications might only be helpful for those with an established platform while making it even harder for newer writers to break in. 

I’d be lying if I said my future in this industry seemed stable. There are, of course, indie websites focused on criticism — Uppercut, Into the Spine, and Unwinnable to name a few — but their smaller nature keeps them from allowing writers to make a living solely on their . It’s difficult to imagine behemoths like Polygon, Kotaku, or GamesIndustry.biz closing shop, but the meteor inches closer daily, ready and raring to destroy all we hold dear. In the meantime, these dinosaurs do everything they can to appease the algorithm — constant news reporting, evergreen listicles, and hyper-vigilance of trending topics for the best possible SEO abuse. 

I am very aware that this article — a serious, personal piece about the state of games journalism — is being published by WeGotThisCovered, which is often derogatorily labeled as a “content farm.” That’s not to diminish the efforts of the many writers and editors who give their all to this website; making a profitable publication is nigh impossible these days. Guides and SEO pieces are the only ways to bring in clicks, which brings in ad revenue, which allows everyone to get paid on time, which creates room for serious, thoughtful criticism to exist. WeGotThisCovered, and many of the websites under the GAMURS umbrella, are surviving the only way they know how, and it’s because of these efforts that people are getting paid. But I know that this style of writing — one focused heavily on popularity, clickbait titles, and quantity over quality — is not why I wanted to start writing. 

Writing, to me and former Kotaku writer Harper Jay, is a kindness, an act of love. I consciously spend hours of my life playing, analyzing, and experiencing video games (and art as a whole) because I love them. Heck, even when I hate them, I love them. There is nothing more special to me than connecting with art; the moment I recognize a part of myself within a work, goosebumps break out across my body, my breath quickens, and my heart beats faster. It’s a visceral, physical response. The neurons in my brain fire rapidly: What does this make me feel? How does this make me feel? What is this trying to say? Most importantly, why does this matter? I ravenously sink my teeth in, pulling at the flesh of the narrative, ripping the thematic sinew from their bones, intentionally savoring each and every bite. That’s love: carnivorous, terrifying, ionate love. Much like a T-Rex killed to survive, I too write because I must. 

Love is not monetarily viable, though. We cannot pay our bills, fill our bellies, or generally survive off of it alone; in the capitalist hellscape we call society, money reigns supreme. It feeds us and poisons us in equal measure. It’s what will kill the dinosaurs. 

As the meteor approaches, I am left with a few options: give up and an alternative industry with more stable pay, create my own space and personal brand through innovation and unyielding dedication, or find a little corner that will somehow hire me ahead of far more qualified writers that pays just enough and brings just enough stability and cling to it for as long as possible. ittedly, none of these are ideal, and it’s easier to lose myself in the existential crisis of unemployment and financial insecurity. The pragmatic and creative hemispheres of my mind are constantly at war with one another, neither one winning but both causing damage: anxiety, depression, hopelessness. But still, I persevere. 

Every day, I wake up excited to write. I venture to a café, purchase a slightly overpriced tea latte, open Google Docs, and put down my thoughts. Looking behind me, I can see the meteor lurking in the sky — I can feel its presence weighing me down. Looking ahead, the road is diaphanous and serpentine, uncertain and winding, building itself block by block in beat with each forward step I take. Will I have a stable job, as a writer or an editor? Will I find a community, a platform that s me? Will I even remain in journalism long enough to have my voice matter? But looking ahead at the screen of my laptop, none of that matters because, at this moment, I am writing. And sometimes, doing something you love is all you can do to survive.

Developing a video game is hard, full stop. The original impetus — the seedling of an idea, emotion, or mechanic — sprouts into a consumer-ready product after years of beta tests, bug squashes, and redesigns. Like most art, the final work often barely resembles the first attempt, and they’re linked solely by the creative DNA of the developer’s blood, sweat, and tears. Anything can happen during this time: Teams can grow or shrink, fads can form or , and technologies can be invented or become obsolete. Development time has stretched exponentially; what once took a year or two has elongated into a laborious multi-year process focused heavily on recreating life-like 4K graphics, innovative gameplay, and Hollywood-level narratives. It’s easier than ever to start making a video game nowadays, but it’s also harder and more laden with expectations. 

No developer sets out to be a failure, for years of their lives to be spent on a game infamous for being a glitched-out, buggy, half-baked mess — any successes already long-forgotten. But again: Game development is hard. Sometimes when you promise to deliver the moon, you end up landing in rural America instead. 

The developers at Arkane Austin are nothing if not ambitious. Their first solo venture, 2017’s Prey, continued Arkane’s penchant for immersive sims, which are often defined by their willingness to let the player tackle any obstacle however they see fit. For example, enemies within Prey can be dealt with via turrets, stealth kills, shotgun blasts, GLOO, or simply running away. This development ethos of player choice feels the most hands-off, but in reality, is intricate and precise. When everything is possible, every option must be ed for. Although largely ignored at launch, Prey and its 2018 roguelike expansion Mooncrash are now beloved titles worthy of their inclusion next to genre-defining titles such as Deus Ex and Arkane’s breakout Dishonored series. They didn’t just deliver the moon — they crashed into it, erupting into a gorgeous shower of fireworks before turning their sights on rural America with their next game: the Massachusetts-based vampire co-op hunter Redfall. And this is where everything went terribly wrong. 

Redfall is, to quote Xbox CEO Phil Spencer on the Kinda Funny Xcast, “disappointing.” To be clear, we liked it, with reviewer Ash Martinez stating, “With rich, beautiful open worlds, a multitude of weapons, and a wide variety of enemies to square off against, Redfall amazes.” But most other people don’t. This could be due to a wide variety of things — the surprisingly divisive gunplay, repetitive mission structures, and a plethora of glitches and bugs that make the game nigh unplayable — but most likely, it’s due to checked expectations. Put simply, people were disappointed by Redfall, and no patch in the world can fix that. 

On paper, nothing about Redfall shouldn’t work: Merging Left 4 Dead multiplayer with an Arkane immersive sim sounds like a breakthrough in real-time exploration and gameplay, something that could entirely redefine how we view multiplayer narrative experiences. But — like WB Montreal’s Gotham Knights, which promised similar things before its release last October — these false ideals only served to highlight how bad the game actually was. Five months after release, Gotham Knights was “fixed,” and it’s easy to believe that a few months from now, Redfall will be, too. But the damage is already done; players are already burned and will not trust so easily again. 

It’s a cycle that has been recurring over and over and over again in the industry, so much so that frankly, it’s exhausting. Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Atomic Heart, Halo Infinite, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Saints Row (2022), The Callisto Protocol, The Last of Us Part 1 on PC. In some small way, each title listed wanted to be good, they wanted to provide a wonderful experience that you can’t have anywhere else. But they are all weighed down by lackluster game design, massive technical problems, and/or false promises. Some might be good games, others might be terrible ones, but they are all united in being fully and entirely disappointing.

Even future games are tainted by this. There’s the unending worry for Bethesda’s messianic Starfield, which has been shuffled around more than a deck of cards at a casino; Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which bizarrely relies on always-online co-op, movement shooting (which is not the studio’s strong suit), and a god-forsaken battle ; and even the Silent Hill 2 remake worries anyone with knowledge of Bloober Team’s shaky, tone-deaf Xbox horror game The Medium. Unable to temper expectations, developers try to cram as much into their games as possible so players can do as much as they’d like, oftentimes regardless of the quality because patches exist. Why spend the time to release a polished, final product when you can print the game and demand everyone a day one patch that fixes some — but likely not all — of the issues? Maybe the devs even provide a roap that says the game won’t be fixed today or tomorrow, but sometime in the future, it will finally be at its best!

The problem, ironically pointed out by the developers of the long-gestating Dead Island 2 in an interview with IGN, is that modern games are too complex. No game needs dozens of emergent systems, promises of seamless multiplayer, incredibly detailed worlds, or shiny graphics. They do need to be engaging with enjoyable gameplay; put simply, they want to be something you want to return to because of how playing it (the primary verb associated with video games) is fun. Like so many others before them, Arkane Austin tried too much at once. Their creative vision was splotchy and unclear, and their attempts to cover up their problems with buzzwords only made them stand out more. A polished turd is still a turd.

None of this should dissuade developers from trying out new, innovative ideas. It’s always more respectable to strike out swinging because, while it may be more frustrating, it shows how deeply they cared and tried. Each successive failure, however, should be a reminder to simplify and refine their games before releasing them. Game development, like rocket launches, might be hard, but success is achievable. Shiny, buzzwordy rockets might explode, so sometimes, it’s helpful to that looking toward the proven tried and true is okay. It doesn’t matter how you get to the moon, just that you do.