Mega Man X's groundbreaking evolution sent it soaring into the skies
On The Level examines one small part of a larger game.
No Man’s Sky is finally discovering signs of life in its AI universe
Today Hello Games is releasing something called No Man’s Sky Next. It is not a sequel to the massively ambitious 2016 game No Man’s Sky but rather the latest in an ongoing attempt to make it hew closer to what No Man’s Sky was once thought to be. This will be difficult for Hello Games to accomplish, given that, from…
With a little help from Nikola Tesla, The Invisible Hours expands our idea of what a VR "game" can be
Having recently succumbed to my ever-growing urge to join the “TV screen strapped 3 inches from my dumb face” set—which is to say, I finally broke down and bought myself a PlayStation VR—I’ve been casting around semi-desperately for a steady stream of new content to justify my ludicrous purchase. Few digital…
30 years ago, Bionic Commando proved video game grappling hooks are awesome
Bionic Commando was a game that flew in the face of its own era. When it reached Nintendo’s Famicom on this day in 1988—first released in Japan as Hitler’s Resurrection: Top Secret, the heavily altered home version of a 1987 arcade oddity—jumping had already become the definitive verb of the time, the thing most…
Mothergunship makes building your own ridiculous guns just as fun as using them
Every Friday, A.V. Club staffers kick off our weekly open thread for the discussion of gaming plans and recent gaming glories, but of course, the real action is down in the comments, where we invite you to answer our eternal question: What Are You Playing This Weekend?
Let us consider Toad, whatever the hell he is
We turn today to Toad. He is some sort of mushroom man? This is about as legit a description as exists in Super Mario’s candy-colored nightmare of a video game series. It’s worth noting Toad is both a named character and also the name of a species of Toad-like people. This surreal synecdochic quality is shared by…
Nathan Fillion explains his love for Nathan Drake, Uncharted's "not-quite hero”
Sony has been talking about developing a movie based on its Uncharted series of blockbuster action games for nearly a decade now. What started as a David O Russell-directed Mark Wahlberg vehicle that sounded nothing like the games morphed into a different adaptation with a script from Joe Carnahan and in its latest…
Sonic Mania Plus finally finds an interesting way to use Sonic’s friends
Every Friday, A.V. Club staffers kick off our weekly open thread for the discussion of gaming plans and recent gaming glories, but of course, the real action is down in the comments, where we invite you to answer our eternal question: What Are You Playing This Weekend?
Here's Peach and Daisy, dancing to every song in the world
If there’s one thing the internet has proven, it’s that there’s meme potential everywhere. While some of us walk the earth, thumbing through websites, watching movies, and playing video games with only a surface appreciation of what’s on the screen, others identify something more.
Red Faction: Guerrilla embraced players for what we are: total assholes
Playing the recently released remastered—excuse me—“re-mars-tered” edition of Red Faction: Guerrilla hammers home just how radical that 2009 cult classic was all those years ago. At that point, big-budget games had barely explored their ongoing obsession with open worlds, a design style so uniquely predispositioned to…
Guild Wars 2 Writers Fired For Calling Out Fan On Twitter
After a Twitter spat erupted into a mob of fans going after a narrative designer for Guild Wars 2 studio ArenaNet, the developer said that it has fired two employees: Jessica Price and Peter Fries.
Rage 2 is on the way, but the original is worth revisiting
Every Friday, A.V. Club staffers kick off our weekly open thread for the discussion of gaming plans and recent gaming glories, but of course, the real action is down in the comments, where we invite you to answer our eternal question: What Are You Playing This Weekend?
Wisdom Tree's Games Turned Shooters Into Bible Stories
In the 1990s, a company called Wisdom Tree made serious bank selling Bible-themed video games for consoles. And in many cases, they were just tweaking existing games and giving them a Bible twist, with often hilarious results.
Wacky cartoon pool, a beautiful throwback RPG, and more games to play in July
With new games of all sizes filling real and digital shelves every week, it can be near impossible for anyone to keep up. So during the first week of every month, we’ll be here to help with a curated selection of new, notable games we think should be on everyone’s radar for the month ahead.
With Jurassic World Revealed, Amazon shows voice games for Alexa are no joke
Every Friday, A.V. Club staffers kick off our weekly open thread for the discussion of gaming plans and recent gaming glories, but of course, the real action is down in the comments, where we invite you to answer our eternal question: What Are You Playing This Weekend?
Steam sale deep cuts: 20 under-the-radar games under $5
Every summer, the ubiquitous computer-game storefront Steam incites a period of wild consumerist frenzy with its annual seasonal sale. Prices plummet, people’s wills are tested, and many games that probably won’t ever be played are bought and, eventually, agonized over. The cycle has existed for so long now that it’s…
The makers of Too Many Cooks turn their upsetting attention to the world of Let's Play videos
Despite numerous attempts—many of them responsible for some of the strangest, most interestingly upsetting online content of the last few years—Adult Swim has never managed to match the sheer viral punch of Too Many Cooks. The 2014 short caught the internet totally off-guard when it debuted, unannounced, at 4 a.m. on…
Life finds a “meh” in Jurassic World’s lackluster theme-park builder
With apologies to “Life finds a way,” there’s a much simpler philosophical thesis lurking underneath the Jurassic Park/World franchise: You should never, ever try to run a Jurassic Park. Just don’t! It always starts fine, sure, but the next thing you know, you’ve got T. rexes chowing down on your legal team and Wayne…
Detroit, Westworld, and moving androids beyond human
This post contains plot details from Detroit: Become Human, season two of Westworld, and Blade Runner 2049.
The A.V. Club’s favorite games of 2018 so far
Let’s face it: It was pretty much impossible for the games of 2018 to live up to the games of 2017. Like 2007, 1998, and 1993 before it, that’s a year we’re going to be talking about for ages, with loads of boundary-pushing releases. But as we looked back at the games we’ve lost ourselves in over these last six…
