Speaking to Nightdive founder Stephen Kick and VP of business development Larry Kuperman at this year's Game Developers Conference, I was curious about how it felt to be returning to System Shock 2 for the studio's upcoming remaster. After all, I had a loose understanding that Shock 2 is the game that kicked off Nightdive in the first place.Kick recounted the unlikely story of how he found himself making...
When Nintendo launched the Switch in 2017, it had no competition in dedicated handheld gaming, a sector it had established with the Game Boy in 1989 and ruled ever since. Sega had come and gone; Sony, after two determined attempts with the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita, had just about given up. As Switch 2 nears launch in 2025, things look a little different — but only a little. The...
Against the Storm is one of the best city-builders of recent years, taking the SimCity cycle of building cities destined to be destroyed by natural disasters and infusing it with a roguelike structure, such that the death of your city is merely a part of the game, rather than the end of it. Yet alongside this, one of the key secrets to its success is the diverse array of anthropomorphic...
Rust is, famously, an unforgiving affair, a survival game where someone murdering you and stealing everything you own is also known as 'Tuesday'. But Facepunch's open-world cruelty simulator does have at least one merciful bone in its emaciated, battle-scarred body. In 2021, Facepunch added a softcore mode, which mitigates some of the vanilla game's brutality with features like safe spawning zones and the ability to recover some of your loot...
As it barrels through its characteristically outlandish fourth and final season, Danny McBride’s HBO comedy The Righteous Gemstones has cemented a reputation for itself. Yes, it’s side-splittingly funny. Yes, its “failchildren of a crumbling empire” narrative is surprisingly relevant. Yes, there is a core of sincerity at the center of the madness. But Gemstones’ legacy wouldn’t be complete without talking about the bold ways McBride and co. spend the budget...
Pacific Drive received its "largest ever free content update" this week, one which introduces a brand new way of playing Ironwood Studios' vehicular survival game. But you'd better step away from the newswheel, bucko, because I'm hijacking this article for my own devious ends. While the headline addition of the update is some fancy-sounding expeditions, it's a secondary feature developer Ironwood Studios has folded in, which actually made me consider...
I did something horrible. I told Jafar, the scheming vizier villain in Disney’s Aladdin, about cryptocurrency, and now he’s determined to get WyshCoin off the ground by selling the luxurious lifestyle associated with the brand. The problem is he’s actually broke, so I need to brew him teleportation potion after teleportation potion so he can sneak into increasingly extravagant venues in order to sell the illusion of the WyshCoin lifestyle. ...
Tuesday morning, Lionsgate announced that among a trio of new projects in the John Wick universe, there will be an animated prequel movie about the night the master assassin initially broke free from his obligation to the High Table. Intended for “more mature audiences,” the movie will be directed by Shannon Tindle (Ultraman: Rising) and written by Vanessa Taylor (Game of Thrones, The Shape of Water). Keanu Reeves will return...
Of all the unmade sequels that I'd like to exist, Dishonored 3 is at the top of the list. The original Dishonored ranks among my favourite games ever (especially when you throw in its incredible expansions), while Dishonored 2 is generally regarded as one of the best games of all time.Sadly, a third game never happened due to the second selling below publisher Bethesda's expectations, and the chances of it...
The Switch 2 is a social machine. For the console’s second iteration, Nintendo prioritized processing power capable of large-scale multiplayer. The Joy-Cons’ new C button lets you instantly join a group chat with shared-screen play options. Extensions in the Nintendo Switch Online app will add dimension to old titles, including autobuild-sharing in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. As producer Kouichi Kawamoto put it in Nintendo’s post-reveal Ask...