Ethan Gach

Hands On: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Will Put You Right To Work

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a hard game to demo, but Nintendo invited me to try to do it anyway last weekend at PAX East. I came away from my brief trip to its deserted island impressed by how pretty everything looked and eager to continue toiling away on its beaches, in its fields, and…

The esports company Echo Fox has settled claims in a defamation suit brought by co-founding partner Amit Raizada. The suit stemmed from accusations made by co-founder Rick Fox, who left Echo Fox last fall. Editor’s Note: March 5, 2020, 10:42am: This item has been updated to clarify the resolution of the lawsuit.

Knuckle Sandwich Is An RPG That’s Like EarthBound Meets WarioWare

In Knuckle Sandwich, I stumble into a restaurant and the next thing I know my boss is barking at me to bring customers their burgers. A minute later, after barely passing a customer satisfaction survey, I get jumped in the alleyway while taking out the garbage by a green guy in a leather jacket. A…

A Dramatic Podcast Fills In The Gaps Of Fallout 76‘s Broken World

Fallout 76 didn’t have much of a storyline when it was released in November 2018. Its world was full of interesting little details, but bereft of living, breathing characters. Instead, it tasked players with creating their own narratives. Some role-played as cannibals, others joined cults. One person decided to try and weave these player experiences…

Surprise! Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is out on PC today It’s the second Halo game to make its way there as part of the Master Chief Collection and comes with some nice features in addition to 4k resolution and variable framerate like the option to switch between classic and remastered graphics.

There’s a new trailer for Destiny 2‘s Season of the Worthy which starts March 10. It looks like it’s based around teaming back up with Rasputin to defend the Last City by powering up Seraph Towers through public events and clearing out bunkers with wanted enemies in them. 

March Is A Good Time To Dust Off The Vita

Spring isn’t officially here for another few weeks but it’s already over 50 degrees outside, new growth is starting to bud, and I’m feeling nostalgic for the dozen or so colorful indie games that I’ve accumulated on my Vita over the years. For years around this time, Sony used to run its annual Spring Fever…

Mario Kart Tour is finally getting real-time multiplayer races on March 8 Following an update that will go live at 11:00 a.m., players will be able to race against one based around a rule set that will change daily. There’s also the choice to just race against friends 

Someone Tried To Recreate Breath Of The Wild Dungeons With Nintendo Labo

The programming tools that come with Nintendo’s Labo VR Kit are extremely limited, but that didn’t stop one player from using them to try and make dungeon mini-games ripped straight out of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Nintendo Labo uses a visual node system to program apps. It makes it intuitive for…

Outriders Is Like Destiny Mixed With Heart Of Darkness

Outriders’ art makes it seem like a grittier rip-off of Destiny, but having played the game for a couple hours, it feels more like Gears of War mixed with Mass Effect. It occasionally reminded me of a James Cameron sizzle reel: the bucolic paradise of Avatar giving way to the bloody horror of Aliens occasionally…

Microsoft Drops Out Of GDC, Too [Update: And Epic]

Following in the footsteps of several other major tech firms including Sony and Facebook, Microsoft and Epic both said today that they will no longer be attending this year’s Game Developers Conference due to the growing health risks posed by COVID-19, better known as the coronavirus. “After a close review of guidance by global health…

China Pulls Plague Inc. From App Store

The creators of the popular plague simulator say it was taken down by China’s Cyberspace Administration over “illegal” content. “We’ve just been informed that Plague Inc. ‘includes content that is illegal in China as determined by the Cyberspace Administration of China’ and has been removed from the China App Store,” Ndemic Creations said in a…

Destiny 2 Lead Says They’re Trying To Fix The ‘FOMO’ Problem

In a new Director’s Cut blog post over on Bungie’s website, Destiny 2 director Luke Smith wrote that the studio wants to change how the game’s three-month seasons filled with time-limited activities work in the future so players don’t feel like they’re constantly missing out on stuff when they’re not playing. “This year’s version of…

Shovel Knight Is Getting A Puzzle Spin-Off Called Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon

We’re getting a new Shovel Knight game that looks like a mashup of The Legend of Zelda and Candy Crush. Sure, alright, sign me up. Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon was announced during today’s Yacht Club Game Presents livestream and it looks like a lot. Top-down dungeons? Check. Roguelike elements? Of course. Enemies grouped up like…

Mass Effect Returns To Minecraft Seven Years Later

Minecraft players can now once again explore Mars as their favorite Mass Effect players on modern platforms. The Mass Effect Mash-Up Pack adds 36 unique skins for characters like Commander Shepard and Garrus, as well as a bunch of custom textures, menus, and some of the best music from Mass Effect 3 because what better…

Ghost Recon Breakpoint‘s Long-Awaited Overhaul Has Been Delayed At The Last Minute

Ghost Recon Breakpoint players just can’t catch a break. The game was supposed to get a massive “immersive mode” overhaul this month addressing a number of issues players have had with Breakpoint since it launched last fall. Now, just days before the end of February, Ubisoft has announced that the update won’t arrive until sometime…

Destiny 2 Is Finally Getting Trials Of Osiris Next Month

Last night players completed the final stage of Destiny 2’s Empyrean Foundation event, resulting in an announcement from Bungie that the beloved, high-stakes player-vs.-player mode from the first game, Trials of Osiris, will be returning on March 13. “D2 needs aspirational experiences like Trials in PVP,” the game’s director Luke Smith said on Twitter. Trials…

You Can Easily Play Stadia Games Using Your Phone’s Touchscreen Now

Stadia is still missing a lot of common sense features following its launch late last year, including a built-in touch control option. But now, a fan-made Chrome extension called TouchStadia lets you bypass Stadia’s controller requirement and use touch controls on smartphones. Released over the weekend on Reddit where it was first spotted by Android…

Searching games on Steam got some much needed improvements today as part Valve’s Steam Labs initiative to make the platform better. You can now search games by specific pricing, using multiple tags, and exclude ones you already own from the results. At long last there’s also infinite scrolling now.

The New Xbox One Home Screen Is A Lot Cleaner

Microsoft released a new update for the Xbox One home screen yesterday that makes recently played games easier to find and removes a lot of the extra junk that had previously been taking up real estate. The three rows that used to make up the home screen have been condensed and moved. Now, in the…