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  • The ultimate history of fighting games Fighting games have always been around. The first one on this list landed in arcades in 1976!

    The Street Fighter games are arguably the best-known fighting titles ever released (only Mortal Kombat comes close), and the series has sold a staggering 37 million copies. Fighting games, though, have been around since the very beginning of the medium. The first one we hit on this list landed in arcades in 1976 – a full 40 years ago! Lace up your gloves, charge up your ki, and let’s write the book on the history of fighting games. I tried to play, either on original machines or through emulation, every single game that could be considered a “fighting game” in the history of video games. I’m going to try and talk…

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    The spooky, gory, and gorgeous worlds of DOOM Sometimes, it pays to shoot pictures instead of demons.

    November 12, 2018
    h1z1-angrupug-chinese-cheater-trolled

    “Taiwan #1!” AngryPug hilariously trolls Chinese H1Z1 cheater "Japan number two, China number four!"

    July 6, 2015

    “You are not a real gamer” The phrase has become a joke and a cliche - but when someone says "you're not a real gamer," what is it they're really saying?

    September 22, 2017
  • Under the thumb: the evolution of buttons How the buttons we press daily were formed over many decades.

    I’ve been delighted with Nintendo Switch, not just because Breath of the Wild is probably now my favorite game ever, but because the Joy-Cons really make the hardware feel special. Even more so if you were fortunate to get hold of the neon red and blue version. It may be because no other controller has ever had so much versatility, either for a single player or for the instant sideways turn into two stand-alone controllers. It shakes up a lot of other controller preconceptions, too, and in doing so made me think about all the controllers I have used. How over time that knowledge of where to move your thumb is accumulated,…

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    Video game research shows you’re past your peak already at 25 Scientists have been using video games to study reaction speeds as people age and have discovered that it all starts to fall apart at 24.

    April 15, 2014

    These are the most controversial games of all time, according to science We’re sitting here with a beautiful big dataset from Metacritic. It's time.

    February 7, 2018

    One person’s long, arduous quest to restore the first color arcade game Ed Fries, a former Microsoft executive, has restored part of gaming's history in his garage.

    June 9, 2016
  • The Mission: the most bizarre soccer game ever made "Once you have acquired the ball it is used as your main weapon against the Ninjas."

    Of all the ways a British child could have their Christmas ruined in the late ’90s — sherry-fueled arguments after dinner, a sibling raging because they didn’t get what they wanted, a burned turkey — there is a special place in yuletide hell reserved for crappy soccer games bought by well-meaning family members. For the contemporary gamer, soccer more or less means the slugfest between FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer. But before this heavyweight title card came to dominate, back in the era of the original PlayStation, the soccer games jostling for position more closely resembled a royal rumble. And much like in the WWE’s yearly 30-man brawl, the majority…

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    The final days of Grainger Games—as told by those who worked there The closure of Grainger Games was a shock for customers — but absolutely devastating for employees.

    April 4, 2018

    What to make of Star Citizen Star Citizen’s most vociferous detractors claim that it’s all a scam; its defenders maintain that everything is totally fine. The truth, as is so often the case, is not so simple.

    September 30, 2016

    Mario and Sonic: a tale of two mascots Super Mario Odyssey and Sonic Mania reflect the histories of their star characters almost too well.

    January 9, 2018
  • Is true next-gen Cyberpunk 2077 worth the wait? Cyberpunk 2077 releases on all platforms in one month, but the next-gen upgrades for the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions won't be out until 2021.

    The launch lineup for PS5 (November 10th!) is looking pretty impressive, but fans of one of the most anticipated games ever now face a dilemma: the Cyberpunk 2077 scheduled for release on December 10th isn’t a real next-gen product. We have important news to share with you pic.twitter.com/qZUaD6IwmM — Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) October 27, 2020 A later upgrade to Cyberpunk 2077, taking full advantage of the next-gen hardware, will be available for free. — Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) June 19, 2020 While technically you can play Cyberpunk 2077 on your shiny new PS5, it will essentially look and feel exactly like the Cyberpunk 2077 in your PS4. The upgrades that allow…

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    We are producing way too many (good) video games There more good games out there than ever before, and they're getting longer. Let's look at the numbers.

    October 10, 2016
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    WATCH: mom rages on livestreaming son having a smelly gamer moment Gamers sometimes need to poop where they sit instead of wasting time going to the bathroom, but this mom won't tolerate gamer moments.

    November 15, 2019

    I played No Man’s Sky with an astronomer to separate its science fiction from facts An infinite gaming world, but is any of it based on scientific fact? We sat down with one of the world's leading astronomers to put No Man's Sky under the intergalactic microscope.

    August 19, 2016
  • The ‘PC Engine Mini’ is a schmup fan’s fantasy This slice of gaming history can finally be enjoyed without hitting eBay and selling a kidney.

    There’s something funny about how the modern trend of re-releasing old consoles can reflect something of what those machines were. The NES and SNES Classic were slick, packed full of great games, and flew off the shelves. My favourite thing about the Mega Drive mini, on the other hand, was getting hold of a set of non-functioning accessories to clip onto it: a 32X, a Mega-CD, and a Sonic & Knuckles cart. The Neo Geo Mini? Expensive, desirable, filled with brilliant games I’d never heard of. The Capcom Home Arcade takes the form of the Capcom logo, an aesthetic decision I found bizarre until realising it echoed seeing those same six letters on…

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    The sex is the saddest thing about GTA V (NSFW) Grand Theft Auto V is an incredible, incredible video game. So why is its sex so terrible?

    November 19, 2014

    Does the C64 Mini’s games library do the Commodore 64 justice? The real reason it trumped the Speccy and Amstrad was breadth and quality of software.

    March 29, 2018

    These are the most controversial games of all time, according to science We’re sitting here with a beautiful big dataset from Metacritic. It's time.

    February 7, 2018
  • 15 completely awesome old school video game commercials Blast to the past.

    Since the dawn of video games there have been video game commercials. These ads were singed to the outside of our tender little brains and put a rage in our bellies that caused a relentless verbal assault on our parents. We wanted these games. These commercials are as classic as the video games they are advertising. Let’s go back to a simpler time. Mike Tyson’s Punch Out Before his giant face tattoo and his hunger for human ear meat, Mike Tyson was one of the best boxers to ever walk the earth. This prompted Nintendo to give this insane bastard a direct window right into the minds of the youth.…

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    5 pixel art games you need to play right now Who doesn't love breezing through a colorful, simplified world that resembles something from their childhood?

    November 20, 2012

    How ‘Untitled Goose Game’ went from meme sensation to real game House House partner Stuart Gillespie-Cook went into the company’s Slack channel in August of 2016, posted a picture of a goose and wrote “Let’s make a game about this.”

    September 20, 2019

    The game dev who cried wolf Indie developers feel it’s hard to get noticed, but trying to stir up fake scandal sets a terrible precedent.

    August 15, 2017
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    Sony reveals next-gen PlayStation 5, confirms backwards compatibility, raytracing and 8K 2020 at the earliest.

    Fans of Sony’s leading games console, the PlayStation 4, have long awaited a successor to the popular platform that’s delivered everything from Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us to last year’s smash hits, Spider-Man and God of War. They will soon be getting their wish as Sony made a surprise info dump revealing their “next-generation plans” for the gaming world, which fans are unofficially referring to as the PS5. In an exclusive interview with PlayStation’s lead architect Mark Cerny, Wired got the first word of Sony’s plans to take their gaming endeavors to the next generation. The bad news is that it won’t be out this year, but the…

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    Leave me alone: speaking out against the rise of co-op The once separate worlds of singleplayer and multiplayer are merging – but there's nothing wrong with playing alone.

    August 8, 2013

    Meet the whale who spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on the MMO Black Desert Online "I love how we just casually talk about spending almost the entire cost of a full ride at Yale university on a video game."

    July 23, 2020
    ghostbusters-hamburger

    5 most garbage Ghostbusters tie-in products (of garbage) And yes, you’re a misogynist if you don’t like the tie ins.

    June 29, 2016
  • atari-vcs

    Atari VCS delays may have been worth it Customizable Atari console will have new Radeon Vega-based graphics architecture and two Zen CPU cores from AMD.

    Atari used to be a household name way back in the ’80s, and the company – or at least the new holders of the Atari brand – intend to put the console’s old-school magic into the hands of gamers today. However, delays to the console’s release have cast doubts on whether it’ll ever come out. Originally slated for release in 2018, the console was pushed back to Spring 2019 – a release window that has since come and gone. It’s now set for release in late 2019. The delays haven’t been without cause, as the company revealed last week that they’ve come up with a new production prototype that’s replete…

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    You can now play 10,000 Amiga games in your browser for free, on archive.org Take a nostalgia trip with some real retro classics.

    August 10, 2016

    You’ll never be able to afford these top gaming battlestations MOM! BATHROOM!

    May 5, 2020

    Hardware limitations are holding back Final Fantasy’s butt sliders Naoki Yoshida: "You all really like butts, don't you?"

    July 23, 2020
  • ps-vita-ending-sony-handheld

    PS Vita discontinued, ending Sony’s handheld dreams Sales were overwhelmingly lackluster in the international market.

    Sony has ended the production of its PS Vita console, ending the Japanese corporation’s dream of competing against Nintendo. The handheld console managed to sell more than a few units in Japan, but its sales were overwhelmingly lackluster in the international market, prompting Sony to officially discontinue the Vita’s final two models. The handheld console, which remains more powerful than Nintendo’s 3DS, struggled against the competitor thanks to a lack of titles and the rise in popularity of mobile gaming. Sony is unlikely to make another attempt at seizing the market, which remains dominated by Nintendo, with a successor to the PS Vita. When the PS Vita was first released…

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    The games that dare to sail the dark seas The humbling grandeur of the ocean: a place eternally unknowable, and indifferent to the fortunes of the seafarers it both sustains and destroys.

    June 23, 2017

    The secret to the success of the greatest MMO of them all Vanilla World of Warcraft fed on the blood, toil, tears and sweat of its players, testing their patience and resolve - but that was part of its magic.

    April 22, 2016
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    5 most garbage Ghostbusters tie-in products (of garbage) And yes, you’re a misogynist if you don’t like the tie ins.

    June 29, 2016
  • anthem

    BioWare’s Anthem is broken and bricking PlayStation 4s Uh oh.

    BioWare’s latest – and worst rated – shooter, Anthem, is facing more than just bad reviews: it’s also bricking consoles. According to redditors, the game often crashes and occasionally takes the system down with it. And in some cases, the system never starts back up. One complaint thread by ForTheMasters has prompted over a thousand upvotes. This is the only game that causes a complete PS4 shutdown from AnthemTheGame ForTheMaster’s complaints were echoed by other users. “Happened to me as well,” wrote Terry2Toke. “The worst part is when it shuts your console off, it does it as if you pulled the power plug out of the wall. The console has…

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    Five standalone ‘sidequels’ that are far better than their main series The bitesize masterpieces that edge out their main series counterparts.

    January 19, 2018
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    10 times gamers IRL died on cam F in the chat.

    November 23, 2019

    15 underrated N64 games the world forgot about Celebrating the weirder side of the N64.

    October 3, 2016
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Recent features

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From the archive

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