It was a little after 2 a.m. on a cool May night. Up until that point, it was just like any other night. I did what I always do before I hit the sack: I opened Pokemon Go on my phone and checked the gyms surrounding my house. I'm a member of Team Mystic – the blue team – and since I'd moved to Highland Park a year ago, a quiet neighborhood in Northeast Los Angeles, Mystic has consistently dominated the area. The gyms we captured went uncontested for weeks at a time, and I expected to see that reassuring sea of blue when I opened the app before shutting my eyes. But that night, all I saw was yellow. Team Instinct had come to town, and they had utterly destroyed us.

There are those who say that every Mario Kart character is essentially the same, and that you should just play as who you like. Those people are dumb. The racer you choose in the new Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for Nintendo Switch not only determines whether you win or lose – it says a lot about you as a person, too.

Composer Austin Wintory is an unusually humble guy despite his enormous success. His work is extensive and varied, from the ragtime piano of indie hit Monaco to the waltzes of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and the sweeping orchestral scores of The Banner Saga, Abzu and Journey. That last one earned him a Grammy nomination in 2013, famously the first (and still the only) nomination for a video game score.

It was my second day in the Wild when I first glimpsed a dragon. It was raining – thundering, actually, and I was running for my life. Where there’s thunder, there’s lightning, and lightning in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild spells death for inexperienced players.

Horizon Zero Dawn is Guerrilla Games' first completely original title since releasing the showcase PlayStation 2 first person shooter Killzone in 2004. Not only is it the studio's first new universe in 13 years, but as a vast open-world, action RPG it's also a significant departure from the linear shooters of its past.

Guerrilla Games was already set on the big-picture concept for Horizon: Zero Dawn – due exclusively for PlayStation 4 on February 28 – by the time the game's current narrative director John Gonzalez joined the studio over three years ago. The intriguing contrast of a primitive, tribal people whose natural world comprises impossibly advanced technology – robots as intelligent and complex as any organic wildlife. What they didn't know was how these disparate ideas could possibly coexist in the same game.

The main character in Ubisoft's recently released extreme mountain sports game Steep isn't some long-haired snowboard rebel with a novelty balaclava, or a clumsy digital simulacrum of whichever Shaun White successor the kids are looking up to these days. Speaking with Igor Manceau, creative director of Ubisoft's studio in Annecy, France, it's clear that to the developers, Steep's narrative and emotional center is none other than a semi-mystical, whimsically idolatrized vision of "the mountain."

Anyone who's followed video games for a while has probably developed an opinion on Geoff Keighley. To most, he's simply the guy who used to host the Spike TV Video Game Awards, a show whose pandering, tone-deaf production alienated its audience as often as not. To others, he's the dude from that Doritos meme, the "sell-out" who represents everything wrong with enthusiast journalism. Longtime gamers might even remember Keighley from his stint as a host on the now-defunct cable channel G4, or from his extensive work in print and online games journalism over the years, or from one of his many, many other hosting gigs. But Keighley himself wants to be remembered for one thing: The Game Awards.

For a million reasons, much of it out of anyone’s control, the initial crop of games that launches with any brand new console is bound to have some duds. Normally, those unfortunate failures don’t warrant a sequel, and second chances are exceedingly rare. Knack is the exception.

Final Fantasy XV was in development for 10 years. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people across six different game development studios helped created it. Yet its camera — a fundamental part of the way players interact with the game’s world — is severely flawed. The weight on the game’s metaphorical shoulders was enormous — not just for the future of Final Fantasy as a game series, but possibly for the entire future of game consoles in Japan, according to game director Hajime Tabata. And it delivered on its enormous promise in many ways. How is it possible that a game into which so much was invested can have such a seemingly simplistic flaw?

Ancient map-making required mastery over the disciplines of mathematics and astronomy, the means and courage to venture into dangerous uncharted territories, inhuman patience, artistry and attention to detail, and the ability to perch on the cutting edge of every new technological advancement your culture’s most talented minds could muster. David Hodgson’s job is arguably more difficult — and certainly more tedious.

There are two main things to know about Absolver: it's visually gorgeous, and its combat will ask more of you than most other games would dare. It’s not just a brutally specific set of controls like the Dark Souls series, or an impressive array of stance-specific combos like in Ubisoft’s upcoming For Honor (with which Absolver shares a small amount of spiritual DNA, as members of developer Sloclap work previously at Ubisoft); it’s that Absolver lets players customize their fighting styles to a degree of detail rarely, if ever, seen in video games.

Most of the time when video games tackle the subject of cults it’s to give heavily armed players more robe-wearing demon-worshippers to fire rockets at. Richard Rouse III’s The Church in the Darkness takes a different approach.

What Remains of Edith Finch is the exact type of game that gets derided as a “walking simulator.” That's silly. For one thing, the label carries negative connotations, implying that a video game in which all you do is walk around and experience something is inherently bad. That flawed line of thinking does nothing but limit the kinds of games we get to play.

Westworld’s finale was a near-perfect end point to a fantastic season of sci-fi television, not to mention a tantalizing platform from which Season 2 will launch.

The Last Guardian is among those rarest of games — the ones that are in development for years and years (a decade in this case) and still actually come out. Now the long-awaited third title from game design auteur Fumito Ueda is scheduled to arrive Dec. 6, with no further delays. Speaking in a hotel meeting room in Santa Monica, Calif., Ueda seemed simultaneously reserved and excited to get the game out there.

I’ve noticed something funny on my two trips to Japan: It’s hard to find accessorries for my big-screened gadgets. I tend to lumber around with a pluz-sized iPhone and an XL Nintendo 3DS in tow, but any cases, skins, decals or screen protectors on sale in Tokyo retailers like the 10-story mega-store Don Quijote are for the smaller versions of these devices only. As a culture Japan values efficient use of space, with dense but smart design infiltrating every corner of life, from Don Quijote’s packed, labyrinthine shelves to the sink in my hotel bathroom that doubles as the showerhead. That efficiency extends to the country’s vast gaming culture.

Whether you’re a casual button-masher or an e-sports fanatic, a VR believer or a Bulbasaur hunter, you undoubtedly felt the gaming world’s vertiginous highs and lows throughout 2016. Hotly anticipated games and technologies landed with a thud, while unheralded titles became cultural touchstones—to say nothing of underground-gambling or online-harassment scandals.

Everyone dreams of being an astronaut; Sean Murray made a game that lets you play one.

I Am Setsuna begins with its hero, a mercenary named Endir, on an unassuming mission to rescue a girl. You slay the monster and the girl asks why you did it. Of the two dialogue options you can choose from, “This is our job” seems appropriate for this stoic warrior-for-hire. As the victim runs to safety, a man emerges from the shadows of the forest. If he was going to attack you, he’d have done it from behind, but you keep your guard up.

You enter a new system for the first time, activating your ship’s scanner. There’s a trading post on the nearest planet. You hit the booster, breaking the enormous green globe’s atmosphere and gliding shakily to the planet’s surface. It has a name, but you open your “discoveries” menu and give it a new one.

There’s never been a game like No Man’s Sky. It’s not just the vast, practically endless universe, full of rich colors and promising mysteries, or the bootstraps story of four guys who left their jobs making blockbuster games to forge their own path and craft a true work of art. More than anything, what makes No Man’s Sky amazing is the feverish crescendo of hype it built over the last three years since its announcement—and the fact that developer Hello Games was able to actually complete it with a small team of 15 people.

When I lived in Boston I walked everywhere. Now I live in Los Angeles, and I walk almost nowhere. The farthest is to the bar down the street, less than half a mile away, and I’ve been tempted to uber there or back more than once. Blame the drink. Because of Pokémon Go I just walked more than a mile. I’m not saying that’s a good thing—it was midnight in LA and my girlfriend and I went the whole way face-deep in our phones. I’m just saying it’s weird.

It was the first time I’d been alone with The Witcher 3 all week, and I wanted to do something weird.

There’s a lot riding on Final Fantasy XV. The last few games in the series, though they have their sets of fans, haven’t had the same impact as the ones that made “Final Fantasy” a household name—entries like Final Fantasy VII and FF X. Number 13, in fact, wasn’t well received at all, and the fourteenth was a massive multiplayer online game—the same genre as World of Warcraft—whose original 2010 launch was so thoroughly botched that Square Enix had to totally redesign and re-release the game as something different three years later. So what’s riding on FFXV? The fate of the entire series, it seems—and maybe more.

Video game previews are often uncomfortable, especially when they take place nine months before a game’s release, like when I played Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands at an event during annual gaming convention E3 2016.

Destiny has gone through lots of ups and downs, but “Rise of Iron,” out this fall, is looking like it’s going to be an “up.”

I didn’t go into E3 2016—the biggest gaming convention of every year—expecting to come out excited for a new God of War game. But sometimes even jaded old me gets surprised.

The best part of Hitman is playing each new level until you’ve completed every challenge, killed your targets in dozens of different ways, and memorized the movements of every character and the contours of every hallway, ballroom and plaza. You can spend hours and hours replaying the same mission until everything is perfect—killing your targets without getting spotted, hiding their bodies, preventing any other casualties, and doing it all without wearing a disguise is the ultimate victory. And if I hadn’t achieved all that, I would have had a much tougher time killing Hitman’s first elusive target—especially inebriated as I was.

I first learned of Furi when Playboy contributor Phil Hornshaw sent me the trailer in an email. “Looks cool,” he wrote. When the developers’ publicists reached out to let me know they’d be in LA and could stop by the office to show me the game, I checked my calendar and set a date.

Nostalgia isn’t a thing we only feel when remembering something that was great or perfect. I used to play the Dead or Alive Xtreme games, and I still do, and when I play them now I feel nostalgic for junior high, even though these games are pretty much terrible. I didn’t realize it at the time, but they are. Back then it seemed defensible—what could be the harm of ogling huge-breasted anime babes as they prance and frolic on beaches and volleyball courts?

The first time I played Demon’s Souls, the original game in From Software’s now-famous Souls series, I beat the whole game solo. That’s the best way to familiarize yourself with the games’ totally unique worlds: by throwing yourself against them until they click. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

There’s a funny thing about interviewing game developers: a lot of them are afraid or unwilling to talk about video games other than the ones they’re currently working on, like if they divulge their influences all their own work will seem less original or important (or someone at the publisher will yell at them, more likely). ABZÛ creator Matt Nava doesn’t have that problem.

The Uncharted series is beloved for a lot of reasons, chief among them the games’ playful, well-written dialogue and stories. So I was happy to get to sit down with Uncharted 4 writer Josh Scherr at a preview event for the new Uncharted game.

The Gears of War series is not one of the oldest in gaming—the first game launched less than a decade ago, in 2006—but it is beloved, with a hardcore fanbase and plenty of popular buzz for each entry. For the upcoming Gears of War 4, Microsoft and the series’ new developer, Vancouver-based The Coalition, are focusing on one area in particular for the next stage in Gears’ evolution: esports.

David Bowie’s song “Space Oddity” and Adam Orth’s game Adr1ft go together so well it’s almost painful—which is why Orth didn’t even try to get the rights. “For like 100 obvious reasons I didn’t want to do that,” he told me.

The timer ticks down toward zero. We tear across the Boneyard, one of Halo: Reach’s best multiplayer maps, my good friend Rus driving with me sitting shotgun. I’m clutching the blue flag in hands that would be sweating if they were real. We shed our red teammates like skin; they race past us going the other direction on foot and in alien vehicles, crashing to pieces against the blue players that pursue us. They fall, re-spawn, hurtle past, and fall again. All the while the timer ticks down.

Minecraft is a lot of different things to a lot of different people; a place to build a word processor, recreate Westeros or trap incredible monsters. For many players it's simply about survival, which means making sure you have shelter at night, forging armor and weapons with which you can fend off attackers, and somehow finding food to keep your hunger meter full. It's that last one that presented a problem for me when I picked the game up again recently.

As much as I love it, Destiny is riddled with flaws, many of which Bungie doesn't seem all that interested in addressing. Most of them—like how you still lose ammo when you die—are things players can't do anything about. But the game's lack of matchmaking for its most challenging missions—one of its most glaring problems, depending who you ask—has proved to be something players can address and, by working together, fix.

Some hours into Dragon Age: Inquisition, long after I'd made it out of the Hinterlands, I realized something that really surprised me. My character had taken on a life of his own, and it turns out he's gay.

Dark Souls II's three expansions are a wonderful culmination of everything From Software has learned about making Souls games. And they should be considered essential playing for anyone who enjoyed the series so far.

"I'll try to give you something a little bit more than I said before: we're focused on the characters we announced today." Marvel's Peter Phillips, the company's head of digital entertainment, is humoring me.

Pokémon may seem like a simple game to outsiders, but fans know how complex it can really get. With the release of Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, there are now a total of 718 pocket monsters to choose from. Each one can learn dozens of different attacks, and their strengths and weaknesses can vary greatly.

Pokémon X and Pokémon Y are the friendliest Pokémon games ever, both to new players and to jaded old-guard types like myself. The series has never been easier, and at the same there are more options than ever before. But there's one tiny change in the new Pokémon games that has the hardcore competitive community of players dancing for joy—and it's something average players may never know or care about.

Every girl I date seriously must eventually pass a trial. It happens at a certain point in every relationship I have; by then she basically knows what she's getting with me, including my tendency to get weirdly obsessed with things. The bands Titus Andronicus and Belle & Sebastian, for one thing, or Game of Thrones. I'm tattooed with 16-bit Mario, a Dark Souls bonfire, and my dog Ricky. Etc. But if she hasn't picked up on that part of my personality, she'll see me in full when I show her my stronghold in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

I've been playing Jetpack Joyride for what seems like a long time, but the other day I encountered something so strange and different that it set my mind spinning.

In the future, there may not be any more single-player games—but that doesn't mean what we seem to think it does every time some big publisher opens its big mouth and tells us that single-player games are dead. Epic, story-driven campaigns aren't going away; it's just that new forms of multiplayer are evolving in tandem with those experiences, rather than in opposition to them.

The developers behind the Assassin's Creed series have always been proud of how much effort they put into maintaining a thin veil of historical accuracy. That's most evident in the settings, from Revolution-era Boston to the Holy Land during the Crusades, where that veneer of accuracy goes much deeper. But it's there in the plot, as well, despite the presence of deific holograms and a secret order of superhero Assassins.

The closest I had come to playing a Civ game by the time Sid Meier and co. deigned to bestow Civ V upon the world was starting a game of The Sims once.

Maybe it's because Little Inferno doesn't present the side of Armageddon that we're used to seeing in games, but you might not even pick up on its apocalyptic storyline. Yet as I burned prize after prize in my Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace, a thought tugged at the back of my mind: why am I doing this?

Black Isle was one of the great game studios of its era, but the visionary company that existed in the 90s and early oughts is no more, and its revival is something else entirely—something that seems more sketchy every day.

Antwand Pearman is a father. As we spoke on the phone this afternoon, his kids chattered in the background. He kept apologizing, but I told him I didn't mind. When Adam Lanza murdered 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. last week, Pearman, CEO of GamerFitNation, was understandably affected.

Destiny’s new social space, the Iron Temple, is full of wolves. The wolf is the symbol of the Iron Lords, whose story is finally told in the recent Rise of Iron expansion. The Iron Lord Saladin affectionately calls your Guardian character “Young Wolf” as you work to reforge an infamous rocket launcher that itself is adorned with gilded wolves. Yet the expansion’s new raid, Wrath of the Machine, kills the Guardian who plays as a lone wolf.

“I loves bees.” Any Halo fan knows the significance of that sentence — it represents the Alternate Reality Game (ARG) Bungie used, to great effect, to hype up Halo 2 back in 2004. Last week Bungie launched a new, smaller, but still effective ARG called “Owl Sector” to preclude the latest Destiny expansion, “Rise of Iron,” out September 20.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Markus Koos, Sedir Ajeenah and Jonas Lindberg Nyvang — of game developer Isbit Games, ad agency Garbergs and clothing label Björn Borg, respectively — about First Person Lover, a game about love and fashion.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Lucie Viatgé, Tom Victor and Titouan Millet of the Klondike Collective about Naut, a trippy game made in two days.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Sean Vesce of E-Line Media and writer Ishmael Hope about Never Alone (Kisima Inŋitchuŋa), a lesson in “accidental ethnography.”

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with James Beech of Neon Serpent LLC about Ultraworld, the story of an artificial intelligence paralyzed by uncertainty.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Greg Heffernan, a.k.a. Cosmo D, about Off-Peak, a curated glimpse into one artist’s mind.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Vincent Morisset of Montreal studio AATOAA and Hugues Sweeney of the National Film Board of Canada about Way to Go, a game that suggests you stop, walk, run or fly and smell the roses.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Jesse Ringrose and Jason Ennis of Vancouver studio RAC7 about Dark Echo, a game that’s as minimalistic as possible.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Michael Frei and Mario von Rickenbach about Plug & Play, a short game based on a shorter film.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Colton Spross and AJ Kolenc of Atlanta studio The Stork Burnt Down about Höme Improvisåtion, a very short game that’s way better than it sounds.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Adrian Moore and Ollie Browne of Australian studio Loveshack Entertainment about Framed, a game in which you rearrange comic book panels to control the action.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Robert Yang about Intimate, Infinite, a three-pronged exploration of the infinite and the inevitable.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Porpentine about With Those We Love Alive, a text-based browser game about love, power and an alien empress.

Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, ANIMAL spoke with Anna Anthropy about Star Court, a sci-fi text adventure with countless branching paths.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Hamish Todd about Music of the Spheres, a game inspired by Islamic art and viruses, which have only one thing in common: math.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with David Board of Stage 2 Studios about Lifeless Planet, a game that draws equally from Mario and The Twilight Zone.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks video game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Jane Friedhoff about Slam City Oracles, a colorful game with a strong message.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks video game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Toni Pizza, Diego Garcia and Aaron Freedman about Sunburn, an adorable game about a crew of astronauts determined to die in a blaze of togetherness.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks video game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Jakub Juszczak of Apertureless about Prisoned, a game in which he explores his own depression through a mix of real and fictional events.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks video game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with Ziba Scott of Popcannibal about Elegy for a Dead World, a game in which players concoct their own stories about long-gone civilizations.

ANIMAL’s feature Game Plan asks video game developers to share a bit about their process and some working images from the creation of a recent game. This week, we spoke with David OReilly about Mountain, a game in which you watch nature express itself.

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep brings new content to Bungie's sci-fi loot shooter MMO, transitioning the game into a whole new season and adding on to its story. Plus, there's a ridiculous amount of new gear to chase. With the new changes come adjustments to level balancing and the in-game economy, though, completely revamping the armor system and approach to weapon mods--making them both more customizable.

For some time now in Destiny 2, "pinnacle weapons" have numbered among the game's ultimate prizes. With Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, the looming expansion that will kick off Destiny 2's Season of the Undying, pinnacle weapons are going away.

The underlying formula of battle royale games is searching for the right guns to bring to bear against the players. The same is true of Apex Legends--the beginning of every match is all about finding guns quickly to deal with early battles.

Destiny 2: Forsaken is ushering Bungie's latest sci-fi shooter into its second year with a smorgasbord of new missions, modes, enemies, equipment, and more. Prominent among the new additions is Gambit, a unique Destiny 2 mode that blends PVE and PVP together into one seriously fun competition.

Pokemon Go has been steadily gaining features since it launched in the summer of 2016, from a more robust gyms system (including group raids), to daily and weekly quests and events with a fun variety of rewards. But if there's one thing the game is still missing--one that players have been requesting since Pokemon Go's release--it's Pokemon trading.

To put it in terms almost anyone can understand, Jurassic World Evolution is the RollerCoaster Tycoon of dinosaur theme park management. It's made by Frontier Developments, the Cambridge, England-based studio that worked on the RollerCoaster Tycoon series, including developing RCT 3, plus the similar Thrillville after that, and most recently the spiritual successor Planet Coaster.

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's previous two video games, 50 Cent: Bulletproof and 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, are two of the most fascinating licensed games ever made. Naturally, the rapper, actor, and producer has ideas for a third game--which he'd be willing to make, as long as it's "unique."

The original Tamagotchi was to '90s kids what the pet rock was to their parents: Something pointless but addictive to dote on, because everybody likes to feel needed. Now Bandai Namco is re-releasing a reasonable facsimile of the original Tamagotchi--out in the US Nov. 5--and we spent five full days feeding one, cleaning up its feces, and feeling somewhat overwhelmed by its regular beeping.

Destiny and Destiny 2's Shaxx--the Crucible master who cheers us on, celebrates our victories, and laments our losses in multiplayer matches--has become increasingly more ridiculous as the game's evolved. Some have even compared his often lengthy monologues marveling at players' greatest accomplishments to Shakespearean epics. Turns out that wasn't far off the mark.

One of Destiny 2's most common and annoying foes is an upgraded version of an old enemy: the Cabal Phalanx. These heavily armored brutes hold a gigantic shield in their off-hand, shooting at you with impunity from the other side. On top of that, in Destiny 2 they've gained the ability to massively increase the size of that shield, extending it on both sides to provide cover for their idiot Cabal friends. Thankfully, there's something else new about Phalanxes in Destiny 2: their weakness.

Destiny 2's new live action trailer has quite the director behind it: Jordan Vogt-Roberts, director of this year's Kong: Skull Island, not to mention the upcoming Metal Gear Solid movie. For him, he told GameSpot, anything related to video games is a labor of love. "It really did have to do with my love of video games, and sci-fi, and Destiny," he said. "It was just impossible for me to turn down. It had too many things that I love in it."

Marvel Powers United VR wants to capture a very specific fantasy: To enable players to feel like superheroes. And although the limitations of virtual reality's current state as a medium will always hold it back, there's fun to be had in Marvel Powers United.

Kingdom Hearts 3 has been a long time coming, and despite the series’ many spin-offs, remakes and re-releases, fans are hungry for another adventure with Sora and friends. It’s been 12 years since Kingdom Hearts 2 came out on PS2, and in a recent group interview at Disney’s D23 expo, game director Tetsuya Nomura explained what’s taken so long.

Kingdom Hearts 3 and the Final Fantasy 7 remake are two of the mostly eagerly anticipated games in development right now, and they’re being directed by the same man: Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura, who has previously worked extensively on both franchises. During a group interview at Disney's D23 expo, he explained how the two new games have proved the perfect complements to one another for him as director.

The Pokémon world is one where 10-year-olds traverse entire countries on foot alone save for the company of semi-intelligent rodents and fish. Once you've accepted that, then suspending your disbelief about the Pokémon universe should come easy, right?

A discernible pattern has emerged in developer Game Freak's Pokémon releases. With every new generation of games, they remake and re-release a pair of older games as well. On Game Boy Advance came Fire Red and Leaf Green (remakes of the original Game Boy releases). Then, on DS, they made Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Predictably, 2003's Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire are next on the remake list, with Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire set to drop in November, more than a decade after the originals launched.

Much of what makes Pokémon appealing to its most dedicated players isn't readily apparent to its more casual fans.

If it feels to you like there’s a crucial element missing when you play virtual reality shooters with a traditional gamepad, Sony’s PlayStation VR Aim Controller could quickly become your new favorite accessory.

Farpoint is one of the first games developed for PlayStation VR that feels like more than a tech demo, a proof of concept, or a traditional game with VR features slapped on as an afterthought. That works to its advantage, because while it would be a mediocre shooter if you played it on a normal screen, in VR it feels good, especially when you play with the new PlayStation VR Aim Controller.

Role-playing games have a long and fascinating history. From its humble tabletop origins, the RPG has grown and evolved over the years into the most dominant and ambitious game genre, boasting a catalog as critically acclaimed as it is diverse.

There’s plenty to appreciate in Full Throttle Remastered even if you didn’t play the original back when it was released by LucasArts in 1995. It’s a darkly humorous adventure set in a Wild West-like near future, where the last cowboys (biker gangs) are struggling to stay saddled before the march of encroaching technology (hover cars). A clean new art style and remixed sound make this old hog feel refreshed, although with its questionable puzzle logic and technical issues Full Throttle definitely still feels like a 22-year-old adventure game.

There’s a decent arena shooter hidden deep within the wrinkled, lined pages of Drawn to Death. But it’s not worth flipping through page upon page of wretched jokes, schoolyard insults, and lame attempts at edginess in order to find said decent game. Drawn to Death is simply a mess that can’t provide a single good reason to give it a deeper reading.

The best villains can terrify us, frustrate us, and challenge our ideas about right and wrong. Their evil plans and malevolent perspective can even lure the most noble heroes into the shadows trying to stop them. They can linger in our own hearts and minds long after the TV has been turned off or the book has been closed.

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is a comprehensive Shovel Knight collection that does a good job of showing off what’s great about the Nintendo Switch, while the new Specter of Torment expansion unearths new depth. These exceptional retro-looking (and sounding!) platformers have previously been released on so many platforms that you’ve probably played Shovel Knight already in one form or another (and if you haven’t, you should – see our original Shovel Knight review), but Specter of Torment, in particular, is well worth returning for.

The biggest video games of 2016, as in every other year, were almost universally of the shooter variety: Titanfall 2, Battlefield 1, even the cartoony Overwatch. Their macho arsenals and familiar gameplay scratched the itch many gamers feel if their trigger fingers go too long without popping a foe’s head like one of those slow-motion watermelon explosion videos. But variety is the killstreak of life, and Ubisoft’s combat focused For Honor introduces a much more up-close-and-personal style of killing.

From gods and zombies to a ship and a song, the one trait they share is an ability to end your game swiftly.

“You have to experience virtual reality to truly appreciate it.” It’s a common refrain, but that’s not always true. Some VR experiences can captivate those watching from outside a virtual reality headset. Some, like Within’s Life of Us, can catch the eye of just about anyone who walks by.

The original The Crew had a great core idea; take a road trip in an awesome car. That game’s enormous map spanned the entire United States, and you could drive from one end to the other. The sequel, The Crew 2, keeps that foundation and adds boats, planes and, hopefully, a significant amount of polish.

Ashen may look and feel like Dark Souls, but this indie game for Xbox One has several unique multiplayer features that might set it apart.

Dropmix is a fun and unique musical party game from Harmonix and Hasbro that combines competitive card battling with a music remixer like DJ Hero. But convincing anyone to buy yet another plastic gaming accessory might be a hard sell.

When Assassin’s Creed 3 introduced shipbound naval combat to the series in 2012, some said it was the best part of an otherwise somewhat lackluster game. When Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag cast a pirate as its protagonist and made seafaring gameplay its focus, few were surprised. And when Ubisoft unveiled Skull and Bones during its E3 2017 presentation, it made perfect sense.

Hello Neighbor is available right now in alpha form on the game’s official website, where a FAQ section still notes that the developers “are not announcing any console plans at this time.” That part will likely change soon, as the “stealth horror” game emerged this week onstage during Microsoft’s E3 2017 presentation as an Xbox One console exclusive.

It’s been two long years since the last Assassin’s Creed game, AC Unity, met with tepid reception from fans and critics. Ubisoft responded by taking a break to put AC back in the oven for a while, and the resulting game, Assassin’s Creed Origins, was unveiled for the first time during Microsoft’s E3 2017 presentation in Los Angeles.

Need for Speed Payback looked great onstage during the 2017 EA Play keynote presentation, but many of the explosive features that make it resemble a Fast and the Furious movie also serve to distract and detract from its actual gameplay.

Virtual reality has taken the tech world by storm, but there is a growing consensus among experts that augmented reality has even more potential. The assertion that AR will become the more ubiquitous of the two fields was popular among VR and AR developers attending Unity’s Vision VR and AR summit in Los Angeles earlier this month.

You might think of Gravity Rush 2 as an action game, but it’s really a flying simulator first and foremost. That’s why its combat can occasionally feel like an afterthought — sometimes too simplistic, while later in the game, hopelessly chaotic.

Horde mode is the main draw for many Gears of War fans, and for good reason — it’s a tense and demanding battle royale that rewards dedication, skill and teamwork. “Horde 3.0,” the newest version, is arguably the highlight of Gears of War 4. It’s also the most complex version of Horde yet, and it won’t be easy for players to master.

As the first game in Dark Souls’ lineage that doesn’t actually have “Souls” in its name, you might expect Bloodborne to be a little different — and you’d be right. Dark Souls, this is not.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the most open-ended game in the series since the original Legend of Zelda over 20 years ago. That game handed you a sword and told you, essentially, “good luck.” Breath of the Wild quickly gives you a multitude of tools, from bombs to a paraglider, but the message is effectively the same.

Persona 5 is absolutely massive, a 100-hours-long role-playing game with nearly endless choices when it comes to how you spend your time. Will you hang out with social contacts? Go shopping? Read a book or watch a DVD? Grind some combat? The choice is always yours, but it can be difficult to make.

There are more ways than ever for Kat to get around in Gravity Rush 2, whether you want free fall in Jupiter mode or jump like Superman as Lunar Kat. But the game’s world — which includes the cities of Jirga Para Lhao and Hekseville — is also massive, and the series’ warp manholes are more important than ever.

If you played Ocarina of Time in the ‘90s and loved nothing more than riding Epona around Hyrule field as the sun set Castle Town, you’re going to be happy to learn that Breath of the Wild is the most horse-friendly Zelda game yet.

There’s one serious benefit that’s emerged from Nintendo’s choice to use standard Bluetooth technology in the Nintendo Switch: You can easily use the console’s unique, high-quality controllers on PC, in MacOS, and even on Android devices.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild may be the most difficult Zelda game ever released. It asks you to survive amid harsh conditions and gives you few tools beyond what you can scavenge. Then you have to defeat Ganon with whatever you can muster.

Team Ninja’s Nioh is one of the coolest games to come out so far this year. As a “Soulslike” — a challenging action RPG with mechanics based on From Software’s Dark Souls series — it isn’t the easiest game to get into. But Nioh’s fast-paced combat, intricate levels, and story of a demon-infested alternate-history Japan make it worth the investment.

The Sega Dreamcast didn’t die for a lack of good games, but many of the gems that launched on Sega’s final console, like Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, and Seaman, never got the love they deserved. If Nintendo had let the Wii U be its swan song, Mario Kart 8 would have gone the same way.

In a world of games devoid of challenge, Demon’s Souls stood alone. It was an anomaly, or so it seemed at the time. Where other games offered tutorials, explanations, sidekicks, and do-overs, Demon’s Souls offered only death. It was the antithesis of what every video game studio knew about game development in a post-Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion world: players don’t like to be challenged, they don’t like to be tested, they don’t like to have their progress reset, they don’t like not knowing exactly where to go next. And they especially don’t like dying.

The year after new video game consoles drop is always a good year for gamers. In turn, this means that the E3 after those consoles drop is a good E3.

When 343 Industries took over Halo development from Bungie several years ago, the future of the beloved series seemed uncertain. Now that idea seems ludicrous—Microsoft would ever let it die, right?

There's a new Assassin's Creed game every year, but Ubisoft still manages to wow us with some new feature or another when they inevitably roll out a new title at E3 each year. At the latest expo we were treated to Assassin's Creed Unity's four-player co-op missions. But that isn't the only new addition to the game.

Tons of people have good memories of playing the N64. But that doesn't mean you remember every good game that came out on the well-loved system.

It's a good thing online gaming is so popular now, because it's harder than ever to get a few friends together in the same room to play some games. But on the off chance you actually manage to get some buddies on your couch, you can do better than dusting off Goldeneye 007.

The Nintendo Game Boy and the Sega Game Gear squared off during a time when a "console war" had more than two sides.

It's hard to believe that the Game Boy is 25 years old, but there it is. How time flies, right? Luckily the best thing you can do to honor the handheld system's legacy is to replay some of the system's classics, revisiting childhood memories in the process.

The most amazing thing about the whole affair is that it has literally spawned a religion, whose followers worship Omanyte, a Pokémon that no one ever gave a shit about until now.

Call it an April Fool's prank if you like, but what Google has done today is much better than nair in your shampoo or a dumb Facebook status about being pregnant. Google has made everyone believe in Pokémon again.

With Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes finally here, this is a good time to revisit some of the craziest moments from the series so far, especially given the events of that game. Oh, you haven't played it yet? Don't worry, there are no spoilers here—at least not for the Phantom Pain prequel itself. The rest of the series is a different story, so be warned.

Before it came out the DS seemed like one of Nintendo's wackier ideas. And that's saying something, considering this is the company that actually tried to sell crap like the Virtual Boy and Powerglove. But damn it all if the DS didn't defy everyone's expectations.

When EA announced its Need for Speed movie, it seemed like Aaron Paul had made a poor choice for his first post-Breaking Bad role. Video game adaptations rarely attain even passing mediocrity, and the Need for Speed driving game series doesn't even have a plot to begin with. But it may have been that very deficit of story that allows the Need for Speed film to not only be good, but to verge on greatness.

We've been to our fair share of cheesy celebrity endorsement events, but Microsoft's recent Titanfall play session with "Will Arnett and friends" was not that. The difference is simple: Will Arnett is actually a gamer, and Xbox is his console of choice. You could tell he was enjoying himself by the way he rushed back to his controller the second our interview was over.

Nintendo has a great opportunity in its Virtual Console platform, but it's one that the legendary gaming company has so far mostly squandered.

There was something great about retro games. Then again, there was also something awful about them: they were often nearly impossible to beat.

Tim Riley is not the first person who comes to mind when you think of Call of Duty and Guitar Hero developer Activision. But the music and video game industry veteran was responsible for many of the decisions that shaped exactly who the public does associate with Activision.

Nintendo games have always had a certain magic. Well, with a few exceptions.

It's the only thing that can account for the rosy way we regard many of the games from the past, despite the fact that they really have not aged well at all. Case in point: the ten games on this list.

Donkey Kong Country is one of those retro video game series that's still just as fun when you play it today. Even the graphics have aged well—of course, it helps that back then they were mind-blowing good. Regardless, these games never get old, no matter how many times you play them. But when Nintendo revived the classic franchise with Donkey Kong Country Returns fans were worried.

There's been a lot of butthurt about the Final Fantasy VI port released on Android and iOS this year. And granted, it has its problems. But wouldn't you rather play FFVI—a true classic—again, even in imperfect form, than suffer through another Final Fantasy XIII or FFXIV?

Nintendo has, since the late ‘90s era of PlayStation vs. N64, felt years behind its competitors when it comes to cutting-edge gaming technology. Sony’s PlayStation could play CD-ROMS while Nintendo’s N64 used stubborn cartridges. The original Xbox had robust online multiplayer while Nintendo GameCube had … I don’t know, Phantasy Star Online?

An iPad is a wonderful gift for the holidays, whether from a loved one or yourself (nothing wrong with a treat now and then!). And the first thing you’re going to want to do with your new tablet is fill it with the best iPad games available now.

So you got a shiny new or for Christmas. What’s the first thing you do with it? Check your email? Fire off a tweet? Start researching how much you’ll need to spend on adapters and dongles for the Lightning port? How about you begin by downloading the 10 best iPhone games available?

Parents have been struggling to entertain their children on car rides since the dawn of motorized vehicles, but Nokia thinks it's finally come up with a solution - in the form a mobile game, no less.

Sony put its adoring PlayStation fans in a tough spot when it chose to make the PlayStation Camera an optional accessory for the PS4.

The PS4 hit shelves last week, and now that the Xbox One is out, the next generation of video games is really here.

With today's North American release of the PlayStation 4, the next generation of video games is truly here (the Wii U didn't really count, did it?).

The Xbox One is almost here, and TechRadar recently checked out the console as we played with several games at a showcase in San Francisco.

Microsoft has spent months showing off choice bits of the Xbox One, but what we've been waiting for all this time is a look at how all those pieces fit together.

It's been a while since an NBA Live game hit store shelves, but NBA Live 14, a next-gen game coming to PS4 and Xbox One, might make up for that.

This week the world said goodbye to former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi, a man who influenced the video game industry - from its infancy and well beyond - perhaps as much as anyone.

Aliens have been picking up our radio waves for years. The further away from Earth they are, the older the songs they're listening to.

The Cave is not a funny game. At least, it isn't funny unless you consider murder, gross criminal negligence, arson, sabotage, patricide, genocide, nuclear war, and altering the very fabric of space-time for personal gain to be trifling affairs.

The real world is monotonous and soul-sucking, but in games we can be knights, sorcerers, spies, assassins, and even criminals. Case in point: Grand Theft Auto. Over the last decade and a half the GTA series has become one of the most famous/infamous franchises around, and for good reason.

What we expected: 3D has been around for a while in films, so at this point it would basically be perfect, right? Playing games in 3D would give players an unprecedented level of immersion, with things literally jumping out of our screens into our living rooms. 3D glasses would be cheap, comfortable and effective, and every game would support it--hell, maybe we wouldn't even need glasses at all!

How did you get into voice acting? Well, I was—I did an episode of Major Dad. I did a Russian accent and a voiceover director named Gordon Hunt saw me, and he hired me to do Captain Planet. And the rest is history.

How many games have you composed music for and which was your favorite? Over 300. In fact, I hold the Guinness Book world record for the person who's worked on the most video games in my life.

Adam Robezolli doesn't see video games the same way that most people do. To him, instead of an escape or simple entertainment, games are a medium with infinite potential. And now he's trying to build a space in Los Angeles to celebrate and explore that notion.

We at G4 are no strangers to the urban legends of the gaming world; we've touched on the topic more than once in the past. But today we'd like to take a special look at five of the most terrifying myths about games—the ones that make us lock our doors and unplug our N64s for fear of pixels coming to life in the night.

Hunting ghosts is serious business. The spirits of the dead are all around us, and with Halloween approaching; their restlessness is becoming palpable. Nevertheless, they'll only reveal their secrets to those with the tools to hear and see them.

Gamers are no strangers to unusual passions, and in reality, April Arrglington's isn't all that weird. In fact, "transmedia" entertainment simply describes what everyone is already doing anyway - things like tweeting while they watch TV, or making up fan fiction on message boards. But for Arrglington, a Panama native who moved to Los Angeles in 2003, it's the embodiment of her passion for storytelling, and according to her, proof that she can see the future.

One of the biggest games this year turned out to be a downloadable game that you could beat in only a couple of hours. No guns, no bosses, and no equipment to speak of; Journey offers far more than your typical game as you explored the endless rolling sand dunes or the crumbling ruins of a dying civilization with a complete stranger. It’s a game that invites the player to discover a world unlike any other both in gameplay and visuals.

The Phonejoy Bluetooth game controller for iOS hit its Kickstarter goal in early 2013 with plenty of room to spare, but it's far from the best solution for users looking for a comfortable and high-quality game controller to use with an iPad or Android tablet.

First-person shooters have ruled the roost on PCs and consoles for decades, but making the genre compatible with touch-screen tablets has proven difficult. Thankfully, a few developers have gotten the hang of it, with impressive results.

You are a clone. You are going to die. The first five seconds of Shattered Planet convey what the 2010 film Never Let Me Go, in which intelligent clones are born and live only to be harvested for their organs, took 103 minutes to say: life is tenuous, so you have to make the most of it. (Rating: 4 out of 5 stars)

Chillingo is one of the most prolific game publishers out there. The UK company has published tons of games on tablets and smartphones, from free-to-play hits like Tiny City and Iron Force to last year's incredibly imaginative Icycle: On Thin Ice. They've published a huge range of games, and they still do, even since being bought up by EA in 2010. So I jumped at the chance to speak with Ed Rumley.

Don’t let the high price tags stop you from enjoying these Android games on your tablet of choice. Except for Expensive Button. That’s on here as a joke. Please don’t buy it.

It has just one in-app purchase, made available about half an hour in, and that single purchase unlocks the rest of the game. It was that unusual business model that initially had me interested in Glyph Quest and influenced me to reach out to its developers, Alex Trowers and Leanne Bayley.

In addition to speaking with Nyamyam co-founder Phil Tossell, I also got to chat with Andrew Bowell, the head of product management at Havok. Havok has provided the development tools for some of the biggest games ever, and Bowell has worked there for 14 years.

Tengami is not without its problems, as we found in our review. Nevertheless I wouldn't dissuade anyone from picking it up and exploring its folding Japanese papercraft story for a couple of hours. A little frustration at one or two obtuse puzzles doesn't offset the intense beauty of what the team at developer Nyamyam Games has created.

Gamers often find it difficult to accept change, especially when developers start tampering with classic games loaded with nostalgia. If something seems even slightly off, alarm bells start ringing in our heads, and we cry foul.

If you've never heard of Eliss before it can look completely alien. There really is nothing else like it. But it's not really complicated; just chaotic. And if you stick with it for a while you'll find that it's a manageable chaos.

Earlier this week, Electronic Arts released Dungeon Keeper, an iOS and Android version of the classic PC strategy series (read the TabTimes Games review here). Many were excited for this tablet and smartphone remake, but when they finally played it they were instead disappointed, even angered, by the game’s rather aggressive microtransactions. We reached out to EA Mythic’s Jeff Skalski, the game’s senior producer, who was eager to respond to the criticisms.

If you're looking for a real ninja game—where you sneak around in the shadows and chuck deadly ninja stars at unsuspecting enemies—go play Mark of the Ninja. Shadow Blade has none of these things. The title is only half right; you'll use your blade plenty, but there are no shadows to hide in here, and Shadow Blade's protagonist ninja seems incapable of being the least bit sneaky.

Gaming accessory maker SteelSeries takes pride in the fact that its Stratus controller sits on the shelves of Apple Stores and on Apple.com. When I spoke with the company's publicists back at CES in the beginning of January they stressed this fact; Apple's own engineers put the controller through its paces during development, and the end product is good enough to be featured officially by the company that makes iPhones and iPads.

Yes, Hidden Variable's Tic Tactics came out just weeks before Sennep's Ten. And yes, they're more or less identical, at least in terms of gameplay. But it seems both games were in development for months before either developer had heard of the other—and more importantly, neither was the first to come up with this take on the age-old game of tic-tac-toe.

Ozobot seemed to impress a lot of people at CES 2014 last week, and I had to go check it out it for myself. Sure enough, when you first see the little critter scurrying around on the screen of an iPad or a giant Windows 8 tablet, it looks like something that might have cleaned the Jetsons' bathroom for them, probably while whistling or complaining loudly in an adorable little robot voice.

It's really rare for me these days to complete a game and immediately starting wishing for a sequel. Maybe I'm jaded, though at 25 I doubt it. I think it's just that there are so many great games out there to play, and there's always something next up in my queue. Nevertheless, that very thing occurred the second I finished Detective Grimoire, and I already can't wait for the seemingly inevitable follow-up.

Trying out some games on Lenovo's Horizon 2 Windows 8 table tablet back-to-back with Snakebyte's Vyper Android gaming tablet gives one a definitive sense of just how diverse tablet gaming really is. Both devices are tablets, but they offer very different gaming experiences.

It’s been over a year now since Microsoft launched the Surface line of tablets with Windows 8 and, with the new hardware and new OS, a new age of Windows gaming.

A record number of high-profile and indie Android tablet games made their debut in the Google Play Store this year, making 2013 sweeter than Jelly Beans and Kit Kat bars combined.

As Brooklyn-based Wadjet Eye Games, the husband-wife duo of Dave and Janet Gilbert specializes in niche adventure games that they've been porting to iOS and Android. Games like The Shivah, Gemini Rue, the Blackwell series, and Resonance have enthralled fans of the classic genre on PC, and now that they're being ported to tablets a whole new audience is gaining access to them.

​After spending a few hours playing Borderlands 2 in San Francisco, we sat down with Gearbox's Wes Parker and Steve Gibson, character artist and vice president of marketing and PR, respectively. Both had plenty to say about what they're proud of in Borderlands 2 and how fan feedback from the first game has influenced its development.

​Sitting down with Borderlands 2 for the first time, a small part of me was worried that the game would be too similar to its predecessor. Little I'd seen so far of Gearbox's sequel had suggested that the familiar formula would be undergoing any massive changes or overhauls. Borderlands had its share of issues, but it wasn't exactly broken. And you know what they say about things that aren't broken.

Reviewing Diablo 3 is a daunting task. How can I sort through the results of over a decade of anticipation, much less shed my own personal biases regarding Blizzard and the Diablo series? I'm not even sure what's important to me anymore. Do I care whether the classes are balanced? There's plenty of time to tweak things still before PVP is unleashed. What about the story? Does it matter whether it makes a lick of sense? Or am I happy simply because there's always more loot to find, another skill to unlock, another thing to click?

Veterans of Warhawk, the second-to-last game from the studio whose employees went on to form LightBox, will be able to jump right into Starhawk—as soon as they come to understand the game's deceptively complex "build-and-battle" system.

With anticipation for Diablo 3 reaching catastrophic levels, we got to chat with the game's lead gameplay designer, Blizzard's Kevin Martens, who told me that even the most hardcore Diablo fans "ain't seen nothing yet" and that Blizzard is preparing to "punch a mountain in space".

Like Sonic before it, Silent Hill is a franchise that's fallen far from the level of quality fans expect. With a new developer on board, though, Downpour, the eighth Silent Hill title, might be the one to raise the bar back up.

Mario Party was the Game of Thrones of N64-era video games. Deceit and betrayal were commonplace. Your friends and allies could in an instant become your most hated enemies. And the enemy of your enemy was, most likely, also your enemy; whomever was in the lead at any given time was sure to receive the brunt of other players' attacks, and the tables could turn more quickly than you could say "Red Wedding."

The Steel Battalion series has something of a history when it comes to unusual input methods - the original shipped with a $200 controller peripheral designed to imitate the cockpit of a mech - so in some ways it seems totally natural that a modern-day version would utilize what in many ways is the most advanced control method ever created: Kinect. But then again, "advanced" might not exactly be the correct word to describe Kinect.

Psi-Ops needed a sequel so badly that Midway was actually brazen enough to slap a "to be continued" right on the ending, as if guaranteeing that it would actually be continued. Needless to say, that didn't exactly pan out.

Science fiction may be the only narrative genre that's more often done better by games than by movies. Just flip to the Sci-Fi channel (I refuse to call it "SyFy") and watch five minutes of some b-movie crap about giant ants and you'll know exactly what we mean.

In the world of Mass Effect, the Milky Way can seem downright crowded. The game's galaxy is filled with creatures of all sizes and demeanors, from the hotheaded Krogans and humble Keepers to the rare Collectors and reclusive Yahg. It can be hard to keep track of the series' myriad and varied races, whether your Commander Shepard is a seasoned soldier or a relatively fresh recruit who's yet to even don a pair of official Spectre Shades.

There's a lot hinging on the Vita's success. We gamers may have short memories, but most of us will recall that Sony's initial foray into the handheld space--the PSP--was the first system in more than a decade to challenge Nintendo's absolute portable dominance. And make no mistake: Nintendo is still dominating that space, especially in the U.S., where it holds 86% of the mobile gaming market, excluding iOS and Android.

Harry Potter may be the biggest franchise of our time; this generation’s Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. It’s estimated that the seven books have collectively sold over 400 million copies, and the movies have made $4.5 billion worldwide – a figure from well before the release of the two finale films, which hit theaters next month and next year, respectively.

It was drizzling outside when I entered the Cambridge complex that houses the office of Fire Hose Games. Inside, the patter of raindrops on the windows was easily audible over the hushed phone conversations and general bustle of indie game magic in the air. In one corner, a mountain of soda can 12-packs stood unyielding against the white wall.

We decided to post the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim trailer for anyone who deigned not to watch the Spike Video Game Awards over the weekend. Rumors have been popping up for weeks that Bethesda would announce the game soon, but it still came as a surprise.

Prototype had its fair share of problems, though the biggest one had nothing to do with the game itself. It was released a mere two weeks after another open-world superhero game, one that you’ve probably been hearing a lot more about for the last year: Infamous.

There was a time, long, long ago, when every first person shooter that hit the market was touted as a real “Halo killer.” The label emerged from a strange perception that there was only room for one shooter franchise on consoles.

Anyone who’s played Atlus’s 2009 title Demon’s Souls will tell you it’s one of the most challenging games released for modern consoles. Sure, games like Devil May Cry have optional, insanely hard modes, and racing games have 40-hour races with no checkpoints, but Demon’s Souls is hard from start to finish and back again, without fail or respite.

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the concept of the New Year’s resolution. It’s a promise we make to ourselves to eat better, be more outgoing or clean out the garage once in a while. More often than not, though, these promises end up broken and forgotten, and our lives continue their inevitable spiral into dust.

Pitting two franchises as dear to our hearts as Uncharted and the ICO/Shadow of the Colossus series against one another is like forcing your two favorite children to contend in brutal ladder-style death tourneys to determine which of them gets a kiss before you tuck them into bed. Sometimes, it just has to be done. Why? Because we say so.

If there’s one franchise that’s engendered more attention than any other, it’s Grand Theft Auto. With good reason, too – despite the controversy, or maybe thanks to it, each new title in the series has become the benchmark for open world games and video game narratives.

So there’s this game you may have heard something about recently. Maybe something like “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past entire overworld recreated in Minecraft” or “Full-sized Starship Enterprise built in Minecraft.” Incredible, ridiculous things, but they don’t really give you any idea of what Minecraft is all about, or why you should be playing it.

While 2010 was definitely a year of great games, it was also a year of massive disappointments. Just look at Epic Mickey or, if you’re a JRPG fan, Final Fantasy XIII. The latest numbered entry in the decades-old franchise was awaited with high hopes, and by most accounts, it completely failed to deliver.

Video games have been creeping up on movies for decades now, but only in recent years have they been able to match the silver screen in narrative quality and substance. Sure, Final Fantasy VI had a great story, but reading text spouted by sprites doesn’t have quite the same effect as watching real actors.

Though it sometimes seems like the console wars will never end, in reality, all three companies have found a hefty segment in today’s industry. There’s no doubt that the PS3 struggled upon its release, and the PSP seems to have been lagging behind the DS for years, but that doesn’t mean Sony hasn’t built up an impressive collection of exclusive games between the two consoles.

When we talk about video games, we have a tendency to classify them by the nature of their mechanics (first-person, strategy) as often as by narrative or thematic content, the way other works of art are usually described.

The PSP has – despite what some people insist – a seriously impressive library of great titles, especially RPGs. In fact, you could argue that the handheld has more quality role-playing games than the PS3 does.

With a rock-steady online following and a much more impressive game library than they had in the last console generation, Microsoft has been doing quite well for itself the last few years.

When considering your favorite games, it’s all too easy to ignore the people behind them in favor of a title’s own merits. But video games are the culmination of years of work by dozens and hundreds of people. It’s rare that a single person will be credited with the creation or popularization of an entire genre or franchise, but when it does happen, those names tend to stick with us.

Atari’s been describing their own The Undergarden as a “palate cleanser”; to be played in between more traditional titles, and that doesn’t strike me as a very positive way to portray your own game. Even if you accept that unfortunate label, it's hard not to admit that there are other games that do it better.

Few games have delighted and frustrated players in such copious amounts as 2009’s Demon’s Souls, so you should be very, very excited for its “spiritual successor” – the just-announced Dark Souls. We’ve got a run down of the facts so far, plus the debut trailer (in case you missed it), over at our sister site Kombo.