Snow Coverage

Complete snow coverage is an essential step in this process. You will only have the option to create your Snowboy if your island has entered the complete snow coverage phase of the winter season. For Nothern Hemisphere players you should see complete snow coverage in mid-December. For Southern Hemisphere players then you should see complete snow coverage in mid-June. Once your island has been entirely engulfed in the snow,  it is time to look for your snowballs. You will need to scour your island until you find two small-sized snowballs in close proximity to each other.

Rolling your Snowboy

Once you have your two snowballs in view, it is time to start rolling. There are two ways to create the perfect Snowboy. One option is to roll each snowball with one leveling at the bottom of your character’s ear while the other is leveling at the top of your character’s ear. The other option would be to use the tile method which can be done with terraforming or patterns if you do not have the Island Designer App.

Tile Method

Step 1: Roll each snowball until they stop growing in size. You will feel the resistance of the snowball on the character as they roll it forward. Roll them to an open space on your island.

Step 2: Create a straight-line tile path of ten spaces with the Island Designer app, or with patterns.

Step 3: Roll one snowball to one end and the other snowball to the other end. 

Step 4: Roll one snowball directly onto the path and all the way to the other snowball, it will automatically be placed on top when you are close enough.

Perfect Snowboy complete! The Snowboy will let you know if it is perfect or not. If it is perfect then you will be rewarded one large snowflake and a random DIY recipe from the frozen collection that you do not own. You can get a single large snowflake from the Snowboy every single day until it melts. It takes four days for it to completely melt away.

Complications/How to reset

Complications can occur during this process! A snowball can break if rolled off of a cliff or into an object. If this were to happen, you have to go in and out of a building to reset the snowball spawn. Make sure to be a good distance from the remaining snowball as any building too close to the snowball will not trigger the snowball spawn reset. You can also save and exit the game to trigger a reset of the snowball. If the Snowboy is created and ends up not being perfect, you must exit the game without saving it in order to reset the snowballs for the day.

Thank you for joining us during the winter festivities of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.  Now, throw on those snow boots and get rolling, you have Snowboys to make!

]]> https://gameverse.com/2023/01/21/animal-crossing-new-horizons-how-to-build-the-perfect-snowboy/feed/ 0 https://gameverse.com/2022/11/20/agony-or-scorn-which-game-would-you-rather-wake-up-in/ https://gameverse.com/2022/11/20/agony-or-scorn-which-game-would-you-rather-wake-up-in/#respond Sun, 20 Nov 2022 14:23:21 +0000 https://gameverse.com/?p=7292 Incoming horror game scenario! You have the choice to wake up in a disgustingly gruesome place that you do not recognize or wake up in a disgustingly gruesome place that you do not recognize. Well, if you think that you read that twice then you are correct. For this week I will be describing two incredibly grotesque, yet beautiful video games which happen to be Agony and Scorn.

Scorn

Scorn takes place in a biopunk-like world that is riddled with machines, limbs, bones, blood, and more. Progressing through this nightmare is difficult as parasites linger around the corner in preparation to hurt the user at all costs. Puzzles stand in the way of progressing through the city which really gets the mind working.

Agony

Agony puts the user right in the middle of Hell. While walking through a bloody environment the user will notice a pattern within the theme of the world. Blood, fire, bones, and bodies are always in sight while traversing through the burning setting. Puzzles will also be included throughout this dangerous voyage to keep the user on their toes.

Scorn 

While traversing through the world the user is able to come across different kinds of weaponry. These bio-machine tools represent modern weaponry such as a shotgun, pistol, and grenade launcher. There is also a flesh prod that can be picked up and used to fight off different parasites.

Agony 

Agony is not so lenient when it comes to giving the user weapons to fight off demons. An ignited torch is one of the only tools that users can use to defend themselves from monsters. There is also a dual-use which includes interacting with the environment by igniting different obstacles. 

Scorn

While progressing through the gruesome setting of Scorn the user will come across the common Arbejdere otherwise known as a Worker. Workers roam different passageways in a passive state. However, these creatures become hostile once they notice the user in their sights. With the ability to lunge and shoot sharp projectiles, these creatures will stop at nothing until they take the user down. Any of the weapons in Scorn will do the trick against these crawling parasites, it is best to take them down before they grow in numbers.

Agony

The most common enemy that you will find in the depths of Agony would be the Onoskeli. These goat-legged creatures are blind but are able to feel, hear, and smell within a certain range. As these creatures are attracted to fire the best way for the user to deal with them would be to throw a torch as a distraction and then attempt to escape. 

Now that we have gone over the different settings, weapons, and creatures it is time to make a decision. Would you rather wake up in Agony or Scorn?

1. Until Dawn – Blackwood Mountain

If you’ve been looking for a chilling vacation spot, then I have just the place for you, Blackwood Mountain. Join a group of friends Josh, Sam, Chris, Ashley, Emily, Matt, Mike, and Jessica as they head up the mountain to party like they never have before. Explore the spacious estate which includes a family-owned lodge, a getaway guest cabin, a spooky hotel, menacing clifftops, an abandoned sanatorium, a labyrinth of mines that are just to die for, and more! During this interactive drama, you will come across masked psychos, flame throwers, mythological creatures, and bone-chilling decisions. You are only a cable car away from this indecisive yet exciting night. Just remember, you can’t leave once you get there… you must survive Until Dawn.

2. Five Nights At Freddy’s – Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza

Hungry for some pizza? Want a job for roughly four dollars an hour? You’re in luck! Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza is hiring for a new security guard position for five nights a week with availability from 12:00 am to 6:00 am. This job includes monitoring the pizzeria through a camera system all while making sure the power does not go out. Did I mention that possessed animatronics will try to attack you? Keeping an eye out and closing doors is the best way to survive the night in this horrific pizzeria. Freddy Fazbear, Chica, Foxy, and Bonnie all haunt this demented pizzeria at their own possessed will. If you survive each night, at the beginning of the next shift, you will hear a pre-recorded message that gives you helpful information for the coming events. If all five nights are met with success, then you will be rewarded with your paycheck and you will be expected to do it all over again the following week. Would you be up for this job?

3. P.T. – Suburban House

Calling all house hunters in the area! A previously occupied suburban home is now up for sale. This wonderful abode comes with an L-shaped corridor, two rooms, one bathroom, and an unknown second floor. If you’re on the fence about buying the house feel free to come over for a visit. This first-person survival horror awaits you with bug-infested rooms, old writings on the wall, and a fridge filled with all sorts of surprises. Oh, just one more thing. Stay away from the sink, will ya?

4. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard – The Baker Ranch

The Baker Family invites you to come vacation with us on our spacious property. Located in Dulvey, Louisiana, our ranch is surrounded by an exquisite swampland that has hidden salt mines. Trust us, every night is an adventure! We welcome solo travelers, groups of friends, solo travelers, couples that want a fun night out, and did I mention solo travelers? While vacationing on the ranch you are more than welcome to check out the different kinds of buildings that we have on our property. We have a wonderful greenhouse, a lively boathouse, a decommissioned guest house, and a testing area… I mean barn. My wife’s name is Marguerite, my son is Lucas, and I’m Jack. We’re all extremely excited to welcome you onto the ranch. After you arrive we will sit down for a special meal and get to know one another. I promise that the dinner will be to die for.

5. Outlast – Mount Massive Asylum

Attention all aspiring journalists! The story of a lifetime has just arrived! Rumor has it that illegal experiments are happening to the patients at Mount Massive Asylum. If you’ve been waiting for the opportunity to break into the journalism industry then this is the story for you. This asylum is a bit daunting as there are many confusing locations within its walls. These locations include a courtyard, hospital, sewers, prison blocks, and more. It is also believed to have an underground lab. While searching for evidence please make sure to be mindful of the patients wandering the halls of the asylum. These variants, or patients, so to say, seem to act a bit “different”. Don’t forget to bring your camcorder and extra batteries! Running out of battery power would be like losing a finger… or two!

6. Alien: Isolation – Sevastopol Station

The power is out, everyone is gone, and screams are coming from down the hall. There is no escape unless you count the vacuum of space as one. It’s rumored that some kind of monster is wreaking havoc around the station. It’s up to you to figure out what kind of monster is out there and to dispose of any threats to the station. Access to the station will start off limited, but feel free to make your way through the Lorenz SysTech Spire, SciMed Tower, and Solomons Habitation Tower. Please be mindful of the Working Joe androids, they may seem friendly at first, but their bright red eyes will say otherwise. Also, while exploring the station, feel free to help yourself to our motion tracker and flamethrowers. Just don’t lose them or it’s game over, man!

Limbs have been severed, risks have been taken, and enemy AI has been triggered. After taking a peak into each one of these different video games, the question still stands. Which horror video game would you rather try to survive? Would it be the freezing Blackwood Mountain from Until Dawn? Or the insane family from Resident Evil 7: Biohazard? I look forward to your choices!

Did I miss your favorite horror game? Let me know what it is and I might include it in the next one!

In 2020 it was revealed developer IO Interactive was working on a James Bond game known as Project 007 which, understandably, shook the video game world. Still in production, there’s a possibility that their James Bond game could be the best ever made.

But we’re not talking about those kinds of Bond games today. We’re talking about the other kind of James Bond game. They’re the kinds of games that exist to remind you that all-time classics like GoldenEye 007 are largely an anomaly. The fact is that most James Bond games have been either mediocre or something much, much worse.

These are the five worst James Bond games ever made.

5. Tomorrow Never Dies

If I’m being honest, there are worse Bond games than Tomorrow Never Dies. Some of the older Bond titles or Goldeneye: Rogue Agent could easily occupy this spot.

However, Tomorrow Never Dies holds a special spot in many people’s memories due to the fact it was the James Bond game that PlayStation fans had to rely on while N64 gamers were spending sleepless nights with GoldenEye 007. It was never close to being close enough.

The game was also pretty bad in its own right, even if it falls short of all-time bad status. Picture a worse version of Syphon Filter with that game’s creative weapons and action sequences, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what Tomorrow Never Dies had to offer. Honestly, the PlayStation would never get a Bond game that came close to competing with GoldenEye.

4. James Bond Jr.

The whole James Bond Jr. concept has always been odd. So James Bond has a nephew whose life as a teenage spy often mimics that of his uncle’s? Even for a time when everything was being turned into a cartoon, that’s a pretty weak premise.

Somehow, though, the James Bond Jr. games manage to be much worse than the show. Both the NES and SNES versions of the game are pretty bad, but it’s the SNES edition that feels worthy of real scorn. Despite benefiting from the console’s increased processing power, the game plays like the abandoned project of a high school student developer.

Again, there was potential for this adaption to actually be a fairly enjoyable platformer, but a complete lack of effort turns this into an embarrassing curiosity.

3. A View to A Kill (Commodore 64)

The only reason that A View to A Kill doesn’t take the top spot on this list is that it was made in 1985. You kind of have to give games from that era a little credit compared to more modern titles (with one exception we’ll discuss in a bit).

Still, the Commodore 64 version of A View to A Kill is indefensible. The text adventure edition of this title works well enough, but the developers of this game attempted to create a visual adventure for Bond that largely consists of awkward driving sequences. No amount of begrudging credit for ambition makes it easy to forgive this game for its awful glitch-filled gameplay that is borderline unplayable.

I don’t know if it’s possible to actually like this game.

2. 007 Racing

I fully understand if you clicked on this article expecting to see this game in the top spot, but the truth of the matter is that I have to give 007 Racing credit for at least thinking outside the box. There’s a world where this game was actually a fun distraction.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in that world. We live in the other world where 007 Racing is ruined by ungodly controls, poor level design, and an absolutely unforgivable hesitance to embrace anything fun.

007 Racing could have been a series of compelling racing missions, a Mario Kart-esque racing title, or a Twisted Metal-like car combat multiplayer game. It was somehow a little of all of those things and yet not enough of any of them.

1. Live And Let Die

Given what we’ve looked at thus far, you may be wondering what makes Live so “special.” Why is it worthy of the honor of the worst James Bond game ever made?

Well, the main reason is that it’s not really a James Bond game at all. This was just going to be a generic boat action game before its publishers realized that there was a boat in the latest James Bond movie and they could just slap the license onto what they already had.

We’ve seen some lazy Bond games in the past, but it’s a special kind of lazy to have a James Bond game that was almost literally thrown together at the last minute.

Article updated. Original publish date: Nov 19, 2020

The history of gaming isn’t that old compared to other artistic and entertainment mediums. Many people have lived through the entirety of video game history, and more people have seen most of it. As such, you’d think that the history of video games would be pretty well documented.

Yet, there are some games that just don’t get the historical credit they deserve. It’s strange to think that some of the most important innovators in video game history can be largely forgotten, but it happens more than you may think.

With that said, here are five games that we bet you didn’t know changed gaming forever.

ChuChu Rocket

How it Changed Gaming: One of the first console games with functional, official online multiplayer.

Gamers of a certain age may remember ChuChu Rocket and the buzz it generated in 1999, but the game’s innovations have tragically been overlooked as the years go on.

ChuChu Rocket is a puzzle game that was essentially designed as a test of the Dreamcast’s online multiplayer capabilities. At a time when online console gaming was little more than a pipe dream, ChuChu Rocket offered easy-to-access competitive multiplayer that ran fairly well. It even let players upload and download custom maps!

The game itself was fairly simple (yet still a lot of fun), but it should be remembered as the game that helped a generation of developers figure out how online console multiplayer was practically going to work.

So while you may have been able to technically play other console games online before ChuChu Rocket, this is the game that made the dream a reality.

Kill Switch

How it Changed Gaming: The introduction of an active cover system.

This one is a little hard to explain. See, there were games before Kill Switch that featured a cover system. Metal Gear Solid 2, for instance, let you take cover to avoid detection or incoming damage.

Yet, Kill Switch is the game that introduced the cover system as we typically see it used today. By that, I mean that Kill Switch allowed you to rapidly move from cover to cover and pop out from your cover to engage in firefights. Whereas previous cover systems were largely defensive, Kill Switch‘s use of cover was all about staying on the offense.

Granted, Kill Switch borrowed a rough draft of that concept from games like Time Crisis, but at the time of its release in 2003, nobody had seen a third-person action game that let you move like that. Kill Switch‘s cover system was even featured in the game’s marketing and on the cover of the game’s case.

Gears of War tends to get the credit for this one, but we owe a lot to Kill Switch.

Mark of Kri

How it Changed Gaming: Use of 3D, multi-target combat.

It’s funny how a game can come along, garner critical acclaim, and over the years, kind of fall by the wayside. That’s about what happened with Mark of Kri.

Mark of Kri is a pretty great game in general, but its best feature was a dual-analog targeting system that let you assign an attack button to enemies around you. By doing so, you could easily jump between multiple enemies during combat sequences.

Does that sound familiar? It should, as it’s basically the combat system that Batman: Arkham would eventually help popularize. The difference is that Arkham came out in 2009 and Mark of Kri came out in 2002. While Kri‘s system was certainly rougher, it still feels like a generational leap ahead of everything else that was around.

At a time when 3D combat was rough, Mark of Kri figured out how to make it feel satisfying.

Jet Rocket

How it Changed Gaming: The first open-world game, first flight simulator, and first first-person game.

To be honest with you, I tend to hate talking about absolute firsts in gaming as the earliest technical examples of a concept tend to be rough.

However, Jet Rocket‘s historical accomplishments are too notable to ignore despite the very, very rough nature of the game itself.

Released in 1970, Jet Rocket allowed players to navigate an open 3D landscape while piloting a fighter jet. Its open-world design is particularly interesting, as the environment featured a few simple digital landmarks that actually offered a sense of perspective. Remarkably, the arcade cabinet was even shaped like a cockpit which enhanced the feeling of actually piloting a plane.

So why isn’t Jet Rocket typically remembered as an innovator? Sadly, a couple of companies got their hands on an early prototype of the game and ripped it off ahead of its global release. At least we now know we have Jet Rocket to thank for so many early innovations.

Marathon

How it Changed Gaming: Introduction of free-aim mouse and keyboard controls.

Go back and play the original version of Doom. If you’ve been raised on modern first-person shooters, we’re willing to bet that the first thing you’ll notice is the fact Doom does not use the mouse for aiming and looking.

Actually, the first game to really introduce that concept was Bungie’s Marathon.

Generally remembered as the series that Bungie made before Halo, the Macintosh version of Marathon featured a mouse-and-keyboard look and movement system that feels remarkably modern. It actually took a little while for this innovation to catch on, but once it did, it led to the development of FPS games that emphasized precision aim and fast movements.

It’s truly incredible to think that such a seemingly simple control concept would change gaming forever.

Note: Updated from the original article dated Nov 1, 2020.

30+ years on, there’s somehow nothing quite like an NES action game. From the soundtracks to the level design and airtight mechanics, classic NES games like Ninja Gaiden and Mega Man remain some of the absolute best the medium has to offer.

However, the NES library of action games is too extensive to be limited to those halls of fame-worthy examples. In fact, some of the best NES action games you’ve never played could easily rank among the best all time.

To get you started on that journey, here is a list of the 10 most underrated NES action games ever.

Shatterhand

Shatterhand‘s bizarre cover did it no favors, but beneath the strange packaging lies a truly great NES action game.

Bolstered by great level design and a truly unique upgrade system, Shatterhand nails core NES action game concepts before introducing just enough little touches to help it stand out from the pack.

Little Samson

While the visual design of this game may remind you of the excellent Little Nemo, it’s actually a thinly veiled knockoff of the Mega Man series.

What truly distinguishes Little Samson, though, is its character swap system. The ability to swap between different characters with different abilities (but shared resources) adds an element of depth to an already solid Mega Man-like experience.

Clash at Demonhead

Scott Pilgrim references aside, Clash at Demonhead absolutely deserves to be remembered among the best NES action games.

Clash at Demonhead‘s excellent visuals are reason enough to recommend it, but it’s the game’s open exploration level selection system that makes it stand out all these years later. Why didn’t other games borrow this title’s ideas?

Powerblade

It would be easy to forget about Powerblade if it wasn’t for the game’s truly brilliant boomerang weapon and combat system.

While the ability to attack in eight different directions isn’t a big deal now, Powerblade‘s incorporation of that feature put it far ahead of other action titles of its era as well as made it one of the more strangely accessible action games of this era.

Jackie Chan’s Action Kung-Fu

I’m as surprised as you are that there’s a Jackie Chan game for NES worth recommending, but here we are.

This game obviously doesn’t come close to recreating Chan’s brilliant fight scenes, but its stunning soundtrack, cute visuals, and martial arts side-scrolling combat make it an easy play that doubles as a somewhat strange historical footnote.

Low G Man

To be entirely honest with you, Low G Man’s stiff animations and bland visuals probably tell you all you need to know about why it’s not better remembered.

Yet, this game’s fascinating primary weapon (a long spear that behaves similarly to the cane in Ducktails) and varied combat design make it an often-overlooked oddity that at least deserves more of a cult following than it currently has.

Wizards and Warriors

As unbelievable as it is that an NES game made by Rare could ever be overlooked, Wizards and Warriors is just one of those titles you never hear anyone talk about.

Even though the game’s visuals and combat leave a lot to be desired, there’s an undeniable charm in the soundtrack and design concepts that invokes developer Rare at its best. Don’t make this the first NES game you revisit, but definitely check it out.

Bucky O’Hare

While Bucky O’Hare actually did garner quite a bit of acclaim in its day (it’s an NES game made by Konami after all), I’m not sure this game has ever really gotten the love it deserved.

Bucky O’Hare is a nearly perfect NES action game that’d I call the love child of Battletoads and Ducktales. It’s brutally difficult, but few NES action games feature the variety seen in this gem.

Metal Storm

Metal Storm has actually become slightly more popular thanks to the power of the internet, but it’s hardly a stretch to suggest that not enough of you have actually played this game.

Even if Metal Storm‘s combat can feel a little stiff at times, the title’s multi-level navigation gimmick adds an element of platforming brilliance to the affair that you don’t usually get from NES action games. Think of this more as a great NES platformer with a little action thrown in for flavor.

Updated: Original post date Jan. 28, 2021

(Updated 4/18/22) Even at a time when it feels like every game is being adapted into a show or movie, the news that Twisted Metal is being turned into a TV series stands out. Why? Well, it probably has something to do with the fact that one of the more ignored major franchises in PlayStation history has always felt perfect for such a format.

See, along with its own brand of car combat action, the best Twisted Metal games offer an appropriately twisted story that feels somewhere between Tales From the Crypt and Spawn. It’s the kind of “dark” entertainment with a humorous bend that you just don’t see enough of. The series also happens to feature some of the most overlooked characters in gaming.

Those characters are what we’ll focus on today as we count down the 10 best Twisted Metal characters that we can’t wait to see in the upcoming TV series.

10. Outlaw 

While the Outlaw vehicle certainly isn’t the most interesting in the early games, the lore of this vehicle (and its drivers) perfectly captures the better continuity elements of the series’ mythology.

By the time that we watch Twisted Metal 2‘s Outlaw driver join her brother in space and uses her specially rigged vehicle to slowly make their way back to Earth for revenge, you really start to appreciate just how ridiculous these games really are and how much effort goes into shaping the often equally cruel and hilarious fates of its drivers.

9. Roadkill

There’s really no such thing as a heroic protagonist in the Twisted Metal series, but Roadkill comes fairly close to filling that void.

As one of the series’ true regulars and most well-rounded drivers, Roadkill rises above his “default” status by virtue of a fantastic back story that sees him battle the very reality of the Twisted Metal universe. His discoveries call into question the very fabric of the games.

8. Shadow

Shadow became watered down in subsequent Twisted Metal games (who didn’t?) but his debut sets the standard for what this character is all about.

Essentially an agent of supernatural chaos sent to claim revenge on behalf of those who died in the original Twisted Metal game, Shadow’s “Grim Reaper” design affords him a unique place in the Twisted Metal universe that takes into account the influences of Heaven and Hell.

7. Spectre

Granted, the Spectre vehicle is best known for its mechanical abilities, but the lore of the driver is also fairly fascinating.

The best version of Spectre is arguably the runaway bride in Twisted Metal Black who enters the competition to find true love. As her dark ending suggests, though, it’s her relentless pursuit that’s more fascinating than the goal.

6. Warthog

Many versions of Warthog are actually fairly generic military dudes, but the version of the Warhog driver featured in Twisted Metal Black stands tall among the pack.

As a serial killer who feels remorse for his actions, you’d think that Twisted Metal Black‘s Warthog would enter the contest looking for redemption. Instead, he’s hoping to ask Calypso for the power to remove the part of his brain that feels remorse. It’s a twisted little detail that captures the series at its cruelest.

5. Minion

While Minions is often presented as a somewhat generic devilish “boss” character, there are aspects of the character that have long left fans looking for more.

As one of the few characters in Twisted Metal who may be more powerful than Calypso, it’s been strongly suggested that Minion may be the true evil in the Twisted Metal universe. Then again, he always seems more interested in maintaining the balance than gaining power.

4. Axel

Axel’s iconic tire arms make him an instant standout, but if you dive deep enough, you’ll find he’s one of the most sympathetic and interesting characters in the entire series.

Axel’s best story beat arguably occurs in Twisted Metal 2 when we see the character wish for the strength to confront his father and seemingly get revenge on the man who left him in this appropriately twisted form. In reality, though, Axel is one of the few characters looking for something much deeper than vengeance.

3. Mr. Grimm

Granted, Mr. Grimm’s popularity can partially be attributed to the fact he’s a skeleton riding a motorcycle, but various versions of this character over the years have benefited from surprisingly interesting lore.

Initially presented as an all-consuming force that thrives on chaos, the Mr. Grimm character was eventually shaped into a tortured soul that refused to die until he claimed vengeance. Honestly, any version of the character would play well on the big screen.

2. Sweetooth

The undisputed mascot of the Twisted Metal franchise is one of the few Twisted Metal characters that has survived the series’ dark downfall.

As the only vehicle to be driven by the same character in every game, the iconic Sweet Tooth benefits from one of the most consistent backstories in series history. Still, it’s that creepy flaming head and even more disturbing ice cream truck that elevates him above the pack.

1. Calypso

He’s not nearly as famous as Sweet Tooth, but at his best, Calypso is absolutely the most interesting character in the Twisted Metal franchise.

As the head of most Twisted Metal tournaments, Calypso is best known for granting ironic rewards to contest winners. However, as a few winners can attest to, sometimes getting what you want from Calypso is really about knowing what to ask for.

This will undoubtedly be the most desirable role in the upcoming Twisted Metal series.

Original Publish Date 2/24/21

(Updated 4/15/22) The reveal of the Mortal Kombat movie trailer and news that Street Fighter characters are joining the Fortnite roster has both legendary franchises on the minds of gamers everywhere. So, it’s only natural that fans have also started to compare and contrast the series.

Any of those comparisons have to start with a discussion about the franchises’ rosters. As two of the most notable fighting game franchises ever, it’s no surprise that Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat boast two of the greatest collections of characters in the genre.

Which roster is better, though? Nobody is ever going to write the definitive word on that topic, but if you’re looking for talking points, here are our thoughts on how they compare.

Mortal Kombat’s Roster

Notable Fighters

• Liu Kang
• Sonya Blade
• Shang Tsung

Strengths

The biggest strength of the Mortal Kombat roster is the story that NetherRealm Studios has crafted over the recent major installments in the franchise.

The idea of a substantial Mortal Kombat story seemed absurd for a franchise (and, frankly, genre) that so often ignores traditional storytelling, but Netherrealm has carefully constructed a compelling narrative that has not only evolved over time but finds a role for most of the series’ major characters. Granted, it’s not much deeper than say the MCU films or the Fast and the Furious franchises, but much like those movies, the games find something wonderful in combining spectacle with more serialized storytelling.

Those serialized spectacles have certainly elevated the Mortal Kombat characters in recent years, but they’re really just an extension of the things that the MK franchise has typically done so well. The MK games’ iconic use of fatalities has ensured that most players latch on to a particular Kombatant in a way that they may not necessarily do in other fighting games. It’s not unreasonable to pick a Mortal Kombat character on the basis of their personality. That’s quite the accomplishment from a storytelling and design perspective.

The Mortal Kombat roster’s star power is unlike anything else in the genre. There’s a reason so many people were able to name so many characters in the recent MK movie trailer even if they’re not big fans of the game.

Weaknesses

While recent MK games have emphasized the personality of the franchise’s roster, it’s important to remember that things haven’t always been that way.

There was a long, dark time when MK‘s designers relied on color swaps just to put an expanded roster on the box. They would try to introduce those characters to the franchise via brief backstories, but they usually just made things even more confusing.

There’s a degree to which that problem lives on in the modern MK games. While recent installments have trimmed the roster and done a better job of distinguishing characters, there’s a large chunk of the overall MK roster that remains forgettable. Furthermore, you can kind of tell that the developers are still fighting their reskin urges.

The relatively simple nature of the MK games from a mechanical standpoint also means that fighters are largely defined by their most elaborate moves. It’s nice that even new players can just kind of “pick up” most MK fighters, but the comparative lack of a larger learning curve means that some characters again start to blend together.

Street Fighter’s Roster

Notable Fighters

• Ryu
• Guile
• Chun-Li

Strengths

The best quality of the Street Fighter roster is the quality of their fighting.

Over the years, the Street Fighter series has become a favorite among genre fans who emphasize the mechanical elements of fighting gameplay. It’s not the most complicated fighting game out there by any means, but it is a series that has managed to maintain most of its roster over the years while evolving many of the characters in ways that stay true to how they began without feeling handicapped by those origins.

There’s a real joy in truly learning a Street Fighter character then growing with them as they grow between installments. You really start to feel like you’re connecting with a character in a way that makes fighting games so appealing in the first place.

The power level of the Street Fighter roster is also fascinating. Along with the “tier list” approach to fighting game characters, you have the ways that the series’ lore establishes the idea of a mythology-friendly power system without nuking the idea that many characters could beat other characters.

Weaknesses

Simply put, the biggest weakness of the Street Fighter roster is the narrative of the Street Fighter games themselves.

The Street Fighter stories have improved over the years, but it’s pretty clear that Capcom just isn’t that interested in telling substantial stories through these games. That’s fine, but their attempts to tell more of a story without really committing to that concept has left many characters feeling like they’re in a holding pattern.

Even if you accept that Capcom isn’t into Tekken or MK levels of direct storytelling, there’s the feeling that they’re missing out on an opportunity to do more with their roster. Many Street Fighter games focus on the stories of a select group of characters, leaving many others fighting for bits of narrative scraps.

It’s fine for fighters to be defined by their fighting, but as real-world fighters from Muhammad Ali to Connor McGregor prove, a little more showmanship can go a long way.

Which Roster is Better?

While the Street Fighter roster is undoubtedly impressive, the improvements made to the Mortal Kombat roster over the years are hard to deny.

By virtue of their star power, growth, abilities, and personal stories, the MK roster feels like the winner here. As for who would win if the major players from both rosters ever got the chance to square off…well, that’s a debate for another day.

Original Publish Date 2/19/21

(Updated 4/13/22) Netflix’s recent reveal that they’ve greenlit an animated series based on the Tomb Raider franchise has given many gamers a chance to reflect on the legendary video game series.

Do so, and you’ll probably find that Tomb Raider of the most uneven and fascinating franchises in video game history. Among the entries that make Tomb Raider so successful and famous are games that you wouldn’t play on a bet. 

With that in mind, here’s our look at the best and worst Tomb Raider games so far.

The Best Tomb Raider Games

5. Tomb Raider (1996)

The first Tomb Raider hasn’t exactly aged gracefully, but there’s no denying the craft that went into this early 3D action/adventure game.

Graphics and control problems aside, Tomb Raider‘s balance of action and puzzles set a standard for variety that subsequent titles struggled to replicate. This really was the template for what a great Tomb Raider game should be.

4. Tomb Raider: Legend

This often-overlooked Tomb Raider game benefits from the era of action/adventure titles that it was released in.

Softly modeled after the more modern Prince of Persia games, Tomb Raider: Legend retains the adventurous spirit of the original games but greatly improves the visual and control problems that plagued those early releases. It’s a real gem.

3. Shadow of the Tomb Raider

While this game sometimes tries a little too hard to be more “cinematic” than it is, it’s hard to deny how enjoyable the overall ride is.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a fundamentally enjoyable game that features some of this franchise’s best set pieces and gameplay ideas. Even if the story doesn’t quite get there, it gets close enough to be worth your time.

2. Tomb Raider 2

The gold standard of retro Tomb Raider games remains the best overall entry in the franchise in the minds of many fans.

Through a combination of smart improvements and some of the best actual “tomb raiding” in this franchise’s history, Tomb Raider 2 showed what this franchise could be when it was firing on all cylinders.

1. Tomb Raider (2013)

Yes, this game borrows heavily from Uncharted, but this reboots intimate scale and personal stories help it find its identity.

Everything in this reboot feels much more grounded than what we see in the Uncharted series. Even when the title goes too dark, it effectively sets up the new adventures of Lara Croft.

The Worst Tomb Raider Games

5. Tomb Raider 3

While this title was initially well-received, the years have highlighted this sequel’s flaws in ways that are hard to ignore.

Simply put, Tomb Raider 3’s difficulty too often makes it a fundamentally unenjoyable experience. This game’s infamous instant death sequences are made all the more annoying by an unforgivable collection of glitches.

4. Tomb Raider: The Prophecy

It feels wrong to pick on a handheld Tomb Raider game, but The Prophecy deserves some flak for not even trying to replicate the main entries into the series.

This top-down game relies too much on simplistic action sequences and painfully simple puzzles. If it weren’t for the fact this carries the name of one of gaming’s most famous franchises, there would be no reason to talk about it.

3. Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation

To be honest, The Last Revelation‘s biggest problem was that it was the game that showed old-school Tomb Raider titles were finally losing their luster.

This game doesn’t really do anything better than its predecessors but features all the visual, camera, and control problems that hurt those early titles to this day. What should have been a chance to showcase the power of the Dreamcast felt like a phoned-in sequel.

2. Tomb Raider Chronicles

While I absolutely love the idea of a Tomb Raider anthology game, Chronicles fails at everything besides its premise.

Once again, Chronicles features everything that had already aged poorly about the Tomb Raider series. This time, though, those problems are complimented by awful stealth sequences, poor level design, the worst camera yet, and the general feeling that you’re playing every idea that wasn’t good enough to make it into the previous games.

1. Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness

The often undisputed candidate for the worst Tomb Raider game ever is a failure on every conceivable level.

Ultimately, Angel of Darkness is an unfinished game that’s rushed development cycle resulted in countless glitches, half-finished ideas, and the absolute worst gameplay in Tomb Raider history. This one basically killed the franchise for years.

(Original Publish Date 1/31/21)

Dead Space can now be added to the long list of remade video game classics.

The science-fiction horror game, originally released in 2008, was a massive success that influenced an entire generation of games within space/horror genre. Despite the success of Dead Space and its immediate sequel, following the lackluster release of Dead Space 3, it appeared that Electronic Arts had given up on the title entirely.

That is, until Thursday’s reveal trailer.

While this may seem like great news for diehard fans of the original game, the new remake may not offer exactly the same experience as the original.

In a press release published by EA on Thursday, the company revealed that “Players Will Experience an Improved Story, Characters and Gameplay Combined with Stunning Visuals and Audio.” This suggests the title may follow in the footsteps of Resident Evil 2: Remake, which greatly changed the story and gameplay experience of the original Resident Evil 2, while remaining true to the spirit and general direction of the original game.

According to the remakes developers, current-gen technology will greatly increase the level of immersion players experience while playing the updated version of the game.

IGN spoke to Roman Campos-Oriola, the remake’s creative director, and Senior Producer Phil Ducharme regarding how they plan to update the game. According to Campos-Oriola, the remake will feature all-new original assets and animations a well as improvements on horror and gameplay elements, all of which will be redone in the updated Frostbite engine to create a more immersive experience.

“Well, clearly next generations of console enable us to have ray trace reflections, volumetric effects or even fluid simulation for these effects,” Ducharme told IGN. “These are all things we’ll be able to expand on to increase, again, on the level of immersion.”

According to Ducharme, this level of immersion will ensure that the Ishimura (the space station that serves as the setting for the game) feels “alive.” “It’s dying, but it’s still alive and it has a voice and throughout your journey over the chapters of the game, you hear it progress,” Ducharme said.

Dead Space fans hoping for a sequel to the series shouldn’t hold their breath. Earlier in the year, GamesBeat reported that a sequel to the franchise had been put on hold indefinitely in favor of this new remake. However, if the Dead Space remake proves to be a smashing success, EA will likely be looking to cash in on the renewed enthusiasm with further installments to the franchise.

Meet the newest entry to the #NintendoSwitch family! Nintendo Switch (OLED model) brings the versatility of the Nintendo Switch experience with a vibrant 7-inch OLED screen, a wide adjustable stand, and more. Nintendo Switch (OLED model) releases on 10/8.https://t.co/zRpGxakJDn pic.twitter.com/Tsc55r35ay

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) July 6, 2021

For months leading up to the announcement, Nintendo kept tight-lipped regarding the new system despite a bevy of rumors suggesting its arrival was imminent. Many of those rumors suggested that Nintendo would reveal the model this past June at E3. When that didn’t happen, many fans feared that talks of what was then referred to as the “Switch Pro” were nothing but unfounded speculation.

Only days prior to the announcement at an investors meeting, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa refused to answer why the model hadn’t been announced at E3.

“Our company uses Nintendo Direct to inform our customers about individual products at the appropriate time,” Furukawa said according to Kotaku.

“To achieve that,” he continued, “we are constantly developing hardware, software, dedicated peripherals, etc., but we refrain from making comments on specific products still in development.”

Apparently, the new system was only days away from finishing its development when Furukawa made his statement. It is certainly understandable why the Switch OLED model took so long in that development process, given the many new features it has to offer.

The OLED model’s hardware has been completely upgraded: while the original Switch model has a 6.2 inch LCD screen with an output of 1080p when docked, Nintendo’s new model boasts an impressive 1920×1080 resolution with a maximum frame rate of 60 fps, according to Nintendo’s website. And then there’s the OLED screen. For those unfamiliar with tech jargon, OLED screens are some of the highest quality screens to date, outperforming  LCDs, LEDs, and CRTs. According to Tech Radar, “compared to competing display types, OLED TVs bring you better image quality (think blacker blacks and brighter whites), reduced power consumption, and much fast response times – that last point being a great addition for any console or gaming TV too.”

The Switch OLED model also features a wide adjustable stand for tabletop mode, a new dock with a wired LAN port, 64GB of storage, and enhanced audio for both its handheld and tabletop modes.

The OLED model’s October 8 release date makes the new Switch available to consumers just in time for the holiday season. Switch players will have a nice selection of new titles to play on the system as well. Coinciding with the systems launch day is the release of the highly anticipated Metroid Dread. For those lucky enough to score a system during 2021’s holiday season, the even more hotly anticipated Pokemon Legends: Arceus will be available for purchase shortly thereafter on January 28, 2022.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s critical acclaim is often met with the counter of being “overrated” by some players. There are usually numerous reasons for this – both notable and ridiculous – but one of the most common is the weapon durability issue. Breath of the Wild departed from previous Legend of Zelda games by not assigning you a handful of swords and shields for the duration of the game. For most of the game, you can only use what you pick up, including Link’s often-used bow. The kicker was that all of these would break after a relatively limited amount of use – which depended on both the type of weapon used and what it was used on.

Durability systems have been in RPGs for quite some time, but never in a Zelda game. Despite this system being popular in RPGs, it’s rare for weapons to break so quickly as well as involve the complete destruction of the item. The goal with this in Breath of the Wild was to encourage the player to use weapons dynamically and shake up the gameplay. You may want to stick with whatever is strongest, but sometimes a weapon may provide more reach or be effective if thrown at the enemy. For me, at least, I found that to be an enjoyable component baked into the gameplay quite well.

However, as we have the reveal of Breath of the Wild 2 fresh in our minds, I think it’s time to discuss where things could go from here. This seems to be a scenario that will be like Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask – where gameplay is very similar, but the setting is new. Yet, I believe the controversy generated by this mechanic could be grounds for a compromise that would work for everyone. Link should have a small set of permanent weapons that do not break in addition to collected weapons.

This would allow people who aren’t a fan of the system to play through the game with a rock-solid set of “Link Swords” while also collecting and using breakable weapons. The new weapons would need to be stronger and more dynamic, but it would allow a player firmly against that mechanic to ignore it at their own risk. This would also always leave a baseline state where you could still function if you broke all of your other gear. A state where you wouldn’t be as effective, but you would never be defenseless.

In my perspective, one of the most interesting and entertaining parts of Breath of the Wild was the dynamic nature of the combat. One contributing factor to that was being able to pick up enemy weapons (or pieces of the enemies themselves) and engage with them. The weapons were a part of the experience and added many layers to the combat. However, it’s easy to tell how much the game changed after I had the more permanent Master Sword. It could still break, of course, but since it ‘recharged,’ it homogenized many of the encounters when I used it. If players could choose the way they approach this, it might create a middle ground that allows the best of both worlds. Those that want more of the dynamic and interesting combat can coincide with traditionalists and their old (and somewhat boring) ways.

It’s hard to say what the future brings for Breath of the Wild 2, but I doubt that Nintendo would want their top system seller to have its mechanics changed too much. Yet, at the same time, Breath of the Wild is a huge mechanical change from previous Zelda games. Therefore, we may see something entirely different come 2022.

Do you think this is a good middle-ground for fans and critics of the series? Do you have a preference either way for the weapon system? Let us know in the comments!

The quality of the character development, design, and world-building in Apex Legends is on par with games that have far-reaching singleplayer content. Yet, the game itself explores little to no actual story development. Everything that I know about Apex Legends is from the cinematics exclusive to youtube. In fact, if you somehow only played the game and didn’t follow the external content, you could be an avid fan without even knowing about this ever-growing and well-crafted world.

These character-specific videos remind me of Team Fortress 2 and even Overwatch, both of which have cinematics that I love and remember fondly years after they first debuted. While both of those games explored a bit of their universe in comics in addition to their unique videos, neither ever really made me want to dive into it. Especially from a gameplay standpoint. Overwatch’s attempts to build on the story in-game were particularly disappointing as it usually just involved left-clicking robots until my eyes crossed. I’m not too excited about Overwatch 2.

Something about Apex Legends makes me want to dig into the story from any angle possible though. Maybe it’s because I’m confident in Respawn Entertainment’s ability to craft a narrative after putting together Titanfall 2 and Jedi Fallen Order. Perhaps that’s why the bits of a story they do grace us with are so engaging and leave me wanting more every time. Whatever the reason, they need to put that skill to work fleshing out characters and stories beyond the existing character backgrounds. Also, I really need to know what Caustic was up to before he found such a suitable outlet for his hobbies. It’s probably interesting and terrible.

At this point, I think we would all love to see a Titanfall 3. My love of high-flying fast-paced FPS combat is only exceeded by my love of giant mechs. The quality of the Titanfall 2 campaign is on par with the absolute best of FPS singleplayer experiences. I think the best thing that could happen is to have a new game or game-event that bridges the 30-some year gap between Titanfall 2 and the competitive mayhem of Apex Legends. I’d love to see what the writers could do and how they could set up existing and future characters with that scenario.

It seems like Apex Legends is branching out more and more toward different types of gameplay. While I’m not dead set on this narrative driving experience being a singleplayer component, it could potentially work as the original Titanfall did. There, the story of the game was explored as part of the multiplayer content. It wasn’t a great design at the time, but I think it might work out better with Respawn’s now seasoned crew.

Whatever the future brings, I’m sure at the very least Respawn will continue creating characters and building stories that grab my attention. It does manage to get me back in the game, at least until I realize how bad I am at it yet again. However, I’ll still hold out hope that there will be a more expansive look into this Apex Legends and Titanfall universe. Maybe one that will bring back some mechs to ensure I’ll be dragged back in.

What’s your favorite Apex Legends story? Would you like to see a deeper dive and more gameplay associated with these narratives? Let us know in the comments!

That doesn’t mean the game was perfect, however.

Fortunately though, based on recent gameplay footage of RE7’s successor, Resident Evil Village, Capcom has learned from their mistakes, by fixing one of the previous game’s biggest problems.

Where RE7 failed was with the design of the enemies. Sure, the bosses were fantastic, but when it came to the grunts of the game, the more common enemy types players faced up against, the lack of creativity and originality was very apparent. These enemies, zombie-like fungal humanoids known as “The Molded,” all looked about the same. Aesthetically, we’re nothing special to look at. As the game went on, they became less and less imposing, which is exactly opposite what Capcom was going for.

While early trailers of Resident Evil Village showed that, again, the franchise would be introducing a fantastic new set of boss characters in the form of Lady Dimitescu and her daughters, for a time, it was looking as though this lastest installment was doomed to make the same mistake as its predecessor.

The first several trailers for the game showed lycans to be the primary enemy type players will run up against in the game. While at first, they seem quite scary, subsequent gameplay reveals showed the lycans to be numerous clones of one another, with identical looks and mannerisms. This is exactly the sort of problem that made the Molded from RE7 so forgettable.

Sure, they’re scary at first. But if the whole game was made up of only these enemies, they would certainly become much less terrifying after several hours of gameplay.

Any fear that enemies of Village would be generic and forgettable have since been quashed, however.

More recently released trailers and gameplay footage showcases a much wider range of enemy types, from creepy hooded zombies wielding medieval weapons to large flying gargoyles who attack from above.

Providing players with great bosses to fight isn’t enough for any self-respecting game. Over the course of the dozens of hours, it takes to beat a game, players need to face up against a varying host of enemies that continue to keep said players on their toes. Otherwise, gameplay can become stale, boring, and in the case of horror games, much less terrifying.

However, when a game mixes things up a bit and gives players a wide variety. of monsters and evil beings to face off with, as it appears Village will do, then the underlying sense of dread and anxiety of the horror is preserved.

Developed by studio RocketWerkz and the creator of DayZ, Dean Hall, Icarus was first revealed in a gameplay trailer roughly ten months ago. Little has been heard of the game since that reveal. That is until the developer decided to show off the title in an hour-long livestream event.

Thanks to said event, players now know what they can expect from Icarus —  all of the best aspects of survival games such as Rust and Valheim set on a mysterious alien planet. Players are dropped onto the planet of the game — the titular Icarus — and are forced to survive a world where mankind’s attempts at terraforming went terribly awry.

The livestream, which took place on SurviveIcaru’s Twitch, gave a more detailed description of what exactly the survival gameplay of this PvE would look like. After landing on the world of Icarus,  players must scavenge and harvest materials. These materials can then be used to craft weapons and build various structures, storage containers, and other materials. In this aspect, the game feels very much like 2014’s The Forrest. Harvesting and crafting allow players to level up their various stats, such as strength, stamina, and, most importantly, health.

Unlike most Earthbound survival games, food isn’t the only scarce resource that will prove to be vital to a player’s success. Because of the alien environment, players will have a limited oxygen supply. If enough oxygen is not harvested or crafted during a playthrough, the player character will die of suffocation.

In addition to finding the necessary resources to survive, players will also have to brave the various dangers found within the open-world environment. Wildfires, storms and lightning strikes, dangerous alien species all come together to make the environment of Icarus particularly unforgiving.

Unlike most other survival games, players will take multiple trips to the surface of Icarus, called drops. During drops, players must accomplish as much as possible within a limited amount of time without dying. Then, they will have to go back into space to resupply in the player hub — dubbed the off-world station — before the next drop. If the player dies before returning to the station, all progress will be lost.

The developers at RockWerkz certainly have a unique gameplay experience on their hands. Although it has been established for quite some time now, the open-world survival genre has a lot of room to grow. Setting such a survival game on an alien planet in outer space accomplishes just that goal. Hopefully, the end product will be just as ambitious as this latest gameplay reveal seems to indicate.

Thanks to a bug in the latest 1.34 update to Warzone, some sniper scopes are not showing any glint. More specifically, any and all snipers affixed with a variable zoom scope have been made essentially undetectable at long distances.

YouTuber’s such as JGOD are putting together guides on how to take advantage of the glitch, showing players the best sniper rifles to add to their loadouts.

While the glint has gone a long way to balance out long-range players’ advantages, that balancing is now over, as long as this glitch lasts, that is. For now, players taking advantage of the glitch essentially dominate every round. With rifles such as the Kar98k and HDR already dominating matches as is, this added advantage comes at great cost to player balance in Warzone.

This is only the latest example in a long line of glitches that have hampered the battle royale. Another new glitch discovered roughly two weeks ago, as explained by Dexerto, happens whenever players use the Bullseye reticle from Black Ops Cold War in their loadout.

If the reticle is attached to one of the player’s loadout weapons, the match’s frame rate plummets, making the game completely unplayable.

Another infamous game-breaking bug, the infamous infinite stim glitch, allows players to survive in the gas in perpetuity with infinitely spawning stims to keep them alive. Activision thought they had fixed the glitch for good back in February, the glitch has been reportedly showing up again as of late March, according to Screenrant.

Players don’t always need to take advantage of glitches to cheat the game, however. In recent months, in particular, hacking has become a major issue for Warzone. Hackers have been known to use wall glitches (seeing through walls), aim-botting, and a number of other game-breaking cheats.

As the game rapidly approaches a massive shakeup in the form of an all-new map, it would behoove Activision to get all of their ducks in a row by fixing many of these core issues to the game. If Warzone has any hope of remaining the number one battle royale for years to come, as is the plan, the game developers are going to have to remedy these mistakes.

Diehard fans of Call of Duty’s groundbreakingly successful battle royale – Warzone – have been eagerly anticipating the release of a new map for months now. If Activision gets this one right, the new map’s debut could mark a huge, positive step forward for an already well-to-do title. However, if certain rumors surrounding the map change turn out to be true, fans may be left feeling robbed.

Over the past few months, Warzone has introduced nuclear weapons onto the game’s primary map, Verdansk. The warheads are hidden in secret bunkers across the map, all of which contain computers displaying an ominous countdown.

Rumors suggest this will culminate with the map blowing to smithereens, after which a new map will be introduced into the game. For example, leakers ZestyCOD and ModernWarzone both claim “a nuclear explosion event” will introduce a new map on April 22, as reported by Screen Rant.

If such a change does arrive, its introduction may disappoint and even anger fans, should certain rumors turn out to be true.

A Slight Redesign

Some of these rumors imply the new map will feature the Russian Ural Mountains, an area currently featured in the Fireteam: Dirty Bomb and Zombies’ Outbreak modes of Black Ops Cold War, according to Charlie Intel.

This would be just the sort of breath of fresh air that players have been waiting for.

Other rumors, however, predict Verdansk will simply undergo an aesthetic redesign to better align the map with Black Ops Cold War. Verdansk will remain virtually the same, albeit with a slight 1980s makeover.

Activision could also decide to set the nukes off, destroying certain sections of the map – turning buildings into rubble and adding the occasional large crater – while keeping Verdansk largely as it was.

Should Activision opt for the easy way out by only adding slight aesthetic changes, players will likely be enraged, and rightly so. This map has been hyped up and hinted at for months now. Players are expecting something huge. Activision needs to deliver on those promises or else be forced to deal with a pissed-off fan base.

Deleting Verdansk

There’s another possible map change to Warzone that could elicit an equally venomous response from fans. Activision could delete the Verdansk map entirely.

Well-known industry insider Tom Henderson claimed on Twitter that this will indeed be the case, saying “The current plan for Warzone is that Verdansk will never return.”

“There’s no separate playlist, map voting, or anything like that. Warzone is Warzone and Warzone is 1 map. Warzone will continue to change its map as the story progresses.”

Since its debut over a year ago, Warzone has become the preeminent battle royale map. Due in large part to Verdansk’s brilliant layout, the game has remained endlessly replayable for all that time. Destroying something fans have grown to love over the course of a year and leaving no option for them to return, would be a horrible mistake – one that Activision would certainly have to answer for.

What Gamers Are Hoping For

The nukes on Verdansk are going to go off. We all know this is going to happen. Activision should deliver on their implied promise. They should use the event as an opportunity to introduce a brand-new map. What the gaming industry giant should try to avoid, however, is forgetting what made Warzone successful in the first place.

When the dust settles, there should be two maps in Warzone – Verdansk and a new map. Anything less would be a disappointment to Warzone diehards.

Let’s hope Activision makes the right choice.

The journey of the Doom franchise has followed an incredibly rare trajectory. It’s not common for a game series to be developed exclusively by the same company for its entire lifetime. It’s even rarer for that franchise to fade away only to rise to the pinnacle in an industry where the competition is constantly growing and improving. Doom has defied all of the odds. However, we’ve reached a station on this hype train of success. It’s time to take a look at where we’re headed.

Doom (2016) set a new standard. The transition from the previous game’s lean toward survival horror to pure action and minimal story was welcomed and praised. Doom Eternal leaned into this but changed enough to draw just as much anger as praise in the process. A shift toward a more arena-style movement-focused experience showed that id Software wasn’t afraid to take some chances. They certainly could have simply iterated directly on the previous game and found just as much success. The efforts they made with the new multiplayer – Battlemode – were twice as ambitious and probably ten times as contentious. Yet they have backed it up to this day.

The DLC for Doom Eternal, The Ancient Gods, practically split the fan base right down the middle. The first release had some players praising the extra layer of difficulty while others felt it was unnecessary and convoluted. The second part didn’t receive as much positive feedback though. For me in particular, it felt rushed and uninspired. I did enjoy the way the story wrapped up, but with the new enemies being glorified reskins and the final boss being a repetitive exercise in frustration, I wasn’t too impressed. Given this mixed response, it begs the question – will there be more DLC or is it time to move on?

Most would say this is a clear sign that it’s time to work on Doom 6, or whatever that may be called. I think any typical developer would agree. Yet, id Software identified this two-part DLC as part of the “year one pass.” That’s indicative of there being a “year two pass.” It seems like it could still be the case too. Hugo Martin said in part of a two-hour interview,

“The beast sleeps. People have said he’s dead. I’m like ‘he’s not dead,’ I’m like ‘he sleeps,’”

and follows that up with

“There’s more Doom stories to tell always. The Doom universe is vast, ya know, and I think there’s lots of cool stuff we could do.”

The interview leading up to that statement makes it seem as though the saga that is Doom Eternal and The Ancient Gods may be the last of the story DLC for the game. With his talk of future Master Levels, however, it seems that may not be the end of all DLC. Building future content around paid Master Levels (hopefully in new levels) would be a good way to appease the most committed Doom Eternal fans while the developers work on whatever the next experience would be. I also suspect that there may be more multiplayer content coming including, but not limited to, the long-awaited Invasion mode.

If adventures with the Doom Slayer are over, at least from a story standpoint, I think it would be advantageous to see the world through a different set of eyes. It may be difficult to transition to a protagonist that isn’t almost entirely silent and superhuman, but it would be nice to climb the mountain again. One of the most fulfilling aspects of virtually any good first-person shooter is unlocking new weapons and feeling their power. While DLC typically doesn’t deliver that, a new game would, so I’m hoping Doom 2024 will be a reality whether I’m the Doom Slayer or not.

What do you think is next in the Doom world? DLC? Multiplayer? A whole new game? Let us know in the comments!

Since the release of Xbox Game Pass for PC in June of 2019, I’ve spent maybe $20 in total for the service. Between the numerous promotions and some simple tasks, it has been relatively easy to keep the service going without having it be a monthly drain on my wallet. With the price of gaming steadily increasing, services like Game Pass have become more appealing. However, it’s not free, and the $10-$15 monthly fee can add up. Here’s how I’ve avoided shelling out cash for access to these dozens of games.

Get Started Cheap

Like any salesperson or drug pusher, Microsoft wants to get you started cheap. There are always promotional deals to get your first month free or for $1. Previously, there was an option to get three months for $1, though the time for that may have passed. I’ve even seen promotions on Cheez-It crackers for a free month. Most of these are for new customers, so they may not help you much if you’ve already started, but there’s always the option of making new accounts. I’m sure that’s against their terms of service, but considering how long they’ve left open a huge loophole in their process, I doubt they’re policing it too vigorously.

Microsoft Rewards

Microsoft Rewards is a program that has been around for quite some time now. It’s a free service that allows you to earn points by doing basic tasks in your browser like simple trivia and searching with Bing. You can redeem these points for various gift cards and sweepstakes, but also Xbox Live Memberships, Xbox gift cards, and in my case, months of Game Pass. I usually pop over to the site each morning for a few minutes to complete these tasks while checking my e-mail and stockpile a few hundred points a day. I’m not quite diligent enough to fully fund my Game Pass in this way, but it’s the most significant contributor with the least effort.

Alienware Arena

The Alienware Arena has also been around for several years, but I only recently discovered how it can contribute. They have always had giveaways for games and that has been reason enough to have an account.

However, I also found that within their ranking system, you can get Dell Rewards money. If you rank up through 25 by doing more simple daily tasks or participating in the forums, you can get a total of $150 in Rewards this way. You can toss those rewards at some overpriced Dell hardware, or in my case, buy digital Xbox gift cards you can use for games or Game Pass. This process is a bit slower than Microsoft Rewards, but it does have the added benefit of ranking up for Alienware game giveaways. Recently they gave away System Shock Enhanced Edition, Street Fighter V, and various other games and in-game items.

Any way you can get Xbox gift cards is a way to get more Game Pass. Retail outlets of all sorts will sell gift cards at a discount from time to time. Notably places like Newegg and sometimes Best Buy will offer modest discounts. That may seem obvious, but the thing to look for is Microsoft’s desire to get people on their platform and using their store.

They’ve been very liberal with ways to get money on their storefront. The value proposition of the service is already high and has paid for itself with day one releases of several games, and that’s before the Bethesda acquisition launched 20 more on the service. With the potential for so many additional expensive games going forward, I’ll definitely be keeping this going and saving money at both ends of the process.

The first quarter of any year is usually pretty bland when it comes to releases, but most of the time things start picking up in March.  Despite 2020’s existence, 2021 seems to be shaping up similarly. These games come in all shapes and sizes and span several genres, but each looks to bring something exciting to the table.  There are quite a few ports and re-releases, but I want to look at what is brand new and exciting coming to the public for the first time.

Loop Hero – March 4

Devolver Digital’s latest published game is set to be a sleeper hit for fans of RPGs across the board. This retro-styled 8-bit game looks like it would be at home on an Apple II, but is hiding its robust and addictive gameplay just beneath the surface.  I think only after release will people latch on to how enjoyable this seemingly simplistic game is.  Devolver has a sixth sense for great games no one anticipates.

Endzone: A World Apart – March 18

Coming out of early access, this post-apocalyptic city builder is set to bring a fresh concept to the genre. Rather than working toward efficiency and monolithic skyscrapers, your goal is to survive in a world after a nuclear attack.  Buildings are cobbled together and the danger of radiation and fallout is ever-present. City builders have come a long way since the days of (the now-defunct) Sim City, especially in recent years. This looks like yet another branch of originality for a genre previously stuck in iterative ruts.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town – March 23

The long-running franchise born on the Nintendo is making its debut on the Nintendo Switch.  Before Stardew Valley took over the genre, Story of Seasons (or Harvest Moon before 2007) was the go-to game series for farming fun.  Not to be confused with the new lesser quality offshoot Harvest Moon games – which ironically also just recently released another lifeless title on the Switch. Pioneers of Olive Town looks to deliver all of that fun farming goodness people love to relax with after many months of grinding away at Animal Crossing.

Monster Hunter Rise – March 26

The Monster Hunter franchise spent too long cramped on the blurry screen of the 3DS.  When Monster Hunter Generations was ported to the Switch that was even more apparent.  Now a platform-built game is on the horizon and, if the appreciation of the demo is any indicator, it should be good.  Nintendo Switch owners may not be able to embrace the beauty of Monster Hunter: World, but the improvements to this monster-slaying adventure seem to make the game even more enjoyable for veterans and newcomers alike.

Evil Genius 2 – March 30

Nearly 17 years after the original strategy simulation game, the long-awaited sequel is rounding out the end of the month.  Taking on the role of a villain seeking world domination, it’s your job to put together a secret lair that will defeat even the heartiest heroes while conducting missions to deliver on your diabolical plans.  This centers around building an elaborate base to build weapons, train minions, and entrap the good guys trying to stop you.  If it is anywhere near as enjoyable as the original, we’re in for a nostalgic treat with plenty of replayability.