Quick Links Becoming best friends with a villager inDisney Dreamlight Valleyis no small feat, and the effort is well-rewarded with new quests and unique items that can only be obtained from specific villagers. Every character has a unique personality and gifts that reflect that. Whether it’s motifs, clothing, or furniture, there are plenty of ways to express your love for your favorite characters. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is quite different from the rest of the villagers, but he’s just as eager to make his mark....

Summary InPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, there are rewards for taking part in the Happy Lucky Lottery which are doled out across days, months, and even years. Onthe original 2004 GameCube version, players tried to skip the queue by fiddling with the internal clock, a lot like time travelling inAnimal Crossing, but this would literally wind up Lucky the Bob-omb, causing them to explode. Withthe Nintendo Switch remake here after 20 years, fans tried to skip the lengthy waiting times again by changing the date on their consoles....

Summary The Prince of Persia franchisehas experienced a sort of renaissance in 2024. First, there was the release ofPrince of Persia: The Lost Crownin January,which was immediately well-received. Then, a few months later,The Rogue Prince of Persiaentered early access. That game, in particular,is a roguelite tale that is not connected to any of the other games in the series. But for as good as the year has been for the Ubisoft franchise, things have not nearly been as kind to the remake of The Sands of Time....

Summary A new trailer for Reynatis has revealed that its crossover withNEO: The World Ends With Youwasn’t an April Fool’s Day joke after all as Rindo and Shoka are actually featured in the game alongside some TWEWY enemies. April Fool’s is a bit of an infamous day in the gaming world, as companies tend to use it as a firing board for silly ideas and crossovers that fans are actually quite into, which just ends up hurting everyone when it turns out to be a prank....

Summary Earlier this year, Xbox announced it was bringing four exclusives to other consoles, those beingHi-Fi Rush,Pentiment,Sea of Thieves, andGrounded. But it’s not stopping there, as Microsoft is reportedly discussing the idea of bringingSenua’s Saga: Hellblade 2to PS5 as well. Amidstthe closure of Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin, concerns about what Xbox considers a success are bubbling. Tango developed the award-winning Hi-Fi Rush which higher-ups like Bethesda Softworks senior vice president Todd Vaughn lauded as “one of the most successful launches […] in recent years”....

Summary Water is wet, the sky is blue, and gamers are mad about women.Star Wars Outlawsdropped a new trailer this week and there has been a surprising amount of backlash towards the protagonist who many are now calling “ugly”. We’ve seen this a lot in the past few years, from MJ inSpider-Manto the player character inFable 4to Jesse Faden inControl. It’s become a conspiracy theory among gamers that developers are purposefully ‘making women ugly’, with one of the examples thrown around a lot this year being Poison Ivy who, inSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, is a literal child....

Summary One of the worst things about being on the internet these days is navigating extremes. I don’t even mean that in the sense of political extremism, but in that everyone seems to care so much about things that ultimately don’t matter. That’s why we have 30-tweet threads and hour-long videos about the attractiveness of the characters inStellar BladeandStar Wars Outlaws. My general opinion on all of this is shrugs. I think if you care enough about this issue to send threatening emails to people who disagree with you (and have no say in how these characters are designed), there is probablyquite a bit wrong with you....

Summary Star Wars: Bounty Hunteris the next game in the series to be getting the remaster treatment, and it’s releasing for most consoles in just over a month on August 1. The past few years have given us a ton of new Star Wars games to be excited about,from the soulslike Jedi seriesto the upcoming open-world adventure,Star Wars Outlaws.While there’s no shortage of new contentset in a galaxy far, far away,we’ve also been seeing tons of older games get remastered over the last few years....

Summary During an 11 bit studios preview event earlier this month, I was given the chance to sit down and chat with Tomasz Kisilewicz, game director of The Alters. you’re able to read my preview of the gameherefor the lowdown, but essentially, The Alters asks the question ‘What if, at any point in your life, you’d made a different choice?’ Who would you be now, and how would that have impacted the rest of your life?...

Summary I want to say I’mtired of layoffs in the video game industry, but I’m sure I’m not nearly as tired as the actual thousands of people getting laid off across the world. They’re probably way more tired than I am. One of the big promises of video games is that - no matter where you live - you and other people can have the same experiences at the same time!...

Summary Delicious in Dungeon (Dungeon Meshi) is a delightfully whimsical tale of wholesome goofballs. The tale follows a Dungeons & Dragons-style adventuring party, led by the lovably aloof Laios, as they traverse a dangerous dungeon. It’s a standard setup, but there’s one colossal twist: they eateverything,including the monsters! Since itsNetflixdebut in January 2024, Delicious in Dungeon has quickly captivated audiences’ hearts and stomachs with its story. Moreover, the animators at Studio Trigger (also known for Kill La Kill) have lovingly renderedevery mealin gorgeous, mouth-watering detail, making this food-centric tale an irresistible delight....

Summary ThroughoutMagic: The Gathering’s history, green was not known as a color that could interact and kill opposing creatures with regularity outside of combat. Sure, it had ways to destroy permanents likes creatures with flying as well artifacts and enchantments, but straight-up creature removal was something it sorely lacked for many years. Enter the fight mechanic. Debuting in Innistrad in 2011, this ability became green’s go-to move for dealing with creatures outside of combat....

Summary If there’s one genre most synonymous with the Xbox 360, it would have to be the first-person shooter. The Xbox 360 turned online gaming into the predominant way games are played today, andmultiplayer FPS titlesare some of the first games you likely think of when remembering your time with Microsoft’s second console. The single-player titles are excellent as well, with some being pretty creative, and the advent of Xbox Live Arcade made several retro FPS titles purchasable for the first time on consoles in their original form....