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Emulating games is vital to preserving the medium’s history. Publishers and studios continue to show flagrant disregard for their own past,burning down digital storeswhile leaving old games trapped on old hardware. The hobbyists picking up the slack are punished for “piracy”, despite many of the games we emulate being from platforms decades old with no easy way to access anymore. Who are we hurting by downloading the originalSilent Hill 2 ISOother than the publisher’s inflated ego?...

Pikmin 4is all about collecting treasure. Of that treasure, it turns out the thing I treasure most is my Cobalt BlueGame Boy AdvanceSP. Early on into the newNintendo Switchsequel, you’re able to find a virtual representation of the exact model of handheld on which I spent hundreds of hours playing games likePokemon SapphireandFinal Fantasy TacticsAdvance. Nintendo’s graphics have always lagged behindSony’s andMicrosoft’s, but the game renders the little backlit handheld perfectly....

Three more fighters have joined the base roster forMortal Kombat 1, and it’s good news for Outworld fans. Li Mei, Tanya and longtime Kombatant Baraka will be in the game from launch, fully playable.Baraka has appeared in manyMortal Kombatgames, most recentlyMortal Kombat 11. Tanya was last playable in Mortal Kombat 10, making a brief cameo in Mileena’s MK11 ending instead. Li Mei, however, has been largely absent from the series since Mortal Kombat: Armageddon in 2006....

Another year, anotherLord of the Ringsadaptation under fire. The same week as Ismael Cruz Córdova revealed that Amazon hired an on-set therapist to help actors fight againstracist backlashwhile filmingThe Rings of Power’ssecond season (abuse which racists then denied and demanded receipts for), people are angry thatMagic: The Gathering’sAragorn is black. Generally speaking, engaging with racists is a losing battle. They don’t care about facts, their arguments are contradictory and make no sense, and they are not beholden to the usual rules of debate: using and accepting facts, or adjusting arguments when presented with new information....

These days, most video games could use an extra week or month of fine tuning before they launch. But there are deadlines to hit, shareholders to please, shipping obligations to fulfil, and competition on the calendar to worry about, so they often come out not-quite ready. Devs then spend that first week or month of release working their way through all of the parts that are not-quite working and make them just-about work....

It seemed obvious from the ending ofInsomniac’sfirstSpider-Mangame that Harry Osborn would be Venom in the sequel. In a twist on the typical ‘Norman Osborn as Green Goblin’ plot thread, Osborn is just regular capitalist evil rather than supervillain evil. His son Harry, Peter’s closest friend, is absent during the game for a vacation that sounds more and more impromptu and suspicious as the game goes on. Finally, in the last scene, we see Harry suspended in a tank of green goo, baiting us with a Green Goblin reveal before the switcheroo of the Symbiote in the tank with him....

The Lord Of The Rings: Tales Of Middle-earth’s uniqueThe One Ringis probably going to be the most expensiveMagic: The Gatheringcard ever printed. With bounties for the card rapidly approaching $200,000, it’s easy to see it dethroning the famous Black Lotus (which once sold for $540,000), and becoming the jewel in one person’s Magic collection. Tucked away in one random Collector’s booster pack, this is effectively a lottery ticket masquerading as a game piece....

Saints Rowis about to get an update that overhauls pretty much everything and adds a bunch of new features. From changes to combat, missions, and multiplayer, almost every part of the game is being improved, as the devs ask fans to give the reboot another chance. This isthe first of three major updates, with this expansion launching on May 9. As well as overall game improvements, the update adds a new area to the map, the district of Sunshine Springs....

Banda Namco Entertainment was at the latest AnimeExpo which took place earlier today, showcasing some of the new games it has coming out over the next couple of years. Alongside Naruto x Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections and Baten Kaitos 1 + 2 Remastereed, we also got a closer look at the upcoming video game adaptation ofSand Land, with a first look at some in-game combat in the game’s Tank and Jump Bot....

Quick Links Remnant 2brings back many elements from its successful predecessor,Remnant From the Ashes. One notable returning element is the infamous Ravager. While exploring Yaesha, you might come across the Corrupted Ravager. This time, however, when you first meet him, he won’t be hostile. After the encounter, there will be a cutscene where the Ravager starts a conversation with you. He will lead you to his den, where you’ll find the injured Doe....

Following the Xbox Games Showcase, Bethesda dove intoStarfieldlike never before, showing off gameplay, the different planets, its biggest city yet, and the new character creator, which Bethesda describes as its simplest and most in-depth one yet. It also claims that every NPC was made with its character creator, meaning that anyone you see can be replicated. If you really want to have a doppelganger out in the wild or roleplay as some bizarro evil clone, you can....

You’ll no doubt be aware by now thatThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomplayers are capable of making some pretty astonishing thing. Over the weeks since release, we’ve seen all kinds of ridiculous vehicles take Link into the skies andunder the water of Hyrule, but not much has been done outside of traversal. Sure, it’s useful to makea vehicle that can drive up wallsor navigate any type of terrain, but what if you want to brighten up Hyrule with some lovely tunes?...

There seems to be a common overlap between darker, slightly more macabre-leaning games and games that refuse to hold your hand. It doesn’t necessarily matter if they’re platformers, action-adventure role-playing games, or metroidvanias; they just generally all tend to lean a bit more into the horrifying. Related:Best Soulslike Games On The Xbox Series X|S, Ranked Perhaps it’s because the horrifying aspects of life can be difficult to deal with and thus present a challenge that can be physically represented through challenging gameplay....