25,363 community articles
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When Xbox Game Pass was announced in early 2017, the concept was easy to understand. With the likes of Netflix having been around for several years as a digital platter of watchable media, everyone knew how Game Pass would work. For a monthly fee, a varied veritable buffet of Xbox One and Xbox 360 (and apparently a few Original Xbox games too) would be open for you to download and play, as long...
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Here we are, the final Indie Game of the Week for 2018. It's Sabotage's The Messenger , a retro throwback side-scrolling action game heavily influenced by the original NES Ninja Gaiden and a little bit - though it's possible they were developed independently - by last year's Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment . A young ninja is chosen by a mysterious "western hero" to carry a scroll of utmost im...
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If you read my blog from last Christmas , you’ll recall that I loved Assassin’s Creed Origins. I’ve always been a huge fan of Greek history, and I remember loving the setting in the old Sierra city builder Zeus: Master of Olympus. So of course, I am playing Odyssey. While I am enjoying the game, I tend to feel the game is too bloated. The mountain of relatively uninteresting systems layered ont...
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WOW!! Another year, another list. While 2018 in gaming didn't reach the emotional highs of last year, there was plenty of good old-fashioned fun to be had. The main entries on this list were released in 2018, but I also included some honorable old games that I enjoyed too much to ignore. Also, don't worry too much about the specific numbering, because I switched some around just between draftin...
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The SNES Classic had a sterling assortment of games from Nintendo's 16-bit star console, but it's hardly all that system has to offer a modern audience. In each installment of this fortnightly feature, I judge two games for their suitability for a Classic successor based on four criteria, with the ultimate goal of assembling another collection of 25 SNES games that not only shine as brightly as...
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There were some good games that came out this year, but none of them were as good as Monster Hunter, so instead of a Top 10 list of games this year I decided to create a list of my Top 10 Favorite Monsters from Monster Hunter This Year. This list includes monsters from Monster Hunter World as well as Monster Hunter Generations which, between the two, had a total of 95 unique eligible monsters....
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GOTY 2016 1. Doom This is the DOOM your parents were afraid of in the 90s. DOOM (2016) feels like the DOOM 1 and 2 of yore. You play as a guy dubbed “The DoomBringer” that shoots demons in the face with a shotgun while never not moving. This game undoes the sin of making DOOM 3 a pretty alright survival horror game. It makes you forget that the modes that are not the campaign seem to be forgott...
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I didn't even realize it until I started putting this list together, but 2018 was the year of "returning." We went back. I specifically went back enough that I did not play 10 games that came out in 2018. *GASP* I know, right!? As the world has continued to be on fire, games jumped right back to what we are familiar with, chasing after everything in a hazy memory. This resulted in some great ga...
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This is the start of a series of blog posts on SNK's arcade history of the 1970s and '80s. Before we get going, however, a few introductory remarks are necessary. Mission Sta tement SNK's logo from 1982 to 1988. The history of Shin Nihon Kikaku Corporation (lit. 'New Japan Project'), (re-)founded as a video game company in 1978 and abbreviated to the now iconic acronym SNK two years later, is w...
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Welcome back, fellow corsairs covered in cats' hairs, to another episode of A Jazztronomical Score. We're still venerating the hard work and creativity of Garry's Mod level creators in the most respectful way possible: by purrloining them of their valuables and leaving nothing behind but destruction, desolation, and precious memories. Our present and only goal at this vaunted NG++ stage of Jazz...
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Warframe 's overwhelming complexity is no secret. The first thing you learn about the game is that it's a free-to-play loot-grind action game. The second thing you learn is that it's not for everyone. The game offers new players little in the way of tutorial and many aspects, from the mechanics of elemental damage to the way to obtain new classes & weapons, remain utterly opaque. It introduces...
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Welcome, all, to my 100th episode of Saturday Summaries! Technically, it's only the 100th if you add together this year's Saturday Summaries and 2017's Sunday Summaries, which I am doing because they're the same feature that I just shifted a day. The big one-double-oh is a significant number for me in 2018: The Indie Game of the Week series is about to celebrate its own 100th episode, I'm on tr...
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Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games . I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for rea...
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In my experience with these games, Indies tend to start one of two ways: working from something big, like the many AAA genres that have since fallen out of vogue, and shrinking it down to something bite-sized and manageable for a small team; or the opposite, where you have the smallest kernel of an idea - usually borne from game jams or a proof-of-concept demo after futzing around with game mak...
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What up, cat accomplices? It's an odd week, so that means two Jazztronauts updates for the price of one! Yeah! We're still here at the Bar Samsara, sipping gin & tonics while reviewing the contents of our enormous sacks with dollar signs on them. However, you don't have to have an enormous sack to try out this game for yourself: just have a copy of Garry's Mod and download the free Jazztronauts...
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I feel like the term “visual novel” is fairly new for a lot of western game fans. If I had to be exact, I’d say a majority of English speaking players had only been vaguely aware, or completely unaware, of the word “visual novel” until maybe January 4, 2012 when the English freeware game called Katawa Shoujo hit the scene and made many people fans of the genre (at least that is the impression I...
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Slight Spoilers for Octopath Traveler (but nothing story related) Let's be honest, end credits for games are usually hit or miss at best and mostly ignored. People usually want to button through to see the trophy or achievement pop for beating the game, or maybe there is a quick extra scene at the end that is fun or sets up a sequel, but usually, nothing is there to keep the player engaged. Tha...
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Jordan Hass is a comedy writer, sometimes actor and host, and can be found most likely at your local 7-eleven enjoying a big gulp and big bite hot dog. He's @ jordha on twitter, and can also be found mostly online at JordanHass.com Wow, I can't believe it, we did it everybody, we survived another year, unless of course you are (NAME TWO DEAD CELEBRITIES FROM THIS YEAR - Editor). Anyway, like ev...
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Greetings! I am your host, Hugh Jazztronauts, and welcome to a blog. Now that I've demonstrated every facet of this wonderful game-slash-guided tour of half-baked Gmod maps in my previous updates, I've decided to truncate the heist journalizing process down to a handy set of bulletpoints. While I'm still aiming to complete a few fetch quests that my kitty hosts have provided me - namely: cars,...
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Oh god, it’s this dude again. I thought we were rid of him for good this time. What lame-ass excuse does he have this time? Um… my computer broke? Yeah. For real. Anyways, I wanted to get at least one more blog post out before my game of the year list later this month. I’ve talked about my excitement for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate a few times now, and after the fighting itself and the crazy cro...
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Note: The following article contains major spoilers for The Novelist and moderate spoilers for Fahrenheit (2005) and Late Shift. When games implement narrative choices, each choice is typically exclusive with no middle ground between them. For example, in the 2005 adventure game Fahrenheit, there is a moment when the girlfriend of one protagonist tells him she'll be moving from New York to Flor...
chuck@giantbomb.com (Premium member)
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Now that Giant Bomb is finishing up for the year - we might have one more week of regular features in early December depending on when GOTY recording wraps up and when it rolls out, but I don't see them starting anything new until January - I wanted to take the time to see how their ongoing features have been getting on and what they might look like when they come back. Alexy Quest This is, bar...
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This isn't to try and convince people to not be bothered by Dan and Jeff's comments about Red Dead 2. I get being bugged when two people you normally respect besmirch something you passionately enjoy. But I hope a couple people might see this and get some perspective they might not inherently have on what the conversation they're having means to someone like me. Here's a few random points about...
