This represents two big pushes for Oculus: the effort to make VR more social and less isolating, and create a more welcoming experience. It’s not a bad idea, but it’s also not new; this is what games like Habbo Hotel and The Sims have always existed as. Nothing has changed between the concept that drove Habbo Hotel and The Sims forward and what Oculus wants to do with Home … except that the virtual, 2D world has gone completely immersive in VR. Oculus and Facebook are pushing the social aspect

One of the most popular parts of Overwatch’s annual Halloween Terror event is something players came up with all on their own: photobombing during Junkenstein’s Revenge, the seasonal event’s exclusive game mode. During the introductions for every boss character in the Junkenstein’s Revenge brawl, other players can sneak in and time an emote right behind them to ruin the stylish entrance animation. That means you can go and ruin Symmetra, Reaper, Roadhog and Mercy’s diva moments by making Widowma

It was in that context that Final Fantasy 9, a game about peace and plenitude being destroyed by war and greed, was released. Final Fantasy 9 both demands that people stand up to injustice and disaster, and it grants that we can never go it alone. The overwhelming violence that engulfs the world of Final Fantasy 9 is fueled by the use of automatons and eidolons. Final Fantasy 9 shows us the closest thing to a fantasy weapon of mass destruction that exists in video games. Final Fantasy 9 works ha

Middle-earth: Shadow of War completes the narrative arc of the original game, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. But some critics have criticized developer Monolith and publisher Warner Bros. for burying the game’s final scene behind a grind-heavy end-game. [This article contains spoilers for Middle-earth: Shadow of War.] In our review, Polygon made note of the game’s final act, called Shadow Wars, for being a clever inversion of the game’s core gameplay. From our reviews editor, Phil Kollar:From t

Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment is working on a new virtual reality title as part of a partnership with Oculus, the two companies announced today. The “first-person combat experience” is targeting a 2019 release. “It gives you more of that feeling of paranoia … and that tension.”The project is still early, according to Zampella. Respawn’s Peter Hirschmann said in a blog post that the new VR title is not a Titanfall game, nor is it the studio’s previously announced Star Wars project.

Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment is working on a new virtual reality title as part of a partnership with Oculus, the two companies announced today. The “first-person combat experience” is targeting a 2019 release. “It gives you more of that feeling of paranoia … and that tension.”The project is still early, according to Zampella. Respawn’s Peter Hirschmann said in a blog post that the new VR title is not a Titanfall game, nor is it the studio’s previously announced Star Wars project.

One of Counter-Strike’s most popular classic maps, Dust 2, just got an overhaul in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Valve explained the changes to the map, which include a substantial visual upgrade, on the game’s website. Some of the most obvious visual changes to Dust 2 come in the form of lighting. The Leet Krew terrorists have been overhauled to match the map’s visual upgrade. Valve has a bunch of screenshots highlighting the changes to Dust 2 and the new terrorist models at the Counter-Str

One of Counter-Strike’s most popular classic maps, Dust 2, just got an overhaul in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Valve explained the changes to the map, which include a substantial visual upgrade, on the game’s website. Some of the most obvious visual changes to Dust 2 come in the form of lighting. The Leet Krew terrorists have been overhauled to match the map’s visual upgrade. Valve has a bunch of screenshots highlighting the changes to Dust 2 and the new terrorist models at the Counter-Str

In Battlefront 2, loot crates contain a number of different items, including objects for crafting, in-game currency and something called Star Cards. Here comes the rub: Players can purchase loot crates outright using the currency, called credits; crates cost 1,100 credits each. The problem that players have with this is that the number of credits loot crates cost incentivizes them to purchase them outright. Even though it’s not required to spend real world funds to win Star Cards, doing so takes

In Battlefront 2, loot crates contain a number of different items, including objects for crafting, in-game currency and something called Star Cards. Here comes the rub: Players can purchase loot crates outright using the currency, called credits; crates cost 1,100 credits each. The problem that players have with this is that the number of credits loot crates cost incentivizes them to purchase them outright. Even though it’s not required to spend real world funds to win Star Cards, doing so takes

Chances are, if you have watched any of Worlds 2017 so far you have heard the words Ardent Censer tossed around quite a bit. If you made it this far, you probably already know that Ardent Censer is an item, and you may even know that it’s most often bought by supports. So, here’s everything you need to know about Ardent Censer. When a champion has Ardent Censer and they shield or a heal on an ally, that ally gains bonus attack speed, on-hit magic damage and healing. And Ardent Censer is almost a

But things get complicated during the second-to-last step, where you have to dismantle five scout rifles of rare or legendary quality. You may hear from people who claimed they were able — after many hours — to farm the necessary scout rifles. The only hope you have is to accept the fact that scout rifles don’t exist. I missed his college graduation yesterday due to my attempts at farming scout rifles. This was due to the fact that scout rifles are hard to capture in stills, due to their complet

Fighting Lion is an exotic grenade launcher in Destiny 2 that’s also an energy weapon. Here’s the deal: Fighting Lion is supposed to knock out the shield of any enemy it hits, and then it’s instantly reloaded if you kill that enemy within the next few seconds. Used correctly against multiple shielded enemies, Fighting Lion should always have a grenade in the chamber. But it doesn’t do enough damage to actually remove a shield in one hit, and neither does the splash damage. Fighting Lion was desi

Fighting Lion is an exotic grenade launcher in Destiny 2 that’s also an energy weapon. Here’s the deal: Fighting Lion is supposed to knock out the shield of any enemy it hits, and then it’s instantly reloaded if you kill that enemy within the next few seconds. Used correctly against multiple shielded enemies, Fighting Lion should always have a grenade in the chamber. But it doesn’t do enough damage to actually remove a shield in one hit, and neither does the splash damage. Fighting Lion was desi

Meet Arnold is a new YouTube series that has more in common with Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events than it does any other adorable cartoon series. Meet Arnold starts with Arnold on a plane to Switzerland to meet his brother, but when the plane runs into mechanical failure, he’s forced to jump without a parachute. Meet Arnold is a scientific explainer series that accomplishes the rare goal of not talking down to the audience during its presentation. Meet Arnold relies on its charmin

Ten days ago, industry heavyweight Epic Games announced a spin-off of its early access game Fortnite called, simply enough, Fortnite: Battle Royale. “We love battle royale games like PUBG, and thought Fortnite would make a great foundation for our own version,” Epic said. The battle royale genre is derivativeI’m just going to say the words now: The concept of the battle royale genre is as old as gaming itself. When it comes down to it, what makes the DayZ mod and the Battle Royale mod different

Ten days ago, industry heavyweight Epic Games announced a spin-off of its early access game Fortnite called, simply enough, Fortnite: Battle Royale. “We love battle royale games like PUBG, and thought Fortnite would make a great foundation for our own version,” Epic said. The battle royale genre is derivativeI’m just going to say the words now: The concept of the battle royale genre is as old as gaming itself. When it comes down to it, what makes the DayZ mod and the Battle Royale mod different

In Heat Signature, a single wrong move can blow you out into the vacuum of space, while the right move makes you feel like a kung-fu genius. Heat Signature is intensely skill-based. As I got deeper into Heat Signature, I frequently wasn’t even offered easy and medium missions. I respect Heat Signature. Heat Signature was reviewed using a final “retail” Steam download code provided by Suspicious Developments.

And the most interesting thing about Star Fox 2 is just how ambitious of an idea it was. Star Fox 2 isn’t available right out of the box; instead, it’s the only game wrapped up in the menu system, requiring you to play Stage 1-1 of the original Star Fox first. From the onset, it’s clear Star Fox 2 is a very different game than the original. It feels like Star Fox. We’ll have full impressions of Star Fox 2 and the SNES Classic next week.

This is a video that contains two (2) minutes of menu capture from the SNES Classic Edition, which arrived in our office today. The nice sounds that happen every time an icon is selected — in this case, the icons often represent classic SNES games. Hey, that’s why they call it the SNES Classic. 60 FPSNice music, provided by Nintendo, which has a history of making really good menu music. Another thing that we did with the SNES Classic was unlock Star Fox 2, and play a bit of that.