LawBreakers is the first game from Boss Key Productions, a studio led by Gears of War and Unreal Tournament veteran Cliff Bleszinski. LawBreakers launches with five modes, each playable on every one of the game’s eight maps. The aerial combat feels fresh, and the twists on standard shooter game modes are solid attempts at flipping the script. But LawBreakers’ confusing hero design, poor tutorial system and unbalanced maps all sabotage an otherwise good game. LawBreakers was reviewed using a fina

Deadline reports that two writers have been assigned to work on a DC Films movie that would tell the origin story of the Joker in a gritty, hard-boiled ’80s setting. The problem with an origin story is that it undercuts everything that makes the Joker a terrifying villain — even for a hero who uses fear as a weapon. I say that because it isn’t really a Batman film. It’s a Joker film that doesn’t feel the need to give him a concrete origin story. Giving the Joker an origin story breaks the charac

How to eat (or not) eat a banana according to Sea of Thieves. pic.twitter.com/KS3jWT45It — Polygon (@Polygon) June 12, 2017A lot of that goofy spirit comes from the Sea of Thieves team themselves. “I don’t even know if he put it in as a joke,” Neate said of the culprit, who’s known around the studio for his sense of humor. Sea of Thieves is the kind of game that Rare is developing in stages; it’s constantly in flux, as its ongoing alpha tests prove. But we see your banana and raise you this coco

Destiny 2 offers way more (and more varied) open-world activities than its predecessor, and they provide a steady stream of useful loot. Each Adventure runs for 10-15 minutes and takes you through a series of objectives, a single one of which might resemble a Destiny Patrol mission. Public Events are the basis of Destiny 2’s new Flashpoints, an activity in which a single destination is highlighted every week. I didn’t see this in action, but I’ll happily complete multiple Public Events for a cha

Xbox Live Gold subscribers will be able to download a healthy mix of games from September’s Games With Gold lineup, including the beloved indie game Oxenfree, Microsoft announced today. September’s other Xbox One title for Gold subscribers is Oxenfree, the teenage adventure game from Night School Studio. During the second half of the month, Gold subscribers can download EA DICE’s Battlefield 3, the modern military shooter that debuted in 2011, for free. As always, both games are playable on Xbox

Hearthstone’s new musical short won over players and Blizzard fans alike this week, but its starring characters aren’t going to be appearing in the game itself. “They’re of Hearthstone, but they’re not in Hearthstone. They’re players like yourselves. And if Hearthstone’s new animated shorts program helps broaden its player base, that’s a win-win for the developer. “It really was meant to be a fun way to view our world, [even] be it for the first time,” said Thompson.

Square Enix is releasing free DLC for Final Fantasy 15 that will bring an event called the Assassin’s Festival to Lestallum. The town will be decked out in banners and other regalia to mark the special occasion, and various Assassin-themed minigames and game mechanics will be available in Final Fantasy 15. “This collaboration is the result of being huge fans,” said Ashraf Ismail, Origins game director at Ubisoft Montreal. This is just the latest out-of-left-field DLC crossover involving Final Fa

Tekken 7 gets its first batch of downloadable content next week, with the extremely important addition of Ultimate Tekken Bowl. A trailer for the minigame — which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year — show’s just how intense bowling with Tekken characters can be. In addition to Ultimate Tekken Bowl, Tekken 7’s first add-on will include some new costumes, including bikinis and swimsuits for the game’s female fighters and vintage bathing suits for, at the very least, Leo. There are also scho

That didn’t stop them from taking on a new challenge — composing the score for Life is Strange: Before the Storm. These words mirror the journey of Chloe Price, Before the Storm’s main protagonist, who must deal with the loss of her father and best friend. “On one hand she’s very aggressive,” Tonra said, “and on the other she’s incredibly funny and also very caring and emotionally intelligent. She has very many things that we could then portray through sound.”Daughter chose to use different inst

The split that has led CLG to this moment has been an eventful one in large part thanks to Immortals. Since then, every moment for CLG has been a battle and every match has been an uphill struggle. So, here’s a look a the key points that will decide the series, and how CLG could manage to upset Immortals and move on to the NA LCS Finals. The strategy coming into this series for CLG almost has to put Amin in a supporting position. If Choi doesn’t manage to snowball his fellow laners early Puchero

Fair warning, this video is stuffed with corny generational jokes and pop culture asides. And the truest part of it is the comparison of just how goddamn long it takes to get to the title screen, a quarter century after Tecmo Super Bowl’s debut. All that is missing from The D-League’s comparison of Tecmo Super Bowl then to Madden NFL 18 today is the “you can play it while it installs” charade retailed by Microsoft and Sony. The first time we saw this, with NBA 2K14 on the PlayStation 4, people t

The weeks following The International are always the trickiest for most teams in Dota 2, as each one must work through their post-event reflections and emotions to figure out how to move forward. The new competitive ecosystem will only cause more of a question in this regard. Here, we’ll be keeping track of every roster change that you need to know about since approximately The International 7’s Main Qualifiers in late June. Note: At the moment, we don’t have word on the roster lock dates but we

We’ve known for a while now that Game of Thrones would reunite the various Stark family members scattered around Westeros this season, but we forgot just how weird the reunion would be. In the most recent episode, the youngest living Stark, Bran, finally returned to Winterfell and was greeted with open arms by his older sister, Sansa. But when her brother returned home, it’s understandable that she was hoping for a little more excitement and a little less identity confusion. Even the actors are

This summer has seen Crash Bandicoot return in a big way, with sales of the PlayStation 4 remaster collection Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy topping the charts since its June launch. But a viral video’s won him attention for a very different reason, pitting him as the star of the internet’s new favorite goof. Crash is an easy dude to mock for a variety of reasons — look at those shorts, man — but a video of streamer OneyPlays dubbing shrill yelps over the character in Crash Bandicoot 2 has won h

The Defenders will reintroduce an important character to the series in a strange, vital new role that may leave some confused. In The Defenders, Elektra is brought back to life as a dangerous weapon for the Hand by Alexandra, a new villain played by Signourney Weaver. With no memories of her previous life or who she is, Elektra takes on the new role assigned to her by Alexandra — the Black Sky. Stick eventually kills the Black Sky, despite Daredevil’s trepidation over the murder of a child, but

It’s a misnomer that Dan Marshall made a football game (that is, soccer, as we know it) without knowing anything about the sport. In Behold the Kickmen, Marshall made a football game without caring at all about the sport. But the game action doesn’t make a slapstick perversion of football like, for example, Mutant Football League. Behold the Kickmen has two gameplay features that I would find useful in a serious soccer game, even. “Honestly, in the early days [of development], that’s just how I

In this bonus-sized episode of Awful Squad, the crew is as big as it’s ever been! In a wide range of matches, we attempt a Mad Max-style drag race, as well as a first-person zombie horror-fest in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Today’s Awful Squad attendees include:Nick RobinsonPatrick GillChris PlanteJustin McElroyGriffin McElroyCharlie HallSimone de RochefortRuss FrushtickBONUS FAN ART:No idea what Awful Squad is? Play catch-up with the series, as a bunch of Polygon staffers and friends team up

The earliest video game ads I’ve been able to find in those start in 1983, from Parker Brothers, of all people. The company that’s best known for Monopoly and Clue helped set the tone for pretty much every other game ad that comics readers would be seeing for the next three decades. The format is simple: a big, suitably evocative central image that visually overpowers the smallest possible screenshot of what the game actually looks like. Video game ads have always been more than a little confron

The Dark Tower series is Stephen King’s magnum opus, spanning eight novels and millions of words. The Dark Tower series is one that shouldn’t be rushed through in order to appreciate and enjoy the multi-universe King has crafted. The Dark Tower is a movie about sorcerers and ancient gunmen, portals and interdimensional travel — it’s allowed to have fun. The Dark Tower feels apathetic, like it was created because it seemed like something that should be made eventually. Stephen King’s Dark Tower f

The Women’s National Basketball Association and all the players of its 12 teams will make their video game debut with NBA Live 18, EA Sports announced this morning. The teams will be available from the game’s WNBA Play Now menu, meaning they will be available only for one-off play offline or online (not in any of the game’s career modes, in other words), and not against NBA teams. Many WNBA stars sat for detailed head scans at EA Sports’ Tiburon studio, where NBA Live is made and athletes in oth