Videogames

The Director of God of War Has Interesting Ideas About How to Adapt Superman Into Games

The ultimate white whale of the crossover market between superheroes and videogames: a good Superman game. How could you do it? Can anyone do it? Cory Barlog has some ideas. Speaking at PAX, Barlog, the director of the most recent God of War title, had some pretty distinctive ideas about what he would pitch in…

Valve Says Game Devs Can Now Put Anything on Steam Unless It’s Illegal or ‘Trolling’

Valve, the company behind the Steam platform that has achieved a near-monopoly on PC game sales, issued a blog post on Wednesday clarifying its content policies after it removed a mass shooting-themed game titled Active Shooter from its store in late May. According to Valve’s Erik Johnson, from now on the company will allow basically…

You Can Be the Curiosity Rover in NASA’s New Driving Game

Admit it: In your heart, you’re a space robot, laughing at death on Mars, while you pop a wheelie over an underground water cavern. Now there’s a game that lets you take your true form. The game is called Mars Rover and it was just released by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a kind of…

The Heroes and Villains of The Force Awakens Are Coming To Disney Infinity

The new Star Wars toys are already hankering for your money in various shapes and sizes following Force Friday in September—but they’d still like just a little more of it. The Disney Infinity videogame is all Star Wars themed this year, and naturally that means they’re bringing some of their newest stars to figure form…

We’re Finally Getting Some Incredible-Looking Fallout Figures

The brilliant designs of the post-apocalyptic Fallout series have long been yearning to get turned into awesome toys. And while we’re getting some cutesy Funko Pops based on the series, a new line of figures from the folks over at Threezero is giving us a much more faithful—and pricier—batch of figures. The company recently announced…

Science Fiction Writers Explain How to Write Videogames That Never Feel Dated 

An imagined future is supposed to tell us something about the world to come, but how we imagine it usually ends up telling us a lot more about our present than our future. Here, several different science fiction writers explain how to create videogame worlds that feel timeless. Some of the authors behind the new…

Ask the Press Start to Play Authors Anything You Want about Videogames In Science Fiction

Authors Daniel H. Wilson, Chris Kluwe, Rhianna Pratchett, Austin Grossman, Chris Avellone, and John Joseph Adams are all here to answer your questions about the future of videogames, gaming in science fiction, and their new short story collection, Press Start to Play. Wilson, Kluwe, Pratchett, Grossman, and Avellone, who all have new stories in the…

How does evolution work? One way to get a real sense of how the process has unfolded is with this videogame from NOVA Labs, which lets you build an evolutionary tree of how different species emerged. The best part is their “Deep Tree” which maps relationships between 70,000 different species. For instance, above you can…

Super Mario Runs Left to Right Because Our Brains Say So

Does this gif hurt your brain? You’re not alone. Ever wonder why side-scrolling video games from the 80’s and 90’s almost always scroll in a single direction—left to right? This might seem like a silly question (duh…it just makes sense that way), but if you really think about it, it is a little odd. Why…

The Exact Moment When I Realized Final Fantasy VII Was A Masterpiece

Long before I became a professional nerd, I was an amateur nerd — reading comics, watching anime, playing videogames, etc. I assumed I’d grow out of these “childish” pursuits at some point. But I also assumed I’d never be as moved by a “nerdy” work of art as a “serious” work of art — until…

The Battle Begins In The First Two Warcraft Movie Posters

This weekend at Blizzcon, we finally learned about the cast of Duncan Jones’ upcoming epic fantasy based on the hit MMORPG. But now the first two posters for the film have also arrived — they may be teasers, but they definitely herald a great deal of conflict to come between the Alliance and the Horde.…

​Is DC About To Undo The New 52 Comics Universe?!

Last week, we discussed if Marvel Studios was finally doing something wrong. This week, we discuss if DC Comics is about to do something very right. The end times are truly approaching, my friends! Also, I answer a GamerGate question in a discussion that hopefully won’t want to make you kill yourself. https://gizmodo.com/has-marvel-finally-lost-its-ing-mind-1646643705 Do you…

What’s The Best Game Of All Time?

Whether you want to cast your lot with a videogame, a card game, an RPG, a puzzle or logic game, or just a classic boardgame, we want to know your picks for the very best game of all time. Tell about your favorite game is in the comments, along with a brief description of what…

Now You Can Play the Best Character in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel will let players step into the role of Claptrap the robot, as well as several other non-playable characters from the Borderlands series. We talked to the developers about why we love some robots more than others. The four playable characters in Borderlands: the Pre-Sequel were all NPCs in Borderlands 2, and all…

The Vintage Videogames That You Still Want To Play

The world of videogames is a high turnover one, with new tech, stories, and characters constantly coming out. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t still enjoy the classics. In response to a post on the series of events that led to the release of one of the first videogames ever Spacewar! almost 50 years…

We Saw Mind-Blowing Orc-On-Human Violence In The First Warcraft Footage

Warcraft just wrapped filming a month or two ago, but the game adaptation doesn’t come out until 2016. And just now, we saw our first clips from the film — full of energy blasts, swords, battles, orc mayhem… and a lot of remorseful deadbeat dads. Seriously, the character moments in this teaser were all about…

Scientifically Accurate Sonic The Hedgehog Prefers Poop To Speed

Yes, it’s time for Fox’s Animation Domination HD and science to ruin another one of your childhood icons! This time, it’s beloved videogame mascot Sonic the Hedgehog, who it turns out would be much more interested in eating shit than collecting golden rings. Who knew? Catch ADHD Satuday nights on Fox at 11:00 pm.

First Trailer For Ridley Scott’s Halo Movie, Nightfall

Master Chief better watch his back — he’s not the only soldier in the Halo universe kicking terrifying ancient alien ass, as this first trailer for the Ridley Scott-produced Halo: Nightfall movie shows. Here’s the official plot summary: Halo: Nightfall introduces a pivotal new character, Jameson Locke, a legendary manhunter and agent with the Office…

How Defiance Season 2 Plans to Get Its Multimedia Right

Defiance wasn’t just a hit Syfy TV series last year, it was also a reasonably popular MMORPG. The show and the game’s events were supposed to constantly crossover each other, but only a few characters and plot devices ever made it through. But all that changes in Defiance season 2. In a Syfy conference call,…

Could NASA Build A Holodeck? Ask NASA Ops Expert Jeff Norris!

How can videogame technologies be used to explore space? Jeff Norris, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, is here to answer our questions about space teleexploration, the best way to control a robotic arm in realtime, and just how close we are to our dream of a holodeck. Norris founded and leads JPL’s Ops Lab, which…