Category: Video Gaming

These days, box offices are dominated by comic-book and superhero movies from Marvel and DC. Unfortunately, while superhero movies have improved dramatically over the last decade, superheroes haven’t been as powerful in the realm of video games. In fact, nearly 40 years after the first superhero video game, many developers still struggle to create worthwhile experiences using some of the biggest names in entertainment today.

While not all superhero games are monumental duds like Superman on Nintendo 64, many tend to deliver middling, forgettable experiences. However, a select few that defy the stereotype to become superb titles we still look back on fondly as not only great superhero games, but terrific video games in their own rights.

While the superhero films of today are often critically acclaimed and feature a wide array of faces, our list of the best superhero games is substantially less diverse, with half of the list focused on two franchises. This speaks to the drastically different levels of quality these games have featured over the years.

Check out our list of the 10 best superhero games of all time and be sure to let us know your favorites in the comments below.

With a walk through a Warp Pipe, plus a light show and a classic jingle, I’m whisked from my everyday life and into the magical land of Super Nintendo World.

Super Nintendo World, which opens at Universal Studios Hollywood on Feb. 17, feels like being inside the cartoonish, otherworldly land of a Super Mario Bros. game. Immense rolling hills are populated with Mario’s pals and enemies: Koopas dart back and forth, Piranha Plants peek out of plumber pipes and open their toothy maws. All these beloved characters are in constant motion; a stack of Goombas wobbles back and forth as Yoshi circles a tree in the shade.

There are dozens of these charming tableaus set across towering sets, modeled to look like familiar Mario level environments, with soundtracks to boot. You can make a full spin within the park without breaking immersion. Bowser’s enormous castle looms over the scene, and Toadstool Cafe beckons in hungry guests. The colors of it all make it look like a game screenshot: Deserts and snowy set-pieces evoke classic Mario worlds, and coin blocks are speckled throughout the area. It is a totally seamless visual smorgasbord, and a sharp hit of nostalgia for any Nintendo fan.

Super Nintendo World arrives at Universal Studios Hollywood after it debuted at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka last year, and boasts much of the same scenery — along with the centerpiece attraction Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge — though it occupies a smaller physical footprint, as Polygon learned during a press preview of the area. You’ll also have to go to Universal in Japan in order to ride Yoshi’s Adventure, which isn’t in the Hollywood version of the park. However, the expanded Super Nintendo World is scheduled to arrive at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida in 2025.

Bringing Nintendo’s worlds to life is a watershed moment for an amusement park whose identity was historically intertwined with moviemaking. Universal Studios Hollywood is known for movie-themed attractions like Jurassic World, Transformers, and the world-famous Studio Tour ride, which shows off recognizable sets and practical effects from classic films like Jaws. This is Universal Studios’ first amusement park section dedicated to a series of video games.

“Having a higher level of immersion is where we always want to take it, and going inside of a game is clearly another step up for us,” said Jon Corfino, vice president of Universal Creative, highlighting the importance of “interactivity” throughout Super Nintendo World.

The match makes sense. Video games and amusement parks both embody the idea of play; a player/visitor moves through a space, exploring its secrets, and leaving behind their mark as they move the story forward. That sense of exploration is alive at the park.

A sense of play

Photo: Nicole Clark/Polygon

Super Nintendo World tells a classic story: “Peach has had her Golden Mushroom stolen by Bowser Jr.,” Corfino said. Guests play through a series of four minigames, plus one final boss battle, in order to help her win the mushroom back.

The park delivers on its “game come to life” promise beyond the spectacular scenery. There are various interactive coin blocks and games speckled throughout the park. And for $40, guests can buy Power-Up Bands that play a similar role to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter’s wands. Tapping a band in a spot marked with the Mario “M” will trigger an Easter egg or a minigame. There are six bands to choose from, inspired by Mario, Luigi, Peach, and friends. Each of these is also an amiibo, though we don’t yet have information on whether they will work with consoles at home.

The unique twist is in the band’s points system. Interacting with elements and playing minigames adds points to your total score, much like a tally from playing a Mario video game. Guests’ totals are all synced to the Universal Studios Hollywood app.

Photo: Nicole Clark/Polygon

Cute interactive elements are hidden throughout the park’s nooks and crannies. One spot makes an NES-style Mario from the original Super Mario Bros., pixel art and all, appear in a stone wall (pictured). Hitting the underside of one of the many coin blocks, produces that telltale tinkling sound of a coin collected. (Punch it without a band and it still reacts, but with a different sound.)

One of the four main minigames in the land asks guests to aim at an enormous Piranha Plant in order to win a key. And in the park’s final boss fight, Bowser Jr. Boss Battle, my group piled into a room with a large screen, each of us standing on top of a number from one to 15. Our shadows were visible against the screen projection, and we were able to play the game by moving: I jumped to hit coin blocks, swatted away Bob-ombs falling from the sky, caught a Fire Flower, and waved my hands wildly to throw fireballs at Bowser Jr. as he flew by. We won the Golden Mushroom!

Each of these Easter eggs is a particular joy for Nintendo die-hards, from the nods to Mario’s origins to beloved enemy designs that have shown up in numerous games since, like a wobbly Goomba stack. The legacy of the games also extends to the restaurant in Super Nintendo World. Toadstool Cafe is an extension of this playful charm, with screens that show off a kitchen full of bustling Toads — it seems culinary exploits are Toad’s next adventure — taking and making your orders. Though the cafe wasn’t formally open yet, just seeing its interior was a delight.

Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge

Photo: Hamilton Pytluk/Universal Studios Hollywood

The centerpiece of Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood is its new ride, Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. It will be the first of its kind in this park, blending together augmented reality with classic dark-ride elements to create something new. Four people share a Mario Kart car, don AR goggles, and throw shells and bananas to their hearts’ content. They’ll ride through underwater courses, zoom through the clouds, and compete for the Golden Cup. According to Universal, it’s worth going on multiple rides: You might get a different ending, depending on how you play.

“It is an actual moving ride and you will go through a series of environments where there’s mapping, there are LED screens, there are physical animations with special effects, and there’s AR goggles,” Corfino said. The way that it blends “all that together to make it look like it all goes away and becomes one thing is really the art of the whole thing,” he added.

Photo: Hamilton Pytluk/Universal Studios Hollywood

I wasn’t able to test the ride, as it is still undergoing safety runs in the lead-up to opening. But I was impressed by the level of detail even in the queue; the ride welcomes guests with an homage to Super Mario World games — complete with the classic scores, which immediately took me back to long afternoons trying to prevent baby Mario from floating away in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island — and fluffy, crayon-art-style clouds and trees right out of Yoshi’s Crafted World. Another section of the queue takes players through an ice-world-like region, one of the mainstays of Super Mario Bros. level design.

Photo: Nicole Clark/Polygon

Guests then move through Bowser’s Castle, getting an inside look at the mind of Mario’s infamous nemesis and his cronies. There are tons of books scattered about, including self-help for talking to princesses, a guide on the dangers of bananas, and lots of care manuals for Piranha Plants. A portrait of Peach sits in an enormous Bowser-sized throne. If you look closely, you can tell precisely which games are referenced. A floating diorama of a planet is a reminder of Super Mario Galaxy, the 2007 paradigm-shifting Mario game that not only put him into a 3D world, but reimagined the idea of space and perspective. The major evolution of Nintendo over the last 20 years is on full display in the park.

The merch

Photo: Nicole Clark/Polygon

Super Nintendo World’s 1-Up Factory wasn’t open to press during the time I visited, but a shop dedicated to the new park section is already open in Universal Studios Hollywood’s CityWalk, the strip of stores and restaurants that form a mini downtown in front of the theme park’s entrance. I took a peek inside and was delighted by the plushies, keychains, and clothes to commemorate even the smallest of Mario’s friends and foes.

Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Bowser exist in plush form, but there are also Goombas, Bob-ombs, and Toad — including a Toad in a dashing chef’s outfit (this one was tempting). There are coin block throw pillows, and matching Mario and Luigi shirts that say Player 1 and Player 2 on them, along with tons of plush mini keychains, including a cute little Shy Guy. We’ll have to wait until the park opens to see what’s in the 1-Up Factory, but the existing options already look promising for any Nintendo devotee.

Pre-sale is currently open for Super Nintendo World tickets at Universal Studios Hollywood through its website.

A top-to-bottom remake of Dead Space is set to release for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on January 27, 2023. Like its predecessor, it finds the engineer Isaac Clarke among the last survivors of a deep space catastrophe on the mining ship USG Ishimura. The game is available to preorder now in several editions and from a variety of retailers (see it at Amazon, or Amazon UK). Read on to find out what comes in each edition, how much it costs, and more.

Preorder Dead Space

Physical Version

PS5

Xbox Series X

“Happy lyrics should always be paired with a minor key, and vice versa!” – a guest teacher at my music school once proclaimed this with certainty, arguing that you needed that touch of melancholy to make things interesting.

Now, writing a video game script might not be the same as writing a hit song, but those words still come back to me from time to time, and definitely popped up while I was working on Wavetale. Because while it might not be a universal truth, combining the lighthearted and the heavy can create something special. More importantly, it helps us create something relatable.

I remember when my close friend’s dad died. It was sudden and unexpected, and he had to wait until the next day to take the train up north to the rest of his family. I kept him company for the night and we spent the evening altering between crying and remembering his dad, and laughing at overly intense knife infomercials on TV. Humans have always used humor to cope, and it felt natural for us to go down that route with Wavetale, too.

At its core, Wavetale deals with some weighty topics: the loss of a daughter and mother, a grandma who buries her grief with work, and a sunken city dealing with the aftermath of war. And amidst all this is Sigrid, a lonely teenage girl who has never known any other life than this—until an old enemy returns and changes everything. But rather than keeping a tight grip on the dark aspects of Sigrid’s experience, we often chose to put them on the sidelines in favor of Grandma making a pun about bananas or Sigrid remembering the time she kept an eel for a pet. Their fears and sorrows always exist in the periphery, but only rarely does it take over entirely.

There were different reasons to go down this path, one of them being gameplay. Wavetale is about movement. A lot of the dialogue in the game takes place as you surf the waves of Strandville, and a complicated conversation about your part in a war of the past just doesn’t come into its own when the player is happily flinging themselves into the air or making a daring dive below the water’s surface. We needed to find ways to convey these feelings and stories without them clashing with the player’s actions.

But even outside the more technical reasons, I also find this method to be a helpful tool for making heavy topics approachable. We really wanted to tell a story that felt hopeful. Wavetale was created mostly during a raging pandemic, and maybe our own need for warmth and optimism influenced the work we did. A crisis can drive people apart, but also bring us together in unexpected ways, just like when Sigrid realizes that… well, I leave it to you to play the game and see how things pan out.

Wavetale

Thunderful

☆☆☆☆☆
8

★★★★★

$29.99

Explore the open sea and the decaying archipelago of Strandville in Wavetale, a story-driven action-adventure game introducing you to fed-up fishermen, secretive hermits—and maybe a pirate or two. Traverse calm waters and surging waves as Sigrid, a young girl who befriends a mysterious shadow that provides her with the power to walk on water.

Speed through the waves, swing yourself from housetops with your net, and defeat monstrous enemies to save the citizens of the islands. All with a little help from the shadows down below—and your cranky grandmother.

Xbox fans might not have too long to wait to see what’s on the horizon, as Microsoft is apparently looking to kick off its 2023 marketing cycle with a fresh showcase of games. According to sources at Windows Central, Microsoft will host the Developer Direct showcase on January 25, a livestream of game reveals and updates similar to Nintendo’s “Direct” shows and Sony’s State of Play events.

Arkane’s upcoming co-op vampire-hunting game Redfall is set to be in the spotlight, while Minecraft Legends, Forza Motorsport, and ZeniMax Online Studios content will also be featured. This won’t be a major livestream such as Microsoft’s previous E3 showcases, but the idea behind Developer Direct is said to be a more intimate and transparent look at the exclusive games coming to Xbox consoles and PC.

Xbox games VP Aaron Greenberg also tweeted this week that a “fun week” lies ahead, although that could also be a reference to the new Xbox Oreo promotion that just launched.

Curiously, Bethesda’s Starfield won’t be included in the first edition of Developer Direct, with the report claiming that Microsoft will instead be the focus of a dedicated and bigger showcase. So far, Microsoft has confirmed that Redfall and Starfield will launch in the “first half” of 2023, with Redfield rumored to be releasing in late May. Both of Microsoft’s heavy-hitters will adopt a higher $70 price tag when they launch, although both games will also be available as day one Xbox Game Pass releases.

The Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase had plenty to show off back in June 2022, with many of the games from that livestream having a tentative 2023 release date. With titles such as Pentiment and Overwatch 2 having been released on Xbox already, the other big announcements included Diablo IV, Hollow Knight Silksong, and Hideo Kojima’s mystery game, teased as part of a partnership with Microsoft.

In a recent interview, Naughty Dog co-president and The Last of Us Director Neil Druckmann explained why the studio hasn’t revealed its next game yet.

Speaking to ComicBook about the upcoming live-action take on The Last of Us from HBO, Druckmann spoke about how Naughty Dog has announced some of its games too early. “You’re right, we did announce Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us Part 2 way in advance, but that actually caused a little bit of the work-life balance issues that we’ve sometimes had at the studio,” Druckmann told ComicBook.

“By delaying that announcement a bit, we could play with the schedule more and we’re more conscious now about how we’re approaching production. So there’s our [The Last of Us] multiplayer project and there’s another project that I will not say anything about that’s beyond that that we’re also very much excited for.”

The Last of Us Part 1 was revealed at Summer Games Fest last year, and released just a few months later, which does fit into what Druckmann has said here. What doesn’t fit though is Druckmann’s underplaying of the “work-life balance issues” the studio has had.

In 2020, an extensive report from Kotaku detailed the sometimes quite severe crunch that would allegedly take place at the studio, essentially hosting an atmosphere that implied you got the work done no matter what. At the time of the report, around 70% of the non-lead designers had left, as well as a significant number of artists, leaving the studio with some less experienced staff to work on The Last of Us Part 2, supposedly worsening the situation. The sequel also received a three month delay just a month after its first release date was announced, supposedly meaning that three extra months of crunch were added to the months that had already taken place.

Hopefully Druckmann’s weird and patronising comment actually means that things have changed, or are changing, at Naughty Dog, but it doesn’t paint a particularly favourable picture of the director.

Greetings, Adventurers!

With elegant, fluttering butterfly wings, this Do wielder of the Woodo School brings forth the storms. Woosa, the newest class to grace Black Desert, has joined its roster in this global release. Her outfit, being quite softer in appearance when compared to other classes, was inspired by the traditional Korean Durumagi, which further emphasizes her roots in the Land of the Morning Light.

Sporting a large, elegant fan called the Swallowtail, Woosa is a mid-to-melee range weapon user, who can deliver quick strikes using her “Do Arts”. With the help of her secondary weapon, the Do Stave, Woosa delivers large area of effect attacks, like summoning a huge storm from the beating wings of a butterfly. She can also conjure rainclouds over bright blue skies using her uniquely mastered Do Arts, and cast a large bolt of lightning to flatten your already drenched foes.

Woosa is not only beautiful and moves with grace, but she also possesses a cold and collected personality that reflects her fighting style and abilities. One powerful skill allows her ink-wash to paint the Sagoonja to deal powerful AOE (area of effect) damage to enemies. In her Succession playstyle, Woosa can retain damage dealt to her and release equal damage back to her enemies. This makes Woosa a devastating force during combat, so don’t be fooled by her appearance and form. Like the gently fluttering wings of the butterfly, she gracefully flits around the battlefield, overwhelming her foes with combos as smooth as flowing water.

Join Woosa as she sets off on her unwavering path of Do upon the raging winds of a butterfly, that carry her toward the skies of enlightenment. We can’t wait to see what you all think of her. Woosa joined the adventure, along with a new Winter Season, on December 14^th.

Along with the new class, the December 14^th update also packs many new contents that Adventurers can enjoy. Check out the trailer at the top of this post for some highlights of the December 14^th update.

Solo Garmoth Summon Scroll

Everyone’s favorite Crimson Dragon, Garmoth! Although not a new addition to the game, Black Desert console Adventurers can now summon Garmoth on a more personal level. Summoning Scrolls can be received by the Black Spirit via a weekly quest. With this update, Adventurers will have an additional opportunity to fight the Crimson Dragon for a chance to obtain the coveted Garmoth Heart. If an adventurer obtains a heart, it can be combined with Inverted Energy and used to upgrade Sub or Awakening weapons, giving additional stats or additional crystal slots (depending on what weapon type it was used on) for more power!

More, More, More! Additional Updates Coming to Console!

The eerie gloom from Marni’s Realm has floated its way onto Black Desert console. For those unfamiliar with the area, Marni’s Realm is a private monster zone separated from the rest of the world, where Adventurers can enter to grind without any interference from other adventurers. Time within the realm is also limited to one hour each day, so make sure every second counts!

Adventurers will also be able to obtain a new Blackstar sub-weapon! With its powerful stats and usefulness in PvE settings, it will be an item that many Adventurers will look to chase for. The black and red aesthetic of the Blackstar weapons are an added benefit to owning a Blackstar weapon series.

In addition, leveling your Fairy to 50 is now possible, and comes with an additional skill slot. The skill Continuous Care, for example, allows the automated use of Elixirs, scrolls, food, and draughts – perfect for every Adventurer! Make sure to check out these new additions and quality of life changes with this upcoming update!

Black Desert

Pearl Abyss

☆☆☆☆☆
343

★★★★★

Xbox One X Enhanced

Xbox Game Pass

Black Desert supports backward-compatibility on Xbox Series X|S.

Black Desert is a living-world MMORPG. Experience fast-paced, action-packed combat, hunt monsters and huge bosses, fight with friends in a guild to siege nodes and region castles, train your life skills such as fishing, trading, crafting, cooking, and much more!
Players will enjoy jaw-dropping graphics,
intuitive skill-based combat, and an immersive story encased in our expansive
world that’s just waiting to be explored. Accompanied by a Black Spirit, a
companion whose destiny is intertwined with their own, players will discover
the secret of the Black Stones and the history of their corrupting effects.

In a medieval fantasy setting, the game
chronicles a conflict between two rival nations, the Republic of Calpheon and
the Kingdom of Valencia. With a battle based on achievements and personal
qualifications, Black Desert gives full control to players that can directly
aim, escape and make numerous different skill combinations.

[Accolades]
– Join over 10 Million Registered Users in Black Desert
– The 10 Best MMOs of 2017 – MMORPG.com
– 2016 Best new MMORPG – MMORPG.com
– 2016 MMORPG OF THE YEAR – MASSIVLY OP

If you have the Dead Space Remake pre-ordered on Steam, upon its release this month you’ll also find the original version of the second game in your library.

The pretty highly anticipated remake of 2008’s Dead Space is due out at the end of the month, looking to breathe some fresh air into the series that hasn’t had a new game since the threequel released a decade ago. You’ll also probably find that the run time isn’t too long for the remake, the original only being 11 hours long, but I’ve got some good news for you if you’ve pre-ordered the game on Steam: you’ll be able to jump right into Dead Space 2, as it appears to be a little bonus for those that have got the game on order.

Dead Space 2 takes place a few years after the events of the first game, and while the original Dead Space pit protagonist Isaac Clark as a silent one, its sequel did give him one. In order to match up with the sequels a bit more, Isaac will now be talking in the remake. Though developer Motive Studio did note that he only does so when spoken to, and in situations where it makes sense, so it doesn’t sound like it will be drastically different from the original.

The fact that the Dead Space Remake is so close might be welcome to those let down by the recent release of The Callisto Protocol, a new title from the original creator of Dead Space that is basically just the same thing. In VG247’s review of The Callisto Protocol, Dom gave it 3/5 stars, saying that it’s “not the next step in horror gaming, the evolution of Dead Space, or a proposition unlike anything you’ve seen before – it’s the opposite. An amalgam, less than the sum of its parts, whose main focus becomes overwrought and frustrating by the time you’re halfway through its short run-time.”

Weapon durability and its application in games have long been hot topics amongst players. Some love it, some are fine with it, and others hate it. And those feelings vary depending on who you are talking to about this topic. I think of games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild when someone brings up weapon durability, as it was a hotly debated aspect of its release (I didn’t mind it at all, personally). 

Love it or hate it, weapon durability is a feature that will likely never go away in games, and that’s okay because when it’s done right, it can be a helpful way to push players toward something new. In 2011’s Dead Island, weapon durability was a big part of the experience, and that feature will return in Dead Island 2 when it hits PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and PC, on April 28. As for why, it’s because developer Dambuster Studios finds it to be a useful instrument in guiding players.

“With the durability, we’re not super harsh about it,” game director David Stenton tells me during my Dead Island 2 cover story trip. “We’re not trying to be a survivor simulator or a survivor horror game. It’s there as an instrument so that we can encourage players to go back to a workbench, and rather than repair your weapon or level match your weapon, maybe I’m level 10, and that favorite weapon that…was my favorite a few hours ago is still level 5. Do I really want to pay the cost of level matching that weapon, or actually maybe I’ll spend the money at a vendor and buy a new pre-modded weapon. Or maybe I’ll spend the money applying this new mod and some of the ingredients I’ve got.

“It’s about giving the player options and encouraging them to go back to a workbench and try something new.” 

As someone who’s played roughly 8 hours of Dead Island 2 – you can read my full thoughts on that experience in the latest Game Informer cover story here – I agree with Stenton’s assessment of what weapon durability is doing in the game. To be honest, there wasn’t really a moment where I even thought too hard about a weapon’s durability. Combat is frantic, fast-paced, and chaotic. When I was in the middle of killing a horde of zombies and a weapon broke, I’d switch to another via my rather large weapon wheel without much thought about the one no longer viable because of its durability.

Sure, there were moments when one of my favorites was essentially not usable because its durability was gone, but I almost always had a close second favorite ready to go. I imagine it’ll be easy to get attached to weapons in Dead Island 2 – I especially loved my Slaughtering Cremator Cleaver and Enhanced Impactor Improvised Hammer – but in just my eight hours with the game, I probably encountered more than 100 others. If one of your weapons breaks, a new favorite is likely not too far from you. 

For more about the game, read my Dead Island cover story here and then head to Game Informer’s Dead Island 2 exclusive coverage hub for stories you can’t find anywhere else, like why the game is set in a city that isn’t an island or detailed breakdowns of two of Dead Island 2’s survivors, Dani and Ryan. You’ll also find exclusive gameplay in videos like this one about how Dambuster Studios records the sounds of zombie guts in Dead Island 2 and new details about our hands-on time in the Dead Island 2 cover story discussion episode of The Game Informer Show.

What are your thoughts on weapon durability in games? Let us know in the comments below!

HoYoverse is no stranger to creating bizarre minigames for Genshin Impact’s various events, and its upcoming endeavour for the 3.4 update (opens in new tab) is no different. We’ve had shooters, rhythm games, and even trading card games—the latter of which has managed to spin off into its own permanent mode. This time, it’s a fighting game. A beetle fighting game.

Geo husbando Arataki Itto (opens in new tab) is at the forefront of yet another event, with his love for beetles and beetle battles being turned into a special one-off mode. As always, HoYoverse isn’t afraid of getting awfully wordy with its event names, with this one being called Almighty Arataki Extraordinary and Exhilarating Extreme Beetle Brawl. According to IGN (opens in new tab), the mode will have the Traveler returning to Inazuma and finding the Arataki gang entrenched in beetle fights galore.

Turns out that Team Sweet CAN have its cake and eat it too.

Team Sweet has emerged victorious in the latest Splatfest competition in Splatoon 3. Frye’s team beat both Team Spicy and Team Sour to answer the question of which is the best taste sensation.

The breakdown of points was a little bit different this time around. For the first time, Tricolor Battles counted as a separate category of points. This was the first Splatfest in which any of the three teams could appear as the defending team in those three-way turf war battles.

Here is the breakdown of which teams won points in each category:

• Sneak Peak (8p) – Team Sweet (34.40%)
• Popularity (10p) – Team Sweet (56.84%)
• Open Battles (12p) – Team Sweet (35.57%)
• Pro Battles (12p) – Team Sour (34.11%)
• Tricolor (15p) – Team Spicy (33.89%)

According to this breakdown of points, Team Spicy earned 15 points, Team Sweet earned 30 points, and Team Tour earned 12 points.

The Splatfest lasted all weekend long, starting on Friday evening and lasting through Sunday evening. After the first half ended on Saturday night, Team Sweet was the leading team by a pretty large margin, so it’s little surprise it was able to hold onto the lead throughout day two to win.

This was the third official Splatoon 3 Splatfest since the release of the game last year in September. Back in November, Team Water swept the competition in the Grass vs. Fire vs. Water Splatfest.

All participants of the Splatfest will receive Super Sea Snails, which are used to add sub ability slots on gear and reroll gear abilities; the higher rank you earned while battling during the Splatfest the more Super Sea Snails you’ll receive, with Team Sweet participants earning a bonus number.

It seems like Splatfests may alternate months with Big Run competitions in Splatoon 3; last month, the first Big Run event was held. Although it has not yet been confirmed, there may be another Big Run before the next Splatfest, but we’ll have to wait for an official announcement to know for sure.

Originally released in 2017, the Fallout Tactics mod, The Sum / Nous Aurons has found newfound attention with Kotaku’s (opens in new tab) reporting that the anarchist art project received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, as well as the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

The Sum / Nous Aurons has been on my radar for a while now⁠—Felipe Pepe (opens in new tab), creator of the great videogame history resource, The CRPG Book (opens in new tab), singled out The Sum as one of the best games he played in 2022. It takes the familiar presentation of classic 2D Fallout and turns it on its head, showcasing an entirely alien setting with this familiar engine and assets. It’s a future wracked by the ecological and technological devastation we now face, as opposed to the alternate history, retro-futuristic nuclear apocalypse of the mainline Fallouts.

The wizarding world continues to be a huge moneymaker.

It should come as no surprise that Hogwarts Legacy is going to be one of the biggest releases of 2023, but some recent statistics from Steam show just how massive the game’s launch could be.

As pointed out by Benji-Sales on Twitter via a post made on Jan. 8, Hogwarts Legacy is currently the most wish-listed game on the online gaming platform, beating out heavy hitting titles set to release this year like Starfield and Hollow Knight: Silksong. The game is also ranked fourth among the platform’s top selling games based on preorders alone, and this is the case a full five weeks before the game is even set to release.

Benji-Sales also noted that they’d heard console preorders were equally strong for the game, but there is currently no firm data that could be found on this.

The full tweet can be found down below.