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Bethesda’s upcoming The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of the most highly-anticipated titles of the upcoming holiday season. Despite the likelihood that Modern Warfare 3 will once again break industry sales records and invade countless homes across the country, it may actually be Skyrim that has the most energized and excited following - leading in to the title’s November 11 release. Bethesda has periodically chummed the waters with fan-pleasing promises such as an “unlimited” number of dragons as well as tantalizing pre-order bonuses....

As Gamescom goes on, more and more news is pushed to the surface as publishers and developers try to compete with one another to make sure their games and their accouterments are in the spotlight. Each publisher neatly packages their lineups, all vying to be the prettiest belle at the ball in order to entice gamers. With so many people pedaling their games, big and small, it can be tough to keep up with what exactly has been shown and from whom....

BioWare Austin, the studio behind Star Wars: The Old Republic may be in the process of ‘restructuring’ (a.k.a. laying off employees) but that isn’t slowing down development on the game itself. A brand new trailer and screenshots give a quick look at some of the changes being made with Game Update 1.3, entitled Allies. As the name implies, much of the improved infrastructure is focused on making The Old Republic’s grouping and raiding coordination much smoother....

Trenched is that most recent downloadable game developed by Double Fine and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The latest game from the guys behind Stacking and Psychonauts is essentially a brand new take on the tower defense genre — with the big difference being a massive player-controlled mech. Trenched is a great downloadable title that changes the same tired and generic feel of many other tower defense games, and brings something new to the table that is certainly worth owning....

Blizzard has made the difficult decision to further delayed the upcoming expansion for World of Warcraft, the company announced Thursday afternoon. World of Warcraft Shadowlands has been planned for release in late October since August, as confirmed at Gamescom 2020. With the delay, Blizzard now plans to release Shadowlands later in 2020, thought to lighten the news, Blizzard did confirm that Shadowlands’ first pre-patch will be going live on October 13....

Video games and anime have quite a bit of overlap: dynamic characters who grow more powerful over time, fascinating settings in vibrant worlds, and tremendous amounts of flair. They even influence one another in that many video games use the anime art style and many anime series incorporate leveling up and upgrades seen in games. One franchise that does this the most is Final Fantasy. As a series that stems from Japan, like all true anime, there are likely cultural influences that were considered besides the popularity of certain animated TV shows and movies, although it cannot be denied that anime was a great factor in Final Fantasy’s aesthetics....

Mafia: The Definitive Edition has released alongside the complete trilogy and both titles are enjoying a spot in the top ten upon its release. The definitive edition is a from the ground up remake of the original released in 2002 using the same graphics engine as the series most recent title Mafia III. The game’s fantastic story is intact and the gameplay which does feature some refinements will feel familiar to fans of the series and the original game....

2019 was another major year for video games all-around. As developers have now spent years getting acquainted with the Xbox One and PS4 hardware, the frequency of quality software has seen a notable uptick. This has been the case with AAA software, indie projects, and everything in-between. Though heavy-hitters like Gears 5 and Forza Horizon 4 have been all the rage on the Xbox front, there are a number of titles that have flown under the radar amidst an increasingly populated library....

Since the release of Mass Effect 3, fans of the space opera have been dying for a new entry to the series that is as good as the initial trilogy. Unfortunately, they’ve had to endure some subpar games by BioWare such as Mass Effect: Andromeda, which did not live up to the hype, and Anthem, their latest project that has been a massive flop. Despite recent turmoil with company departures, BioWare generated some excitement earlier this month when they released a trailer to a new Mass Effect game during The Game Awards....

The Nintendo Entertainment System was released in 1983 when it was called the Family Computer or the Famicom. In 1985, the NES was launched across North America and saw a release in Europe and Brazil in the following years. While Nintendo had a pong clone called the Color TV-Game, the NES was their first original home console with swappable cartridges. The NES started many great series that are still going on to this day....

When one talks about some of the greatest video games of the past decade, then it goes without saying that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild would definitely be a major part of this conversation. Regardless of the recent lull that Nintendo has fallen into when it comes to its major releases, there’s no denying the fact that their major releases on the Switch have been truly incredible, and Breath of the Wild is a perfect representation of this....

The Pokemon series is absolutely brimming with countless unique Pokemon that players can use in their teams. With hundreds of available Pokemon that each has a wide array of moves they are capable of learning, the potential for creative team building is quite endless. However, when it comes to competitive battling, there are some strategies that are much more popular than others. These strategies are often quite synergistic and make up many of the most consistent team setups in all of Pokemon....

Geralt of Rivia is one of the more sympathetic heroes leading RPG games. He’s far from perfect, even Geralt sometimes makes mistakes, but generally speaking, Geralt tries to do his best. However, The Witcher 3 gives the players plenty of opportunities to make Geralt one of the bad guys, should they choose to do so. Even though Geralt himself prefers not to dabble into politics and mostly tries to stay out of the way of kings and queens, he ends up influencing the fates of multiple characters in the game....

With the dawn of the latest Sony console, the PlayStation 5 is bound to create another leap in the world of VR. But until then, the original PlayStation VR still has plenty to give. What was once a pricy and risky addition to the PlayStation 4 has become something that gamers have been clambering to get their hands on. Considering how wild the world is right now, being able to fully immerse yourself in a game is a welcome escape....

There’s no denying that Pokémon is one of the hottest franchises in video games. It may have had humble beginnings as an odd little critter-capturing title, but Game Freak really did create a phenomenon with Pokémon Red & Blue (and Green). Beloved as the series and its iconic creatures may be, though, it’s an uncomfortable truth that the games are far from perfect. From iffy designs to questionable battle mechanics and a reliance on the power of nostalgia, here are some issues with Pokémon that fans sometimes don’t like to admit....

With the release of the Xbox Series X, fans have been eager to gets their hands on this new piece of hardware. It has been the biggest Xbox launch yet. The next generation of consoles is finally out and players are ecstatic to learn more about these consoles. The Xbox Series X has been advertised as the most powerful gaming console ever, but what makes it so? A new console means new functions and more power....

With all the trials and tribulations that we’re currently facing in 2020, the year 2019 already seems like so long ago. It’s all too easy to forget that last year was a brilliant time for game releases and we had some absolute gems that made their way onto our consoles and into our hearts. While there were certainly some 2019 game releases that bombed, there were also many fantastic releases, some of which that didn’t get the attention they deserved....

When seeking inspiration for a bleak future, it is perhaps only natural that video game developers would look to the tragedies of humanity’s past. Many might see this as being a little morbid, but when the aim is to shock or scare the player, there’s little doubt that the past can provide some horrifying source material. What makes a video game outbreak such a terrifying experience is the player’s knowledge that similar outbreaks have occurred....

League of Legends organization 100 Thieves has parted ways with their starting support, William “Stunt” Chen. Just three weeks into the Summer Split, 100 Thieves have struggled massively. The team has posted a 1-5 record, good for second to last place in the League of Legends Championship Series. With their meager start to the split, 100 Thieves general manager Christopher “PapaSmithy” Smith has not been shy to change. Along with the release of Stunt, the team has benched LCS veteran William “Meteos” Hartman in favor of Juan “Contractz” Arturo Garcia....

Video games are great, aren’t they? They introduce us to fantastical new worlds, coveted loot drops, and characters that we can relate to and enjoy. Right? Well, that’s usually correct. It seems like most developers always pair an incredibly well-developed character with an annoying, cliché NPC that we just want to drop. It would just take a single well-placed arrow or a quick turn of the wheel to run them over....