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1 week ago | 
gamespot.com | Grace Benfell
Splatoon is celebrating its 10-year anniversary today, May 28, 2025. Below, we examine how it reached outside the realm of video games for its unique blend of inspirations. It is easy to understand Splatoon as a riff on prior video games. It's a multiplayer shooter produced in the years after competitive shooters started to dominate online play. But it subverts type, offering something tuned for children and families, rather than teens and young adults.
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2 weeks ago | 
pcgamesn.com | Grace Benfell
With its weapon-building systems and deliberate, targeted combat, Blades of Fire has a lot of fresh-feeling ideas. Its control scheme is strange and will force you to press each button with care. Its granular forging system makes you consider every weapon in your arsenal. But however differently it approaches them, the game only offers the same thrills as other action games of its ilk. Blades of Fire feels unique, but just can’t get weird enough.
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2 weeks ago | 
flipboard.com | Grace Benfell
I Played Tron: Catalyst, and It Rebooted My Love for Disney's Dark Digital WorldI got a chance to play Catalyst ahead of its June 17 release, and the futuristic action game might be the most compelling interactive take on Tron …
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2 weeks ago | 
gamespot.com | Grace Benfell
Red Dead Redemption is celebrating its 15-year anniversary today, May 18, 2025. Below, we consider that it may be better at showing than telling. As a rule, Westerns are sincere. Sure, there are outright farces like Blazing Saddles. Plenty of classic Westerns like Rio Bravo have a warm, comedic side. Even dark epics like the Searchers have moments of levity. But even when they are funny, Westerns play their archetypes straight. They are easy to make fun of because they are so unfeigned.
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1 month ago | 
pastemagazine.com | Grace Benfell
On April 3 the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement called for a boycott of Xbox. BDS is a deliberate campaign to exert pressure on Israel to end its occupation of Palestine, which was launched in 2005 by Palestinian civil society groups. The call to boycott Xbox targets a key part of Israel’s military infrastructure: The AI and Cloud services upon which the Israeli military relies to plan and execute attacks.
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2 months ago | 
pcgamesn.com | Grace Benfell
With clever iterations on soulslike conventions and a sharp implementation of videogame fundamentals, AI Limit has frequent thrills. But its derivative art direction, tired level design, and uninspiring narrative make it hard to recommend over its obvious inspirations. FromSoftware’s oeuvre draws on literature and visual art to feel unique and daring; AI Limits’ influences are limited to other videogames, and it’s all the lesser for it.
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2 months ago | 
gamespot.com | Grace Benfell
Final Fantasy Remake Intergrade will release on Nintendo Switch 2 as one of many third-party games announced for the console. As of writing, specific details are scant. There is no price point or release date for the game's Switch 2 port. In a short video segment, which was part of the April Nintendo Direct, Square Enix director Naoki Hamaguchi promised "more updates on the Final Fantasy VII Remake project for Switch 2." What exactly this statement means is unknown.
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2 months ago | 
gamespot.com | Grace Benfell
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade will release on Nintendo Switch 2 as one of many third-party games announced for the console. As of writing, specific details are scant. There is no price point or release date for the game's Switch 2 port. In a short video segment, which was part of the April Nintendo Direct, Square Enix director Naoki Hamaguchi promised "more updates on the Final Fantasy VII Remake project for Switch 2." What exactly this statement means is unknown.
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2 months ago | 
gamespot.com | Grace Benfell
Many Nintendo Switch games will be getting upgraded editions on the Switch 2. These new versions of old games will include new features using the Switch 2's hardware upgrades, like mouse controls and game chat. They may also upgrade visuals and add new content. For example, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will get 4K visuals and 60fps while the Switch is docked. You can also use the Switch 2's mouse controls to aim Samus' weapon. The Pokemon Legends: Z-A upgrade will have higher resolution and frame rate.
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2 months ago | 
gamespot.com | Grace Benfell
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is celebrating its 5-year anniversary today, March 20, 2025. Below, we reexamine how its unprecedented flexibility may have made the series less engaging by presenting fewer problems to solve. In the original Animal Crossing, you are an outsider: A human living in a town populated with creatures and critters, where time keeps passing even when you turn the game off. There is a sense of distance between you and the town's various inhabitants. They lived here before you.
