It’s hard to believe that when theXbox 360was first released,Microsoftsat atop the console world. By beating thePS3to market and offering a cheaper alternative with great exclusives, approachable features, and a killer attitude, the 360 was able to establish a lead position it’d hold for almost the next decade. Sonywould eventually catch up and arguably eclipse its rivals when it came to games worth playing and the capabilities of the PS3 hardware, but for a long time this felt impossible....

Many things in gaming have changed over the years. There have been new consoles, new genres, new gameplay mechanics, and more. Something else that has happened is that the size of games has increased significantly. Of course, the size of the games didn’t matter for a long time, as everything was contained on the disk or cartridge. These days, however, you typically have to install your games onto your system. So, your storage device has increased importance beyond just holding your save data....

Summary For a casualboard gameenjoyer, there’s nothing worse than going to a hardcore gamer’s board game night and seeing them break out the most complicated-looking tabletop game you’ve ever seen in your entire life. It’s easy to feel completely lost during the rules explanation phase, and maybe even feel like there’s no point at all in playing. After all, what chance do you have a winning your first time out?...

Quick Links The Rite of the Nine event inDestiny 2has refreshed three of the game’s older raids with new mechanics and rewards, including a new title. Similar to the Pantheon activity from the year of Lightfall, Rite of the Nine makes some major changes to each dungeon it’s reprised. From new encounter mechanics to elective difficulty options, this event has made dungeon farming accessible to New Lights and veteran Guardians alike....

Quick Links Revelation is one of the more ‘unique’ cases to solve when it comes to The Lumurian Phoenix, the second DLC forThe Rise of the Golden Idol. There are no crimes to solve here, no treachery, just a devious puzzle that turns you into something of a cryptographer. Deciphering language is the name of the game here - it’s your task to unravel the pictograms used by the dedicants and work out the meanings of the gospel, the commandments on the monument, and what a certain person will tell his dedicants the waterfall proclaimed....

Quick Links Warframepresents a vast amount of weapons, companions, vehicles, and warframes to discover. As you progress through the game, you will discover the many stories of the characters in the Sol System; as the Tenno, you can choose to help them, and sometimes they might help you with new additions to your arsenal. With water-based powers and a backstory that involves the Ventkids from Fortuna, Yareli’s cuteness can be misleading, as her aggressive powers will destroy anything in her path while also keeping her mobile on the battlefield....

WhenBalatrofirst came out, I didn’t touch it. I watched it dominate my social feeds. I saw my colleagues drop everything to feed their new fixation. I nodded along during conversations about Joker synergy and busted builds while having no clue what anyone was talking about. And still, I held off. Maybe I was waiting for the hype to pass. Maybe I thought it couldn’t really be that good. Spoiler: it is....

When you talk about tough combat encounters inBaldur’s Gate 3, the likes of Raphael, Ansur, and even the Netherbrain come to mind. However, those encounters are pretty straightforward – whittle down the bad guy’s health. You’ve probably replayed BG3 enough times to know exactly how to level up your characters in order to make these fights trivial. However, encounters truly get difficult when you’re dealing with a large number of enemies....

Summary Baldur’s Gate 3remains an RPG with numerous possibilities and permutations. With 11 races, 12 classes, and seven playable origin characters, no two playthroughs are ever the same. This variation extends to party members, who have unique dialogue depending on which situations you drag them into. On my first playthrough, I brought Lae’zel, Jaheira, and Shadowheart everywhere in Act 3. I witnessed a lot of unique dialogue, mostly from Jaheira, a resident of the city and familiar with all the returning characters from the original two games....

Every video game showcase has a little lobby before it starts, usually with a timer, some abstract visuals, a touch of elevator music, and a live chat where people hurl messages into the void, rattling off games they hope to see. Without fail, there are always a few dozen people spamming ‘Silksong!!!’ like the chat box is a digital summoning circle, only to be disappointed when the monkey paw curls and all they get isa two-second gameplay clip on the new Xbox handheld....

Quick Links Early on in your journey throughDune: Awakening, you’ll be tasked with constructing a basic sub-fief in the South Hagga Basin. After you complete the game’s main tutorial, you’ll then be able to build multiple sub-fiefs all across the vast and varied desert. But, you might be wondering just how many you may build? Beyond that, it’s fair to ask how many you should build and what the benefits are to building multiple sub-fiefs....

Quick Links Dune: Awakening, at its core, is an inventory and exploration game. Most of what you’re going to be doing on Arrakis is scouring the planet’s surface for precious materials, bringing them back to your sub-fief, and using them to create more powerful tools so that you can find even more precious resources. However, you may have noticed that it’s quite easy to get encumbered in Dune: Awakening. That’s because there are so many heavy stones, and players only have 35 inventory slots at their disposal from the jump....

It feels like every newPokemon TCGis built up with unreachable expectations, as hype runs wild and pre-orders sell out. The Scarlet & Violet era continued this ongoing trend with Destined Rivals, but as theset directly following Journey Together,it needed to build on the Trainer and Pokemon gimmick to live up to expectations. Whether you’re in it forthe valuable, limited promos found in ETBs,or you’re hoping to pull some ofthe most valuable cards from the main set, Destined Rivalswill blow you away....