Impressions: Shovel Knight Dig is my new roguelite gaming addiction

Enlarge / Dig deeply enough in Shovel Knight Dig, and you’ll find trippy treasure just like this. (credit: Yacht Club Games) Shovel Knight Dig has been on our radar since its announcement in 2019—back when games could be revealed and immediately demonstrated at physical gaming expos. That many years ago, Dig was one of a […]

Andor first impressions: Star Wars inches toward the best of modern adult TV

Enlarge / Diego Luna returns to the role of Cassian Andor in the newest Star Wars series on Disney+. (credit: Lucasfilm) At its worst, Star Wars: Andor is a sanded-off, PG-13 version of some of the best TV dramas of the past decade. It’s easy to see traces of The Wire, Lost, and Breaking Bad […]

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 hands-on — Multiplayer first impressions and videos

Game publisher Activision and developer Treyarch took the wraps off Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 in a reveal event at a sprawling aircraft hangar on Thursday. I was there, along with hundreds of other press, influencers, celebrities, and others. We covered the news about the game in a variety of stories. But I also […]

Sony Aibo first impressions: old robodog, new tricks

Sony revived its robodog series late last year, offering a limited first run of next-generation Aibos for keen Japanese fans. Despite a killer $ 1,800 price-tag, the company apparently sold plenty, and those preordered Aibos are finally on their way to their new owners. Finally, the company has brought the new robotic pet out of […]

18 celebrities that made the most lasting impressions in 2017

Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for VH1 2017 is coming to an end, and now it’s time to reflect on some of the people behind the most memorable moments of the past year.  From Jordan Peele’s smash hit “Get Out” to Gal Gadot making history as Wonder Woman to Serena Williams winning the Australian Open while roughly […]

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp impressions: Nintendo should be ashamed

(credit: Nintendo) Animal Crossing debuted as a weird, unique, and very Nintendo-like video game in 2001. It resembled popular life- and farm-sim games, where your experience in a small, riverside village revolved around simple tasks and monotony. But Nintendo added a very special pinch of time and patience. There simply wasn’t much to do in […]

Life is Strange: Before the Storm impressions — a riveting teen duo replaces magic in this prequel

Life is Strange: Before the Storm is trying to recapture the magic of teens in Arcadia Bay, a fictional small town in Oregon, without the supernatural elements of the first game. Life is Strange debuted in 2015 as an episodic series about teen angst, and it sold more than 3 million copies. It features Maxine […]

The Artful Escape of Francis Bendetti: Hands-on impressions

Annapurna Interactive‘s The Artful Escape of Francis Bendetti was one of the oddball titles at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the big game trade show in Los Angeles last week. It’s a music platform game where you play a budding musician named Francis Bendetti. It’s the day before his debut, and he is thinking about […]