I loveThe Expanseseries, and one of the really impressive things about the books is how consistent they are. One way is in their quality; the five books I’ve read so far have all been quite good. But they’re consistent in other ways, too. All but one is in the 500-page range. They all have a blurb from George R.R. Martin somewhere on the front or back cover. And they all feature evocative art from Daniel Dociu....

This article contains spoilers for Alan Wake 2. Alan Wake 2is a wonderful video game about video games — and basically every other kind of art, too.Remedy’s long-gestating survival horror sequel incorporates music, photography, filmmaking, and many more art forms into its layered ode to creativity. But as self-aware as Remedy seems to be about the nature of games, that isn’t enough to prevent it from falling into some common pitfalls....

Kingdom Heartsfans are fighting the claims that Kairi doesn’t do much in the series by making her playable in the Final Mix release of the first game in the series. If you’ve been a fan of Kingdom Hearts for long enough (god bless you soldier, I’m here too),then you’ve likely heard the argument that Kairi is uselessand spends most of her time waiting for other characters or getting kidnapped. I could point you towards multiple scenes throughout the series that disprove this notion and show that she’s actually one of its most important heroes, but a recent mod for Final Mix is making that point for me....

Fortniteis getting more than 1,200 Lego skin variants, based on pre-existing skins in the game. Better yet, all of the skins can use emotes, all with updated animations to reflect their tinier, blockier Lego bodies. This was quickly spotted in the Chapter 5, Season 1 reveal, which showed off a bunch of ambitious crossovers. Perhaps the most impressive is this Lego collaboration, as it introduces more variants than ever before, and a bunch of reworked emotes....

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealthis full of callbacks to previous games, what with it being Kiryu’s swan song and a celebration of all that the character has done and been through over the years. It’s gotneat little cameos from characters in past and current games, though one such cameo seems to have brought a major villain from Yakuza 3 back from the dead. At some point in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, you’ll encounter a bar called Revolve, which is essentially Hawaii’s version of Survive Bar in Yokohama....

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s chapter list has been datamined, revealing a lot of tributes to Elvis and giving us a good idea of how often Kiryu will be the main focus of the story. We’re just over a month away from the release of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which sees Ichiban Kasuga and Kazuma Kiryu teaming up properly for the first time since the former was introduced to the series....

Once again, I am eating my words. Remember how at the beginning of the month I said thatSpider-Man 2hadruined quick time events for meand that the games industry as a whole should be moving past them? I’ve changed my mind, quick time events are good now. I’ve playedLike A Dragon: Infinite Wealthand seen the light. Ilovehow QTEs are used in this game and they actively make the experience better. I may be a little hyperbolic when I say ‘they’re good now’ – a more nuanced and accurate way to describe how I feel is that I think the way Spider-Man 2 incorporated the mechanic, by forcing you to press buttons to advance cinematics, was not fun....

Luca is an animated film that can be interpreted in myriad ways. Director Enrico Casarosa is outspoken about the Pixar production being inspired by much of his own upbringing, while its themes of young children who can exist as either humans or sea creatures evokes themes of LGBTQ+ identity and the world’s prominent refugee crisis. Like many films of this ilk, your interpretation is oftentimes valid, even if not necessarily canon to the wider story, which in this case caused an uproar when it comes to two of its main characters....

Summary When I first started playingBaldur’s Gate 3, I got my entire party killed by a bunch of missile-shooting statues, lost an hour of progress,and resolved to never let that happen to me again. It was a difficult pill to swallow, so after that, I became an unapologetic save scummer. I wouldn’t enter a room without saving, but that eventually turned into refusing to talk to people without saving. I said at the end of my article that I had no intention of using my saves to cheat my way into better rolls, but dear reader, it turns out I have a much weaker moral fiber than I thought I did, because I almost immediately started cheating my way into better rolls....

Summary As 2023 nears its end, many of you will be looking back on a year in gaming that has been unlike any other when it comes to the quality of games we’ve been blessed with. FromBaldur’s Gate 3toAlan Wake 2, there have been more fantastic games, big and small, to get stuck into this year,Tears of the Kingdomamong them. If you’re still not done celebrating the arrival of what might well be the bestZeldagame to date, in 2024, you’ll have the chance to own your very own Travelling Koroks....

Sonic Dream Team surprised everyone when it launched on Apple Arcade by being a fantastic 3DSonicplatformer withsome incredible levels. On top of reviving the more linear-style gameplay, the Blue Blur’s iOS adventure marks the return of multiple playable characters, including some faces that have been missing for years. There are six characters you can play as in Sonic Dream Team, with three unique play styles and several character-specific levels spread across them....

Ravensburger’s reach in the card and board game world is so far-reaching, odds are if you’ve got a selection of go-to tabletop games at home, Ravensburger had a hand in creating at least a few of them. If you’re a fan of of what Ravensburger already has to offer, and you’re looking for some new tabletop experiences in 2024, there’s good news. The board game creators have announced what’s on their slate for the coming year, and there seems to be something for pretty much everyone....

Silent Hill: Ascension’sdebut could have gone a lot better, and that’s putting it mildly. Not only has the game irritated fans by havinga voting system that favors the players with more cash, but its built-in chat feed, which was one of the highlights and key features of the intended experience, has already become an absolute cesspit, mostly down to the game allowing fans to input seemingly whatever they like. Search for Silent Hill: Ascension on social media and you’ll findall kinds of cursed messages, most of which are circulating on Twitter as examples of how disastrous the game’s launch has been....