2023 has been an odd year for movies. While it has beena runaway critical success for games(less for the people who make them), in cinemaland, 2023 has been up and down. It has seen more flops than we’ve known in a decade, but also several breakout hits with fresh ideas that indicate a changing trend, and an audience eager to be challenged. Among that audience were the editors at TheGamer, who challenged themselves to pick the best movies of the year - check back tomorrow for our official top ten, but here are all the nominees our team put forward....

Amazonis losing money onTwitch, according to its CEO. Speaking in a livestream Q&A, Twitch boss Dan Clancy says that the site isn’t profitable right now, failing to make money for its parent company, Amazon. These comments come afterTwitch lays off around 500 employees, which is 35 percent of its workforce. Previously, Amazon had already laid off 150 employees from its gaming division, including everyone working for its own Twitch channel, Crown....

It feels like the moral panic about video games and violence is a little outdated now. Games are more deeply embedded in pop culture, and the biggest phenomenons are more cartoonish in their depictions of combat, likeFortnite,Minecraft, andRoblox. Video games still have the idea of ‘might is right’, but the violence is no longer at the forefront. WatchingThe Game Awards, I realised how much I missed it. The trailer responsible for this wasWindblown, the upcoming game from Motion Twin, best known forDead Cells....

Squishmallowsare made for cuddling, so it’s no surprise that there’s now a Squishmallows-themed heating pad available. The cover uses the design of Cam the Calico Cat, the first-ever Squishmallows plush, so it’s certainly a classic choice. Relatable, who also made the Squishmallows Take4 card game, has made the heating pad, which costs $28 at full price on Amazon. We took a look at theSquishmallows Take4 card gameif you’re interested in that, too....

Quick Links As soon as you enter the lobby a.k.a. the Ship inLethal Company, you’ll be able to interact with a Terminal and use various commands. One of these commands is ‘moons’, which tells you all the moons that you can take the ship to and the current weather effects on them. One of these weather effects is called Eclipsed, and as you’d expect, you get to face the Eclipsed moon in this one....

Quick Links If you’re aFinal Fantasyfan, you’ve likely at least heard of Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children. Even if you aren’t, there’s still a decent shot. The CG sequel film arrived with tremendous enthusiasm from the RPG community, with a 2005 Japanese launch followed by international debuts in 2006. An extended version called Advent Children Complete popped up a few years later. But none of this means you’ve actuallyseenAdvent Children, and even if you have, you might need a refresher course on its complex storyline....

This article contains spoilers for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Insomniac’s Spider-Man gameshave always included stealth. Thedebut PS4 titlehad Mary Jane and Miles doing stealth missions, while Peter had a wide array of tools for thinning the baddie herd silently (only for another wave to immediately run in once you’d taken them all out). But in Spider-Man 2, has Insomniac decided that these games are, in fact, immersive sims? There’s a nod to the sneak-and-wreak-havoc genre during Mary Jane’s first stealth mission in Spider-Man 2....

Summary Creating the perfectDungeons and Dragonscampaign is always a daunting task. Homebrewing monsters, magic items, and entire worlds is a common activity for Dungeon Masters, but classes and subclasses are more of a challenge. Class features are a mechanic players will use all the time, and DMs can’t easily change things if they feel the need to. However, there’s no need to feel intimidated. If a particular subclass fits a character concept your player wants to try, go for it!...

Quick Links Howling at the moon and joining the most powerful werewolf pack is all a part ofThe Sims 4: Werewolvesexperience. As soon as your Sim is one of these furry creatures, the entire world of Moonwood Mill opens up to you. It’s ripe for exploring. One of the most interesting things you can find in this world is the Moonwood Mill Relics, a special collection that comes with the game pack....

Baldur’s Gate 3gets a lot of features right, but for many, the dyeing mechanic isn’t one of them. Right now, it’s a slow and unintuitive process, as you need to find whatever dye you want to use, hit the “combine” option, and then scroll through your inventory once more to find whatever it is you want to change the colour of. There’s no way to preview the results, so if you don’t like it, you have to try all over again....

Honour modeis a new addition toBaldur’s Gate 3, limiting you to just a single save file. The appeal is its ridiculous difficulty, putting you on Tactician while also stopping you from save scumming. This means that you have to live with all of your decisions. If you say the wrong thing and a companion and they walk out on you, they’re gone forever. If you may’t convince someone to spare another’s life, they’re dead....

You can romance alotof people inBaldur’s Gate 3. Not only do you have your camp dwellers likethe morally dubious Minthara, but you also havethe loving embrace of The Emperor’s tentacles, the longing gaze of Haarlep the incubus, and the two drow twins to name a few. But that’s not enough for some fans, who are wondering why they can’t bump uglies with Jaheira. “I love this game, but I have one major issue with it,“Ethan085 posted....

Grandmaster of Murder, shapeshifting trickster, chosen of the Absolute,kidnapper of Gale–okay, that one we can let slide. Orin the Red has a pretty bloody track record, butif Minthara has taught us anything, it’s thatBaldur’s Gate 3fans can look past the murky red stains and mounting pile of corpses when it comes to romance. One look at the game’s subreddit and you’ll find an equally as tall mountain of posts asking for developer Larian Studios to please, let us romance “Mommy Orin”....