Valve's new card game Artifact launches on November 28, just in time for you to soak in the complexity after a bout with some serious Thanksgiving feasting.  We've taken a look at one of the best formats in the game - draft - and picked a few cards you won't want to miss.

The drafting format is interesting - 2 cards at a time, 5 packs, limited to picking one hero per pack.  While picking out the high power rare heroes from Dota 2 is often the easy part, there are a number of cards you may pass over on first glance. Here are some of my favorites from each of the four colors (and the item pool) that you don't want to ignore. 

Red

Bronze Legionnaire - The reason this unit is great is because of the armor. Bronze Lego can slice down standard creeps, other units, and even heroes sometimes without even getting a scratch. Best utilizied as an early game drop that can keep hard harassment on the opponent until the bitter end. Even if your opponent does deal with it, you've probably gotten the better end of the trade in terms of resources.

Stonehall Elite - This is basically a bigger, meaner version of the Lego. Not only does it shred through enemy creeps, it grows with each kill, making it a huge threat to the enemy tower after the blockers run out. Also extremely dangerous next to enemy heroes should its eyes wander (via the arrow targeting system) when it lacks something to slaughter. You want as many of these as possible!

Keenfolk Golem - Yes, the other two big red creatures are awesome, the Ogre Conscript and Marrowfell Brawler, but this guy is the one to talk about because it can seem terrible at first glance - it costs you your hand! In practice, this can be quite negligible, but it may require a bit of finesse on your part. Whether it's a desperation play to save a lane and win you the game or just a power toss into the third lane (dumping your hand in lanes one and two to ignore the disadvantage), or perhaps just well set up to take advantage of the huge freaking golem. Keenfolk Golem is also incredibly useful as a surprise finisher - tossing your hand won't mean much if it's the final play of the game.

Red has plenty of other major power cards like Time of Triumph, but they're more obvious and easy to spot. Red sports a number of amazing heroes with Axe, Legion Commander, and one of the better "free" heroes that you can place into any deck if you don't manage to draft any other red heroes, so going red is a very nice place to start, especially for beginners, as your heroes can outbrawl most opposition without too many tricks or spells.

Green

Mist of Avernus - You can play this on the first turn and see immediate, powerful effects, and they keep happening for the entire game, unless your opponent has a way to remove improvements. Your opponent will have to either play into the lane hard or abandon it, either way you're going to gain more control of the board. This is easily one of the strongest cards in the game and should push you into green early if you get one or even crazier, two or three.

Unearthed Secrets - Drawing more cards is great, and you can get this permanent effect going on the first turn of the game. While a couple cards may not make a big difference, this can draw you an absurd amount of cards of over the course of a game, for an incredibly minor investment.

Emissary of the Quorum - This is one of the few cards in Artifact that, if it goes unanswered, can just straight up win you the game. While Emissary comes with impressive stats, the ability is the real killer, as it can buff your lane every single turn with powerful permanent boosts. It won't take long to destroy a lane's tower (or even an ancient) with this thing on the board.

Green also boasts many other obvious cards that should catch your eye, like some of the biggest critters in the game with Thunderhide Pack and Thunderhide Alpha. There's also Cheating Death which is silly and lets you break the rules, letting your heroes and creeps survive after death - sometimes. Green also has a lot of great heroes for draft like Lycan, Drow, Magnus, and more - even their subpar heroes are pretty good like Enchantress or Treant.

Black 

Iron Fog Goldmine - Get as many of these as possible and pick them early. Stack up gold, buy insane items from the secret shop, golden tickets, or stuff you can draft like Helm of the Dominator. This is a staple black card and the more you can get ticking on turn one the better. 

Slay - If you're just coming to the game, killing a creep may not seem that great. That may be true for the standard melee creeps that come trundling out each turn, but Thunderhides, Ogres, and giant golems all count as creeps too. If you hold on to your Slays to take out big 7+ mana targets, you will be gaining a nice advantage on those turns. Alternatively, you can use them at opportune moments to gain crucial tower hits or save your fragile heroes from death.

Steam Cannon - Possibly black's best card, being able to shoot an armor-piercing ball into any lane every turn is an absurdly powerful effect. Put this puppy down in lane one and then use it to shoot down heroes in lanes two and three, killing them before their turns start and denying them the ability to play cards.

Black has tons of ways to make gold, move around the board, and do damage, making them one of my favorite colors to draft. Powerful heroes like Phantom Assassin, Tinker, and Bounty Hunter, maybe Necrophos get the job done - stay away from Bloodseeker and Lion, as they are both terrible. Black's "free" hero is one of the better ones and is completely playable if you don't get any of the good ones.

Blue

Dimensional Portal - One of blue's best, you'll immediately add three creeps to the lane. On turn 2, this is a huge lane presence, and is a great way to "sneak" in other creatures on the perimeter that you've created as well, like Red Mist Pillagers. You get a ton of bang for your buck with this one.

Thunderstorm - Sometimes, this can just kill an entire lane of both enemy heroes and creeps. Definitely worth the price.

Aghanim's Sanctum - Recharging your mana may not seem that useful, but blue has plenty of ways to take advantage of doubling up on mana every turn, whether you're making more spells with Ogre Magi (multiple magis in one lane in draft!), drawing cards with Foresight, and more. Just make sure you draft some things to take advantage of the extra mana.

Blue has fragile heroes that often come with powerful spells or abilities, including ways to spam lanes with swarms of additional creeps with Prellex or Venomancer. Be on the lookout for Kanna as one of your best hero options, with Ogre Magi and Zeus other great picks. Avoid Crystal Maiden and Outworld Devourer at all times. Blue can do all kinds of crazy combo stuff if it gets going, but features heroes that are very easy to kill - I advise trying other colors first unless you get handed some incredible stuff.

Items

Stonehall Cloak - This thing is amazing. Attach it early and watch your hero HP soar. You'll be able to brush off even the most incredible spells and attacks wearing this. You may be tempted to go with Stonehall plate instead for the armor, but armor can be pierced - try piercing 30 HP.

Helm of the Dominator - It's expensive, but this can swing games easily, especially against big green decks. Taking control of the pick of the litter every 2 turns is very, very powerful.

Horn of the Alpha - 25 gold, but if you can stick this early (or even late) your opponent is going to have a lot of trouble dealing with a free giant creep every 2 turns.

Claszureme Hourglass - When the game goes late, those two cards you draw a turn are everything, and locking them out of play is very strong.

If you’re not sure what should grace your table this Thanksgiving, why not get inspiration from video games? There, it doesn’t hurt if your eyes are bigger than your stomach, recipes only take seconds to make, and you don’t have to clean up afterward! Here are video games’ most feast-worthy foods guaranteed to elevate this year’s dinner – and a few of the more dubious digital dishes you should avoid.

Starters

Mulberry Seafood Salad – Odin Sphere Leifthrasir

Unfortunately, I’m told you must have some greenery in a “proper meal.” So, what better healthy Thanksgiving feast option than a salad where the veggies are drowned out by appetizing seafood and berries? It’s so good, it’s not even available as a recipe. You unlock the chef’s creative genius it by eating seafood salad three times. This appetizer will bestow a huge experience boost as well as increase your max health.

Coleslaw Salad – Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

There is a lot of great-looking food in the Yakuza series, but not many fit into a traditional Thanksgiving meal. What makes the coleslaw salad a great choice is that its name implies healthiness. I mean, it is a salad, right? A lovely, mayonnaise-slathered salad.

Mutton Stew – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

I am a sucker for a good, hearty stew, and it turns out Geralt is, too. One comforting bowl regenerates the highest possible amount of vitality of any food. Can you imagine how crowded your dining-room table would be this Thanksgiving if your soup could heal wounds?

Mushroom Stew – Minecraft

This pixelated treat is all the rage in Minecraft, and – while I don’t deny the healing benefits – producing it is a bit questionable. To craft mushroom stew you need a bowl and a mushroom…and that’s it. What are you doing to this mushroom? Milking it? Has anyone ever seen mushroom milk? You’d think that no one would be interested in the glop you can squeeze from a fungus, but in all fairness, milk only became a common drink after someone decided to consume the liquid that came out of a cow. 

Avoid: Trash Can Apples – BioShock Infinite

Really, any produce is questionable if you find it just lying around, but if you have the option to pick it out of the trash can, probably just avoid it altogether. In the game, this particular piece of fruit comes in fresh and rotten varieties, and it is very hard to tell the difference.

Sides

Sweet Potato – Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Muramasa: The Demon Blade lets you cook a sweet potato by wrapping a yam in leaves and setting them on fire. A+ for easy prep. On a busy Thanksgiving, any dish that takes such little time and effort and still comes out delicious is a blessing.

Stuffing – Stardew Valley

Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of cooking recipes in a farming simulator. Pam won’t divulge her secret stuffing recipe until you have seven or more hearts of friendship with her. If you won’t teach someone to make a dish until you are borderline in love with them, it has to be amazing. In fact, this recipe is two Thanksgiving dishes in one since one of the three ingredients is cranberries.

Bread – Persona 5

No Thanksgiving meal is complete without a good roll. Persona 5 has a lot of varieties of bread on offer, including the totally-not-worth-the-effort bread from the school store. Full disclosure, I may have some hard feelings after the salesperson repeatedly gave me attitude because it wasn’t Friday. If you want to pass over the low-hanging fruit, go for the bread chain, which can only be found in dangerous circumstances, like after completing a difficult request or in a treasure chest in a Palace. The effort is totally worth it though, since one bread chain fully heals every member of your party.

Meldacio Meat Pie – Final Fantasy XV

You really can’t go wrong with anything Ignis cooks up in Final Fantasy XV. Every pixel looks positively mouth-watering. The Meldacio Meat Pie boosts magic, attack, and maximum health – it’s also Prompto's favorite meal. If you really do want to include it in your Thanksgiving meal, you can! There’s a real-life recipe that recreates this scrumptious dish.

Meat-Stuffed Pumpkins – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Last year’s game of the year introduced players to an amazingly fun cooking mechanic that rewards exploration, both in the world and in the kitchen. Autumn’s best gourd, the pumpkin, is grown in Kakariko Village, the not exactly well-hidden home of a ninja clan. Somehow eating the squishiest parts of the gourd confers toughness. If you stuff it full of meat and throw it on the cooking fire, it will transform into a worthy Thanksgiving side dish.

Mashed Potato – Guild Wars 2

One of the most common Thanksgiving sides, mashed potatoes are surprisingly rare in video games. The unprocessed tuber and baked potatoes pop up a fair bit, but a good heaping of proper mashed potatoes? They’re practically nowhere to be seen. Thankfully on this Thanksgiving, Guild Wars 2 can handle all your virtual need for the delightful smashed starch

Avoid: Dog Food – Wolfenstein Series

Wolfenstein serves up one of the most undesirable food offerings in all of video games: dog food. Wolfenstein 3D’s low-resolution bowl of brown mush was reimagined in The New Order as a graphically detailed bowl of crunchy bits. If I have to tell you to avoid consuming puppy chow, your Thanksgiving dinner may already be beyond saving. 

Protein

Plain Plump Bird – Red Dead Redemption II

Thanksgiving isn’t called turkey day for nothing, and Red Dead Redemption II lets you celebrate the right way. Start your meal like the pilgrims, by shooting or running over a turkey. Once that’s done, all you need to do is rest at a campfire and roast up the main course in your feast. If you want to spice up your meal, there are mint, oregano, and thyme variations in the game.

Kaiser Turkey – Monster Hunter: World

If you’d rather have a squad of cats cook your turkey, head over to the canteen in Monster Hunter: World. The cooking cutscene’s presentation is unrivaled, and the Palico chefs provide only the best of culinary experiences. To relish the exquisite turkey dinner, all you need to do is go out and fight a monstrous enemy. Why let a fight to the death keep you from a delicious meal?

Turkey – Castlevania Series

If it’s the old classics you’re craving, look no further than the turkey in the Castlevania series. You get the sense that someone in the castle is big into munchies, to the point where they have tucked away foods in the walls. Turkey provides a copious amount of health, bested only by steak. 

Roasted Ham – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine

Variety is key to a great feast. You may have guests that prefer a good ham over the turkey, and that’s fine. Luckily, the Witcher 3’s Blood and Wine DLC expanded the menu to include the roasted ham. The sun-soaked land of Toussaint takes its feasting seriously, and if it can grace the table of the discerning Duchess Anna Henrietta, it is sure to be a crowd pleaser on your Thanksgiving.

Avoid: Grilled Radroach – Fallout Series

This culinary experience is not ideal for one major reason: You’re eating the flesh of a giant, mutant roach. Just because it won’t radiate you after you’ve grilled it doesn’t make it okay.

Avoid: Trashcan Chicken – Streets of Rage

Just to hammer home my earlier point, don’t eat food that comes out of the trashcan. That’s a major faux-pas for a feast. On top of that, chicken – while also a bird – is not turkey.

Desserts

Sweet Roll – The Elder Scrolls Series

Keep a close eye on these after you bake them, because these treats have a reputation. You know what I mean. These pastries are so popular, Bethesda made an official video on how to make your own.

Stardrop – Stardew Valley

Here’s the in-game description for this fruit: “A mysterious fruit that empowers those who eat it. The flavor is like a dream... a powerful personal experience, yet difficult to describe to others.” How can you pass that up?

Chocolate Cake – Portal

Erroneously, you’ll hear people say that this tantalizing chocolate cake, smothered in rich chocolate icing and topped with fresh cherries, is beyond your grasp. Don’t believe them – GLaDOS wouldn’t lead you astray.

Butterscotch-Cinnamon Pie – Undertale

In testament to this pie’s deliciousness, it soothes a child who finds himself in an underground realm populated with monsters. And what’s not to love? It’s butterscotch, it’s cinnamon, and it’s pie – everything delicious, all wrapped up in one dessert.

Sweet Potato Souffle – Don’t Starve

Souffles are not easy to make. They are delicate, they are touchy, and they take concentration. Despite that, Don’t Starve – a game about surviving in the wilderness – has a souffle. What could possibly make it worthwhile to make this fancy French dessert under those circumstances besides it being just unbelievably enjoyable?

Avoid: Baker Family Special – Resident Evil 7: Banned Footage Vol. 2

The Jack’s birthday DLC game mode has you running all over to satiate the titular birthday boy’s appetite. Most of the offerings are fit for a party. However, the Baker family special – despite its fancy name – is created by combining garbage and sugar. No amount of desperation absolves serving that to your guests.

A decade ago, Electronic Arts and Visceral Games entered the world of survival horror, surprising everyone with the violent tale of Isaac Clarke – an engineer who faced unimaginable terror and barely came out alive.

This article originally appeared abridged in the November 2018 issue of Game Informer.

In 2008, Electronic Arts was known primarily for its annual sports, racing titles, licensed games, and recurring franchises like Battlefield and Medal of Honor. Horror was not in its repertoire, and it shied away from making new game concepts. This made its decision to go up against survival horror’s biggest players like Resident Evil with a brand-new, unproven original universe a huge surprise. When Dead Space was announced, it was treated with qualified praise. The game was undeniably promising, but EA and Visceral had no track record for scary games, and players did not have the confidence the studio could deliver a truly terrifying experience.

In the face of players’ hesitancy, Dead Space proved it was more than capable. It released to critical acclaim (Game Informer gave it a 9.25) and experienced commercial success, selling more than two million copies and inspiring multiple sequels and spin-offs. Protagonist Isaac Clarke’s terrifying journey through the USG Ishimura hit a high bar for gamers. Taking on the monstrous necromorph threat while battling the inhospitable elements of space, provided an instantly engaging and consistently scary journey.

Michael Condrey, who co-founded Sledgehammer Games and recently co-directed Call of Duty: WWII, is credited as co-director on Dead Space and worked on the series from its inception. “Dead Space was an incredible experience for everyone involved, and a highlight in my 20-plus year career of making games,” Condrey says. Condrey helped develop the world and its lore, as well as its gameplay mechanics.

“We started a new team with a small core of less than 15 developers and pitched the concept through several stages of EA’s greenlight process.” Condrey says. “Within a short time, we had a playable prototype experience that began to capture the tension that would later become synonymous with Dead Space.” Resident Evil served as a major inspiration for the team, in both its early horror-focused forms and the later more action-focused format used in Resident Evil 4. “Initially, until we had a more developed prototype that people could play and experience for themselves, the creative northstar of ‘Resident Evil in Space’ and ‘survival-horror meets Alien’ captured the spirit of the art and design targets for the team,” Condrey says.

System Shock was another influence for Dead Space based on its similar atmosphere and horror elements. The comparisons were so strong that after Dead Space’s release, rumors surfaced that it originally began development as a System Shock sequel. “System Shock is an undeniable classic, and part of a highly acclaimed EA-owned franchise that had gone dormant,” Condrey says. “While we were inspired by both the original and its sequel, Dead Space was never officially attached to the System Shock franchise in any capacity.”

Rich Briggs was a producer on both Dead Space and its sequel, but you probably know him best as the face of the man who violently transforms into a necromorph in the opening moments of Dead Space 2. “I’ve always been honored to be the first person killed in Dead Space 2,” Briggs says. “I, evidently, had the perfectly shaped head to let it transform into a necromoprh. By nature of my skull, I was the natural fit.” Briggs says the original game was in development longer than the typical EA-published game. “It was a game that I think was a long time coming and it took a long time to convince people it was the right game to make at the right time, but we were really excited by the fan response and it was a ton of fun working on.”

As the world was developed during pre-production, it morphed and evolved. “In total, the game was in development for nearly three years, the longest time I’d had to develop a game up to that point,” Condrey says. Since it was a small team, EA was comfortable giving it space. “The time allowed us to take some risks, learn from some misses, and innovate in ways we hadn’t been afforded on shorter development cycles,” Condrey says. “The development also spanned the console transition from PS2 to PS3, and the added time also allowed us to push on engine technology advancements in important areas like rendering and audio that were key to delivering on the gritty and visceral atmosphere.”

One of Dead Space’s most defining mechanics is the way you attack the necromorph threat. Instead of aiming for their heads, you used Clarke’s Plasma Cutter weapons, frequently in combination with the time-slowing stasis ability, to aim for the limbs and dismember the creatures. “The combination of the two together opened up a host of amazing combat and puzzle- based mechanics that exceeded our initial hopes, and became a cornerstone,” Condrey says.

Dead Space was more than just fighting scary monsters in space, though. One of the reasons it stood out was because the world in which Dead Space takes place is a fully realized one. “Topics like religious zealots, depletion of natural resources, and the exploits of a rogue state beyond Earth’s laws, were key to capturing a relatable version of a future conflict that players would embrace as plausible, and provoking,” Condrey says. “The series Black Mirror captures a similar dark imagination for me today.”

Notwithstanding the success of the Dead Space series, the franchise went dark following the launch of Dead Space 3. The third entry was critically the weakest of the main trilogy; EA said it did not sell as well as it hoped. Despite leaving EA to found Sledgehammer Games before the second and third entries released, Condrey says he would love to see it return. “I can’t believe that October marked 10 years since the game released,” Condrey says. “I love thinking about what a new hardware generation return to the Dead Space mythos might mean for gamers. The original game remains near and dear to many of us, and I’d want the return only if it is treated with the same passion and care that the team brought to the original game.”

You can watch us revisit Dead Space in a recent episode of Replay below.

With several promising blockbuster games on the horizon, from Anthem to Darksiders III, it can be easy to get caught up in the bigger releases from large publishers. However, this doesn't mean you should ignore some of the smaller gems. We've gathered a handful of under-the-radar games that we think deserve your attention.

From drinking your way through the depths of Hell to an alternate history where the Berlin Wall never fell, these six upcoming indie games have interesting premises and gameplay hooks that look promising.

Mosaic
Release: Summer 2019
Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Krillbite Studio, the creators of horror game Among The Sleep, have something quite different in the works. Whereas Among The Sleep was told from the perspective of a toddler, this time you play as a tall, lanky man in a mundane world who is making his daily commute to work. While it's not a horror game, there is something unsettling nonetheless about Mosaic's world, with its dimly lit, blue-hued environments and dream-like state. This adventure game puts emphasis on atmosphere and story where you begin to notice strange happenings. Its visual style resembles the likes of Playdead's Inside, with a lot of clever lighting and a world that resembles a dull corporate dystopia.

Afterparty
Release: 2019
Platform: PC, Mac

What would you do if you unexpectedly died, found yourself in Hell with your best friend, and realized the only way to escape eternal damnation would be to out-party the devil? In Afterparty, you get a chance to find out. Playing as Milo And Lola, you roam through the underworld in an effort to find out how to take down Satan in the ultimate drinking game. It's a bizarre but curious premise, which intrigued me right away when I first heard of it. Plus, it's made by the creators of Oxenfree, so expect natural dialogue and hopefully compelling characters to bring this world to life.

Felix The Reaper
Release: 2019
Platform: PC, Mac

Felix the Reaper is a puzzle-adventure game with a playful twist on death. You play as Felix, a love-stricken Minister of Death employee who dances his way through obstacles. Although Felix looks like a giant marshmallow wearing headphones, he's surprisingly swift on his feet. You have to guide him through different levels and avoid light, which is lethal to him. Thanks to powers granted to you by the Ministry of Death, you can control the sun so that he can dance safely through. With upbeat music reminiscent of the Persona series and all of Felix's comedic-but-rhythmic twirls and flips, this title looks like a fun and lighthearted experience.

ITTA
Release: 2019
Platform: PC

With visuals similar to Hyper Light Drifter and Swords & Sworcery, ITTA is about a young girl and her cat who venture on an otherworldly journey. It features twin-stick shooter combat as you fight foes with your father's old revolver as well as melee weapons. ITTA looks to be a minimalist experience and some mysteries may require a keen eye to uncover.

Griftlands
Release: 2019
Platform: PC

Griftlands is a sci-fi RPG described as a "pirate/mercenary sandbox," where you attempt to make a fortune for yourself in a post-apocalyptic world. You control a group of mercenaries who have several different quest lines, and the world will mold and dynamically change depending on your good or bad actions. As for battles, these are played out in a turn-based fashion with a focus on subduing your enemies rather than outright killing them. Although it's not exactly clear how this will manifest in the game, Griftland's Steam page says that "everything is negotiable," from money to even morality. 

For more indie gems, read our top picks from shows like GDC, E3, and PAX West.

With Hitman 2’s release, many of us have picked up the fiber wire once again and resumed dunking heads in toilet bowls as Agent 47. But for the less squeamish of us, there are also other, more colorful ways to dispatch your targets. In gaming there is no shortage of brutal contract killings. So, to honor the bald guy with the barcode on the back of his head, here are our picks for the most ruthless assassinations in gaming.

** This list contains spoilers for Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Grand Theft Auto V, God of War 3, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 **

An Unfortunate Accident (Dishonored)

If you’ve ever been scalded, you’ll know how painful this one is. In Dishonored, players take on the role of supernatural agent of vengeance, Corvo Attano – a man determined to return the princess to the throne, taking out anyone who gets in his way. So, when players encounter one of the princess’s kidnappers at a bathhouse, slave-owning aristocrat Morgan Pendleton, players can turn up the pressure to burst the pipes and burn Morgan to death with hot steam. As Arnold Schwarzenegger would say, “Let off some steam, Morgan.”

Bound Until Death (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)

As an assassin in the notorious Dark Brotherhood, you, the Dragonborn, are contracted to kill a young woman at her own wedding. As you sneak into the ceremony, you’re presented with a variety of ways to slay the blushing bride. You can pick her off with a well-placed arrow, walk right up to her and give her the Dark Brotherhood’s sincerest regards, or dispatch her with a quick fireball. Of course, you can always opt for the environmental route and loosen the stone gargoyle hanging directly over the bride’s flower-wreathed head, dropping it on her with a sickening crunch to whiten every face in the audience. It really gives a new meaning to “head over heels.”

Ghost in the Machine (Hitman)

In the final mission of Hitman (2016) you can conduct one of the most gruesome kills in the game by turning a HAL-like artificial intelligence into a rampant killing machine. This is because your target is receiving a heart transplant from the A.I. Sabotage the core console, and the whirring, scalpel and drill-laden robotic arms will cease their delicate operating and suddenly start stabbing your target mercilessly throughout the chest and abdomen until the floor is slick with blood. It’s not a route for the faint of heart.  

Albert Hall (Sniper Elite 4)

This one is a low blow. Sniper Elite 4 is bursting with cringe-inducing kill shots thanks to its X-ray feature, but when it comes to Hitler, a bullet to the brain is too easy. No, when it comes to the Führer, you need to make it special, and nothing screams special like a one-way shot to the family… jewel? In Sniper Elite 4, Hitler only has one testicle, which is allegedly either true or just war propaganda. Either way, you shatter Hitler’s testicle with a fast-moving bullet and it’s gnarly.    

Retribution (God of War 3)

Before Kratos was a dad, he had a lot of anger issues, mostly because of his own dad. When the God-killer finally gets his hands on Zeus, one punch is not enough, nor two, nor three. No, as Kratos, you pummel Zeus’ face into a bloody pulp and don’t stop until the screen is completely red. While there have been plenty of other jaw-dropping kills at the hands of the Spartan Ghost, this one is without a doubt the most personal, which puts it above all the other eye-gouging and decapitating kills that have helped make the series so special.  

Something Sensible (Grand Theft Auto V)

At the end of GTA V, playing as Franklin, players are posited with a choice: to betray a friend, or take on the world. Should players choose to off Trevor, the ending of this otherwise light-hearted GTA gets dark. Really dark. What begins as a car chase ends when Trevor finally crashes his truck into an oil tanker. As the psychotic Canadian meth-dealer crawls out, screaming Judas and bloody murder, you take aim to put him down quick-and-clean, but unfortunately, it doesn’t go down like that. Instead of killing him, the bullet ignites the gasoline pooling all around his body and Trevor is immediately engulfed in flames. As your former friend screams and writhes in agony, you can only watch, sickened, before the tanker finally explodes, ensuring that Trevor isn’t getting back up again. Say what you will about the pipe-hitting degenerate, even he didn’t deserve to go out like that.

Medunamun (Assassin’s Creed Origins)

In Assassin’s Creed Origins, the main protagonist Bayek is a bit more, shall we say, “impassioned” than his past brethren. It’s reasonable though, considering that his targets are partially responsible for the death of his only son. When it comes to Medunamun, the first target that players whack, Medunamun mocks Bayek, and Bayek responds by smashing the murderer’s face in with the iconic Apple of Eden orb. When life gives you apples…

Dust to Dust (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3)

While Modern Warfare 2 does tell the better story, Modern Warfare 3 serves up the more over-the-top kill. The level description says it all: Kill Makarov. After pounding the terrorist’s face in, you tie a cord around his throat and deliver a haymaker that sends you both hurtling through the glass ceiling where you land safely, and Makarov promptly hangs to death. As he chokes, dangling like a macabre Christmas tree ornament, you light up a cigar. It’s cold-hearted and ridiculous, and easily the most savage kill in the series.  

Tesshu Fujioka (Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven)

Tesshu Fujioka is a doctor by day and a hyper-lethal ninja by night, using his hands and acupuncture needles for precise, devastating assassinations. But his most spectacular kill is also his most bloodthirsty. When you sneak up on an enemy from the front, Tesshu reaches his hand into the victim’s chest and removes their still-beating heart with a spray of blood Indiana Jones-style. Can anyone say Kali Ma?  

Epilogue (Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus)

The personal ones are always the most gratuitous, and the most satisfying. When you finally corner the deranged Frau Engel on a live talk show of all places, you plant your hatchet square into the Frau’s trembling face, whispering to her ever so gently while she struggles to breathe. When you wrench it out, you cleave her skull in two and pop her eye out of its socket. It’s savage, and disgusting, and pretty much exactly what everyone loves about this series. It’s excessive Nazi-killing fun, and with Frau Engel, it’s more than deserved.   

That concludes the list. Did your favorite assassination make the cut? Let us know about it in the comments section below. And for more colorful and ruthless kills, be sure to check out our review for Hitman 2 where we cover all you need to know about Agent 47’s latest blood-spattered mission. 

As 2018 winds down, discussions about the best games of 2018 are winding up. This can be a contentious time of year, pitting friend against friend in debates about what single title deserves to be called “game of the year.” On one hand, you can be a loser and say that we were all fortunate to have so many amazing interactive experiences in 2018, blah, blah, blah. On the other hand, you can be a winner and fight relentlessly for your personal favorite, burning bridges and alienating people in the process. For those who choose to stand up for their principles, this infallible list of tips will help you emerge victorious from any debate about this year’s best games.

1. All other games except your favorite are terrible
You don’t win arguments by acknowledging that the other side has some good points. This is the most important rule of any game-of-the-year debate. Instead, you need to mercilessly tear down the competition with gross exaggerations and misrepresentations, making their flaws appear obvious and hilarious. After your artful ridicule demonstrates that only a fool could love any of the alternatives (and everyone agrees), you present your personal pick – the knight in shining armor that rides in as the champion. You can’t gain any ground simply by singing the praises of your favorite and hoping other people are moved by your passion.

2. Fandom is bad!
This is a crucial fact that will help you discredit any console-exclusive games you might find yourself arguing against. Any advocates for God of War are drooling PlayStation fans. People pushing for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are brainless Nintendo drones. If Xbox One had any decent exclusives, the people who liked them would also be biased. Here’s the trick: If you’re going to use this line of attack, you must do it first (preferably with a well-rehearsed eye-roll). You need the dismissive superiority that comes from this initial gesture. It loses all of its power if you accuse someone of being a loyalist only after you yourself have been accused. No one ever won an argument saying “No, YOU’RE an Xbot!”

3. Fortnite doesn’t count
Just take this one off the table right away. Yes, by many metrics, Fortnite was probably more successful than traditional game-of-the-year contenders. However, teenagers really seemed to like it, which casts serious doubt on its quality and longevity. Thankfully, there’s a loophole that lets you guiltlessly dismiss a game enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people: It technically released in 2017. Disqualified!

4. People who like popular things are sheep (not you though)
Red Dead Redemption II. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. These games were hugely popular, and as such, they can’t possibly be good. The people who like them are just mindless followers who eat what Big Video Games wants to feed them. Of course, you are too smart for that. You are wise and discerning, and have given each game careful thought and due consideration. But what if you like something that is mainstream? If this comes up as a counterpoint in your discussions, your response should be that it’s basically just a coincidence that your good taste happens to coincide with the whims of the dumb masses.

5. “What about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild?!”
You need to pick your moment, but sometimes shouting this when you’re cornered (instead of formulating a real response) can help your case – or at least confuse your opponent. However, if you’re smart and actually followed the first four tips on this list, you will never be cornered. Enjoy the sweet taste of victory.

Note: This article contains spoilers for up until the end of Chapter 3 in Red Dead Redemption II.

“That is a young boy. That is not the way you do things.” With a few simple words, Dutch Van Der Linde delivers a menacing ultimatum to the wretched Braithwaites, who have kidnapped John Martson’s son to get back at the Van Der Linde gang for interfering in a regional feud. It’s all pretense. For all his eloquent speech, Dutch has made up his mind before the gang has rolled into the gates of Braithwaite plantation. He’s not looking for a solution. Jack’s kidnapping is a problem that needs to be solved, sure, but it’s also an excuse to vent his frustrations in that old familiar way: through bloodshed.

The ensuing battle is only a battle in the sense that both sides have guns. Arthur, Dutch, and the rest of the group rip the Braithwaites to pieces in the span of five minutes and set the plantation house ablaze. The entirety of the “Blood Feuds, Ancient and Modern” mission is a grisly, gripping scene that’s not only fun to play through but also showcases the best of Red Dead Redemption II’s story, which is about entropy, a gradual descent into chaos and disorder. Everything here works. The voice of an operatic singer chillingly married to a crescendo of violence, with bloody bodies falling over balconies and going still in the dirt, Dutch’s explosive rage as he growls at Catherine Braithwaite before putting a bullet in her last living son, and the final shot of Catherine running into the burning vestiges of her legacy as the gang walks away in the night, their questions answered and their lust of violence quenched. Out of all the classic moments to emerge from Red Dead Redemption II, “Blood Feuds, Ancient and Modern” might be the best one, and it wouldn’t work without everything that came before it.

Red Dead Redemption II is a game that’s value is rooted in payoff. A lot of video games, the vast majority of them I’d wager, are about the immediacy of rewarding progression systems. It’s something that gamers have had trained into them from the early arcade days, from watching your high score eclipse your rival in Pac Man to unlocking characters in Smash Brothers and acquiring new skills in RPGs like The Witcher III or even acquiring new cosmetic options and loadouts in shooters with RPG-lite progression systems like Call of Duty or Titanfall. Similarly, stories have had to adapt to keep up alongside the rhythm of games. Rarely in even some of the most renowned narrative-driven experiences do you have long lulls in action. Both Mass Effect and The Last Of Us, considered watershed moments in how to tell a story in games, throw enemy encounters your way and reward you with upgrades at a steady pace to keep you engaged on multiple levels.

Red Dead Redemption II isn’t interested in constantly courting your engagement and that’s one of the game’s greatest assets. The entirety of Chapter 3, which finds Dutch’s gang trying to play both sides of a violent feud between two Southern rich families (the Grays and the Braithwaites in the small town of Rhodes), is the best example of this. A lengthy campaign of missions has players doing various tasks that further the feud, like stealing horses from the Grays to selling Braithewaite moonshine in a Gray bar. It goes on for a while, with several mundane tasks that probably don’t match up to the excitement of gunning down legions of bandits or lawmen. However, they do an important thematic job in cementing just how in over their head the entire gang is.

From the outset of Red Dead Redemption II, Dutch and Hosea see themselves as charismatic leaders and grifters. Maybe at one point they were, years ago, before technology and society started bearing down on the wild west, with rich tycoons pouring funding into private law armies like the Pinkertons to wipe out outlaws. More than anything, the Van Der Linde gang is living on borrowed time and refuses to see the writing on the wall. Early on Arthur, like us, gets a sense that the noose is tightening during this excursion into Rhodes and that the families probably aren’t as dumb as Dutch thinks they are. “You don’t think they remember us from when we burned their fields?” he hisses at his fellow members during one mission, only for his point to be brushed aside. In its desperation for survival, the gang has gotten clumsy, its leaders descending into ruin and insanity. For a large part of the Chapter 3, you feel that unease and desperation, with Dutch and Hosea throwing caution to the wind – until the danger becomes boring.

Part of why the shocking moment of Sean’s death, which is when the finale of the chapter kicks off in earnest, works as well as it does is because of the seductive safety that emerges during  the onslaught of the mundane. The succession of missions going off without a hitch lures you into feeling safe in the moment because, well, if neither family has done anything yet, maybe the gang really is safe. Maybe they have gotten away with the ultimate con. That arrogance comes with a steep price, the slow burn chapter erupting in an explosion of hate and anxiety as the gang continues to ride full on toward its destruction, no salvation in sight.

So much of Chapter 3 is pure buildup to two missions that lasts less than 10 minutes together but every single one of these minutes is amazing and more than worth the ticket price of some patience. I’ve replayed the mansion fight five times since completing the game and continue to find new details that I love but mostly I’m in awe of how pitch perfect the sequence is in capturing who the gang (which the game has gone out of its way hitherto to present as at least partially noble) is deep down: desperate people capable of becoming monsters when pushed into a corner. The juxtaposition of Dutch’s noble sentiments about recovering Jack Marston with the awful display of him dragging the vile but defenseless Catherine down the stairs by her hair and forcing her to watch as they butcher her children is chilling in how it presents the duality of people pushed to the edge.

Red Dead Redemption II is a divisive game and one that is not for everyone. I adore it to pieces but acknowledge that many of its quirks and flaws are valid annoyances. However, I do not think its pacing is a flaw. Instead, I think that the expectation of games to offer experiences that constantly reward you by making you feel powerful or by never testing your patience is the issue here and I’m relieved to see something as big as Red Dead Redemption II push back against that setup. In the years to come, I hope Red Dead's success spurs publishers and developers to take a new approach to progression, sacrificing the immediacy of pleasing the player for narrative or systemic beats that have massive payoff.

For more on Red Dead Redemption II, be sure to check out our Virtual Life on why Arthur Morgan is a better protagonist than John Marston as well as 101 things you an do in the game.

Darlene and Stella got shifted into two different security lines on the way into the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival, prompting the fourteen-year-old Stella to call out “I’ll see you on the other side, mom!” to the parallel line. The two were excited to attend an annual meeting of Final Fantasy XIV players and fans in Las Vegas, but found themselves waylaid by security at the ten-yard line. Stella emptied her pockets into a bin while her mother patiently waited in front of the metal detector, chatting with me.

“She has a wallet chain,” Darlene told me in a noticeable Canadian accent. “I told her it would set off the alarm, but she didn’t listen.” Darlene was decked out in a black robe split with red splashes, which she informed me was the Diabolic Healing Set, the clothes her character wears in the game when she plays. Speaking with all the force of a proud parent, she described the Ninja set that her daughter wears when they go on quests together. “I tried to convince her to wear it here, but you know teenagers,” Darlene told me as Stella slowly approached behind her, mortified at the subject of conversation.

Darlene and Stella had been involved with Final Fantasy XIV since it originally launched in 2010, when the now-punk rock teen was still a small child. She sat on either her mother or stepfather’s lap as they played the game and watched them explore the vast Eorzean plains while they explained the intricacies of the game to her. Final Fantasy XIV was such a core part of their household that, when the game relaunched as A Realm Reborn in 2013 on a date happened to coincide with the same week as Darlene’s birthday, the family held a party celebrating both.

“Those were good…important, I guess, memories to me,” Stella said as her mother placed a hand on her shoulder and gripped it.

Soon after the game’s relaunch, Darlene’s husband passed away from a heart attack. It was sudden and Darlene described the feeling of returning home and seeing her husband’s computer still on as “watching someone pop out of existence and only his clothes are left.” They eventually shut the computer down and threw a blanket over the desk to stop thinking about it, presuming that out of sight meant out of mind. For her, it mostly worked, and she had much more on her mind than the computer desk sitting in the corner of the room.

“That’s why I was surprised when the little one over here crawled into my lap when I was watching TV and asked when we were going to play again,” Darlene says, fighting to get out the words. “She didn’t say ‘oh mom, let’s remember dad this way’ or anything like that. I think that’s what she meant, but she just said we should start playing again.”

While this was their first fan festival, the two have been playing the game almost nightly for nearly three years. Using the wall behind us, Stella described their setup as two monitors with two separate computers at a large table in the living room, so they could be next to each other as they played together.

“I asked her for a PlayStation 4 one year and she got really quiet,” Stella explains. “A few days later, she texts me saying she’ll buy one, but I can’t play [Final Fantasy] XIV on it in my room. I said okay, that’s fine, and didn’t think anything else about it. Then later I talk to my grandma who tells me mom called her crying that I might stop playing the game in the same room with her and she had to talk her down.”

Darlene smiled. “Yeah, that happened.”

For the most part, finding stories about Final Fantasy XIV at a fan festival is easy. It’s an already bought-in audience, people who came to Las Vegas to immerse themselves in the community they already enjoy and talk about why they enjoy it. While riding the elevator, I met a group of people all wearing the same custom-made powder blue t-shirt. The group, which was a diverse set of people in terms of ages, gender, and ethnicities, and all a part of the same static (a consistent group that plays together) and have known each other online for years. Fan Fests are their time to cut loose with people they have been talking to forever.

“I started playing the game with this guy around 2013,” streamer Michael ‘Ethys’ Asher said pointing to a friend next to him, “and it kind of changed the trajectory of our lives. Like a lot of MMORPGs out there but I think more so than most other MMORPGs on the market, Final Fantasy XIV facilitates the creation and consolidation of these fruitful relationships.”

The friend Ethys pointed to is another streamer that goes by the name Healme Harry, who pointed out to me that the community in the game is unique. “It’s an extremely diverse community,” Harry explained. “There’s a really, really strong LBGT community within Final Fantasy that most games don’t have. It creates a real space of safety for a lot of people. There’s so many communities in Final Fantasy XIV that create safe spaces for people – I believe there’s linkshells and free companies for women specifically, for LBGT people, for trans people specifically, as well. There’s a lot of really diverse communities within the game.”

It’s certainly no exaggeration to say the FFXIV community is inclusive. In a room marked for Gaming, dozens of PCs were lined up to play a new event ahead of time with a line stretching up and down the ballroom. Walking around the room were strangers who just had the good fortune of being next to each other happily discussing the game, gathering recommendations on where to eat, and enjoying each other’s company. As one person in the back of the line described it, “We’re all friends here, even if we haven’t met yet.”

At a table in the cafeteria, I asked a group why they played Final Fantasy XIV. One user, who goes by the in-game name Fieren, talked about how he got hooked during a trial and met so many wonderful people that he kept playing for the last two years. Another player going by Zash mentioned that he watched his friends play and joined in to spend quality time with his friends, who were also sitting at the table. As each person went around and listed their reasons, the last to speak up was a woman who goes by the name Serianna in the game.

“I started dating him,” she said, pointing to Zash. The two are now engaged to be married, though Zash admits he has had to make the hard sell for FFXIV over World of Warcraft. The table joked that, since Zash is paying for Serianna’s account, she has to play the way he tells her. After noting the awkwardness on my face, they quickly explained that this is a joke within the game and is not as weird as it sounds out of that context.

Zash, Serianna, Valarr, Fieren, Drai

When I asked the group about the community’s relationship with Naoki Yoshida, the producer of Final Fantasy XIV affectionately known as Yoshi-P, everyone erupted in excitement. Yoshida was brought in when the original game failed at the market and he pioneered the entire A Realm Reborn relaunch. During the keynote address, Yoshida had the crowd eating out of his hand with jokes and news being delivered with a level of showmanship you usually don’t see. With that degree of push, however, also comes very important pull. When mentioning the server outages that the game suffered alongside the latest expansion, Yoshida bowed his head to the floor and sincerely apologized. The crowd was quick to forgive him.

“Yoshida’s very in touch with the fans,” a person with the in-game name of Drai explained. “The live letters, the letters from the producer, people tune into these streams, people send questions on the official forums; he’s very much a beloved, revered figure in the community and people trust him. He shows up in-game in a server and people flood to him so hard that they lag him down. All they’re doing is emoting toward him, they’re trying to trade him stuff so he can’t leave.”

I met Yoshida at a Blackjack table in the hotel’s casino. After days and days of fans approaching him, shaking his hand, telling him what they loved about the game, and a few definitely telling him what they didn’t love about it, he seemed more than happy to talk to a person he thought was another fan. Like me, Yoshida had been spending time during the convention listening to people’s stories, finding out how people play his game, and what he can do to make that experience a little bit better. It’s easy to believe the hype when the frontman is that personable.

I told Yoshida about some friends of mine that play the game named Kim and Gerry. As the dealer got impatient with our slowness, I explained to Yoshida in simple and slow English that these friends fell in love through the game and got engaged just down the street last year. Yoshida kind of laughed and I wasn’t entirely sure if he understood me, but I think he got the gist of it. “Stories are very powerful,” he replied before shaking my hand as I rushed to make my flight.

Toward the end of the festival, I sat down with a woman named Anya. A mother of two, Anya’s entire family plays the game together. She brought her kids with her so that they could celebrate the game together and was more than happy to explain how important Final Fantasy XIV was to them. Her youngest son, Collin, was happy to tell me about the friends he made playing the game and how he feels like he’s there with them when hearing the friends recount their tales. The daughter, Celes (who was named after the Final Fantasy VI heroine), was quick to answer “All the time!” when I asked them if the game ever comes up outside the context of actually playing it.

“Absolutely,” Anya said. “When new patches come out, I send them to bed early so we can get up early in the morning to check out the new stuff. When the last patch came out, my son and I were up early doing fights before he had to go to school. We were up at 4:00 in the morning running new content before he had to go to school for the day.”

The modern idea of a video game being a family endeavor rather than just a one-hour activity with a game like Mario Kart still feels like an alien concept to me, but Anya managed to break it down in simpler terms. Playing Final Fantasy XIV isn’t just about being in the same space for her and her family, it’s about raising her children to understand the world in a less abstract sense.

“It’s been good as far as dealing with drama and conflict, actually,” she said. “As with any kind of social interaction or family unit, and we kind of think of our free company as a family, and sometimes you do have conflict. When you have a group of people together, you also often have conflicting personality. There’s been times where you have people that don’t get along, so it’s important to have to deal with those situations. Or you get into a dungeon and you have someone that’s not being very nice or you’re dealing with toxic situations, learning how to manage is good to teach them.”

Her son nodded along while she talked. Whatever lesson it is she wanted to teach him, it most certainly got through.

Collin, Anya, Ethys, HealMe Harry, Celes, xFelice, Thad

As someone who does not play Final Fantasy XIV but owns an account I’ve been sitting on, I went into the Fan Fest trying to understand what it is that draws people to this game specifically over any of the other MMORPG, or even non-MMORPG, options out there. I’m still not sure, but that’s not for a lack of reasons given to me. I’m not sure because it sounds like it’s something you gain through the act of playing the game and meeting people and going on adventures yourself, or bringing the people important in your life into the fantasy world with you. It’s about the right community at the right time, which isn’t something you can put as a bullet point on the back of a box. Or, as someone once told me, it's about stories being very powerful.

Look, you know the drill – every year, a billion amazing and awful games come out, and every year, my well-intentioned co-workers totally blow their opportunity to write horrifically punny headlines for their reviews. I honestly don’t know what their problem is – it’s like they don’t even know how headlines work! If you aren’t eliciting an audible groan from your reader, you simply aren’t doing your job!

Lucky for them, I’ve got a metricbuttload of experience writing terrible headlines, and I’m always willing to help a co-worker in need – whether they’re humble enough to ask for it or not! As such, I went back through this year’s reviews and selected 30 review headlines to analyze and improve. Let the edification begin!

Detective Pikachu

Actual Headline:A Bit Too Elementary, My Dear Pikachu
Awesome Headline: More Like “Defective Pikachu”
Ben Reeves turned in an admirable headline for his Detective Pikachu review, opting for a Sherlock Holmes reference to convey that the game is too simple for its own good. Unfortunately, Holmes never actually said that line, so Reeves’ headline is wildly misleading, and may even qualify as Fake News®! Way to wage a war on the truth, Reeves – I guess we have to change the name of the magazine to Game Misinformer now. Anyway, my headline gets straight to the point while also busting out a sophisticated pun. Oh, it’s also not a dirty lie. Case closed!

God Of War

Actual Headline:Reaching A Higher Summit
Awesome Headline: Kratos Is Still Greatos – BOYYYYYY!
Another decent try, Joe’s thoughtful God of War headline alludes to the fact that Santa Monica Studio successfully created a new and more meaningful take on the classic God of War franchise, while evoking the imagery of Kratos climbing up to wherever the hell gods live so he can slaughter them all again. That’s pretty good – but way too subtle for all the old-school God of War fans who just want to rip dudes' heads off and knock over ceramic ware while doing the nasty. There’s no ambiguity in my headline, which not only rhymes, but also references the game’s biggest meme – and as we all know, a meme is worth a thousand original ideas!

Vampyr

Actual Headline: Dripping With Unrealized Potential
Awesome Headline: The “y” Was A Big Tip-Off, TBH
Once again, Joe’s headline is respectable, which I guess shouldn’t be too surprising seeing as he’s the reviews editor. “Dripping With Unrealized Potential” works on its own as a saying and accurately encapsulates Vampyr’s botched ambitions. However, it’s also a clever reference to the fact that vampires bite people, and then their blood drips out. Well, maybe “clever” is overselling it, but still a solid, multilayered headline.

My headline is more straightforward, and says what everyone was thinking – there’s no way a vampire game that purposely misspells “vampire” was going to be as good as fans hoped it would be. Oh well, at least they don’t sparkle!

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Actual Headline: Fighting For Glory
Awesome Headline: So Good You’ll O.D., See?
I’d love to give Joe crap for his boring-ass A.C. Odyssey headline, but mine’s a horrendous dud too. However, it’s not my fault! Given the series’ dubious track record, all of my A.C. headline puns have been honed to play off the double asses in “Assassin.” I’m like one of those Galapagos Islands birds that’s so specialized it can’t survive on the mainland anymore! That must be what happened to Joe here, too.

Spider-Man

Actual Headline: Spinning An Amazing Web
Awesome Headline: Our Spidey Sense Isn’t The Only Thing That’s Tingling!
Spider-Man turned out to be a great game, and Reiner’s headline captures that on multiple levels. The “spinning a web” reference speaks to the game’s quality narrative and, ya know, Spider-Man, while the “Amazing” is both an indicator of quality and a reference to – you guessed it – Spider-Man again! We get it, Reiner! Spider-Man is great!

My headline conveys the same information and contains a Spider-Man reference as well – but it also serves as a titillating double entendre! It wasn’t an easy one to brainstorm either; I tried for 20 minutes to make the same joke about webbing, but there’s just no classy way to pull it off…

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze For Switch

Actual Headline: Don’t Miss It This Time
Awesome Headline: Not Even Global Warming Can Stop This Great Ape
Well, you certainly can’t accuse Kyle of being too subtle. I mean, I get that Tropical Freeze was originally overlooked and that people shouldn’t miss it this time, but you shouldn’t LITERALLY SAY THAT as your headline. Hopefully Kyle learns a thing or two from my replacement, which plays off another overlooked aspect of the game – that its title is clearly another brazen political message from Nintendo about the dangers of climate change. Not only does my headline convey that DKC is a great game via a hilarious and informative monkey pun, it also amplifies Nintendo’s environmental message to HELP SAVE THE WORLD. Time to step your game up, Kyle!

Fe

Actual Headline: Prickly Platforming
Awesome Headline: Fe-get It
This actually is an improvement for Kyle, though given how low he set the bar with the last entry, that’s not saying much. To his credit, Kyle’s headline has some alliteration going on, and also tells you that it’s a platformer. The only problem? It doesn’t actually tell you if it’s good or bad – just prickly. My headline doesn’t just clue you in to the game’s quality, it tells you straight-up not to play it, which is the point of all reviews. In fact, mine doesn’t even need actual body text – the headline says it all!

Sea Of Thieves

Actual Headline: Fun In A Shallow Pool
Awesome Headline: Hello, 911? I’d Like To Report A Robbery: Rare Just Stole $60 From Me
Here’s another swing-and-a-miss from Kyle. The “Shallow Pool” reference in his headline is a solid, aquatic-themed way of conveying Sea of Thieves’ limitations, but unfortunately, Kyle doesn’t build on it with a reference to peeing or any other bodily excrements. Even worse, he seems to have erroneously included the word “fun” instead! Maybe he meant “funk?” Either way, it’s quite the embarrassing mistake that somehow made it all the way to print.

My headline makes no such mistake, and also helpfully provides a script for anyone who somehow buys it anyway – you should’ve listened to me in the first place, but you’re welcome regardless!

[Warning: Do not actually call 911 to request a refund for Sea of Thieves. They are not pirate fans.]

Crawl

Actual Headline:Teach Your Friends To Kill Each Other (WTF, Kyle?)
Awesome Headline: Better Than Krull…Probably?
I don’t even know what Kyle was going for with his amicicidal headline. Then again, I don’t know what I was thinking either – Crawl kind of sounds like Krull, so…good enough? Let’s just move on.

Moss

Actual Headline: If You Give A Mouse A Mission
Awesome Headline: Change The “O” To An “I” And That’s What This Game Is
Dammit Kyle, you’re not even trying anymore! Kyle’s reference to the beloved children’s book is even more clumsy and out of place than it was in Air Force One. And again, it doesn’t tell you anything about the quality of the game! My review headline, on the other hand, turns my objective assessment into a fun little puzzle game for readers to figure out – even more fun than playing Moss!  

Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King

Actual Headline: A Love Letter To The Past
Awesome Headline: Psst…Wake Up And Play This Game
Moving on from Kyle’s headline embarrassments, clearly Shea isn’t doing much better. First of all, one glimpse at a screenshot for Blossom Tales will tell you that it’s a “love letter to the past,” so the headline basically isn’t saying anything the reader doesn't already know. But more importantly, can we just stop calling things love letters already? Has anyone actually written a love letter in the past hundred years? People don’t write even normal, non-horny letters anymore! Most gamers nowadays probably won’t even get the reference – Shea should’ve gone with a headline like “A Sext To The Past,” and thrown in some eggplant emojis or something. God, I hate millennials.

Anywho, my headline plays off the “Sleeping King” subtitle to let readers know they should pay attention to this game, but without jolting them awake because that’s not good for the body. It’s informative and polite!

Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu & Eevee

Actual Headline: A Classic Evolved
Awesome Headline: For Sale: Nostalgia
Dammit, Shea, stop stating the obvious! Of course it’s a classic evolved – our readers have eyes! One look tells you it’s not the vomit pool of pixels that the first-gen Pokémon games were. My headline cuts through all the crap and labels these games as what they are: pure nostalgia cash grabs. Quit selling fans the same damn Pokémon games, Nintendo! Now let’s see how Shea is going to screw up his next headline.

The Swords Of Ditto

Actual Headline: Rise, Fall, And Repeat
Awesome Headline: Like That Clay Pot Sex Scene?
What the hell? That title is WAY too clever for Shea – Cork must’ve helped him out or something. Anyway, Shea’s headline cleverly plays off the fact that players continually die and respawn into Swords of Ditto’s world, while suggesting that it’s a little too repetitive for its own good. I’m not sure what that has to do with shampoo directions, but all in all it works.

My headline, on the other hand, goes all in on “Ditto” being a famous line from the 1990 supernatural romance hit, Ghost. Specifically, the headline references one the film's most iconic scene, where Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore incorporate a pottery wheel into their love-making. The scene is certainly steamy, which might suggest a high score, but they also ruined a perfectly good pot in the process, so that averages out to 7.25. I guess. Can we just pretend this entry never happened?

Where The Water Tastes Like Wine

Actual Headline: A Soulful Journey Through America
Awesome Headline: Move Over, Jesus!
Elise’s headline for Where The Water Tastes Like Wine gets across the basic premise of this narrative-focused indie game, and suggests it’s a journey worth taking. However, it doesn’t really scream “9 out of 10,” which is the score she gave the game. That’s a big deal! My incredibly concise headline gets that message across loud and clear, while also playing up the whole water/wine angle. When it comes to headline competitions, you can’t beat biblical!

The Room: Old Sins

Actual Headline: Exploring Every Old Nook And Cranny
Awesome Headline: I’m Not Even Looking For The Exit Cuz I’m Having So Much Fun In Here!
Reeves can come up with some pretty bonkers headlines, but I’m not a fan of this one. Mainly it’s because I’ve never liked the term “nook and cranny” – it sounds like something an old British baker would say. Even worse, Reeves’ headline as a whole sounds like something you’d DO to an old British baker. It’s just a gross, albeit honorable, attempt at conveying that you spend a lot of time in the game searching rooms for puzzle elements.

My headline plays off the same mechanics and, while wordy, does a much clearer job of telling you that it’s a good thing. Now, can someone lend me one of those MIB memory erasers? I’ve got some mental images of Mary Berry in my head that I would desperately like to forget…

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Actual Headline: A Noble Quest In Need Of Divine Intervention
Awesome Headline: King-Dumb, C’mon – Deliver Me From This Game!
Here’s proof that even I’m capable of flubbing a headline – or rather, that I’m capable of improving upon perfection! My original headline plays off of Kingdom Come’s religious themes to convey that, while it has some great moments, the overall experience suffers from inexcusable bugs and design issues. However, my replacement headline is just objectively better thanks to not one, but THREE world-class puns. Talk about the holy trinity!

Hitman 2

Actual Headline: A Worthy Investment For Expert Executioners
Awesome Headline: It’s A Hit, Man!
Here’s another one of my own headlines that could’ve been better. Sure, it gets across that the demanding learning curve is worth it, and it contains a little bit of alliteration on the assassin theme – but that’s no excuse for missing such an obvious Hitman pun. Shame on me! On the bright side, at least the game is good enough to put the Sh-tman pun to rest. R.I.P. Sh-tman!

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4

Actual Headline: Treyarch’s Gambit Yields Big Rewards
Awesome Headline: Black Oops, They Actually Made A Good Game This Year!
Tack turned in a serviceable headline for his BLOPS 4 review, calling out that the developer’s risky decision to forgo a story campaign for a new battle-royale mode really paid off. Unfortunately, it contains a big fat goose egg for puns. My ingeniously playful headline doesn’t just let readers know that the game is good – it speaks directly to the haters out there who believe that a good Call of Duty game could only be the product of a mistake. I don’t share that opinion, mind you – I just go where the puns lead me.

Dragon Ball FighterZ

Actual Headline: A Champion Welcoming All Challengers
Awesome Headline: No One's Super Sayin’ “Buu” To This Game – It’s Krillin the Competition! Trunks!
Poor Suriel didn’t stand a chance in this head-to-headline competition (GET IT?!). His headline points out that, despite the name, license, and general concept, Dragon Ball FighterZ is somehow good – and newcomer-friendly to boot. My headline, in contrast, attacks with a flurry of killer Dragon Ball puns that I only know because of one of my other ill-conceived columns. Granted, the Trunks reference isn’t my best work, but it’s a funny enough name to stand on its own.

Owlboy

Actual Headline: Taking The High Road
Awesome Headline: Well Owlboy Damned, This Game Is Great!
Suriel’s Owlboy headline certainly seems fine – as long as you don’t actually think about it for more than five seconds. If you do, you’ll realize that “taking the high road” isn’t actually an indicator of quality – it merely means not being a jerk. And most of the time people who claim to take the high road are only doing it to be condescending to whatever low-roader they’re lording it over, which is basically just being a jerk in a different way. What the hell is that headline even supposed to mean? Wait a minute – did Suriel mean “high road” literally, because you play as a flying bird creature?! Talk about high alright!

Regardless, I went with another hilarious pun that conveys the surprise and elation of how great the game is – and I didn’t even need to stoop to making a hooter joke! I think we all know “who” won this round. I can do this all day, guys!

Rust

Actual Headline: More Rough Than Diamond
Awesome Headline: In Need Of A Tetanus Shot. In The Butt.
Javy’s headline for Rust is just confusing. I mean, I get that it’s a play on “diamond in the rough,” obviously, but if it’s more “rough” than “diamond,” then isn’t it just bad? Actually, now that I think about it, isn’t it always more rough than diamond? It’s not like you’re ever going to have a giant-ass diamond that’s bigger than whatever crap it’s surrounded by.

My headline builds on what Javy should’ve used as his foundation – the word “rust.” And unlike Javy’s headline, there’s no philosophical confusion about how bad it is – and even if there is, the “In The Butt” certainly clears things up.

Civilization VI: Rise And Fall

Actual Headline:Shining A Polished Gem
Awesome Headline: Your Heartbeat Will Rise When You Fall In Love With Civ VI All Over Again
Here’s another confusing play on words, this time courtesy of Ben Reeves: You can’t shine something that’s already polished! It’s already shiny! What kind of monster goes around shining already-shiny gems? He’s only got four words in his headline, and two of them are redundant!

My replacement is admittedly wordy, but it offer a one-two “pun”ch on the name of the expansion, let’s you know it’s great, and establishes that the game was already a hit to begin with. You know, in case you live in a cave and don’t know what Civilization is – hey, that was its own organic play on words too! I couldn’t stop being clever even if I wanted to. Which I do! Seriously, this is becoming a real problem!

Super Mario Party

Actual Headline: Same Party, New Decorations
Awesome Headline: Spooper More-io Potty
Oh look, another blown headline from Shea. In this case the play on party decorations is fine and all, but it doesn’t convey that Mario Party is a horrendous piece of crap. In fact, you might even read that and come away thinking the game is alright! That just won’t do!

My headline has no such ambiguity about the quality – though I loaded in so many toilet-themed puns that it’s kind of unintelligible. Oh well, you can’t let legibility shut down a pun party!

Red Dead Redemption II

Actual Headline: An Open-World Western For The Ages
Awesome Headline: Rad Dude Re-daaaaaaamn!-ption, TOO GOOD!
What, you thought I was joking? I would never joke about a pun party! Look, if you want to be a good writer, you’ve got to learn how to cram as many puns into a single sentence as possible. Don’t worry if it makes sense – your readers will be laughing too hard to care!

Tetris Effect

Actual Headline: A Dazzling Reimagining
Awesome Headline: Yes, That Is An “I” Piece In Our Pants, But We’re Happy Playing The Game Too!
Wow, talk about a rare miss from Cork – “A Dazzling Reimagining” is about as blah as it gets! Granted, my reworking of the banana pants joke is a bit clumsy, but I think it gets all the relevant information across, so I’m giving myself a pass. I can do that, you know.

Far Cry 5

Actual Headline: Big Sigh Country
Awesome Headline: More Like Fart, Cry
Ahh, now here’s a classic Jeff Cork headline – that’s some A+ punnery that’s both relevant to the setting of the game, and also conveys its inferior quality. In fact, it’s almost good enough to forgive the fact that he overlooked an easy fart joke. Always go for the fart joke!

Fear Effect Sedna

Actual Headline: Dead On Revival
Awesome Headline: Fart Effect, Said “Nah”
See what I’m talking about? A fart pun trumps every other pun! Always!

Way Of The Passive Fist

Actual Headline: Straying From The Path
Awesome Headline: Wiff Of The Passing Fart
I’m really beginning to feel like people aren’t taking me seriously when I say that fart jokes are 100-percent ALWAYS THE ANSWER.

Fortnite

Actual Headline: An Epic Epoch
Awesome Headline: Fart – Not!
It even works for good games too! You can’t beat it!

Detroit: Become Human

Actual Headline: An Intriguing, But Flawed, Future
Awesome Headline: http://bit.ly/2rhZq6I
For whatever reason, Joe still remains resistant to us using URLs as headlines for some reason. Come on, Joe, it’s the 21st century! If any game deserves an avant-garde insult headline, it’s this one!

Easy to learn but hard to master is a turn of phrase that gets bandied about a lot when speaking about games. It’s usually a way of praising a project that offers great depth but simultaneously welcomes newcomers through strong onboarding. In the case of Starling Games’ Everdell, it’s a caution as much as it is a compliment. Everdell’s breathtaking components and art are a sight to behold, and happily welcome new players with a charming woodland aesthetic that’s soft, colorful, and detailed. A brisk turn order starts the game going with little in the way of delay between opportunities to act. But behind the childlike sylvan setting is a complex strategic affair with multitudinous paths to achieving victory – much too complex for most younger or inexperienced players to enjoy.

Understanding what you can do in a given turn isn’t hard, but understanding what you should do is far more involved, and pulling back the layers takes time. It’s likely Everdell won’t fully click in the first hour, or even the first full game session. But dedicated players who stick with it will find something quite magical.

Clearly inspired by classic tales like The Wind in the Willows and the Redwall novels, Everdell transports one to four players to an idyllic woodland valley where bespectacled bats hang from clock towers, hares keep shop at the general store, and postal pigeons dutifully haul letter bags between communities. Much of the charm is captured by the plentiful card illustrations by artist Andrew Bosley, which deserve a callout as some of the most evocative and imaginative of any game in my recent memory.

Everdell features gorgeous card art that helps bring its world to life (click the image to see bigger versions)

That rich table presence is further enhanced by a stunning custom board that represents the valley of Everdell, and which includes a cardboard standee (the Ever Tree) that towers over the back of the board. The branches of the tree house game components come into play throughout the game, and it acts as a physical representation of the passing seasons of the ongoing session. The combined effect is a table tableau that is unlike anything I’ve played, and it really captures the eye. The massive tree undoubtedly adds something special to the game, but comes at a cost. It means that all players should really be able to view the display from the front in order to fully enjoy the experience, and that may be a challenge for some groups who use a playspace that normally lets everyone spread out around the table. Also, fair warning: The cardboard pieces must be dismantled and reassembled for each game; it’s a bit of a nuisance, but really doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes.

Table display is stunning, but it's important to find a seating relationship where everyone can enjoy the view

Everdell’s gameplay is a mix of worker placement mechanics and engine building. Each player is working to establish their own new community in the valley by playing cards from a shared pool (the meadow) or from a private hand. Each card represents a constructed building (like the school, inn, or palace) or a critter (like the teacher, innkeeper, or queen), and is played in front of you in a growing grid layout. Each card has a cost in resources like twigs and berries, and you’ll need to send out your workers to gather those resources at various spots across the board. In a given turn, you have to choose one or the other – play a card or place a worker – so you must think carefully about what you need and how to reach your goals, even as other players weigh the same risks. Do you snag the spot to pick up some extra twigs, but at the cost of that card in the meadow that you and your opponent are both eyeing?

The game unfolds over four seasons, and as winter (the first season) begins, you have only two workers to employ. As the game begins for the first time, I’m sure you’ll feel as I did; how is this so simplistic? Those first couple of turns feel as if nothing meaningful is happening, like a tiny snowball at the top of the hill, with too few actions available, and resource build-up that seems slow. Of course, the snowball grows in momentum as it rolls forward, and the game’s tension and available options rise with each passing turn. On your turn, you may also prepare for the next season, reclaiming all your workers, gaining new workers who have been waiting in the Ever Tree, and triggering production card effects. Oddly, you can move ahead into summer, even as your opponents are still in springtime. You risk reaching the endgame ahead of them, but you have increased workers to use in the meantime, which might pay dividends.

The game can be purchased as a collector's edition with some beautiful extra cards and components, but the standard edition still features top-notch production values

Further complexity arises through the many interconnected chains, combos, and synergies on the cards you’ve played, building up an engine that runs in part on its own. Play one card that triggers another already in play, which in turn lets you gain more resources, and draw yet more cards into your hand. Already have the inn card? Play the innkeeper for free, if you can manage to snag it from the meadow before your buddy. Maybe you planned ahead and put a crane into place two turns ago? Now you can build that theater for three fewer resources. The challenge here is perceiving all the ways to capitalize on your build order, and even noticing opportunities to snag point tokens as they arise through cards and events on the board can be a challenge. This is a game in which experienced players have a profound advantage over new players; that’s not a bad thing, but it’s something to account for in your approach to play.

The other standout feature of Everdell is its replayability, accomplished chiefly through board elements that change each session. In any given playthrough, a series of special events and additional worker placement forest spaces are dealt onto the board. Together, those add up to several new ways to gain resources, and an equal number of new ways to gain victory points, but they’re different in each game. When paired with the manifold chains inherent to cards, I found that every game setup and outcome was very different from the last. And with each one of those setups, I was more impressed with the elegant balance dynamics that hold everything together and keep players from running away with the win.

Everdell isn’t what it might first appear. Its whimsical tone belies a deep strategy experience. It offers a simple turn structure that should play quickly, yet I found it’s easy to get caught up in deciding what single action you should take on a turn; in this case, I don’t think it’s out-of-line to suggest a reasonable house-ruled time limit on player decisions in the name of keeping playtime under a couple of hours. The seemingly player-independent decision-making by each player seems at first like there wouldn’t be much interaction, but opportunities arise in the late game where you can profoundly screw over an opponent’s carefully laid plans. To be clear, none of these factors are criticisms, but simply a caution to players that Everdell might not be what you expect. If you’re brand new to tabletop play, it might not be the user-friendly first game you were hoping for. Conversely, experienced gamer groups should strongly consider checking this out before dismissing it on the basis of the seemingly cutesy theme; there’s much more depth here than you think.

The "Ever Tree" is mostly an aesthetic object on the board, but it does house the workers you'll gain later in the game, and it helps to reinforce the seasonal structure of a given playthrough

Happily, designer James A. Wilson has also included an entertaining solo mode, which acts as an ideal way to learn the game for new owners, populated by an entertaining NPC villain to confront in the form of a conniving rat named Rugwort. Whether tackled solo or with your friends at your side, Everdell isn’t a game that reveals its secrets without effort. But it is a project of tremendous sophistication in its melding of mechanics and theme into an engaging and momentum-driven affair. Embrace its soft-spoken enchanted forest theme, and you’ll discover with time that there’s much more hiding in the tree’s shadow.

As we come up on the end of the year, it’s a great time to dive back through the backlog of Top of the Table, and begin to pick out the games you might want to snag for the holidays and take home to share with friends and family. Click on the banner below to explore all past recommendations. And if you’d like some personalized help finding the right game for your holiday get-together, drop me a line via email from the link at the bottom of this article; I’d love to hear what you’re looking for, and hopefully guide you to something that will bring folks together around the table this season.  

Fans’ insatiable appetite for news on their favorite games has created a market that Photoshop-skilled fakers are exploiting. For every verifiable leak, there are dozens of hoaxes spreading false information. Sometimes they are revealed quickly by their creators and their motivations are relatively benign. There are others who want their constructions to fool viewers, and they bask in the glory of tricking the unsuspecting. While most are easy to spot, these are the leaks that went the extra mile to try to fool us.

The Grinch Leak (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

The recently discredited “Grinch Leak” made its first appearance in a Snapchat video on October 24. It appeared to reveal artwork with the entire roster of fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Seven characters were supposedly unveiled, including Shadow the Hedgehog, Banjo-Kazooie, and Ken from Street Fighter.

The characters where just believable enough that the debate quickly split viewers into two opposing teams: those who trusted the rumor, and those who denounced it. “Team real” pointed to a promotional image of The Grinch movie in the background, which gave the rumor its name as proof of the leak’s veracity. The image seemed to corroborate the leaker worked in advertising, and so would have access to privileged information. The skeptics were ultimately victorious when, during the Nintendo Direct on November 1, Incineroar was revealed as the last unique character in the base game, with Ken from Street Fighter introduced as an echo fighter.

Spring Man (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

Super Smash Bros. attracts a dedicated fake leak crowd. It is a long-running series that reuses a lot of stages and characters – making it easy to get a hold of plausible artwork – and fans spend years speculating wildly about the game’s characters. Which is why an anonymous post got so much attention on 4Chan back in April. It had several screen shots and a short video that allegedly exposed unannounced characters coming to Nintendo’s fighting game.

Unlike many easy-to-dismiss fakes, these pictures were presented in resolution and included mundane unconfirmed – but anticipated – elements. The leak played on people’s expectations that the Ice Climbers, who haven’t been in Smash Bros. since Brawl, might return; that this generation Mario would have Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey; and that Nintendo would introduce a character from their new IP, Arms. Even though wary fans seemed to take these images with a grain of salt, they were so well done, few were willing to confidently denounce them.

Nintendo E3 2018 Schedule

E3 is like Christmas for gamers and leakers alike. The frenzy of excitement surrounding the tightly guarded presentations creates a perfect environment for leaks to go viral. This year, it was especially easy to pass off fake information due to the unusually high number of real leaks. For instance, Walmart Canada’s online store accidentally went live too soon and, though it was hurriedly taken down, screenshots made the rounds. Though it was riddled with questionable content, the online inventory nonetheless garnered intense attention because it appeared to show games from almost every major E3 presenter. When, in the aftermath, Bethesda hurriedly announced Rage 2 – one of the most out of the blue games on Walmart’s list – they inadvertently confirmed legitimacy on the entire leak.  

Taking advantage of the hectic atmosphere, a list popped up that purported to detail Nintendo’s full presentation and Treehouse schedule. The list went viral and got plastered in every corner of the internet. It promised gameplay footage of several anticipated titles like the new Metroid and the rumored Star Fox racing game. The schedule, however, didn’t stand up to scrutiny. The formatting was inconsistent throughout the document, some of the game titles – like Yoshi’s Flipping Island – were too bizarre, even for Nintendo, and the page was peppered with typos. But again, because the Walmart list had many of the same problems, this leak couldn’t be entirely debunked until after Nintendo’s E3 video presentation.

Multiple Sony E3 Presentation Schedules Leak

At the same time the fake Nintendo itinerary was making the rounds, several people wanted us to believe they had gotten their hands on the Sony conference schedule. It is surprising how many people believed the information despite there being two dissimilar Sony documents, but the E3 hype was at a crescendo.

Like many other rumors on this list, these leaks were able to gain momentum because they played on fans’ wishes and built a valid foundation with already confirmed information. The documents promised long desired announcements from PS4 backward compatibility to Bloodborne 2. Sony quashed the rumors quickly when they broke from tradition and openly announced they would only be focusing on four Sony exclusives during the conference: Death Stranding, The Last of Us: Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, and Spider-Man.

Animal Crossing for Nintendo Switch

Fans have been desperately waiting for a new Animal Crossing, so leaks regarding the game were popular this year. Once again, the hoax debuted on 4Chan and it showed a title screen of Animal Crossing: Globetrotter alongside a second image of a character.

This leak and others like it prompted an unusual PSA from Tristan Cooper, editing manager at Dorkly. He presented his own fake leak that began believably, and then over a series of screenshot unmasked itself as a Photoshopped fiction. He made it as a humorous warning urging people not believe unverified internet leaks. One fake screenshot even points out that an earlier picture had inserted pictures of Shrek in the background. The responses to his piece demonstrate how easily some had been fooled. While some appreciated the joke, others vehemently resented being tricked.

Borderlands 3 Footage

A post on reddit from ShineRise1 back in March claimed that, after six years of waiting, the next Borderlands was coming out within the year. A slew of speculation followed in the announcement’s wake. True to form for a fake leak, the camera work and resolution left a lot to be desired. A shaky video of planets ended in a single screenshot that showcased a completely made-up logo and protagonist standing in the rain. In the post, ShineRise1 describes the game’s progression from linear to open world gameplay and also indicated the game had a September release date.

It wasn’t a secret that Borderlands 3 was in development at the time, a developer’s recent Twitter post that he was working on the “next Borderlands” supported the leak’s plausibility. The hoax unraveled when someone superimposed the image of the “new protagonist” on top of an image of a character in a Dark Soul II’s trailer. The mask and rain in the background matched exactly, proving that the leaker had simply cropped an image.

The Survivor 2299 Website

When a much-loved franchise is left alone for too long, fans begin to get antsy and leakers smell opportunity. This was the case back in 2013 when an enigmatic website with the URL thesurvivor2299.com, seemed to promise the official reveal of Fallout 4.

This leaker went all-out in the attempt, as he later explained, to force Bethesda into sharing real details about their plans for the game. The website hosted a countdown clock that ended on December 11, the same day as the VGX awards, which could have made a great venue for a big announcement. That ZeniMax Media, Bethesda’s parent company, owned the domain, added fuel to the fire. The site had secret messages that referenced game characters, it had cryptic codes that sent fans on wild goose chases – it even featured some Morse code for good measure. To everyone’s chagrin, the hoaxer came clean and Fallout 4 wouldn’t come out for another 2 years.

Nintendo Switch 5.0 Update

In January, a video emerged claiming to demonstrate firmware update 5.0 for the Nintendo Switch. The video presented a YouTube app coming to the Switch which excited many people because fans’ have been asking for YouTube on their Switch since the console launched. A few short days later, the leaker proudly took credit for his handiwork with a brief apology and a hope that Nintendo would take notice.

The power of this leak is that, even after being revealed as a hoax, everyone still wanted it to be true. Many outlets covering the story touched on this sentiment and suggested that Nintendo might be wise to consider the fan reaction. It may have taken the better half of a year, but Nintendo did introduce the long-awaited YouTube app earlier this month.

Game Informer Superman Cover

Many of the leaks on this list pretend their fake information came from an official source to seem more legitimate. Back in the end of May, that’s just what happened when Game Informer got dragged into a hoax. A 4Chan poster falsely insisted that they had early access to our cover, which would break the news of Rocksteady’s upcoming Superman title.

The claim wasn’t outrageous, because Rocksteady was already closely tied to the superhero genre. The studio made the Batman: Arkham games into one of the most successful superhero video game franchises of all time. Though the claim might have seemed plausible at face value, anyone would have been able to see that almost the exact same debunked story made the rounds back in November 2017. The whispers became more frenzied after Twitter post from Andrew Reiner didn’t deny the rumor. Game informer’s real July cover released soon after – with Anthem on the on the cover rather than the man of steel – and the jig was up.

NX controller

Nothing gets fans’ imaginations going like the announcement of a new game system followed by years of silence. Back when the Nintendo Switch was still cloaked under working title project NX, people couldn’t keep from speculating about the impending Nintendo console. Enter the two-part hoax of the NX controller.

Multiple pictures from different leakers surfaced of an unusual looking controller with two joysticks on opposing ends of an elongated disk that seemed to replicate an earlier hardware patent. One poster, Idriss2Dev on Reddit, even showed the supposed controller alongside a sticky note that referenced a quote from the Wii’s reveal.  The internet tore the images apart looking for clues and under the pressure, David Louis-Marie revealed his hoax that he put together with a 3D printer and Photoshop. Soon after, the second poster, Frank Sandqvist, stepped forward and explained his motivation for carrying on the hoax. He was interested to see how easily he could recreate the leak just for laughs but then regretted getting peoples' hopes up. 

Rayman (Super Smash Bros. for Wii U)

This is the example par excellence of a fake leak that had everyone going. The video showed a Super Smash Bros. menu depicting Rayman as one of the fighters. The internet went crazy with the footage, and Omni Jacala came forward himself after only a few days.

We spoke with him back when the story first broke to understand what motivated him and other leakers to do what they did. In an interview with Kyle Hilliard, Omni explained that he was just a fan that wanted to display his artistic skills and love of the game. He said that he didn’t mean any harm and didn’t really think of the consequences. He created a video educating people on how he made the fake, and he now uses his YouTube Channel to analyze other questionable leak videos, many of which have appeared on this list.

As technology gets better, fake leaks will become harder to spot. So, no matter how much you want to believe that screenshot of your favorite character in Super Smash Bros. or that footage claiming the game you've been waiting for forever is just around the corner, take every leak with a grain of salt. Or don't. We can make another list next year. 

As the Pokémon Trading Card Game continues to grow through multiple new expansions every year, the team behind the popular collectible-card game introduces new mechanics and elements to keep things fresh for long-time players. With the beginning of the Sun and Moon series, the Pokémon TCG team introduced the Pokémon-GX mechanic, which gave players access to extremely powerful monsters that carry a hefty two-prize penalty for being knocked out. The team has now taken that mechanic a step further with new Tag Team Pokémon-GX cards.

The new cards pair two Pokémon on the same card for increased power. However, if that Tag Team Pokémon-GX card is knocked out, it costs the player a whopping three prize cards. The mechanic was announced in August with a card starring Pikachu & Zekrom-GX, but now we are able to exclusively reveal two more pairings: Eevee & Snorlax-GX and Celebi & Venusaur-GX.

You can see these cards for the first time below. Also, be sure to check out our interview with Pokémon Trading Card Game director Atsushi Nagashima about the challenges of balancing this new mechanic and how the pairings are decided.

For most new Pokémon TCG expansions, we crack open a ton of booster packs and show off the coolest cards we pulled. Check out our galleries from past expansions below, and look forward to new ones with each expansion! You can also head here for an in-depth look at the history of the Pokémon Trading Card game.

• Sun and Moon – Lost Thunder
• Sun and Moon – Celestial Storm
• Sun and Moon – Forbidden Light
• Sun and Moon – Ultra Prism
• Sun and Moon – Shining Legends
• Sun and Moon – Burning Shadows
• Sun and Moon – Guardians Rising
• Sun and Moon
• XY Generations/XY Evolutions
• Premium Trainer's XY Collection 

The Pokémon Trading Card game continues to grow through new expansions, but the newest mechanic delivers potentially game-changing implications. The mechanic pairs two Pokémon on a single card to deliver extremely powerful attacks. However, if your Tag Team Pokémon-GX card gets knocked out, you must surrender three prizes, offering a high-risk-high-reward mechanic.

We had the chance to chat with Atsushi Nagashima, game director of the Pokémon Trading Card game, about the new mechanic, the challenges such a powerful new convention brings, and how the team decides which Pokémon to pair up.

If this new mechanic sounds interesting to you, be sure to check out our exclusive reveal of two new Tag Team Pokémon-GX cards.

What was the inspiration behind the new Tag Team cards and this new game mechanic?

The Pokémon-GX mechanic debuted with the Pokémon TCG: Sun & Moon series. We started out with the standard blue GX cards that expressed a feeling of justice and then followed up with the red GX cards that aimed to express the sense of “otherness” or being from another world that came with the Ultra Beasts. Entering the third year of the Sun & Moon series, we wanted to come up with a third variation of GX that surpassed what we had done previously, which proved to be a difficult task.

With the GX cards up until now, we primarily focused on making them really interesting from a game data perspective by giving them GX attacks that were far more powerful than normal attacks and could make matches really exciting.

This time around, we took the approach of focusing on the characters themselves, which are really the core appeal of Pokémon, and seeing what we could do to expand on them. The relationship between a Trainer and his or her Pokémon is often depicted in the Pokémon universe, but the relationship between two Pokémon does not often get the spotlight. By bringing two Pokémon together and giving them a relationship, we felt that we could make the cards even more appealing from a non-gameplay angle.

When coming up with a wide variety of Pokémon to pair as Tag Team Pokémon-GX cards, we came up with a variety of key words and phrases to take inspiration from, such as “traditional,” “unconventional,” “unexpected,” “dream team,” and “joining forces.” We tried to reflect these concepts each time when coming up with a Pokémon pair to feature on the Tag Team Pokémon-GX cards to really analyze what makes the Pokémon so appealing.

Once we were satisfied with the paired Pokémon for the cards, we focused on the concept of “joining forces” when thinking about what their gameplay would be. By doing this, we came up with a new type of game logic that brings additional benefits when you add Energy, which really expresses the idea of Tag Team Pokémon-GX well.

Other than Pokémon type, how do you decide the pairings on these cards?

From the very beginning, we knew we wanted to come up with a wide variety of relationships to express through the cards. We started with pairs that would be immediately exciting to players and then started looking deeper into what kind of background might have led to their joining forces and through that, came up with a variety of different relationships for the Pokémon to have, such as trustworthy partners, rivals that encourage each other to improve, Pokémon that have strong similarities, Pokémon in which one follows and obeys the other, and even Pokémon that look like they get along on the surface but actually have a complex relationship behind the scenes. It was a lot of fun putting the Pokémon together, conjuring up different ideas for the relationships they would have.

We solicited ideas from our internal teams and tried to come up with the most interesting ideas and stories for the cards while focusing on having a rich variety.

Finally, we made these cards to be powerful and influential, so we took into account the current meta game environment when determining what kind of new card logic needed to be developed and then deciding which Pokémon pair would best suit that logic.

Pikachu & Zekrom-GX was the first Tag Team Pokémon-GX card revealed

What was the process like to balance this new mechanic so as to not make it too overpowered? Were there ideas other than having a K.O. be worth three prizes?

When introducing new types of cards, we always want to shake up the gameplay environment. At the same time, we try to ensure that cards that were useful up until now remain useful, and make it so that cards which maybe didn’t see a lot of use get a new chance to shine, which creates new value for players. We focus on designing the cards to give players a new gameplay environment in which to enjoy playing the game. Also, it’s always a lot of fun to see what new kind of value players discover in the cards that we as the developers of the game never even realized.

In terms of other ideas to balance the Tag Team Pokémon-GX cards, we explored quite a few options, such as having the opponent take four Prize Cards when knocking out a Tag Team Pokémon-GX, letting the opponent use two GX attacks in a single game, or even giving the Tag Team Pokémon-GX cards multiple weaknesses.

How do you think Tag Team cards will impact deck building?

Tag Team Pokémon-GX cards have extremely powerful attacks, but these attacks also require a lot of Energy to use. It will be key for players to include Trainer cards to support the types they use in their decks and include support Pokémon that augment their Tag Team Pokémon-GX cards.

Furthermore, if players rely too heavily on Tag Team Pokémon-GX cards, the game won’t last very long since the opponent will win if they manage to knock out just two Tag Team Pokémon-GX. As a result, they’ll need to think about how they can also insert normal GX cards and non-GX Pokémon into their strategies. This all means that a deck’s sub-attackers and the player’s individual play skill will become even more important.

How many Tag Team cards will there be, and how rare will they be?

Unfortunately, I can’t say exactly how many cards there will be and what their rarities will be at this time, but I hope players will look forward to discovering these in the future.

For most new Pokémon TCG expansions, we crack open a ton of booster packs and show off the coolest cards we pulled. Check out our galleries from past expansions below, and look forward to new ones with each expansion!

• Sun and Moon – Lost Thunder
• Sun and Moon – Celestial Storm
• Sun and Moon – Forbidden Light
• Sun and Moon – Ultra Prism
• Sun and Moon – Shining Legends
• Sun and Moon – Burning Shadows
• Sun and Moon – Guardians Rising
• Sun and Moon
• XY Generations/XY Evolutions
• Premium Trainer's XY Collection 

Darksiders III releases tomorrow (you can read our review here) and like most games these days, there is a special edition version you can buy that is more expensive and includes more stuff. Darksiders' take on the special edition, however, goes above and beyond both in size and price. The Apocalypse Edition of the game retails for $399, includes four statues, and a whole bunch of other goodies. Here is a picture of the full box with a Benjamin Reeves for scale.

Here's the opened box with the figures not yet removed.

Here's an Andrew Reiner for scale in case you need it.

And here are the figures out of the larger box, but not the individual boxes.

The statues are the main selling point, but here are some of the other things that come with the bundle. There is an art book, a soundtrack, a steel case, the game itself, a code to download all the DLC, and...

A wall scroll (with a hidden Benjamin Reeves for scale)!

But here's what you really came for: The statues. Here's a look at Fury.

Here's a look at Death from Darksiders II.

Here's a look at War from the first Darksiders.

And finally here's Vulgrim, one of the few constant characters across the whole trilogy.

So there you go! The Darksiders III Apocalypse Edition. All the statues look pretty good up close, though including Vulgrim instead of the fourth Horseman, Strife, is confusing.

No single company has the market cornered on nostalgia. In the last two years, Nintendo enjoyed positive fan response to its NES and SNES mini-consoles, and now Sony is tapping into a similar vein with the PlaySta tion Classic. This plug-and-play novelty console mines So ny’s history to bring gamers a fond look back at a bygone era, but is the trip down memory lane worthwhile? We spent hours with the system and its games to find the answer.

What Is It?
The PlayStation Classic looks like a smaller version of the original PlayStation, which Sony released in North America in 1995. Like the similar throwback consoles from Nintendo, the PlayStation Classic comes pre-loaded with a selection of titles that helped define the system, and you can’t change or add to that library. Each of the 20 games has a dedicated virtual memory card and a single quick-access “resume point.” Two controllers (without rumble or analog sticks) are included with the unit, but the package lacks an AC adapter. While that last detail may seem like a serious oversight, the USB ports on some TVs can power the unit. If that’s not an option, the USB cord can also be plugged into common smartphone wall chargers, so the omission doesn’t detract much from the plug-and-play appeal.

The Games
The early forays into 3D gaming may feel sluggish by modern standards, and compared to 8- and 16-bit titles, we generally don’t see the same outpouring of affection for games of this era. However, several titles on the PlayStation Classic help remind us of all the great things this generation had to offer. A few of my favorites include Final Fantasy VII and Wild Arms, hugely influential RPGs that still hold up today. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee remains a funny and inventive journey, and Intelligent Qube is an underrated gem of a puzzler.

These are the original versions of the games, which can sometimes be charming – like seeing the old pseudonyms for the voice performers in Met al Gear Solid. On the other hand, this localization of Revelations: Persona is infamously bad for various reasons, and no fan of the series would recommend it. I also would have liked to see a little more emphasis on providing good games rather than historically significant ones, especially when it comes to picking a single entry in a series. Why Twisted Metal instead of Twisted Metal 2? Or the original Grand Theft Auto instead of GTA 2?

Lastly, while I’m sure licensing these games is no easy feat, the absence of certain iconic platform-defining titles like Tomb Raider, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and Gran Turismo conveys a nagging sense that the collection is incomplete. It’s better than nothing, but not nearly as good as it could be.

The Verdict
The PlayStation Classic is a good fit for an extremely specific audience: The intersection of people who have great fondness for important games on PlayStation and who have a gaming setup that constantly keeps the system within an arm’s reach. Having to hit buttons on the unit to set resume points or return to the main menu is a pain, and the controller cords (which are about 4.5 feet long) keep you tethered pretty close. The problem of proximity isn’t exclusive to the Play Station Classic; the NES and SNES Classic Editions also have similar limitations. However, one issue that is unique here is the lack of analog sticks on the controller. It isn’t a problem for every title, but I found it practically impossible to enjoy revisiting games like Metal Gear Solid and Rainbow Six without them. Combined with an overall hit-and-miss selection of titles and a barebones menu presentation, the PlayStation Classic does just enough to conjure the minimum amount of expected nostalgia, but it doesn’t take any extra steps to augment, enhance, or curate the experience.

The PlayStation Classic releases on December 3.

Bugs and glitches will never die. No matter how many graphical strides or technical improvements the industry makes, video games will always contain bugs. Fallout 76 is a recent exemplar of this inevitable truth, but it is far from the last. To celebrate the exploits and virtual tears that bugs have given us over the years, we’ve compiled a list of the most infamous glitches we’ve encountered over the years.

MissingNo. (Pokémon Red & Blue)

Players may remember seeking out this little L-shaped block of pixels by watching the old man in Viridian City catch a Pokémon. If they then flew to Cinnabar Island and sailed up and down the coast, they’d have a chance to encounter the mysterious MissingNo. Short for “Missing Number,” MissingNo. isn’t actually a Pokémon but a glitched sprite that appears when the game loads a Pokémon that doesn’t exist. Every encounter nets players 128 copies of the item in their sixth slot, and you can catch it. While a handful have reported that the glitch totally corrupts your save and can even render the game unplayable, most players claim MissingNo. is harmless and have been seeking out its exploitative benefits for years. The glitch “Pokémon” has become so famous that it even has its own fake Pokémon cards.

Sketch Glitch (Final Fantasy III)

Arguably the most infamous glitch in Final Fantasy III for the SNES, the sketch glitch happens when Relm’s “sketch” ability misses, resulting in a programming error that corrupts memory and should be used with caution. Still, players have figured out how to control certain variables – like which spell is in your lead character’s 28th magic slot – and exploit the glitch for material gain. Entire strategy guides have been devoted to mastering the sketch bug, which isn’t cut and dry, but if pulled off correctly, players will be inundated with multiple copies of rare items. The glitch also breaks the item inventory slightly, but who cares when it can make you infinitely rich?

Swing-Set Glitch (Grand Theft Auto IV)

There’s nothing as majestic as an ordinary object breaking the tethers of gravity to take flight, which is what happens to your car if you park it by a swing set in GTA IV. Also known as the car launcher, or car-cannon glitch, this bug happens when players press their vehicle against any one of numerous swing sets located throughout Liberty City. Cars are often flung so far that players can clear whole sections of the map. Though the landing can sometimes propel players through the windshield, usually the cars keep running and remain driveable. Fun and innocuous, the swing-set glitch is easily one of the most entertaining glitches in gaming.

SHAUN! (Heavy Rain)

Heavy Rain is filled with dramatic, heart-stopping moments, but this bug completely deflates one of its most iconic sequences. When playing as Ethan in Heavy Rain’s finale, players are prompted to press “X” to yell for their son, Shaun. If glitched, however, the prompt never goes away. After Shaun has been rescued, the prompt continues to appear on the screen, encouraging players to scream “SHAUN!” like drunken idiots through the remainder of the cutscenes. So, when the villain delivers his monologue or after your son wakes up, you’ll keep on screaming “SHAUN!” like a deranged lunatic. Even after the camera has moved well away from Ethan, you can still hear him shouting “SHAUN!” in the distance.

The Black Hole (Super Smash Bros. Melee)

While playing Super Smash Bros. Melee, get three friends to play as Peach, Fox, Falco, and one other character.  Make sure the fourth character is teamed up with Fox or Falco and friendly fire is turned off. Go to the Temple. Have Fox and Falco stand opposite each other with Peach below and the fourth character standing beside their partner with a Super Scope. Using the super scope, fire 15 shots, two fully charged shots, then charge it again and have someone hit you from behind without firing, and now you’ll have infinite ammo. Fire the Super Scope non-stop while Fox and Falco use their reflector shields to bounce the blasts back and forth like an endless game of Pong. Inside the stream, a single “clang” bubble will appear, at which point Peach should jump into the stream multiple times to create other clang bubbles. Eventually there’ll be a chain reaction, and a line of overlapping bubbles will materialize. Stop firing the Super Scope. As Peach, toss 13 vegetables, (but no more) up into the stream. The 13 vegetables will hang in limbo, rotating endlessly, and you’ll have created a black hole. If any character besides Peach touches it, they’ll immediately be dealt 999 percent damage and be sent flying off the map. It’s a great way to kill time, and possibly crash your game.   

Flying Mammoths (Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)

Back when Skyrim first released, as players walked around the vast open tundra, they’d occasionally spy a large creature hovering in the sky, only it wouldn’t be a bird or a dragon. It’d be a mammoth. On the one hand, it was amusing so see the giant fluffy beasts soaring through the sky only to plummet to earth and die so you could loot their ivory and mammoth meat. On the other hand, when you’re walking around the fields of Skyrim with the music swelling and crickets chirping, the sight of a floating mammoth does take you out of the experience. While it might’ve been good for a laugh or two, this glitch was terrible for player immersion.

No Face Glitch (Assassin’s Creed Unity)

“My God, what is that!? Oh, it’s just a floating pair of eyeballs and a disembodied mouth.” Perhaps the most horrific glitch on this list, when Assassin’s Creed Unity first released many players reported characters with no face. That’s right. They’d have no face. Instead you’d be greeted by a ghastly pair of floating eyes and weirdly grinning teeth. It was a truly horrific sight, and one of the most memorable glitches from a game that was riddled with them.

Door Glitch (Metroid: Other M)

Players blasting their way through Metroid: Other M as Samus may remember encountering a door in Sector 3 that was locked and wouldn’t open, halting progression. According to Nintendo, if players backtracked after unlocking the ice beam instead of going immediately through the door, it would become permanently locked. In 2010, this glitch was so bad that Nintendo offered to fix the save files of players who mailed in their SD cards. Otherwise, players had to start the entire game over again. For a series built around backtracking, that might be too much backtracking.

The Castle Crush Glitch (Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest)

Being forced to start a game over because of a glitch is bad, but it’s 10 times worse when you have to buy an entirely new game. This Donkey Kong Country 2 bug is one of the most infamous glitches in video game history. If you ever broke the barrel on the upper level of the Castle Crush level, your game would break out into any number of random glitches. Sometimes it’d transform you into a pixelated blob, other times it’d phase you through walls, and sometimes it would just turn the screen into a kaleidoscope of colors. If you survived the distorted chaos, however, the glitch could also damage the game’s hardware rendering the game unplayable. This glitch is all fun and monkeyshines until it turns into guerilla warfare on your game cartridge.

PlayStation Underground Holiday 2004 Demo Disc (PS2)

The mother of all game-breaking bugs. When this holiday demo disk went out in 2004, players were able to sample a variety of games, including the new Viewtiful Joe 2. However, the Viewtiful Joe 2 demo contained a devastating glitch that erased every save file on your memory card. In fact, any memory card that was inserted at the time was wiped clean. In response, Sony issued a public apology and recommended that players enjoy the game without a memory card installed. Too little, too late, Sony.

Did your favorite (or least favorite) glitch make the list? Let us know about it in the comments section. For more glitchy good times, be sure to check out our compilation of bugs caught on tape in Red Dead Redemption 2, this blooper reel from the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, or our inaugurations for the eighth annual Glitchie Awards.

The Red Dead Online beta begins today for owners of Red Dead Redemption II Ultimate Edition, with other players allowed to join at predetermined times throughout the week. You probably have several general questions about what activities are going to be available at launch. It's your lucky day, cowpoke, because we have a breakdown of some of the larger looming questions right here.

When Does Red Dead Online Take Place?

Right before the events of Red Dead Redemption II, which means you have a lot of familiar faces to run into as you explore the frontier, including Van der Linde gang members. For instance, Sadie Adler is still living her idyllic life at Adler Ranch up in the Grizzlies. 

Who Do I Play As?

Just like with Grand Theft Auto Online, Red Dead Online allows you to create your own character. You get to decide how they look and what they wear – we strongly suggest you tour the amazing teeth options. You can also set their base attributes, which will grow as you earn XP and complete various tasks around the world. Ability Cards give you even more ways to tailor your skills. 

When Red Dead Online begins, you are leaving Sisika Penitentiary, and your story crosses paths with many familiar faces from Red Dead Redemption II.

What Features Cross Over From Red Dead Redemption II?

A lot of them. The entire map of Red Dead Redemption II is here for you to explore. You can hunt and fish while out in the wilderness, seek treasure, set up a camp, and care for and bond with your horse. Stranger missions will appear around the environment offering free roam missions to tackle. 

The nature of these missions is determined by your standing in the honor system, another feature that carries over from Red Dead Redemption II. If you're an outlaw, your mission may be about breaking someone out of jail. If you're an honorable cowboy, maybe it will be about tracking down a bounty instead.  

Can I Form A Posse With Friends?

What kind of western would this be if there weren't posses? Red Dead Online lets up to seven people join forces to terrorize small towns or keep the peace. You can square off against rival posses or complete cooperative missions. When you start out, you'll be using temporary posses, because making a persistent one costs $200 in-game dollars.

Is There A Story?

Yes. Red Dead Online comes with A Land of Opportunities, a narrative-driven, four-player cooperative experience that Rockstar plans to continually expand upon. You can jump right into the early missions of a quest Rockstar says  "involves chasing truth, revenge, and honor." The actions you take during these missions and your honor standing will change the trajectory of the story as well.

What About Competitive Play?

The Red Dead Online beta currently features five adversarial modes, which you can access at the Showdown Series signposts. Shootout & Team Shootout are your standard deathmatch variants. Make It Count tasks you with using nothing but throwing knives and your bow to become the last person standing as the map continually shrinks, battle royale-style. Most Wanted is a spin on deathmatch where every kill catapults you up the scoreboard, but rivals earn more points for taking out higher-ranked adversaries.  Hostile Territory is a classic domination mode. The last mode, Name Your Weapon, gives you more points for using weapons that make the kill tougher. 

As with Grand Theft Auto Online, you can likely expect Rockstar to continually rotate new modes in and out in the coming months and years.

Are There Microtransactions?

Not yet, but there will be. Some in-game menus are not available right now, and this includes the in-game store where one day you will be able to buy Gold Bars (the equivalent to GTA Online's Shark Cards) to buy cosmetics and weapon customization. 

Where Can I Share My Feedback?

This being a beta, Rockstar is enlisting the community to help improve the Red Dead Online experience. Feedback is critical, so if you run into technical hiccups, the Rockstar Support site is online and ready to help in whatever way it can. For those of you with strong opinions about pre-existing content, changes you'd like to see made, or suggestions about new features, head to reddeadonline.com/feedback.

Red Dead Redemption II had its share of old faces to please fans of the original. However, one character was conspicuously but understandably absent -- at least in story mode. Red Dead Online has a huge treat for anyone who adores the original game and we're gonna show it right here and now. 

Obligatory spoiler warning: This is obviously a massive spoiler for Red Dead Online as this is easily the biggest moment we've come across in the mode. No real spoilers for Red Dead Redemption II outside of revealing which character from the original game doesn't show up in the story. Seriously, last chance to turn back.

Here we go.

So in Red Dead Redemption II's story, you could visit MacFarlane Ranch if you rode far enough west. The place was deserted though, no Bonnie or her father in sight. Just a few ranch hands. However, after seeing a mission marker in the online mode, I rode down there at the dead of night. As I crept up closer to the house, I saw a figure sitting in a rocking chair and cleaning a rifle. A woman.

I smiled big in anticipation and sure enough there sat Bonnie MacFarlane herself, years before meeting John Marston, ready to give me a mission to help her find a wagon.

It's so good to see old friends.

For more on Red Dead Redemption II, here's 101 things you can do in the game right here.

I wanted to wait until I had time to properly gather my thoughts regarding an announcement I never saw coming. Earlier this month, Hajime Tabata resigned from Square Enix. It happened swiftly, announced in a special Final Fantasy XV stream, where it was also revealed that all DLC planned after Episode Ardyn would be canceled.

It was a lot to process, but my mind immediately went back to when I had the opportunity to reflect with Tabata on the progress of Final Fantasy XV a year after launch. Tabata was so excited and hopeful, while also being candid about his missteps. He seemed determined to go above and beyond for the fans who had stuck by the series through the long development cycle, discussing how this year would bring the end of Final Fantasy XV journey. At this time he said, “It's a project that we've come all the way from the beginning alongside our fans and we want to bring it to an end together with those fans."

I can’t imagine canceling DLC and resigning was Tabata’s vision. So, what went wrong? I’m not sure we’ll ever truly know the answer. It’s clear Tabata was passionate about a project he was working on, so much so he felt confident in forming his own business. We also know that Square Enix’s Luminous Productions, the studio Tabata led, had suffered an “extraordinary loss” of over $33 million. Whether this points to scrapping a project or abandoning additional Final Fantasy XV multimedia plans remains to be seen. Instead of speculating, I want to focus on my time with Hajime Tabata, and why I’m bummed to see him leave Square Enix.

Through the years, I’ve spent a lot of time around Hajime Tabata. I was first introduced to him back in 2014 when he took the reigns from Tetsuya Nomura on Final Fantasy XV (previously Versus XIII). I remember thinking that Tabata inherited a ticking time bomb, a project that had been announced too early and had the weight of the entire franchise on top of it. It would be an uphill battle to launch it at all, let alone meet expectations. Oddly enough, Tabata, an avid skier, compared development to climbing Mt. Denali, which has an elevation of 20,310 feet and is the highest peak in North America. If he ever felt that pressure getting to him, he never showed it. Tabata was always smiling, regardless of the situation. 

After this meeting, I encountered Tabata at various shows for interviews and got to know him best when Final Fantasy XV graced Game Informer’s cover. Every time I saw the man, he would ask me what I was playing and what I thought about the genre and where it needed to evolve. Yes, I talked Tabata’s ear off about the new standard for RPGs set by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the finer points of the underrated Legends of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. We also discussed our nostalgia for some of our favorite games growing up, from Secret of Mana to Suikoden.

It was clear Tabata had a passion for the genre. It was even more clear he knew Final Fantasy had to raise the stakes; it needed to compete again and take some chances, rather than rest on its laurels. Taking risks when a project is already troubled isn’t exactly a happy path, but Tabata pushed for Square Enix to attempt a more open world, which he knew many had doubts about. Change is difficult for any franchise, let alone a series seeped in 30 years of tradition. Final Fantasy XV has its problems, but it was an important step for the franchise to take. Love it or hate it, the game got people talking about Final Fantasy again and gave the team experience with pushing the boundaries of the RPG envelope. 

Tabata made one thing clear from the onset: He didn’t think Final Fantasy XV would become profitable. It wasn’t about that. It was about winning back the fans, and to do that Tabata spoke directly to them. Whether it was getting feedback on the Episode Duscae demo or keeping fans in the loop about the game’s continual progress with a video feature called Active Time Report, Tabata always took the series’ loyal fanbase into consideration. As he told me in my Final Fantasy One Year Later feature for why he continued with free updates and more content, “because they've been waiting so long – we felt we had to give back to them somehow.” 

In my experience, being candid like Tabata is rare with Japanese developers. He wasn’t afraid to answer difficult questions and it was refreshing to actually hear Tabata admit when the team could have done better. Up until this point, Square Enix hadn’t exactly been transparent with its fans and Tabata helped turn that around. He opened the lines of a communication in ways that Square Enix had not before, because he knew it was the only way to move the series in a better direction. Being on the cover story trip, it was inspiring to see how he got the whole team to rally around him, especially for a project that had so much negativity attached to it. All of my experiences with Tabata felt very genuine; he really cared about the genre and series and was willing to fight to reach the finish line. And he did. He shipped a game and he kept working to make it even better. 

Tabata is what the Final Fantasy series needed to survive. It’s hard to believe he’s not a part of its future. He had the right mindset. You can’t play it safe and still make a mark in the triple-A market anymore. You can’t keep fans at arm’s length away in our current climate where they have more ways than ever to make their voices heard. All your past successes don’t guarantee a win, and you need to make sure every new project brings something interesting to the table. I’ll be keeping an eye on whatever Tabata’s next project is, and I hope Square Enix takes his positive impact into consideration when it approaches the franchise in the future. I feel like Tabata was just getting started, Final Fantasy XV serving as his big testing ground. He’s most likely onto bigger and better things, but I’m sad that won’t involve Square Enix or Final Fantasy.