The Video Game History Foundation's immense collection is now available in early access for you to learn about an epic moment in gaming history — or simply peruse at your whim — for free.

VGHF is a nonprofit focusing on keeping and making available all resources pertaining to video games press. The library the foundation just made available to the public contains over 1500 out-of-print gaming magazines and 30,000 files that have been scanned so hard you can even use the text search function on them.

The foundation's previous announcement teased a bunch of surprises, and now we know that even the library's early version is packed with amazing goodies:

• A collection of FromSoft's promotional materials, put together by Kris Urquhart, that the people of FromSoft were totally cool with seeing shared online.
• Guides for many important game events, such as the 12 first years of E3.
• 100 CD-ROMS filled with GamePro magazine's archives.
• An over-100-hour-long making of the Myst series.
• The "Mark Flitman papers", a long list of documents kept by Mark Flitman from the time he worked on big companies such as Konami and Acclaim.

VGHF is a non-profit organization, so all this is made possible by the contributions of people who want game history to stay accessible for all present and future generations of gamers. You can help this cause right here.

The library is now fully accessible online here. Still, be aware that you might encounter a few hiccups as a lot of people are likely to be accessing the site at the same time. All possible issues are likely to either go away by themselves or to get fixed as the archive leaves early access.

The post Video Game History Foundation’s digital library is now available for everyone appeared first on Destructoid.

The makers of Forza have just announced via their official blog that Microsoft will be releasing yet another of the Xbox big hitters on the PS5. This time it's Forza Horizon 5, one of the best "chillout" racing games of all time.

The port of Forza Horizon 5 is being developed not just by Turn 10 Studios, the people responsible for all the games in the series so far, but by Panic Button in partnership with Playground games and Turn 10.

If you're just hearing about Panic Button for the first time, rest assured, as they're behind fantastic Switch ports of Id titles such as Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal.

Microsoft stated that all content from the Xbox version of the game will be present in the game. That includes all existing car packs available in the store, and the Hot Wheels and Rally Adventure expansions.

And that's not all, as the Forza team is working on a new free content update for all platforms, which will be called Horizon Realms. The new update will allow players to explore a collection of some of the community's favorite Evolving Words, and also a few surprises. The best addition, however, will likely be the chance to cross-play with everyone on Xbox, PlayStation 5, and PC.

"We are excited to see the Forza Horizon 5 community grow with new players on PS5, and we can't wait to see the creativity and skill these new creators, builders, and racers will bring to our vibrant community."

Phil Spencer seemingly was not bluffing when he said the exclusivity model doesn't work for the Xbox, so we're pretty excited to see what other once tightly-guarded Xbox exclusives will be entering the multi-platform zone.

You can wishlist Forza Horizon 5 right now on the PlayStation Store, and wait for it to release sometime during Spring.

The post Another blow to Xbox exclusivity as Forza Horizon 5 is coming to the PS5 appeared first on Destructoid.

Nuclear Gandhi is one of the funniest memes in video game history — one already big and old enough to cloud the collective Internet memory on whether it stems from a real thing — but it is actually a perniciously hilarious hoax.

In Civ, Mahatma Gandhi, the famously pro-peace anti-colonialist martyr from India, is often seen as a surprisingly aggressive and nuclear war-prone leader. What the hell is up with that, and why does it happen not just in one game but in many across the series? Let's look into the facts of this mystery to shine a light on Gandhi's alleged war crimes.

Nuclear Gandhi: the origins of a hoax

The first memory I have of the Civilization series comes from a visit the kid version of me paid to an older friend. He wanted to show me Civ 2, a game I had only seen screenshots of and immediately discarded as a boring and too-complex strategy game for older people — so, probably ages 14 and above.

My friend was just four or five years older than me, but he sure knew what he was doing, as the memory of watching a dude play a game I didn't yet care much about would stick with me forever. Shortly after he loaded the save file on his PS1 version of the game, he spouted, "f*ck, Gandhi is nuking me... Again".

The "nuking" part was hilarious, but what did me in was the "again" part. I'd immediately written that off as my friend joking around had it not been for his alarming seriousness. I was a silly kid, but one still knowledgeable enough to know nuking people wasn't Gandhi's thing. So why would he be nuking a teen promoting the one game starring Gandhi of all people? Once I was done laughing my ass off at the incident, I asked what the hell was the deal. My friend replied that he had no idea, "Gandhi is just like that."

Though the real Gandhi actually held some highly reprehensible beliefs, I quickly found out he'd fired a total of zero nukes throughout his lifetime. So, for a while, that's all we got — the uncertainty of not knowing whether Gandhi just hated my friend's external policies or whether developer Firaxis just really wanted to taint the man's legacy in a hilarious manner.

The instance made me laugh hard enough to never forget about that one afternoon, but I quickly moved on from the Civilization series for a while. A few years later, when I became old enough to convince my parents I was old enough for the Internet, I began reading gaming forums where many people also complained about Gandhi going nuclear on them. It was a thing.

The Nuclear Gandhi bug

In 2012, 21 years after the release of the original Civilization, we finally learned that Gandhi was bad because of a hilarious development oversight. You see, Firaxis actually had designed Gandhi to be just as pro-peace as he was in real life, but something had gone wrong. Once India became a democracy, it would lose some points in aggression, but Ghandi already had a base value of 0 for it, and trying to make it go lower would pretty much break the universe. Democracy would create an actual horseshoe effect that would have Gandhi's aggression value shot up to the maximum of 255. This was why so many people had to go to war with Gandhi, or so they thought.

Because the Nuclear Gandhi bug was total bunk

Turns out, it was just an unproven hoax that appeared on TV Tropes and spread like wildfire despite the poster having absolutely no data to back it up. It was only in 2020, with the release of Sid Meier's biography, that the truth came out. Meier explained, via more complex and boring computing lingo, that the supposed Nuclear Gandhi bug was impossible in that particular game.

Gandhi behaved like any other leader in the game. The only explanation for Gandhi's thermonuclear global dominance ways was the Mandela effect, where people misremember a historic event or person. Only a modest percentage of players ever really got on Gandhi's bad side, but Civilization is a hugely popular game, so many of them got obliterated by the peacemaker. Gandhi was not a monster or a good man who could go full evil because of a bug. He was just some guy, some guy you should not f*ck with.

The truth about Civilization's Gandhi is out — and has been out for a while — but it's just impossible for the truth to catch up to a lie that goes viral. Sid Meier doesn't mind, though, as he claims to enjoy seeing his game taking a whole new dimension in the imagination of fans.

Firaxis doesn't seem too bothered, either, as the studio officially made Nuclear Gandhi part of the game in Civilization V and VI — and that's not a hoax. If you're heading into a game of Civilization V or VI, you should know beforehand that Gandhi is the most peaceful of leaders, but he will very quickly resort to you-know-goddamn-well-what if you push him too far.

Civilization 7 comes out on February 11, and I can't wait to get nuked by Gandhi again before some dumbass does the same IRL.

The post Was Gandhi really a monster in Civilization? Explaining “Nuclear Gandhi” appeared first on Destructoid.

Baldur's Gate 3 once again proves its undying devotion to its fanbase as the stress test for the massive Patch 8 goes live. While that's still not the final patch rollout, we can right away tell what awaits players when it finally comes out.

Baldur's Gate Patch 8 Highlights

• Baldur's Gate 3 photo mode
• Introducing 12 new subclasses
• Introducing Cross-play
• Introducing Xbox Series S split screen

Gameplay

• Succeeding a Perception check will cause the spotted item to ping on the mini map and be listed in the combat log
• Fixed issue causing special abilities of some allies no not be properly provided at the end of the dialogue at High Hall
• Scrolls and potions in unlocked containers in the party inventory can now be used when rolling in dialogues
• Neutral and friendly NPCs will no longer become hostile when they walk into surfaces created during combat that trigger passives when outside of combat
• Freecast is no longer reset when any condition is applied
• Characters no longer get stuck when pathfinding via a ladder in use by another companion
• Fixed a bug with the moving platform in the Gauntlet of Shar that would sometimes cause you to plummet to your death

Combat

• Neutral NPCs no longer trigger combat for seemingly no reason
• Cerys will no longer get involved in combats with Minthara from across the region

Modding

• You no longer get stuck at a 0% loading screen when attempting to join a modded multiplayer session
• The Mod Verification window will now trigger always
• The third-party mod warning now features clearer messaging

Performance and Options

• Fixed an issue that caused the ruleset selector not not appear on the "Alter Custom Mode" screen when accessing the ruleset settings.
• Improved server performance in Adamantine Forge

Scripting and Flow

• Fixed issue allowing players to tell Astarion that Gandrel has been looking for him even if they couldn't possibly know
• Fixed a save issue that prevented players to get the right amount of Umbral Gems for the Guantlet of Shar
• Mithara now makes comments regarding the Emperor's reveal
• Mithara now appears more reliably in Moonrise Towers
• Players can't teleport out of Moonrise while controlling Mithara unless they tell her to stay put.
• Mithara now accepts talking to the player if they tell her to wait in the torture chamber
• Mithara no longer needs to stay behind babysitting Thaniel in Act II
• Players can no longer talk about Art Cullagh as though he's alive when he isn't.
• The character will no longer think Shadowheart is dead when she isn't.
• Characters in a relationship with Gale will now receive a love-letter after *Spoiler redacted*
• Fixed an issue preventing Avatar Gale from talking about the orb.

UI

• Discovered and available traders are now shown on the world map at all times.

Cinematics

• Shadowheart no longer changes her hair color repeatedly.
• Some improved animations for the evil ending

Writing

Fixed a duplicated dialogue option and a dialogue option in Minthara's main party dialogue.

There will be even more fixes when the final Patch 8 goes live.

Baldur's Gate 3 Cross-play

No longer will PS5, Xbox and PC players have to play separately, as Patch 8 is finally making cross-play a thing. You can join your friends by either joining their lobby or creating your own and having them join in.

If you want to try out cross-play with your friends who still don't have access to the stress test, PlayStation and Steam users can go here to link their game accounts and request extra Patch 8 stress test keys.

Larian recommends console players to serve as the hosts if they are to cross-play with PC players. You can add friends via the Larian Network. Just click on the + icon from the Create Lobby screen during cross-play set-up, enter their name, and send your request. Once they have accepted your invite, you'll be able to invite them to your lobby.

More details regarding cross-play below:

Using mods during cross-play

While Larian recommends console owners to host the cross-play lobbies, it's also possible to join PC modded lobbies. The PC host can't have more than 100 mods installed on their save and only have mods accepted by console and Mac. These mods are marked as "Available on Mac and Console" when browsing the mods. Alternatively, a mod mismatch will occur, and you won't be able to join the game.

Baldur's Gate 3 Xbox Series S Split-Screen Co-Op

The series S will be denied no longer, as Xbox Series S owners will finally be able to go on cozy couch co-op Baldur's Gate 3 sessions with their friends.

Larian also addressed how some PS5 players accidentally stumbled upon Patch 8 a little earlier than expected. That was not intended on the studio's part, but it's not a problem. Players can rollback to Patch 8 by deleting and reinstalling the game. More details on that here.

Baldur's Gate Patch 8 Known Issues

Modding

• ImpUI users might find some issues with the UI. Larian recommends you do not use mods featuring a dependency on ImpUI.

Photo Mode

• Photo mode has visual problems with Vulkan.

Cross-Play and Multiplayer

• Some lines are yet to be fully localised
• Players can lose movement input after picking up an item while in a multiplayer lobby.

UX

• Keyboard hotkeys and controller buttons may sometimes stop working after conducting business with merchants.

Register For the Patch 8 Stress Test

The stress test for Patch 8 is currently live. Anyone already registered on PlayStation or PC will receive the access details via email. Xbox players will need to download the Xbox Insider Hub App to become an Xbox Insider and join the playtest from there.

Anyone who hasn't signed up yet can do it right here.

You can now play Baldur's Gate 3 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and follow Larian via the studio's new BlueSky account for new updates, or Tumblr, if you're looking for the feisty stuff.

The post Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 8 notes appeared first on Destructoid.

Last week saw the release of DeepSeek, a cheaper alternative to ChatGPT from a Chinese AI company that is now seriously disrupting the world of AI. According to the BBC, DeepSeek has now overthrown all competition to become the most downloaded free app in the United States.

DeepSeek's impact has been so profound it caused the stock of giants such as Nvidia, Microsoft, and Meta to drop considerably, and now casts a huge shadow of uncertainty over the future of its competitors.

What makes DeepSeek so dangerous to other AI chatbots?

The main reason behind ChatGPT's meteoric rise was the huge amount of money parent company OpenAI managed to pour into its development. Just last week, after the inauguration of President Trump, OpenAI and other AI companies pledged to invest $500 billion dollars into the construction of AI infrastructure in the US. DeepSeek, on the other hand, is based on the DeepSeek-V3 model, which is open source, and was allegedly trained for no more than $6 million. It's seemingly already providing superior results to those of its competition.

DeepSeek is seemingly emerging out of a response to the United States restricting the sale of advanced chips to China. Now, instead of having to rely on the most advanced — and costly — tech, China's AI chatbot is relying on everyone's help to improve its functionalities. This has, so far, resulted in AI models that require far less processing power.

As of Monday, Nvidia and Broadcom saw their stocks plunging by 18%. Microsoft saw a drop of 2.5%, and Alphabet, Google's parent company, saw its stock drop by 4%.

The explanation so far? Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index, says they were blindsided.

"This idea of a low-cost Chinese version hasn't necessarily been forefront, so it's taken the market a little bit by surprise,"

Who's behind DeepSeek?

DeepSeek is the brainchild of Liang Wengfeng, a 40-year-old engineer and hedge fund founder from Hangzhou, China. According to the MIT Technology Review, he built up a store of Nvidia A100, which you can no longer get in China from the US. Researchers believe Wengfeng then paired up these chips with cheaper ones that the people of China still have commercial access to.

In a separate development, possibly related to a response to this new threat, DeepSeek will temporarily limit new user registrations because of what the company describes as large-scale malicious attacks on the DeepSeek software.

The post What is Deepseek, China’s new AI that’s dethroned ChatGPT appeared first on Destructoid.

GSC Game World just released the first update for Stalker 2 in 2025, bringing some needed fixes to the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl came out in a rather rough state back in November of 2024, but the developers at GSC Game World quickly rose up to the challenge by dishing out massive updates that fixed many of the game's most pressing issues. Still, many problems have persisted in the game since the last update that came out over a month ago. The good news is Patch 1.1.4 is finally out, so let's look at what's good and new.

Stalker 2 Patch 1.1.4 fixes:

• Fixed crashes and freeze issues on shaders compilation
• Fixed memory leak at Rostok
• Fixed performance degradation when shooting or aiming on saves with long playtime
• Implemented fixes that should solve the problem causing saves to be lost on Xbox
• Fixed UI animations-related random crash

The team also informs they're working on the system error message that erroneously informs players about a missing DLL files after a crash if you're playing on the game's Microsoft Store version. The developers also say that there are no known issues with the DLL files, so that's just a message that shouldn't be popping up. This means that you don't need to worry about anything on your end if you get the message.

They also mention a "fight" with the Shader Compilation that proved to be one of the hardest challenges they had in recent days. The issue is seemingly fixed, but the team encourages players to report any particular shader compilation issues that might remain in their game.

GSC Game World remains committed to reading feedback and improving your experience in the zone. Did you happen to come across an anomaly you consider too strange even for the zone? Then you should totally report it via GSC Game World's support page right here.

You can now play the much-improved version of Stalker 2 on Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

The post Stalker 2 Patch 1.1.4 notes: All fixes from the first update in over a month appeared first on Destructoid.

There are hundreds of all-time classic video games out there, but how many of those classics belong in perfect trilogies (or any perfect three-game runs)? The Witcher 3 is one of the greats, but it had a rather middling start with the original game. The original Devil May Cry trilogy has one of the worst games in existence making the bridge between two truly phenomenal entries. Mass Effect 3 crashed and burned while attempting to land after the two best sci-fi RPGs of all time. The Dead Space trilogy? Oh dear.

Miracles aren't a rare occurrence in the video game world, but the consistency to keep on capturing that lightning in different bottles sure is. Let's look at the few series capable of proving that it was never just a fluke for them. Let's look at the best three-game runs ever pulled off.

The original Halo trilogy

The original Halo trilogy isn't just a collection of three excellent games — it also shows that three "perfect" games can still somehow evolve further — under the right direction. Halo: Combat Evolved did what no other shooter had done before it. It invited vehicles to the action, made the game larger than ever before, set a new standard for weapon loadouts, and even made First Person Shooter games no longer feel like an afterthought.

Halo 2 greatly capitalized on the original's multiplayer capabilities and, to cap it all off, Halo 3 improved upon what both previous entries did best and gave us an excellent ending to the game's storyline. We may never get an FPS trilogy quite as impressive as this one, but Valve is more than welcome to try.

Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring

I had a hard time not placing the original Dark Souls trilogy here instead, but I'd be lying if I were to say Dark Souls 2 is on par with the other games there. Still, the breadcrumbs led me to the important realization that, despite its many shortcomings, Dark Souls 2 was instrumental in the creation of one of FromSoft's best titles, a title that actually does reside inside a perfect three-game run.

You could argue that Bloodborne-Sekiro-Elden Ring is not a real trilogy — or even a same-series run — as it's not united by a plot thread. But you can't deny them being united by FromSoft's unique and beautiful vision. There's a reason why we call them Soulsborne titles, right?

This trilogy rules not because they're repeating Dark Souls' greatest hits, but because it's taking risks at tinkering with its most beloved parts — and it somehow always pulls it off. Bloodborne straight-up forces defensive players to unleash the dodge-based speed runner in them. Sekiro doesn't let players rely on one single mechanic to avoid enemy damage, as they have to choose wisely between dodging, parrying, and jumping over enemy attacks — and it even brings back the beloved stealth mechanics from the classic Tenchu. Then, to cap it all off beautifully, you have Elden Ring, which dares to fix the mistakes made by Dark Souls 2 and ends up giving players what's arguably the best Dark Souls experience to date.

The original Silent Hill trilogy

I don't think it's hard to understand why someone would put the two first entries of Silent Hill here, especially if you've been gaming since the original Resident Evil came out. The original Resident Evil is great, but it's incredibly campy. The camp perhaps works as a great breather for more susceptible players, but it just won't do for hardened horror fans.

Silent Hill changed the world of horror games by inviting players to a world of psychological horror that never took time off from haunting them. The second game is even better, as the graphical leap is accompanied by a comparable leap in narrative quality. The third Silent Hill game is a more divisive title, as many deride it as a step back, but it really isn't. While Silent Hill 3 doesn't feature the narrative highs of Silent Hill 2, it's still the best-looking game in the history of the PS2, as well as one that has enjoyed a very well-deserved positive cultural reappraisal on its portrayal of the true horrors of womanhood.

Zelda Ocarina Of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker

Ocarina Of Time has enjoyed the title of the greatest game ever made in the minds of millions of gamers ever since it came out, which likely put the devs at Nintendo under pressure to make the next game in the series another hit. Wisely, they decided not to fry their minds by attempting to make something better, but by making something different.

Majora's Mask goes for a very peculiar campaign style where players are tasked not with enjoying the amazing world, but with racing against the clock to save it — and it works. Moreover, Majora's Mask is sometimes downright creepy, which proves the devs weren't afraid of taking risks. Even though Majora's Mask wasn't as well-loved as Ocarina upon release, so many have since grown to understand its greatness.

Later we got Wind Waker, which proved the biggest departure in terms of looks, but actually fell well within line with Nintendo's experimental design philosophy. Once again, Wind Waker took some time to win the hearts of players, but it remains one of the most fun Zelda titles ever made, and you just cannot ignore its contributions to open-world exploration titles.

Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9

It's hard to find a better microcosm of what Final Fantasy is at its best — and other series should try to be — than Final Fantasy's PS1 run.

Final Fantasy VII completely changed what people thought an RPG should look like. Gone was the medieval setting and the 2d graphics. Final Fantasy VII was a perfect poster child for the PS1's potential to surprise, but it didn't show the console's true graphical potential. That's where Final Fantasy VIII came in, which outdid Final Fantasy VII in the graphical and artistical sense to come up with one of the most beautiful looking — and sounding — worlds in the history of gaming. Its plot and gameplay didn't originally get as much praise as its looks, but that's oftentimes the price of coming up with something new. Luckily, VIII has been enjoying a lot of highly positive critical reappraisal from the people who were possibly too young to value its merits when they first experienced it. And, if that still doesn't do it for you, you can always enjoy Final Fantasy IX, a magnificent love letter to the most beloved elements of the series in the shape of an original game.

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, IV, V

I totally get why someone reading this might get puzzled that I didn't just go with GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas. That's because I just cannot ignore the spectacular additions brought by GTA IV and V, and because San Andreas already sums up pretty well what the PS2 GTA trilogy did. San Andreas is peak PS2 GTA, as it gives you more to do than any of the previous games. It even features what is easily the best and most original plot for a GTA game up until then.

Though GTA III deserves all the credit for completely changing the gaming landscape, GTA IV is an even better Liberty City story, with a more mature tone and attention to detail and gameplay mechanics we didn't even see in the sequel. As for GTA V, it's a no-brainer to add one of the most fun, largest, and definitely most successful games in the history of the medium.

Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, Resident Evil 4

Again, I could've just gone with the first three games in the series, call it an entry, and no one would be bothered. Still, I believe the series deserves more thought to be put into it. Resident Evil 3 tends to get less love than the previous two games in the series, but I find the addition of Nemesis — both an awesome character and mechanic — to help it rise above the original.

Don't get me wrong; Resident Evil 1 deserves all the credit for kickstarting the survival horror craze, but Resident Evil 4 — whether or not you like the more action-oriented take on the series — is a much better game, and one that aged much better. As for Resident Evil 2, well, that is the best game in the original format of the series and remains one of the best sequels of all time.

Gran Turismo 1, 2, 3

The original Gran Turismo is the highest-selling PS1 title for a reason. It managed to beat all competition on both the arcade and simulation fronts. Gran Turismo 2 just continued the trend by featuring 650 cars, a completely unbelievable figure at the time.

The image above doesn't look all that impressive nowadays, but pretty much every GT3 screenshot looked impossibly good back in 2000. Racing games got much more realistic-looking since then, but I doubt any screenshot ever had such an impact on racing fans as these did. And Gran Turismo 3 didn't just look good, it also played better than anything that came before it. Boot it up, even nowadays, and you're likely to still have a blast.

God of War 2, 3, and God Of War

For the original GOW trilogy, Sony presented a very compelling case of "don't fix what isn't broken."

The original God Of War made playing a villain way more fun than it should be, and it totally deserved to be on this list just for getting the ball running. The graphics looked impossible for the PS2 hardware, and the gameplay felt just as good — if not better — than Devil May Cry's. God Of War 2 didn't really break new ground, but it's the one I'm putting here because it improved on just about everything that made the original special. God Of War 3 then benefitted from the generational jump to the PS3 to deliver one of the best-looking games of its time. After this, Sony went in a completely different direction to create the series' amazing God Of War soft reboot. The result is a game that does the father-and-child even better than Last Of Us. It also featured some of the best graphics from its generation, naturally.

The Original Metal Gear Solid trilogy

Some of the perfect trilogies on this list have achieved that distinction simply by improving upon the previous game's strengths and fixing their flaws. That's absolutely not what happens here. Every single game in the OG MGS trilogy is wildly different from the other two in any metric you can think of — except for storyline wackiness, maybe.

The original Metal Gear Solid introduced various fresh mechanics, an incredibly complex storyline, made stealth gameplay a mainstay, and even proved games can be as cinematically entertaining as Hollywood movies. Metal Gear Solid 2 introduced one of the most stunning graphical leaps ever seen, and doubled-down on the incredibly complex storyline.

One could argue Kojima went too far with some of the plot elements on that one, but MGS 2 provided social commentary that proved incredibly prescient, so we gotta give that one a pass. On the surface, Metal Gear Solid 3 went for a more back-to-basics approach, but it really was the most mechanically complex game in the trilogy, and the one that many believe to be the best in the entire series.

The post The 10 best video game trilogies of all time appeared first on Destructoid.

If you're one of the Star Wars fans who've recently decided that the prequels are worth caring about, you'll probably be happy to know that there's a new prequel Star Wars comic telling, among other things, the fate of Watto.

Legacy Of Vader is an upcoming Star Wars canon comic where Supreme Leader Kylo Ren goes on a journey to backtrack Vader's steps. It takes place during the time period between The Last Jedi and The Rise Of Skywalker — a highly unpopular period in the Star Wars continuity — but Legacy Of Vader has an ace up its sleeve. When Kylo goes back to Tatooine, he finds out what happened, or, more correctly, what Vader had done to Watto, his and his mother's former slaver.

And, spoiler alert, it's exactly what you'd expect.

RIP Watto, he never made sense in the first place.

I find it hard to care about supposed Star Wars canon that Disney cares so little about that it doesn't even show in movie format, but this will probably appeal to all types of people who have ever come across Star Wars. Watto was always a despicable character so it's hard to understand how he never found any serious comeuppance for his actions.

And, the more you look into the character, the less it makes sense. Watto is first introduced as an interesting opponent due to his imperviousness to force mind tricks, but that still doesn't explain his position as a successful slaver. Watto is a weak little critter with no hired goons to be seen. Qui Gon can't trick him into releasing his slaves, sure, but he could have "aggressively negotiated" Watto into releasing Anakin and his mother (and prevent all future bad events in that universe from taking place). Even when ignoring that, it's hard to understand how Anakin, filled with rage after the death of his mother, doesn't look for Watto after slaughtering even the innocent children from the sand people tribe who'd taken her. It's a bit strange that he'd only remember to take that detour so long after his first bout of rage, but better late than never.

The first issue of Legacy Of Vader, written by Charles Soule and illustrated by Luke Ross, will come out on February 5.

The post New Legacy Of Vader Star Wars comic finally shows Vader killing Watto appeared first on Destructoid.

Via the good folk at Video Games Chronicle, we just learned that the Video Game History Foundation will make its library of over 1500 out-of-print video game magazines available to everyone in digital format.

The VGHF foundation was founded in 2017 and is the brainchild of historian and video game preservationist Frank Cifaldi. The founder of GameHistory.org has been building a massive collection of all sorts of video game press material intending to preserve video game history.

Cifaldi has been teasing the library on Bluesky for a bit. I love scouring the pages of Archive.org to find old gaming magazines for both research and nostalgia's sake, and I must say this is a total game changer for anyone looking to dig deep into the history of games and the gaming press. On top of the massive amount of stuff that'll be made available, the new library looks like an incredibly useful and user-friendly resource.

"After years of collecting, cataloging, and digitizing video game history materials, the VGHF is finally opening the virtual doors to its library – wherever you are," reads the announcement. Alongside all the classic video game magazines finally readily available, the foundation will also be releasing a bunch of surprise special collections for both nostalgia seekers and younger gaming archaeologists alike. It's as if everyone will be getting the chance to open a treasure trove containing some of their best childhood memories.

During a time when we see big gaming companies either ignoring or straight-up torpedoing non-profit attempts at video game preservation every day, it's fantastic to see such a cool thing getting off the ground.

VGHF is a non-profit organization, so this is all made possible by the charitable contributions of all video game preservation aficionados. You can make your donation right here.

The first public version of the library will be made available on January 30.

The post The video game history foundation will make its digital library available to everyone next week appeared first on Destructoid.

As spotted by Eurogamer, Sega has just launched the "Sega Account," which links together all of Sega's games and services and adds some extra goodies for your convenience.

You can have this account even if you don't own anything by Sega yet, and it's free to use. "SEGA Account is a profile that lets you maximize SEGA's online services and offers a ton of benefits. Anyone can sign up, and it's free to use!" It also applies to Atlus titles, and it "gives you access to a host of benefits when playing Sega and Atlus titles and using their online services."

The service will also provide users with bonuses and news about Sega-related games, promotions, and events.

What is the Sega Super Game?

The most interesting part of the Sega Account, however, is that fans are positing it to be related to a bigger move by the company. Back in 2022, Sega's financial reports mentioned a mysterious "Super Game" project, which this could be related to. From Bloomberg's report from back in 2022, we learned that this super game was targeting a release date by March 2026, so the Sega Account could serve as a launching pad for this Super Game.

An alternative to this theory is that the "Super Game" is an access point to revived and improved versions of some of Sega's most beloved games from the company's golden past.

Whatever the Super Game might be, it's clear Sega is making moves to somehow remind players of the place it once had in their hearts.

You can sign up for your Sega account right here. The first bonus will be a special Kazuma Kiriyu skin for Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Linking accounts will grant you bonuses on Phantom Star Online New Genesis.

The post What’s this new “Sega account”? Is a Sega Super game on the way? appeared first on Destructoid.

In a twist that really shouldn't shock you — even if it somehow did — Musk was never a good POE 2 and Diablo 4 player.

Turns out the man known only for being very rich and annoying on the Internet was paying off someone to play POE2 and Diablo 4 and let Musk have the credit so he could be more annoying on the Internet.

If you don't know exactly which instance of Musk being annoying on the Internet I'm talking about, let me give you a refresher. A couple of months ago, a very tiny but disproportionately vocal part of the Internet began raving about very busy billionaire Elon Musk being the top-ranked Diablo 4 player in the world. Then, in yet more proof that this truly was a Renaissance Man 2.0, Musk revealed he was also one of the best Path Of Exile 2 players in the world via streaming the game as a ridiculously high-ranked character.

That proved an enormous mistake, as expert players — and people with just the basic amount of knowledge of the game, really — immediately noticed Musk lacked even the most basic amount of understanding of the game. For many days, players have been accusing Musk of account boosting, but all they had was their word and all the insurmountable video evidence.

It all came to a halt not long ago, when Musk — possibly feeling safe in hiding under the shadow of an even larger controversy — admitted to doing a little account boosting. It should come as no surprise, however, that Musk did it not out of a newfound sense of decency, but because "his" account was caught in-game while Musk was at the Trump inauguration.

Musk himself answered some of YouTuber NikoWrex's questions, though he naturally didn't admit to any fault of his own. You can read the short interview at Windows Central, but the most important takeaway was that Musk never claimed he was the one behind the creation of the account.

"No. Never claimed that. The top accounts in Diablo or PoE require multiple people playing the account to win a leveling race."

This is hilarious, as Musk is at least considering himself as an essential part of the team behind one of the best characters in the game. He also assured players that the streams where you saw him playing, that was definitely him.

"But when I post a video of a game or am streaming. that's 100% me."

So yeah, glad to know he was at least 100% responsible for getting his 97-level hardcore character killed like a chump.

Let's be honest, Musk sucks at games

Look, I'm no video game sleuth, and I don't even know much about Diablo or POE, but I knew right away that Musk's claims were bunk. Why? Well, because even if I were to ignore the man's hardcore rivalry with honesty, I could not forget the cursed knowledge I'd acquired over many years of playing Dark Souls. That puts me in a place where I will randomly be haunted by the memories of when Musk boasted about his Elden Ring build on Twitter.

It's fine if you're not into Elden Ring. The only takeaway you need from his build is that you could say it was hastily made by a random build generator — if not for the fact it somehow sucks more than anything you'd get out of a random build generator.

I feel confident enough to say this was the moment when one of the world's largest proponents of AI learned it was just best to pay off someone with actual game knowledge. Like, even if you're not into Elden Ring, can you think of a game where having two shields equipped is a good idea?

And I don't mean to say a man who absolutely sucks at one game can't do well at another game. I do, however, mean to say that a man who sucks at one game and refuses to learn anything from non-sycophants just lacks what it takes to become the best in the world in one game, let alone at two.

Glad we were able to solve that very complicated mystery! Join us next time when we discuss whether that thing Musk did at the inauguration was what it obviously was, or something else entirely!

The post Elon Musk admits he uses people to boost his account, is not the best Diablo 4 nor POE 2 player in the world appeared first on Destructoid.

"Souls series", the name fans give to every game in the same style FromSoftware has released since 2011's Dark Souls, has enjoyed both a lot of success and the important distinction of providing the hardest challenge a (single player) gamer can find.

Most of the challenge in these games comes from their incredible boss fights, a then-in-decline gameplay element that this series clearly revived and reminded everyone should never go away. So, let's look at the most memorably nightmarish bosses in the series, shall we?

Rom, The Vacuous Spider (Bloodborne)

Bloodborne is famous for the fast-paced action it used to completely re-energize the Souls formula. Most of its memorable bosses are as fast as the player, but don't be fooled; one of the most challenging battles in the game actually comes from a deceptively slow critter.

Rom will lure players into a false sense of ease by making its early stage really easy, and then things will get harder, gradually, to an almost unbearable point. Not only is the arena filled with loads of guardian spiders you need to be wary of, but Rom also gains the ability to summon rather unpredictable and hard-to-dodge AOE blasts. Do not underestimate this foul thing.

Ludwig, The Accursed (Bloodborne, The Old Hunters DLC)

For a Soulsborne game, Bloodborne goes kinda easy on players. That, however, changes completely if we're talking about its phenomenal The Old Hunters DLC. Straight out the gate, players will have to duke it out with Ludwig, a monstrosity who's as large as he is agile. Ludwig knows an array of wildly varied moves, all of them challenging in their own specific way.

At a little below half HP, Ludwig will change to its second form, which is equally challenging and, just as importantly, incredibly fun to play against. Ludwig ranks high in the top most challenging bosses, but would rank even higher in the top best overall bosses in the series. Do not sleep on The Old Hunters.

Sister Friede (Dark Souls 3, Ashes of Ariandel DLC)

Remember the first time you brought a Souls boss' HP down to zero, only to find out it had a more powerful form? Well, Friede does that, and her second form — the one where she enlists the help of her giant father, is already a hell of a lot of work. It really does feel like it would be the final form — it already proved challenging enough. Still, more than enough is not enough for FromSoftware.

As soon as players are done with this challenging second phase, they're greeted with yet another form. This time Friede goes from a regular boss to the grim reaper straight out of hell, with a skillset filled with hellish scythe moves that will eviscerate players first, then blow them up. Few bosses are as deadly as Friede, and few will ask as much of players to even get to.

Slave Knight Gael (Dark Souls 3, The Ringed City)

When FromSoftware was making The Ringed City DLC, they knew they were making the final piece of the Dark Souls puzzle. They had to finish it with a bang, and that's what Gael is. This is an incredibly sturdy — I'd say too sturdy, even — knight, and one who possesses all the tricks in the book.

The encounter with Gael starts off simple enough, but everything goes haywire in his second form. Gael's final form feels almost like a multi-enemy fight, or a bullet hell minigame, even. On top of a quick opponent, players will have to deal with a barrage of AOE attacks the likes of which they would only see again coming out of Elden Ring's more godlike enemies. All in all, Gael provides a challenge fitting of Dark Souls' true final boss.

Sword Saint Isshin (Sekiro, Shadows Die Twice)

Most Souls games are at least kind enough to make the toughest boss optional. Sekiro, one of the most difficult games in the famously challenging Souls series, naturally doesn't offer such courtesy. Isshin's many lives will never fail to check if you've mastered the dodge jumping and the parrying that the game had been hammering into you (sometimes literally). Though he proves an extremely complex challenge, in a way, because Sekiro plays very differently from other Souls games, Isshin also feels like a fair and awesome final enemy.

Commander Gaius (Elden Ring)

This is one of the most understated menaces in gaming. You don't even know you're about to fight Commander Gaius, as there's no fog or anything resembling a boss arena to prepare players for this fight. They just exit a safe zone, enter a regular field, and — likely when thinking about the next place to go — they get ambushed by this thing. Gaius is fast — fast to the point of making running away from him really hard — and hits both hard and true. Players have to be very mindful of both his and his mount's hitboxes.

Aside from his movement speed, nothing seems extremely devious about Gaius, but the highly effective way in which he performs seemingly simple moves will have most players fall before him loads of times.

Fume Knight (Dark Souls 2, the Old Iron King DLC)

Most of Dark Souls 2's many bosses are surprisingly easy in comparison to those of the original game. That, however might be no more than a high-effort ruse to get players to drop their guard before facing off against the Fume Knight. Gamers tend to complain about most bosses in Dark Souls 2 being "just one dude in armor". Well, whether or not that's a good thing, it sure is a true thing, and Fume Knight does quite the job of defending the honor of the "dude in armor" kin.

Even though he wields a huge weapon, he's surprisingly fast and scarily relentless. He features a wide variety of moves, with all of them listed high on the damage output counter. Dealing with the Fume Knight requires a combination of good reflexes and mental fortitude, which makes him not just one of the most challenging but also one of the best encounters in the entire series.

Ornstein & Smough (Dark Souls)

Most boss encounters in the original Dark Souls offer their fair share of challenges by pitting the player up against one vile monstrosity, but this one further screws players by having them face two very distinct enemies. Beating both enemies is hard enough as is, and the immense feeling of accomplishment you'll get after pulling it off is immediately ripped out of your hands as you learn there's a second phase. After Ornstein & Smough, there's no trusting a boss will ever be as simple as it seems.

These two could easily be the poster boys of difficulty in Souls games. Whenever someone mentions how hard these games are, it's hard not to have your mind immediately teleported to that fateful boss arena in Anor Londo, the one where your only friends are the pillars you can use to block their attacks.

Malenia, Blade of Miquella (Elden Ring)

The toughest boss in the Elden Ring base game is what you get when you ask the team behind some of the most challenging games in recent history to come up with an optional challenge meant only for the most daring of players.

Malenia is fast, deals a lot of damage, and she'll instill players with the need to make every dodge count because she'll heal up whenever she hits the player or any of their summons. Moreover, on top of the second phase that all of these high-level monstrosities now come equipped with, she has the waterfowl dance, easily the most deadly and hardest-to-avoid move in the entire series.

Promised Consort Radahn (Elden Ring, Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC)

Souls downloadable content is where you tend to find the most difficult bosses. So, if Malenia is the second hardest boss in the series, and she's from a base game, you can only imagine how difficult the hardest boss from that game's DLC is going to be. "Prime" Radahn feels less like one boss, and more like a "greatest hits" of the most devious moves the developers at FromSoft were able to come up with throughout the many years spent perfecting their deviousness with the studio.

Radahn is not only relentless, he's one of the very few bosses you just cannot run away from. You can dodge his moves — for as long as your stamina lasts, at least — but you'll have to face his anger at some point. If this article is what finally gets you to challenge Radahn, know that you won't even get to see the monster I'm attempting to describe, as he was originally so strong the devs just had to nerf him, hard.

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A leak from December claimed that the Nintendo Switch 2 would feature "Hall Effect", a technology that solves the Joy-Con drift issue present in many of the OG Nintendo Switch controllers. Though Nintendo is yet to confirm it, more and more signs caught by TheGamer and fans on Reddit point to the likelihood of it being the case.

Tech leaks are a dubious thing, and console leaks, especially, are to be taken with a heavy pinch of salt. This, however, is coming from NextHandheld, a leaker who'd talked about the Nintendo Switch and who's been proven right on every claim, so fans are now digging deeper into this very promising possibility.

What is Joy-Con drift?

Joy-Con drift is a problem that affects the analog sticks in Nintendo's Switch Joy-Cons. It causes the Joy-Con to input movement commands that the player did not intend. So long as a Joy-Con is connected to a Switch console, the controller may force your character to move in a direction or cause your camera to constantly wander, even if no one is touching the controller. If both your Joy-Cons happen to be suffering from Joy-Con drift, you will suffer from both issues at the same time.

This issue greatly hinders enjoyment and is one all Switch users might have to deal with as their Joy-Cons get older.

This kind of drift can also affect analog sticks from non-Nintendo controllers, but it seems as if the issue is much more prevalent with Nintendo Switch systems.

What causes Joy-Con drift?

There are many possible causes, such as dust getting trapped under your analog stick, but it's something that might simply occur after a lot of usage. The Joy-Con's potentiators, the part responsible for tracking the movements, begin to falter over time. Even if you take all precautions, the Joy-Cons simply aren't as durable as you'd want them to be.

How will the Switch 2 fix Joy-Con drift?

NextHandheld claims they tore down one Switch 2 Joy-Con and confirmed it was using Hall Effect. That technology relies not on mechanical tracking, but on electromagnetic tracking, which naturally avoids all the problems stemming from usage friction.

We're yet to know for sure if the Joy-Con 2 is the real deal, but that would explain why Nintendo would show the new Joy-Cons drifting so confidently in their official reveal.

The Nintendo Switch 2 will be released in 2025, though Nintendo is yet to reveal an exact release date.

The post The Nintendo Switch 2 fixed Joy-Con drift, a leaker claims appeared first on Destructoid.

Katsuhiro Harada recently listed himself as #opentowork on Linkedin, which implies he's suffering from the most dreaded known status ailment in the realm of capitalism. Quite a bold statement, as it seems to indicate the man could be done with the company he’d been working at for over 30 years. The post naturally sent many fans into a frenzy. This could prove the end of an era, and definitely not for the better.

The good news is that Harada is not leaving Bandai Namco. He responded to the thousands of puzzled fans and assured them he was just looking for more professional and personal connections.

Though he is the face of Tekken's public relations, Harada actually is not the creator of the Tekken series. Interestingly enough, he's only credited for his voice work as Yoshimitsu, Kunimitsu, and Marshall Law in the first two games. It was only in Tekken 3 that he took the reigns as director, and that's also when the series hit its very first high peak in quality. Tekken 3 feels like an entire generation ahead of Tekken 2, though it came out just a few years later on the same system.

Aside from the (still respectable) misstep that was Tekken 4, the series has never stopped soaring higher ever since Harada began calling the shots. The excellent Tekken 8 is likely to not just become the most successful game in the series, but also one of the modern AAA to enjoy a very long and rich lifespan.

Harada is a beloved developer both due to his work in making Tekken what it is today, and also for his likable personality. This man will show genuine interest in the words of fans, even when they're just joking about bizarre phenomena nobody outside of the USA could ever hope to understand.

Another aspect that makes Harada one of the most popular game developers are his funny Internet antics, so we never really know what he’s up to. In a saddening twist of events, Harada revealed we shouldn't be worrying about the post; he just wants to make more friends because he doesn’t have many.

Feeling alone is no small thing, even when you get to hang out with Miyazaki, Sakurai, and Kamiya.

I'm not saying this should prompt you to flood Harada's LinkedIn notifications with friend requests, but I'd be lying if I said I resisted the call.

You can play Tekken 8 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

The post Is the Tekken boss leaving Bandai Namco? Katsuhiro Harada’s worrying Linkedin post explained appeared first on Destructoid.

The history of gaming is written at a brisk pace. Not too long ago, LucasArts and Sierra fought it off for the throne of the adventure game kingdom. Nowadays most gamers don't even recall what a classic point & click game is, let alone that Sierra and LucasArts even existed.

Let's freshen up everyone's memory with some of the best adventure games ever made by what I believe was the best adventure game studio to ever exist.

Loom (1990)

Loom is the black sheep of LucasArts' adventure catalogue, but it's not a bad game. It features a very experimental take on point & click gameplay, and it's one of the very few LucasArts titles to mostly do away with comedy to pursue a more serious storyline in a hard fantasy setting.

Loom mostly achieved what it set out to do, as its story got a lot of praise by the time of its release, but I'm just not crazy about its overtly complex take on gameplay. Loom didn't sell very well, so everything LucasArts came up with for Loom mostly died with it — and we're also not likely to see a remaster anytime soon.

The Dig (1995)

The Dig is the other game in LucasArts' catalog to deviate from the norm, and also to mixed results. Whereas Loom went for Fantasy, The Dig went for Sci-Fi, but it had a few more cards up its sleeve than its predecessor.

The Dig featured fantastic presentation that included a movie-worthy soundtrack, excellent voice acting by Hollywood pros, fantastic graphics, and even state of the art cutscenes. The Dig felt mesmerizing due to its highly-immersive environment, but most complained about it being hampered by gameplay that felt challenging in an unfun way.

Though The Dig has enjoyed a deserved positive re-evaluation in the years since it's launch, it's also yet to receive a remaster.

Maniac Mansion (1987)

This is the first LucasArts adventure title, and also the game that put Lucasarts on the map for its prowess in the adventure game genre.

Maniac Mansion came out in 1987 and is yet to get the remaster treatment so yes, it will feel considerably dated to someone picking it up nowadays — especially if they're new to the genre. Still, it features a very memorable cast of characters and a wide collection of great jokes, so it's still an artifact worth unearthing for some.

The Secret of Monkey Island (1990)

This is both the most iconic series to spawn out of LucasArts, and also the one still living, as proven by the fantastic Return To Monkey Island. The Secret of Monkey Island is where it all started and, despite being a little rough around the edges for today's standards gameplay-wise, it still has a bunch of jokes that instantly became classics.

Did you know The Secret Of Monkey Island is the reason why the Pirates of The Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl exists? That's how awesome this game is. The only reason I'm not ranking it higher is because it also the reason why the sequels exist.

Sam & Max Hit The Road (1993)

Detective work is a staple of adventure games, and one of the best titles in the detective point & click adventure genre is, interestingly, a spoof of the genre.

On top of some great puzzles — the lifeblood of the genre — this beautiful game based on the comics by Steve Purcell stars Max, the rabbit part of this detective duo, who's a complete psycho and one of the funniest characters in gaming. Deadpool & Wolverine proved once again that buddy comedies are the way to go, and Hit The Road remains an absolute classic of the genre.

And, best of all, naysayers can't criticize it for doing law enforcers dirty, because Sam & Max aren't police — they're freelance police!

Full Throttle (1995)

Adventure games tend to put players in the shoes of characters who tend to have more brains than brawn — is my kind way of avoiding calling them nerds. Full Throttle is a great antidote for that, as it allows players to embody one badass — one who's also pretty smart.

Full Throttle manages to have a bit more of a darker edge, but not without doing away with Lucasarts' classic charm and comedic flair. It's also filled with memorable puzzles that oftentimes come accompanied with beautiful 2d animation sequences. Full Throttle also enjoyed the remaster treatment, so there's no excuse to avoid trying it out nowadays.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992)

Living in a time when an Indiana Jones video game is better than any Indiana Jones sequel feels unprecedented, but Indiana Jones and The Great Circle isn't the first game to do it. Before that, we had Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, the rare point & click adventure that surpassed most of the movies it was based on, and, interestingly, also gave players the kind of gameplay freedom people are praising The Great Circle for.

The controls are a bit dated by today's standards. A nice simple remaster is way overdue, but, if you like Indiana Jones and/or games with intricate puzzles and a fun story, Fate Of Atlantis is still worth checking out.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991)

Monkey Island 2 is one of the greatest sequels of all time. It outdoes the already great predecessor in just about every thing it did right, then even adds a lot of welcome elements to the mix. LeChuck's Revenge feels darker, and with the darkness comes a much opportune higher level of difficulty and depth for its the puzzles.

The series went back to its lighter tone for all the remaining games in the series, so LeChuck's Revenge is both awesome and unique.

Maniac Mansion: Day Of The Tentacle (1993)

Day Of The Tentacle improves upon the original in every way, so much so that even though they play similarly, it feels like its very own thing. It's quite a strange feeling, but one completely in tune with this game where a sentient tentacle — yes, as in the octopi appendage — becomes super smart and decides to take over the world.

Day Of The Tentacle plays to the strength of LucasArts adventure games, which is their humor. Day Of The Tentacle is a hallmark of all-around hilarity. Good games writing sometimes isn't even something you read or hear from a character, rather a deeper part of the game's design, and Day Of The Tentacle sure has that in spades — tough it also features great jokes of the regular kind, if you're worried about that.

Grim Fandango (1998)

Though their games tended to go toe to toe quality-wise, Lucasarts' games tended to sell less than those of Sierra. Grim Fandango's numbers turned out so low that they paled even when compared to the lowest-selling Lucasarts titles. Quite disheartening, as not only is Grim Fandango arguably the greatest adventure game ever made — it's definitely the funniest game ever made as far as I am concerned — and also the most modern title ever made by either company.

And sure, even the most modern title to come out in the late '90s doesn't feel all that modern now, but no problem, as the remastered version is sure to have covered all the rough edges from the original release. I honestly do believe that regardless of your — and its — age, Grim Fandango is the rare title that might change how you see and play video games as a whole.

The post 10 best LucasArts adventure games appeared first on Destructoid.

The mad people at Saber might actually pull the Angel Of Darkness remaster off, as the studio has announced on their official blog that they're going way beyond the addition of a coat of paint to Tomb Raider's most panned title.

Angel Of Darkness restored cut features

Kurtis gets fleshed out

Kurtis Trent is one of the most baffling characters in gaming history. Not only was he an unnecessary addition as a counterpart to Lara, but he doesn't even feel like a complete character — story- or gameplay-wise.

Kurtis' biggest selling point was that he could control a disk with telekinetic powers, but that didn't end up in the final game. With the remaster, players will finally be able to use his Chirugai disc, cast an energy shield upon Kurtis, and even have a bunch of lines restored to hopefully make his presence in the game make some sense.

We finally get a training area

The original Tomb Raider games had the novel approach of giving players a huge mansion that served as an organic tutorial ground. Later games ditched the mansion, and Angel Of Darkness seemingly ditched the tutorial altogether. That's not true, however, as it always intended to feature a training area in the streets of Paris. The remaster will restore the training area as an optional choice for players.

A store that sells stuff

The original release featured a store, though one where you practically couldn't buy anything from. The new store will add goodies such as a silencer and a laser sight.

More items, dialogue, and story information

The original release of AOD left a lot to be said about its own story. Things will be different this time around. Players will be able to hear previously cut voice lines, as well as find a lot of items that will help them figure out what's going on with the plot.

The blog also notes that these are but a few examples of the content they've restored, and I'm pretty hyped to see what else they were able to come up with to fix and improve upon the old title.

Angel Of Darkness remaster improvements

Saber is also tinkering with one of the game's main issues, its controls. Both Lara and Kurtis were incredibly hard to control and to make them jump somewhere other than toward their deaths. I'm happy to see we'll have both the tank and modern controls to choose from, the latter being what the developers recommend we pick for our playthrough.

I've played AOD with movement mods, and if Saber's new movement mode has anything to do with that, we're in for one hell of a rise in quality.

Can The Angel Of Darkness finally be good?

A short while back, I dared ask, "How do you even remaster Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness?" in the face of the news of Saber's remaster of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Chronicles, and Angel Of Darkness trilogy. If you're out of the loop, I asked that because, unlike the previous five games, AOD came out in a barely playable state despite the lengthiest development period in the series.

Updating the visuals and adding a few quality of life improvements is more than enough to make the other Tomb Raider – and Soul Reaver games, while we're at it – worth revisiting. The Angel Of Darkness, however, would require something akin to a miracle. The problem with AOD stems from a lot of publisher press to get the game out on a system the developers at Core hadn't mastered, which resulted in the game coming out in a nearly unplayable state owed to a combination of bugs and even by-design errors.

Restoring a bunch of cut content might still not be enough to make Angel Of Darkness appealing to newcomers because making up for 21 years in ever-evolving gameplay design is no easy task. Still, it might be what it takes to finally make the game fans have been wanting to play for a very long time, and that's more than enough — for me, a fan who has been wanting to play it for a very long time.

The second Tomb Raider remaster trilogy will release on February 14 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

The post The Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness Remaster will restore lots of cut content appeared first on Destructoid.

Tennis fans looking to watch the 2025 Australian Open via the official livestream will come across a change that might have them worrying about their sanity.

As you can check right now on the tournament's official YouTube channel, the players you know to be human have been replaced by animated overlays of models resembling those seen on Wii Sports.

Hilariously, even the real ball has been replaced by the overlay of a CGI ball, you know, maybe to avoid making it too jarring.

It turns out this happens because the Australian Open somehow doesn’t own all of its own broadcasting rights, so it has resorted to showing you real-time Wii-fied versions of the players on YouTube to appease the copyright gods. It’s the beautifully hilarious video game adaptation you didn’t know you wanted.

As explained by The Guardian in an interview with Machar Reid, the director of innovation at the Australian Open, we're looking at some really impressive but still-evolving technology.

“Limb tracking is complex, you’ve got 12 cameras trying to process the silhouette of the human in real time, and stitch that together across 29 points in the skeleton,” Reid said, “It’s not as seamless as it could be – we don’t have fingers – but in time you can begin to imagine a world where that comes.”

If you're a sports fan, you might've already tried to use YouTube to watch a game, only to find out you'd been lured into watching a dumb FIFA /EA Sports FC replay pretending to be the real thing. Not too long ago, a streamer made the news for streaming a real UFC pay-per-view fight on Twitch, where he bypassed the copyright police by using a controller to pretend he was just playing a UFC game.

It's hilarious to see even huge organizations having to resort to similar trickery to get to livestream in a semi-proper way.

This new broadcasting system is but one of many new ideas implemented by the Australian Open Committee. Another idea was the implementation of NFTs, which it has since been wise enough to abandon.

Despite the inevitable jank that will always come with highly experimental tech — sometimes the CGI feet aren't perfectly synchronized with the player's real feet, for example — I'd take this hilarious move over not being able to watch a game any day. Here's hoping they continue to invest in this tech so that the Australian Open 2026 features Top Spin 2K25-level graphics.

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If you don't agree that Dandadan is this season's best anime, you have to at least admit it features the most impressive animation in a long while. It is the adaptation of the still-running manga of the same name, which has just had its 18th volume released on January 5th.

The anime's first season has recently come to a close, but — given its overwhelming audience love — I'm willing to bet we'll be seeing more Dandadan in the near future.

The events of the anime's season one go from the start of the manga up until the end of the fourth volume, where it ends on a cliffhanger. The story still has a long way to go to even catch up with the manga, and it was only in one of the latest episodes that we caught a glimpse at what the series' main plot would be about. Dandadan is likely here to stay.

What is Dandadan about?

Dandadan tells the story of main characters Momo Ayase and Ken "Okarun" Takakura, a girl who believes in ghosts and not in aliens, and a boy who believes in aliens and not in ghosts. The plot kicks into high gear when they both find out they're only half right, as both ghosts and aliens are totally real — and dangerous. From the get-go, we learn Momo has psychic powers, and Okarun doesn't, but he gets possessed with the spirit of Turbo Baba, also known as "Turbo Granny," who he learns to use to become a super speedster. The two are then joined by Seiko Ayase, who's Momo's grandmother and an expert occulitst, Jiji, Momo's incredibly annoying first crush, Aira Shiratori, another girl who gains the powers of a spirit, and the Turbo Granny herself, who's now inhabiting a plushy cat.

Possible spoilers in the paragraph below:

The catalyst for the show's events was a mysterious alien abduction, which had originally left Momo and Okarun with more questions than answers. In one of the later episodes, though, Okarun theorizes that aliens abduct people with demonic powers but not the demons themselves. Hence, Okarun believes the aliens are studying the demons' powers to find a way to invade the planet, as the demons are actually here to protect it. To find out whether or not he's correct, we'll have to wait for Dandadan season 2.

You can currently stream Dandadan on Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, or buy it in downloadable format on Amazon and Fandango.

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The Bloody Baron is the first important sub questline you can come across in Velen, the first area from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's main quest. Though you might tackle it before or after the "Hunting a Witch" quest, I'd recommend you do the Baron's story first.

The titular man might immediately strike you as a typical good-for-nothing drunken abuser — as he struck me — but don't let the game fool you. Despite his many flaws, the Bloody Baron is a surprisingly deep character with intricacies that require your attention should you want to experience the full emotional range of this story. The Bloody Baron's questline is one of the best and definitely the most harrowing one you'll encounter in the base game.

How many endings are there for the Bloody Baron quest in Witcher 3?

The Bloody Baron questline can only end in one of two ways. Once completed, this quest might trigger a knee-jerk reaction to reload your save and go in the hopeless search of a happier outcome — though there's no such thing to be found in this tale. Yes, this quest only has two real endings, each rather bleak in their own way. I'm here to save you the psychological hassle of working tirelessly to find an outcome that doesn't exist for the Bloody Baron quest and get you to the ones do exist.

The Bloody Baron's quest, explained

Most different outcomes on The Witcher 3 result from decisions players are aware they're making, but that's not so much the case here. We are making decisions that will impact the Bloody Baron quest even before we start it, so let's look at what you need to beat it in the smoothest way possible.

The Bloody Baron's quest starts at Crow's Perch, but it will remember a sneakily important decision from The Nilfgaardian Connection, a previous quest. Having been previously aggressive to the Baron's men will have you go on a fetch quest before beginning the quest itself, whereas the decision to be nice to the guards will take you right to the Baron. Feel free to do battle with the guards if you feel like it. That won't impact the outcome, but it will have players jumping through more hoops than necessary to complete the Bloody Baron quest, so I recommend you go the peaceful route.

Bloody Baron's very bad ending

As I've previously mentioned, the ending where the supposedly evil Baron meets his demise might sound the best, but things aren't quite that simple.

To get this ending, you need to release the evil spirit that asks for Geralt's help in the Whispering Hillock quest. That might not immediately feel like something directly related to the Baron's destiny, but it is. Releasing the spirit will cause Anna, the baron's beloved wife, to get cursed. The game will give players many options to lift the curse, but all lead to the same outcome. Geralt will end up lifting the curse, but Anna will always die as a result. This then results in the death of the Baron as well.

Another way to get this ending is by completing the Return to Crookback Bog quest before Whispering Hillock.

While trying to avoid as many spoilers as possible, completing Return to Crookback Bog will set in motion a series of events that will result in the death of Anna, followed by the Baron's.

Bloody Baron's less terrible ending

If you complete The Whispering Hillock quest before, however, you will eventually meet an evil spirit trapped inside a tree. This spirit will ask Geralt for help, and he can either free or destroy it. For this ending, you will need to destroy the spirit. Then, doing the Return to Crookback Bog quest will have Geralt rescuing Anna from the Crones of the bog.

Killing the spirit leads to a series of events that culminate with Anna losing her sanity. That doesn't sound ideal, but it also allows for her to be rescued, and also for the start of a somewhat cathartic subplot. Anna's rescue will prompt the Baron to go on a redemption arc of sorts.

Spoilers in the paragraph below:

The baron will take it upon himself to take Anna to the Blue Mountains in the hopes of ridding her of her ailment. The game never truly shows the outcome of Baron's last-known actions, but this ending at least leaves players on a somewhat hopeful note.

Bloody Baron's true good ending

While the two endings above were all you'd ever know about the last days of the Baron for a few years, 2017 saw CD Projekt Red releasing a video celebrating the 10th year of the series that would provide much-welcome extra insight.

While you cannot unlock this cinematic in the game, it feels like the happy epilogue you'd get after making all the best choices in the game. It's a very heartwarming video that shows the Baron at a party with Geralt, Ciri, and all of their friends. From that, we can assume Anna is alive and, from the smile on the Baron's face, that she's recovered. It's up to you to accept that video as canon or not, but why wouldn't you?

To get this "ending," you just need to click the YouTube video above.

What else do you need to know about the Bloody Baron?

And before you go, there's another important thing to remember for Gwent completionists that's important to mention despite its tone-deafness. You should challenge the Baron as soon as you meet him, as either final outcome of the quest will cause him to be unavailable for further card game pursuits.

You can now play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and PC.

The post All Bloody Baron endings and how to get them in Witcher 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

Disgraced movie star Armie Hammer is now aiming at a comeback by starring in a movie called The Dark Knight. The project has nothing to do with Batman's epic — not even the director — as instead of Christopher Nolan, we'll be getting none other than Uwe Boll.

Though he never got a big hit of his own, Armie Hammer never stopped getting big roles in Hollywood until 2021, when various women accused him of sexual misconduct and cannibalistic intent. Weirdly enough, Hammer was even set to star as Batman in George Miller's Justice League Mortal in the late '00s, but that ended up being canceled. Hammer is now seemingly having another go at banking on that caped crusader fame via this highly dubious project.

Speaking with Variety, director Uwe Boll shared some details regarding his The Dark Knight, saying, "Hammer plays Sanders, who takes justice into his own hands as he sets out to hunt down criminals. While his crusade transforms him into a social media sensation and a hero in the eyes of the public, the local police chief sees him as a menace to society and aims to take him down."

Executive producer Michael Roesch addressed the elephant in the room, stating, “our movie is very different from Chris Nolan’s movie, so there is no danger of confusion.” I doubt anyone would mistake a Nolan movie for a Boll one — especially because this edgy vigilante sounds one hell of a lot more like Snyder's Batman.

If the name Uwe Boll doesn't immediately hit you with a sense of unease, that's likely because your brain did an awesome job of erasing quite a lot of awful memories. Uwe Boll has directed more than 10 video game adaptations and has titles such as The House Of The Dead, Alone In The Dark, and Postal under his belt. You could blame him for single-handedly creating the longstanding notion that video games couldn't be adapted to film, and despite that not being quite right, I doubt anyone would bother correcting you.

Outside of his various horrendous adaptations, Boll also directed Rampage, a movie about a mass shooting where the shooter is the main character as well as the hero. He did Auschwitz after that — the movie, I believe it is important to note — which I haven't seen, but I'm sure was made in very good taste.

The Dark Knight will be Uwe Boll's 37th film and likely not his last.

Hammer is also set to make a more serious return to acting in Travis Mills' upcoming Frontier Crucible. As for Boll, you can see his masterpiece Alone In The Dark on Amazon Prime Video. It's currently sitting at 1% fresh.

The post Armie Hammer attempts bizarre comeback in The Dark Knight… by Uwe Boll appeared first on Destructoid.

What better way to celebrate another Awesome Games Done Quick than by remembering some of the most mind-blowing ways gamers have broken and obliterated some of the toughest games ever made, FromSoft's Souls series?

The feats you're about to witness likely cannot be replicated by most mortals, but they may just fill you with the determination you require to finally give that boss that made you rage quit last time another go.

Sekiro's actual blind playthrough by Mitchriz

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is one of the most challenging games in the already highly difficult Souls series. For Mitchriz, however, it's probably the easiest game in existence, given how he beat it — in two hours, no less — without even resorting to one of his five senses.

That's right, Mitchriz beat the entire game with a blindfold on. He never took it off even once for any sort of between-levels or death reset. This is arguably the most impressive display of pure skill I have ever witnessed in a single-player game.

Elden Ring in less than 4 minutes

Elden Ring isn't just a very challenging game, it's also a tremendously huge one. Hell, even Elden Ring's DLC is longer than most of the games out there. HYP3RSOMNIAC's not too interested in sightseeing, though, as he holds the world record for the fastest Elden Ring speedrun ever. At the core of HYP3R's strategy there's a glitch known as "Zips", which allows extremely skilled players to teleport to the very few actually essential places you need to reach to beat the game.

Watching this as a human being feels like what I imagine a snail in the world of DBZ must've felt when it saw Trunks killing Frieza.

Fun fact: Mitchriz, Sekiro's legendary blind swordsman from above, holds the third place in this category. He was a mere 24 seconds slower than HYP3RSOMNIAC, but that's like an age longer in this specific category. Think about that.

Beating Radahn without blocking, dodging, or healing flasks

Ok, this is not a speedrun per se, but most speedruns involve glitching of some sort, so I'm actually living up to the spirit of the event by cheating a bit.

Promise Consort Radahn, aka Prime Radahn, is one of the most challenging bosses in the history of the Souls series. He's hard because even if you block and/or dodge all of his abilities, you might still run too low on stamina to get anything done before he restarts the charge. No biggie, said u/Recjawjind_fmfb, who made a character so goddamn hard it barely even cares about Radahn's moves. This was especially impressive as it took place during Prime Radahn's true prime era, as he ended up getting nerfed afterwards. So yeah, this is one you just cannot replicate, regardless of your skills.

Beating all bosses in one hit

The only thing cooler than killing a boss in one blow is killing the hardest of hard bosses in one blow. That's what player Ainrun did. Above, you can see Ainrun donning the most lethal equipment and injecting himself with the most experimental and riskiest cocktail of buffs to deal 105k damage and basically pull a One Punch Man on Radahn, the hardest boss in the game. The others stood no chance.

The video above isn't an entire speedrun, but it's certainly the fastest way to defeat Radahn, so there's that. So remember, next time you're having trouble with a boss, just consider killing it in one hit.

Malenia on PS5 and PC at the same time... on a dance pad

Many claim Malenia to be the toughest challenge in Souls games history. Beating her is an achievement even if you're a seasoned player. So, Twitch streamer MissMikkaa put it upon herself to beat two Malenias at the same time. You can totally just mod the game to spawn two bosses in the same game, but MissMikkaa thought that wouldn't provide enough of a challenge yet, so she fought one Malenia on her PS5, and another one on her PC—at the same time. Since that still somehow wouldn't prove enough of a challenge for MissMikkaa, the Malenia on PC was defeated through the use of dance — one of the toughest skills for a true gamer to master.

The guy who beat a Dark Souls world record and didn't notice it

Just how naturally in tune with a game do you have to be to perform better at it than anyone before you and just not realize it? That's the story of NaxHPL, who beat the original Dark Souls at just a little over 25 minutes, thought he'd had a crappy run, then only realized he'd broken the world record after the credits had rolled.

2 Players 1 Controller.. and a randomizer

The name "2 Players 1 Controller" is enough to instill uneasy feelings in anyone using the Internet. It's probably because of all the deep-seated resentments we've all created by having to wait for our turn to play with our siblings, I'm sure. Still, even without the burden of memory, the idea of sharing one controller's functionalities to beat a game in the Souls series is quite a daring one.

Better yet, that wasn't even enough of a challenge for the Puppery and catalystz duo, as they ventured forth into the world of Elden Ring in randomizer mode, which means they could — and did — end up having to fight Malenia in places where they'd normally have another enemy waiting for them.

Twitch plays (and beats) Dark Souls

You think two people sharing a controller is tough?

If you've ever been on Twitch and dared to glance at what was going on in the chat, then congrats, you can boast about having survived gazing upon humankind at its most chaotic. Asking such a vicious mob to get organized to beat a game via written commands felt like the cruelest of jokes, but it ended up working out. It only took them 43 days, and a little over 900 deaths, so still a lot better than a lot of people out there.

Hardly the fastest run, and yet one of the most impressive video game accomplishments I've ever witnessed.

Beating Dark Souls with only the power of your voice

The original Dark Souls wasn't originally as good on PC as it was on consoles, as it had some trouble adapting to a controller. No problem, said the heroic bearzly, as he mapped all actions not to buttons or keys, but rather to voice commands. Imagine how much of a hassle it must have been, or simply take a look at the clip above where he defeats Ornstein & Smough with the power of his words.

Beating Dark Souls 3 with a single button

Ok, beating Dark Souls with a single button doesn't really seem possible, but it is. What's impossible is beating Dark Souls with only one command. So, what did Rudeism do? He assigned all the different Dark Souls binds to Morse code, then used the one button to input the various commands via different Morse inputs. It sounds completely insane, extremely difficult, and it probably is. Regardless, it's also very fun to watch and tell your friends about it. Understandably, they probably won't even believe you.

The post The most impressive Dark Souls and Elden Ring speedruns ever appeared first on Destructoid.

Gaming franchises, regardless of how beloved they are, sometimes evolve so slowly or go so far off the rails that the only way to keep them alive is by hitting the reset button. Unnecessary reboots, especially in the movie scene, are an overbearing plague. Gamers, however, have mostly been blessed with some absolutely fantastic comebacks. Let's look at the best of the best, shall we?

DOOM (2016)

I truly believe Doom 3 deserves to be on this list — is what I'd vehemently defend — if Doom (2016) didn't exist. Whereas Doom's 2003 foray into a slower and more atmospheric playstyle gave us an actual horror masterpiece, the Doom reboot from 2016 stays truer to the formula and does Doom better than ever.

Doom is still a horror game — if you're part of the demon horde, that is, as this game makes use of so many fantastic design choices to make the Doom Slayer the most powerful and fun-to-play Hell scourge imaginable. On top of being great in its own right, it paved the way to Doom Eternal, the best Doom sequel ever made.

Resident Evil 7

Konami shocked the world with good news for the last time when it shadow-dropped P.T. back in 2015. I'm naturally talking about the first-person teaser for the tentative Silent Hill reboot that turned out to be one of the coolest and most horrifying experiences in the history of gaming. Sadly, that project ended up on Konami's chopping block.

Luckily, the Resident Evil series, which was also in dire straights after the release of the messy Resident Evil 6, learned quite a lot from P.T. The result was Resident Evil 7, a breath of fresh air that gave us a fresh perspective to enjoy some of the most gruesome sights in the history of the series.

Resident Evil 4

The only reason why I didn't simply claim Resident Evil 7 pointed the series in the most exciting direction yet is because Resident Evil 4 exists.

While it's officially just a sequel, it's clear to any fan of the series that RE4 was a whole new beast. Not only is the gameplay following a completely new formula, but we even saw a soft story reboot of sorts by having Umbrella Corp. dying offscreen to give way for a new type of villain.

Some have criticized Resident Evil 4 for focusing more on action than the previous games in the series, but few have ever dared to call it anything other than one of the greatest games of all time.

Prince Of Persia: The Sands of Time

Though the Prince Of Persia series feels almost as old as gaming itself, it only ever reached its pinnacle in 2003 with The Sands Of Time. Though it was made by a different team, Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time was the series' follow-up to Prince Of Persia 3d. As the name implies, that was the first game in the series in 3d, but it should've stayed in 2d in the sense that all copies should've been crushed and buried in the desert. I was so unimpressed with Prince Of Persia's original 3d outing that I remembered refusing to get hyped for The Sands Of Time until I got to play it. Fortunately, I couldn't have been more impressed with the end result. The Sands Of Time remains one of the greatest platformers of all time, and that's in part due to how the industry has moved away from challenging AAA platformers—sure—but also because it's a timeless masterpiece.

Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown is another phenomenal reboot, but The Sands of Time proved that 3d really is the prime environment for the Prince to thrive on, so I'd really like it if Ubisoft could pull off another reboot of this nature.

Ninja Gaiden

One of the biggest complaints people had with the original Xbox was the lack of Japanese exclusives, but Ninja Gaiden almost single-handedly solved that problem.

This is a reboot so masterfully executed — and an exercise in tough-but-fair gameplay — that most have since associated the name to this reboot, and not to the 2d original. Team Ninja has since moved away from the Ninja Gaiden series to pursue the soulslike craze, but there's always hope for its return.

Tomb Raider (2013)

Few reboots reboot it as hard as 2013's Tomb Raider did. Remember Lara's famous dual pistols? Those are gone, replaced by a wooden bow. If I were to say that in a preview nowadays, fans would get mad. Blessed by hindsight, however, the gambit proved incredibly fruitful. It worked because the game nails modern platforming and people at Crystal Dynamics succeeded in coming up with easily the most fun bow in the history of video games for this very bow-centric reboot.

Other than that, Tomb Raider 2013 also does a good job of creating a different Lara, one definitely more human and less video game-y than classic Lara.

Tomb Raider Legend

Plot twist: there was an even better Tomb Raider reboot, and that's Tomb Raider Legend. Legend isn't necessarily better than the 2013 reboot, but there's a much larger gap in quality between it and the game that made the reboot necessary: the infamous Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness.

Legend completely revamps the classic's gameplay to create an extremely fun platforming experience. It looks great, updates Lara without changing what people loved about her in the first place, and features less complicated levels that never feel like they're holding your hand.

Legend was also the first Tomb Raider sequel to enlist series creator Toby Gard, so it is also kind of the true Tomb Raider II.

God Of War

The original God Of War trilogy is one of the finest in the history of gaming. Making a new game in the same vein but with better graphics allowed by the more modern hardware sure would've worked, but the people at Sony's Santa Monica Studio wanted more than "just great".

The team decided to bring the story to a new setting and completely revamp not just the gameplay, but also the main character. Now, Kratos was no longer just the least bad guy in the story. He'd become both a father and a man struggling with the heavy burden of misdeeds past.

You could argue that the God Of War reboot is far from original. It was clearly influenced by the success of The Last Of Us and a few other games, but I'd argue right back that its gameplay far surpasses the games that served as its inspiration, so it's hard to deny this one's place among the greats.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Enemy Unknown is such a deep cut that many aren't even aware it's a reboot. When old-school gamers claim games used to be much harder way back in the day, the original X-COM is partially to blame. I remember getting countless teams wiped out long before I even got to see what the enemies looked like.

The new XCOM not only offered beautiful new visuals, but it also perfectly modernized every element of the old games. It was just so great to know you could finally properly learn how to play the game before you were put in charge of the entirety of Planet Earth's defense force.

DMC - Devil May Cry

Ok, please hear me out. I know nobody likes black-haired Dante and that the game's plot and writing is just too edgy to be enjoyable by anyone over the age of 15. Then again, is the plot of any Devil May Cry game really that deep and serious?

DMC's fault lies not in its absolute desperation to look cool, but in its unlucky attempt to look cool in a different way, one fans just ended up not vibing with. Had it been the first game in the series, there's no telling how it would've gone.

If you ignore the plot, DMC is much better-looking than DMC4, features superior level design — and not just because it doesn't force players to backtrack half the game to make it last long enough to justify the full price tag.

Avoid judging this loud comic book by its cover, and you'll find a game filled with cool new gameplay mechanics that will definitely surprise you in a positive manner. Ninja Theory tried, and their original vision is worthy of both your time and a general re-evaluation from gamers in general.

Grand Theft Auto 3

Here we are, the one that changed it all. Though it was marketed as a sequel, GTA 3 was a whole new thing. I'm willing to bet most fans of the series never even gave GTA 2 a chance, and that's totally fine.

Even by '90s standards, GTA 2 just wasn't very good. It was a decent title, but it was mostly the game kids would want to try out because they'd heard the cool teens talking about this game where you run people over and flee the cops. Still, you can't run on controversy forever, and man, GTA 2 lost its appeal quickly.

GTA 3 didn't merely bring GTA to the world of 3d games, it also imbued this possibly sterile world with truly fun gameplay mechanics, characters, and a surprisingly decent plot. GTA would never be the same after GTA 3, but neither would the entire industry.

Red Dead Redemption

Let's cap it all off with a little-known fact. Yes, the original Red Dead Redemption is actually a reboot. The original game in the series was Red Dead Revolver, which failed to hit Rockstar's post-GTA 3 lofty ambitions.

So, if you're wondering where the title came from, that's exactly where. Rockstar wanted to get redeemed from Red Dead Revolver. Harsh, as I truly did enjoy Revolver, but, well, there's just no denying that Red Dead Redemption is one of the greatest games ever made. The sequel isn't called Redemption from Red Dead Redemption, so let's guess the people at Rockstar understood they had a true gem on their hands.

The post Best video game reboots of all time appeared first on Destructoid.

The further away from planet Earth a sci-fi story takes place, the more sci-fi it feels for many. Though there are many great sci-fi tales taking place right here on our already pretty dystopian planet, it’s hard to beat the allure of the final frontier. But the best space exploration novels don’t just take readers on a journey to the remote planets on the edge of the galaxy. They also showcase fascinating philosophical dilemmas that make us examine humanity and its future in a different light. The vastness of space is full of the unknown, and the best sci-fi books with interstellar themes carefully examine what life would really be like amongst the stars.

Now, without further ado, let’s take a look at the best sci-fi books that take place away from Earth.

20. Foundation (Isaac Asimov)

What if our scientific research was able to predict the future of humanity itself? This question forms the beginning of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, which starts with a collection of short stories published together under the same name. Hari Seldon works in a new field known as psychohistory, and when he angers the Galactic Empire with predictions of its demise, he’s exiled to a distant planet called Terminus. Terminus City becomes a new foundation for humanity after the end of the Galactic Era, but soon faces threats from its rivals. First published in 1951, Foundation showcases plenty of fascinating ideas about technology that are very much a product of their time. But even today, it’s still one of the best books set in space.

19. Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir)

Project Hail Mary is a novel with two intertwined narratives. In one part of the book, the protagonist, Ryland Grace, awakens from a long space journey, twelve light years from Earth, with no memory of who he is or why he’s there. He’s the only crew member aboard who’s still alive when the ship arrives at its destination, which is a star system known as Tau Ceti. As Grace’s memory begins to return, the novel takes us back to Earth and follows the events leading up to the launch of Project Hail Mary, which turns out to be a last-ditch effort to save humanity. Both Project Hail Mary and Andy Weir’s more famous book, The Martian, do an excellent job of capturing the intense isolation that comes from being alone in the depths of space.

18. The Voyage of the Space Beagle (A. E. van Vogt)

 A. E. van Vogt’s The Voyage of the Space Beagle is a collection of four short stories that were originally published separately in science fiction magazines between 1939 and 1950 but were then combined to form a single narrative. The book is worth reading for its inclusion of the story Black Destroyer, which has been claimed to have inspired Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien. A mysterious starving creature known as a Coeurl comes aboard a ship full of humans and begins to pick them off one by one. The humans manage to capture the Coeurl, but it quickly escapes to wreak more havoc. In the book’s other three stories, the same crew encounters other kinds of mysterious alien beings and must work to prevent itself from becoming prey.

17. Across the Universe (Beth Revis)

Beth Revis’s Across the Universe begins with a plot that will be familiar to anyone who’s seen the 2016 film Passengers. However, the mixture of mystery elements along with the romance in the book arguably ends up making it a completely distinct experience. The novel’s protagonist begins a 300-year journey to the distant planet Earth Centauri by settling down for a cryogenically frozen nap. When she awakens half a century too soon, she discovers that someone else aboard tried to kill her. This space exploration novel is a YA classic that could have easily been written into a solid movie.

16. All Systems Red (Martha Wells)

A team of human explorers journeys down to the surface of a mysterious planet for research purposes, accompanied by a robot assigned to them by the Company that has internally named itself Murderbot. But unlike other stories in which the machines rise up against the humans, All Systems Red draws from the perspective of the robot rather than the people. While the novel has a healthy dose of mystery and a touch of suspense, its charm often comes from its unexpected sense of humor. The book is the first of seven in the Murderbot Diaries series, which will soon hit small screens via Apple TV+.

15. The Dreaming Void (Peter F. Hamilton)

The mysterious Void at the center of the galaxy is an ancient, unknowable entity that’s capable of destroying planets and ending the human race. However, its real purpose is unknown, at least until people begin to dream of other humans living inside the Void. When the masses begin to worship the first dreamer, they set out on a journey into the Void with the potential to either save or destroy all civilizations. The shorter length of The Dreaming Void, relative to the size of Peter F. Hamilton’s other books, makes it a solid introduction to the expansive universe contained in the author’s works. If you’re looking for a lengthier and more in-depth starting point for Hamilton’s interconnected space opera book series, try picking up Pandora’s Star instead.

14. Children of Time (Adrian Tchaikovsky)

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time tracks the development of a strange, genetically modified arachnid species that begins life on a planet far from Earth thanks to human intervention from Dr. Avrana Kern and a group of terrorists that interfere with her work. When the last remnants of humanity arrive on the planet thousands of years after the spider species’ genesis, conflict and confrontation ensue. The book studies the rapid decline of the humans aboard their lone spaceship while simultaneously examining the rise of the arachnids on their planet. It’s a strangely inventive narrative, and even when it’s compared with other sci-fi books with interstellar themes, it comes across as incredibly thought-provoking.

13. Tau Zero (Poul Anderson)

Poul Anderson’s Tau Zero is a fantastic classic sci-fi novel that’s great for anyone seeking an epic space adventure. The colonization ship Leonora Christine and its crew of fifty brave souls set out on a journey that’s supposed to take thirty-three years on Earth and five years aboard the ship. About halfway through their journey, however, the people aboard must take the vessel off its planned course in order to fix its engines, which must stay on to prevent the ship from exploding in a burst of flames. The book also includes clear explanations of the scientific concepts that fuel the narrative in separate paragraphs from the main parts of the novel.

12. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)

Ender Wiggin is a child prodigy who might be just what humanity needs to survive an impending alien attack. Ender’s Game begins when its titular character is just six years old and departs home for the Battle School, which operates from a space station that orbits Earth. As he continues to grow and learn tactical skills, Ender soon discovers that what seem like simple tests of his skills are anything but. The story draws into question what games and simulations can teach us, particularly when they involve violence. The book is arguably much more engaging than its film adaptation since it fully explores the role of Ender’s siblings and provides better details about what comes after the protagonist’s training.

11. Leviathan Wakes (James S. A. Corey)

James S. A. Corey’s Leviathan Wakes is the first novel in the acclaimed Expanse series, which, after publication, became a popular SyFy channel television series. The story begins from the perspectives of two main characters, whose stories lead them to a secret aboard the Scopuli, a damaged ship that’s floating out in the Belt. The murder mystery that drives the plot forward is incredibly engaging, and the world that the novel captures is equally interesting. The differences in human development that occur on the planets far from Earth, which include both physical and linguistic changes, are particularly fascinating and well-drawn. Once you’re done flying through this book, you’ll have eight more lengthy novels and tons of extra short stories to work with to continue your journey through The Expanse.

10. Halo: The Fall of Reach (Eric Nylund)

If video game narratives tend to pale in comparison to those seen in literature, then the narratives seen in literary adaptations of video games tend to pale in comparison to both. Still, there are exceptions. The best one, as far as I know, is Halo: The Fall of Reach. It tells a compelling enough tale to entice people who were previously only into Halo because of all the gunplay, and it does it in Legendary difficulty mode because it's a prequel.

Many fans of the games consider that The Fall of Reach is vastly superior to Halo: Reach, the critically acclaimed Halo game that ostensibly tells the same story.

9. The Martian (Andy Weir)

In his first novel, Andy Weir proves that you can do great sci-fi by resorting to way more science than fiction. The Martian transplants the classic story of the sailor who falls off the ship and is accidentally left for dead to the space setting.

As expected, surviving Mars proves even harder than surviving a deserted island. It's incredibly satisfying to see Mark Watney putting his knowledge into practice in an attempt to last as long as possible on the surface of such a callous planet.

8. The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)

Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles is one of the first known publications to seriously engage with the concept of colonizing Mars. As the title suggests, it's more of a collection of tales about the challenges and adversities of conquering a new planet.

The Martian Chronicles remains a prescient piece of writing even three-thirds of a century later. Yes, please note that this was all written in the '50s, long before we even got to space. So, if The Martian Chronicles remains good in our times, imagine how mind-blowing it would've been to read it back when it came out.

7. Old Man's War (John Scalzi)

If you're looking for a contemporary sci-fi author capable of going toe to toe with the masters of (relatively) old, then John Scalzi might be your guy.

One of the wildest aspects of war is that it tends to boil down to sending a bunch of youths to some foreign land because a bunch of old guys wanted them to go. Old Man's War asks, "What if it was old people doing the fighting?" and "what if they were fighting for a purpose that directly benefitted them, like the right to an awesome retirement?" Scalzi had me at old people fighting, but then he added that said wars were in space and against a bunch of aliens, at which point I was almost ready to enlist for him.

6. Ancillary Justice (Ann Leckie)

Ancillary Justice is a space opera like no other. Instead of telling you the tale of one hero who goes against an Empire, it tells the story of a great Imperial warlord whose brain used to control the hivemind of an entire army but who saw an act of treason reducing their reach to that of one single body.

Want an original revenge tale that will make you even more scared about Humankind's desire for galaxy-wide domination than you already are? Then this is the one for you.

5. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (Douglas Adams)

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is the first of what author Douglas Adams describes as a trilogy of five books. That's even more wrong than you think, as it's actually comprised of six books.

If you're into that kind of humor, then you should accompany Arthur Dent as he makes use of the titular Hitchhiker's Guide, a sort of electronic McGuffin that helps him navigate the galaxy. He'll need it, too, because planet Earth has just been destroyed to make way for a new space highway.

This is the quintessential space sci-fi comedy. It's a bit of an acquired taste, but if it's already your thing — or you happen to acquire that taste — you're bound to have a lot of fun with it.

4. Consider Phlebas (Iain M. Banks)

Tired of overly serious and dour sci-fi tales where people only venture out to space because planet Earth can no longer sustain the human race due to human-caused troubles? Then Consider Phlebas — or pretty much any other book from Iain M. Banks' The Culture series — a great pick.

Do you like Utopias? What about ring worlds, like Halo, but without the evil aliens and the awful human Military Industrial Complex? Consider Phlebas invites you to enjoy a post-scarcity, post-war galaxy. More or less away from any grand threat, there's space to in a bunch of wacky and hilarious concepts rarely seen in other sci-fi works. Phlebas is a great palate cleanser for hard sci-fi and a fantastic reading on its own.

3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Arthur C. Clarke)

Movie adaptations of popular novels tend to suffer criticism for not being able to feature every detail in the book — down to things that have no reason to be in the movie. The beauty of 2001: A Space Odyssey is that this pointless debate doesn't need to occur.

Neither the book nor the movie are trying to outdo the other. Both works were made at the same time as they were meant to serve as companions to one another. Now, given that the 2001 film is seen as one of the greatest and most visionary sci-fi works ever due to — among other things — how it called us fools for blindly trusting AI, you do the math and wonder just how good its literary sibling might be.

2. The Sirens Of Titan (Kurt Vonnegut)

Kurt Vonnegut explores the idea of absurdly wealthy men who owe everything to nepotism but attribute it to divine favor and puts it to the test by finally sending them to space in The Sirens Of Titan.

Will Malachi Constant see that things are not as he thought them to be and learn a valuable lesson? Will he become even more insufferable? This glorious sci-fi comedy is complex to the point that effectively spoiling it would be no easy task. Still, I recommend you go into the hilarious The Sirens Of Titan knowing as little as possible.

1. Solaris (Stanislaw Lem)

While most sci-fi loves to focus on stories about greatly detailed space wars, Stanislaw Lem was wondering what actual contact with an alien entity would look and feel like. Will the two vastly different entities be able to communicate right away? Will each even be aware of the presence of the other? Can they influence each other even with no real mutual understanding? Solaris asks these questions and many more, then only answers some of them while telling a deep story about love and about what it means to be human.

If you're still on the fence, know that Solaris is the work that inspired Silent Hill 2, one of the greatest narratives in video game history.

The post Best Sci-Fi Books Set In Space: Our Top 20 Reads appeared first on Destructoid.

Apple's Vision Pro, a mixed-reality headset whose only impressive functionality was the ability to immediately set you back $3,500, was released last February, and it was met with such a lukewarm response that the company is now severely slowing down on the production side of things.

According to multiple sources caught by Mac Rumors, Apple currently has enough inventory to meet the demand for the entire expected lifespan of the product. The result of the poor performance reportedly comes down not just to the incredibly prohibitive price but also to a lack of content.

Apple is reportedly still developing the Apple Vision gen 2, though its production has seemingly also halted due to the original's poor performance. Though things look dire for the product, Apple hasn't fully stopped production, rather just slowed it down, looking to bring it back to full steam should the Vision Pro's sales ever pick up. Apple is seemingly also looking into making a cheaper headset, which would be an effective way to deal with the Vision Pro's greatest issue.

Bloomberg had previously reported that Apple was looking into incorporating Apple AI into the future versions of the device, so we'll see how this news affects those plans.

Many of the mistakes committed by Apple in the making of the Vision Pro could've been averted simply by looking at the high-priced and low-selling PSVR2 headset. Instead, Apple chose to make an even more expensive and even less interesting product.

You can currently still acquire the original Apple Vision Pro for its original price.

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In a twist that would make the series' protagonist proud, Netflix has seemingly shot itself in one of its many tentacles by accidentally revealing the release date for Squid Game's third and final season.

Netflix has recently released a preview for the third season. It features the few remaining survivors and a new doll which will likely be even more of a pain in the ass than the one from the red-and-green-light game that we all hate to love. But, more importantly, it closes off with the promise that the show will return in 2025.

The teaser also did, however, reveal more than it likely intended to, as Netflix Korea's account seemingly leaked the news that Season 3 would launch on June 27, 2025. Though this might be Netflix messing around with fans, it's highly unlikely, as nobody really stands to gain anything from a false release date.

This is huge news for two very important reasons. Squid Game's second season immediately had the strongest opening week in the history of Netflix, which is naturally a tremendous deal. Secondly, the second season, though incredibly fun and intense, leaves viewers hanging. Season two feels like it was either created as the first half of the final season or as something Netflix released just to quench fans' thirst. Season two ends on a huge cliffhanger, so fans will likely be happy to know they seemingly won't have to wait two more years for the series to reach its conclusion.

You can now watch Netflix's highly successful second season of Squid Game on Netflix, which will hopefully conclude on June 27.

The post Squid Game’s final season release date accidentally revealed by Netflix appeared first on Destructoid.

Happy New Year, everyone! And what better way to start off 2025 than by once again hyping you all up for something that might never happen?

Mike Shapiro, the voice actor best known for his tantalizing portrayal of the G-Man, one of the eeriest and most mysterious presences in gaming, just tweeted something, well, tantalizing and eerie.

Long tweet short, Shapiro is clearly not speaking as himself, but rather as the G-Man, and he mentions of "unexpected surprises".

"Half-Life 3 confirmed" is one of the most frustratingly timeless memes in the history of the Internet. By now, we’re all champions at straw-grasping when it comes to believing in Half-Life 3. Whenever someone sneakily snaps a picture of Gabe Newell's breakfast, we can instantly come up with measured explanations as to why his choice of three fried eggs means Half-Life 3 isn't just cooking but actually straight-up ready for a surprise Steam release on that very day.

But this time, we just had Mike Shapiro, known for his very cryptic G-Man, who was very obviously talking about the future of Half-Life. Shapiro, who hadn't tweeted since 2020, also tagged Valve, Halflife, and the GMan in his mysterious tweet about this... future.

Sure — if Valve's handling of their greatest profiting off of their game models is of any indication — you could make the case that current-day Valve has simply achieved unbelievable levels of corporate laid-backness and is fine with anyone creating false hype about the IP. Or maybe Shapiro was just drunkenly celebrating the end of the year in a way that would make Gordon Freeman's greatest tormentor proud. Still, this feels like something else.

Though rumors were aplenty, I most seriously doubt Valve would use the Game Awards to present Half-Life 3 to the world. It’s way more likely that the company would go for an in-house presentation and there is no better way to kickstart the hype machine than to have the voice actor known for his work as the most mysterious character saying some viral-worthy things online.

Like, yeah, it might be nothing, but combined with the Half-life 2 soft remaster we've seen for the game's 20th birthday celebration, and with Valve’s newfound will to get back to making games, it's hard not to see this as something.

You can now play Half-Life 2's greatly improved 20th-anniversary revamp on Steam.

The post G-Man voice actor just made cryptic tweet seemingly pointing at Half-Life 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

Toho, the legendary studio behind the Godzilla franchise and the Haikyu!! anime is now set to adapt the odd and creepy Nintendo Switch hit Exit 8 to the big screen.

Via a scoop caught by Gamesradar, we learned Exit 8's creator has just written a message to fans, celebrating the surprise of learning the small title would be adapted to the big screen just a year after release.

If you don't know anything about the game I'm talking about, that actually speaks loads about Exit 8's prowess as the perfect indie sleeper hit. Exit 8 is a very simple affair, one where players are tasked with navigating a labyrinthian maze of liminal spaces that make up a nightmarish version of Tokyo's subway system. On top of the natural anxiety that comes from feeling lost, players will also have to deal with certain anomalies that are sure not to help them in their quest for freedom.

Even though it was this year's second-most downloaded Switch title, many still don't know about it. That sounds strange, but it is actually great if you're looking for a mysterious and creepy theater experience that'll have you on the edge of your seat.

Recent times have shown us that good video game adaptations can be a thing. While I have no idea how Toho manages to tackle such a title, I'm down to see what such a studio will try to pull with the adaptation of this creepy internet copypasta-inspired indie hit about making the mundane terrifying.

Whether or not you care about the upcoming adaptation of this spooky indie, you can get Exit 8 for the Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.

The post Godzilla Studio Toho is making a Exit 8 live action adaptation appeared first on Destructoid.

Fortnite isn't just the biggest game in the world — it's an unstoppable property seemingly hellbent on bringing every other famous property into its fold in interesting ways. We've had trailer reveals hosted by Palpatine himself, a huge concert by Travis Scott, and we've recently witnessed the live defrosting of Mariah Carey. Those blockbuster events are great and bizarre in an awesome way, but so are many of the regular skins and collabs we see in Fortnite. Let's look at the wildest of the bunch.

10. Peely

Maybe it's the dead black eyes. Maybe it's the tiny smile, or the strange bootheels. Perhaps it's the slightly peeled-off skin on the upper part of the head. Peely suffers from Teletubbyism, an affliction that causes creatures to look cute on first glance but more and more off the longer you stare at them.

So many parents only look at the stuff their kids love once, so Peely passes the parental test. After looking at it like five times, however, there was no doubt in my mind Peely was designed to visit players in their nightmares long after their games had concluded.

And, the best part is that this is not even Peely's final form.

9. Juice WRLD

Unlike most skins on this list, Juice WRLD's skin looks fine. Juice was a handsome dude, and the problem resides in the "was" part. Juice has sadly passed away at a very young age in a rather tragic way, so I just can't help but to think this skin shouldn't exist in this game. Though it looks genuinely cool, this is the only "weird" skin in the game I just cannot approve of.

Pretty much any way you can think of to honor a deceased person is better than creating an avatar of them you can kill again till the end of time.

8. Fabio Sparklemane

Maybe it's the Internet, but anthropomorphized cats, dogs, and bears all work surprisingly well on most games. Still, there's something about a horse that stands on two legs and contends for the Victory Royale that just feels too out there. Is it because his hooves would never be able to reach the trigger of any of the guns in the game? Or is it because he might have been named after Fabio, a man and meme so good looking he once accidentally mesmerized a bird that flew straight into his face and exploded while the man was enjoying a supposedly peaceful rollercoaster ride.

7. The Brat

Out of all the weird Fortnite skins out there, the Brat is easily the funniest. It's a case of the more you look at it, the funnier he gets. Unlike Meowscles, who clearly has the body of a (very fit) human, The Brat is a hot dog through and through. His chest is a sausage, he wears a bun as a coat, his chest hair is a squiggle of mustard, and his arms are strings of sausage.

Also, unlike most of the other peculiar Fortnite skins, The Brat is 100% cool, 0% creepy — so long as you ignore his incriminating necklace made of baby sausages.

6. Fishstick

A very interesting play on the name, Fishstick is a fish head on a very skinny anthropomorphized human body. This thing has some whacky bulging eyes and a near-permanent smile on his face. He looks harmless, but there's no better remorseless killing machine than a creature who loses all recollection of their crimes every five seconds.

I was trying to think of a Fishstick skin to crown as the weirdest of the weird, but it's just too hard. I guess the suit one edges out the other ones for its impersonal murderer vibes, if only for just a little bit.

5. Meowdas

Meowdas is the weirdest variation of the original Meowscles skin, which was already one of the strangest skins in the game.

Meowscles is a buff and conveniently shirtless human body with the face of a cartoon cat. It's the kind of thing that the Internet loves, and thus something you probably should never confess your love for in the real world. Meowdas is a combination between Meowscles and Midas, and the result is not a cute buff anthropomorphized cat, but something that goes for both cute and edgy all the while being an anthropomorphized cat.

4. Beef Boss

Do you love the weird McDonald's lore, but feel like its characters could still stand to be a bit more bizarre? Then Beef Boss is just the skin for you.

Forget human-shaped cats. For all I know, Beef Boss could just be a regular man wearing a highly impractical burger-shaped helmet, but, if there's any consistency to the world of Fortnite, then that's a sentient burger who grew arms and legs just so he could kill hundreds of people, and that's quite something.

3. Peely Bone

Players quickly complained that the original Peely looked creepy as hell — or maybe they didn't, but I sure did — and I admit to my mistake. The adverse reaction to the cute monstrosity created something even worse. Ever wondered what Peely looked like on the inside? Was he all banana? Welp, it turns out Peely is banana on the outside, manana on the inside. Unlike the original Peely, which is just sneakily frightening, is full on creepy.

I'm sorry for all the nightmares this thing sure must have caused, but I'm just so glad a major game — a cutesy looking one, at that — had the guts to, well, show Peely's guts.

2. Mariah Carey

Yes, I'm afraid I am not joking.

This one is especially great because it carries the immense weight of Internet history. Mariah Carey started off as one of the most popular pop stars in the world, then became meme because of a legendary localization of her song "Without you" in the Bulgarian version of American Idol, where it infamously became "Ken Lee". That would've been more than enough for a fulfilling career, but then Carey morphed into another, larger, meme.

Carey recently went on from being a massive superstar to a creature that the legend told spent most of the year in a cryogenic chamber only to be de-frozen during Christmas to play "All I want for Christmas is you". Very funny, for the year when the meme originated, at least. It didn't stop there, however. The meme got so popular that this year Carey became not only a skin on Fortnite, but even allowed you to see the block of ice imprisoning her shattering in game live. Weirdest of all? The Mariah Carey skin is something you can play as throughout the whole year.

1. Skibidi Toilet Back Bling

Who wouldn't want to wear a human head inhabiting inside a toilet as a backpack? The Skibidi Toilet Back Bling isn't just one of the most visually odd cosmetics in a game, it's also one that seems to bend all human-made rules.

Fortnite belongs to Epic Games, whereas Skibidi Toilet, though now a registered trademark with its own toy line and attempted movie or tv in the works, is something that came out of Half-Life 2 mods. Valve seems pretty chill about all this, but the company could have very well raised some issues with the usage of what are basically Half-Life 2 assets by the biggest game from the competition.

Skibidi Toilet is no stranger to litigation, as the IP owners nearly went into battle against Garry’s Mod, the Half-Life 2 game responsible for its creation. Weirdly enough, Valve also had nothing to do with any of that. That’s just a taste of how strange reality gets under the shadow of Skibidi Toilet.

The post Strangest Fortnite skins, ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

Ever wished you could witness the embryonic stage of Halo: Combat Evolved? The original version of Halo: Combat Evolved from a time when the most influential FPS of our time wasn't even an FPS yet. Then you can now download and play the elusive Halo 1: Speartest and e32k builds, completely free of charge, and enjoy a massive blast from an alternate past.

You can now finally play as that old-school Master Chief with the weird helmet, fire the minigun shown in the very first previews, try out a non-covenant sword, various rocket launchers, a sick flamethrower, and even drive the scorpion tank. It's all there. Moreover, I was surprised to see just how beautiful and rich the original ringworld looked — and that's coming from someone who adores the original's aesthetic.

That's right, Halo is now old somehow enough to make for great e-archeological findings, as we'd recently seen extremely devoted fans unearthing and making Halo 2's fantastic 2003 E3 demo playable 21 years later. The unearthing of Speartest is arguably even more interesting, as it allows players to experience the game in a completely new way.

Halo was many things before it materialized in Halo: Combat Evolved, the title that would put the original Xbox on the map and change all FPS — yes, not just console ones — forever. Before it was the FPS that most once loved and now have sadly mostly forgotten, it started development as mix between RTS and third person shooter, one envisioned for Apple systems, no less. Speartest is none other than the version announced by Steve Jobs himself way back in the year 2000.

It was in one of Bill Gates' dirty blows to Steve Jobs that he managed to snag not just Halo but also Bungie, its developers and makers of Marathon, Apple's biggest original series, and take everything to Microsoft.

This release is just a small part of the nearly 25 years of Halo content that got leaked after — but not necessarily due to — the Digsite modding team quitting after citing mistreatment by Microsoft.

You could say that Halo in the third person isn't really new anymore because of Halo: Infinite. Still, this proved a potent nostalgia fix for a time I didn't know I missed, so I recommend that everyone who loves this series to check it out.

If you want to try out the original vision for Halo as a shooter, a 3rd person shooter, you can get It right here through the marvelous Internet Archive.

The post You can now play the original version of Halo, before it was an FPS appeared first on Destructoid.

During the dark days of 2021's lockdown, out-of-work actors Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls set out to produce and direct a version of William Shakespeare's Hamlet shot entirely in the incredibly violent world of GTA V Online. As of late 2024, I still don't know if they succeeded at their initial task, but it seems as if they've succeeded in creating something special with Grand Theft Hamlet, a documentary about their adventure in making the movie.

If you're anything like me, the mere idea that someone remade the entirety of Hamlet in GTA V will have you cringing hard. The Internet, YouTube especially, has way too many covers and fan remakes of things that should probably be left alone — out of respect for the original work and consideration for the time of the people browsing.

In this case, however, I was very wrong to immediately discard Grand Theft Hamlet, as it seems like an actually riveting work of passion.

The world of GTA Online is incredibly hostile. Los Santos is a place where you're more likely to get shot in the nuts than to get greeted by a passer-by. Outside of a few competitive online titles, the GTA community is likely the last group you should try to cast and direct for your in-game remake of something for nerd theater kids. Still, the world and all the sets provided by this incredibly rich title make it the best stage for, well, a spectacular stage.

The title “Grand Theft Hamlet” looks like something out of a made-for-YouTube spoof. Seemingly, however, it's a riveting documentary ( currently sitting at 94% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) that will both pull at your heartstrings and make you laugh hard with its tale of community effort during rough times.

Grand Theft Hamlet premiers in select theaters on January 17, and will start streaming on MUBI at an undisclosed later date. Grand Theft Hamlet took the best documentary award at the SXSW Film Festival, among a few other awards, and it truly does feel like the surprise 2025 opener I didn’t know I wanted.

The post There’s a movie about Hamlet in GTA 5, and it looks spectacular appeared first on Destructoid.