Author: amandaholeman

Image: V RisingV Rising came out on May 18, and I would bet that on May 17 almost none of you would have ever heard of the game in your lives. One week later and it’s sold over 500,000 copies, and as I type this is being played by more people on Steam than Elden Ring.So what’s V Rising? It’s a vampire game where you get to create your own character and do some fighting. More specifically—and you’ll have to bear with me on this—it’s a vampire game that is a little bit of loads of other games all rolled into one. There’s some Diablo there. But also some base-building. Some survival stuff. Adventuring in an open world. And it supports co-op but also competitive multiplayer. Oh, and it’s still in Early Access.It’s a mixed bag, then, but those are all also exactly the kinds of games that PC-cen...

Image: DICEBattlefield 2042, a game that has been swimming upstream from the moment it launched, needs both new content and some serious fixes, and it needs them quickly. In a major presentation made to fans earlier today, developers DICE revealed that players will be getting a little bit of both. Eventually.In a blog post called Battlefield Briefing: Development Update, the game’s community manager outlines a long laundry list of things that are coming as part of the game’s seasonal updates, along with a guide to some changes being made to some maps (some of which have already been discussed) and some other tweaks being made to everything from player animation to the game’s much-criticised voice acting. As long as that laundry list is—much of which was already known, it’s just the timing ...

Image: Activision Blizzard10 months after a California lawsuit alleged widespread sexual harassment and discrimination at Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard, employees at the company don’t feel like it’s made the necessary changes and have created a worker committee to demand further reforms. Chief among them are calls for independent investigations, an end to retaliation, trans-inclusive healthcare, and protections for breastfeeding.“We believe it is imperative that workers have a voice in Activision Blizzard’s anti-discrimination policies—without that, the company’s culture of harassment and abuse will continue to go unchecked,” senior motion graphic designer and member of the Worker Committee Against Sex & Gender Discrimination, Emily Knief, said in a statement today. “We ho...

Screenshot: 2P Games / KotakuLast Friday, when I started playing Steam Early Access farming sim Immortal Life, I was only planning to play for a couple of hours before bed. I finally ended my session at 5 a.m. It’s a standout among farming sims because it tries to emulate the verisimilitude of life instead of the dreary economics of running a farm. Immortal Life has a beautiful art style, the villagers are all intensely likable, and the farming systems are satisfying without feeling punishing. Though the game is still only in early access, Immortal Life is my favorite farming simulation game since 2009’s Rune Factory 3 on Nintendo DS.Immortal Life is a cross between Rune Factory and Stardew Valley, but with a major difference: Instead of European fantasy, the Chinese-developed game is firm...

Image: Kotaku / StockMediaSeller (Shutterstock)Seth Green is having a bad time after he claims some of his NFT apes were stolen from him using a phishing scam. One very special ape in particular was taken and then sold to another user, which is bad news for him because Green planned and created an entire new TV show starring that digital ape NFT. Now that he no longer owns it or the rights to it, that TV show might be dead. Famous (?) comedian, actor, and NFT buyer, Seth Green claimed on May 8 that an anonymous scammer stole some of his NFTs via a phishing scheme. On Twitter, Green broke the news of his stolen and resold NFT assets. The scammer grabbed a Bored Ape, two Mutant Apes, and a Doodle. The assets were ripped from Green’s wallet after he accidentally interacted with a scam site.An...

An esports pro has been lambasted after a video surfaced online in which an individual, who is allegedly Fortnite Champion Series Grand Final contender Sin, shows off a fully stocked weapons closet and states, in the year 2022, that the stockpile of firearms is “just in case there’s ever a zombie apocalypse or a n*gger outbreak.” Sigh, I hate this world we live in.Sin, or Sin3278, isn’t new to the game’s professional circuit. According to the player statistic tracker database Fortnite Tracker, Sin has been competing in various tournaments since at least July 2019. He made his first Fortnite Champion Series appearance in October 2020, which is a pretty big deal. The FNCS is Fortnite’s most high-profile esports competition. I mean, it’s even hosted by developer Epic Games. Getting on that st...