This week, the year’s biggest video game adaptation arrives with Prime Video’s Fallout. From executive producer and director Jonathan Nolan (Westworld, The Dark Knight trilogy), and showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, the series is among the most ambitious translations of a game to television. It’s pretty good, too. With …
Read More »'Prince of Persia' Is Back With a New Sound, Straight Outta Iran
When it was released earlier this year, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown surprised players not just by resurrecting the long dormant franchise in stellar fashion but doing so by returning to the series’ roots. Rather than playing it safe with emulating the 3D formula of the fan-favorite Sands of …
Read More »'Dragon's Dogma 2' Is a Frustratingly Archaic Action RPG
Released in 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the original Dragon’s Dogma was an action roleplaying game tailored to a very specific audience. Brutally difficult, the gameplay centered on open-world exploration with a survivalist touch, wherein players and their NPC (non-player character) companions must trek through a “persistent” …
Read More »Why Maddy Thorson Could Never Make a Sequel to 'TowerFall'
Imagine a perfect party game—simple enough for anyone to pick up, yet balanced wisely to make everyone feel empowered. Chaotic to look at, but once in-hand it locks players into a trance of control. It’s the type of game that grows deeper and more intense every round as the stakes …
Read More »'I Wouldn't Have Had It Any Other Way': YouTuber MatPat Says Goodbye
When YouTube star and game legend MatPat speaks to Rolling Stone, he’s 24 hours from one of the biggest changes of his life. For almost a decade, MatPat, whose real name is Matthew Patrick, has been the main host of Game Theorists, a popular YouTube show that eventually expanded into …
Read More »The Creators of 'Final Fantasy VII Rebirth' Want You To Have 'Positive Anxiety'
As anyone familiar with Hollywood could tell you, remakes are hard. Other than bringing something old to a new audience, many remakes struggle to bring anything fresh enough to justify the double dip. In the world of video games, it’s a little different. Based solely on the tech aspect, remaking …
Read More »Princess Peach Is Starring in Her First Game in Two Decades — And It's Great
You’d think being royalty would afford one all kinds of privileges, but in the case of Nintendo’s Princess Peach, it’s been a mixed bag. Despite appearing in dozens of games since her initial appearance in 1985’s Super Mario Bros. — including as a skilled tactician in Super Mario RPG and …
Read More »'Final Fantasy VII Rebirth' Is a Beautiful Idea At War With Itself
In the luddite days of the Nineties, there were a handful of ways to discover a new video game: You could hear about it in the schoolyard from that one kid who swore that their older brother got a copy straight from Japan. You could read about it from a …
Read More »'Tekken 8' Is Peak Fighting Game Bliss
There was a time when arcades reigned supreme, and Bandai Namco’s 3D fighter Tekken series was a top contender for king of the fighting games. Despite being someone who grew up in the twilight of arcades’ popularity, my first experience with Tekken wasn’t with a cabinet, but with a kiosk …
Read More »Streaming Is Introducing a New Generation to Dungeons & Dragons
It’s not just video games that dominate the digital airwaves on platforms like Twitch — there’s a huge contingent of viewers who yearn for the old days of pen and paper, with tabletop RPGs making a huge splash virtually in the last few years. In fact, once-niche games like Dungeons …
Read More »