News:: Nobody should die because of a video game

Andrew Finch, a father of two and 28-year-old resident of Wichita, Kansas, is dead, shot by police who were called to his home with a report of a hostage situation. There was no hostage situation happening, not even a gun inside the house. But Finch was there with his family. He opened the door when he saw flashing police lights and was killed moments later.

Police are now saying the shooting is the result of a Swatting call. Deputy Police Chief Troy Livingston described the act as a 'prank' and the actor as a 'prankster,' words that honestly fail to do this monstrous situation justice. It's a gross tragedy, one that feels particularly disgusting because it may be the end result of a feud between two Call of Duty players.

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News:: Review: Tiny Metal

It's been almost ten years since the last Advance Wars game (and nearly fifteen since the last really good one). Since Nintendo has all but abandoned the series in favor of its other turn-based tactics series Fire Emblem, it's now up to a few indie developers to pick up what the big N has left behind. It's a daunting task, and it's admirable that Tiny Metal (and others) are taking it on.

Tiny Metal takes that classic formula -- anime characters commanding a battalion, interconnected rock-paper-scissors interactions, and the horrors of war abstracted in an almost whimsical way -- and adds its own twists. The mechanics it brings to the table are enough to change the mental calculations and further the genre, but its roughness around the edges holds it back from achieving greatness.

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News:: Alleged swatting hoax ends in the death of a father of two

Yesterday evening, a 28-year-old Kansas man was shot by police after the station received a call about a hostage situation taking place at the man's residence. "It was a shooting call involving hostages," Deputy Police Chief Troy Livingston said during a press conference last night. "The original call, we were told that someone had an argument with their mother and dad was accidentally shot. And that now that person was holding mother, brother and sister hostage. We learned through that call that a father was deceased, and had been shot in the head. That was the information we were working off of." But that information turned out to be wrong and shortly after the incident, reports began to surface online that the call was part of a "swatting" stunt -- a hoax wherein someone makes a false police report in order to fuel a large law enforcement response.

Source: Wichita Police Department, The Wichita Eagle (1), (2)

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News:: Logging into Overwatch this week will bag you five loot boxes

As was the case with last year's festive week, players logging into Overwatch between December 25 and January 1 will receive five free loot boxes, in conjunction with the Winter Wonderland event.

All you need do is boot up the arena-shooter up, and the boxes will be waiting to be opened on the title screen. All I wanted for my Overwatch Christmas were the amazing skins for Sombra and Ana, but instead I got some festive quotes and sprays, which is the digital equivalent of receiving socks.

The clock's ticking, but I can easily go without if need be. I ain't bought a loot box in my life and I'm not about to start now. To be fair, I did get a Highlight Intro for Reinhardt, as well as a couple of funky Epic skins for Tracer and Zenyatta. In fact, I think my algorithm is glitching, as I received Zenyatta content in absolute abundance throughout 2017.

Regardless, I hope the bonus boxes give you Overwatch dudes and dudettes something rad this festive season. The Winter Wonderland event will continue until January 1, 2018.

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News:: Ray Porreca's personal picks for Game of the Year 2017

Take a deep breath. If you're reading this, congratulations. The holidays have come and gone, and we're one step closer to leaving 2017 in the dust. It hasn't been an easy year, but here we are: alive, tougher, and desperate for some rest.

The last twelve months were rough. But instead of lamenting all the terrible shit that happened, it's time to talk about video games. I played a ton of great games in 2017, but the digital diversions and pixelated poems below instilled me with feelings of rebellion and exploration in an oddly prescient and much-needed manner. 

Video games are good. Here are my top ten Good Games from 2017.

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News:: 'PUBG' sets new record with three million simultaneous players

In case you needed further proof that people really, really, really like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), Steam has your back. Today, the game shattered its previous concurrent-players record by more than double the amount, peaking at 3,106,358 this morning, according to Valve's game-selling platform. As of this month, PUBG had some 25 million players on PC overall. In September, the game peaked at 1,342,857 concurrent players.

Via: Polygon

Source: Steam, PlayerUnknown (Twitter)

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News:: CyberConnect2 has more to announce in February, and I hope it's an original project

Look, I don't mind the long string of Naruto games that CyberConnect2 has been pumping out for years. There's nothing wrong with paying the bills, and those games are actually pretty good. But given how deeply in love I am with Asura's Wrath, I really like seeing the studio tackle more original works.

We might get just that in February, as CyberConnect2 president Hiroshi Matsuyama just teased a reveal for the "vision of the fuutre" of the studio in February. The president is pretty stoked for the big event, as it notes that it'll explain what they're doing "for the next 10 years" rather than celebrate their past 20.

CyberConnect 2 [Hachima Kikou via Siliconera]

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News:: The Darkening of Tristram event returns to Diablo III next week

Blizzard have announced that The Darkening of Tristram event, held this time last year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Diablo, is set to return to Diablo III in January.

The Darkening of Tristram was a nostalgic event that allowed players to once again explore the grim dungeon from the original Diablo, complete with tweaks that pixelated the graphics, reduced lighting quality and cut animation frames to give the game a more authentic 1996 aesthetic.

Adventurers re-explored the hellish catacombs, encountering classic bosses such as The Butcher, before facing off with Big Red himself. I'll admit it wasn't quite what I was expecting, (I was hoping they'd go full-on and include the original HUD, map graphics, and the like), but it was still a very fun and quirky event.

There has, unfortunately, been no announcement forthcoming on any new content being added but, at the very least, players who failed to bag all the achievements and rewards last time around will have a second shot.

The Darkening of Tristram returns to Diablo III on January 1, 2018 and will remain live until January 30.

Diablo III's Darkening of Tristram returns [PC Gamer]

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News:: Flyhigh Works reports high sales for indie Switch titles Kamiko and Voez

The Switch started off with some really great AAA and indie support, namely Voez and Kamiko, a pair of games from Flyhigh Works that were both well received critically (yes, a 74 Metacritic score for the latter is still good!), and as it turns out, commercially.

Via a presentation of their recent goings-on, the publisher noted that Kamiko has sold 160,000 downloads, and Voez hit 50,000 worldwide. Voez is also available on mobile devices, but the fact that it sold that much as a relative drop in the bucket on the already crowded Nintendo eShop in the face of Zelda is pretty great.

As other studios race to put their games on Switch the marketplace will become a bit more crowded, but so long as the install base is there, they'll still have an opportunity to break out like these two projects did.

Flyhigh Works [YouTube via Siliconera]

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News:: ‘Bloodborne’ is still hiding boss battles almost three years later

Bloodborne might be a couple of years old now, but that doesn't mean it's unveiled all of its secrets. Its chalice dungeons give players countless areas to explore and enemies to fight. Now, a group of data miners have found unused bosses, along with the locations players can find them.

Source: YouTube, Kotaku

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News:: New Undercover Brella coming to Splatoon 2 this weekend

Hot off of last week's Squeezer, Nintendo are adding a second all-new weapon to their arena shooter, Splatoon 2. This weekend's addition to the burgeoning arsenal is the spy-themed Undercover Brella.

The Undercover Brella's design is based around hidden gadgetry, kind of like The Penguin, or that guy in The Avengers (No, not those Avengers). It has lower durability than the average Brella, but can be fired while opened. The canopy also has a semi-transparent design, to aid close-proximity aiming.

An interesting new addition, the Undercover Brella comes equipped with an Ink Mine sub and Splashdown special. It will be available in later this evening in the U.S. with Europe and Japan to follow early tomorrow.

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News:: The Nintendo Switch's GPU is key to installing unofficial games

Game console manufacturers don't particularly like hackers, but Nintendo's relationship with them has always been particularly tenuous. At a recent hacking conference in Germany a team presented their efforts at getting homebrew games on Nintendo's latest console, the Switch. As spotted by Wololo, bypassing typical safeguards apparently comes down to Nintendo's use of an off-the-shelf NVIDIA Tegra chip, and the backdoor that the silicon-maker left for itself.

Via: Wololo

Source: Media.ccc.de (YouTube)

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News:: Rumor: Red Dead Redemption 2 release date leaked by European retailer

Rockstar keeps their release dates pretty close to the chest, and fairly far out of reach.

Though based on the record of Danish retailer Coolshop, who did give us the right GTA V date, we may have a firm idea of when Red Dead Redemption 2 will be out. Based on the site, the prequel (which in reality is the third game in the Red Dead series since Red Dead Revolver is a thing), will drop on June 8.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is currently slated for a second quarter release on PS4 and Xbox One. This time it'll focus on an outlaw named Arthur Morgan, and Sony has a timed exclusivity agreement for "some" online content on PS4. That's basically all we know at the moment!

Red Dead Redemption 2 [Coolshop via Game Informer]

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News:: Layton Mystery anime series coming to Japan in 2018

Level 5 have announced than a new anime series, based on the delightful Professor Layton puzzle games, will air in Japan in 2018.

Layton Mystery Detective Agency: Kat's Mystery Solving Files, is a name that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but at least expositions the series' plot. The show will star Prof. Layton's adorable daughter Katrielle, who solves mysteries around foggy London town with the aid of her assistant Ernest and her talking dog, Sherl, LIKE SHERLOCK, Y'SEE?

The arc of the series has Katrielle hoping to track down her top-hat loving dad, who disappeared while on a hot case. It sounds like it could be quite a charming series, given Layton's quaint style and characters. The show will see a Manga adaptation and there's even talk of a toy line.

The Layton Mystery Detective Agency: Kat's Mystery Solving Files anime and manga launch in Japan Spring 2018.

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News:: The Morning After: Friday, December 29th 2017

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Apple's apologizing to its customers, and we're running down the best games from last year. Plus, the new season of Black Mirror is here.

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