Screenshot: ANTHEM#9 ANTHEM#9 is a game of "buts." It is the debut title from self-taught solo developer koeda, but it feels surprisingly polished in its presentation. It has some serious style and seriously catchy music, but a gameplay loop that makes me feel like it’s missing that certain something. It features a clever gem-matching combat system that feels great when it works, but the world around it feels empty.

Enter Dana with the lab results. ITP 9000. Do I know what that means? Of course not, but I think it means everyone shuts up and waits to find out.

Did you ever wonder what went into maintaining our national and state parks? Did you ever want to be a park ranger, thinking you’d spend your days sipping coffee in a fire tower somewhere? Ranger’s Path: National Park Simulator actually approximates the day to day activities of a National Park Ranger.

I can’t wait to see more of Whirlight – No Time to Trip when the full game is released. The developers obviously understand the heart and humor that made those old games timeless.

Listen. We're from Chicago. And, in Chicago, tradition is king. Sure, it might now be called the Willis Tower, but you won't catch us saying anything but Sears. It's Comiskey. It's Field's. We go to Jewel. We're a city that works, and a city that loves to be recognized for the things we've done that left a lasting impact on the country and the world. That's why we're proud to hit the floor at the Chicago Auto Show. It's a tradition that's been around for a full 118editions

There is a solution to this, and ironically, Blizzard has had it in place in the Diablo series for years. Just make a main, non-seasonal "Eternal Realm" progression mode alongside the seasonal characters. I have a feeling Chief Rebel might make this concession in the future, but it might not be before my friends and I are long gone.

The MLB has “The World Series.” Professional Golf has “The Masters.” And the NFL has “The Super Bowl.” But why "Bowl"? And why "Super"? The origin of the name is a lot more complicated—and accidental—than the corporate sheen of the event suggests.

At this point, I’ve played more roguelike deckbuilders than I can remember. That’s not a bad thing, because when they’re good they can offer some of the most satisfying gameplay. And if they’re great, they can even dominate video game discourse. That margin between good and great is probably slimmer than I, as an outsider, can really understand. The Spirit Lift doesn’t manage to bridge the gap, but it brings some unique vibes and solid but formulaic execution.

It's early February so that means it's time to stop living in the moment and look ahead to that third Saturday in April that half the vinyl record community holds deep in their heart or outward disdains: Record Store Day.

I guess, given that the shift just started and we’re only through two hours of it, having more questions than answers is normal, but I wish we had some idea of at least one person’s fate. Oh well - we’ll leave that to next time.

This probably won’t be the last I write about Witchfire this year. It’s just so damn good. If you told me a game was able to blend Dark Souls with first-person gunplay, I’d be horribly skeptical. But Witchfire not only pulls it off, I think saying it’s "Dark Souls with guns" undercuts just what developer The Astronauts has accomplished here.

They're ba-ack! ​In the not-too-distant future, we will be getting more Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) in a way I would not have thought possible a few years ago. If you haven’t kept up with the Satellite of Love, the franchise has seen major activity in the last decade. In 2017, original creator Joel Hodgson launched a record-breaking Kickstarter to bring the show to Netflix for two seasons, hosted by Jonah Ray. Later, in 2022, the show moved to its own independent st

Screenshot: Cairn We are, seemingly, in the middle of a climbing game renaissance. Following the meditative flow of Jusant  in 2023 and the high-stakes co-op of 2025’s Peak , Cairn  arrives to offer yet another distinct perspective on the ascent. These games aren’t just copying each other; instead, they focus on vastly different aspects of the vertical journey. Developer The Game Bakers describes Cairn  as a “realistic simulation.” It’s not a simulation in a funny Goat Simula

MIO comes agonizingly close to being an early Game of the Year contender for me. If not for a few hostile design decisions, it would likely make my "Best of 2026" list. If you are a die-hard fan of Metroidvanias with patience to spare, definitely check out MIO: Memories in Orbit. For everyone else, be warned: this beautiful machine has sharp edges.

Winter's coming, and you don't get a choice in whether you like it or not. So, let's at least prepare, because not everyone's been through this at least three times a year.

Maybe you're like us, and you grew up in the golden era of TV - catch jingles in commercials, TV special events, and full blocks of entertainment for the whole family. Either way, a lot of us love television, and we're entering a new golden era, where shows are lickably gorgeous, have amazing stories, and return to the zeitgeist the term "must-see-TV." Yeah, we're late getting you this list, but that just means you've got more time to argue it and suggest your own favor

Despite the main gameplay loop being reminiscent of a Milgram experiment, it justifies its ickiness through “but zombies!” as so many more violent and exploitative games did in the past. Maybe I’m just getting too old for this shit. I’ll just go back to chunking people into giblets with my boltgun in Darktide like a respectable person. But Quarantine Zone: The Last Check is ultimately a janky, buggy mess of a game that happened to nail down the feeling of a zombie apocalypse

When Metroid Prime 4: Beyond finally did hit store shelves, its negative buzz kept me away. Did I really want to ruin my mental image of Samus and the Metroid series with annoying Federation NPC allies and a useless open world? I mean, look at the damage Other M did to the Metroid series. The early buzz practically made it sound like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will be the last Metroid game we’ll see in a while–and probably the last Prime game ever.

It started with an email that asked (as many have before it): Will we be seeing you at CES? Why, no. I don’t go to CES. Travel is expensive. But I always wanted to do CES, and a little voice in my head wouldn’t let it go. So I boarded a plane to Vegas, and despite its popular tourism slogan what happens in CES is written about by every major publication that covers technology or anything tech adjacent.