How High Voltage Software Tried to Make the Wii Cool With ‘The Conduit’

In the late 2000s, the Nintendo Wii was not the console for cool kids. In retrospect it was a daring concept with plenty of hits, but none of this mattered to the schoolboys that surrounded me in the late aughts. Back then, it was all about graphics and guns. Nintendo…

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FEATURES

Dating the Primals of Final Fantasy XIV

Like any MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV offers its players a gluttonous buffet of ways to kill time. The best dish on offer, by far its flashiest and most engaging content, exists in instanced cooperative boss battles called Trials. These pit you against all kinds of gigantic, world-ending threats, and the…

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LISTS

The New Light Guide to the Story of Destiny 2

In the beginning, there was the Traveler. Arriving in our solar system sometime in the past, it set the tone for Destiny 2 by being a mysterious, magical, spacefaring orb. The Traveler kickstarted a Golden Age for humanity, which produced all kinds of advances in medicine and technology, including the invention of…

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GUIDES

NJPW Summer Struggle 7/17/21 Review: Rights for Juniors, Ass People and Feet People

After two nights of Summer Struggle in Sapporo and in between NJPW-affiliated action in three U.S. promotions, New Japan Pro Wrestling returned to Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall for two hours of tag and singles matches. The July 17 Summer Struggle event was definitely one of New Japan’s best non-major shows of…

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WRESTLING

An Incomplete Glossary of FFXIV Terms for New Players

Final Fantasy XIV terms are tricky. The critically acclaimed MMORPG has been running and growing for the better part of a decade now, with multiple expansions, countless updates, and more of both on the way! It’s also full of its own jargon that players then expand with shorthand and abbreviations.…

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FFXIV terms

GUIDES

FFXIV DPS Rankings – Best Melee DPS Classes for October 2021

Any FFXIV DPS tier list, especially one for melee DPS, is an exercise in speed! The red-coded “damage per second” Jobs aren’t quite as vital as tanks or healers, but you still need them to beat down bosses before enrage timers and countdown clocks ruin your day. To that end you…

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ffxiv best melee dps rankings

GUIDES

A Late Game Twist Complicates Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’s Gay Representation

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and I were getting along so well, but now I’m not sure how I should feel about the 90 hours I spent playing it. This is because a reveal in Ubisoft’s take on Norse mythology completely recontextualizes everything about protagonist Eivor. And I guess the simplest way…

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Hitman 2 Review

The tagline for Hitman 2 is “make the world your weapon.” It’s much better than 2016’s “enter a world of assassination,” which ushered in Hitman, that year’s soft reboot of the murder simulator series. The previous slogan was hilariously overwrought. It also didn’t accurately describe what these games are about.…

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Hitman 2 Review Main Menu

REVIEWS

Game of Thrones Season 7, Episode 4 Recap: “Spoils of War”

“Spoils of War” is a nightmare of ash and cooking flesh. As a genre, horror aims to elicit a physical response from its viewers, and few sights can compete for raw, appalling disgust with the charnel house Drogon and the Dothraki make of the banks of the Blackwater Rush. Add…

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REVIEWS

Russian Doll, Majora’s Mask, and the Endless Horror of the Time Loop

If the past few years are any indication, people love time loops. And why not? Forced repetition and simmering rage make natural comedy, and we never met a recyclable concept we couldn’t love for at least a little while. 2019, though, seems determined to test that love: both the time-loop…

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FEATURES

5 Weird Secrets Hiding in Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar has finally let fans loose on the wild west of Red Dead Redemption 2. And boy howdy is it packed full of secrets. So much so that you can just wander aimlessly into the wilderness and, more often than not, find something strange that adds depth to the already…

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john marston arthur morgan

LISTS

Always Bet on Red: AEW Double or Nothing 2021 Recap and Review

Out of AEW’s four annual pay-per-view events, there’s still a special air surrounding Double or Nothing. After all, it’s the company’s anniversary show; the event that sets the tone for the year. In 2020, the company weathered the hard pivot known as COVID to put on a very good show,…

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WRESTLING