Fortnite oversaw the transition of Battle Royale from game to genre, and I think ARC Raiders performed the same trick for Extraction - and in a very similar way. Tarkov and PUBG are both loping, all fours, half-clad man beasts with their dicks out in a public park. Their own skin feels too tight, somehow; they're scratching themselves on the rough bark of trees just to get a moment of release. Fortnite and ARC Raiders are, by way of comparison, videogames.

I think we have to just establish - verbally, conceptually - that we have entered into a kind of vortex where traditional assumptions about the industry have been annihilated. Megafauna are collapsing under their own weight; they're loaning their treasured IP to tiny, scampering creatures so that something useful might be done with it at all. They're slicing and sectioning themselves into charcuterie boards, or tarting themselves up for handsome saviors. The return of the demo, an attempt to thumb the scale in a world where making a good game appears to be a solved problem but people knowing you exist is increasingly impossible, means I've bought more games in the last two weeks than I have in the last two years. Escapees from "triple a" have gnawed at its root, drawing from it a dark strength. Or, you know, gotten utterly annihilated. Like I said: Vortex.

Time was, people would say that you had to read the newspost to know what the comic was about - like that was a bad thing! As the author of the newspost, I have a natural impetus to craft the kind of strip which requires an independent Stone of Hammurabi to help interpret it; a conceptual side order. The thing about today's strip is that you will find absolutely no succor in these words - no nourishment. It's inspiration is almost impossible to explain, it must be experienced viscerally. Brenna was only able to watch it for ten seconds. How far will you get?

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Chris Kempczinski (@chrisk_mcd)

In the Time Before - no relation to The Land Before Time - it was very important to have a "Halo Killer." There were many attempts, wrought at a profundity of expense and labor. They would have been very surprised to learn, years after this conflict had passed into history, that the storied franchise and its laconic green action figure would die to suicide.

Capcom just released a demo for Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection and I love it. The demo seems to have come out for pretty much everything but I grabbed it for the PS5 Pro and it’s gorgeous. Plenty of people love the Monster Hunter series but I feel like the “Stories” side games get overlooked. That sort of makes sense as the Stories games are very different. These are turn-based RPG’s with an anime art style and a focus on younger characters with monster collecting/ battling. Think of them like Pokemon + Monster Hunter and it’s just as cool as it sounds. 

I haven't played Overwatch since… I mean, a long time ago. I don't even remember why. Oh, wait! I do remember why, and no doubt others remember also. In something like COD, bare minimum, I can run around and pick up your tags or whatever. The only shooter I ever got truly competitive in was probably Gears 2, and then, only for two reasons. One, because your whole team is two people. And two, because if you don't get good at the a complete stranger will chainsaw you from your asshole up to your collarbone. It's the worst feeling I've ever experienced in a video game and I'd do anything - even git gud - to avoid it.