Summary InNeed for Speed Unbound, The Grand serves as the ultimate racing challenge in the game’s story mode, bringing together Lakeshore’s best street racers for a high-stakes competition. Unlike other events in the story, The Grand requires players to field four different vehicles across four performance tiers: A, A+, S, and S+. Each race in The Grand corresponds to one of these tiers, requiring players to switch cars between events. This adds a layer of strategy, as players must carefully select and tune their vehicles to excel in each class....

Summary Most stories in theGundamfranchise focus on the trials and tribulations of the pilot of a mobile suit called Gundam. Most of these pilots happen to be teenage boys who are thrust into the war because they are blessed—or cursed, depending on how you see it—withcertain psychic abilitiesthat can help them control the mobile suit far better than regular pilots. But just because most of these iconic pilots are men, doesn’t mean this franchise lacks skillful female pilots....

Summary Aliens and UFOs have been the backbone of sci-fi literature, movies, TV shows, and of course, there are a great manysci-fi video games, for decades. UFOs are generally portrayed as the traditional flying saucer type, which has been part of the global psyche since the 1940s. Some games incorporate UFOs as transport for alien incursions. Others expand on them, turning them into mechanical adversaries in their own right. Either way, these alien spaceships are always a threat....

Contrary to what some non-gamers might think, video games are capable of telling great stories. Games likeThe Witcher 3,Cyberpunk 2077,andThe Last Of Usaren’t just fun to play, they tell awesome, compelling stories that make it difficult to put down your controller. In a lot of ways, we live in the golden age of video game storytelling, andopen-worldtitles ascend with each console generation. Sometimes, these expansiveopen-worldgames are made even greater thanks to expansions and DLCs....

Summary Without a strong supporting library of RPGs, thePS1may not have been a smash hit. One of the smartest decisions Sony ever made was re-releasing PS1 games digitally on PSN to be enjoyed on both the PS3 and PSP. That moment when players realized they could play games likeFinal Fantasy 7on the go must have been eye-opening. Final Fantasy 7and many other Square Enix and non-Square Enix RPGs have made it past the PS1 via those aforementioned digital ports and through other versions too....

Games likeCoD Warzonego through many different metas as new weapons are added and old ones go through changes. This can make it difficult to make players' favorite weapons viable options, and any fans of the shotguns available in the game could feel some disappointment. The shotguns have fallen out of the game’s meta after a batch of nerfs hit the typically powerful guns. This has seen the weapons fall out of favor with the community, though it doesn’t mean they are completely useless....

Summary JoJo’s Bizarre Adventurewas huge in Japan for a long time, but it wasn’t until David Production did a great job of adapting this series that the IP enjoyed popularity on a worldwide scale. Araki’s ambitious writing makes every major story arc inJoJofeel unique to experience. Stands are one of the most important elements ofJoJo’s Bizarre Adventurethat helps its fights feel more unique than ever before. These powerful projections were introduced inStardust Crusaders, which is filled to the brimwith iconic Standsthat fans still remember to this day....

Summary A gamer was able to create a real-life copy of one of the posters found in theCall of Duty Zombiesmap Liberty Falls. This largeCall of Duty Zombiesmap features several points of interest, including a church, gas station, and motel. Black Ops 6, the latest entry in Activision’s popular shooter franchise that launched in October, has provided fans with threenewCall of Duty Zombiesmaps. Among these is Liberty Falls, a fictional town seemingly inspired by Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, that has been overrun by the undead....

Summary Relief is on the way forCall of Duty: Warzoneplayers experiencing lobby crashing issues. The update comes after users reported their games were freezing or crashing during loading screens, leading to unwarranted in-game penalties in some cases. While the underlying glitch remains unpatched for now,Warzoneissued a quick fix so the game won’t penalize people experiencing lobby issues anymore. 2024 was a big year for theCall of Dutyfranchise, but it hasn’t been an easy ride for developer Raven Software in recent months....

The offerings ofCall of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Zombies mode were recently expanded with the launch of Season One Reloaded, with this anticipated update adding the Citadelle des Morts map to the title. As the first post-launch Zombies map to come to the game, a lot of pressure was on Citadelle des Morts to shake things up while maintaining the clear respect for traditional Zombies experiences thatBO6has. As expected,Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Citadelle des Morts carried forward the story and core cast of characters of Terminus, one of the game’s launch maps, with the map’s sinister castle setting being reminiscent of some of the bestCoDZombies experiences of the past....

Quick Links TheCall of Duty: Black Ops 6Season 1 update introduced a variety of new content, including the Power Drill Melee. This weapon can be unlocked via the Armory by completing its specific challenge, which requires earning 250,000 XP. While typically seen as a tool on your workbench, inBO6, the Power Drill functions as a lethal weapon, capable of delivering a two-hit kill, being most effective at extremely close range....

Summary The superhero genre has long been a dominant force in Hollywood, delivering massive box office numbers and capturing the imaginations of audiences worldwide. However, 2024 marked a year of reckoning forMarvel, DC and comic book movies in general. As the once-reliable formula for success began to show significant cracks. With only one film,Marvel’s—Deadpool and Wolverine—achieving aRotten Tomatoes score above 50%, the genre finds itself at a critical juncture. The tepid reception of this year’s offerings has sparked conversations among fans, critics, and industry insiders alike about the future of superhero cinema....

Summary A compilation of four differentDoomgames,Doom Slayers Collection, may be returning with new PS5 and Xbox Series X/S ports after being delisted in 2024. The FPS game collection features remasters of the originalDoom,Doom 2,Doom 3, and the 2016 series reboot simply titledDoom. There are not many games that go on to influence a genre as much as 1993’sDoominfluenced the first-person shooter genre. The id Software-developed title was one of the first games to boast features like 3D graphics, multiplayer matches, and support for user-created mods....