Cairn: A Brutal, Beautiful Struggle Against the Mountain
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: Memories in Orbit – Beautiful, Polished, but Marred by Frustrating Decisions
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.
Brrr, it's Cold Out Here...There Must Be A Giant Winter Storm About to Hit Most of the US: Here's What to Do to Get Through
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.
Our Favorite TV of 2025
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
Quarantine Zone: The Last Check Is As Janky and Buggy as It Looks
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
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – How a Misguided Open World Betrayed the Prime Formula
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.
I Went to CES 2026: On Robots, Micro-RGB and Getting Lost in Endless Tech
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.
Hytale First Impressions: How a "Dead" Game Became 2026’s First Hit
It’s been a crazy rollercoaster for Hytale. This Minecraft-meets-RPG style game was declared dead in June 2025, when Riot Games dissolved the studio. Despite its trailer on YouTube getting 60+ million views, Hytale has been mired by changes in focus during development, and eventually stalled out altogether. Then, in November of last year, original founder Simon Collins-Laflamme bought the rights back from Riot Games to save the project he started.
StarRupture Review: An Explosive Twist on Factorio-Style Automation
StarRupture takes the automation base building concept and throws it into a world that’s fun to explore. The extra layer of lore has made me really invested. That being said, the Early Access roadmap promises more wildlife, new buildings, new locations and points of interest and much more, including new exploration mechanics.
Time Marches On (With Epic Cliffhangers) in The Pitt Season Two, Episode One, "7:00 A.M."
he Pitt is great because it’s great TV, and it’s great because it’s spectacularly put together. It’s a clockwork of vignettes each with perfect timing and just enough intrigue, a whole deck of face cards with obvious chops acting their faces off, and the ability to say something intelligent and somewhat novel about it all.
