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Me, at CES. Photo: Antal Bokor 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, and I don’t get paid enough to do that (when I get paid at all). But I always wanted to do CES, and a little voice in my head wouldn’t let it go. I applied, got accepted, and before I knew it I was paying way too much for a plane ticket that wouldn’t even get me there for the media preview days. So I boarded a plane to Vegas, and despite its popular tourism slogan (the most successful tourism slogan in the world, thanks to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority [LVCVA] and ad agency R&R Partners), what happens in CES is written about by every major publication that covers technology or anything tech adjacent. CES 2026. Photo: Antal Bokor I ended up having one full day to tackle CES (despite planning for two), and I made the most of it. It’s not like this is my first convention or tradeshow. I’m a veteran of such activities, having cut my teeth on the likes of Wizard World and IHHS (now Fan Expo and The Inspired Home Show , respectively) among many others. And I knew I wouldn’t be getting the breaking news from CES, but at least I could get "on the floor" coverage. There’s also just something magic about CES. Historic announcements have been made here in the past, and major news breaks every year. I wanted to finally be a part of that. So I wasn’t just at CES to cover it professionally, it was almost like I was on a pilgrimage to the tech mecca. It was both more and less than I expected. One of many robots I would encounter on my journey. Photo: Antal Bokor While the Las Vegas Convention Center is world renowned, I couldn’t help but think it was a little shabby compared to McCormick Place. My first impressions were just “meh.” But I was here. Next thing I knew I’d be looking at monitors, gaming peripherals and more that haven't even hit the market yet. Me "helping" the robot set the board back up. Video: Antal Bokor But then I was surrounded by robots. “Where are all the people?” I thought as I walked around, played tic-tac-toe, and interacted in other ways with a variety of robots. Yes, I did put my hand in here. Photo: Antal Bokor Some booths showcased nothing but robotic hands in varying configurations. “Look at all of those degrees of freedom,” I thought to myself, walking past a display that would have had Sarah Connor hyperventilating. Hand dances and marionettes abound as multiple robotic manufacturers wanted to show you how great their hands were. And I really had to hand it to them. CES 2026. Photo: Antal Bokor But it turns out this is all stuff people have seen before. To be fair, I've never really stood toe-to-toe with so many robots trying to solicit my attention, but the real future was in the other hall with its neat gaming peripherals and the buzzword that even crept into the robotics section: AI. Oddly satisfying. Photo: Antal Bokor But I guess robots were old news, because while I was watching robots mow lawns and clean swimming pools, everyone was in the Central Hall looking at all the cool new game and monitor tech. I have no idea what's going on here. Photo: Antal Bokor LG Display @ CES 2026. Video: Antal Bokor And again, “AI” was everywhere. But then another new concept kept getting my attention: Micro RGB. Now what the heck is that? So TVs traditionally use white lights behind a screen to create colors. Micro RGB technology uses tiny red, green and blue LEDs directly in the backlight. That means, using this technology, we can get some of the most color accurate and color popping visuals ever. And walking through the LG booth area, I can totally see it. But it’s also not entirely new—It's a bridge technology. It's dazzlingly bright and colorful, but essentially 'Super Mini-LED,' not an entirely new category of screen. Still, it does make for a pretty impressive picture. The real OLED killer is probably the QDEL or NanoLED displays that Sharp and others had tucked away. It looks like QDEL with its Quantum Dot inorganic crystals is the real deal, but the technology is still years away. Armed with the knowledge of Micro RGB, AI, and the determination to “see everything” I walked the floor in earnest, trying to get the best coverage I could. Then a peculiar thing happened–I kept looping around to the same few sections. Even armed with the floor map and knowing what kind of stuff I was looking for, I was trapped in an endless loop. Like the backrooms, just with lots of technology. I had to stop to watch this torture machine. Who thought this was a good idea? Video: Antal Bokor Another trend I noticed was the sheer volume of handheld PCs. The Steam Deck opened the flood gate to imitators and other bandwagon jumpers, with companies like MSI (with their Claw 2) and ASUS (ROG Ally X) being some of the big ones. One of many flying vehicles we can look forward to. You need a pilot's license to fly this one . Photo: Antal Bokor It also seems like flying cars are the future. Okay, they’re not really cars, but there was a whole fleet of electric and/or small engine VTOLs to take a look at. Some of them didn’t feel possible–as in, I wouldn’t mind getting in that because it couldn’t possibly lift me up. While others required a pilot’s license to fly. I’m going back to Vegas in a few months (just for fun), and I’ll definitely plan on being back at CES next year. Next year I will know better what I’m doing, so I might actually get some breaking news to share. But this year was fun, and now I know what to expect. Notes from the CES Show Floor: The Best (and Weirdest) of the Rest 8BitDo at CES 2026. Photo: Antal Bokor Best Competitive Spirit:  My personal winner was the 8BitDo booth, just for the competitive spirit they had. (To recap, if you beat their designer in a game of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves  you won a fight stick. You could also win  with a controller via a scratch off. I got a canvas bag out of it!) Not pictured: Me wearing this . Photo: Antal Bokor Best "Iron Man" Moment:  I tried on a Hypershell X  exoskeleton and walked up some stairs. That was pretty neat. It was the first “exo” anything I wore and, despite how little it felt like it was assisting, I really felt like I was touching the future there for a minute. I came into a losing game. Photo: Antal Bokor Biggest L:  I played games with three different robots. I lost. (Shout out to SenseRobot  for being the coolest, and surprisingly one of the most affordable at around $1000-$1600 retail.) The Physical Toll:  I walked 6 miles on the show floor. (And 4 more on the strip that night). Worst Meal:  I ate one of the worst burritos I ever had in my life. (Thankfully comped by my CES media lunch ticket.) Biggest Win:  1 Person recognized our publication. A shout out to that woman at the LG booth who knew CultureCombine .  You really made my weekend! Best "Feel":   Gamesir has some impressive gamepads. I was told they were trying for a real “high end quality” feel and I think they nailed it. Similarly, Chinese manufacturer ATK Gear had some awesome looking keyboards, with switches that feel like I could type on all day. Not as clicky as I prefer, but pretty good feeling nonetheless. Best Off-Grid Tech:  The SPOG (Solar Panel, Off-Grid) trailers were really high end and luxurious. I stepped into a camping model, and was incredibly impressed. Tribbles? Photo: Antal Bokor The Star Trek Moment:  I can’t find anymore information, but there was a robot called "Moxy" (or something similar) by a Chinese company. It looked suspiciously like a Tribble from Star Trek . The QR code didn't work, so I couldn't confirm if it was safe to bring on a space station or if it would start multiplying rapidly, but I sure would love to get one. Touched by Nvidia: There were a lot of Nvidia Partner signs proudly displayed, like some of Nvidia’s good fortune and wealth will rub off onto them just by having the sign. Final Wish:  I want a sign like The Verge  has, and an entire entourage. It was like a posse walking the halls.

Screenshot: Hytale 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. A few short months later we have the game in our hands. And despite the developers saying that it “isn’t good yet” (a warning they issue before you buy the game), it seems plenty good to me–and the 420,000 people who watched it on Twitch on launch day. For a non-Steam launch, hitting a rumored 2.8 million logins in 24 hours is record-breaking. Screenshot: Hytale If you’re not familiar with it, Hytale is basically Minecraft but with an emphasis on being a role-playing game, with actual dungeons and loot progression, and more care taken to how it feels to interact with the world. In fact, Hytale started with a group of Minecraft modders called Hypixel, running one of the biggest Minecraft servers in the world (regularly hitting 100,000 concurrent players). But in 2014, Mojang changed their EULA, crashing the server's revenue by 85% overnight. That was the wake-up call they needed to build their own platform. Screenshot: Hytale Hytale began development in secret around 2015, and in 2018 they released a trailer that accumulated 30 million views in less than a month. There was definitely interest in a newer, better Minecraft. But after being acquired by Riot Games in 2020, development stalled when they spent millions trying—and failing—to rewrite the game in C++. In fact, Hytale as it is today is back to a hybrid engine (C# client, Java server), so most of the code is probably more than four years old at this point. I spent a few hours on launch day getting a feel for Hytale, and I’ve had nothing but a great first impression. Hytale is a gorgeous game, and that’s mostly because of its art direction. I had a few “whoa, that’s a cool vista” moments in Minecraft, but I had at least a dozen yesterday just running around to see as much as I could of the world. Screenshot: Hytale One of the biggest improvements over Minecraft that I experienced in my first few hours is just how much better everything feels, especially combat. Combat and harvesting in Minecraft always felt floaty, like your character isn’t really ever coming into contact with anything. Combat in Hytale is punchy and tactile. It actually feels like you’re making contact, which is a surprisingly huge upgrade to those just used to the air-swish feeling of combat in Minecraft. The weapons I found were also fun and varied with multiple different attacks. While crafting in Minecraft is mostly done from a single crafting table with recipes from memory, Hytale takes a role-playing game route. Recipes are locked behind progression, with items requiring specialized work stations to create. So even if you know how to make a better weapon from memory, you won’t be able to do it unless you find the recipe for it in the world. Screenshot: Hytale Hytale is definitely an Early Access game–there are entire sections of the game that I found walled off with “work in progress” signs. My computer also chugged in some parts, so there is definitely room for optimization. But everything that was available was compelling and fun. Hytale launches with two of its three main game modes: Adventure, its marquee RPG mode, isn’t available at launch, but it launches with Exploration mode and Creative mode. Exploration is a survival-focused prototype of the future "Adventure" story mode. Creative mode is just what you think: it lets you build and explore without limitations–or, I should say, much fewer limitations. Exploration is like Survival mode in Minecraft—”build, craft, survive” as you “Explore an Echo of Orbis.” Screenshot: Hytale It seems like Hytale has been worth the wait. It’s definitely making waves on Twitch and bringing in millions of players. The developers say they have secured funding for the next few years of development. And even if the developers say the game “sucks” right now, I definitely recommend checking it out.

Screenshot: StarRupture Factorio  popularized the open world base building and automation combo genre, with Satisfactory  serving as the next logical evolutionary step. As it turns out, there is still gold to mine in the niche that is automation plus base building, and StarRupture does a great job of mixing ideas together to make something new. Which isn’t surprising, since developer Creepy Jar pulled off something similar with their underrated survival title, Green Hell . In StarRupture , you play as a convict that is sent to a hostile planet to pay off your debt to society. Except, it’s more like a debt in a very literal sense. Your corporate overlords hold the keys to your survival and progress, and completing orders for them—by shipping off massive quotas of raw materials and later manufactured goods—is the only way to extract even more resources to make newer things. Screenshot: StarRupture Before you know it, you’ll have a sprawling base pumping out orders for your corporate patrons. Granting you access to more equipment as you fulfill orders and prove your usefulness is a satisfying way to progress, and it fits neatly in with the lore of StarRupture . The marriage of mechanics into a game’s lore is something I really appreciate. There is more to do in StarRupture  than just base building and tweaking your production line. Unlike similar games where the open world is simply a place to gather materials, StarRupture  has a bunch of things for you to find. Being able to stumble across the ruins of those who have come before not only helps flesh out the game’s world, but it makes creating your own base to survive in feel a little bit more meaningful. Screenshot: StarRupture As you explore, you’ll run into the local wildlife. Not just one or two, but whole swarms of man-sized (and bigger) bugs. Individually, they don’t pose much of a threat, but it’s easy to become overwhelmed. These creatures aren’t just waiting for you as you venture from your base, either—they will eventually find and try to destroy your base. This can be a real issue at first, but as soon as you unlock turrets, holding off swarms of spitting and slashing monsters becomes trivial. Despite “advanced combat” being part of the Steam store page description, gunplay in StarRupture  is just okay so far. It’s definitely passable. Alien creatures aren’t the only hazard you’ll find—the environment, with its devastating, world-scouring fire purges, is something to watch out for. The planet goes through a shocking transformation in a way I haven’t really seen in a video game like this before. Lush greenery is reduced to ash, and bodies of water are evaporated away as the star literally ruptures and spews incinerating fire. The first time I holed up in my base when I was warned of an “incoming wave” was one of the most surprising moments I’ve had in an open world survival game. It was so hot it left the metal of my base glowing red. The world itself takes a while to recover, too, as the air is thick with ash, eventually clearing until the world returns to a lush green (in certain biomes) before the cycle repeats. Screenshot: StarRupture I really like what I’ve played of StarRupture  so far. The tower defense aspect is done well enough, but once you’re established it feels like there aren’t any meaningful threats. Instead of just dealing with the world incinerating ruptures, I want to deal with giant bugs that threaten to smash my walls and take down my defenses, too. StarRupture  has released into Early Access, but it’s a pretty polished game even in its current state. However, developer Creepy Jar has promised updates for the next year of the game’s Early Access period. With promises to listen to community feedback, StarRupture  is looking like it might be something special. 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.

In confessing my original reasoning for checking out The Pitt , I will immediately out myself as a lover of medical drama shows, going so far back as Doogie Howser , getting as corny as Diagnosis: Murder . I was that person getting infatuated with House, and…I've seen absolutely every single episode of E.R. multiple times.  Here’s my reasons for watching E.R. back in 1994 when it made its debut: I’m 12 (basically an adult) and this is a cool adult drama set in Chicago (which I then and still regard as the “coolest city on Earth). Anyway, add in a few doctor crushes, a whole bunch of natural curiosity for what it was like to work as a doctor or nurse, and any pre-teen’s love affair for “the drama” and you’ve hooked one for life.  My reasons for watching The Pitt are eerily similar. After all, they both have Noah Wyle. And you know what else they both do? A great job of making me recall the joy of “must-see-tv” and special event episodes of my past, and an even greater job at “the drama." The 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.  As it turns out, “Noah Wyle’s in it” and “I like ER ” are two very good reasons to watch The Pitt , and, honestly, two of the things that make it great. The Pitt is a flashy new HBO show, sure, and has the gorgeous cinematography and incredible team behind it that that entails, but it also understands what came before it, builds on it, and adds those little pieces of extra flair that get you gasping. Writing this while skipping the live feed of the Golden Globes, I’m gonna say right now it deserved every award it got, and so far I only know of the one for Best Actor in a Drama with, you guessed it, Noah Wyle. (Edit to add: The Pitt had a great night, winning Best Drama for Season 1) It’s got everything I loved about all my favorite medical shows - a huge, beautiful cast of great actors both known and somewhat lesser known, a victory lap from Wyle that shows he’s got it all and he’s only getting better, and an impeccably written, impossibly exciting and action packed series that’s actually accurate and of its time, too.  Photograph by Warrick Page/HBO Max Season 2 brings us right back in, after a night full of indecision, exhaustion and trauma - with a rockin’ coast into the ER on a motorcycle by Wyle.  While they could’ve done “the next morning” we find out with a classic splash screen it’s July 4th and, through a quick walk down the hall where we see a plaque referencing the heroic actions of the Pitt staff during the shooting (ostensibly) we know it’s been a minute. Our day one newbs are clearly no longer newbs, and a new attending is in town. Uh-oh. We all know how that goes. A few “band name” jokes later we’re on the “new attending in town, nurses hate her” trope we’ve been super into on every other show. I’m taking the bait, she really seems like a know-it-all stick-in-the-mud, but also of course, impossibly gorgeous. She’s from the VA, and she invented patient passports.You can see how this is going already.. I eat a few more Cheez-Its. Oh my God, the first patient we let the new guys in DIED? Psych. It was a simulation. (See what the nostalgia does to me?) Dr Robbie’s said about three words and she’s two into correcting him. This is gonna be great.  Without missing a beat we’re getting a few mid-level traumas so we can start guessing “who’s gonna crash first?” and both Dr. Robbie and our unknown quotient: Dr. Baran al Hashimi begin the stern vs. enlightened teacher battle. They trade passive aggressive teaching tips until Wyle comes out with this absolute killer of a burn and, while they’re working in a wide open chest on a beating heart,  he says  “Is the VA even a trauma center?” Oh. My God. He really did say that. For the record, the VA is a trauma center - not for medic runs, but they walk in. Dr. Hashimi doesn’t even blink as she coolly responds with facts. Respect. They keep going tete a tete just short of an argument, I continue to eat Cheez-Its, and a cell phone goes off over and over again. Kids today. Cue risky-but-only-way lung turning procedure, and does that mean Dr. Robbie takes the point? It’s not that easy in this show.  Photograph by Warrick Page/HBO Max The Pitt presents a lot of old medical show classics like competing attendings, complicated work relationships, doctor vs. administration - but it tips the clichés on their ear, and makes everything more meaningful. People act more like people than caricatures. Langdon returns to the fold, too, and not everyone’s ready to trust him again, but they at least try. The new nurse is shadowing one of our favorite characters in the entire show, Katherine LaNasa’s Nurse Dana Evans, who we established last season as someone who’s essentially the beating heart of the place, but who also suffered one too many assaults and was considering leaving. It’s great to have her back, and even better to see her with the newest of the new med students.  Just when you think everything’s going well, Dr. Robbie and Langdon butt heads for the first time, and where you expect a little grace, there isn’t. He’s not dealing with his addict friend, and instead is banishing him to triage. It’s an unexpected move for the “doctor who leads with his heart” but, again, that’s what makes it interesting. Meanwhile, Trinity, one of last season’s most complex and sometimes obnoxious students, continues to go big or go home and not understand when she doesn’t get all the attention. While we still get the set pieces like “stinky homeless guy” we at least see him given compassion. If you’re getting into the Pitt for some good ol’ medical gore, you’ll get that though, and it won’t let up. I have to say that’s not my thing, but I am interested in the various conditions that come through the door and their solutions, and as I mentioned previously, I love trying to guess who’s most likely to take a turn.  Photograph by Warrick Page/HBO Max I love the larger focus on the nurses in this season, with Katherine LaNasa doing a great job as an old hat who still cares, helping the young blood learn the ropes and survive her first day likely better prepared than our OG team of new docs, including learning things like STAMP to assess patients’ demeanor and identify threats. I love how The Pitt continually pushes boundaries. Langdon directly addressing his addiction with a patient he stole from is interesting, if seeming rather risky for himself and the hospital. At the same time, we have a brand new baby left in the bathroom,  causing a simmering, under the surface emergency while the entire ER searches for their parents and tries to address the child’s issues, and simultaneously, we see our first death of the season, which happens quietly and without all the blood and rush. It’s one of my favorite moments, because it’s played so well. An elderly patient goes V-TAC but has POLST orders in place, meaning no dramatic life-saving techniques. The only docs in the room are Whitaker, one of our favorite of S1’s fresh meat, and two of this year’s baby docs, both with a little bit of a bad bedside manner, who are now faced with not being able to perform any dramatic feats of doctory, and have to face death head on. It’s here that Whitaker reminds them, Robbie looking on from behind, that this is still a person, and they need to hold space for that in everything they do (or don’t do.) Is it a little heavy-handed? Sure. But it’s still a lesson worth reiterating in today’s world. Photograph by Warrick Page/HBO Max In the final stretch of the debut episode we get a kindly power pothead of an elderly woman with a surly son, and we see Santos struggling with a badly bruised young girl whose case seems open and shut for abuse. It’s the type of issue we know she struggles to let go, but it’s unclear whether this is cut and dried as it used to be.  Langdon’s alcoholic gets handed off to Whitaker, and we return our attention to the abandoned baby, and learn a few things about the Safe Haven law and what it means for babies over and under 28 days old - if that’s something that can be determined, and if it should mean a difference in care.  The Pitt consistently challenges the status quo of our medical system while it challenges the tropes of a standard medical show, while also celebrating both, and it’s this linewalk that makes it as great as it is. Instead of going rogue this time, Santos takes her potential abuse case to both attendings, who support her and hear her out on her care plan, which includes looking for more signs of trauma but involves the proper professionals from social work to also make their appearance.  Our stinky guy gets his glow-up with no shots at his humanity or need, and we encounter a bit of danger with a patient whose mental status we can’t quite figure out who’s just a little too kicky around Dr. McKay (Fiona Dourif) and though nothing happens per se, it’s not without the ominous undertone of something waiting to happen. Photograph by Warrick Page/HBO Max Back with the baby, everything seems fine until a note gets passed, and everything screeches to a halt…. Until next week. And that’s a wrap, because it has to be. There’s never been a better use of this one hour at a time conceit, as much as I hate to wait one whole week to go one more hour into another shift.  After waiting so long for Season Two, such a classic mid-action cliffhanger infuriates me in all the best ways. We just got caught up with everyone, strings have been dangled, and just like with a real life trauma one ER (like the one I recently found myself in for six hours) there’s no telling just how many things can take a turn in just a little bit of time.  If you somehow missed The Pitt the first time around, I envy you and your ability to binge watch right through. I’d tell you to take your time but I know it’s a fool’s errand. With pacing so frenetic yet well managed, all the familiar trappings of a “medical drama” with more grounding and more twists, and a huge list of characters that are well thought out, it’s hard to stop once you start, unless you have to, like we who are “all caught up” do.  Until next time

Listen, we've been through the Game Awards, we've seen the announcements, and we've perhaps even finally gotten some new gear for Christmas to work with in the New Year. It's cold (maybe? Sometimes?) and, if you're anything like us, you're out of money to go out. What's that mean? Well, it's a great time to go back and play some of the best games of 2025 you just didn't have time to. We're choosing our favorites while we gear up for what's to come in 2026 and wanted to take you along for the ride. If these weren't on your list, consider adding them, and if there's some you think we shouldn't miss, let us know! Consume Me:  I ran across Consume Me six years ago at an indie games festival called Bitbash that was being held at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. It stood out in my head because it took a hard topic - specifically, the sometimes fraught relationship you have with food as a person in a female body going through puberty and facing societal and family pressures - and created representation. Not only that, it handled the topic with care, humor and relatability that were on a whole new level. Consume Me doesn’t just weave a poignant, thoughtful narrative - it brings you into the conflict between calories and happiness (as well as, later in the game, relationships, education, family and social responsibilities) in a palpable way using precisely absurd mechanics to help you experience what your character is experiencing and to literally feel what she’s feeling, whether that’s the panic of carefully balancing calories and still not being able to avoid snacking later, or the ungraceful way your body betrays you when you’re trying to exercise. In this candy colored world, everything’s incredibly real, and when you finally put it down, it’ll change you. I know it did for me. Play this game because games are art, and art is therapy. Consume Me made me feel seen in my struggles, past and present, and encouraged me to redefine my goals and rediscover myself.  You may say “that’s a lot” but that’s the power of good art.  Split Fiction: To be quite honest, I wasn’t sure if this game would make my end of year list. It’s not because it wasn’t good, it’s just because, quite simply, it was. See, developer Hazelight Studios and the man at the helm know how to build impactful narratives (see: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons ) with great mechanics, and also know how to make co-op games that are fun on the couch and over the internet for gamers of all types/skill levels.  A Way Out was an action packed blast of a prison break game with a somewhat disappointing ending, but It Takes Two packed the gravitas of a crumbling marriage/family with the sort of glittering, imaginative candy colored world of storybooks and adds amazingly congruous and super fun co-op mechanics.  There’s that sequel thing that comes into play here - once you’ve had your darling, can the next compare? The answer is a solid “No, but maybe.” Split Fiction isn’t so emotionally fraught at first, with more of an “evil corporation stealing our creativity” bent. And the protagonists, Mio and Zoe, aren’t as immediately sympathetic, as they both kinda hate each other’s writing styles - but that’s an interesting and fun dynamic, and as the game takes shape, and you explore each of their worlds - Mio, a sci-fi type, and Zoe, a bubbly fantasy writer, you unwrap the deeper meaning behind their created worlds, and the more you learn about the other, the stronger the bond grows. It’s something that echoes in real life, as you’re playing with a partner or friend who’s not necessarily “just” like you, and might even rub you the wrong way sometimes, but who is someone you need very much.  Add in more fantastical worlds, more pushing of the boundaries of asymmetrical co-op play and more incredibly satisfying mechanics that complement your partner’s perfectly and you’ll absolutely find the fun. At its core, Split Fiction is about the simple but powerful joy of interactive play with others, and what you can learn from it. And while it doesn’t quite get to that high mark It Takes Two did, it certainly tops the list for “most fun” I’ve had all year gaming - and that’s why it made the list. Donkey Kong Bananza:  In a year headlined by the long-awaited return of Samus in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond , I was certain a Nintendo title would top my Game of the Year list—I just didn't expect it to star Donkey Kong. While Prime 4 is a solid entry, it didn't quite hit the 'extraordinary' bar I hoped for. Donkey Kong Bananza, on the other hand, is a revelation. Think of it as the spiritual successor to Super Mario Odyssey , but with a chaotic twist: total terrain destruction. Smashing through the underground layers with Pauline to stop Void Company isn't just a gimmick; it’s the most satisfying 3D platforming loop Nintendo has created in years.  BallXPit: I’ve always had a soft spot for classics like Arkanoid and Breakout , but BallxPit  takes that ball breaking foundation and evolves it into something entirely new. It injects the genre with unique characters, game-breaking items, and a roguelike structure that creates the same 'just one more run' obsession I haven't felt since the original Binding of Isaac . The highlight is the fusion system: the strategy of combining characters to create overpowered, screen-clearing synergies turns a simple arcade concept into a deep tactical experience. In terms of pure dopamine, nothing else in 2025 came close. If I had to choose the single most fun game I played all year, it would be BallxPit . Escape Simulator 2: Most escape room games give you a set of puzzles and a credits screen. Escape Simulator stood out by giving players the tools to make their own, and the sequel doubles down on that promise. With significantly upgraded graphics and a more powerful editor, Escape Simulator 2 meets the high bar I set for it. It deserves more recognition this year, not just for the solid base content, but for its longevity. It has evolved beyond a simple puzzle game into a full-blown escape room engine, and the community is already proving that the potential is limitless. Absolum: We all know Dotemu as the masters of modern nostalgia thanks to Shredder’s Revenge  and Streets of Rage 4 , but Absolum  proves they don't need a licensed IP to strike gold. While the mainstream hype was focused on Marvel Cosmic Invasion , Absolum  quietly stole the show by mashing up classic brawler combat with deep roguelike mechanics. Whether I was mixing quick  and slow strikes with Galandra or blasting away with Karl’s blunderbuss, the loop of stacking Rituals and Trinkets to create powerful synergies was addictive. It might be a little on the short and easy side, but it’s an absolute gem that stands as Dotemu's best work yet. There's a lot to look forward to with games in 2026, so stay tuned as we dive in!

Movies are back, and so, our butts return to the theater seats (and our comfy couches, thanks to streaming.) This year's had a lot of exciting returns to the big screen and a lot of great new things to explore, and as a team full of film junkies, we're excited to share our favorites from this past year. Let's jump in. One Battle After Another I don't think there is a movie that speaks as loudly to me as One Battle After Another this year. A post modern fairytale where the revolutionary violence of the 60s and 70s still exists in modern America and the racist and governmental overstepping feels a little too lose to reality. OBAA expertly blends everything that Paul Thomas Anderson does best and adds some new, breathtaking tricks. Never has there been a PTA movie that is so exhilarating and tense. It's also easily the most digestible PTA, for better and worse. I see all the seams, like the revolutionaries at the start of the film fighting for a nebulous idea of freedom (although I would argue that with the consistent throughline of immigration, it's pretty clear what they're fighting for) or the more fantastical moments (the secret society of deranged racists, the ending, etc), but they all come together as an incredible film. - Julian Weapons Zach Cregger is a comedian at heart, having started with The Whitest Kids U’Know , so you know Weapons is rife with dark comedy. When a classroom of children disappears, save one kind hearted boy, the town devolves into sadness as they maneuver through what happened. Cregger wrote this in the shadow of his TWKU'K cohort Trevor Moore's tragic passing and it acts as a really great mediation on grief, alcoholism, making sense of senseless things. I know that may sound like a way to excuse the enormous machine gun that is randomly inserted in the sky of one character’s dream (something that Cregger admits to not knowing what it means), but I think that's the point. You see something and want to attribute meaning to it in order tp move forward with whatever tragedy is weighing on you only for the resolution to be something as absurd and frightening as a clownish witch (portrayed fantastically by Amy Madigan). Or something. - Julian War of the Worlds JK, this really did in fact suck. -Julian Blue Moon Richard Linklater's hang out story of Lorenz Hart’s late night at the bar on the evening of his former writing partner Richard Rodgers first play with new collaborator Oscar Hammerstein is as charming as charming gets. But don't go into it expecting real account of how any of these people were. No, far from it which I know has painted the film as trite and dishonest. And I get it, Hart's true life story as a gay man will certainly make for an incredible film someday. But Blue Moon isn't about that, it's more about a troubled man who's just trying to find an out wherever he can. -Julian  The Monkey  This has been the year of some of my favorite filmmakers making two movies. For some it's gone really well (see Steven Soderberg) and for others... they're hitting 50/50. That's not to say I didn't like Osgood Perkins’ Keeper, but The Monkey hit all the right notes for me. It's a twisted and deranged Black comedy about a toy monkey that once it is turned on, causes increasingly hilarious Rube Goldberg machine-like deaths. From Theo James great dual performance as the twin brothers at the heart of the movie to the pitch perfect absurd ending that doesn't stop when it should, The Monkey is just a mean, gnarly little horror film that doesn't care if you like it or not. The Monkey is Perkins obscene idea of a pop movie and I'm here for it. - Julian Black Bag If you happen to be a spy caught in a game of cat and mouse and your fellow spy spouse’s life on the line with international consequences, then this movie is for you. And if you're not, it's even more for you!. Soderberg is a master of storytelling and Black Bag is such a wonderfully layered but easy to follow spy thriller that adds a little sexiness to the whole affair. It is the perfect movie for people who watch romantic comedies and think to themselves “if they would just tell each other what is going on. Everything could be fixed”. Because guess what, you're right, it does fix everything. Cate Blanchett and Micahel Fassbender prove that with the portrayal of the perfect spy couple. - Julian Kumail Nanjiani: Night Thoughts Sometimes you fall away from something because it stops being good, and sometimes you just turn your attention elsewhere. I used to be a person who listened to a whole lot of standup comedy, and went to quite a few comedy shows, but in recent years, that’s fallen off. And oddly,the group of comedians I’d last been serious followers of - Jonah Ray, Pete Holmes, and Kumail Nanjiani - had all turned their attention to other projects. Nanjiani specifically has been through a whole alternate timeline that involved a lot of working out, an award winning film he co-wrote with his wife, Emily V. Gordon, and a stint with Marvel. But he’s back to standup, his original love, and back in Chicago, the place it all started from him. Even more exciting: it’s like he was never away. Kumail Nanjiani Night Thoughts more than just pop culture/nerd jokes and taking stabs at the arrival of his new abs - it’s insightful comedy coupled with absurdity and an end message that actually makes you want to hug him. That means that if you liked him before, you’ll be right at home, and if you’ve never heard his standup before, you’ll quickly be a convert. Bonus points if you catch feelings for his cat Bagel, who Hulu posthumously honored on the show poster and gave a credit to. - Marielle

Screenshot: Frostpunk 2: Fractured Utopias I know the Fractured Utopias  expansion released a little while ago, but I’m still catching up with all of the end of year releases and coverage. Seriously, though: despite my initial struggles with it, Frostpunk 2  is still the most robust societal survival builder on the market. But checking back in on my frozen domain felt less like returning to a city I built and more like opening a spreadsheet I haven’t looked at in months. Fractured Utopias  is a decent addition to a great—if flawed—game, even if it feels a bit like it’s just adding more columns to that spreadsheet. I say "decent" because this DLC addresses one of my biggest gripes from the launch: the restrictive sandbox. The core addition here is "Faction Utopias." In the base game, factions were just annoying interest groups you had to balance to keep the "tiny people" from rioting. Now, they have full "Utopia Trees" that let them dictate the entire direction of your city. It shares a lot of DNA with the base game’s Idea Tree, but it finally makes the "Utopia Builder" mode feel like a proper sandbox rather than a limited scenario. However, if you found the UI supremely unintuitive at launch, this DLC doesn’t hold your hand. It adds another layer of complexity on top of a system that already felt like it was designed by developers who forgot what it’s like to look at their game with virgin eyes. Screenshot: Frostpunk 2: Fractured Utopias That said, the new playstyles are genuinely interesting. Take the Technocrats. Their playstyle focuses on "Cold Algorithmic Efficiency," and as of right now, that looks like going the Steam Core Manufacturing route. It does one thing really well: overshadow the base game’s scarcity loop. It almost feels like a cheat code for the late-game economy, but it’s a satisfying one. The Icebloods, on the other hand, are not a faction I fell into easily. With their "Unlimited Frostbreaking" ability, I found myself tearing through the map, spending "injuries" instead of resources to expand. It brings a visceral, high-risk element back to the game. I haven’t had this much fun risking it all on rapid expansion since the early days of the original Frostpunk . It sucks to have to buy a DLC to put that specific type of risk-reward fun back in the game, but at least I have it now. Screenshot: Frostpunk 2: Fractured Utopias But does this solve the "floating entity" problem? Not really. The new "Doomsayers" and "Plague" narrative arcs add flavor—seeing your city overrun by panic is certainly more engaging than watching a coal meter drop—but it still feels distant. You’re still a macro-manager pushing buttons to keep stats within a nominal range. The disconnect remains. I tried to care about the new faction struggles, but at the end of the day, they are still just abstract numbers on a screen. I really like Fractured Utopias , though it doesn’t really fill a new niche—just does more of the same a little differently. That truly seems to be the 11 bit studios hallmark here. If you enjoyed the shift toward 4X-style management in the base game, this expansion gives you significantly more toys to play with. But if you were hoping for a reason to finally feel a connection to the citizens down in the snow, this expansion falls short. Screenshot: Frostpunk 2: Fractured Utopias Fractured Utopias  fleshes out the sandbox and adds some fantastic faction mechanics, but it double-downs on the macro-scale detachment. It’s a warm spot in an icy game, but don’t expect it to melt the barrier between you and your subjects.

Screenshot: DarkSwitch We recently got to play a preview build of DarkSwitch that shows off a little bit more than the Steam demo does—and few colony sims have grabbed me quite like this. I probably haven’t been this invested in the genre since the original Frostpunk thrust me into a “what if” frozen world and tasked me with keeping its residents alive. But instead of a frozen wasteland, DarkSwitch drops you into a lush fantasy world where being on the ground means being subjected to a creeping fog that hides monsters within—and leads to madness for those stuck in it too long. It’s an interesting concept that happens to tick all my boxes. The gameplay loop is defined by verticality. While practical necessities—like a fishing hut near a lake or a lumber mill near a forest—force you to build some structures on the ground, the majority of your population uses a 200-meter-tall tree as their home. That’s because the Shroud (the aforementioned fog) is a constant threat. Your only defenses are height and light. Daytime gives some reprieve, but ultimately you’ll need to construct light sources and even light-based weaponry to stave off the eldritch horrors brought on by the mist. Screenshot: DarkSwitch The pressure is relentless. You aren't just battling a rising death fog–you are managing citizens who need to be housed, fed, and healed. This requires a delicate balance between the dangers of the ground and the needs of the tree. You can send expeditions out to brave the Shroud to retrieve artifacts and unlock lore, but you have to be careful: citizen fear is measured as a status bar. The higher the fear, the lower the productivity. Then there are the external threats, like the religious zealots who will happily cause pain to your citizens to spread their version of the truth. Everything seemed to be going great in my playthrough until I was visited by an airship carrying a group of these inquisitors. We tried to resist, but they eventually landed and began interrogating my citizens—leaving them with broken bones and broken minds. Verdict? DarkSwitch has a fantastic premise—essentially horror-survival meets city-building. With legendary Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka providing the score, it’s clear developer Cyber Temple is aiming for a genuine sense of dread—which, so far, they’ve achieved. DarkSwitch is currently slated for release on March 12, 2026, on Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store.

Consume Me where I first saw it - BitBash at MSI, 2019. Photo: Marielle Bokor When you spend a long time with something, it starts to take up space inside you. Maybe it’s a back corner you rarely visit, but when it’s been in your life for years and you revisit that place, you realize how much you care about it, and how hard it might be to let that thing go.  With a game like Consume Me , it’s incredibly appropriate, but that doesn’t make it any easier for me to write a review for a game I first discovered at local indie games festival BitBash here in Chicago in 2019 . I was sitting inside the Museum of Science and Industry, one of the coolest places for an indie game festival I can think of, and it was set up in a little alcove. I sat down with it, and within about ten minutes, I knew it’d be something I’d look out for from then on.  Six years later, and not only has it gone to full release, been incredibly well received with big wins at indie game events as well as larger industry invents, with nominations for game of the year at the Indie Game Awards and a nomination for Games for Impact at The Game Awards, but also - I got to finally sit down and play it all the way through. And while I knew it was special, I couldn’t have predicted it’d become one of my favorite indie games of all time, and absolutely change me for the better. Consume Me is an extremely honest game about our relationships with food and the struggles of growing up, being in a femme body, parental, cultural and societal pressure, and chasing perfection. That’s a lot, and it’s probably not the first thing you’d think of when you think of setting some time aside to game, but at every turn, this “little game” bursts at the seams with depth, humor and relatability, until it finally wraps up and you’re crying your way through the credits. Yes, really. Crying a LOT.  Screenshot: Consume Me I’m not going to hold it to a genre, because it’s too unique. Consume Me is a sort of slice of life narrative game that involves a lot of individual management tasks and has some minigames that are integral to it. More on that later.  In Consume Me , you play as me. Well, not ME, and not exactly dev Jenny Jiao Hsiao, and not exactly you, per se, but either a person very relatable to you OR a protagonist you can very heavily relate to. And it doesn’t take long. The main character has the exuberance of childhood and frustration of having no control over the things happening to her or around her that are maybe not as close to the surface or as volatile when we’re adults, but certainly still create a lot of life’s turbulence at any age.  And here’s the thing. There are actually a LOT of games that tackle this and have a great sense of humor about growing up. And some of them are among my favorites, but none of them marry absurdity, emotional depth and mechanics so well as Consume Me . In fact, few games I can think of use mechanics so effectively that you can actually feel the weight of your actions. So what is the gameplay loop actually like? Screenshot: Consume Me Stop me if you've heard this one: You've got very specific health, academic, and social goals. There are 24 hours in a day You need money, but you also need to exercise, eat right, and do chores Want a relationship? Do you have TIME for one? By Wednesday, you're hopped up on caffeine and feeling good. You’re motivated, and you're gonna do the things.  On Friday, you find out you're short 12 dollars for your college application fees, have no energy at all, no laundry done, and can't go to the party where everyone else will be, because you're gonna have to don the pizza pjs, wash the clothes, scour the bathroom, and see if you can come up with a few more dollars before the cycle starts again I’m sorry, is this not sounding fun? What’s most genius to me about Consume Me is that…it kinda is fun. If it wasn’t, it’d be pretty easy to just drop the game after a few half-hearted attempts. But Hsiao put a LOT of thought into how the individual needs - energy, mood, nutrition, knowledge, etc - would be gained, lost and managed. Each aspect of your character as a whole person is “controlled” by a different set of tasks/mini-games.  Screenshot: Consume Me As the title would suggest, the most prominent one is your diet and exercise. You’ve gotta look good to get a date, go to a dance, please your mom, and not go into a panic when you try to put on a swimsuit at the department store. This means you need a balanced diet - and Consume Me takes that pretty literally. Each meal you eat is a game akin to Tetris, where each individual morsel consumed must fit in your allotted amount of bites to achieve your nutrition goals. It’s not as simple as just eating cucumbers and carrots though - you’ll need proteins and carbs too, so that you don’t end up hungry and go over your bite limit with midnight snacks. Too much sugar and caffeine to keep your energy up and you’ll get a migraine (which is a brilliant interactioin between the Energy and Food mechanics) and if you just opt for junk you’ll find you’re still not satisfied. You can try special diets, and you can exercise if you go over your bites, but there’s also only so much time in a day and you only have so much energy.  Exercise will go a long way towards meeting your goals, and it’s a great idea if like me, the food mini game was your biggest struggle. (How like life!) But it takes a lot of energy to get all those sweet gains, and well, you’re not the biggest fan of it, so it can drain your mood. The exercise mini games consist of several variations of a sort of ‘yoga’ with the most noodly, unruly body you can possibly imagine, and that first experience with the exercise mechanic in Consume Me was honestly the first time it really got its hooks in me, and got a huge laugh out of me. Why? Well - exercising in Consume me means flinging incredibly unwieldy, yet somehow heavy arms and legs in one direction or another until they hit the “poses” being displayed on the screen. This particular mechanic is absolutely perfect - because if you try TOO hard, you’ll overshoot, and if you don’t flail significantly enough, you’ll just sink into a puddle at the bottom of the screen. But even if you do succeed, you’ll look ridiculous THE WHOLE TIME.  Similarly, there’s shortcuts to success. You can buy a scrub daddy to let you clean things faster and get more chore money. That chore money can buy you snacks, dietary plans, clothes with special benefits, or energy drinks that let you complete more tasks each day. That’ll come in super handy, as every time the game progresses, you seem to get even more busy, with relationships, college applications, and more tugging at the strings of your sanity.  Screenshot: Consume Me Studying? You need to do a LOT of that, but make sure you don’t have any distractions. You can squeeze some in on the bus or in the lunchroom, but it’ll be harder to concentrate. Exercise a lot? Now you’re broke, because there’s no energy left to clean. Difficulty ramps up pretty quickly, and new mechanics are introduced regularly, while earlier tasks become more difficult - for example, when moving to your dorm means you can’t get money for chores from Mom anymore.  Here’s the thing - the relationship with me and this game was almost problematic. Hsiao does such a good job of making hings that seem hard or take a lot of effort in real life feel that way mechanically, and the panic of never being able to do everything that’s on your To Do list is so real that it triggered anxiety and my adhd in a big way. But I couldn't stop playing.  Consume Me gives you a few choices when you come to the end of one of its chapters and fail:  Do you level up when you fail and start over with a bit more experience and potentially some advantages, or do you just go back a day without the benefit of what you’ve learned. Will anything help? If you happen to be playing the game for review, how long can you play this game before you should really move on even if you haven’t beaten it? Is it FUN? You try so hard, and you just can't stop. But Consume Me can be incredibly frustrating. Was it worth it? Screenshot: Consume Me I refuse to spoiler you on exactly how it all ends if you do make it through all the chapters, except to say this: If you expend effort the way I did,  it'll profoundly affect you It’ll teach you hard lessons about yourself.  And it will NEVER leave your mind.  Honestly? That IS the sort of game I want to play. And I think it’s a good one for just about anyone to try, too.  Six years ago, it was apparent there was something beautiful and special about this game, but I never could have guessed it’d be one of my most profound experiences in gaming to date. All this time, and it was all worth the wait to see how it all turned out.  You can find Consume Me on Steam now. And you should.

Jonah Ray and Kumail Nanjiani, two standups this author loves to say got started in Chicago. Image via Wikimedia Commons. It’s been a minute since I’ve watched a standup special all the way through. I hear clips here and there, on TikTok , but I haven’t made it a destination. But, Kumail Nanjiani and I have history.  Long ago, in my podcast era, he was a guest on the Nerdist podcast, and a personal friend of some of its hosts. I thought he was hilarious on the show, and so I looked him up a little. His sense of humor reminded me of the guy I was dating at the time (who in fact, turned out to be my husband and colleague at this publication). I saw a couple YouTube clips, found out that he got started in Chicago, and was a little bit sad I’d missed him while he was here.  Lucky for me, he showed up in Chicago on tour, after I’d become a regular listener to he and his wife, Emily’s podcast, The Indoor Kids , which was about video games but honestly, endeared me for so many other reasons. Chief among them that I too loved games, but also because the two of them were so real,and so in love. Up Comedy Club, 3rd Floor, Piper's Alley. Home of Second City. Image via Google Images. When I showed up to the show in Chicago at UP Comedy Club on the third floor of hallowed comedy holy place Piper's Alley and I actually got to meet him afterwards, I can't remember what I said to him personally. I do however remember lamenting about having not stopped at Walgreens for a shampoo bottle to gift to his wife. This was a part of what he called the "Eagle Eyed Spotter’s Club” which was simply a fan club he’d started for his wife, who turns out to be an amazing author, super funny in her own right, and an entire badass . I still can’t remember why the thing to bring was shampoo bottles, but I do remember loving the idea of a husband who’s often in the spotlight making a fan club for his wife, who he consistently, fervently believes should be standing beside him in it. I followed Nanjiani’s career from then on, rooting for him in his acting career, seeking out and reviewing The Big Sick , which he co-wrote with his wife about her journey with chronic illness and their love story. I watched him get all buff for The Eternals , and remembered how wistful he'd be as he talked about loving superhero stories as a boy growing up in Pakistan, and how much he was bullied for being a scrawny little kid. Of all the muscled glow-ups there are to talk about, his was my favorite - because not only did it reflect a change we as fans knew was important to that scrawny kid, it was also for a Marvel movie. See, the thing I latched on to as a fan of Nanjiani’s standup, podcasting and work in general is his relatability. Kumail was always vulnerable, and made fun of himself even as he took jabs at bigger targets. He used observational humor, something some consider an early career crutch, but surgically with a sense of spastic absurdity and an eye to standup's fourth wall. He always punched up, not down. He wasn’t some dude who was chuckling at his girlfriend hiding under the blanket during a horror flick, he was on stage talking about getting so scared to be killed by an imagined intruder in his attic that he wore a colander on his head for the final confrontation. He was also the guy who, along with his wife, Emily, had even more to be afraid of during the pandemic. Gordon was one of the most vulnerable during the pandemic, as someone who experiences chronic illness. At the same time, we were taking care of a family member who was also among the most vulnerable groups, and I found solace in laughing with the couple about trying to figure out if we should completely disrobe after coming in every time we sanitized the groceries on the patio or getting really invested in the neighborhood wildlife due to lack of an outside social life.  The podcast was called Staying in with Kumail and Emily, and when it ended I honestly wasn't ready to let go of what had become my comfort listen every week. All this to say, if there’s a comedy special and it’s Kumail Nanjiani’s, I was already going to be hitting play.  Still, you can’t help but wonder, when someone gets super buff, has a hit film that wins multiple awards, and lives in LA, if they can still pull off that same colander headed, “house full of betas” vulnerability.  And the answer is a resounding yes, much to my absolute delight, having just finished Kumail Nanjiani: Night Thoughts . Whether he’s talking about his cat Bagel (also an icon and fixture in his world and on his instagram, who sadly passed away recently) or about getting buff and getting his abs stuck in his belt, he’s somehow got a handle on being absolutely relatable and hilarious.  There’s not a dull spot in the hour long special, and without spoiling it for you the way Hulu's TikTok ads for the special tended to dole out some of the special's best bits too generously. Luckily, there's a whole lot of laughing out loud. And ok, I will spoil one bit, because though I said he doesn’t really punch down, him looking a Chicago crowd in the eye after the “abs stuck in the belt” bit and addressing them as “deep dish motherfuckers” who’d know nothing of it felt like the most affectionate punch on the shoulder you could possibly get from an old friend.  Kumail Nanjiani’s comedy is special to me because it’s so many types of comedy that I like, and that shouldn’t work together, in one person. He’s intelligent and thoughtful, but absurd and nigh idiotic. He goes for the long con joke-wise, but he’s also got a penchant for super bad puns and dad jokes that he’ll just impale you with and wait for the groans to bleed out.  By the third act, you’re usually wondering what’s left in the tank, and when the conversation turns to therapy and bad reviews, you wouldn’t think it’d be the best way to stick the landing. But between mature, thoughtful things that are also actually funny, petty jabs at mean internet commenters, and an end message that, no matter how many times it’s repeated, could always be said again, stick the landing he does.  Esquire is a new part of the equation for longtime fans and Nanjiani, but seems welcomed by the man himself and his fans. I’m glad I’ve been along for the ride this whole time. Six pack abs and movie awards may have given him more standup material, but they haven’t changed the intelligent, vulnerable, ridiculous nature of who Kumail Nanjiani really is, they’ve just let more people in on the secret. If anything, this special just makes me a little sad because I didn’t get tickets to it when it was shot here in Chicago at The Vic, and I would’ve liked to say hello again and finally get Emily that shampoo.  You can have a great laugh during a sometimes tough season by streaming Night Thoughts on Disney+/Hulu now. EDIT: If you also want Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V Gordon to be the reason you genuinely cry today, read this Instagram Post on the incredible tribute to Bagel by Hulu.

Screenshot: Terminator 2D: No Fate Nostalgia isn’t new, and neither is blatant nostalgia bait. I’m actually okay with it though, especially since I’m the target of this one. Terminator 2: Judgment Day was seminal to my childhood cultural appreciation. I saw Terminator 2: Judgment Day  in the theater as many times as I could convince my parents to let me go, and later rented Terminator on VHS to see where it all started. Ironically, I would probably have ignored any tie-in games, because those were notoriously bad. A game based on a movie or TV show was usually an instant ignore. There were exceptions, and as later console generations came around the stigma wore off a bit. I have a feeling that if a game like Terminator 2D: No Fate came out back then, it would have gone a long way to break that stigma. Terminator 2D: No Fate is a 2D sidescrolling action game that, despite its clever “2D” moniker, is an earnest attempt at recreating some of the very worst habits of early video game developers when creating movie tie-in games. But it adds a few modern amenities, and has some pretty great pixel art animations that put arcade games of that era to shame. Not having severe hardware limitations helped, I’m sure, but Terminator 2D: No Fate captures the type of graphics you might remember games having when you were a kid. But as someone who plays a lot of retro games, and as often as I play modern games, Terminator 2D: No Fate skirts the line between modern and retro in the best ways. Screenshot: Terminator 2D: No Fate One of the issues that tie-in games had in that era was how to balance story and gameplay. A lot of the time most story beats would be glossed over in pixelated cutscenes that approximate what you would see on screen interspersed with gameplay that was often only bearing a slight resemblance to the parts of the movie it took inspiration from. Ironically, Terminator 2D: No Fate handles its version of Terminator 2: Judgment Day the exact same way, either through nostalgia or necessity, or both. But it actually works here. Terminator 2D: No Fate hits most of the major story beats from Terminator 2: Judgment Day , and manages to make some compelling gameplay sections. Most of the time you play as Sarah Connor, which is a surprise–but it makes sense. John Connor is too young to be running and gunning and the T-800 is a tank that should be nigh unkillable in most scenarios. You do get to play as an older John Connor during the future war sections. But I honestly feel like this is also, maybe, due to a lack of time and/or creative ideas. Half of the levels are based on throwaway lines or scenes flashed in the movie only briefly. Again, this is something that tie-in games were notorious for, so I’m of the mind to actually consider these  faux pas  as ironically clever nods to yesteryear.  Screenshot: Terminator 2D: No Fate It’s not unusual for video games, especially tie-in games, to change the gameplay up as you go. There are run and gun sections, driving sections, short beat ‘em up levels and even a short stealth-ish gameplay section. Each section plays slightly differently than others, and not a single section stands out as bad. The run and gun sections are easily the most fun, as the gunplay feels fun and visceral. Overall, developer Bitmap Bureau made a game that controls tight and is very fun. After you finish your first playthrough you have the ability to choose different routes, which leads to some levels being swapped out with others. I really like the idea of having alternate routes that change the events as they happened in the movie, but I feel like that would have been more impactful if you can make the decisions from the beginning. Like most of the other content in Terminator 2D  you have to unlock the different choices by playing through the game. I would have almost preferred the alternate story choices to be there from the beginning so you can find out that making a certain choice actually changes the end you expect instead of the canon ending being the first and default ending you can see. Screenshot: Terminator 2D: No Fate Terminator 2D: No Fate tries very hard to seem like a retro game, but it actually has more modern game sensibilities than not. It has multiple game modes, including boss rush, endless modes, and a story mode that forces you to play through all of the Sarah Connor sections with no continues.  And of course, there is a lot of love shown for the movies–with lots of Terminator references thrown in beyond what’s in the second film. There’s even a homage to the first movie as an alternate route has you killing all of the cops in a police station à la Terminator –but this time as Sarah Connor instead of the T-800. Despite this, there’s a surprising lack of “I’ll be back.” Terminator 2D: No Fate is a Love Letter to Terminator and Retro Games My biggest gripe with the game is its difficulty and length. I was able to play through the entire game in less than 4 hours. And I don’t mean a single run (which takes me only about 40 minutes.) I mean the entire game, hardest difficulty, unlocking everything. I’m not an exceptional game player, and while I do have some serious retro video game muscle memory, it feels like Terminator 2D: No Fate is just too short and too easy for the price tag. I”m hoping for some free DLC in the future Overall, Terminator 2D: No Fate seems to be worth the added wait after all of the delays. Despite its short length, it is one of the best faux retro games I’ve played in a long time. Don’t expect anyone to be able to port its high frame high fidelity pixel art onto an SNES or Genesis cart, but then again, I’ve seen people do crazier things.Dotemu might be the premier retro style developer, but developer Bitmap Bureau comes close to dethroning them.

Screenshot: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Hive Scum Okay, I know Hive Scum  released way earlier this month, but I’ve been busy! Seriously, though: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide  is still the best Left 4 Dead  style 4-player co-op game on the market. Easily the best. And it’s a shame that it doesn’t get more attention. Maybe it’s overshadowed by its equally great Warhammer: Vermintide 2  spiritual prequel, or maybe people have been burnt by too many bad 40k video games to really feel the draw to it. Still, The Hive Scum is a decent addition to a great game, even if it feels a bit familiar. I say “decent” because this DLC adds little to the palette of gameplay possibilities that you can already find in Darktide . The truly unique class is the Psyker, with the Veteran and Zealot feeling like two sides of the same coin. The Ogryn can feel like a bruiser, but shares a lot of DNA with the Veteran and Zealot. Screenshot: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Hive Scum Sadly, I can say almost the same about the new class. Where the Ogryn is about being big, the Scum is about “true” dual-wielding guns. So it just feels like another variation of the Veteran/Zealot dynamic, despite their ability to work as a support-focused Chemist–another niche the support-styled Veteran or the bubble Psyker already provides. That means the character is best played as high damage output. And as of right now, that looks like going the Enhanced Desperado gunslinging route. While this ability was so powerful it was nerfed before the character even released to the public, it does one thing really well: overshadow the Veteran’s own shooting DPS output. The Hive Scum is not a character I fell into easily. With the lowest toughness of any character in the game, the class feels like a glass cannon. With enhanced dodge talents, I found myself weaving in and out of dangerous situations—never once needing to holster my dual snub pistols. I haven’t had this much fun as a gun-based character since before the Veteran’s first talent overhaul (and major nerf). It sucks to have to buy a DLC to put that fun back in the game, but at least I have it now. Screenshot: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Hive Scum You can also play a melee DPS style build, armed with dual shivs, a bonesaw, or a crowbar. Unlike most weapons that come with DLC characters, none of these felt like they would immediately replace any of my current favorites, but I did use them extensively. Playing a melee Scum is a lot like a Zealot–fast and high damage. However, this class deals more in bleeds and replaces tankiness with fast and prodigious dodging prowess. The ability for this character to dodge so efficiently in any of its builds makes for a very high skill ceiling. I’d argue a Scum player in the right hands is potentially more of a damage dealer than the tankier Arbites DLC character that was released earlier this year. They also have access to a new “Stimm Lab” that allows you to craft your own personalized stimms. These take the slot a normal stimm would take (similar to the Grail Knight in Vermintide 2  creating his own potions) and you can even share these abilities via the “Stimm Supply” talent. However, this feels vastly inferior to the raw killing power of Enhanced Desperado or Rampage found in the other trees. My group has used support abilities on other characters to great effect, so my opinion of the Stimm Supply might change as I play more and in different scenarios/team make-ups. Screenshot: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Hive Scum I really like the Hive Scum, though he doesn’t really fill a new niche–just does more of the same a little differently. That truly seems to be a Fatshark hallmark, however. Vermintide 2  DLC characters were some of the most unique that were released; this pack just feels like more of the same, just with slightly different flavors. If you want a unique look and a few unique weapons, the Hive Scum provides these. But if you want a whole new way to play Darktide , Hive Scum falls short.