Culture / Video Games

Death Stranding 2 also features Marinelli’s wife, Alissa Jung: “I was also looking for someone to play Lucy, but in the midst of the pandemic it wasn’t easy. One day, Luca asked me if I had found his ‘counterpart.’ I told him no. He told me that his wife is …

Microsoft is finally taking its shot for handheld gaming. During Summer Game Fest on June 8, the company debuted the console with a flashy trailer: a floating block of ice forming into the handheld before the Xbox logo cracks through and the system comes to life. Not just one, but …

Although many security experts angrily railed against the media’s portrayal of Lizard Squad as “sophisticated,” people grudgingly came to accept that the Christmas attack did have a big impact on cybersecurity and the gaming industry. There’s little doubt that this was not the group’s motive—despite their clumsy attempts to claim …

Keeping the world interesting meant creating variety in these routes, Yabuki says, whether that was a large road or smaller, forest trails. “We’re certainly not bound by thinking about real life geography, where we’re using islands and towns exactly as they might appear somewhere.” Still from Mario Kart World.Courtesy of …

Conkdor, an ostrich-like enemy that made its debut in Super Mario 3D World, should not be able to drive. First, it is a bird. Second, it has no hands. But in Mario Kart World, Conkdor can race alongside Mario on bikes, cars, and magic carpets, just like everyone else. This …

Take-Two Interactive, the publisher behind Grand Theft Auto VI, is forgoing any mention of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and promoting “diversity of thought” in its latest annual report. The change, first spotted by Game File, is part of the company’s annual 10-K report, which offers insight into the …

On a little known YouTube channel, a breezy, British narrator is explaining the ins and outs of Doom: The Dark Ages’ story. Though not named, his voice may be familiar to video game fans as that of Mark Brown. The trouble is, Brown had nothing to do with the video. …

On Friday, Epic Games announced Darth Vader would be returning to Fortnite as an in-game boss—but this time, players would be able to chat with him through conversational AI. “Ask him all your pressing questions about the Force, the Galactic Empire … or you know, a good strat for the …

A mod for The Sims 4 that removed LGBT and Black nonplayable characters (NPCs) from the game and automatically changed them to “straight” and “white,” respectively, has reappeared in spite of EA’s attempts to shut it down. WIRED has found dozens of similar racist, homophobic, and antisemitic mods for other …

When Patel proposed last year, it happened, fittingly, in Minecraft. He designed a secret quest line for Nguyen’s character, culminating in a mountaintop scene where an NPC delivered his proposal via in-game dialog. “He knew I’d say yes before I even reached the end,” Nguyen says, laughing. “We’ve lived apart …