Carli Velocci

The first big video game hit of 2024 was Palworld, a game everybody thought would be “Pokémon with guns” but turned out to be an open-world crafting game where you capture monsters — called “Pals” — and put them to work on your base, creating resources and tending to various areas. People came for Pokémon and stayed for the gameplay, to the tune of 19 million players reached during its initial January release period.
Not too long after that, we got Enshrouded, an open-world survival crafting ...

When I got the chance to review Stardew Valley for Polygon in 2016, I had no idea how huge it would become. What I found during my review period was a quiet, succinct, and engrossing game about doing chores, which didn’t feel all that genre-defining. It was a great game, and over the years I would get it on two additional platforms (Nintendo Switch and mobile), but I didn’t look at it as a “game of the decade” contender.
Turns out, people really like doing chores.

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And did he provide anything new to Shadow of the Erdtree?
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is a long-time video game, technology, and culture editor and journalist. Their work has been featured in IGN, Digital Trends, Game Developer, and more.
Elden Ring’s story is often attributed to two people: FromSoftware president and creative director Hidetaka Miyazaki, and A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin. This is only partially true. While Miyazaki is credited as the creative min...

There’s an art to making an ultra-long YouTube video. For one, you have to make sure it’s broken up into digestible, complete chunks so that people can take natural-feeling breaks. Second, you have to use the length to your advantage. These are all things that Quinton Hoover thinks of when he publishes a video for Quinton Reviews, a pop culture video essay channel that’s recently been devoted to recapping a series episode by episode or breaking down years of history for a show.
Hoover has bee...

Helldivers 2 was compared to Starship Troopers when it was first released, but since then, the squad-based third-person shooter has become closer to the post-Judgment Day future in Terminator. While the first mission order, to retake territory from bugs called Terminids, was a success, things went downhill once the game introduced the Automatons, the much harder-to-kill robots that attack Super Earth planets.

It fits in well... almost too well
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is a long-time video game, technology, and culture editor and journalist. Their work has been featured in IGN, Digital Trends, Game Developer, and more.
Konami isn’t going to let you forget that Silent Hill: The Short Message is, in fact, a Silent Hill game, but something’s missing. In this one, you follow a teenage girl named Anita, who wakes up in an abandoned apartment building; after getting strange text messages from her friend Maya, An...

Graphic: Matt Patches/Polygon | Source images: Valve; Team2Bit via Adult Swim Games; Getty Images
is a long-time video game, technology, and culture editor and journalist. Their work has been featured in IGN, Digital Trends, Game Developer, and more.
Video games get delisted often, mostly for banal reasons like an expired music licensing agreement or a publishing agreement running out. But the recent delisting of Adult Swim Games en masse feels a bit different.
This isn’t a licensing issue, n...

We talk a lot about video games. We love playing them, learning how they are made, and talking to other fans about them. We talk to a lot of developers about the making of games, but one kind of creator that tends to get left out of the conversation is game composers.
The sound and music in games are just as important to the overall experience as level design, narrative, visuals, or some of the other, flashier and more conspicuous aspects. Whether you're working on a small indie title or a la...

My final count for installed Fallout: New Vegas mods was 102. That’s not actually a lot for this game, but as somebody who doesn’t install mods unless they’re absolutely necessary, this was a whole endeavor. Bethesda games always have large modding communities, but because New Vegas has been tough to play on PC for years, the number of mods you can install is staggering. While there are way fewer hurdles for console players, it’s still extremely disappointing that Fallout games have suffered from a lack of support over the years.

Razer made a meticulously designed mobile gaming device, but why not just use a smartphone instead?

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Should you buy the Keychron Q1 Pro?
When you go online and search for the best mechanical keyboards, you’ll most likely come across Keychron. At least, that’s what happened to me when I wanted to get started with a custom mechanical keyboard. And the device that showed up the most was the Keychron Q1 Pro, a 75% custom kit with a durable aluminum chassis, hot-swappable switches, RBG, wired and Bluetooth cap...

The mood outside of Blizzard Entertainment on Wednesday, July 28, is a bit bittersweet. For a lot of Activision-Blizzard-King employees, this is the first time they've seen each other since the pandemic began. There are moments of hugging and smiles. But unfortunately, these employees aren't here for social interaction.

Immortality is unlike any other game. It's wildly ambitious, gorgeously shot, well acted, and incredibly unique. You might think you understand the straightforward gameplay, which requires you to match clips together to uncover the story of actress Marissa Marcel, but you have no idea what you're getting into and what you'll be at the end.
Pros
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+ Amazing performances
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+ Unique match-cut mechanic presents a new spin on footage hunting
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+ The world is fully fleshed out
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+ It's more than yo...

As I sat down to write this review for Amnesia: Rebirth, I wondered what it was going to look like. I spent around 10 hours with the game, and the two main questions — is it good? Should people play it? — don't have concrete answers.
This isn't surprising though. This has always been the case with games by Frictional, the company that first released Amnesia: The Dark Descent back in 2010. The studio makes horror games that like to trick the player into questioning what they're seeing or heari...