Lean degree

There’s plenty to love in the Mortal Kombat series, which is on the cusp of its 24th anniversary. That’s a lot of years that we’ve spent punching, kicking, and generally brutalizing this cast of characters. And in Mortal Kombat X, they’ve never looked better. The little details of the character animations and attacks are perfect, especially in the newly introduced ones. For instance, before gunslinger Erron Black starts a match, he gives a tiny shake of his hand, getting his trigger finger ready to fire. Cali girl Cassie Cage is one of my favorites, too cool for school with her sunglasses and popping gum; I cackle every time she does the splits into a dual gunshot. And D’Vorah…D’Vorah is so fantastically weird. She’s every insect-inspired sci-fi villain come to life. Leaning toward silliness wouldn’t fit the degree of feeling MKX has in its single player campaign. (No, really, it’s got a surprising amount of sincerity and nuance to it.) But it’s still a game where you can … [Read more...] about Why I Love: the gorgeous gore of Mortal Kombat X

In 2013 I volunteered to play a game design student's project on an Oculus Rift DK1, a simple maze and a rollercoaster demo. They were just prototypes so it wasn't a spectacular first impression of virtual reality, but I kept thinking about it for years after, and in 2018, lacking a suitable PC, I invested in a PlayStation VR. I wish I'd jumped to PC VR sooner. PSVR's pricing was more accessible for a call centre worker, but it came with trade-offs—wires were everywhere, PlayStation Move controllers weren't great for VR, and on a sunny day the light-sensitive motion tracking simply didn't work. PSVR wasn't terrible, just limiting. When I bought an Oculus Rift S I finally had the VR experience I wanted. Hand movement was refined, my immersion wasn't broken by sunlight, and setup was much tidier. I've since bought an Oculus Quest 2, but that Rift S demonstrated what VR could achieve and how many improvements VR tech has made since 2016. Granted, some aspects of VR still have a … [Read more...] about 6 things VR is really good at now

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate continues to be one of the best values in gaming. The $15-per-month subscription grants you access to more than 350 games on Xbox Series X and Xbox One as well as 200-plus titles on PC. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate also comes with Xbox Live Gold, so you can play online multiplayer with friends and get even more free games each month; plus, EA Play and xCloud game streaming are also included with the service. If you also consider that every first-party Microsoft game is added to Game Pass on launch day, subscribing to the service makes a ton of sense if you game on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, or PC. But with so many Xbox Game Pass titles to choose from and a limited number of hours in the day, it can be challenging to choose what to play on the service. To help you navigate the crowded library, we've rounded up the 20 of the best Xbox Game Pass games you can play right now. To be clear, there are plenty more excellent games on Xbox Game Pass than the ones we’ve … [Read more...] about The 20 Best Xbox Game Pass Games You Can Play Right Now