Category: Games

Fortnite is the biggest game in the world, but it’s not the biggest game on Twitter. The Washington Post has noted that the most talked about game on Twitter for 2019 was a free-to-play Japanese RPG–Fate/Grand Order, which first released in Japan in 2015.

While the game is available in the west, it’s much bigger in Japan, and has been for a while–in fact, it was also Twitter’s most talked about game of 2018. Fortnite came in at number two for both years, and several of the titles on the list are either exclusive to, or at their most popular, in Japan.

Although specific numbers are not given, it seems that the “most talked about” game equates to how many individual tweets are being made about each one. In 2019, over a billion tweets were made about games, which is up 20 percent from 2018.

Fate/Grand Order is a turn-based RPG, and the characters you command are mostly based on historical, literary, and mythological figures that are unlocked through a gacha mechanic. It has anime, manga, and cinema spin-offs, and there’s an arcade version in Japan.

Here’s the full top 10 for 2019:

1. Fate/Grand Order
2. Fortnite
3. Final Fantasy
4. Identity V
5. Granblue Fantasy
6. Ensemble Stars
7. Monster Strike
8. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
9. Minecraft
10. Super Smash Bros.

Epic Games has little reason to be upset about a second-place finish, though, considering the game’s registered player count is over 250 million.

There’s plenty of ways to play retro console games on your modern 4K TV, but handheld games really get the short end of the stick. That’s exactly why we were so delighted that Hyperkin decided to introduce the RetroN Jr.

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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was released in November to mostly positive reviews and strong sales numbers, but the game’s success was not always a sure thing. Game director Stig Asmussen said in a new interview that Lucasfilm–which controls the Star Wars franchise–was originally resistant to Asmussen’s pitch for the game.

In early meetings, the Lucasfilm team suggested that Respawn go a different direction and make a game using blasters instead of Lightsabers. The reason being was that Lucasfilm is very protective of Jedi in particular, Asmussen said.

“They weren’t super comfortable with the idea,” Asmussen said of his initial pitch for a melee-focused action game on the AIAS Game Maker’s podcast. “I pitched, ‘Hey what if we do a game about Jedi and Force powers, and they were not super comfortable with that. They threw it back and said, ‘What about blasters and bounty hunters?’ That’s not the background of the team we’ve built; you might as well ask me and us to start building a racing game at this point. I don’t think anybody’s going to be happy with the results of that.

“What I came to learn is for them, Jedi is the Holy Grail. To make a game about Jedi, you gotta earn it. There was a little bit of a back and forth but they could see where I was coming from.”

Later in the interview, Asmussen mentioned that Respawn and Lucasfilm had numerous “fights” about creative decisions regarding Jedi Fallen Order. He said he understands Lucasfilm’s position being the rights-owner of the Star Wars series. He also said recalled that Lucasfilm came back to him with a “hard no” on several different ideas. He said his team at Respawn became frustrated at times, but again, Asmussen said he understood that Lucasfilm has final say being the owner and controller of the Star Wars franchise.

Asmussen said Lucasfilm was ultimately agreeable to the idea of Respawn making a game with a character who can use the Force but is not a Jedi, and that’s what the team ended up making. The game’s main character, Cal Kestis, is a Force-user who becomes a Jedi in the course of the game.

The entire interview is incredibly in-depth and fascinating, offering an illuminating and insightful look into the origins of Jedi Fallen Order. It’s available everywhere you can find podcasts, including Spotify.

The Party of Five pilot can be seen on Hulu as part of a special advance presentation. It officially debuts Wednesday, January 8 on Freeform.

The new Party of Five — based on the bones of the classic ’90s Fox series that made stars of Scott Wolf, Matthew Fox, Neve Campbell, and Jennifer Love Hewitt — is a solid revival that plays to the strengths of the old show while adding extra layers of topical tragedy.

The Salinger family is now the Acosta family, a Mexican-American clan turned-upside down by the loss of their parents. Not to a car accident like we saw decades ago, but to cruel and callous deportation.

Restaurant owners Javier and Gloria Acosta, played by Bruno Bichir and Fernanda Urrejola, are taken out of the picture in a way that not only shines a spotlight on the inhumanity of ICE, but also seasons the drama by making the story exponentially sadder. Yes, the death of one’s parents can obviously have an obliterating effect, but from a narrative standpoint, it’s much worse to have the parents still in the picture but forced to leave. Over the course of weeks, locked in a detention center, trying to plead their case, Javier and Gloria are ripped from their kids (one of whom is an infant) and we, as viewers, witness both sides mourning and feeling a tremendous amount of guilt.

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Netflix just released the first trailer for Locke Key, a series that promises to be one of their biggest new projects of 2020. It’s been a long, difficult road in adapting the beloved comic book series for television, by the first 10-episode season is finally about to drop.

Here’s the trailer again if you didn’t get a chance to see it yet:

If you’re not familiar with the source material, you might be a little confused by this new footage and why exactly keys are so important in this horror/fantasy universe. Here’s a quick breakdown of the trailer and everything you need to know about how the Locke & Key comics are being translated into live-action. You can read it by flipping through the below slideshow with images for reference, or perusing the text below:

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At first glance, GTFO’s co-op FPS action may seem familiar, but a thoughtful combination of atmospheric stealth exploration and brutal difficulty make it refreshingly unique. This enjoyable team-focused formula has provided me with 25 hours of chaotic fun, even a few of its six expeditions were lacking in variety. Its early access launch is uncommonly bug-free but also missing obvious features like progression and in-game voice chat that (while keenly missed) didn’t stop me from having a good time. GTFO is off to a strong start and with so many obvious ways to improve on what’s already here I can’t wait to see where it ends up.

Each expedition in GTFO begins with a startling descent into a labyrinth of subterranean rooms called The Complex. Navigating its creepy industrial corridors using an interactive map and computer terminals with a team of four total players is a lot of fun thanks to the tense atmosphere and puzzling stealth encounters. While I did spot a handful of reused rooms during my frantic crawls through its hour-or-so-long expeditions I was impressed with the clever use of color, volumetric fog, and lighting (or the lack thereof) that not only made the recycled rooms feel like a new area, but also ramped up the intensity and effectively sold the illusion that I was descending further into the complex.

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