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<p><img loading="lazy" src="https://ift.tt/cZCLe1q" width="800" height="450" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-body-default" /></p> <p>This week on All Things Nintendo, we close out 2023 with a special Inbox Q&amp;A episode featuring Brittney Brombacher from <em>What's Good Games</em>. Brian and Brittney cover everything from the Zelda movie to looking back on Super Mario Bros. Wonder more than two months later. Of course, before we get to that, Brian learns Brittney's history with Nintendo.</p> <iframe width="560" height="315" frameBorder="0" allow="autoplay" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iZbcAjhKSFY" width="640"></iframe> <p>If you'd like to follow Brian on social media, you can do so on ...

With the year almost behind us, it's hard not to look back at 2023 with conflicted feelings. It was a fantastic year for gamers at home with great tentpole releases from PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo, and some excellent indies, too. For years to come, we will all likely argue that 2023 was one of the best – if not the best – year for games. But it was also a terrible year for the people who make games, with more than 10,000 developers laid off, studios closed, and more.  Between big video game releases, a heartbreaking amount of layoffs, record-breaking acquisitions and box office reports, and more, 2023 contained plenty of news stories that had us talking for weeks, speculating on the future of the industry, and reshaping how we view game development. Here are the 10 biggest gaming news stories of 2023. 10 PlayStation Cancels Naughty Dog’s Last Of Us Multiplayer Project, A First-Party Rarity In June 2022, Naughty Dog revealed that its new Last of Us multiplayer projec...

Whether you’re new to the scene or you’ve been rolling dice and crafting adventures for years, 2023 had no shortage of wonderful games to pull you into other worlds. It’s an excellent time to get together with friends, gather around the table, and tell a story together, and each of the games that follow will take your group to surprising new destinations. D&D – Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse Publisher: Wizards of the Coast 1994’s Planescape campaign setting was a refreshing change of pace back in the day, providing a link that connected the various worlds of the D&D multiverse – an early take on the multiverse concept for anyone keeping score. Planescape found increased popularity thanks to the stellar Planescape: Torment video game in 1999. This year’s return to the classic D&D locale does justice to those earlier iterations but isn’t afraid to strike off in new directions. Released as a three-book set (along with some other goodies), Adventures i...

Xbox’s first-party studio lineup in 2017 consisted of five studios and a publishing arm: Rare, Turn 10, 343 Industries, The Coalition, Mojang Studios, and Xbox Game Studios Publishing. Today, six years later, Microsoft owns more than 50 studios, thanks to various acquisitions over the years. Microsoft announced in January of 2022 that it was acquiring Call of Duty and Diablo maker Activision Blizzard for a colossal $68.7 billion, the largest video game acquisition ever. After nearly two years of Stateside court cases with the federal government, appeals and appeasements across the pond, unprecedented document leaks, direct arguments from rivals like PlayStation, and more, the deal is complete: Xbox is home to all 19 of Activision Blizzard’s studios (and King’s 11 mobile game development studios as well, since Activision Blizzard purchased the company in 2016). Grand Ambition Following the official announcement of the acquisition, lawyers and analysts were quick to bring up the U.S...

While most of the major gaming companies released player-specific wrap-up stats earlier this month, today Valve decided to share some platform-wide statistics, highlighting the most played Steam games of the year . To avoid divulging specifics, the entries are not ranked individually but by category. The top twelve games are in the platinum section, the next 13 are in the gold section, the next 25 are in the silver section, and the last 50 are in bronze. Within those categories, however, entries are "randomly sorted," so it's unclear which specific game came out at the top of the heap in any specific category. Still, it's interesting data. Hogwarts Legacy, Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield, and Sons of the Forest each make the platinum category of almost every list they qualify for. Baldur's Gate 3 nearly completes a full sweep, but it doesn't quite make the cut for the controller platinum category, and there isn't a VR version. It's also interesting t...

Incredible gaming was not limited to the screen this year. A wealth of fantastic board, card, and miniature games found their way to tables, bringing friends and families together for evenings of strategy, imagination, and fun. From simple party games to sprawling quest-driven adventures, these are some of the year’s best new projects for your gaming group. Darwin’s Journey Publisher: ThunderGryph Games Players head out across the Galapagos, examining unusual animal species, investigating life’s diversity, and contributing to the field of biology as they dispatch information back to museums to further human understanding. The complex and interconnected worker placement mechanics demand careful strategy from the start, with nearly every action crucial to securing victory. With board art that recalls Darwin’s familiar sketchwork, it’s a thinker’s game that celebrates the mystery and discovery of science. Earth Publisher: Inside Up Games This charming but ...

James Sunderland is not going to survive this. By the end of his journey through Silent Hill, everything will be chaos – his mind and even the world around him, a violent cacophony of anguish. But in the beginning, it’s silent. The kind of quiet that’s deafening, where you hear your pulse in your ears, and every tiny sound becomes the worst thing you can imagine. Includes spoilers for Silent Hill 2 The opening hour of Silent Hill 2 is – without question – the scariest thing I have ever played. Which, taken at face value, might seem a bit ridiculous. Your goal is simply to navigate James through a dilapidated apartment building. At most, you’ll face 10 enemies throughout the building’s three floors, but they hardly pose a threat; they’re easily avoided or killed. Gameplay primarily consists of walking up to each door in the building and trying to enter; more often than not, they’re locked. There’s a boss battle at the end, but it’s on a timer; you can just run around until it ends...