Author: Nick Cowen

If you’ve not played Hitman 3, or indeed any of the other Hitman titles, this article is not for you. Click on the the header tab at the top of this site and move on – but not before downloading at least one Hitman game before you do. You’ll be happy you did. For the rest of you, allow me to posit an idea: Agent 47 is probably one half of the best comedy double acts in gaming. The other half is the player. Stay with me now… Comedy isn’t really something people associate with the art of contract killing -…

The board of directors of social media platform Parler has terminated the employment of its chief executive, John Matze. According to a report on the BBC, Matze himself revealed the news in a memo to Parler’s staff yesterday, but didn’t mention any reason for the board’s decision. “On January 29, 2021, the… board controlled by Rebekah Mercer decided to immediately terminate my position as CEO of Parler. I did not participate in this decision,” Mr Matze said in the memo. “I understand that those who now control the company have made some communications to employees and other third parties that…

Microsoft has just become a vocal participant in the escalating war of words between the Australian government and Google, over the issue of platforms paying for content they link to. Google has threatened to block searches Down Under should the Australian government implement a policy it’s shopping around, that would make sites that aggregate and link to news stories obligated to pay the publications they’re linking to. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded equally bullishly, saying that Australia won’t respond to threats and suggesting Bing could be used as an alternative, should Google make good on its threat. The king…

Blizzard has revealed BlizzConline, this year’s virtual replacement for its annual BlizzCon fan convention, which is set to start this month on Friday the 19th of February. Blizzard has unveiled a landing page for the fan gathering, which will take place over two days and is absolutely free for anyone who wants to watch it. BlizzConline will kick off with the con’s usual opening ceremony, at which fans will likely hear about updates on their favourite Blizzard titles, and possibly the announcements of a couple of new games. So if you have an eye out for a new expansion pack…

The Reddit/Gamestop/Wall Street debacle just keeps on trucking. After amateur investors using social media mobilised a short-squeeze against hedge funds betting against game retailer Gamestop – costing very rich people billions of dollars in the process – one of the main apps they were using, RobinHood, banned trading on several stocks (including Gamestop) last week. Given how litigious people in the USA can be, this situation was always going to end messily. According to The Verge, RobinHood is now staring down the barrel of a barrage of lawsuits over its decision to suspend trading on its platform; around 30 parties…

Google has announced it’s shutting down its internal game development studios for its game streaming platform Stadia. This comes a mere fourteen months after Google launched the service. According to a report on DigitalTrends, Google posted a blog saying that it will now focus on optimising the streaming platform for third-party developers. “In 2021, we’re expanding our efforts to help game developers and publishers take advantage of our platform technology and deliver games directly to their players,” the blog post reads. Google Stadia’s cutting some of its losses “We see an important opportunity to work with partners seeking a gaming solution…

Well that didn’t take long. One week, Wall Street hedge funds are crying foul over a group of amateur investors on Reddit inflating game retailer Gamestop’s share price in short squeeze. The next, those same players are all getting their own movie. Hollywood moves very fast these days. According to a report on Deadline, MGM has just acquired the rights to Brian Mezrich’s proposed book on Wall Street’s recent shenanigans, catchily titled The Antisocial Network. Mezrich hasn’t actually released the book yet – or even written it – but given how much the last month has shaken the financial world,…

Nintendo has closed out January 2021 by announcing some very impressive sales figures concerning the Nintendo Switch console. According to a report on IGN, the Japanese gaming giant says the Switch has now surpassed the Nintendo 3DS handheld console, racking up nearly 80 million unit sales (well, 79.87 million, but who’s counting?). Nintendo’s golden Switch On top of that, in Nintendo’s financial earnings release for the nine-month period ending 31 December 2020, it was revealed that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has sold 31.18 million copies, edging closer to the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s 33.41 million copies. To date, the latter…

Last month Google fired a salvo across Australia’s boughs when the search engine giant threatened to block searches Down Under over a dispute about paying publications for content. The move by the Australian government that caused consternation at Google – and at Facebook – involves making sites that aggregate and link to news stories obligated to pay the publications they’re linking to. Naturally, Google doesn’t like this as, not only would it affect the company’s profit margin, but if other regions adopted this policy, it could end up blowing a hole through Google’s influence as an online first stop for…

Released back in 2010, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game was fan service of the highest order. Shot through with fantastic pixel-art and a chiptastic soundtrack, the game not only brought the world and characters from the comic book source material, but it was also a rather competent brawler. It may have come across initially as a simplistic affair, but as players committed to the grind of levelling up and learning special attacks, it became apparent – especially in the latter stages that button mashing wasn’t going to save them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUU_wRjdi2I It was a cult favourite – those who…