Visa and Mastercard pressuring Itch.io and Valve does ‘nothing to protect’ women, and shock games will just be ‘side-stepping the ban entirely’, say affected indie devs

In case you missed the news, let me get you up to speed—payment processors like Visa and Mastercard have, likely at the behest of anti-porn group Collective Shout, pressured both Steam and Itch.io to either delist or limit ‘adult’ games. These blanket bans not only sweep erotic and NSFW works into their net, but have…

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If you’ve ever wondered if Japanese blossom-scented thermal paste in a weeb-inspired applicator is worth using, we have at long last the scientific answer to the greatest quandary of our time

Sometimes in the world of PCs, a new product gets launched that’s so niche, rare, or unusual that mere mortals never get a chance to see what the fuss is all about. One such example is from Japanese firm Clock Work Tea Party, which deems that what all PC gamers really want are scented thermal…

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Overwatch 2’s new China-exclusive dating sim event looks so good that players say they’ve been ‘robbed’ of the experience

Overwatch 2 is going in for round two of its Loverwatch dating sim—it first appeared two years ago on February 13. While this new iteration includes more heroes like Junker Queen and Mauga, it is, unfortunately, only available for players in China. The original Loverwatch only had two romance options, Genji or Mercy, with a…

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Astarion voice actor Neil Newbon sinks his fangs into AI and shreds it: ‘AI sucks … It doesn’t have the happy accident possibility that are those great moments in film’

AI! It’s the new big thing. It’s the foundation of the 21st-century digital economy. It’s going to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. It will punish the wicked and reward the righteous. It’ll bring about the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. And you’re going to lose your…

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Cronos: The New Dawn’s sci-fi survival horror channels RE4 and Dead Space, but it took Bloober awhile to realize it ‘subconsciously’ is also a game about Covid

Jacek Zięba reflexively reaches for his temple as he recalls the moment he realized Bloober’s sci-fi horror game, set in alt-history Poland after a deadly outbreak, was about Covid. “We didn’t want to make a game about the pandemic,” the game director says. “When we started the story, it just worked for us. And at…

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‘We proved people wrong:’ After Silent Hill 2, Bloober Team’s survival horror developers are no longer ‘feeling like underdogs all the time’

“Give us a chance,” horror studio Bloober Team asked Silent Hill fans last summer. Before Silent Hill 2’s remake racked up critical acclaim on release, the developers at Bloober Team spent two years working under the Sauron-like eye of a fandom that had weathered far too many disappointments, and a horror audience that saw Bloober’s…

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US government announces that its investigation into chip imports will have results within two weeks, potentially paving the way for a raft of new tariffs on all things silicon

Back in April, we reported on the commencement of an investigation by the US government. Specifically, the goal of the probe was to look at the country’s reliance on foreign semiconductor production and how such imports might affect national security. In a press conference after a meeting with President Trump and the EU held over…

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Kung fu action game Phantom Blade Zero’s has my new favorite take on hard mode balance: Beating it ‘in a very beautiful manner’ is the true challenge

The first time I played Phantom Blade Zero earlier this year, I was bad at it—which might’ve had something to do with jumping straight into a boss fight while I was still learning the controls. But over the last two days at a preview event in Beijing, I’ve gone from fresh-faced trainee to a wispy-bearded…

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