Games gen

Your Registration has been submitted! First Name. Last Name. Email address. Zip Code. Year In the news. The Washington Post - Launcher Minecraft offers free educational content for students stuck home due to coronavirus. Upcoming events. Darvasi, Paul.

Empathy, perspective and complicity: how digital games can support peace education and conflict resolution Newzoo, Video games without Kojima would be like TV without Lynch. Traversing tricky terrain before laying down roads and shelters not just to make your own journey easier, but that of your fellow online players too, whose echoes and footsteps filled a lonely world with life, creates a satisfying feedback loop. But here we are. You are in no danger of losing the ability to play Destiny 2.

However, come fall, it will definitely be a different Destiny 2. And if you haven't gotten into the game yet, you've got a scant bit of time left to do so before it changes drastically and some of its cooler content goes into "the vault"--when it'll come back out is anybody's guess.

Right now, Destiny 2 represents one of the best live games and casual MMOs out there, although it's been going through a bit of a rough patch at late. Still, despite a dud season or two since the release of the mostly pretty great Shadowkeep expansion, Destiny 2 remains a quality shooter with a whole lot of content to get lost in. November marks the release of its next big expansion, Beyond Light, and it's set to introduce a whole bunch of new stuff into the game.

At the same time, a bunch of content from the first year of Destiny 2, including the first five raids, will be shelved to make room for the new stuff. If you haven't tried Destiny 2 yet, or if you never had a chance to work your way through the Leviathan, the Scourge of the Past, or the Crown of Sorrows raids, now's your opportunity.

It's worth making the time, too. Though the raids are old, they remain excellent--raids have long been the absolute pinnacle of Destiny content, requiring high degrees of teamwork and communication, where a group of six players works together to overcome what seem like insurmountable odds. Rises in the Power caps have lessened the raids' difficulty, but they're still inventive, imaginative, weird, and extremely fun. Bungie knows how to make good shooters, and even if you're not a fan of the MMO approach of Destiny 2, you should still treat yourself to its best ideas.

Grab a few friends, learn the ropes, watch a video guide or two, and jump into some raids before they vanish. So when FFVII: Remake was announced to have a different combat system and story elements to the original game, I was a little concerned, but not particularly angry or upset, and hoped for the best. And I'm happy to say; the best is what we got. The game takes the opening segment of the original FFVII, fully contained to the city of Midgar, and makes a full game out of it.

Midgar is wonderfully expanded, feeling even more alive and vibrant in this remake. It's bustling with people living in the various slums, all dealing with their own concerns, and it made me genuinely care about the city I was trying to protect. While I've personally found Square Enix's writing to be a little uneven as of late, and not as strong as its golden era when the company was just "Square Soft," the FFVII: Remake stands out as having even better writing than the original game.

It takes all of its main characters--Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Aerith--and fully fleshes them out, making them feel far more like real people than the original game ever did, with real emotions and realistic actions. The game's music, utilizing Nobuo Uematsu's original score, orchestrating it and remixing it, makes the game feel like the perfect merger of retro and modern gaming, with his memorable themes still standing out.

The battle system, once you get used to it, is an absolute blast. It's an exciting merger of turn-based combat and action RPG, and entirely unique to the game. Final Fantasy VII was an instant classic when it came out and still stands as many people's favorite of all time. The FFVII Remake takes the beginning of that and somehow manages to make it better, outside of a few minor pacing issues.

More parts are in the works, and with how excellent the first part was, this is something you're going to want to be on top of for when part 2 comes out. Play Ghost of Tsushima. Set in 13th-century Japan, the story follows a samurai willing to go to any lengths to protect his home from a Mongol invasion. Large swathes of the map are in permanent states of autumn, crimson leaves perpetually drifting in the wind. Some areas are forever coated in thick blankets of pristine snow, others basking in an eternal springtime.

The real stunner of the game is how much attention to detail the team at Sucker Punch put in. Navigation mechanics are based on nature, intertwined with the dominant Shinto religion at the time. Plus, you can pet foxes. Also samurai outfits. So many good outfits. They've already made the console transition once, having been originally released for Xbox and PS3. But even on current-gen hardware, GTA Online is not the experience it could be.

And that's exactly why you should play it now. GTA Online certainly has its faults, and aggressive players can make for an unpleasant experience. But teaming up with a group of friends for some Los Santos shenanigans can be a great time, but the online heists are particularly transcendent.

Having a group of players cooperating in real-time on individual objectives that all coalesce in the end remains tremendously fun. Years later, I can still vividly remember the thrill of trying to avoid having my plane shot down while my friends facilitated a prison break. Landing on a dangerous airstrip, picking them up, and taking off in a rush to avoid--all while we were tensed up and screaming on the edge of our seats--is as much fun as I've ever had in a multiplayer game.

Load times can be painfully long, and with occasional disconnects, it drags down the entire experience. Improved load times are something that have been touted time and again for PS5 and Xbox Series X, and that's precisely why I think it's worth spending some time with GTA Online now--so you can more fully appreciate just what the next-gen hardware brings to the table. We'll be getting native versions of GTA V on both systems, and it's hard to imagine that Rockstar won't allow you to carry over your progress.

So spend some time trying to have a fun experience now, and then circle back to see just how much of a difference those fancy SSDs can make. I missed out on Hollow Knight when it first came out in Despite hearing great things about the game, I wanted to wait until it was ported onto the Nintendo Switch--which it finally was in While I didn't play the game on its initial release, I am so glad that I finally did.

Hollow Knight is easily one of the best Metroidvania style games I've ever played, contending with the likes of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Super Metroid for best game of this genre. It opens up its exploration, with plenty to explore without the need for special abilities. The game has clear influences from Dark Souls in the way death is handled, and the combat of the game--while absolutely brutal at times--is some of the tightest platforming combat I've played in any Metroidvania game.

The music and art are stunning, and the game's soundtrack is something I listen to when I go on walks at night because it stands on its own. Similar to Dark Souls, the game also has dark and intriguing lore packed within its minor dialogue bits, items, and visual context clues, which I enjoy puzzling together. I honestly haven't been this excited to recommend a Metroidvania game to anyone in over a decade.

And while Koji Igarashi Better known as Iga of Castlevania fame released his own indie Metroidvania title, Bloodstained, in , it felt like the same game I'd been playing on handhelds for years and years on end. Meanwhile, Hollow Knight stands out as something fresh and unique within the genre and somehow manages to trump one of the genre's pioneers.

Horizon Zero Dawn had a lot to prove. Sporting a remarkably generic title, it was a third-person action adventure from a studio that had a track record of producing first-person shooters.

The post-apocalyptic story of society reverting to a Bronze Age-like spot on the civilization dev chart seemed bog standard despite Guerrilla's promotional insistence that a central mystery sat at the heart of the story.

I had presumed it would be a decent mid-tier action game, but the actual result subverted and surpassed all of my expectations to become one of my favorite new franchises. The gameplay had the confidence of a studio that had been making third-person action games for years. The various upgrade systems meshed with the hunt of mechanized beasts so well that each moment felt rewarding. Laying traps and using your arsenal against enemy camps was equally satisfying.

Exploring the vast open world and solving the environmental puzzles that granted access to a Tallneck radar ping was a delight. The systems just sang beautifully together, interlocking and richly weaving together. Most surprisingly, though, the story was thoughtful and engaging and, yes, mysterious. While the secret behind Aloy's identity was expected, the larger mystery surrounding both what had happened to the world and why it ended up in the state it did was far more intriguing in how it slowly unfolded over the course of hours in tiny pieces.

While it shared some traits in common with a typical robot apocalypse story, this one wasn't a matter of AI reaching some hyper-logical conclusions about the scourge of humanity. Instead it was a combination of human ambition, greed, and simple, tragically understandable oversight.

By the time you reached the revelation of what "Zero Dawn" actually meant, it was gutting. But even then, it delivered a message of optimism, hope, and faith in the power of science as guided by empathy and humanity. It's an unforgettable experience and I can't wait to see it continue into the next generation and beyond. Whatever your background is with games auteur Hideo Kojima, it cannot be denied the quality on display across its world and mechanics.

This is a playground brimming with emergent opportunities to explore, infiltrate strongholds, sabotage vehicle patrols, or muck about with the complex enemy-AI using the arsenal of weapons and gadgets available. As a longtime fan of the series, however, I can easily see why anyone would immediately object to MGS5's presence in this feature. You might ask: "But what about the tumultuous drama of its development, or even the seemingly unfinished state of its story? But after spending five years trying to come to terms with all that, sometimes even justifying the artistic integrity of its imperfections, I always come back around.

The fantastic time I had simply playing MGS5 always colors my memories of experiencing this ambitious, yet narratively incomplete series finale first and foremost. Spending dozens of hours tackling a multitude of missions made the intrigue from its piecemeal plot, at least, feel worthwhile; it led me on in that classic Kojima fashion, never letting me go.

But instead of an onslaught of cutscenes grabbing my attention with top-notch cinematography and captivating melodrama, it was the time I spent digging deep into its systems that pulled me through. I'd take a whole day alone goofing around with the cardboard box, using it as a decoy to fool with enemies or sliding down the desert hills of Afghanistan. Other times, I'd commit weeks to mastering ghost-runs through every mission, restarting hundreds of times until I perfected my approach.

Recounting these moments is already enough to compel me to reinstall even as I write this. There hasn't been anything quite like MGS5 since it was released.

Every year, I cross my fingers for the day someone finally steps up to the plate to make something that rivals the mechanics and structure of this stealth-action masterpiece. Maybe I should stop waiting and settle on the fact that it's an experience unique unto itself. I'd say that alone makes MGS5 a game you need to play before moving onto the next generation.

Eccentric game director Yoko Taro hasn't always found himself in the spotlight. His past games, including the original Nier and the Drakengard series, told dark and existential stories but often failed to deliver in moment-to-moment gameplay. As such, they attracted relatively small--but extremely loyal--audiences. For Nier: Automata, Taro finally found the perfect development partner in Platinum Games, and delivered combat that could stand on equal ground with its storytelling and bring an entirely new audience into his mind.

Third-person hack-and-slack action and shoot-'em-up battles blend together and give way to giant aerial fights and even text adventure segments. Learn what the Open Metaverse is and how you can build it. Full-time and 1 day Options. Our students are the most productive, confident, and exceptionally minded students on the planet.

They love Game Gen coding and art lessons. Video, voice, screen-sharing and great teachers. Very flexible scheduling for families. Our students build up portfolios, skills in technology, and apply for jobs in our creative arts program.

Hourly Computer Science Online Classes. Great Classes. All our students agree! They love Game Gen. Our live online classrooms keep our students excited and engaged to learn about what they love Limited Space.

Due to high demand from Covid Pandemic we have very limited space.