There were a lot of really solid games that released in 2019, but one that got a lot of attention from indie fans was Wargroove. Developed and published by Chucklefish, on the surface, Wargroove seems like a spiritual success to Nintendo's Advance Wars franchise, which has sat dormant for some years now. We learned today that a year after the game first debuted, it's about to get a DLC expansion.
One of the biggest announcements of BlizzCon 2019 was that of Overwatch 2. Blizzard didn't give us a reveal date for Overwatch 2, and unlike some other companies, Blizzard games can sometimes take years in between reveal and launch. In short: While many might hope that Overwatch 2 is coming out at some point in 2020, it could very well be a longer wait.
If you're a fan of creating courses in Super Mario Maker 2, then you'll definitely be pleased to know that Nintendo has increased the course upload limit once again. Players can upload a total of 100 courses to Nintendo's servers, giving fans a lot more space to work with when it comes to making stages available online. Previously, the course upload limit was set to 64 stages.
Razer typically shows up to trade shows with a bunch of announcements to make, and it turns out CES 2020 was no different in that regard. Razer made a handful of announcements about upcoming products and concepts during the show today. The products it revealed include a new controller for mobile gaming, a compact desktop, and a new 5G router.
With services like Google Stadia, GeForce NOW, and Project xCloud comes the promise of playing console or PC-quality games on a variety of devices that wouldn't normally be able to run them, particularly mobile devices. While there are a number of gamepads out there that are compatible with phones thanks to Bluetooth, there aren't a ton that are made specifically for mobile. Enter the Razer Kishi, which will come in configurations for iPhone and Android and turns your phone into something resembling a Nintendo Switch.
Pokemon fans will want to mark their calendars, because Nintendo has announced a new Pokemon Direct livestream. As always, the content of this livestream is being kept under wraps, but we can take a few guesses about what kind of news it'll cover. Regardless of what Nintendo and Game Freak are planning to talk about, the news will probably be big - otherwise, there wouldn't be an entire Direct devoted to it.
For a number of years now, Origin PC has been putting consoles and gaming PC hardware in the same case and showing us the finished product under the brand name "The Big O." One problem, though, is that these impressive PCs have only ever been for show. That all changes today, as Origin is now offering The Big O to consumers, complete with their choice of console.
As it usually does during these big trade shows, NVIDIA has announced the launch of a new Game Ready Driver for its graphics cards. In keeping with tradition, this Game Ready Driver is bringing a bunch of new features along with it, chief among them being an option to set a maximum frame rate in games. For those obsessed with squeezing as high a framerate as they can out of their PC hardware, such a feature might seem a little odd, but NVIDIA offers a few good reasons why someone may want to turn it on.
While graphics cards tend to get a lot of attention when it comes to PC gaming hardware, enthusiasts and pro players alike will tell you that the quality of your display is very important as well. You don’t have to go far to find a PC gamer singing the praises of high refresh rate displays, with many of them using either a 144Hz or 240Hz monitor instead of the more commonly seen 60Hz monitor. NVIDIA and ASUS ROG are taking things one step further today by announcing a 360Hz display that’s compatible with G-Sync.
All things considered, 2019 was a pretty fantastic year for Respawn Entertainment. In February, the company launched Apex Legends by surprise, and it quickly became a game that battle royale fans mentioned in the same breath as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite. While much of the year was focused on building out and supporting Apex Legends, Respawn had another hit toward the end of 2019 in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Samsung is heading to CES this year with a trio of curved gaming monitors for its Odyssey series. The line-up includes two new Odyssey G7 monitors, but the star is unquestionably the new G9. Clocking in at a whopping 49 inches, the G9 definitely sounds like it's going to be a monitor that's only for PC gaming enthusiasts.
A little over a year ago, Nintendo released Super Mario Party for the Switch. Like many of Nintendo’s franchises, Mario Party is one that’s been running for decades, so bringing the franchise to the Switch was a no-brainer. After a few years of experimentation with the Mario Party series that - in my opinion at least - mostly missed the mark, Super Mario Party was something of a return to form. As someone who has been playing since the very first game in the series, that was an exciting thing to see.