Awesome Games

Inspired by his own holochess board from Star Wars, Academy Award winning effects wiz Phil Tippett is working with HappyGiant to create Hologrid Monster Battle, an augmented and virtual reality board game with collectible cards and battles between Tippett’s creatures.

The gameplay trailer for LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens gives us an example of the game’s more varied building mechanics as well as stories that are not in the movies, such as Lor San Tekka’s back story and how Han and Chewie caught the rathtars.

It looks like Blizzard is going to copy Team Fortress 2′s “Meet the…” short films for its own team-based FPS Overwatch. We say keep ’em coming. This first short is about Winston, the fierce gorilla scientist.

A few years back, Dark Pixel treated us to a little Super Mario parkour action. Now Mario and Luigi are back to entertain us with more acrobatic antics in their VFX-enhanced suburbs slash Mushroom Kingdom.

1UP your bathroom and enjoy 8-bit gaming goodness every time you hop in the shower with this fun Super Shower Time shower curtain that pays tribute to classic Nintendo cartridge box art, and lets you star as the game’s character.

If you’ve never played it, Another World (aka Out of This World) is a truly classic video game for 16-bit consoles and computers, with an awesome sense of style and great gameplay. As a tribute to the 1991 game, Bartek Hławka recreated its slick opening sequence in real life.

An exploration and puzzle game where you play an astronaut on a last ditch mission to save Earth. You’re sent to humanity’s bases on the Moon, where something appears to have gone horribly wrong. Coming to Windows, Mac and Linux.

Sony presents a PS4-ready alternative to the Oculus Rift. The launch bundle includes an HD OLED headset, with built in motion sensors, 3D audio, a pair of Move controllers, a Playstation Camera, and VR Worlds. Pre-orders start 7am PDT 3/22/16, and start to ship this October.

(Gore) Karl Fairburne continues his fight against the Nazis in 1943 Italy. Sniper Elite 4 promises much larger levels than its predecessor, with improved movement to help you navigate the new levels. Drops for Xbox One, PS4 and Windows in 2016.

(Gore) Joey van Embden created this fan tribute to Fallout 4 using a combination of in-game footage set to the uplifting 1978 Queen track Don’t Stop Me Now. Bethesda should really use this as a commercial.

Get a glimpse at Shredder, Bebop and the other big baddies in the cel-shaded brawler Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan. The game will also feature a semi-open world with easy movement, such as gliding, grinding and more.

A look at the impressive new real-time performance capture technology being used in the making of the console game Hellblade. This allows scenes to be acted out and observed in real time in the game world, accelerating development, and improving creative freedom.

Virtual reality isn’t just about playing video games, but that’s certainly a major aspect of the burgeoning technology. It’s no surprise that the Rift will launch with at least 30 games, including space sims, sports games and platformers. Check out the full list here.

(PG-13: Language) For their latest video, Racka Racka envisions a world in which the action on screen in Street Fighter bleeds off the screen and quickly turns into one of their typically brutal backyard brawls. Psycho Crusher!

A look at pre-alpha footage of Night Dive Studios’ upcoming overhaul of the influential first-person RPG. System Shock Remastered will have an updated user interface, all new graphics and more user-friendly tweaks. The game drops in 2017. More on Polygon.

The Automatron add-on for Fallout 4 unveils the Machinist and his robot army. But you’ll be able to harvest his robots for parts to make your own, and customize its armor, limbs, weapons, abilities, paint scheme and even voice. Drops 3/22/16 for $10.

From the developer behind the Dishwasher series and Charlie Murder comes a side-scrolling horror action RPG for 1 to 2 players. Salt and Sanctuary features over 600 craftable and upgradable items, huge bosses and PvP. Coming to PS4 first, then to PS Vita and Steam.

An upcoming roleplaying game based on Joe Madureira’s eponymous comic book series. Battle Chasers: Nightwar features turn-based combat and randomly generated dungeons with adjustable difficulty. Coming to Windows, Mac, Xbox One, PS4 and iOS.

3D graphics modder Martin Bergman shows what you can do by tweaking the renderers and textures for Star Wars: Battlefront, then running the game on a powerful gaming rig with an GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card and an Intel Core i7 6700K CPU. More on Imgur.

(PG-13: Language) “That’s me after three beers.” Conan O’Brien tried the latest UFC video game with UFC featherweight champ – and now lightweight loser – Conor McGregor using their respective characters. Conan would’ve won if Conor was controlling Jay Leno.

A party video game that makes use of the classic NES and its Zapper gun. Super Russian Roulette lets you and up to two other people experience risk-free thrills against a foul-mouthed 8-bit cowboy.

Utomik is a new video game subscription service that doesn’t stream games. Instead, it downloads a small part so you can start playing as soon as possible, and then it downloads more bits as needed while you play. Currently in open beta for $6/mo. with a 14-day free trial.

A look at the bloody high-framerate chaos we can expect when diving in with other players in the latest reboot of the DOOM franchise, headed to PC, PS4 and Xbox One this May. This looks like a job for the Viscera Cleanup Detail!