There’s a lot to love about Starfield: the space dogfights, the exploration, the neverending list of quests, the excellent main story… Oh, and also the plushies.

Yes, you read that right. While Bethesda has always been lauded for their impeccable attention to detail, it really does feel like they’ve taken things to a whole other level with Starfield. We all remember The Lusty Argonian Maid from Elder Scrolls, and that was funny and all, but never have I been so enthralled by Starfield’s criminally adorable line of space plushies.

Starfield on PC

There’s the call to adventure, the introduction of supernatural elements, and the congregation of like-minded individuals and mentors who help shape our protagonist into who they need to be to complete their mission. There are the challenges and temptations, an incredible and unbelievable revelation, the gradual realization of what must be done, the redemption arc, before everything comes full circle and our protagonist is right back where they started — just older and wiser.

In many ways, Starfield doesn’t really do anything new. It’s an open-world game with a tried and true story structure that’s been overused across all forms of media. Truly, the hero’s journey might be the most tiresome and overused narrative formula in TV and movies — and make no mistake, Starfield leans into it pretty hard. This should come as no surprise, considering that the hero’s journey serves as the backbone of most other Bethesda open-world games. And yet, despite Starfield’s unapologetic reuse of narrative tropes and open-world trappings, Bethesda has somehow managed to create something genuinely special here.

Marvel Snap variants can get pretty pricey, so whenever the opportunity to get one for free presents itself, you just gotta take it. Second Dinner has just announced that by tuning into Gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 this week, you’ll be able to get the Spider-Man Max Grecke variant for free.

All you have to do is link your Twitch and Marvel Snap accounts, then watch the main stream on the Game Awards Twitch channel or any of the supported co-stream events on Aug. 22, 11 a.m. PT for 30 minutes to unlock the following rewards:

The last time we had a seriously botched card launch in Marvel Snap, it was with High Evolutionary. The card shop didn’t rotate correctly, and players ended up having to wait a couple days before they could buy him. The time before that, we had Kitty Pryde, who basically broke the entire game with how her bounce back mechanic worked. She was taken out of the game, reworked, then redistributed to all players for free.

This week, it’s no secret that X-23 is easily the most highly anticipated new card release of the Big in Japan season. She’s a 1-cost card that gives you one extra Energy the next turn when destroyed, and seriously opens up a lot of combos and possibilities for the destroy archetype that were much harder to pull off previously. And, of course, as if on cue, the Marvel Snap servers have gone down just as X-23 has rotated into this week’s Spotlight Cache selection.

There are plenty of powerful cards in Marvel Snap. Zabu, Silver Surfer, Darkhawk, the list goes on. There are also a whole ton of truly awful and borderline unplayable cards in the game. Lady Deathstrike may very well be the newest addition to this list, which already includes the likes of Shanna and Crystal, both of which have gotten slight buffs in this week’s OTA update alongside Forge.

Here are the balance changes:

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been a massive hit since the RPG finally left Early Access a couple weeks ago. It hasn’t been without its flaws though, as players have reported quite a few bugs and errors that have plagued the game, including sporadic crashes and clipping. Most of these small issues have been address through various hotfixes released in the past couple weeks, but Larian Studios has a huge first patch planned for the game, which will address many more issues that have popped up since launch.

According to Larian Studios’ founder and CEO Swen Vincke, their current roadmap includes a fourth hotfix, followed by the game’s first patch, which will include 1,000 fixes and tweaks. Following that, we’ll get a second patch, which will incorporate features that players have been asking for.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is finally out of Early Access, and yeah, it’s been a total hit so far. It’s been lauded as one of the best and most immersive role-playing experiences since the release of Divinity: Original Sin 2, and for good reason. The DND-like RPG allows you to create a truly unique character, complete with fascinating background stories, traits, and side quests that are genuinely compelling.

There’s just one tiny little problem though: once you create your character, you can’t change their appearance after that. This is pretty much the bane of every gamer’s existence. Spend hours on character creation only to realize you may have messed up a little detail, and that’s just too bad. You’re stuck with it forever.

The Marvel Snap meta is in a pretty healthy place right now, but there’s no denying that control and lockdown decks have been running rampant for the past couple weeks. This week, Second Dinner pushed out a major patch for the game, and it comes with a huge change to Spider-Man, who’s been one of the biggest key pieces in the lockdown archetype.

Here are all the card balance updates and changes for the week:

The fortnightly OTA updates are easily the best part of Marvel Snap; these are small number changes and tweaks to the most and least played cards in the game, allowing for little meta shakeups that keep the game feeling fresh. And this week’s OTA update is pretty exciting, as it comes with significant buffs for various cards that have seen little to no play for months.

Here’s the full breakdown:

Last week, Second Dinner announced their first officially sanctioned tournament for Marvel Snap, the popular digital card game that released late last year. Named Conquerors, this was meant to be a tournament that brought together all of the game’s most popular content creators and see who could win the most number of Infinity Conquest runs in a specified period of time.

There’s no prize money for the tournament; all creators were given an appearance fee, and this was meant to showcase Conquest mode itself to promote it. At the time of writing, the tournament is still underway, and it’s been a bit of a mess so far. Let’s go over all the missteps.

It’s been a while since Second Dinner last sent us a development roadmap, detailing all of the new bells and whistles they were planning on adding to Marvel Snap. Most of the features have since been added to the game, and a new roadmap update gives us an idea of what else is to come in the future.

You can check out the roadmap for yourself down below:

Anime series are easy to binge in just a few sittings, but there’s nothing more enjoyable than watching one with your partner or significant other. Here are our picks for the best romance anime you can watch with your partner.

The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague

I know. The title sounds absolutely silly and frivolous, but I promise you, if you’re into romance anime at all, this is one to keep on your radar. The titular Ice Guy himself, Himuro, is a snow woman descendant, which basically means that he can inadvertently summon snow and mini blizzards around him based on his emotional reactions. It also means that when he’s interacting with his office crush Fuyutsuki, tiny snowman pop out of his body to symbolize his happiness and excitement.

With Season of the Malignant on the horizon, Blizzard has rolled out a new patch for Diablo 4, bringing with it some pretty significant gameplay changes. There a few class balances, new Unique items and Legendary Aspects, and some season rollover progress that you’re gonna wanna know about before Season of the Malignant starts, so let’s get into it.

All Classes Get Nerfed

Really, there aren’t any winners in this latest Diablo 4 patch. In fact, all the classes have taken a hit in some way or another, but we’d be remiss not to give a special shoutout to the Sorcerer, who’s certainly been hit the hardest.

Last season, we saw the release of Conquest mode in Marvel Snap. This is a tournament-style mode where players duke it out with each other, using the same deck, and with 10 points of health. The mode gives you the chance to earn Medals, which can then be used to purchase Credits, Gold, variants, and boosters.

This week, Second Dinner has launched a new event called Conquest Frenzy, which makes it easier for players to rack up Gold Conquest Tickets. Basically, you’ll be able to claim one Gold Ticket per day after winning 10 matches in either Ranked or Conquest. This event will run till July 24, and should make it much easier for players to accrue Gold Tickets, as you won’t need to grind through Proving Grounds or Silver Conquest for them.

The Nintendo Switch is the perfect console for all sorts of multiplayer shenanigans, whether you’re enjoying local or online co-op and competitive play. Here’s our take on the best multiplayer Switch games of all time.

Mario Party Superstars

Not to be confused with Super Mario Party, Mario Party Superstars is a remastered collection of the best and most iconic maps from the original Mario Party games. And yeah, they still hold up incredibly well. Maps include Peach’s Birthday Cake and Horror Land, and the mini-games are still fun and challenging in the best possible ways.

Since its release late last month, Dave the Diver has been making waves in the gaming sphere. It’s a mishmash of the most popular game genres: it’s a farming sim with diving elements, complete with a dash of Cooking Mama, Instagram for cooks, and WarioWare-style mini-games where you catch fish and chop them up to serve.

We’re not the only ones who have been utterly obsessed with MintRocket’s latest hit, though; in an article published by The Guardian, Black Mirror creator and lead writer Charlie Brooker revealed his cultural highlights of 2023, and wouldn’t you know it, Dave the Diver’s on his list too.

Everybody 1-2 Switch! on Switch

For a hybrid console that’s meant to make you the life of the party — as those initial Switch ads from back in 2017 would have you believe — it’s quite baffling that Nintendo has decided to put out a painfully mediocre party game in the form of Everybody 1-2 Switch! As someone who’s a bit of a 1-2 Switch apologist, the 2023 follow-up is uninspiring, boring, and even an occasional source of nightmare fuel.

In fact, I had spent all week sitting on the fence, trying to decide if I wanted to purchase Mario Party Superstars for a friendly get-together I was planning for the end of the month. When I was presented with the opportunity to review Everybody 1-2 Switch!, though, I thought, “Alright, maybe this could be a fun party game to play with my friends, and I could save a little bit of money,” and proceeded to boot it up. Long story short: by the end of the first session, I thought, screw it, and instantly purchased Mario Party Superstars instead.

The Spotlight Cache system was announced for Marvel Snap a while back, and we’ll finally see it get implemented in-game this week. Second Dinner has announced via their official Discord server that they’ll be pushing out on a patch on July 12, which should include some major card balances and updates as well.

The new Spotlight Cache system will feature four different cards each week, and when you open the Cache, you have a chance of getting one out of those four cards. The newly released card for that week will always be included. Second Dinner has also announced all cards for the rotation for this season, as listed below:

Diablo 4 is an outstanding game in its own right; the story is actually good, Lilith is a compelling villain, and the gameplay loop is just as addictive as you’d want it to be. Like with most other things in life, though, there’s always room for improvement, so here are some ways Diablo 4 could’ve been even better.

More Innovative Boss Mechanics

While I’m not a huge fan of Lost Ark‘s over-the-top story and vibe overall, there’s just no denying that it brought a lot of fun new things to the ARPG table, including interesting boss mechanics that went beyond just DPS checks. That’s the thing about Diablo 4; most of the bosses, and especially the world bosses, really just feel like DPS checks.

This season of Marvel Snap is an exciting one for a couple of reasons: all of the new card releases are actually exciting and have a ton of potential, and two out of three cards will be releasing directly to Series 4, which means they’ll only cost 3,000 Tokens to purchase. Spider-Ham was the first of these direct-to-Series-4 cards, and he’s just dropped this week, but there’s an issue. If you’ve been hoarding your Collector’s Caches and Reserves and you’re close to opening another Series 4 card, and you’re hoping to pull Spider-Ham from one of these boxes, you’re out of luck.

Second Dinner has since announced on their Discord server that there’s currently an issue preventing Spider-Ham from showing up on the Collection Track. Here’s the full statement: