Review: Avowed Is a Fantasy Game About the Benefits of Local Control
The player encounters various governmental figures and debates about the rights of various human and not-so-human creatures
Video Games
Review: Schedule I Is a Multiplayer Co-op Black Market Econ Simulator
A spiritual successor to the Drug Wars game that proliferated on high school graphing calculators
Review: The Free Market Comes to The Sims 4
Even simulated entrepreneurs aren't free from the burdens of business registration fees.
Should the Civilization Video Games Be Fun—or Real?
Some players like the game to mimic the real world. Others like to play as Gandhi but nuke their enemies into oblivion.
Review: How Video Games Can Connect Us to the World
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, a documentary on Netflix, explains how a terminally ill boy found freedom in World of Warcraft.
Are We Still Living in 1999?
A new book argues that late-20th-century lowbrow culture created the modern world.
Tariffs Come for Your Jerseys, Gym Clothes, and Sports Team
Plus: Formula 1, Backyard Baseball, and The Great 8 vs. The Great One.
Game Night Just Got More Expensive
A $25 board game may soon hit the shelves with a $40 price tag because of tariffs.
Nintendo Delays Switch 2 Preorders Over Trump Tariffs
The company previously dropped out of the Brazilian market for five years until the country relaxed its tariffs on video games.
Trump's Tariffs Could Be the Final Boss for Affordable Gaming
As Trump’s trade wars with Canada and China escalate, tariffs could push console prices up, threaten U.S. jobs, and disrupt a $66 billion industry.
Review: UFO 50 Pays Homage to '80s Video Games
Playing this digital collection of new retro-style games is like rediscovering a box of old cartridges.
Just What the CEO Shooting Needs: A Video Game Moral Panic!
NBC reports the assassin's video game habits, as if they matter.
Trump's Proposed Tariffs Would Add Nearly $250 to the Price of New Gaming Consoles
Similar price hikes would hit smartphones, laptops, tablets, and televisions.
KOSA Moves Forward in Congress, Threatening Free Speech and Encryption
Only Sens. Paul and Wyden are expected to vote "no" on Tuesday. Power to stop KOSA now resides with the House.
Review: Is Fallout Actually a Good Game-to-TV Crossover?
Staying true to the game, producers of the Amazon show even leave room for side quests and open-ended exploration.
Parents, Not Lax Regulation, To Blame for Tweens' Excessive Screen Time
We need parents with better phone habits, not more government regulation of social media.
Review: What the Cities: Skylines II Flop Tells Us About Urban Planning
It turns out that making video games and making cities are both really hard.
Review: Apple Vision Pro's Magic Is Short-Lived
Apple's pricey new headset ends up feeling clunky.
Photo: The Kid Who Beat Tetris
Willis Gibson, 13, became the first Tetris player to trigger a "kill screen."
National Guardsman Gets 16 Years for Leaking Pentagon Docs Over Discord
Jack Teixeira shared documents on the war in Ukraine to a gamer group on Discord.
Review: Cyberpunk 2077 Explores Another Lawless Dystopia
In the game's Phantom Liberty expansion, those who make the laws rarely follow them.
Review: Starfield Is Really a Video Game About Government
Bureaucracy vs. freedom in outer space
British Teen Gets Potential Life Sentence for Grand Theft Auto VI Hack
Rockstar Games told a U.K. court that it spent $5 million to recover from the hack. Is that worth the rest of a teenager's life?
This Christmas, Americans Can Afford More Toys Than Ever
The rising prices throughout much of the economy make it a little easier to appreciate the things that seem to be inflation-proof, like video games.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Slyly Remixes the Cult Film's View of Romance and Autonomy
What if Ramona Flowers bears some responsibility for creating her seven "evil exes" in the first place?
Starfield Is a Vast, Sprawling Video Game About the Fragility of State Power
The latest RPG from Bethesda Studios chronicles the unexpected ways that private, non-governmental power steps in to fill the gaps and voids left by state actors.
The Best of Reason: The Pirate Preservationists
When keeping cultural archives safe means stepping outside the law.
The Pirate Preservationists
When keeping cultural archives safe means stepping outside the law
The Government Has Made College an Overpriced Scam
Thankfully, you don't need fancy dining halls or a college degree to have a good life or get a good job.
A Ham-Handed Bill Attacks the First Amendment in the Name of Protecting Minors From Online Harm
The Kids Online Safety Act imposes an amorphous "duty of care" that would compromise anonymous speech and restrict access to constitutionally protected content.
We Don't Need a War on Screen Time
Unwired makes an unconvincing argument for heavy-handed tech regulation.
An Infuriating New Online Game Asks: Would You Be Able To Immigrate to the U.S.?
Players can experience for themselves how difficult, expensive, and exhausting it is to come to the country legally.
With Microsoft Victory, Courts Go On Epic Killstreak Against FTC Antitrust Agenda
The gaming market remains competitive with a wide variety of options.
Court Greenlights Microsoft Acquisition of Video Game Powerhouse Activision Blizzard
Plus: California social media law could backfire, Massachusetts may ban the sale of phone location data, and more...
Review: Victoria 3 Lacks Spontaneous Order
The video game is a 100-year simulation of the Victorian era where the player has centralized control over the government of their chosen country.
Police Release Body Camera Footage of Louisville Bank Shooting That Killed 5
Plus: Fact-checking the Twitter Files fact check, The Super Mario Bros. Movie's alleged lack of wokeness, and more...
The Defiant Individualism of The Last of Us
Like the video game, the HBO series makes the case for the morality of an individual who refuses to sacrifice for the collective.
Review: Time Meddling Becomes Altruism in Amazon's The Peripheral
It's the story of a distant future where rich denizens meddle in the affairs of the past.
5 New Studies That Challenge Conventional Wisdom About Kids and Tech
A slew of recent research suggests parents should relax a bit about screen time.
Why In the World Is the FTC Trying to Block Microsoft From Buying Call of Duty?
Antitrust regulators don't seem to understand how the video game industry works.
The FTC Has No Business Trying To Stop Video Game Company Mergers
It’s one of the most competitive industries in the world, and there’s no good reason to stop Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard.
Dwarf Fortress, the Deepest, Most Insane Computer Simulation Game Ever, Just Got a Shiny New Makeover
The game is one of the greatest pieces of outsider art created in the 21st century, and it just got a lot easier to play.
Review: Try and Fail To Build a Virtual City in Sim Nimby
Eventually the player realizes nothing is getting built and quits.
Review: Be Your Own Boss in Space With 1993's Wing Commander: Privateer
The video game merges free market trading with exciting space combat, and your ethics and goals are up to you.
Review: The Cat Video Game That Public Health Authoritarians Will Love
Stray began development in 2015, so it's not intended to be an allegory about COVID-19 lockdowns, but it sure seems like one.
Review: Gran Turismo 7
The video game serves as a fun reminder that free trade, not protectionism, makes us all better off.
Diablo Immortal and the Paternalistic Futility of Video Game Loot-Box Bans
The game won't be playable in Belgium or the Netherlands thanks to local gambling laws.
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
When the multiplayer role-playing game hit the market in 2010, it was a disaster, panned by critics and series fans alike. But developers retooled it and it found a committed audience.
