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Matt Vatankhah

Matt Vatankhah

Vice

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‘Dune Awakening’ Latest Patch Is Supposed to Fix Vehicle Interactions, but It’s Doing the Complete Opposite

Usually, a patch leads to a bit of relief. A squashing of an annoying bug or game-breaking glitch. Sometimes, though, it spells disaster. That’s...

03.07.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Final Fantasy XIV’ Continues its Online Store Shenanigans by Releasing Sets of Attire That, Together, Cost More than Dawntrail Itself

Final Fantasy XIV has been in a bit of a rough patch as of late. With a continuously declining player base and dwindling goodwill, players have...

01.07.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Peak’ Studio Landcrab Looks to Add More Content as It Celebrates 2 Million Sales

Aggro Crab and Landfall Games’ joint indie endeavour, Peak, has officially reached two million copies sold in its first nine days. Now that’s a...

27.06.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Point and Click Adventure Fans: This Steam Bundle Has Your Name on It

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been basking in the relatively recent point and click adventure renaissance happening over the last few years....

25.06.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Dune Awakening’ Will Soon Have More Endgame Options for PvE Players, More Balanced PvP Combat, and Better Rewards, Says Creative Director

While Dune Awakening offers players a hefty amount of content, those in the game’s later stages are expressing a lack of meaningful activity to...

24.06.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Sloclap’s ‘Rematch’ Scores 1 Million Unique Players in Its First 24 Hours of Release

Just one day after officially releasing, Sloclap’s multiplayer soccer game REMATCH has amassed over one million unique players. This follows several...

21.06.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

As ‘Stellar Blade’ Reaches 3 Million Sales, Shift Up CEO Rewards All 300 Employees with a Switch 2

It’s an exciting time for Stellar Blade studio Shift Up. As the formerly PlayStation-exclusive hit reaches its newest milestone of 3 million sales,...

19.06.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Aggro Crab and Landfall Join Forces to Make ‘Peak’, a Co-op Climbing Game about Friendship and Falling

Indie games’ darlings Aggro Crab and Landfall Games, known most recently for Another Crab’s Treasure and Haste respectively, have come together to...

17.06.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Battle Royale Games You Should Be Playing if You’re Tired of Battle Royales

Since 2015, Battle Royales have steadily become one of the most popular sub-genres of the FPS scene. Following modded servers on games like Rust and...

11.06.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

In ‘PIGFACE,’ When They Say to Kill, You Ask How Many (Demo Impressions)

You wake up inside a dilapidated warehouse in a pool of your own blood and with a pounding headache. Across the room is a buzzing television set and a...

07.06.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Clair Obscur Expedition 33’ Has Phenomenal Turn-Based Combat, but We Cannot Make It the New Standard for Turn-Based RPGs

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 did a real number on the discourse surrounding turn-based RPGs, huh? Overnight, gamers collectively realized they’ve...

04.06.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

John Romero Is Dragging You Back to Retro Hell with a ‘SIGIL’ Collector’s Edition on a 3.5” Floppy Disk

Back in my day, we would launch games from cold, black screens with white text and command prompts. CD-ROM games were becoming the standard, but...

31.05.2025 6

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Counter-Strike 1.6 Is Getting an Unofficial VR Port by Team Beef, Will Run Natively on Quest and Pico Headsets

I’ve always wanted to be fully immersed in cs_assault. No, maybe de_aztec. Yeah, definitely Aztec. Pretty soon, that’s gonna be a reality! Team...

29.05.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Bungie Accused of Plagiarizing Yet Again: ‘Marathon’ Seemingly Lifts Assets from an Artist’s Original Work without Their Knowledge

Bungie is, once again, in the plagiarism hot seat. On Thursday, independent artist ANTIREAL discovered her original artwork, some of which dates back...

16.05.2025 5

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Who Is ‘Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves’ For? Following Abysmal Sales, SNK’s CEO Will Transition to an Advisory Role

Today, SNK Corporation announces a leadership transition for its CEO, Kenji Matsubara. From a press release dated May 12, 2025, the statement notes...

14.05.2025 4

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

From a Marine to a God: ‘DOOM The Dark Ages’ Shows How You Can’t Deny the Slayer’s Superhero Status

In the original DOOM games, our lovable, grunty protagonist was pretty much your everyday dude. In fact, the UAC Marine was originally meant to be...

08.05.2025 7

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Bye Bye, DBM: Blizzard’s New Vision for ‘World of Warcraft’ Eliminates the Need for Some of Its Most Popular Add-Ons

In today’s WoWCast, World of Warcraft senior game director Ion Hazzikostas explains Blizzard’s philosophy toward in-game combat add-ons and how a...

01.05.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

New ‘God Save Birmingham’ Trailer Reveals Exclusive Gameplay Footage That Just May Be Too Good To Be True

God Save Birmingham, an upcoming zombie survival game by Korean devs Ocean Drive Studio, answers an important question. “What’s worse than being...

30.04.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

From D-Day to the Dark Ages, the Steam ‘Wargames Fest’ Sale Has a Party for Any Platoon

Remember the days when we weren’t constantly on the cusp of a third world war? Hah, me neither! Thankfully, Steam has a sale going on that’ll help...

29.04.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Fatal Fury’ Producer Yasuyuki Oda Suggests There’s Still Room for More Unexpected Characters Like Ronaldo in ‘City of the Wolves,’ but Does Anyone Really Want That?

Guest characters aren’t anything new to fighting games. In the past, when games would at least attempt to fill out their original rosters before...

25.04.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Labyrinth of the Demon King’ Is Feudal Japanese Horror Meets ‘King’s Field’ and I’m All Aboard This Nightmare Train

As a certified fossil, growing up alongside the PS1’s library of gritty horror games was a pivotal part of my adolescence. Resident Evil was the...

24.04.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’ Makes Turn-Based Combat an Artform, and Paints a World So Gorgeous, You’ll Forget You’re Dying (Review)

I think about mortality often. More specifically, the mortality of my loved ones, and the haunting reminder that my time with them is finite. I wonder...

23.04.2025 9

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Oblivion: Remastered’ Is Actually Just as Moddable as Its Original 2006 Release, and Another 20 Years of Unhinged Mods Is upon Us

After a long week of anticipation over recent leaks, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is officially real. And, released on the same day. For...

22.04.2025 10

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves’ Proves This Series Still Has Hands, Even if It Misses a Couple Shots (Review)

While SNK’s annual King of Fighters hasn’t missed a beat since its 1994 release, Fatal Fury hasn’t seen the light of day in quite some time....

21.04.2025 5

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Rematch’ Has No Martial Arts, but the ‘Sifu’ Studio’s Arcadey Football Showdown Kicks Ass, and You Can Play the Closed Beta This Weekend

Check it out, someone finally made Rocket League, but with people! I feel like this would make a pretty popular sport in real life. Sifu studio...

18.04.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Take a Deep Breath – ‘Autonomica,’ an Open World Survival Crafting Farming Life Sim with Romance and Dogs and Mech Battles, Gets Fully Funded on Kickstarter within 24 Hours

Whew, that’s a mouthful. But that’s sort of the point – Autonomica, developer Crytivo’s multifaceted game with just about everything, has big...

17.04.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Removing Proximity Chat from ‘Marathon’ Won’t Stop the Toxic Nature of an Extraction Shooter, It’ll Just Make It Less Engaging

One of my first experiences with proximity voice chat was, coincidentally, in Bungie’s Halo 2. Listening to brief moments of unfettered rage after...

14.04.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Deedlee Doo! Carkour!’ Is a Charming Ride through a World Made of Clay and Sounds Made with a Mouth

Nate Purkeypile (sick name, by the way) is no stranger to making games. Before going solo and independently releasing The Axis Unseen last year, he...

11.04.2025 6

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Path of Exile 2’ Studio Grinding Gear Games Is Banning Players In Spite of Their Own QA Fumble

It’s been a rough start for ‘Dawn of the Hunt,’ Path of Exile 2‘s latest seasonal league. With massive overtuning on mobs and nerfs across the...

09.04.2025 4

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Rosewater’ Is a Rootin-Tootin’ Point and Clickin’ Hell of a Good Time (Review)

It’s not always about the destination — but the friends and choices made along the way. That philosophy seems central to Grundislav Games’...

07.04.2025 5

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

I Finally Stopped Ignoring ‘Tekken 8’, and Now I Understand the Hype

I’ve been a fan of fighting games for as long as I can remember. But, like any insufferable purist out there, I’ve stuck solely to 2D fighters....

04.04.2025 10

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Path of Exile 2’ Dawn of the Hunt Starts Tomorrow, so Buckle Up and Play SSF, You Coward

Path of Exile 2 is dropping its newest season, Dawn of the Hunt, tomorrow. A brand new league means brand new beginnings, with a reset economy and...

04.04.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Close Enough, Welcome Back ‘Bloodborne’ – FromSoftware Reveals ‘The Duskbloods’ as a Multiplayer-Focused Switch 2 Exclusive

Is that a dude in Victorian garb under the pale moonlight? A woman’s hand reaching upwards in comically slow fashion as she mutters, “I give you...

02.04.2025 5

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Mario Kart World’ Has Free Roaming Cows – Wait, No, It Has a New Free Roam Mode and You Can Race as a Cow

This is not a drill – the next edition of the biggest and best racing series in the world has officially been announced during the Switch 2 Direct....

02.04.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Valve’s Long-Forgotten ‘Ricochet’ Sees Its All-Time Concurrent Player Record Obliterated Thanks to Dedicated Group of ‘Half-Life’ Fans

Once per year, Valve fan community LambdaGeneration comes together to resurrect the studio’s classics. In 2021, the group gathered together to play...

02.04.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

You Can Smother Your Loved Ones with Affection with an Officially Licensed ‘Silent Hill 2’ White Pillow

April Fools’ is always a fun time. Goofs and gags aplenty around every corner of the internet, and sometimes, it’s hard to tell which ones are...

01.04.2025 2

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘DOOM: The Dark Ages’ Can Now Be Purchased with WoW Gold as It Joins Blizzard’s Battle.net Storefront

id Software’s upcoming DOOM: The Dark Ages has officially hit the Battle.net storefront, marking the second non-Activision/Blizzard game available...

01.04.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

id Software’s Hugo Martin and Marty Stratton Talk ‘DOOM: The Dark Ages’, ‘80s Movies, and How To Juggle Between Innovation and Engagement (Interview)

After playing DOOM: The Dark Ages for a few hours, I had questions. Secretly, I wondered if the folks at id Software were actually human, given their...

01.04.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Playing ‘DOOM: The Dark Ages’ Has Me Convinced That id Software Are Wizards (Hands-on Impressions)

As a kid in the ’90s, I remember begging my parents to purchase an extra 4 MB (yes, megabytes) of RAM for our family PC. My uncle, a teenager at the...

31.03.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Life Sim ‘inZOI’ Quietly Patches Out Ability to Run Over Children with Cars

Now officially launching into early access, Life Sim inZOI being called “The Sims killer” may actually be a double entendre. The KRAFTON...

28.03.2025 4

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Path of Exile 2’ Is Shaking up Its Endgame Content in the Best Ways with ”Dawn of the Hunt” Season

Path of Exile 2 is nearing almost four months into its early access period, and for those well into its endgame, things have been getting a bit stale....

28.03.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Cristiano Ronaldo Debuts in ‘Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves’ as the Most Random Guest Character in a Fighting Game I’ve Seen

After an initial tease last September from the legendary footballer himself, it looks like the rumors are true. Portuguese football pro Cristiano...

27.03.2025 6

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Monster Hunter Wilds’ Title Update 1 Takes Hunters to the Grand Hub for Some Speedrunning Sicko Activities

Last month, Monster Hunter Wilds was released with resounding critical success. Topping the Steam player charts and even breaking records for Capcom,...

25.03.2025 3

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘V Rising’ Gets Players Thirsty for Blood with a Cryptic Image Posted on Its Official X Account

Ah, V Rising. The game that knocked on our doors in 2022, politely asked to be let inside, and turned us all into bloodthirsty fanatics ever since....

25.03.2025 10

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Raw, Relentless, and Rewarding: ‘The First Berserker: Khazan’ Is a Must-Play Soulslike about Embracing Your Dark Side (Review)

It’s hard to tell what constitutes a “Soulslike” these days. The term’s been tossed around, chewed up, and regurgitated so much that any game...

24.03.2025 8

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

‘Silent Hill 4: The Room’ Joins GOG’s Preservation Program and Receives New Update to Restore Missing Content

Silent Hill 4 certainly has its own unique charm. The last game in the series by Team Silent, The Room has Henry Townshend locked inside his haunted...

22.03.2025 5

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Cat’s Out of the Box: Microsoft Accidentally Reveals Steam Games May Be Coming to Your Xbox Console

In a blog post today, Microsoft details its plans to further incorporate Xbox into every device possible. Describing it as “opening a billion...

21.03.2025 10

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

A ‘Final Fantasy IX’ Animated Series Based on Vivi’s Six Children Was Reportedly in the Works before Its Studio Filed for Bankruptcy

Cyber Group Studio, a Paris-based animation company responsible for the production of several award-winning children’s series, was reportedly in...

19.03.2025 20

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

No, the FPS Genre Isn’t Stagnant – You Just Aren’t Paying Enough Attention to ‘THE FINALS’

There’s this common sentiment going around the FPS space lately, that (Insert game of the moment) “came at just the right time, when the FPS scene...

18.03.2025 4

Vice

Matt Vatankhah

Leaked Footage Reveals Sony Dipping Its Toes into AI Hell World and, Nope, We’re Still Not Interested

Tech companies really want you to get excited about AI. Between Nvidia’s push for their AI-powered ACE technology to Xbox’s environment-generating...

11.03.2025 8

Vice

Matt Vatankhah