Yameen Talpur

This week on All Things Nintendo, the episode is devoted to celebrating the anniversary of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Not only is it one of the most important and influential video games ever made, but it happens to be in both Brian and Kyle's top two games of all time. It's safe to say there is plenty of love for Ocarina of Time in this episode. We also briefly touch on the release of the game's 3DS remake, as well as the anniversaries of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Super Mario 3D World. If you'd like to follow Brian on social media, you can do so on his Instagram/Threads  @BrianPShea  or Twitter  @BrianPShea . You can follow Kyle on Twitter:  @KyleMHilliard  and BlueSky:  @KyleHilliard . The All Things Nintendo podcast is a weekly show where we celebrate, discuss, and break down all the latest games, news, and announcements from the industry's most recognizable name. Each week, Brian is joined by different guests to ...

It is admittedly unfair of me, but any time a video game reveals itself as free-to-play, my interest immediately dissipates. Free-to-play games are not universally bad; plenty of brilliant design ideas, engaging stories, and fun mechanics can be found in games with no upfront admission fee. But once a game’s goal shifts from singular experience to long-term engagement, any excitement I may have folds in on itself and disappears like Pac-Man. It all stems from my desire for experiences, not obligations. In free-to-play and comparable models, success is marked by player engagement. The more rounds a player queues into and the longer they play, the more likely they are to engage with the monetized elements. And the best way to encourage that engagement is to incentivize players to return. Daily check-in unlocks and numerical goals related to how often you use certain mechanics – those are obligations without a finish line. I’ve fallen into the trap a few times with mobile games and onl...

It’s a story that likely sounds familiar to anyone who works in video games, or even plays a lot of games. Every year around this time, a few friends and family members ask for game-buying advice. That’s great, as I love having the opportunity to help someone find gaming experiences that will lead to a great time. But it can be especially challenging if the giftee in question is a younger child who wants to play games, but is perhaps too young or inexperienced with the hobby to know what they might enjoy. We’re here to help with a brief rundown of some foolproof suggestions for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or anyone looking to find the perfect holiday gift for the young game player.  Their First Gaming Console One of the most common questions that comes my way, especially from parents who might not be into gaming themselves, is which gaming console to give as a first way to play games.  There’s no fundamentally wrong answer here. But if you’re looking for the mos...

Earlier this month, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio released its second – and not to mention best – game of 2023, the hilariously longly titled  Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name . One of the most notable features is how RGG rethought its classic brawler combat. Protagonist Kazuma Kiryu now has two fighting stances, Yakuza and Agent, the latter of which comes with a host of new secret-agent tools, such as an exploding cigarette, a Spider-Man-like cable he can use to whip enemies around, and so on.  We recently had a chat with RGG series chief producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto – who we spoke with last year about the future of the studio – to learn how Gaiden's new combat together, maintaining the series' identity despite how much has changed over the years, and why RGG doesn't look to other games for inspiration. This interview has been lightly edited for brevity. GAME INFORMER : Can you walk me through the early conversations about expanding Kiryu's fighti...

On this special Thanksgiving episode of The Game Informer Show Podcast, we discuss which fictional video games birds would taste the best. We talk about some video games, too. Charles Harte talks about Chants of Sennaar, a puzzle game about language, and Kyle Hilliard talks about Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, a game about beating up people on the streets of a fictional Japanese city. Kyle also touches on Assassin's Creed VR before the duo moves on to the main course: ranking fictional video game birds on criteria like how tasty do they look and how bad would we feel about eating them. After that, we finish out the show with some gestures of gratitude and reader questions. Watch The Video Podcast Here: Follow us on social media: Kyle Hilliard ( @KyleMHilliard ) and Charles Harte ( @chuckduck365 ). The Game Informer Show  is a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews. Join host  Alex Van ...

Ah, Thanksgiving. It's a time of year for gratitude, togetherness, repeatedly attempting to explain my job to older relatives, and most importantly, a time when a lot of people come together to eat one really big bird. But here's the thing. Why do we always eat the same kind of bird? I mean, turkey is fine and all, but why not branch out a bit? Why not chicken, or quail, or pheasant? And that got me thinking – why limit my daydreaming to real-life birds when there's so much delicious-looking poultry in video games? Sure, not every video game bird would be tasty, but it's worth assessing in case I ever get Jumanji-ed into a game one day. Here's my rating of video game birds based on how good they'd be for Thanksgiving dinner. Kazooie (4/10) from Banjo Kazooie Kazooie doesn't look actively gross, but she doesn't have that much meat on her to begin with. She also has way too much personality for me to feel good about eating her. I'm not sa...

Final Fantasy is a staple in JRPGs and video games as a whole. It might have more entries in it than any other series out there and it won’t be slowing down anytime soon . On top of that, thanks to its anthology-like nature, if one Final Fantasy game doesn’t click for you, there’s a good chance another one will. As a result, ranking the Final Fantasy series can be highly contentious. Everyone has a lot of love for the first entry they played, and then there are heavy hitters like Final Fantasy X and VII, too.  However, the staff here at Game Informer did the seemingly impossible: we ranked all 19 mainline numbered Final Fantasy games, including their direct sequels, from worst to best. As a reminder, this ranking is the sum of collective thoughts of the Game Informer staff and your own personal ranking will almost certainly be different. We’d love to know your ranking, though, so after checking out ours, drop your own in the comments below! 20 Final Fantasy II Original R...