Your first look at Fallout Shelter
By Charlie Hall on Jun 15, 2015 06.15.15
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At their first ever E3 press conference, Bethesda Softworks unloaded a mound of information on Doom and Fallout 4. But they also released a game live on stage, called Fallout Shelter.
Available now for iOS and coming soon to Android, Fallout Shelter is a worker placement game where players take on the role of the Overseer. You'll welcome new members into your vault, build structures inside to care for them and send them out into the wastes on deadly adventures. Charlie Hall invited Danielle Riendeau into vault 309 for a quick tour.
Check out Polygon's StoryStream for all the news from the Bethesda event, including the release date for Fallout 4.
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2 CommentsWatch us kidnap a stegosaurus in Ark: Survival Evolved
By Charlie Hall on Jun 10, 2015 06.10.15
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Ark: Survival Evolved launched just last week and the great migration of multiplayer survival game fans has begun, raking in more than $10 million in sales for the small team at Studio Wildcard. Polygon was there before the game even launched, and today we've got our thoughts on the full gameplay experience.
In Ark players wake up on a beach with a strange gem lodged in their arm, surrounded by dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts. By leveling up their character they can learn new recipes, including clothing, weapons and persistent housing. Charlie Hall invited Griffin McElroy to his humble beachside hut, where he spent hours trying to tame a wild stegosaurus.
Ark is available now on Steam's Early Access platform, and is scheduled...
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2 CommentsPlaying Boston's weirdest detective in D4
By Danielle Riendeau and Nick Robinson on Jun 09, 2015 06.09.15
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D4 was originally released last September on the Xbox One, a delectably bizarre Kinect-based adventure game from Hidetaka "SWERY65" Suehiro, the creator of Deadly Premonition. It's just released on PC, and tells the story of David Young, a Boston-based detective with special powers, his cat/roommate Amanda, and a supporting cast of even wackier people. Join Nick Robinson and I as we discus the game's bizarre charms, its not-quite-there Boston accents and its realistic depiction of New Englanders' love of clam chowder.
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11 CommentsYou Must Build a Boat will turn you into a Match-3 RPG junkie
By Griffin McElroy and Nick Robinson on Jun 09, 2015 06.09.15
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You Must Build a Boat is the sequel to EightyEight Games' tile-sliding puzzle title 10000000, and boy howdy, is it covering familiar territory. You're the owner of a humble seafaring vessel who must — you guessed it — improve the structural integrity of that vessel by diving into dungeons and securing the valuable resources within. Each run is super digestible and genuinely rewarding, making it the perfect game to play on your phone when you're waiting in line at the movie theater, or when you're at work and supposed to be working.
You can watch Nick and I play through a bit of You Must Build a Boat above, and pick it up yourself on iOS, Android or Steam. Just be forewarned: The title is not a suggestion. If you play this game, you're...
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1 CommentThe best pug dating sim the world has ever seen
By Danielle Riendeau and Megan Farokhmanesh on Jun 05, 2015 06.05.15
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Hot Date is a very cute, sassy game about speed dating. Except, you aren't dating human beings — no way, this is a game about dating a series of very quirky pugs. Join Megan Farokhmanesh and I as we go on the weirdest dates of our life.
Hot Date is a pay-what-you-want game on the itch.io platform. Read more about the game here.
Heroes of the Storm: See what we like and dislike about Blizzard's latest game
By Philip Kollar and Arthur Gies on Jun 03, 2015 06.03.15
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Heroes of the Storm, the latest game from legendary developer Blizzard, is here! And it's pretty good! Of course, "pretty good" means it still has some issues.
In the video above, we play a couple matches of Heroes of the Storm and discuss its strengths and weaknesses relative to other games in the MOBA genre. We also discuss the unique challenges of reviewing this type of game and why we'll be returning to it often.
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18 CommentsCatlateral Damage is an oddly zen-like game that tore my family apart
By Griffin McElroy on Jun 02, 2015 06.02.15
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I could play Catlateral Damage, the feline homewrecking simulator that hit Steam last week, for hours. The act of unseating knick-knacks from their shelving and pushing them to the floor is a meditative and soothing activity — though, arguably, watching someone else do it for an hour straight is less enjoyable. Regardless, that's exactly what I tricked my dear oldest brother into, and now I'm pretty sure we're not on speaking terms.
You can watch us play Catlateral Damage for much longer than Justin probably would have liked above, or check out the game for yourself on Steam.
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2 CommentsWattam is a game about holding hands, unlocking gold poop and soccer... maybe?
By Michael McWhertor on May 29, 2015 05.29.15
Wattam, a game by indie developer Funomena, is a little hard to describe. In fact, when playing the game during an event last week, Funomena co-founder Robin Hunicke, previously of thatgamecompany, asked members of the media who played it how they'd describe the game. What genre, if any, could you apply to Wattam? Personally, I'd call it a friend puzzle game, but in an experience in which unlocking a gold poop and playing a 90-minute soccer match are all part of the fun, potential confusion about Wattam is understandable.
The basics are these: Wattam is the latest creation of artist and game developer Keita Takahashi, who's best known for making Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy. It's a PlayStation 4 exclusive. Holding hands is a big part of the experience. You can play as both a...
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7 CommentsSee why we love Splatoon
By Philip Kollar on May 27, 2015 05.27.15
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In case it wasn't already clear from our review, we really dig Splatoon. Rather than writing more words about it, we decided to show you in video form.
Watch the video above to see both the multiplayer and single-player portions of Splatoon in action. And be sure to check back on Polygon for more Splatoon coverage later this week.
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3 CommentsMagnetic: Cage Closed is the most fun you've ever had with magnetism
By Griffin McElroy and Philip Kollar on May 27, 2015 05.27.15
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Magnetic: Cage Closed is a gun-puzzle game that has a lot of fun with its core, titular mechanic. You might think you could predict the kind of attractive, repulsive puzzles the game will throw at you, but it's got its fair share of curveballs. Sure, there are cubes and buttons, but as you push those cubes onto those buttons, you also get pushed! Magnetically. Just make sure you're not pushing yourself into a pit of chlorine gas and you'll do fine.
Check out the Overview video posted above to see Phil and I take on a few of Magnetic: Cage Closed's puzzle rooms, and attempt a few breathtaking no-scope cube shots in the process. Magnetic: Cage Closed is out now on Steam.
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14 CommentsObsidian's Armored Warfare enters early access today, here's our first impressions
By Charlie Hall on May 27, 2015 05.27.15
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Obsidian Entertainment, makers of RPGs like South Park: The Stick of Truth, Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, is venturing into unexplored territory with free-to-play title Armored Warfare. Polygon's Charlie Hall spent some time on multiplayer combat during a press-only event over the weekend, and Brian Crecente joined him to chat about it.
With the financial backing of Russian giant Mail.ru, Armored Warfare hopes to be a direct competitor of World of Tanks. Where WoT ends its timeline somewhere around the Korean War, Armored Warfare picks up where it left off and heads off deep into the weeds of Cold War-era hardware. We spent time inside vehicles such as the 1960s-era M113 armored personnel carrier and the Russian T-64...
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0 CommentsWar, identity and the swanky '70s in Sunset
By Danielle Riendeau and Charlie Hall on May 22, 2015 05.22.15
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Tale of Tales' latest game, Sunset, is about a lot of lofty things. It takes on race, class, gender and war — all from the confines of a single, swanky '70s apartment. Join Charlie Hall and me as we explore the inner workings of Sunset and find a simple game that tackles a lot of complicated issues.
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10 CommentsWhy Destiny's Trials of Osiris is the game's most exciting mode yet
By Griffin McElroy on May 22, 2015 05.22.15
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Destiny's new House of Wolves expansion has a ton of new cooperative content in the form of story missions and the Prison of Elders arena, but its highlight might be the new weekly Trials of Osiris PvP event. It throws two teams of three against each other in a fast-paced, strategic survival match, offering huge rewards to the victor — but losing three games ends your run, and cuts off higher tiers of rewards. It's genuinely exciting, even if you're not that great at PvP, which is good, because we definitely aren't.
Check out the Overview video posted above to see me and Samit, the King of the Battlefield, take on the Trials of Osiris, and try not to focus too much on the parts where we embarrass ourselves. For more on Destiny's House...
Watch Deus Ex meet Thief in the cool, minimalist Neon Struct
By Philip Kollar and Arthur Gies on May 21, 2015 05.21.15
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If you like your stealth games extra stealthy or with a heavy helping of cyberpunk, Neon Struct: Die Augen der Weldt is the game for you.
Join us in the lengthy overview video above as we take a look at this game's stunning minimalist art style and tense gameplay where a single mistake can equal failure.
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37 CommentsHow Destiny's House of Wolves expansion gets right what the last DLC got wrong
By Griffin McElroy and Justin McElroy on May 20, 2015 05.20.15
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Destiny's first expansion, The Dark Below, wasn't very good. Other than the few exciting moments that came in the raid it added, it wasn't especially content-rich, and actually introduced mechanics that punished its longtime players. Fortunately, House of Wolves, the game's second expansion, gets a lot of stuff right that The Dark Below got wrong. There are some great set pieces and battles, an engaging arena mode and a new upgrade system that lets players choose how they want to progress, rather than chaining them to a harrowing slog.
Check out the Overview above to see me and Justin show off some of our highlights for what we've played so far. Also, prepare to receive the V-Blaster, which is now inarguably the best gun in Destiny,...
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15 CommentsOverview: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
By Arthur Gies on May 16, 2015 05.16.15
The Witcher 3 is big. Very, very big. So Phil and Arthur start small. Kind of. By hunting a griffin. But first, they walk through the investigation needed to kill a monster in The Witcher 3's big open world.
