The Cactuar, known in Japan as Sabotender is a fictional species of plant-like beings from the Final Fantasy video game franchise. They are usually depicted as anthropomorphic cacti with haniwa-like faces in a running or dashing pose. One of the recurring elements of the series, it initially appeared as an enemy in Final Fantasy VI. By the 2010s, the Cactuar has attained widespread popularity with Final Fantasy fans, and is considered one of the established mascots of the long-running series alongside the Moogle and the Chocobo. While the Cactuar still appear as recurring enemies in modern titles, they are also depicted as summoned allies as well as friendly non-player characters.
Minecraft is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java programming language, it was developed over the span of two years, with many public test builds being released from May 2009 until its full release on 18 November 2011. After the game's full release, Persson gave Jens "Jeb" Bergensten control over the game's development. In the years since its release, it has been ported to several platforms, including smartphones and various video game consoles, primarily by 4J Studios. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion. Minecraft has become the best-selling video game in history, with over 300 million copies sold and nearly 140 million monthly active players as of 2023.
VG247 is a video game blog published in the United Kingdom, founded in February 2008 by industry veteran Patrick Garratt. Its current Editor-in-Chief is Dom Peppiatt. In 2009, CNET ranked it as the third best gaming blog in the world.
Ace of Spades was a 2012 first-person shooter and voxel-based sandbox video game developed and published by Jagex. Originally created by Ben Aksoy and released as a prototype in April 2011, the game was acquired by Jagex in 2012 and fully released in December that year. Following poor reception and several minor downloadable content package releases, the game was shut down in March 2019.
The year 2015 saw releases of numerous video games as well as a follow-up to Nintendo's portable 3DS console, the New Nintendo 3DS. Top-rated games originally released in 2015 included Madden NFL 16, NBA 2K16, NBA Live 16, WWE 2K16, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Bloodborne, Undertale, and Fallout 4. Sales of video games in 2015 reached $61 billion, according to analysis firm SuperData, an 8% increase from 2014. Of this, the largest sector was in computer game sales and subscription services, accounting for $32 billion. Mobile games revenues were at $25.1 billion, a 10% increase from 2014. Digital sales on consoles made up the remaining $4 billion.
Numerous video games were released in 2016. New hardware came out as well, albeit largely refreshed and updated versions of consoles in the PlayStation 4 Pro, PlayStation 4 Slim, and Xbox One S. Commercially available virtual reality headsets were released in much greater numbers and at much lower price points than the enthusiast-only virtual reality headsets of earlier generations. Augmented reality also became mainstream with Pokémon Go. Top-rated games originally released in 2016 included Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Inside, Overwatch, Forza Horizon 3, Madden NFL 17, WWE 2K17, NBA 2K17, Dark Souls III, and Battlefield 1 and Doom 2016. The top five highest-grossing video games of 2016 were League of Legends, Honor of Kings/Arena of Valor, Monster Strike, Clash of Clans, and Dungeon Fighter Online.
The PCGamingWiki is a British-based collaboratively edited free wiki internet encyclopaedia focused on collecting video game behaviour data, to optimising gameplay, and fixing issues found in PC games. Intended fixes and optimisations range from simple cut-scene removals, to modifications that allow for wide-screen resolutions, and more. The wiki site runs on MediaWiki software, and was created by Andrew Tsai, a British businessman from London, England. The site was founded on 9 February 2012. As of October 2022, the PCGamingWiki has more than 30,000 registered users, and 48,000 content pages. Since its inception, the PCGamingWiki has been featured on numerous gaming focused websites, including Kotaku, Destructoid, and Rock Paper Shotgun. It regularly receives more than 10,000 unique page views a day.
Alien Rage is a 2013 first-person shooter video game for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 developed by CI Games, then known as City Interactive, using Unreal Engine 3. The game has single-player and competitive multiplayer modes. In its single player campaign, players are put in control of an elite soldier named Jack which is sent to destroy a mining facility and its aliens after they turned against and killed the humans that they had shared the facility with.
Borderlands 3 is a 2019 action role-playing first-person shooter video game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K. It is a sequel to 2012's Borderlands 2, and the fourth entry in the main Borderlands series. Borderlands 3 was released on 13 September 2019 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, and released for macOS on 30 October 2019. A Stadia port was released on 17 December 2019. Versions for the Xbox Series X and Series S and PlayStation 5 including free upgrades for users on the prior console versions were released on 10 and 12 November 2020, respectively. A Nintendo Switch version was released on 6 October 2023.
Factorio is a construction and management simulation game developed and published by Czech studio Wube Software. The game was announced via an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in 2013 and released for Windows, macOS, and Linux on 14 August 2020 following a four-year long early access phase to positive reviews. The game was released on Nintendo Switch on 28 October 2022.
Sword Coast Legends is a 2015 action role-playing game. The game is set within the universe of Forgotten Realms, a campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons.
Subnautica is an action-adventure survival game developed and published by Unknown Worlds Entertainment. The player controls Ryley Robinson, the only survivor of a spaceship crash on an alien oceanic planet, which they are free to explore. The main objectives are to find essential resources, survive the local flora and fauna, and find a way to escape the planet.
EGX is trade fair for video games organised by Gamer Network and held annually in the United Kingdom and Germany.
Crown and Council is a turn-based strategy game developed by Mojang employee Henrik Pettersson. The game was both announced and released as a surprise on Steam on April 22, 2016 and was made available for free.
Shadwen is a stealth video game developed and published by Frozenbyte. The game was released for macOS, Linux, macOS, PlayStation 4, and Windows in May 2016.
A creeper is a fictional creature in the sandbox video game Minecraft. Creepers are hostile mobs that spawn in dark places, but can still survive in bright environments. Instead of attacking the player directly, they creep up on the player and explode, destroying blocks in the surrounding area and potentially hurting or killing the player if they are within the blast radius. Their green camouflage and generally silent behavior aid in stealth attacks, making them one of the most dangerous mobs in Minecraft. Creepers were first added to Minecraft in a pre-alpha update to the game that was released on September 1, 2009.
Minecraft Earth was an augmented reality and geolocation-based sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios and Blackbird interactive and published by Xbox Game Studios. A spin-off of the video game Minecraft, it was first announced in May 2019, and was available on Android and iOS. The game was free-to-play, and was first released in early access on 17 October 2019. The game received its final update in January 2021 and officially shut down on 30 June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Minecraft server is a player-owned or business-owned multiplayer game server for the 2011 Mojang Studios video game Minecraft. In this context, the term "server" often colloquially refers to a network of connected servers, rather than a single machine. Players can start their own server either by setting one up on a computer using software provided by Mojang, or by using a hosting provider so they can have their server run on dedicated machines with guaranteed uptime. The largest server is widely accepted to be the minigame server Hypixel.
A Soulslike is a subgenre of action role-playing games known for high difficulty level and emphasis on environmental storytelling, typically in a dark fantasy setting. It had its origin in Demon's Souls and the Dark Souls trilogy by FromSoftware, the themes and mechanics of which directly inspired several other games. The "Soulslike" name has been adopted by a number of critics and developers. However, there have also been questions whether it is a true genre or a collection of shared mechanics. A subset of these games, named Soulsborne, refer to most of the Soulslike games developed by FromSoftware.
Surviving the Aftermath is a city-building game developed by Iceflake Studios, which is now a division of the game's publisher, Paradox Interactive. Players build a city in a post-apocalyptic setting, which includes elements of survival games. It follows Surviving Mars and is followed by Surviving the Abyss, all of which were published by Paradox.
