Todd Martens

The friendship of Amira and Jessica is put to the test in" Good Lookin' Home Cookin'.".

A video game celebrates Ramadan through food and explores personal boundaries

April 13, 2021 at 3:13 p.m.

Each time I played through the interactive narrative of "Good Lookin' Home Cookin'" I was struck by how the game tensely toed the line between optimism for the future —...

"New Pokémon Snap" is a reminder of the world outside our homes.

Review: ‘New Pokemon Snap’ may be just the game for this late-pandemic moment

March 26, 2021 at 3:44 p.m.

Nintendo's pandemic timing has been unintentionally impeccable. That was my first thought while getting a virtual walk-through of "New Pokemon Snap," a long overdue return to a one-off, delightfully idiosyncratic...

People queue in front of a promotional banner for the video game "Cyberpunk 2077" during the Tokyo Game Show in Makuhari, Chiba Prefecture on September 12, 2019.

Analysis: How the ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ botched launch reveals the need for industry change

December 20, 2020 at 2:27 p.m.

"Cyberpunk 2077" was always going to be hotly anticipated and highly debated. But now it's a cautionary tale. Since Keanu Reeves appeared last year at the Electronic Entertainment Expo to...

Players will battle across several maps that include locales in Berlin, Moscow, Miami and beyond in "Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War."

Review: ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’: Patriot games with a dose of guilt

November 26, 2020 at 3:03 p.m.

The United States of America: Boy, we sure are exhausting. This was the conclusion I reached after finishing the single-player campaign in the latest "Call of Duty," a realization that...

A screengrab of "Cat Colony Crisis," a game that uses cats -- and data -- to reflect our current COVID-19 crisis.

Do we need a COVID-19 video game? How about 51 games? I think we might

October 23, 2020 at 6:05 p.m.

Surrounded, concerned and frustrated by our current pandemic, I certainly didn't want COVID-19 to enter my game-playing time. The virus and its effects had consumed enough of my life. Confession:...

OULANKA NATIONAL PARK, FINLAND | Enjoy the sound of rushing water from this cabin in Oulanka National Park in Lapland, Finland.

It’s time to rethink theme parks. Creative ways to reopen while social distancing

August 20, 2020 at 2:35 p.m.

LOS ANGELES — Knott's Berry Farm recently felt more like a national park than a theme park. Reopening for a Knott's-designed food event dubbed Taste of Calico, the Southern California...

This Nov.3 2017 file photo shows visitors playing Assassin's Creed video game at the Ubisoft stand at the Paris Games Week in Paris. French gaming giant Ubisoft is parting ways with its creative director and two other executives following an internal investigation of misconduct and media reports of sexual harassment.

At gaming giant Ubisoft, major executive changes after allegations of harassment, misconduct

July 12, 2020 at 2:38 p.m.

Ubisoft, the publisher behind video game brands such as "Assassin's Creed," "Watch Dogs," "Far Cry" and "Just Dance," revealed Saturday that a number of top executives would be stepping down...

A gamer plays The Last of Us Part II in New York on Tuesday, June 16, 2020. Set in a violent, tribal, pandemic-ravaged world, the long-awaited Naughty Dog epic will leave you damaged -- and awed.

Inside 2020’s most anticipated—and targeted—game: Violence, a virus, an LGBTQ love story

June 21, 2020 at 2:41 p.m.

Halley Gross wanted to be a comedian. The former child actress set her sights on stand-up as she entered adulthood, hoping when she began college to model her career after...

The scariest movie in quarantine is actually a game unfolding on Instagram

May 30, 2020 at 2:08 p.m.

Likening the coronavirus era to a horror story is no great leap. An invisible, deadly killer, angry mobs, supply shortages, financial bedlam — even those lucky enough to survive this...

‘Minecraft’ is for learning? In COVID time, 50 million downloads of free education content

May 19, 2020 at 2:52 p.m.

With schools closed and many a parent thrust into the difficult role of managing a job, a household and a child's education, here's one unexpected bit of positive news to...

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