Understanding, the Game

What is gambling? Strategic deck-builders like Luck Be A Landlord and Balatro have both been hit with high age-ratings by app stores and ratings boards, because the games are associated with gambling. Both are one-time purchases with no microtransactions, and no ties to gambling other than visuals borrwed from the casino world: slot machines and poker hands, respectively. Meanwhile, loot boxes and gacha games, which actually do have exploitative mechanics, seem to slide by ratings boards without much trouble. So what, actually, is gambling? And how do we talk about it in 2025, when gambling is

With great callbacks to in-game memes and fan favorite costumes, Clair Obscur's official merch is way better than you'd expect

Meccha Chameleon, Lethal Company, and Bokura are just a few excellent affordable multiplayer games on Steam.

A requiem for the early days of budget PC gaming.

With Sony ending disc support, many fear what that means for game preservation going forward.