Serra

If you have followed any communities around competitive first-person shooters this past year, you have probably seen a flood of complaints about matchmaking. Late last year, there was a surge in skill-based matchmaking, or SBMM, in games like Call of Duty, Apex Legends, Destiny 2, and even Fortnite. But what is skill-based matchmaking, why does it exist, what are the alternatives, and why did it become so prevalent ...

As society came to a screeching halt back in March, and many of us suddenly had an unexpected surplus of free time on our hands, I found myself revisiting the 2013 masterpiece, The Last of Us. The Last of Us was set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a global pandemic. The game followed Joel and Ellie, two survivors who set out to travel across the United States. Developed by Naughty Dog, it was an intense ...

Back in 2005, the opening cinematic of Final Fantasy VII was released as a technical demo for the PS3. It was a visually stunning update that lit a fire across the gaming world as fans begged Square-Enix to remaster the most iconic entry in the Final Fantasy franchise, originally released in 1997. Ten years later, to cheers and roaring applause, Square-Enix answered those pleas by unveiling the first trailer for ...

Earlier this month, Nintendo announced the two-part expansion pass for Pokémon Sword and Shield. Unlike previous generations, instead of a slightly different sequel entry, Nintendo is expanding on the existing games and giving players the opportunity to continue their journey to explore new areas and content with their existing Pokémon and teams. Given that I’ve poured nearly two-hundred hours into this generation ...

2019 was something of an odd year for gaming without a lot of exceptional standouts. Luckily, 2019 also signifies the end of a decade, so let's instead consider the past ten years of gaming! This decade has seen an expansion in the scope and potential of games. We’ve seen games that have told amazing stories that stay with us years later and seen games that have been true works of art. The 2010s also saw competitive ...