SpongeBob SquarePants- Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated Review – Expired Nostalgia
Nearing the end of SpongeBob’s journey under the sea, you’re tasked with guiding a ball through a giant Rube Goldberg machine in Mermaid Man’s Lair. Once you activate the machine you have to match the ball’s painstakingly slow speed while using SpongeBob’s arsenal of bubble abilities to make sure it doesn’t fall over. It’s a simple task in concept, but trying to execute it is some of the most unfun and Sisyphean gameplay in recent memory. In one section of the puzzle, all you need to do is stand on a button, and that button opens a gate for you to bowl a bubble into so you can progress. The only problem is that during SpongeBob’s wind-up animation for bowling, he walks forward. That means you fall off of the button, which closes the gate and prevents you from bowling the bubble where you intended, when you intended. These kinds of gameplay barricades are common, and force you to restart and face your demons again, and again, and again.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Ba…
Runner 3 Review- A Bit Of A Trip
Out of the numerous games to spring up under the Bit.Trip umbrella, it’s not exactly a surprise that the most accessible of the bunch, Bit.Trip Runner, would be the one to transcend its retro-styled roots. In bringing the Runner games’ mechanics to a fancier playground on the Switch, developer Choice Provisions has made its most ambitious game yet–but in doing so, may have revealed the limits to how far it can push the concept. It’s also the most difficult, and if you haven’t already invested in a good sturdy case for the Switch that might stand up to having the system thrown at terminal velocity out of a living room window, now would be a good time.
On paper, the gameplay is as deceptively simple as it’s always been. Your character runs forward automatically, and it’s up to you to jump, duck, slide, and kick down obstacles until you reach the finish line. The secret sauce of the Runner series is that every action and every item in a stage is plotted to wo…
Madden 25 Cover Athlete Christian McCaffrey Injured, Will Miss 4 Games
Earlier this year, San Francisco 49ers running back–and last year’s Offensive Player of the Year–Christian McCaffrey was named the cover athlete for Madden NFL 25. But unfortunately, McCaffrey has been placed on injured reserve with calf soreness and Achilles tendinitis. As part of the IR designation, McCaffrey will miss at least the first four games of the season.
Via ESPN, McCaffrey had a history of injuries when he was a member of the Carolina Panthers in 2020 and 2021. For those two seasons, McCaffrey played in 10 games total. Since arriving in San Francisco, McCaffrey has played in 32 out of the 49ers’ 33 games. But given McCaffrey’s recent appearance on Madden NFL 25’s cover, his injury has reinvigorated talk about the so-called Madden curse.
The late John Madden was primarily featured on the cover of the video games that shared his name prior to 1998. Once NFL players were featured on the cover, it gave rise to theory that there was some sort of Madden curse tha…
Overwatch Anniversary Remix- Vol 2 Event Now Live – Rewards And Schedule
Overatch’s Anniversary Remix event is here again, bringing back past seasonal brawls, cosmetics, and challenge skins for a limited time. The Anniversary Remix Vol. 2 event serves as a greatest hits of all of Overwatch’s past seasonal events Come from Sports betting site VPbet . Brawls from the game’s Summer Games, Halloween Terror, Summer Games, Archives, Year of the Tiger, and Winter Wonderlands will be playable on a rotating schedule, and cosmetics normally only earnable during those seasonal events can now be found in anniversary loot boxes. There are even a few new skins up for grabs in the form of variations of previously existing legendary skins for heroes like Hanzo, Roadhog, Lucio, Symmetra, Ana, and Sombra. Here’s everything to know about the event, which runs from May 17 to June 7.
Weekly Challenge Rewards
Playing and winning games will unlock rewards each week. Wins count as …
Boston Red Sox Announces BetMGM As Official Sports Wagering Partner
On March 7, BetMGM, a flagship sports wagering and iGaming operator based in New Jersey and a subsidiary of MGM Resorts, reported that it has entered into an alliance with the Boston Red Sox, an American professional baseball team based in Boston.
With this partnership, BetMGM has officially become the sports wagering partner of the Boston Red Sox.
However, this is BetMGM’s first alliance with a Massachusetts-based sports team and the first sports wagering alliance for the Red Sox.
This announcement comes on the heels of Massachusetts’ upcoming debut for mobile sports wagering.
But that’s not all; as it comes just in time with BetMGM and MGM Resorts’ report of joining the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) in promoting Problem Gambling Awareness Month during March.
Goals of the union:
Under the terms of the agreement, BetMGM signage will be displayed at Fenway Park involving the unique Green Monster, the stadium’s le…
Explore a Tropical Rainforest in Armadillo Studios New Slot Release Book of Armadillo
The popular EveryMatrix’s Armadillo Studios recently added a new slot to its impressive portfolio. The new release, Book of Armadillo, is a high-volatility title, and it is played on a 3×5 board.
Fantastic features and captivating gameplay:
The studio’s games from the Book of series are popular among both players and providers. This time, the main character is the renowned Armadillo, and he is on an important mission: to collect the richest hidden in an ancient Mayan temple. In order to collect them, he has to search the tropical rainforest and face many challenges.
As expected, the game features the regular Book symbols
Despite the great success of Gary Hotel in Indiana, it won’t join the group of Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana properties. The expansion plans are on hold since Hard Rock International didn’t approve the hotel’s construction. Delayed due to the construction costs: On Thursday, Jon Lucas, chief operating officer at Hard Rock International, spoke with Indiana Gaming Commission. He said that even though the hotel has worked great in the last 19 months, it isn’t the right time to start working…Hard Rock Indiana Casino Plans Delayed
Pokemon Go's In-Person July Community Day Takes Place On July 17
Pokemon Go’s in-person July community day will take place on Sunday, July 17 from 11 AM to 2 PM local time. In-person meetups will pop up in major cities across the world, including NYC, LA, and Houston in the US. To check if there’s an in-person meetup near you, head over to Niantic’s interactive map.
During in-person meetings, trainers can raid and trade Pokemon–including the featured community day Pokemon, Starly. Players can also activate bonuses by raiding together. If enough trainers catch Pokemon at a single lure module, then trainers will earn 4x catch xp near the module for 30 minutes. Trades will also require 50% less stardust.
NJ Casino Claims Glitch to Deny $2M Jackpot to 72-Year-Old Winner
Hitting a million-dollar casino jackpot can trigger a carousel of emotions at any age. However, for a 72-year-old retired school teacher in Shamong, New Jersey, the initial burst of happiness when she realized she had won more than $2 million came to an abrupt end.
Her initial shock and “dream come true” feeling was soon washed away, leaving room for a nightmare as she was informed by casino officials her winnings would be denied because of an alleged glitch in the system.
Shocking Experience for the Senior Player
R.B., who spoke to 6ABC Action News to share her story, described herself as a fervent fan and frequent player of slot machines.
She explained that, at the end of February, she went to Bally’s Casino i…
These Fall Fashion Must-Haves from Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale 2024 Belong in Your Closet ASAP
Courtesy of Nordstrom
We independently selected these deals and products because we love them, and we think you might like them at these prices. E! has affiliate relationships, so we may get a commission if you purchase something through our links. Items are sold by the retailer, not E!. Prices are accurate as of publish time.
The cozy jackets, the layers, the boots—honestly ask any editor and we’ll all tell you the best time to put together the chicest fits is Autumn. And even though we’re technically still in the middle of summer, it’s never too late to be prepared. Because before you know it (based on our experience), all those coveted fall fashion pieces you’ve been eying for months immediately sell out once the fall season comes around. So, trust that this summer, we’re getting in the fall mindset early to make sure we score all the latest and trendiest fall fashion pieces currently on the market.
Lucky for us, the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale …
Avowed delayed to February to ‘give players’ backlogs some breathing room’-
August 2: It’s official, Avowed has been delayed to Feb 18, 2025. It was previously expected to release sometime this year. Microsoft says it’s making the move to “give players’ backlogs some breathing room.”
Original story (August 1): According to The Verge’s Notepad newsletter (users may encounter a paywall) on Microsoft happenings, Obsidian’s first person action RPG Avowed is about to get delayed into early 2025. The game itself is supposedly in “good shape” to meet its original November release window, but Microsoft is sheepish about overcrowding its holiday release schedule.
The Verge cites STALKER 2’s delay into November as a potential motivating factor for the Avowed delay. Despite GSC Game World not being owned by Microsoft, STALKER 2 will be an Xbox (and PC) exclusive coming to Game Pass day one—at least for premium subscribers. Also coming this fall from Microsoft: Indiana Jones and the Great…
Finally, Overwatch 2 gets a dating sim and more in season 3-
Overwatch 2’s third season aims to address the biggest issues players have had since the game’s launch in October.
Apart from debuting the new Antarctica Control map, season 3 will finally make skins easier to earn for free, tweak how Competitive works, and feature three events with skins and other cosmetics to earn and buy on the shop.
Anyone that logs into the game next week will instantly unlock the first five free tiers of the battle pass, a head start toward earning credits (a returning currency from Overwatch 1) to buy epic and legendary skins from the first game.
Loverwatch, a text-based Overwatch dating sim, will launch on February 13. In it, you can choose to date either Mercy or Genji and interact with them via dialogue options. It has a secret ending to unlock, which will grant you a play of the game highlight intro. On February 14 Overwatch 2 will have its Ultimate Valentine’s Event with a “Hanzo 4v4 Limited Time Mode,” and support-themed challenges to …
It’s official- consoles cost as much as gaming PCs now
Though I am a PC Gamer, I’ve always had a lot of love for PlayStation, and even manage to play my PS5 just enough to stop it getting dusty. I preordered that thing in 2020 (which I’d never advise doing) and I don’t regret it. Today, Sony announced the price for its new PS5 Pro, and I find myself wondering who exactly it is for.
Coming in at a whopping $700, you do get a lot of graphical power, with that refresh coming in the form of three major factors: a larger GPU, advanced ray tracing, and AI-driven upscaling. This reportedly offers up to 45% faster rendering, with a larger GPU and faster RAM. This is all to say that it will run your games much better and faster, though you are paying a substantial fee to get it.
The PS5 launch price was $500, but it has dropped up to $50 below that on Amazon, with some bundles even giving you games alongside it. See, the jump from $500 to $700 is about the price where you can invest money into a fully built PC, and here at…
God of War Ragnarök PC announced, coming in September-
Watch On
Big Papa Kratos is coming back to Steam.
During Sony’s State of Play stream on Thursday, the company dropped the news that God of War Ragnarök, the acclaimed sequel to the 2018 reboot of God of War, will be arriving on PC September 19.
Dad Kratos’s second outing was a big hit in 2022—”Everybody but us is having a great time in God of War: Ragnarök,” we wrote not-at-all-passive-aggressively shortly after its release. While Elden Ring more or less swept the 2022 awards season as the top dog for Game of the Year, Ragnarök was still an impressive runner up. It took home the trophy at a number of publications that year, including at our sister sites Tom’s Guide and Laptop Mag. It also earned high praise in reviews; GamesRadar+ awarded it 4.5/5 stars, writing “There’s a light start that feels padded—still good but missing depth—which leads into a weighty finish that’s every bit the equal of its predecessor.”
Hopefully God o…
Nvidia driver update should improve Starfield performance for many-
Released today, Nvidia driver 537.34 adds optimizations for Lies of P and Mortal Kombat 1, but more urgently includes some Starfield-related performance notes. The biggest is the addition of a resizable BAR profile that Nvidia says will improve Starfield performance on RTX 30-series and 40-series GPUs.
Before this update dropped, we explained how to enable Resizable BAR manually for Starfield. You can find more details in that article, but the short of it is that BAR stands for “Base Address Register,” and the feature has to do with improving the game’s access your graphics card’s memory. According to Nvidia, this update improves Starfield performance by an average of 5% on RTX 40-series desktop GPUs.
The Resizable BAR profile will be “automatically applied for gamers running the latest Game Ready Driver (537.34) or the previous release (537.17),” Nvidia said. The new 537.34 driver also adds Starfield to the “optimal settings” GeForce Experience feature, which tweak…
Holy moly SSDs need serious cooling now-
I’ve probably looked at more motherboards just today than I have in the past three combined. That’s because every manufacturer has brand new Z790 motherboards ready to show off ahead of a yet unannounced Intel processor generation (that’s the Raptor Lake refresh, by the way). But one thing I’ve noticed across nearly every board I’ve seen today, be it from ASRock, Gigabyte, or MSI, is that they all are fitted with seriously beefy coolers on their PCIe 5.0 NVMe slots.
Some of these coolers are included on the motherboard, and even these integrated designs are looking beefed up with the coming generation of SSDs. But take a look at some of the coolers included or available as extras for PCIe 5.0 drives and things get out of hand pretty quickly.
Just look at the size of the cooler and fan loaded onto the MSI Spatium Pro PCIe 5.0 2TB Frozr+ drive. That drive is capable of a very impressive 14,520MB/s sequential read according to the benchmark results on display, and thanks to…
Open world Terminator survival game set for full reveal at Nacon’s Connect event later this month-
Ever since E3 was shattered into a million pieces by the pandemic, publishers have been sprinkling their own showcases across the calendar to highlight their new games. These days we can barely go three weeks without an event from Microsoft or Sony or, indeed, Nacon, which is bringing back its Connect event at the end of this month.
The publisher, which is probably best known right now for the recent release of the thoroughly alright Robocop: Rogue City, has run its Connect event for several years now. Its upcoming showcase will peel back the living tissue and reveal the metal endoskeleton of another movie franchise tie-in, namely its upcoming open world Terminator survival game.
The game was announced two years ago, and is in development at Nacon Studio Milan. While little is known about it at present (even the title is still under wraps) Nacon has confirmed that it’s set in the post Judgement Day era of the timeline, but before the formation of John Connor’s resistance…
Tekken 8’s leaderboard is being dominated by cheaters and boosters but bans are being handed out soon-
Bandai Namco and Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada are readying the banhammers, with warnings of rank resets and account suspensions, after players quickly discovered that the leaderboard’s ‘top’ online ranked users were cheating or win trading to inflate their standing.
Accusations of win trading to reach a high rank aren’t new to Tekken or fighting games in general. What is new is the fact that it’s far easier to gauge when it’s happening now, something which legitimate players were mighty quick to sniff out. There’s the fact that every player has a radar chart now, which pulls stats from five different categories. While genuine high-ranking players will have a pretty even spread with some high numbers across the board, rank booster stats look a lil’ more skewed and the numbers a lot lower.
There’s also the new replay system, which lets you watch the online games of any other player. Not only is it a great way to find out how other players fight with your mai…
The Backrooms, a liminal space so internet-famous it spawned its own canon, has been found in the real world by 4 sleuths on a Discord server-
The origin of the Backrooms, a photo of a liminal space deemed so eerie it earned internet and gaming stardom, has been uncovered by four image-savvy detectives scrubbing 4chan, and a chance encounter with an archived internet page from 2003.
In case you’re unfamiliar with what the Backrooms are, here’s the rundown. In 2019, an image was posted to 4chan displaying an eerie set of rooms devoid of natural light—capturing people’s imaginations so vividly that it spawned its own lore.
It’s considered a liminal space, which is loosely defined as an area that’s not quite surreal, but getting close. It’s the manmade equivalent of the uncanny valley, a building or a space crafted from normal parts, but arranged in an abnormal and unsettling way. Hallways that lead to nowhere, rooms serving no natural purpose, brutalist interiors with flickering lights or, in some cases, swimming pools. There’s no exact criteria for what comprises a liminal space—…
Monster Hunters can now flatten everything with the Sax-a-Boom, a toy instrument best-known for a Jack Black skit-
Behold the Sax-A-Boom. This garish beauty is a toy instrument resembling a saxophone, apparently first released in 1998, with eight buttons and a speaker, with each button triggering a synthesised musical loop. It wasn’t an especial hit at the time but, at some point, one found its way into the hands of Jack Black and Tenacious D.
Tenacious D has a live song, simply called Sax-a-Boom, which the band would crack out to the delight of audiences over the years. But it was Black’s later appearance on Jimmy Fallon in 2018, during which he played a Sax-a-Boom alongside in-house band The Roots, that saw interest in the toy shoot through the roof. According to the Tenacious D wiki, and who knew that existed, Black’s advocacy has seen the instrument become “highly collectable and rare.”
Watch On
Now an enterprising modder has added the instrument to Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. TalonGrayson’s mod has the straightforward title “Sax-a-Boom Hunting Horn” and, …
UL announces the 3DMark Steel Nomad benchmark for you to punish your rig with-
UL Solutions, the makers of the ever popular 3DMark benchmarking software, has announced 3DMark Steel Nomad. It’s set to replace the now aging Time Spy benchmark, and it’s sure to bring even the best rigs to their knees, as any new 3Dmark software should!
Steel Nomad is a heavy non-ray tracing cross-platform benchmark. It will support DirectX 12 via Windows, but also macOS and iOS using Metal, Android using Vulkan, and Linux using Vulkan. So far, only three screenshots have been teased and they certainly look good. For now we don’t have any information on the structure of the test(s), though a CPU test would seem likely.
Why doesn’t Steel Nomad support ray tracing? Well, there are the Speed Way and Port Royal benchmarks for that. Despite the industry and Nvidia in particular shouting about ray tracing from the rooftops, enabling it still incurs a hefty performance hit, and mid-tier graphics cards don’t yet have the horsepower to run ray traced games consistently, particu…
Unrailed 2 will have a ‘terrain conductor’ level maker mode so you can terrorize your friends with custom challenges-
Continuing a long legacy of co-op games with wacky themes, Unrailed 2: Back on Track returned to today’s PC Gaming Show to share one of its coolest new features: the “terrain conductor” mode that lets you build your own levels.
When we previously saw Unrailed 2, the team at Indoor Astronaut gave us a look at abilities and different wagons available—and the fact that everyone is an animal, an obvious upgrade over humans—but now we can see just how easy it is to use its level maker mode. Filling the blank canvas with grassy fields, thick groves of trees, and rocky mountain ranges is easy enough that it looks like a sort of voxel-based MS Paint. Being accessible and quick to use is a big plus, regardless of whether you want to create a cool puzzle for your friends or just draw rude pictures out of trees.
One of the examples shown includes a map separated into two halves by mountains, which are in turn bisected by conveyor belts. You can see the play…
Wordle today- Hint and answer #877 for Monday, November 13-
Skip straight to the best bit and win today’s Wordle in record time—the answer to the November 13 (877) puzzle is never more than a cheeky click away. Or if you’d like guidance rather than a quick victory, keep on scrolling and you’ll find a clue written just for today’s game, as well as general tips and tricks designed to boost every guess you ever make.
I did well enough today—a win in four is fine, if not anything worth shouting from the rooftops. But I still managed to make a fool of myself when I was one guess away from today’s answer and had the majority of the word filled in. It was right there, plain as day, and I somehow still spent far too long wondering what on earth I was supposed to add to this mysterious word to win.
Wordle today: A hint
Wordle today: A hint for Monday, November 13
Today’s answer is the colour of spring grass and fresh shoots. People might figuratively go this colour with envy, or when…
Ubisoft joins Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft in skipping E3 2023-
E3 returns in June, and for the first time since 2019, it’ll return to the Los Angeles Convention Center. The gaming industry’s biggest convention was cancelled in 2020 and 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with a scaled back online version hosted in 2021. Much has changed during those three years however, and now Ubisoft has joined Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo in confirming it’ll be a no show.
A spokesperson for Ubisoft confirmed as much to VGC. “E3 has fostered unforgettable moments across the industry throughout the years,” the statement read. “While we initially intended to have an official E3 presence, we’ve made the subsequent decision to move in a different direction, and will be holding a Ubisoft Forward Live event on 12th June in Los Angeles. We look forward to sharing more details with our players very soon.”
Perhaps unsurprising, if it weren’t for the fact that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said last month on a confere…
Wordle today- Hint and answer #903 for Saturday, December 9-
Overcome every problem today’s Wordle could possibly throw your way with our help. Keep on scrolling and you’ll find great tips that’ll help make your opening guess work its hardest for you, as well as a clue written just for today’s game and, if you get really stuck, the answer to the December 9 (903) puzzle.
A single letter tripped me up, and that meant today’s Wordle shamefully took one guess more than it otherwise could have. That’s not ideal, but it’s still much better than staring at my screen for ten minutes the way I do some days, wondering why the English language has decided to get up and leave me for the duration of a Wordle session.
Today’s Wordle hint
Wordle today: A hint for Saturday, December 9
A slight change in position or direction could be described using today’s answer, as could going up or down gears in a car. Also, someone working until 4am would be working the night _____.
ViewViewViewView
Is there a double …
Wordle today- Hint and answer #917 for Saturday, December 23-
Looking for some weekend Wordle help? There’s a hint for today’s puzzle waiting just below, ready to offer a clear path through the grey letter fog. Need something a little more direct on the weekend? You’ve got it. The answer to the December 23 (917) Wordle is only a quick click away.
A win in three quick guesses on a Saturday morning? I love it. Just a nice case of almost being right, almost being right in a slightly more accurate way, and then sitting back as today’s Wordle answer revealed itself. What more could I ask for? Other than for tomorrow’s puzzle to turn up a little earlier than usual so I can play again, that is.
Today’s Wordle hint
Wordle today: A hint for Saturday, December 23
Today’s answer refers to a sort of slant, angle, or gradient. A surface of some sort—a hillside, or the path leading down it—going from a higher point to a lower one, for example.
ViewViewViewView
Is there a double letter in Wordl…
Wordle hint and answer #603- Sunday, February 12-
Improve your daily Wordle game with our guides and tips, give your guesses some welcome guidance with today’s clue, or turn your luck around completely and skip straight to the February 12 (603) answer. However much or little help you want with today’s Wordle, you’re sure to find it here.
Today was just one of those days where the greens seemed to appear out of nowhere, and that meant I was able to reveal the answer by my third go. A bit of luck mixed with a dash of an educated guess has got to be the perfect Wordle combo.
Wordle hint
A Wordle hint for Sunday, February 12
“Large”, “huge”, and simply “very big” are all good alternatives to today’s answer. In fairy tales and myths this word’s sometimes used to describe extremely tall humanoid beings. You’ll need to unearth two different vowels today.
ViewViewViewView
Is there a double letter in today’s Wordle?
There is no double letter in today’s puzzle.