Infinite 1UP

How Star Wars: Outlaws Became the Franchise's First Open-World GameOpen-world travel may be old hat in some game series, but Star Wars: Outlaws is the first in which you can step away from the action and explore the corners of a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars, as a entire franchise, made a splash at the movie theaters just in time for the original trilogy to reign over home video in the 1980s, and spawned numerous video games in the 1990s. Then those games kind of lost steam for a couple of decades with the death of LucasArts, but now there is plenty of Star Wars action in games again. But Star Wars: Outlaws is expected to change everything when it drops on August 30. Den of Geek was at the Summer Game Fest and got to play an hour of Outlaws, traveling to four very different planets and a moon. They also talked to developers from Massive about how the game came about, its mission, and the challenges of an open-world Star Wars setting. You'll get plenty of details before playing in an extensive article on Star Wars: Outlaws at Den of Geek.

Playing Mega Man in Berserk ModeWait, Mega Man is supposed to be a hero! That's not quite the case in "berserk"mode. Mega Man still has a mission, to destroy the evil robots, but in this case he has no inhibitions or morals, even using Dr. Light as a weapon. But who's fault is that? He's a robot, and can only do what he is programmed to do. He does break Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, but hey, it's just a game! Dorkly renders the classic pixilated Mega Man game and all the characters you know and love to get really silly. This would make a good game on its own. You can't really win, as the destruction is universal, but it's entertaining while it lasts. -via Geeks Are Sexy

The Unrelenting Joy of Trombone ChampI caught a glimpse of an animated guy playing a trombone on reddit. This looks like a game akin to Guitar Hero, but the sound... oh, the sound.

George Costanza's Legendary Frogger MachineFrogger debuted as an arcade game in 1981, and became a classic. It was a simple concept with limited graphics and no strategy was required, but it was a challenge to a player's timing and quick reaction. In 1998, it was the subject of a Seinfeld episode called "The Frogger." George Costanza found that he still had the high score on a neighborhood Frogger arcade console he played years earlier. He buys the machine, and attempts to walk it across the street to his apartment building in New York traffic, which recreates the game in real life. That is, if you consider a sitcom to be real life. Strangely, filming the scene turned out to be quite dangerous.Costanza's score on that machine was 860,630 points. That meant something to Frogger players, as no one in the real world had come anywhere close. The Seinfeld episode became a legend in the classic game community, and a contest was held in 2005 to see if anyone could beat it. The game itself became a TV game show in 2021. Did anyone ever beat Costanza's fictional score for Frogger? Yes, and you can read how that eventually happened, along with the story of Costanza's arcade machine, at Cracked.(Image credit: Arturo Pardavila III)

A Doomed Mission to ThebesdaBethesda games are notorious for their bugs and glitches, so much so that some gamers will not buy any new release until the patches and updates are issued. But people buy them eventually, because they have titles like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Oblivion, and Starfield. The company did not seek such a reputation, but they kind of embrace it, as evidence that they "embrace the chaos" and lean into creativity. Still, functionality matters. Viva La Dirt League illustrates how Bethesda games fell by making the company into its own location, called Thebesda, in this episode of Epic NPC Man. Our hero, Reaper9691, is sent on a quest to Thebsesda, one he takes with trepidation because he's been warned. He finds that nothing is as it should be, and it's impossible to get anywhere or do anything. The skit ends with a warning, not to be taken seriously. It must have been quite a bit of work to make all these glitches.

Our First Glimpse of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a Popcorn BucketWe've been teased about the new movie Sonic the Hedgehog 3 without any trailer nor any images at all. The opening date is December 20, and we have no idea why there's no trailer yet. But the new idea of marketing movie via limited-edition popcorn buckets (see Dune: Part 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Despicable Me 4) gives us an idea of what Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic's antagonist, looks like.