Today Razer announced a new edition to their line of esports worthy tech in a collaboration with Ubisoft. The BlackShark V2 Pro: Six Siege Special Edition — reskinned with a striking Six Siege design and highlighted with eye-catching orange stitching and accents is a perfect fit for any hardcore gamer.
Continue reading “Check Out Razer’s Newest Collab With Ubisoft to Game Like an Esports Pro”
Diego Scotti, Chief Marketing Officer at Verizon, took to the stage at E3 2021 to share some of the major initiatives in gaming and advancements in technology the company was prepared to share with gamers and fans.
Continue reading “Verizon Powers a 5G Future For Gaming with Diverse, Inclusive, and Cutting Edge Initiatives”
Razer, the world’s leading lifestyle brand for gamers, recently announced the newest addition to their family of lifestyle audio products with the Opus X. Features of the sleek, new Opus X include: Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) technology, Bluetooth 5.0, 60ms low latency Gaming Mode, tuned 40mm drivers and two built-in microphones, with modern, and over-the-ear styling in a range of head-turning colors.
Continue reading “Razer Announces Latest Wireless Lifestyle Product: the Opus X”
Tanya DePass is the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago, which is dedicated to better diversification of all aspects of gaming. She’s also a gaming icon, having been named one of the “Gamers of the Year” for 2020 by Kotaku, as well as a 2020 Annenberg Innovation Lab Civic Media Fellow at USC.
Continue reading “‘Fightin’ Words’ Episode One: Gaming Icon Tanya DePass”
I first saw Geoff Keighley on G4TV back in my early teens and after noting his passion for games, his quirky presentation, and his overall excitement to share some good news, I knew I had finally found some long lost brother who became infinitely more successful than me, and rightly so. Geoff’s been an icon in the entertainment and gaming industry for the last two decades and while his reputation precedes him, there still never seems to be a shortage of excitement when he hits the stage to share a famous WORLD PREMIERE.
Continue reading “Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest is a Bright Spot in Tumultuous Times”
Ready to feel guilty about all those times you went on GTA and started beating up innocent NPCs? The new trailer for Free Guy will definitely make you have second thoughts!
The film, starring Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), has been ready to come out for some time. But naturally due to the pandemic, it’s been delayed several times. But coming this August, we’ll finally be able to see it, and I gotta say – It looks like a total blast, and I think it’ll be worth the wait!
Continue reading “Freewheeling ‘Free Guy’ Trailer and Poster Fly Online”
Since its inception, the Electronic Entertainment Experience (or E3 expo) has been the number one hotspot for fans and gaming journalists alike to get a sneak peak at the biggest and most anticipated titles to come to the gaming world. As of late, however, the once celebrated video game and tech expo has been against the ropes, fighting the wavering reality of its relevance amid a changing landscape that saw the announcement of the PlayStation 5 in an interview with Wired magazine. In 2019, the expo was rocked by Sony’s withdrawal from the convention and before that, faced increased criticism for “over hyping” titles that would ultimately bust (i.e. Anthem).
Continue reading “E3’s Media Week Includes Lackluster Perks, Buggy Features, and Bizarre Avatar Creator”
This week, the folks at Flight School Studios and MWM Interactive released their indie mech title, Stonefly. The adventure game is a chill yet wholly beautifully exploration of legacy, resource gathering and mech building, as players follow Annika Stonefly in her search for her father’s stolen rig. After a late-night excursion, Annika mistakenly leaves the garage door storing the mech wide open, leaving it victim to a theft that launches our main character on her journey through dangerous and captivating flora and fauna.
Continue reading “Flight School Studio’s ‘Stonefly’ is a Must-Play Indie Game”
Back in February, the folks at Nintendo dropped an official trailer for the highly anticipated release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD for the Nintendo Switch. The high-definition remaster of the 2011 classic, originally released on the Nintendo Wii, was announced during February’s Nintendo Direct stream, to the thunderous applause of countless Zelda fans. What followed were several announcements, including Skyward Sword themed Joy-Cons (with preorders currently sold-out practically everywhere) available the same day as the game’s July 2021 release.
Continue reading “‘The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD’ Launches with Amiibo Feature That Has Fans Concerned”
I remember back in 2006 when our most pressing concern as gamers was the introduction of the now-infamous Horse Armor Pack for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a seemingly innocuous $2 cosmetic bundle for your mount that is known to many as the genesis of microtransactions. From in-game currencies and season passes, to multiple editions of games and their exorbitant expansion packs, the culture of “games as a live service” has dominated the last decade of gaming news.
Continue reading “Botched Release of ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ Proves it May Not Have Been Worth All the Hype”
Try as we might, this episode gets a little heavy.
Fourteen-year-old Philip Zhao is a freshman in high school and a gamer who enjoys NBA 2K18 in his hometown in Maryland. His whole world was turned upside down when his father sent in an audition tape for a little film called Ready Player One, directed by one of the most famous directors in the world — Steven Spielberg. Zhao was picked through a nationwide search, beating out hundreds of young actors who auditioned. In the film, Zhao plays Sho, a gamer in the OASIS and part of the High Five, who are hurled into a fantastical universe of discovery and danger to save the OASIS and their world.
The Nerds of Color sat down with the actor to chat about his first major role, his favorite Easter eggs from the film, and what this film means to him and his generation.
Continue reading “Philip Zhao is Ready for Hollywood in ‘Ready Player One’”
There were more than 68,000 total attendees at E3 this week, and I’m almost certain all of them have been gaming more than I have in the past five years. I’m retired. Too many consecutive days of realizing I’d played through the night until dawn had me putting the sticks down. Not to mention, I just can’t keep up with these kids. I’m washed.
Yet here I got the fortunate opportunity to cover E3 for NOC in the conference’s first year open to the public. I had to do this, for the culture, for the kid inside who never finished Mario 2, and for the same kid that reached the end of Streets of Rage and chose to kill my brother to take over the gang.
On August 3, I was excited to unveil a project I’d been working on for nearly a year. I had been working with Magic: The Gathering to produce a brand new character; a character who is a biggie for their Planeswalkers cast of characters. Kaya, Ghost Assassin has made history as the first black woman Planeswalker, and I’m honored to have been a part of her creation.
Continue reading “The Creation of Kaya, Magic: The Gathering’s First Black Woman Planeswalker”
I had just finished teaching my fifth grade class in Japan when I heard the news that the President of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, passed away due to bile duct cancer. The news was a slap to the face to me; I had just been talking about Splatoon to some of my students. While I am not as close to Nintendo as I was when I was a child, I cannot deny to say that Mr. Iwata’s work in the company hadn’t influenced my life.
Since The Nerds of Color is not the only awesome thing on the internet, we spent the weekend scouring the web for some of the most NOC-relevant links around. Here are five stories that have gotten the most buzz around the N.O.C. office.
Our two favorite honorary Nerds of Color unite as Jeff Yang interviews Miss America Nina Davuluri for his Tao Jones column for the Wall Street Jounral, Jeff gets Davuluri to talk about the racist backlash her win engendered and the stereotypes she faced on her way to being crowned as the first Asian American Miss America. He also get her to reveal some more about her own N.O.C. Origin:
“Yes, of course! I grew up reading science fiction and fantasy, and I didn’t think anything of it. I love ‘Lord of the Rings.’ I love ‘Harry Potter’ — I love ‘Star Wars’! I hopped on the ‘Star Trek’ bandwagon late in life, I admit, with the new movies, but I loved them as well. I love all that stuff, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I want people to know: It’s okay to be a nerd!”
Admit it, y’all just fell in love again.
Jeff also gives us a little “Must Click” love at the bottom of the column. Thanks, Jeff!
I remember coming home after watching Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi on the big screen. I was quiet, but as soon as I got home and put on my pj’s, I jumped on my bed and pretended to fight invisible foes with my imaginary lightsaber. I had been practicing reproducing the sound of the masterful lightsaber and by the end of the week, I had perfected it. Some kids in the neighborhood where we lived in Lima, Peru either thought it was really cool or let their fists do the talking.
That didn’t stop me. I’ve always been the “unique” person in every room I’ve entered. Nowadays because there aren’t too many spoken word artists of Peruvian heritage in the Midwest — or the U.S. — that grew up watching Mazinger Z and Ultraman, or fell in love with Lynn Minmei from Robotech, or was sucked into Transformers, or collected Dungeons & Dragons figurines, or watched My Little Pony (not a Brony, by the way), or raised the eye of Thundera with Lion-O, or geeked out every time Voltron would form, or loved it every time Saint Seiya would scream out “Dame tu fuerza! Pegaso!”
