You Died

E3 has come and gone. So who were the big winners? Watch Dogs: Legion was a huge surprise for me. I haven't been a fan of previous games in the series -- they just felt too generic, somehow, despite having a really unique premise -- but this one's core mechanic of recruiting anyone to be your playable character frankly looks incredible. And Nintendo's surprise trailer for the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a show-stopper... moreso for us, because two years later,…

It's the biggest week in gaming: E3 is almost here. GET HYPE. But it's also going to be a slightly weird show, because for the first time, Sony won't be there. Beyond the fact that Sony are one of gaming's three giants, PlayStation's fortunes always seem to have gone hand-in-hand with the show. The very first E3 was notable for Sony's Steve Race introducing PlayStation with the shortest of speeches: "$299", a full US$100 cheaper than the Sega Saturn. Still, that's not to say there won't be…

Is the curse of the bad video game movie over? The Detective Pikachu film is... quite decent! Yeah, it's a kid's film, so don't expect a super-deep plot here. But it somehow manages to take Pokémon -- fantastical cartoon creatures -- and put them naturally into the real world. Whatever you think of the plot or the characters, that in itself is one hell of an achievement. But maybe the bigger achievement is making a video game film that isn't abjectly terrible. We ran down some of our …

Is a game better when it's cheap? Shea and I have both been playing Crackdown 3. And while we have different opinions of the game, it's hard to deny that it's partially influenced by the fact that we didn't have to pay for it directly: We both downloaded it on GamePass, Microsoft's subscription service that offers access to over a hundred games for one flat rate. Meanwhile, Victoria tells us why she loves Dynasty Warriors so much, while I explain why I've gotten back into Burnout Paradise…

Paying people to play games with you, the Sega Genesis Mini, Iron Man VR and Nintendo Direct speculation: We've got it all on this edition of You Died! Victoria and Shea join me for a round-up of what we're playing, their take on the news of the week, and engaged in the big debate of our time... Yoshi or Kirby? And we're also joined by Josh from Abacus to tell us about his experiences with a "game companion" service in China. He paid women US$4.50 an hour to play games with him, acting as a…