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Press Start: New voices, old arcades, and FemSnake

Highlights from the holiday-abbreviated week that was:

By Owen S. Good
Owen S. Good is a longtime veteran of video games writing, well known for his coverage of sports and racing games.

Apple summoned the tech world to San Francisco and, yet again, announced nothing meaningful in video games. Pokémon did, however, with Pokémon Go, an all-new game for mobile devices. A court hit an overdue Kickstarter with fines and damages triple that of what it originally raised. And Microsoft has begun shutting down the Xbox Live Indie Games service, and will close it for good in 2017.

Welcome back to Press Start, a recap of the past seven days in news, opinion, original reporting and video on Polygon, to help you get ready for the week to come.

Last Week in Five Stories




  1. Metal Gear Solid 5's best secret: You can play the campaign as a woman

    Much has been written about the juvenile design of Quiet, the improbably naked sidekick in the Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. But, for all the justifiable anger about her character, almost nothing has been written about the secret new female protagonist in Metal Gear. I’m calling her FemSnake.





  2. Destiny's Ghost has a new voice: Here's how Nolan North's performance stacks up

    With the launch of Destiny's 2.0 update, the voice performance of Peter Dinklage, who has served as your loyal Ghost companion since the game's initial release, has been replaced by the dulcet tones of Nolan North. How does North's take on Destiny's floating friend compare to the original performance? Also, have the original game's clunkier lines improved under North's guidance? Also, isn't the idea of wholesale replacing a voice actor super bizarre?





  3. Hands-on with the new Apple TV, its games and the Siri Remote controller

    Speculation that the new Apple TV would seek out and destroy gaming consoles can be led to rest for yet another year. It's clear from Apple's event today, and the timbre of its hands-on demos in San Francisco, that Apple's traditional approach to games is set to continue.





  4. What it's like running an arcade in 2015

    Fast forward to 2015, and while arcades aren't as prevalent — or as popular — as they once were, they're still hanging around. And within these locations, new business models are developing. Many traditional arcades are changing their ways, moving away from the coin-based business model that has long been part of the arcade ecosystem.





  5. How Destiny fixed the one thing that was keeping me away

    Destiny players have a love-hate relationship with the game, and the community tends to be both extremely vocal and extremely loyal. I've been following the game since it was released, but I quit playing the original version of Destiny once I hit level 20 or so. I wasn't alone in this behavior.


The next level of puzzles.

Take a break from your day by playing a puzzle or two! We’ve got SpellTower, Typeshift, crosswords, and more.

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