April 18, 2026 marks the 15-year anniversary of Portal 2's release. Below, we reminisce about its memorable story, novel cooperative two-player mode, and enduring comedy.

There was a time in the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era when Valve was spoiling us with games, packaging some excellent titles in The Orange Box and bringing us back-to-back Left 4 Dead entries. But the company hit a stride with the 2011 release of Portal 2, which might be its finest accomplishment of that generation.

Following up from 2007's Portal, Valve would still have had a hit if it had only made and released the single-player campaign, but the developers went the extra mile with the addition of a full-fledged co-op campaign--which itself would have been an equally worthy sequel to Portal on its own, and in retrospect, was a harbinger for cooperative and social games trending today.

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Portal 2 is celebrating its 15-year anniversary today, April 18, 2026. Below, we examine how it approached comedy, and how many games still struggle with it.

Today, Portal 2 turns 15. Unlike most of us at that age, though, Valve's revered 2011 puzzler is completely confident in its identity and funny as hell. In a sea of games that attempt to make us laugh, Portal 2 is the rare success.

Which is to say, Portal 2 has earned a reputation as the rare interactive comedy masterpiece as much because of what it doesn't do wrong as what it gets right. If Portal 2 were as good as it is in every other way, but flubbed the jokes, that single failure would be an albatross around its neck. Think about how much hate Forspoken got for its quippy dialogue. Think of how Borderlands 3's mismanagement of the series' brash tone turned the game into a punching bag for longtime fans. And think of how hard Portal 2 would be to enjoy if GLaDOS were constantly doling out joke-y hints every time you got stumped.

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Fortnite and Rocket League have kicked off a small new crossover event, called Rivals & Rockets, and it's got unusually good rewards. With a fairly minimal amount of grinding, you can earn a free Fortnite skin and a free car body that works in both games. But you'll have to play Rocket League to get the skin. The Rockets & Rivals event runs until April 30.

To unlock the free skin--Dueling Dragons Jackie, which is a new version, with a much cooler jacket, of the free skin Jackie that was awarded for playing Rocket Racing two years ago--you'll need to complete five quests while playing online matches in Rocket League:

• Hit the ball 50 times
• Get 15 centers or clears
• Get 5 goals
• Play 5 matches
• Win 5 matches

While these quests may seem a little daunting for folks who don't play Rocket League, they're not very time consuming--I got through them in about 45 minutes by playing normally. If you're worried about scoring goals, try the Heatseeker modes in ranked or casual. In Heatseeker, the ball naturally drifts toward the goal at all times, making it much easier to get a shot on target.

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007 First Light DualSense Wireless Controller

$85 | May 27

Preorder at PlayStation Direct

Everyone that's even seen a James Bond film wishes they could have even one iota of the man's coolness, whether it's the classic Sean Connery or the modern Daniel Craig. It's a hard vibe to capture--after all, not everyone can but you might feel a glimmer of it when you hold the new limited edition 007 First Light DualSense Wireless Controller, which opens up for preorder on April 17 at 10 am local time.

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Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 has received two nominations for Gayming Magazine's 2026 Gayming Awards, and the game's director, Daniel Vávra, has responded to this with an X post in which he says he's "really proud" of the game's nominations. Vávra then goes on to imply the way other games depict LGBTQ+ characters is wrong, though he wasn't specific about which games he was referring to.

"TRIGGER WARNING," the post begins. "Among all the various awards and nominations we’ve received, we’ve also just been nominated for the @gaymingmag GAYMING AWARDS! I’m really proud of that, because I absolutely stand by the fact that the way we did it is exactly how something like this should be done. Non-coercively, naturally, and educationally (because we show how things really were in the Middle Ages without idealizing them)--and without shoving it down anyone’s throat or trying to re-educate them like so many titles that are rightfully called 'woke' these days. We made the gay community happy and gave them the CHOICE to be themselves, just like we did for others in other choices and quests, and anyone who isn’t interested probably didn’t even notice. Except, of course, for [a] very small and very loud minority."

He provided no specifics on which games were failing their LGBTQ+ audiences where Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 wasn't.

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One of the best Call of Duty games in recent times, 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare from developer Infinity Ward, is out now on Xbox Game Pass. The game is available for the Premium and Ultimate tiers of Game Pass, as well as PC Game Pass.

Modern Warfare scored generally positive review scores upon release and was a blockbuster success in terms of sales. The campaign was a bright spot for many, telling another globe-trotting story and kicking off a new Modern Warfare series following the popular games earlier in the 2000s.

Modern Warfare's campaign brought back Captain John Price (with a new actor) and introduced Commander Farah Karim. She was played by Claudia Doumit, who starred on Prime Video's The Boys. Her missions were some of the best and most memorable from the campaign.

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When Epic Games raised prices in Fortnite by reducing the amounts of V-Bucks players receive for purchases and on the battle pass, it represented a pretty dramatic reduction in value for Fortnite Crew. The $12 monthly subscription grants a skin and V-Bucks each month, along with access to the battle pass, OG pass, music pass, and Lego pass in Fortnite as long as you stay subscribed, and the Rocket Pass in Rocket League. But it may be that Epic is also using another, more subtle method to make Crew less cost-effective for consumers: by making those passes last longer.

Because so much of the value of Fortnite Crew these days is tied to the passes unlocked by the subscription, the value is higher if the passes cycle quickly. If you get through six Lego passes in a year, for example, that would obviously be better than only getting through three of them, because if you stay subscribed to Fortnite Crew, you're paying the same price each month no matter how many Lego passes Fortnite ends up having this year.

We've got bad news: These Fortnite passes are definitely trending toward being longer these days. Let's look at some numbers.

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When Pokemon Champions was unveiled, my excitement gravitated towards one specific aspect: As cool as an official battle simulator sounded, support for Pokemon Home was the main selling point.

While people might get into Pokemon for the competitive aspect, I'm in it to catch 'em all. Collecting every single 'mon has been a longtime obsession, and I successfully built a "living dex" (a collection consisting of at least one of each Pokemon) over a couple of decades. After years of grinding, trading, egg-hatching, and transferring, I've gotten every one of my monsters starting from my Game Boy Advance through the Switch into the cloud via Pokemon Home.

But after all of that, my 1,000+ Pokemon are just happy-looking static sprites sitting in an app. Pokemon Home feels more like a retirement home. Maybe with Champions, I thought, I'd finally be able to let my pocket monster friends out to stretch their legs and have some fun.

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Based on my experience, the Venn diagram of people who are currently playing Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and people who poured countless hours into Animal Crossing: New Horizons is pretty much a circle. We life-sim fans, after all, have a type. However, don't expect all of the tricks you used to progress in Animal Crossing to work in Nintendo's most recent simulation game. In fact, one of the most popular methods of leveling up your island, time traveling, actually does more harm than good.

Time traveling, in this instance, refers to when players go into their Switch's system settings and adjust their clock forward (or backwards) in time. In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, this was a great way to refresh store offerings, skip construction times, or play the Stalk Market. Most recently, Switch players implemented this tactic in Pokemon Pokopia, using it to once again bypass construction or jump to a time of day in which a certain Pokemon is more likely to appear.

However, Nintendo has officially warned players this does not work in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. Rather than reaping financial rewards or progressing relationships, players who time travel will face a bevy of annoying consequences. After changing your console's time, shops will stop refreshing for 24 hours. If you try to change your time back to remedy your mistake, that 24-hour time will restart. It's important to note that this freeze affects all shops and weekly offers. Time travel also has no impact on Mii hunger, meaning no extra feeding opportunities and no farming happiness/rewards.

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Iron Galaxy Studios, the Illinois-based independent developer, has announced a round of layoffs that could affect as many as 90 people. It's the second round of layoffs in as many years, with Iron Galaxy cutting 66 staff in 2025.

The studio announced the news on LinkedIn, writing, "Iron Galaxy Studios regrets to announce that we are reducing our company size."

"We are terribly sorry to lose them as we take steps to adapt to the climate of the video game industry. It's time for us to evolve again," the studio said.

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Diana Pragmata Series Amiibo

$30

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Pragmata makes its big debut on April 17 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, which is notable for a few reasons: it's a brand-new IP from Capcom, it's getting some pretty solid reviews, and it's a single player shooter, which feels unique in a sea of games designed for online play. Nintendo Switch 2 owners have to wait until April 24 for the game, which might be painful if you've been chomping at the bit to play it. But in the meantime, you can buy something that will make your Pragmata experience even better: the Diana Amiibo. Diana is already sold out via the Nintendo shop, but GameStop still has it in stock for now, so don't sleep on it if you want to add it to your collection.

Diana Pragmata Series Amiibo $30

The Diana Amiibo shows off a cute pose, wearing her signature puffy blue coat. But other than being a cool addition to your Amiibo collection, Diana also comes with major perks. Scanning her will give you up to three weapon and recovery items for in-game use. Since all weapons in the game are temporary except for your Grip pistol, this could come in quite handy.

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For those of you unfamiliar with Pragmata, Diana is an android that looks like a seven-year-old girl and one of the two protagonists of the game alongside system auditor Hugh Williams. She helps him on his mission to explore an abandoned lunar research station by hacking security systems and using a scanning ability that helps them map their path. The duo must face off against IDUS, a hostile AI guarding the station, in order to be able to return to Earth.

The game was originally announced in June 2020 during the Sony Interactive Entertainment PlayStation 5 event, and suffered some development challenges and delays before finally being confirmed for an April 2026 release date. If you haven't picked up your copy yet, you can do so right here.

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In the three weeks since I began playing Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, I have accumulated a frankly staggering amount of screenshots and clips. And when I say "frankly staggering," I don't mean a measly 100 or so. Oh no. As of today, my Tomodachi Life gallery consists of around 700 of my proudest and most depraved images and videos--and I don't intend to stop documenting my time at Anime Island anytime soon.

Yet despite Tomodachi Life being ripe with share-worthy moments and meme fodder, Nintendo has opted to block players from sharing their pictures and videos to smart devices. Why? According to Nintendo, it's because, "While these [humorous, surprising, or unpredictable] moments are often fun for players, we recognize that out-of-context scenes may be misunderstood or may not reflect the spirit in which the game is intended to be enjoyed." In other words, the company knows we're all a bunch of lil' freaks.

With most Switch titles, sharing an image or video is as easy as finding it in your gallery, selecting "Upload to Smart Device," and then sending it to your Switch online account. Once that's done, you can then download it directly onto your phone. However, if you try this with an image from Tomodachi Life, you'll be met with a message that says, "Can't upload screenshots or video from this software." Here's how you can get around that:

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David Burke, who performs professionally under the moniker "D4vd," has been arrested for the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, whose decomposed remains were found in the singer and once-upon-a-time Fortnite gamer's Tesla after she went missing last spring, according to multiple news reports.

According to NBC4 Los Angeles, Burke was arrested on April 16 at a Hollywood Hills home on Marmont Avenue. The Hollywood Reporter corroborated NBC4's reporting, sharing a statement from the LA Police Department explaining the nature of Burke's arrest.

"[The] Homicide Division [has] arrested David Burke, a 21-year-old resident of Los Angeles, for the murder of Celeste Rivas. Burke is being held without bail," the LAPD said. "The case will be presented to the District Attorney's office on Monday for filing consideration."

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