Final weeks of 2020
As we enter the final weeks of 2020, it’s fair to say it’s been a barnstormer of a year for games. Sure, there’s the big AAA franchises everyone expected to make a big splash — Final Fantasy VII Remake, The Last of Us Part II, and Doom Eternal. But some of the year’s biggest stories have come from games that emerged seemingly out of nowhere, like Fall Guys, Among Us, and Hades. Genshin Impact, the expansive open-world adventure on PS4, PC, and mobile from Chinese developer miHoYo, isn't quite a plucky newcomer with a reported budget of $100 million, but it is astonishingly good. Also, it’s free to play. That’s probably why the game was downloaded more than 17 million times in just four days. Much of Genshin Impact’s success comes from having a gacha (random chance draws for real-world money) system for obtaining weapons and characters that abstains from putting a stranglehold on your progress. With a massive, gorgeous world and wildly satisfying combat, Genshin Impact can rival the...