George Yang

George is a freelance writer specializing in video games and other entertainment.

Selected Works

Rolling Stone •

How Hidetaka Miyazaki Made 'Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree,' His Biggest Expansion Yet

Elden Ring was undoubtedly 2022’s Game of the Year, winning numerous awards across different shows and publications. With its dark fantasy atmosphere, punishing combat, and challenging difficulty, players keep coming back for more. It was also developer FromSoftware’s first open-world game, so it needed to have more content than any game that the studio had made before.
Variety •

‘The Boys’ Star Karen Fukuhara Makes Her Video-Game Debut With ‘The Callisto Protocol’

Developed by Striking Distance Studios, “The Callisto Protocol” is a survival horror game set in the Black Iron Prison on one of Jupiter’s moons, Callisto. Players assume the role of an inmate named Jacob Lee, played by “Transformers” and “Shotgun Wedding” star Josh Duhamel. He meets Dani Nakamura, the leader of a resistance group called Outer Way, and together they must uncover the Black Iron Prison’s dark secrets and escape with their lives. Dani is portrayed by “The Boys” star Karen Fukuhara.
Digital Trends •

The Mega Man Battle Network esports scene is thriving in 2023

Imagine that your Nintendo Switch didn’t have the ability to connect online and that the competitive game you’re currently playing only supported local multiplayer. It’s a little hard to picture in 2023, right? That’s what Mega Man Battle Network fans had to deal with during the early 2000s. If you wanted to have a battle with your friend during Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance days, they’d have to be within your immediate vicinity and have a Link Cable available to connect two GBAs.
Complex •

The Live-Action ‘Halo’ Series Delivers High Impact Sci-Fi Storytelling

Taking video game plotlines and adapting them for television has had a shaky past. What kind of story should the series portray? Should it be an exact retelling of the source material? If so, why not just play the game itself? For gamers and television fanatics, it’s important that a new experience is created that’s appropriate for the medium. This challenge is what Paramount+ has taken on with the critically acclaimed Halo series (streaming now on the platform). Taking the iconic Xbox franchise
NPR •

'Shadow Warrior' tries to mend its flawed history with race by recasting its hero

Shadow Warrior 3 is the latest in a series of blood-soaked action games following assassin Lo Wang. It's got plenty of gunplay, sword fights, and fantastical monsters, but for the first time in its 25-year history, it now features an Asian actor to voice its Asian protagonist. For years, Lo Wang was played by Jason Liebrecht, a white man, but for this title, publisher Devolver Digital and developer Flying Wild Hog tapped Hollywood actor Mike Moh for a more authentic cultural portrayal.
IGN •

Why Japanese Games Are Increasingly Releasing at the Same Time Across The Globe

Since time immemorial, Japanese video games have followed a typical release schedule. Launch in Japan first, followed by a localized release for other countries a few months, or even years, later. But this trend shifted dramatically in 2021. Many high-profile Japanese games such as Tales of Arise, Shin Megami Tensei V, and both Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter Stories 2 have been launched day-and-date worldwide.

So, what has changed? A simultaneous global ship date allows Japanese games t
The Verge •

‘The little handheld that could’: examining the Vita’s impact a decade later

Christian Phillips still remembers the most jaw-dropping moment he experienced on the PlayStation Vita — and it was something that was never actually released.

Phillips, a former senior director at Sony, describes a tech demo that ultimately led to the PS4 game Days Gone. Sometime after shipping Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Bend Studio showed leadership the Vita tech demo that was similar to the famous Jerusalem scene in the movie World War Z.

The demo had a scene with a horde of zombies scramblin
Wired •

Orientalism, 'Cyberpunk 2077,' and Yellow Peril in Science Fiction

2020 has been one of the most tumultuous years in recent memory, but at least, in a few days, the most anticipated game of the year will come out. That game, Cyberpunk 2077, has already drawn both praise and criticism, but one of those criticisms is of how it handles different cultures—especially Asian culture, which is inextricably tied to the cyberpunk genre.

The Origins of the Cyberpunk Genre

The origins of the cyberpunk genre involve Western anxieties about the East. Techno-orientalism is
Washington Post •

How some savvy fans are preserving the PS3’s multiplayer games

It wasn’t hard to understand why players reached this conclusion. Although “Mercenary’s” servers eventually came back online (the reason for the shutdown is still unknown) Sony has earned a reputation over the past several years for unceremoniously shutting down multiplayer service for its first party franchises. In October, Sony announced that it was updating the PlayStation Network webstore to only feature PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 titles for purchase, effectively locking away PS3, PS Vi
Polygon •

The personal experiences that Lev and Yara’s actors brought to The Last of Us Part 2

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Both Ian Alexander and Victoria Grace had never worked on a video game before, and neither had any prior experience with performance capture. However, in a recent interview with Polygon, both agreed that playing the Seraphite siblings in The Last of Us Part II was one of the most transformative experiences they ever had.

Alexander plays Lev, a former member of the in-game extremi

Latest Work

Digital Trends •

PS Vita's forgotten Silent Hill game deserves a revival

One of my favorite franchises is the Tales series, and in 2014, when Bandai Namco announced that the Vita-exclusive Tales of Hearts R was being translated into English, I went out and bought Sony’s handheld with my hard-earned college job money. Like any good gamer trying to justify their purchase, I started seeking out more Vita-exclusive games. That actually introduced me to many other franchises that I never would have otherwise tried.
Fangoria •

Breaking Down The Until Dawn Remake: Two New Endings And Upgraded Graphics

In 2015, developer Supermassive Games and publisher Sony released the interactive horror game Until Dawn for PS4. This frightening story began with a group of friends in a Blackwood Mountain lodge one year before the game's events. After a prank gone wrong, a set of twins goes missing, and the search for them is futile.

In the present, the remaining eight friends reunite in the lodge, but things take a dark turn with a psycho killer on the loose. It's the group's goal to survive *ahem* until dawn. While it seems like a typical slasher setting, Until Dawn‘s excellent pacing, great characters, and red herrings make it a night to remember.
Rolling Stone •

23 Years Later, 'Silent Hill 2' Is Still Scary As Hell

When Capcom released its reimagining of Resident Evil 2 in 2019, it was lauded as one of the best horror games ever made. Since then, it’s been the blueprint for other studios to follow for their (many) remakes. Some were successful, like EA’s Dead Space (2023), which kept just enough of its source material’s DNA intact while updating its combat. Others flopped, like THQ Nordic’s Alone in the Dark (2024), which attempted to completely overhaul an outdated 1992 game, but failed to deliver the level of terror of its modern peers.
Digital Trends •

This PlayStation Vita classic deserves a remaster next

If there’s one thing that the PlayStation Vita delivered, it was great Monster Hunter clones after Capcom’s hit series jumped ship from PSP to Nintendo 3DS. The list included games like Koei Tecmo’s Toukiden, Bandai Namco’s God Eater, and Gungho’s Ragnarok Odyssey Ace. While these mission-based games were perfect fit for the Vita’s pick-up-and-play lifestyle, they were also available on PS3.
Asian Junkie •

[Event] K-Pop Breakout Tour stops in Los Angeles with ICHILLIN', CRAXY, and TRENDZ, who help set a new standard for variety concerts

K-pop variety concerts can be hard to pull off. From an artist standpoint, organizers need to figure out which ones to invite, check their availability, and whether they’re popular enough to draw a crowd. On top of that, organizers have to also figure out how long each set is, providing enough time for each artist to feel like a substantial enough addition to the concert.
CNN •

PS5 Pro preorders: Here’s how to score Sony’s fancy new $700 console

Sony recently unveiled the PS5 Pro, which boasts higher capabilities over the regular PS5 for even smoother, more immersive 4K gaming. Its key specs include an upgraded GPU, which gives the Pro 67% more compute units and 28% faster memory than the base console. Additionally, it has up to 45% faster gameplay rendering. It also features advanced ray tracing as well as AI-driven upscaling to create even higher visual fidelity for the best PS5 games.
Kotaku •

The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom: The Kotaku Review

How do you follow up on some of the most critically acclaimed games of the past decade? Many thought that Nintendo couldn’t surpass the sheer open-world wonder and physics toy-box creativity that made The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild such a revelation. However, Nintendo seemed to do just that with Tears of the Kingdom, introducing a host of new ways for players to interact with the world and expanding the already vast realm of Hyrule both into the skies above and into the depths below, arguably improving so much on its extraordinary predecessor as to make it obsolete.
PCMag •

All Aboard! Hands On With Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

Officially revealed days before the Tokyo Game Show, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is a spin-off of Sega's wacky gangster RPG series starring the eccentric Majima Goro. Its announcement was a surprise, considering that fans have clamored for a game centered on the antihero for years. We got to play a short demo, and so far, it looks like developer Ryu Ga Gotoku delivers the goods in a big way with zany characters, exhilarating combat with fresh twists, and an intriguing pirate setting.
Digital Trends •

Visions of Mana review: RPG comfort food

Whenever it’s late at night and I’m still feeling a bit hungry, I always go to my local Taco Bell drive-through to pick up a Build Your Own Cravings Box: Crunchwrap Supreme, Crunchy Taco, Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes, and a medium Diet Pepsi. I know it’s not the healthiest food for me, complete with high sodium, calories, and cholesterol, but I’m not going to sit around not feeling satisfied after I eat it. It’s comfort food!
Digital Trends •

Black Myth: Wukong review: a fierce beast of its own

When I took down a giant flying blue dragon on my very first try, a feat accomplished even after I entered the fight with half of my allotted healing potions available, I never felt so accomplished.

Black Myth: Wukong, a new action-RPG from Game Science, is one of the few “Soulslike” games where I was able to overcome so many bosses in my first encounter with them. I won’t say whether that means it’s easier than your average genre game or if I’m really that good at it. In either case, it scratched an itch in my fur that similar games don’t always quite reach. The satisfaction of a hard-fought victory is always within my reach.
Digital Trends •

Visions of Mana sticks to the series' roots while feeling fresh

I really appreciate Square Enix taking risks to revive dormant franchises with new entries while also continuing its flagship Final Fantasy series. Over the past few years, we’ve gotten Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, SaGa: Emerald Beyond, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, and Theatrhythm Final Bar Line. Now the Mana series is the latest one to get Square Enix’s treatment with Visions of Mana.
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