Ari Notis

Blue Fire Is A Game So Tough It Reminds Me Of 2020

Every so often, a platformer comes along that so thoroughly knocks you on your ass you can’t help but smile in sick appreciation. For me, the latest to do so is Blue Fire, from the Argentina-based Robi Studios, officially out yesterday for Switch and PC. Blue Fire is a difficult game, yes, but it also…

You No Longer Have To Hear Hate Speech While Playing Destruction AllStars

Since Destruction AllStars released for PlayStation 5 a whole 72 hours ago, the game has been plagued by reported instances of verbal harassment, exacerbated by a voice chat that’s turned on by default. Today, developer Lucid Games released a fix that switches the default chat to “off.” Hotfix 1.2.2 “disabled multiplayer lobby voice communications by…

How To Play A Single-Player Game With Two People

A co-op game doesn’t necessarily have to be a multiplayer game. You can turn any single-player game into a cooperative one by simply…taking turns passing the controller back and forth. What a concept! But before you start, keep in mind that there’s a code of etiquette at play. Stick to it as best you can…

Every Game Should Have A Train Level

Hitman 3 ends with one wild ride. The game’s first five levels are sprawling playgrounds that demand stealth, caution, and careful planning. The final level, “Untouchable,” is a fast-paced race through a train. It is, in a word, awesome. More, please! Actually, you know what? Just go ahead and put a train level in every…

Mass Effect DLC Missing From Remaster Due To Corrupted Source Code

On May 14, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will bring 4K versions of the original Mass Effect trilogy plus most of its downloadable content to PS4, Xbox One, and PC. However, one single-player expansion is notably absent: the first game’s Pinnacle Station. According to an interview with Game Informer, the original source code was corrupted. Pinnacle…

How To Mute Jerks In Destruction AllStars

Anyone who’s ever been online could’ve predicted this. Give people an internet connection and a microphone, and some will quickly reveal just how much they suck. Following yesterday’s release of the PS5-only Destruction AllStars, players almost instantly reported instances of serious verbal harassment, exacerbated by the game’s bewildering absence of tools to prevent such behavior.…

Celeste’s Chill Soundtrack Is Perfect For A Snow Day

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s ongoing hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, let’s tune into Celeste, one of the literally coolest (get it? because frozen…mountain?) game soundtracks of all time. Please don’t steal my Gamer® card, but I stumbled upon Celeste (playlist / VGMdb / longplay) by…

Destruction AllStars, A New PS5 Exclusive, Is Fine

You’ve played Destruction AllStars a thousand times. You’ve also never played something like Destruction AllStars. The new multiplayer derby battler from Lucid Games—out today exclusively for PlayStation 5—is both immediately familiar and refreshingly new. After taking it for a spin, my initial feelings for the game are all over the place. Let’s start with the…

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Out May 14

This is big news for all Mass Effect fans but even bigger news for me, personally, as I won’t have to wait long to protect Garrus Vakarian from certain doom. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is out on May 14 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. For those who’ve been sleeping under a chunk of palladium,…

Where To Find Every Banana In Hitman 3

Hitman 3 is b-a-n-a-n-a-s. IO Interactive’s latest stealth game puts you in the spit-shined oxfords of international assassin Agent 47 and tasks you with eliminating various well-protected targets. But the most effective tool at your disposal isn’t a firearm or vial of poison. No, it’s an ingredient you’d most likely find in smoothies, sandwiches, and…

So, I May Have Made A Mistake In Mass Effect 2

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I did everything right in Mass Effect 2. I slapped armor plating on the Normandy and equipped it with a shield. I gave it a big fucking cannon. I even tackled (most of) the game’s loyalty missions. I was ready for the final battle, and went through the…

Here’s Every Major Cross-Gen Game

Console gaming is at a crossroads, finding itself in the center of that transitory phase between console generations. Many games are landing on both last-gen and next-gen hardware. And given that getting your hands on a PlayStation 5 or an Xbox Series whatever remains damn near impossible, this is a boon all around. But three…

Bloomberg Report Details Major Dysfunction At Amazon Game Studios

You may know it as the Everything Store. But there’s one chunk of “everything” Amazon has failed to crack: video games. A new report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier and Priya Anand sheds light on why Amazon Game Studios, backed by one of the planet’s biggest companies, can’t seem to make a successful video game. The…

Blue Fire will release on February 4 for Switch and PC. Publisher Graffiti Games announced the date today with a new gameplay trailer. Looks promising!

PS5 Exclusive Returnal Delayed To April 30

Returnal’s release is now pushed by just over a month, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced today. Developed by Housemarque, Returnal was initially slated for release on March 19. Today’s delay moves that drop to April 30 to “give the team extra time to continue to polish the game to the level of quality players expect from…

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Players Figured Out How To (Legitimately) Score That Secret Bow

Over the weekend, players of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla uncovered a secret bow (the laughably powerful Noden’s Arc) by…smacking a rock in the middle of a lake over and over again. The trick bounced around the web. Ubisoft’s Darby McDevitt even chimed in, describing it as a “clever brute force hack” before mentioning that some players…

How To Actually Access The New Dead Cells DLC

Dead Cells recently got a lot bigger. This week’s Fatal Falls expansion adds a crop of weapons and enemies to the game, plus two new biomes. Trouble is, actually accessing those two zones—the Fractured Shrines and the Undying Shores—eludes simple explanation. Classic Dead Cells, right? Here’s how to find them. Fractured Shrines This one’s easy…

For like the eight millionth time, Lara Croft is coming to the silver screen. Today, Netflix announced a new anime series based on Tomb Raider. According to Deadline, the show will follow and pick up after the recent reboot trilogy, which culminated with 2018’s terrific Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Also in the works: A series based…

Here’s Where Dead Cells Is At In 2021

It’s safe to say that Dead Cells is more alive than ever. First released in 2018 for PC and consoles, the excellent side-scrolling roguelike casts you as a reanimated soldier. You wield randomly chosen weapons, which you use to kill randomly spawned enemies as you roll through randomly generated biomes. It’s delightfully chaotic Developer Motion…

How To Get Back Into Destiny 2

Destiny 2 is no spring chicken. Since the shared-world shooter first landed in 2017, Bungie has released a steady stream of paid annual expansions and tweaked the core formula to various degrees. Keeping up with Destiny 2 is a commitment—of time, of money, of patience—so there’s no shame if you’ve jumped ship. But it’s never…