Ari Notis

If You’re Excited About The Godzilla Vs. Kong Trailer, Watch Skull Island Immediately

Yesterday, Warners Bros. released a trailer for the upcoming film, Godzilla vs. Kong. It is utterly bananas, scoring an easy five out of five “holy shits” on the Ari Notis “Holy Shit, This Movie Looks Amazing” index. If you agree, allow me to make a recommendation: Watch Kong: Skull Island stat. Warner Bros. Pictures (YouTube)…

Hitman 3 Is The Latest Game To Acknowledge Covid-19

Agent 47 isn’t the deadliest force of nature in Hitman 3. Covid-19 is. Yes, IO Interactive’s murdery sandbox is the latest video game to acknowledge the pandemic that has infected nearly 100 million people, killed more than 2 million, and upended life as we know it. In the game’s first level, the Dubai-set “On Top…

Cyberpunk 2077‘s Latest Patch Added A Game-Breaking Bug [Updated: CDPR Suggests Workaround]

Last Friday, CD Projekt Red dropped the first major update for its troubled open-world shooter, Cyberpunk 2077. “Major” is a relative term. While larger than previous updates, last week’s patch 1.1 focuses more on stability fixes rather than a wide-ranging overhaul. In fact, it may have even made the game worse—by introducing a potentially game-breaking…

Cyberpunk 2077’s First Major Patch Is Finally Out For All Platforms

Like the federal government, CD Projekt Red dropped a major update at 5 p.m. on a Friday. The first major patch for Cyberpunk 2077 is officially out, nine days after the developer apologized for the state of the game’s console release and promised a major patch within ten days. Patch 1.1 addresses a slate of…

Immortals Fenyx Rising Lets Its Bad Dad Off The Hook Too Easily

Video games have a dad problem. My colleagues broached the topic a few months ago on an episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, where they dished on some of the worst dads in video game history. (What’s up, Kratos and Joel?) Now I’d like to nominate another member to the hall of fame of bad dads: Zeus,…

Hitman 3 Is Off To A Rocky Start

You’ve probably heard this one before. A buzzy game hits the market. It demands some degree of internet connection. Everyone flocks to play on day one, only to hit a series of frustrating roadblocks. Online connectivity is shaky, if functional at all. There are issues with save data and character progression. Some players spring for…

How To Ensure Your Old Hitman Data Follows You To Hitman 3

Hitman 3, out today for pretty much all of the platforms, sees Agent 47 continue his spree of heinous crimes, including murder and travel journalism. Like the previous entry in IO Interactive’s sumptuous Savile Row simulator, you can import levels and character progression from prior games. It’s only a matter of knowing what to do—and…

I Hope Immortals Fenyx Rising’s First DLC Is A Lot Like Its New Bonus Quest

Last week, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Ubisoft’s don’t-call-it-a-Zelda open-world action game, received a bonus quest. It’s short, fun, and moderately challenging. Better yet, it supposedly gives a peek at what the game’s first expansion, A New God, will look like. If you’ve slept on it, reconsider. The quest in question, “When in Olympos,” was added to…

Ghost Of Tsushima, Six Months Later

As of this week, Jin Sakai and the open-world samurai game he stars in—Ghost of Tsushima—turn six months old. Rather than a one-off, Ghost of Tsushima has received an impressively dedicated level of support from developer Sucker Punch with consistent quality-of-life upgrades, new difficulty levels, and a (surprise!) cooperative expansion. Small wonder it was one…

I’ve Kept My PS5 ‘Upside Down’ For Months And It Hasn’t Exploded

There’s the proper way to set up a PlayStation 5. And then there’s the improper way, a method that has been utilized by such prolific users as (apparently) a PlayStation executive and (definitely) yours truly. Yes, I’ve had my PS5 upside down since the day I got my hands on it, in late October. To…

Outriders has been delayed to April 1, 2021, developer People Can Fly announced today A free demo will be available on February 25. You’ll be able to carry your progress over to the full game.

Immortals Fenyx Rising’s Pinball Mini-Game Is The Best (And Worst) Puzzle In The Game

Last night, I stumbled upon a puzzle in Immortals Fenyx Rising that can only be described as “pinball, but Ancient Greek.” It’s cool as Hades, and I love it. I also hate it with the fire of the Phlegethon. You should definitely check it out. The pinball game in question is the crux of Aiolos’…

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Gets New Abilities But Only If You Disconnect Your Console From The Internet

A few weeks back, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla players spotted a handful of new abilities in the game’s elaborate skill tree. Then, those abilities disappeared. Following Valhalla’s mid-December update, which precipitated the Yuletide Festival event, each of the game’s three skill trees (Bear, Raven, Wolf) appeared to expand by two nodes. The first on each tree…

Immortals Fenyx Rising Is Even Better If You Remap The Buttons

Immortals Fenyx Rising, Ubisoft’s latest open-world game set in mythological Ancient Greece, is pretty damn good. It’s even better if you shake up the standard control scheme. By default, Immortals maps the attack inputs to the shoulder buttons: RB for light attacks and RT for heavy ones (on Xbox). For those who swear by the…

Carto’s Cozy Puzzles Are Just Tough Enough

Ask people which superpower they’d want, and you’ll likely hear the same answers. Flight. Super-strength. Invisibility. You’re less likely to hear about the unusual ones—say, the ability to literally reshape the planet to fit your needs. Such an ability is the crux of Carto, a cozy adventure game that grants you enormous power but not…

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Hidden Ones Bureaus Hide A Great Series Callback

Between One-Punch Man, baseball man, and multiple nods to popular fantasy franchises, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is basically the Metropolitan Museum of Easter Eggs. But the best surprise—or at least the one that’s sure to delight series fans the most—doesn’t show up until late in the game. Spoilers follow for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Once you settle…

What Are Your Video Game Resolutions For 2021?

Gaming resolutions? Well, I’m hoping to really go all in on 4K for…Hold on. What’s that? Ah, my editor tells me we more or less cracked this exact joke last year. And that it’s bad. And that I should feel bad. (I regret nothing.) New Year’s is usually a period of fresh starts and tuned…

Ari’s Top 10 Games Of 2020

The past year has been one endless, pitch-black night with a single burning, incandescent star: video games. I mean, can you imagine what 2020 would’ve been like without video games? I, for one, cannot. Better yet, it’s not like the annual release calendar was a dry spell, either. From tip to tail, the hits kept…

CD Projekt Red Faces Investor Lawsuit Over Cyberpunk’s Messy Launch

Two weeks after the troubled launch of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red is facing a class action lawsuit. But the filing isn’t on behalf of players who may feel burned over a pre-release cycle that hid the state of the game on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Rather, it’s on behalf of investors. Yesterday, the…

Cyberpunk 2077’s Latest Patch Resolves The PC Save File Size Limit

It’s no secret that Cyberpunk 2077 is plagued by a raft of technical issues, particularly on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Today, CD Projekt Red released another hotfix for the troubled game, aiming to address some of those issues, including the seemingly arbitrary filesize limit placed on PC save files. As Kotaku Australia reported,…