Ethan Gach

I Bought A Video Game’s Collector’s Edition And Have Regrets

On September 1, 2016 I pre-ordered the collector’s edition of Persona 5. I can’t remember why I did that then several months after it had been announced and several more before it would finally be released. But I did. It cost me $76.31 with tax. Yesterday I unearthed the remnants of it from my closet,…

15 Games That Grabbed My Attention At PAX East

I spent the weekend at PAX East, and while I didn’t play nearly all of the games I wanted to, I got to play quite a lot and even discovered a few I’d never heard of that I’m now extremely excited about. Here’s a brief rundown of some of them, which is still only a…

Not Everyone Loved The Smash Balls In Nintendo’s Latest Smash Ultimate Tournament

Hundreds of PAX East attendees crowded around a small stage in the expo hall last Saturday afternoon to see if Seth, one of the top-ranked Smash players in Chicago, could keep his team alive in Nintendo’s North America Open against his opponent Poltergust. As both players deployed deadly items and Final Smash attacks, the hall…

PAX East is finally over and I’m dead. At least for now. I’ll return in my new form on Monday. Also Graveyard Keeper on Switch is good. 

Windjammers 2 Is A Lot Of Fun

On its 25th anniversary, Windjammers is finally getting a sequel. But despite a new art-style and slightly more complex gameplay, the studio behind Windjammers 2 said it wants to stay as true to the pure joy and simplicity found in the original. I played the game for half an hour at PAX East, and while…

Nintendo brought Sandbag along to PAX East so Smasher players could pay homage to him. When asked about the unorthodox rule set Nintendo had selected for its PAX East Smash Ultimate tournament he declined to comment.  

Androids 16 and 18 have made peace with Cell for the day. Fortunately for them, I haven’t spotted any Super Saiyans at PAX East yet.

At Bethesda’s PAX Fan Event, The Fallout 76 Faithful Gather

“I’m a little worried,” I overhear someone say while we wait in line for Bethesda’s fan event at PAX East. “There’s a live Q&A.” The line-waiter was talking about an upcoming panel discussion with some of Fallout 76’s developers, including director Todd Howard. But the live panel came and came and went without incident. No…

Square Enix is trying to get players back into Final Fantasy XI by helping them reactivate their old accounts. At PAX East in Boston, the company has a tiny station next to its giant Final Fantasy XIV showcase where someone will use your original email or other info to try and perform some internet archeology.

Hands-On With The Gorgeous New Ninja Gaiden-Like Cyber Shadow 

Cyber Shadow is a retro-looking action platformer that that looks beautiful and controls just as tightly. There have been a lot of those recently, like The Messenger, which channeled Ninja Gaiden, as well as Bloodstained: Curse Of The Moon, a mini-ode to classic Castlevania. Cyber Shadow isn’t entirely original in that regard, but based on…

And they say couch co-op is dead. Enter the Gungeon came out back in 2016, but its developers at Dodge Roll keep finding reasons to bring it back to PAX East. Of course, even back then it had local co-op, before getting ported to Switch made that sort of thing cool again.

The Messy Princess Management Game I’m Still Playing Anyway

From the moment I saw NIS America’s The Princess Guide I was intrigued. The screenshots barely made any sense, but they looked gorgeous. Crisp, bold black lines, vibrant colors, and tons of incomprehensible but delicately arranged icons. After a few hours of actually playing the game, I barely understand it any better, but I feel…

PAX East has begun and Kotaku is here to check out the giant selection of indie games present and the best convention snack spread on the East coast. If you spot us (me) give a shout!

In Fallout 76‘s Brutal New Survival Mode, You’re Either Level 100 Or Dead Meat

Yesterday’s new Fallout 76 patch added a new mode called Survival, which is currently in beta. It’s separate from the main game, which has now been retitled Adventure, though players can still explore it using existing characters—which they’ll definitely want to do if they don’t want to get torn to shreds. I made this exact…

Star Wars: Battlefront II’s New Mode Is Fun, When It Works

Yesterday, Star Wars: Battlefront II finally received its long-awaited new game mode, Capital Supremacy. It offers a large-scale battle set in the Clone Wars era modeled after the original 2005 Battlefront II’s Conquest mode. While it can be exciting to play, it’s currently held back by matchmaking issues and the fact that there’s only one…

Enter The Gungeon’s final update, “A Farewell to Arms,” will arrive April 5 on PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Switch. It’ll add new weapons, items, another secret boss room, and two extra characters, the Paradox and the Gunslinger, perfect reasons to revisit one of this generation’s best roguelikes.

Anthem’s New Update Adds More Loot And More Bugs

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Anthem gets a new update. The changes in the new update all look promising. Then, upon closer inspection, not all of the improvements are working as intended, and a few things that had previously been fixed are now busted again. Anthem’s been there before and after today’s…

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Sword From E3 2018 Finally Added To Game

Five months after the release of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, a legendary sword first teased during an E3 demo is now finally in the game. An update out today adds a new quest line called “A Friend Worth Dying For,” the reward for which is the serpent-headed kopis-style blade players have long been awaiting. YouTuber JorRaptor…

On the first episode of its new web series, ID@Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft announced that Killer Queen Black, Outer Wilds, and Blazing Chrome will all be available on Game Pass the dame day they launch. All of them are due to release sometime before the end of 2019. 

New Sci-Fi Shooter Generation Zero Is A Let Down

I expected Avalanche Studios’ new sci-fi sandbox shooter to win me over immediately. Set in Sweden in the ’80s after mysterious circumstances cause the nation’s robotic defense force to go haywire, Generation Zero’s setup seemed algorithmically designed to appeal directly to me. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. In the few hours I’ve spent…