Ethan Gach

How To Fix Your Game’s Camera Without Really Trying 

Tokyo 42 came out earlier this year and while its cyberpunk ninja sprawl was both beautiful and exciting to navigate, the game’s camera didn’t always play nice. SMAC Games, the studio behind the game, recently published an update to address the issue and Paul Kilduff-Taylor, a developer on games like Frozen Synapse and Frozen Cortex,…

Track: Halfway Home | Artist: Broken Social Scene | Album: Hug of Thunder Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Mario 64 Experts Discover An Even Shorter Way To Beat Level Without Jumping 

Last year, YouTuber pannenkoek2012, someone who knows more about Super Mario 64 than most people ever will, finally found a way to collect a star on the level Watch for Rolling Rocks without fully jumping. The video blew up both because of how extraordinary and esoteric the accomplishment was and how in-depth pannenkoek’s research was.…

There’s a great article over at Eurogamer about the development of Dendy, Russia’s knockoff version of the NES. It also goes into how the console helped develop a market for gaming in the former Soviet Union and paved the way for Nintendo to begin selling its original hardware.

A Closer Look At Final Fantasy VII‘s Battle Cinematics 

Final Fantasy VII did a lot of things, but one was revolutionizing the idea of how a turn-based battle could look and feel. On the latest episode of Boundary Break, YouTuber Shesez shows what these scenes look like from the outside. The Boundary Break series has become renowned for taking control of in-game cameras and…

Sunday Comics: Over Here!

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics that usually occurs on Sunday except when it doesn’t. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published December 16. Read more of Nerf NOW!!  Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published December 11. Read more…

One Of Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘s Biggest Problems Comes Straight From Video Games

As of writing this there’s currently an almost 40% disparity between the critics and audience’s response to the latest Star Wars on Rotten Tomatoes. For all of the high moments, satisfying pay-offs, and generally cool Star Wars stuff, a movie that runs two hours and 33 minutes is bound to fall flat in some areas.…

Track: Eggs | Artist: Mndsgn | Album: Surface Outtakes Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

A $300 Shovel Knight Statue The World Definitely Needed

You asked (right?) and First 4 Figures has happily obliged with not just one, but three 15 inch tall replicas from Shovel Knight. I’m not sure why you’d be in the market for one of these but if you are you could probably do much worse. Of all the retro pixel animated games players have…

The Weekend In Esports: Counter-Strike, Pokémon, and Sunshine 

Packed between a major Counter-Strike tournament and Pokémon regionals, there’s a lot of other great tournaments to catch up with this Saturday and Sunday. Tekken 7 might be the year’s best fighting game, and there’s no better way to get an appreciation for it than by watching top players knock the pudding out of each…

Ark: Survival Evolved Players Are Tripping Over The Latest Expansion’s New Mushrooms

Aberration, the paid DLC expansion for Ark: Survival Evolved that arrived this week on PC and consoles, includes a lot of weird, new stuff like invisible flying lizards and a Reaper Queen that can impregnate the player with baby reapers. It also has a new type of mushroom that causes beautiful, dizzying hallucinations. Like all…

Pokémon Crystal is coming to the 3DS eShop on January 26. It’s the third game in the Gold/Silver set (which both became available in September) and will be compatible with the Pokémon Bank as well as have wireless trading and battling with the other 3DS Pokémon games.

The Alliance Alive is coming to the 3DS on March 27. If you haven’t heard it’s the spiritual successor to Legend of Legacy, a 2015 JRPG by former Square Enix designers many of us wished we had liked more. The Alliance Alive will hopefully fix many of that game’s flaws.

Ghost Recon Wildlands Is Getting The Predator For A Few Weeks

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands is getting invaded by Hollywood’s decades-old slayer of Aliens, Predator, starting tomorrow, December 14, and running through the beginning of January. And you thought the politics of the game were complicated already. The alien hunter will be part of a special challenge where players, either alone or as groups of…

Xenon Valkyrie+ is coming to Vita on December 19. The pixel roguelite that released on PC earlier in the year will get a few enhancements as well (notably dedicated buttons for each weapon), but otherwise it’s the same action platformer with beautiful backgrounds.

The Last Guardian‘s Bird Dog Looks Much Better In VR

Action RPGs like Fallout 4 and Skyrim have gotten VR versions, as has Doom, but The Last Guardian demo offers a completely different sandbox in which to test the technology. No guns or dragons, just some kid playing in some ruins with some really funky looking bird-dog-cat. It’s also free. If you have a PS…

Blood Music, the extreme metal music organization, is also working on a game called VirtuaVerse. It’s got a trailer and a projected release date of sometime in 2019. If buzzwords like cyberpunk, technomancer, and Monkey Island-style point-and-click adventure game get you excited, you should give it a look.

Nier: Automata‘s Director Wants To Burn His Animal Crossing Camp To The Ground

Have you been playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on your phone a little bit each day? Were you enjoying helping out your friendly neighbors with frivolous tasks, crafting your favorite style of coffee table and generally just vibing along to it all? Well the director of NieR: Automata is here to tell you just how…

Survey Finds Kids As Young As 11 Years Old Have Gambled With In-Game Items 

The UK Gambling Commission released its annual report today examining the gambling habits of 11- to 16-year-olds. For the first time ever, betting on in-game items like skins were included in its analysis. The report, titled “Young people and gambling 2017,” states that 11% of children between between 11 and 16 had bet with in-game…

Grim Fandango Remastered is free on GOG right now as part of the digital store’s winter sale. You can go download the LucasArts point-and-click adventure game for zero dollars from now through December 14 at 9am EST.