Ethan Gach

Gwent Delivers The Witcher 3‘s War-Weary Fatalism In Elegant Card Form

The Witcher 3 is one of this console generation’s best games. It might even be one of the best role-playing games ever made. Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise then that Gwent, its side-quest distraction turned standalone card game, is every bit as detailed, complex, and beautifully crafted. There’s a card in the game…

Sonic Mania Boss Pays Homage To Deceased Fan Hacker

Moto Bug is the first enemy you ever encounter in Sonic. Is the series’ Goomba, in other words, and there’s one in Sonic Mania named after a member of the Sonic hacking community who died a few years back. Named Jimmy after the late Polygon Jim, it appears in the Lava Reef Zone as part…

Here’s A Ton Of New Lore On Destiny 2’s Cabal

Destiny 2 doesn’t release until next week, but at least one Collector’s Edition was delivered early thanks to Amazon Canada. The $250 bundle is filled with art work and lots of different knick-knacks, including a special booklet filled with lore that Reddit user Canadian decided to upload and share with the internet. Bungie’s shooter MMO…

The Weekend In Esports: League Summer Finals And More

It’s Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer, which means it’s also time for the League summer season to draw to a close. Immortals will be making the organization’s first-ever appearence in LCS finals where they will have the tough task of taking on veterans Team Solo Mid. It’ll be up to the newcomers…

The Week In Games: Rabbids Ahead 

Summer must be winding down because the release schedule is starting to ramp up. Knack II is just around the corner! But this week belongs to Mario and the Rabbids and a few other late August slackers. Absolver’s out this week, along with another episode of Life Is Strange. And of course, the long awaited…

It’s Nice To See Daigo Win A Major Street Fighter Tournament Again

It’s been almost a year since Daigo “The Beast” Umehara has won a premier level SFV tournament. That changed earlier today when he took first place at the Hong Kong Esports Festival, a victory many in the fighting game world were glad (and possibly relieved) to see the aging star a achieve. Ever since the…

What Are You Dreading About Tonight’s Game Of Thrones Season Finale?

Season seven wraps up tonight. What’s the worst thing that could happen? I started out extremely hopeful for the show’s developing third act back in July. It seemed like the boulder set in motion all the way back in season one had finally picked up enough momentum to start moving things along to the many…

Final Fantasy XIV Director Uses Kinky Meme To Congratulate Cosplay Winner 

Toward the end of Games Com this past week in Germany, there was a cosplay contest for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Naoki Yoshida, the game’s director, helped judge it. “Step on me, please,” he told the winner. Let me explain. Stormblood was released earlier this summer. The expansion included new job types, locales,…

This Guy Prefers To Play Smash Bros. Melee With The Controller Upside Down 

And it’s mesmerizing. Nooch is a sixteen-year old burgeoning speedrunner and Smash Bros. enthusiast. He was attending Shine 2017 this weekend, his first ever major Smash tournament, when god-tier Melee pro Juan Manuel “Hungrybox” DeBiedma spotted him on the floor and took this short video. Nooch apparently plays at lot of games with the controller…

Battlegrounds Now Has The Second All-Time Highest Concurrent Player Count On Steam

Last year around this time no one would have understood what you were talking about if you muttered the word PUBG. This weekend it was the most played game on Steam. With a twenty four hour peak of just north of 870,000 concurrent players, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds sat at the top of Steam’s “Current Player Count”…

Sunday Comics: It’s A Solar Eclipse

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 August 24. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published August 21. Read more…

Square Enix’s Library Is Full Of Games Worth Remastering 

After the success of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age and Square’s announcement that Secret of Mana will be getting remade for the PS4 and Vita, it’s clear the company wants to see its deep back catalog live on, but there are a few games in particular Square Enix should think about reviving sooner rather…

Nobody Has Time For Walking Simulators In Halt And Catch Fire‘s Season Premier 

Halt and Catch Fire has always been less about the big tech ideas themselves than the people struggling to discover them. While the burgeoning internet sets the backdrop for season four, the first couple episodes show Cameron’s struggle to get Atari to publish her high concept walking sim. When I wrote last week’s post about…

Track: Land of Feeling | Artist: Here We Go Magic | Album: Pigeons Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Horror Fighting Game People Thought Didn’t Exist Finally Surfaces [Update]

Do you remember Death Cargo? The obscure Mortal Kombat-inspired brawler from an Italian studio Necrostorm known for indie slasher flicks? Well after disappearing a few years ago it’s back. Sort of. The YouTubers behind Super Best Friends Play channel got their hands on a version of the game and uploaded it for today’s episode of…

The Weekend In Esports: The Summer Grinds On

Outside of some fighting tournaments, this weekend’s goings-on are mostly confined to play within each game’s respective summer league. You’ll find teams from across the likes of Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Counter-Strike focused on grinding out victories in their respective tables, while in the world of fighting games pros face-off in New England,…

Sega also revealed a trailer for the remake of Yakuza 2 earlier today. Like the remake of the first game, Yakuza: Kiwami 2 will see the second game in the series recreated in the Dragon Engine used for Yakuza 6 and features some additional missions and playable characters. It’s out in Japan this December.

The Yakuza Developers Are Working On A Fist Of The North Star Game

Beginning as a manga back in the early 80s, Fist of the North Star is basically Japanese Mad Max. As such it’s a perfect subject for the stylish sensibilities of the developers behind Sega’s Yakuza games. The game was announced earlier today during a live-stream event which showed off a trailer and story details for…

The Week In Games: Standalone DLC

What a time to be alive! People want more Uncharted and Naughty Dog didn’t have to go and create an entirely new game to deliver it. Why are we even calling The Lost Legacy DLC? After all, what’s standalone DLC if not, well, a game? It even comes on a disc in a box. And…

Microsoft Announces ‘Project Scorpio’ Edition Xbox One X 

Xbox One X will have a limted “Project Scorpio” edition available when it launches this fall Microsoft announced today at its pre-Gamescom briefing. What’s so special about the $500 Scorpio edition, which leaked last Friday, you might ask? Well there’s the box which was made to resemble the original Xbox and also has the name…