Mike Fahey

My New Exercise Regimen Is A Plastic Taiko Drum Controller

Stuck in bed most days due to an ongoing medical condition and paralyzed from the chest down, I don’t have a lot of options for cardio exercise. Hand bikes, weights, and tension bands are boring. You know what’s not boring? Beating the hell out of Hori’s drum controller for Bandai Namco’s Taiko No Tatsujin games.…

Fahey’s Top 10 Games Of 2020

In the 2020 gaming judgment system, year-end lists are determined by two separate but equally important groups: the players who play the games, and the games they enjoy playing. These are their stories. Bah-Dum. Everyone knows what happened in 2020, at least the broad strokes. What they may not know is that 2020 was a…

Poison Suspected In Death Of Yoozoo Games’ Founder Lin Qi

Lin Qi, the billionaire founder of China-based League of Angels developer Yoozoo Games, died on Christmas, several days after being admitted to the hospital. Shanghai police are now investigating the 39-year-old’s death as a possible poisoning, according to the Associated Press. Known worldwide for microtransaction-based mobile and browser games like League of Angels and Game…

Cyberpunk 1997

Wake the fuck up, Samurai. We have a city to burn. An original PlayStation-era city, courtesy of game developer Anders Lundbjörk’s completely accurate demake of Cyberpunk 2077. We’ve already seen a PS1 demake of Cyberpunk 2077 made in Dreams, but that one was too clean, too sharp, and too functional. I prefer Lundbjörk’s vision of…

All The Big Games Coming Out In Winter 2021

We made it, everyone. It’s winter 2020, which is really just a couple of weeks of 2020, with the vast majority of game releases coming in the year 2021. What will we be playing as we put the year of hell behind us and move on to what’s hopefully not just more of the same?…

The State Of The Nintendo Switch In 2020

It’s hard to imagine what the state of the Nintendo Switch would look like right now if 2020 hadn’t been so horrible. What could have been one of the hardware’s more stagnant years turned into one of its most memorable, when the soothing escapism of Animal Crossing met a world desperately in need of a…

Ubisoft’s Game Subscription Service Is Now Available On Stadia

Ubisoft+, the $15-a-month service that gives subscribers access to premium versions of games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, and Watch Dogs Legion, is now available as part of Google’s Stadia streaming platform. Finally an alternative to streaming Ubisoft games on Amazon Luna. One does not need to stream games to enjoy the benefits…

How The Decepticons Nearly Stole Christmas

The battle between the Autobots and Decepticons is a serious conflict spanning millions of years. Hasbro’s new holiday-themed Transformers stop-motion short recalls the time Megatron and his cronies very nearly stole Christmas from Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Windblade, and Grimlock. It’s nice to see million-year-old robots from another planet embracing human traditions. One would think being…

Marvel’s Weird New Multiplayer Mobile Game Goes Live

Available worldwide today for iOS and Android devices, Marvel Realm of Champions is an online team-based brawler that taps into 2015’s Secret Wars comic crossover to give players access to strange, alternate-dimension versions of their favorite heroes. Not to be confused with developer Kabam’s popular fighting game, Marvel Contest of Champions, Realm of Champions is…

The Switch Gets An Anime Watching App Today

The number of video streaming applications on U.S. Nintendo Switches jumps from two to three today, as previously-released Hulu and YouTube apps are joined by Funimation, delivering fresh anime to all the good boys and girls. One would think Nintendo’s hybrid console/portable would be the perfect place to watch all the video content, but here…

Microsoft, Sony, And Nintendo Team Up To Promote Safer Gaming

In a post shared across all three companies’ websites this morning, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have released a joint set of principles to foster a safe gaming environment across all of their platforms. Posted under the title “Our Shared Commitment to Safer Gaming,” the triumvirate present a three-pronged approach to ensuring their platforms are a…

The New Werewolf: The Apocalypse Action Game Isn’t Looking Too Shabby

French developer Cyanide has never really done a fast-paced action role-playing game, but you wouldn’t know it looking at the first gameplay footage of February’s Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood. It’s as brutal as it is furry. In a post this morning on the PlayStation Blog, game director Julien “Patch” Desourteaux walks potential players of…

EA Is Buying Racing Dev Codemasters For $1.2 Billion

Despite a nearly $1 billion bid from Take-Two Interactive last month, Electronic Arts has announced an agreement to purchase English racing game developer Codemasters for $1.2 billion. The purchase will put popular racing series Dirt, Dirt Rally, Grid, F1, Project Cars, Burnout, and Need for Speed under one world-encompassing roof. Since its founding in 1986…

And Now The Moment Avengers Players Have Been Waiting For

Shield refraction, everybody. Thanks to community feedback, Iron Man can now bounce his Unibeam off Captain America’s shield in Marvel’s Avengers, amplifying the beam’s damage. As it should be. It’s a classic Marvel Comics combo move, one you’d think would be a no-brainer for inclusion in a cooperative multiplayer-focused game. It’s okay; Developer Crystal Dynamics…

I’m Juggling Four Alts To Get All The Loot In World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands

World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion asks players to choose between one of four Covenants, each with its own unique theme, storylines, and rewards to be earned. Rather than deal with the FOMO associated with picking only one of the four, I’ve chosen to play four characters at once, dammit. This is not how I normally…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

This weekend is about getting my children to tell me what they want for Christmas beyond “a toy.” It’s also about not putting Cyberpunk screenshots where you’d expect them, like in a “What are you playing this weekend?” post. While I probably will partake of some of that punking of the cyber variety this weekend,…

That Time Progressive Rock Legends Yes Wrote A Song For Homeworld

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, a song created for the video game Homeworld by progressive rock legends Yes Since its founding in 1968, Yes has been weaving classical, progressive, and hard rock into wondrous works of audio art. The band’s…

Xbox Cloud Gaming is coming to Windows PC and iOS devices this spring. Available now for Android devices as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Microsoft today announced an official release window for PC and iOS (via web browser), furthering the value divide between regular and Ultimate Game Pass subscribers.

Scuf Gaming Is Making Headsets Now

Atlanta-based Scuf Gaming makes some of the best high-end controllers for the Xbox and PlayStation 4. Now the company makes a gaming headset to match. The Scuf H1 is an adorable set of hearing cups that can be configured with different cushions, colors, cables, mics, and around 30 different speaker tag designs. As with Scuf’s…

Kate Bishop Makes Avengers Exciting Again, At Least For A Few Hours

The Kate Bishop version of Hawkeye has arrived as a new playable character for Marvel’s Avengers, bringing with her three or four hours of fresh single-player content to Square Enix’s stale co-op superhero game. To be fair, any new playable character would have had the same effect, but Kate is pretty damn great. Following the…