Mike Fahey

Vortex Vibe Keyboard Review: Smaller By The Numbers

Sleek mechanical keyboards that strip away lesser-used keys in favor of a smaller footprint are picking up, but some people just can’t do without that number pad. Vortex’s new Vibe keyboard is a nice compromise, with some outstanding keycaps on top. A full-size keyboard has all the keys. A tenkeyless, or TKL keyboard, slices the…

New Downtown Diner Set Brings ’50s Flair To Lego Cities

The ever-expanding city block that is the Lego Creator Expert line of building sets gets a welcome splash of neon pink and green with the January 1 release of the Downtown Diner. It’s 2,480 plastic pieces that combine to form three floors of 1950s-style entertainment. I’ve been running out of room for built Lego sets…

Rebellion Is Remaking Battlezone II: Combat Commander

Hot on the heels of 2016’s Battlezone 98 Redux and this year’s Battlezone VR, Rebellion announces Battlezone Combat Commander, a remastered version of 1999’s Battlezone II, due out next year on PC. That’s three Battlezone games in three years. Way to work that license, Rebellion.  Battlezone II: Combat Commander is a hybrid first-person shooter /…

It’s Nice To Have An MMO I Can Play Just One Hour A Day

A couple of weeks backI wrote about Lineage 2: Revolution, a mobile MMORPG that can be played mostly on autopilot. Two weeks later, I’m still playing. After a decade and a half of playing highly involved PC MMOs, it’s nice to have a game I only need to play an hour a day. Though I…

New Switch Game Was Once A Free-To-Play Mobile Game, But It Got Better

Gear Club Unlimited, released last week for the Switch, is a popular free-to-play mobile racing game transformed into a premium game. It’s amazing the difference removing elements like microtransactions, arbitrary timers and social sharing incentives makes. The original Gear Club has been raking in that in-app purchase cash on iOS and Android for over a…

The 4K and full HD remaster of Star Ocean: The Last Hope is now available on PC and PS4 for the special launch price of $20.99. This might be my last hope of playing through one of the best 3D Star Ocean games, after my previous attempt wasthwarted 25 hours in by burglars.

If you picked up on Xbox One X during launch, check your console messages. Microsoft’s been passing out codes for a free download of The Lego Batman Movie in all its ultra HD glory. HDR really makes the darkness pop.

Planet Of The Apes: Last Frontier Has Great Apes, But That’s About It

There’s no confusing Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier with a Telltale-style adventure game. There is no exploration, no dialogue trees or puzzles to solve. It’s a three-hour movie peppered with simple A or B choices that influence how events play out. It’s about as basic as interactive fiction gets. Set a year after the…

Getting A ‘Haircut’ In Splatoon 2 Seems Like It Would Hurt

One moment my Squid Girl is sporting the same side tentacle she’s been rocking since Splatoon 2 launched, the next her gorgeous glistening appendage is sliced, chopped and tied off into a pair of wriggling pigtails. Sounds painful, doesn’t it? At first I was excited about the four new hairstyles added to Splatoon 2 in…

What Did Black Friday Make You Buy? 2017 Edition

Black Friday and its numerous extensions (Cyber Monday, Just Buy Our Damn Stuff Thursday) are a magical time in retail, when the veil between wallet and willpower is at its thinnest. Which games, gadgets and gear made it past your defenses this year? I’ll start. First up we have the special Poké Ball version of…

Snacktaku Eats An Eight-Course Pringles Thanksgiving Dinner

In its latest attempt to replace all foods with processed potato product, Pringles takes on Thanksgiving dinner with eight different flavors—turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, macaroni and cheese and creamed corn. We’d say grace first, but no. Pringles Thanksgiving Dinner is an ambitious attack on one of America’s most…

Street Fighter Transformers? Why The Hell Not 

Shoryuken! Hadouken! Spinning Bird Kick! Psycho Crusher! Now transform into a car! Due out in Japan in May, Transformers X Street Fighter II figures turn four existing transforming robots into mechanical world warriors. Titan Returns Hot Rod becomes Ken, complete with a tiny version of himself to serve as his robot head, which seems like…

World Of Final Fantasy‘s Meager PC Port Comes With Some Powerful Cheats

Former PlayStation 4 and Vita exclusive World of Final Fantasy arrived on PC this week, though don’t get too excited. It’s locked at 30fps, has next to no video options and those that are present can’t be accessed in game. Instead, PC players got some pretty powerful built-in cheats. Freshly downloaded from Steam, World of…

For Better Or Worse, Final Fantasy XIV Bards Can Play Music Now

Today’s 4.15 update for Final Fantasy XIV adds a massive new 48-person player-versus-player battle mode, but that’s not important. Bards can play music now. It’s beautiful and horrifying. Players who have achieved level 30 as an Archer and have made the jump to the advanced Bard class can now travel to Old Gridania and finally…

New Capture Card Records 4K 60fps Video, If Your PC Can Handle It

Today marks the launch of Elgato’s 4K60 Pro, the first “consumer-priced” capture card that will grab 4K video at 60 frames per second. It works great, but its PC requirements are as steep as its $400 price tag. It takes a lot of processing and graphics power to process 4K, 60fps video on the fly.…

Splatoon 2‘s Big Winter Update Adds A Ton Of New Stuff

Here’s something for Splatoon 2 players to be thankful for this week. The game’s next big update drops on November 23, adding four battle stages, a new Salmon Run stage, four hairstyles, an increased level cap, fresh tunes and more. Four new stages begin rolling out on November 24, starting with the Black Friday-appropriate MakoMart,…

Ten Years Of Rock Band, That Game Everybody Used To Play

One November 20, 2007, Harmonix, EA and MTV Games released the first Rock Band, a four-player, instrument-driven rhythm game that briefly changed the face of social multiplayer gaming. Where are your plastic instruments now? If you had told me in early 2007 that a $170 box packed with a game, guitar, drums and a mic…

Now that the two canceled Avengers Alliance games are a distant memory, FoxNext Games and Marvel Entertainment unveil Marvel Strike Force, a squad based mobile RPG in which players battle it out with collectible heroes and villains from the comics, due out in early 2018. How long you think this one will last?

Hand of Fate 2: The Kotaku Review

Hand of Fate is a unique hybrid of deck-building card adventure and action role-playing game that came out of nowhere to become one of my favorite games of 2015. Hand of Fate 2 improves upon the original in every way. One minute you’re moving a game piece across a table covered with Tarot-like adventure cards,…

Shouldn’t your keyboard match your Gundam? Designed by Hidden Lab, the officially-licensed Gundam RX-78-2 double shot keyset is a stunning way to turn a keyboard into a Newtype (sorry). The $130 set is being offered as a group buy, shipping in May.