Heather Alexandra

Publisher Of God Fighting Game Says Malaysian Government Is Trying To Ban It [Updated]

A fighting game about world religions on Steam is causing trouble in Malaysia. PQube Games, publisher of the recently released PC game Fight Of Gods, says that the Malaysian government is taking steps to ban the game including blocking access to Steam within the country. Update #2—Sep 9, 12:35 p.m.: Steam is now unblocked in…

Monster Hunter Stories Is The Best Pokémon Game I’ve Ever Played

Monster Hunter Stories takes the popular hunting series and mixes it up into an adorable roleplaying game all about hatching cool critters. Players take the role of a “rider” who befriends monsters instead of chopping them into bits. The main Monster Hunter games focus on sprawling locales and multiplayer monster hunts. Monster Hunter Stories is…

New South Park Game Gets Harder If You Play A Black Character

South Park: The Fractured But Wholes’ difficulty slider will change players’ skin color. As reported by Eurogamer, the game’s character creator will have an effect on gameplay, altering how NPCs respond and affecting how much money characters will make. Gameplay captured at a preview event shows that creating a South Park character with lighter skin…

Hellblade’s Design Captures The Trauma Of Loss

Focusing on themes of grief and trauma, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice employs a number of level design and mechanical tricks to help players empathize with the main character’s struggle. We take a closer look in this critical video. SPOILERS AHEAD Transcript: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice tells the story of a warrior on a quest to revive her dead…

Nioh’s final DLC Bloodshed’s End releases on September 26th Among the additions will be a perpetual battle mode called ‘The Abyss,” which I guess means the bloodshed isn’t really ending at all.

Fine Print Raises Questions About Shadow Of War Memorial DLC

Last week’s feel-good news that Shadow Of War developer Monolith is commemorating the game’s late executive producer Michael Forgey with a piece of charitable DLC has taken a turn amid concerns of where some of the proceeds are going. Forgey died of cancer on March 3, and in advance of the release of the new…

Kotaku Staff Writer Heather Alexandra and Editor In Chief Stephen Totilo sat down to play the greatest game of all time: Knack 2 You can watch the archived livestreamhere.

Battlefield 1’s Newest DLC Is Cold And Bloody

Battlefield 1’s latest expansion In The Name Of The Tsar adds the Russian Civil War to the game’s multiplayer with snow-swept maps and dangerous mounted cavalry. With a bleak atmosphere and expansive battlefield, it doesn’t just expand the game—it highlights what made it so compelling to begin with. One of Battlefield 1’s greatest strengths is…

Staff Writer Heather Alexandra’s never played StarCraft before but she’s starting it up live now on Kotaku’s Twitch channel. Will she construct enough pylons? Tune in to find out!

Shadow Of War Producer Memorialized In DLC

On March 3rd, Monolith executive producer Michael Forgey died of cancer. The staff at Monolith announced yesterday that they will memorialize Forgey as a downloadable comrade in the upcoming Middle-earth: Shadow of War Forgey will appear in the game as Forthog Orc-Slayer, a powerful orc hunter who will randomly arrive to aid the player and…

Sonic Mania‘s Clever Boss Fight Twists

Sonic Mania’s a lot of funbut one of its most exciting features is a dangerous string of bosses. Reshuffling and changing what Sonic can do adds a lot of danger to each encounter. We take a look at the boss design in this critical video. Transcript: Sonic Mania recreates the excitement of earlier Sonic games…

Rise and shine, Doctor Freeman. We’re finally leaping back into our playthrough of Half Life right now on Twitch

Trippy Rollerskating Game Is The Perfect Dreamcast Tribute

“Make the games you wish to see on the Dreamcast.” The quote is placed dead center on the website for Arcane Kids, creators of the absurdist Sonic Dreams Collection. Their game Zineth lives up to this aspiration. It’s a wild trip with rail grinds, wall rides, and social media shenanigans. It’s this week’s Indie Pick.…

Super Mario Maker Player’s Reaction After Beating His ‘Impossible’ Level Is Euphoric

A Super Mario Maker streamer working for over twenty days in game to design and complete an “impossible” level has finally defeated his own creation. Failstream uploaded his level last night after over 400 hours of recorded playtime. Super Mario Maker requires level creators to beat their levels before uploading them to the rest of…

Sega Lets Sonic Mania PC Fans Play Offline After DRM Backlash

Sonic Mania released on PC yesterday, bringing its colorful levels to even more players. However, many of them were inconvenienced by protection software that is currently preventing them from playing offline. Sega has responded to concerns and fixed the issue following outcry from players. Denuvo is a digital rights management program meant to prevent players…

Super Mario Maker Community Reveals New Speedrun Playlist With Exciting Race

Twenty eight Super Mario Maker creators have banded together and created an exhaustive series of courses push the game’s speedrun potential. Super Warp World, a community-made speedrun ruleset,brings their levels into an impressive pack full of numerous paths and secrets. The game debuted last night in a blind race and it was awesome. Mario games are popular…

Battlegrounds Player Infiltrates Red Shirt Squad, Blows Them Up

Staying alive in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds can be a challenge that requires quick thinking. Faced with a massive squad of enemies, one Korean streamer decided to go undercover before blasting them into bits. Squad matches in Battlegrounds normally split players into teams of four. To get around this limitation and engage in wider collusion with other…

Fan-Voted Favorites Get Stylish New Armor Sets In Fire Emblem Heroes 

Fire Emblem Heroes is a mobile strategy game that I’m still playing, with tons of slightly horny characters and exciting tactic battles. Its upcoming event delivers new versions of highly popular characters, and holy crap their outfits are amazing. Before Fire Emblem Heroes launched, a vote was held to determine which four characters would receive…

We’re starting some matches in PlayerUnknown’s Battleground right now on Twitch. Heather’s put together a squad and looking for some chicken dinner.

Battlegrounds Tournament Rules Result In Confusing Upset

The Gamescom PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Invitational hopes to prove that the popular battle royale game has what it takes to become an esport, poor camerawork aside. But as the tournament continues, quirky tactics and unorthodox wins have raised questions about the rules. Each match of the tournament is broken up into three rounds, with winners decided…