Heather Alexandra

My Favorite Game of E3 2017 Combines Fighting And Farming

E3 was full of massive AAA titles like God of War, Assassin’s Creed, and Call of Duty. But the one game that’s stuck in my mind the most is Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. It’s half brawler, half farming sim—it’s a weird combination, but I can’t stop thinking about it. Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin…

Next Yakuza Game Asks Famous Gangster To Chase A Roomba

The Yakuza series’ merger of story, exploration and bone-breaking combat has made for some of the best games I’ve ever played, including this year’s wonderful Yakuza 0. Last week, at E3, I had hands-on time with Yakuza Kiwami, a remake of the first game, and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. It was awesome. Much…

30 Minutes With Call of Duty WWII: Thrilling, But Familiar

Last week at E3, I got to play multiple rounds of Call of Duty: WWII’s multiplayer. While the core experience feels similar to previous games, a focus on presentation and a new story-based mode made things much more interesting than recent entries in the series. My main takeaway from my time playing Call of Duty:…

Heather is back from E3 and ready to beat up more bosses in the sci-fi Souls-like The Surge. Watch her totally not die live on Twitch

After Dropping A Tier, I Am Freaking Out About My Overwatch Rank

After a difficult string of placement matches for the current Overwatch competitive season, the unthinkable happened. I dropped to a lower tier. I had spent multiple seasons comfortably sitting in the Platinum tier, and suddenly I was Gold. I have become obsessed with undoing this demotion. I like to think that I’m a decent video…

The Man Behind Bloodstained Talks Konami And Kickstarter Pressure

Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Nightis a throwback to Castlevania games like Symphony of the Night. Judging from our hands-on time with it at E3, it’s shaping up into a pretty fun game. I had a chance to talk to Koji Igarashi, Castlevania’s producer and now head of Bloodstained’s development to talk design, female protagonists, and…

God Of War Director, On Kratos’ Beard: ‘It Smells Of Pine And Dead Trolls’

The newest God of War hopes to give Kratos some much-needed depth by focusing on character dynamics and new mechanics. Also new: Kratos’ massive, manly beard. I sat down with game director Cory Barlog to ask some hard-hitting questions about Kratos’ new look. Heather Alexandra, Kotaku: Let’s talk initial design : what made you decide to…

Monster Hunter World’s Real Star Is Nature Itself

The only thing more satisfying than a successful Monster Hunter hunt is wearing the armor you made out of the beast you took down. I watched as Monster Hunter World director Yuya Tokuda hunted down a giant beast during a demonstration at E3, and while the weapons and monsters were great, the game’s world was…

Sonic Forces Impressions: Great When It Sticks To Its Roots

Sonic Forces is more than just a Deviant original character creation kit, it is also a genuine Sonic game with loops and platforms. I played three stages from the game and found it fun and fast but also a bit clumsy. Building off the strong model set in Sonic Generations, Forces has a few different…

The New God of War Might Finally Make Kratos Interesting

Sony may have shown more of the new God Of War at their press conference Monday, but there’s still a lot they haven’t explained about the game. A few things are clear: Kratos is a dad, and the focus had shifted from Greek mythology to Norse myth. I sat down with the game’s director Cory…

Yoshi Switch Game Announced, Looks A Lot Like Paper Mario

Yoshi is a new game starring (you guessed it) Yoshi coming to the Nintendo Switch in 2018, featuring a handcrafted style that ditches the yarny feel of Yoshi’s Wooly World for something a little more flat. In a trailer revealed during Nintendo’s E3 Nintendo Direct, Yoshi collected coins and stomped on plenty of Shy Guys. It…

Xenoblade 2 will officially release during the 2017 holiday season, despite rumors that it was delayed to 2018. The action RPG is sure to have plenty of blades and I’m sure some of them will be quite ‘xeno.’

Winter sports and real time human injury simulator Steep is getting a new expansion with Road to the Olympics You’ll be able to break bones in front of an international crowd on December 5th.

We Played The Prison Break Game, And It Looks Ambitious

A Way Out was one of the biggest surprises of the EA press conference. An indie title made by the designer behind Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, it is a co-op narrative game that puts players in the shoes of two convicts on the run. After playing a short session, the game shows promise.…

We’re Liveblogging Microsoft’s E3 Press Conference [Update: We’re Done]

E3 is underway, which means tons of games and a lot of people in suits talking. Microsoft’s press conference starts a 2PM Pacific time today. Hopefully they’ll bring the games to go along with the Scorpio. Gita Jackson and I will bring you all the details live, starting in a few minutes. You can watch…

We’ve Finally Seen A Campaign Mission From Star Wars: Battlefront II

EA Play’s press conference was packed with thirty minutes of Star Wars: Battlefront II multiplayer but lots of people wanted to see the campaign. We did. After that showcase ended, I sat down to watch a developer-guided runthrough of an early story mission. The 15 minute sequence was full of dogfights, stealth takedowns, and laser…

The Elder Scrolls Online recently launched its new Morrowind chapter so Chris and Heather went on a mystical journey to explore tombs and talk about 90’s sitcoms. You can watch the archived stream here.

In The War Against Game Piracy, Denuvo Seems To Be Faltering

Anti-piracy protection software Denuvo is getting cracked faster and faster on more games, with certain games made free by hackers in as short as a week. Denuvo says that the protection is meant to protect games during “the initial sales window” but is that even the case anymore? Denuvo is an anti-tampering software meant to…

Fire Emblem Heroes‘ New Event Finally Makes The Game Challenging

Mobile tactics game Fire Emblem: Heroes offers pint-sized battles and dozens of (slightly horny) heroes to collect. One thing it doesn’t have is permadeath—until now. The game’s new Tempest Trials brings a variation of this feature and adds much-needed challenge to the game. The small battles in Fire Emblem: Heroes aren’t terribly difficult.. Even with…

Moirai Is An Adventure Game With A Killer Twist

Moirai is a first person adventure game set in an idyllic farming village full of secret tragedy. Players explore a deep mine in search of a missing woman, armed only with a knife and their morality. It’s this week’s Indie Pick. I definitely recommend playing Moirai before reading further. The game is free for PC,…