Jason Schreier

Final Fantasy V Retrospective: Wildly Underrated

Final Fantasy V, a video game about four warriors who get together and beat up a giant tree, doesn’t try particularly hard to be innovative. In fact, it doesn’t try at all. Final Fantasy V is essentially an enhanced version of Final Fantasy III, proving rather definitively that Final Fantasy games don’t have to be…

Guy Gets Working Gjallarhorn For Christmas

There are hardcore Destiny players, and then there is Redditor jagger393939, whose incredible wife built him a WORKING GJALLARHORN. It shoots nerf darts and plays the Gjallarwing honking noise. Witness: Sadly, the Wolfpack Rounds don’t activate. Must be bugged. THANKS, BUNGIE.

Happy Holidays, Kotaku

Whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, or just the general feeling of being alive, happy holidays to you and yours from all of the staff here at Kotaku! Use this post as a place to discuss: Sweet new presents you got Sweet new presents you gave other people Video games you’re playing today The best video…

Attack On Titan Season Two Gets Official Trailer

Why are the muscle dudes punching the other muscle dudes through trees? Why are some of them naked? What’s with all the weird faces? I have no idea. I know nothing about Attack on Titan or anime, so this trailer is indecipherable to me, but hey, I know you guys love this series so HERE…

Kickstarter Backers Are Not Reacting Well To Unsung Story

On Friday night at around 10pm ET—optimal time to release news—the developers of Unsung Story put out yet another update for their longrunning Kickstarter failure. Backers were… not happy. In case you haven’t followed the ongoing Unsung Story debacle, here’s the short version: In January of 2014, the developer Playdek raised $660,000 for a strategy-RPG…

Jason Schreier’s Top 10 Games Of 2016

From puzzlers to JRPGs to, uh, more puzzlers, this was a good year for video games. And my top 10 list will probably not surprise any of you. In no particular order, here are the best games I played in 2016: The Witness If I were to tell you that the best video game of…

Final Fantasy XIV Gets A Raid In Ivalice

As if Final Fantasy XIV wasn’t rad enough already, last night Square Enix announced that one of the game’s next raids will head to Ivalice, the world of Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII. And, most importantly, the raid will be designed and written by Yasumi Matsuno, the director of those games The Return…

Steam Is Down [UPDATE: Steam Is No Longer Down]

UPDATE (2:06pm): Steam has returned. Carry on. Original post follows: Happy holidays. Steam is down. We don’t know why. Could it be back up by the time this post goes live? Absolutely. But for now, rest assured that A) it’s not just you and B) Half-Life 3 is never coming out. As we all wait…

Why Did Nobody Tell Me About This Incredible Dragon Quest Builders Commercial

I am extremely disappointed in you, Kotaku readers, for not bringing this Japanese Dragon Quest Builders commercial to my attention a year ago when it first aired. It is perhaps the most informative and helpful look at Dragon Quest Builders one could find. (Skip to 0:29 here.) If, after watching this, you still don’t see…

Ask Kotaku‘s Staff Anything: Holiday Edition

It’s almost Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s Eve, and, perhaps most importantly, The End Of 2016. Come chat with the staff of Kotaku as we prepare to move on from this horrible year (and into what will inevitably be a worse one). You can ask us whatever you’d like.

Podcast: Super Mario Run Is Pretty Damn Great

Super Mario Run is surprisingly challenging, which is one of the reasons I like it more than I thought I would. Let’s discuss—on today’s Kotaku Splitscreen On today’s show we talk about Mario’s first foray into mobile gaming and fantasize a bit about what Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem iOS games might look like. We…

After 18 Years, Fans Find Wild Secret In Suikoden II‘s Code

Suikoden II should have probably had a New Game Plus. Between the time-sensitive Clive quest, the branching endings, and the grueling decisions over which monsters to recruit, there are a lot of reasons to replay the game. Well, as it turns out, a replay-friendly feature might’ve actually been in the works. More than 18 years…

Crytek Closes Five Studios After Rough Year

After a year of financial hardship, Crytek is closing its studios in Hungary, Bulgaria, South Korea, China, and Turkey, the developer said today. Crytek says they plan to “refocus on its core strengths of developing innovative games and game-development technology.” This news comes after months of late and missing employee paychecks at the multinational developer,…

The first six Mega Man games will come to iOS and Android in January, Capcom says. In case you can’t wait that long, I recommend the 3DS version

Final Fantasy XIV May Let You Pay To Catch Up 

The biggest barrier for entry in Final Fantasy XIV, a tremendous video game, is that you have to catch up with the entire story to play each new expansion pack, which can take dozens and dozens of hours if you’re behind. Square Enix wants to change that. Over the weekend, FFXIV director Naoki Yoshida published…

Sources: WB Montreal Cancels Unannounced Suicide Squad Game, Shifts To Batman

Warner Bros. Montreal has cancelled their long-rumored Suicide Squad video game, sources tell Kotaku. The studio will now focus mainly on their other big project, a Batman game starring Damian Wayne Executives at Warner Bros. decided to axe the Suicide Squad game earlier this month following a long period of turbulence at WB Montreal, according…

Crytek paid their Frankfurt staff missing salaries for October, according to a company source. The company says November paychecks will arrive next week. As we’ve been reporting, Crytek has been late to pay its staff all throughout 2016.

Final Fantasy XV Gets New Game Plus Next Week

Square Enix will add a New Game Plus mode to Final Fantasy XV via patch on December 22 alongside a “Holiday Pack” DLC that will contain a bunch of goodies, the publisher announced today. Naturally, you’ll get more if you pay. The New Game Plus mode is free and will be available to everyone, although…

Podcast: What’d We Get Wrong About 2016?

In January, Kirk and I made a whole bunch of predictions for 2016. On today’s Kotaku Splitscreen, it’s time to see which ones were right. Way back on Episode 17 (whoa we’re old), your intrepid Splitscreen hosts made a bet. We each laid out 12 predictions for 2016—predictions like “The Last Guardian will be disappointing”…

Ex-Crytek Artist Looks To Sue Over Unpaid Salary

A former Crytek artist wants to sue the company for not paying its staff—and he’s crowdfunding a lawyer to make it happen. Ludvig Lindqvist, an FX artist who worked at Crytek’s main studio in Frankfurt, Germany, launched a GoFundMe campaign today in hopes of paying his legal fees against the studio. Crytek, he says, has…