Patrick Klepek

The Stories Behind Some Of Pro Gaming’s Oddest Names

Esports may be bigger than ever, but it can still be hard to take players seriously when their competitive names are things like Dr. Pee Pee, Balls, JesusStick, FruitDealer, and Rape. Yes, there’s a Counter-Strike player called Rape. This piece originally appeared 2/11/15. There’s a disconnect with esports that doesn’t exist with real-life athletics, the…

Farewell, Kotaku

It is with a heavy heart that I begin to say my goodbyes, readers. It’s been an honor to be part of Team Kotaku for the last two years. Today is my last day at Kotaku. Tomorrow, a new journey begins. Though I can’t talk about where I’m headed yet, if you follow me on…

Quadrilateral Cowboy: The Kotaku Review

Staring off into space. Drumming a desk with your fingers. Loading the Facebook app on your phone for the fifth time in 20 minutes. Then, it happens: the a-ha moment where experimentation has a baby with logic and a previously “impossible” puzzle is solved. There are many moments like this in Quadrilateral Cowboy, the closest…

How The Controversial Steam Key Marketplace G2A Got So Big

There’s a few reasons you might have heard of G2A, one of the Internet’s most popular spots to sell an extra Steam key. One, it’s been the subject of intense criticism for not doing enough about fraud. Two, you can’t watch a YouTube video or a Twitch stream without running into someone who’s taking money…

Horror fans will have wait a little longer for Outlast 2, as the developer’s announced the game has been delayed into early next year. Given how good the original game was, though, I’m happy for them to take their time.

The Five Nights at Freddy’s spin-off Sister Location will arrive this October, based on a new Steam page that just went live. It’ll be interesting to see if there’s the same level as interest this time around. In the past, Five Nights at Freddy’s has been a genuine phenomenon.

G2A Scammer Explains How He Profited Off Stolen Indie Game Keys

MangaGamer, a localizer of adult visual novels, wanted to reward customers who’d bought games through their website with free Steam keys. Two years into the promotion, a hacker allegedly used stolen credit cards to fraudulently buy hundreds of games. The scam cost MangaGamer tens of thousands of dollars. Why’d the hacker do it? To sell…

The Death Of Disney Infinity Has Begun

There’s no longer a future for Disney Infinity, and while Disney has been maintaining the existing games in the meantime, that won’t last forever. Here’s how the company is winding everything down. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as writing down a date. From now until next March, Disney Infinity’s online components will slowly get dismantled…

System Shock is officially getting a remake, thanks to a successfully Kickstarter campaign that raised $1.35 million. The game is scheduled for December 2017 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, but remember, these games tend to slip! If you’re impatient, there’s a playable demo on Steam.

PSA: Windows 10 Free Upgrades End Today

Windows 10 is a free upgrade right now. That changes after today. As of tomorrow, it’ll cost you $120 for the standard version of Windows 10 and $200 for Windows 10 Pro. The absolute last minute to queue up your free upgrade is Saturday morning at 5:59am EDT. My experience with Windows 10 since my…

Severed, the highly praised tap ‘n swipe action game from Drinkbox Studios, has moved from Vita to iOS. Evan Narcisse reallydug what he played of Severed, and I’m psyched to check it out on my iPad tonight!

Life is Strange is getting adapted into a digital TV series, Square Enix announced today. It’s being handled by Legendary Digital Studios, the TV arm of the studio behind the Warcraft movie, Godzilla, and others. There’s no word on when it’ll come out, but given it’s nowhere near production, be patient.

Rebel Galaxy, Yakuza 5 Headline PlayStation Plus Lineup For August

There’s not much for PlayStation 4 owners in next month’s PlayStation Plus lineup, but if you have a PlayStation 3? That’s a different story. Remember, though Sony advertises these games as “free,” an active PlayStation Plus subscription is required to download and play the games featured here. Here’s the lineup for August: PlayStation 4 Tricky…

Crypt of the Necrodancer Speedrunner Makes Near-Impossible Run Even Harder, Pulls It Off

Crypt of the Necrodancer is already tough, but what speedrunner SpootyBiscuit recently pulled off is remarkable. No one has done it, and not even the developers can really believe it happened. You choose from a variety of characters to play as in the rhythm-based Crypt of the Necrodancer, each giving the player slightly different attributes.…

WWE 2K16, Beyond Good & Evil Headline Xbox’s Games With Gold For August

Microsoft’s revealed what games Xbox Live Gold owners will get access to next month. As a bonus, it’s been juuust long enough for someone to convince themselves Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still in development. Remember, though Microsoft advertises these as “free” games, you need an active Xbox Live Gold subscription to play them.…

Dangerous Golf was recently patched to increase the frame rate and reduce loading times. After a few rounds, I can confirm it’s an improvement! Unfortunately, the rest of the game is still pretty mediocre—it’s no crash mode from Burnout—and a patch is unlikely to fix that.

Quadrilateral Cowboy is a hacker heist game from the developer of Thirty Flights of Loving, and though I haven’t finished it yet, it’s excellent. I hope to have more to say about it this week, but if you’re on the fence, don’t be!

An Argument For Calling Bloodborne A Modern Classic

Though it’s the middle of summer, there’s a bunch of awesome games coming out. Not surprisingly, there’s also a bunch of awesome games writing, too. Not sure what to check out? Worth Reading is your guide. Hey, You Should Read These “The Importance of Overwatch’s Newest Hero, Ana Amari” by Nico Deyo Overwatch can probably…

The Biggest Website For Pirating Games Is Probably Doomed

You might not want to admit it, but chances are you’ve visited Kick Ass Torrents, the most popular way to download video games (or anything, really) illegally. Its owner was recently arrested, but that doesn’t mean Kick Ass Torrents is dead. Today, it came back online…for now. Kick Ass Torrents has been at the top…

Sony Is The Only Remaining Obstacle To PS4-Xbox Cross-Play

In recent days, the developers behind Rocket League and The Witcher 3 have both called for Sony to break down the walls separating PlayStation Network and Xbox Live and allow cross-platform multiplayer. This idea kicked off in March, when Microsoft announced native support for cross-platform play between Windows 10 and Xbox One. It also allowed…