Patrick Klepek

When the Oculus Rift finally ships next year, it’ll come with a free copy of the impressive VR platformer, Lucky’s Tale. It remains one of the better VR demos I’ve played—the ability to look around the world with the headset while controlling the character was neat—but it remains to be seen how great of a…

How A Mario Character Was Named After Motorhead’s Lemmy

One of gaming’s better rumors is each koopaling in Super Mario Bros. 3 was named after a celebrity. One of the seven is Lemmy, allegedly inspired by Lemmy Kilmister, founder of the rock band Motörhead. Kilmisterdied of cancer yesterday. To learn more, I asked the person who named the koopalings. Before Dayvv Brooks was a…

I’m slowly making progress in the latest catastrophe of level design from Giant Bomb’s Dan Ryckert. Dubbed The Armageddan—F8D1-0000-011D-7B5B—it’s yet another set of devious puzzles, tough platforming, and endless misdirection. Watch me play it here. I’ll eventually beat it, so the world may feel safe again. You can reach the author of this post at…

Microsoft has told Kotaku they’re aware of Halo: Reach’s frame rate problems “We’re aware some users are experiencing issues playing Halo: Reach via Xbox One Backward Compatibility,” said a spokesperson. “The Xbox engineering team is currently looking into the issues and are working to address them.”

One Of 2015’s Most Popular Mods Is From A 2006 Lord of the Rings Game

Mod DB is one of the best places to download fan-made add-ons, and every year, the community votes on their favorites. I expected this year’s biggest PC games—Fallout 4, The Witcher 3—to dominate the list but, uh, nope. Instead, tons of people voted on a mod for a 2006 Lord of the Rings strategy game.…

Halo: Reach Doesn’t Run Very Well On Xbox One [UPDATE]

It’s awesome that Microsoft added backwards compatibility for (some) Xbox 360 games to Xbox One, but it’s hardly a perfect situation. One of most demanded games for compatibility, Halo: Reach, comes with a crappy frame rate. Update (12/29/15 at 1:20 pm): Microsoft knows there is a problem: “We’re aware some users are experiencing issues playing…

Patrick Klepek’s Top 10 Games of 2015

It was a hell of a year for video games, a wonderful mixture of long-awaited games living up to their potential, and unexpected delights that completely snuck up on me. One big difference with 2015 was the way I played video games. As someone who avoids multiplayer games, I’m quickly bouncing from one game to…

As Rare continues to roll out behind-the-scenes videos, they’ve now given us a look at the making of Perfect Dark I didn’t realize how close this game was to being another Bond game, or how the Game Boy Camera was almost used to let players map their faces onto characters! (It was scrapped over fears…

Veteran Video Game Engineer Joe Waters Dies, Is Remembered By Peers

Joe Waters, a senior development lead at Xbox’s advanced technology group, unexpectedly passed away last night. An engineer who worked on everything from Counter-Strike for the original Xbox to this year’s visually stunning Rise of the Tomb Raider, Waters contributed technical expertise for more than a decade. News broke last night, as friends and colleagues…

Xenoblade Chronicles X Voice Actor Reveals Localization Secrets, Comments On Game’s ‘Censorship’

Cassandra Lee Morris voiced Lin Xenoblade Chronicles X, one of the game’s main characters—and a source of controversy. In the US and Europe, the character couldn’t wear certain bikini costumes. On YouTube, she released a video about the process of making the game and weighed in on the “censorship” discussion. Morris broached the topic by…

Finding Good Levels In Super Mario Maker Is Way Easier Now

Super Mario Maker is a wonderful game filled with a nearly endless supply of inventive Mario levels to play. The problem, unfortunately, is finding them. Nintendo launched a website yesterday to try and fix that. Here’s how it works. The website’s called Super Mario Maker Bookmark, and while it doesn’t completely solve the game’s issues,…

The Controversy Over A Video Game’s Suggestion Of A Crime

Games are usually straightforward. What you think happened is what actually happened. The Beginner’s Guide is different, cloaked in ambiguity. It’s led some people, albeit a small group, to theorize it literally represents a criminal act: stolen property. It’s a grave accusation, one that lives on because its designer remains silent. Over the weekend, parts…

Bloodborne‘s Biggest Problems Have Been Fixed

Souls fanatics aren’t done when the credits roll. It’s the beginning of a longer journey—New Game Plus, PVP, different builds. Bloodborne should have followed the same path, but it didn’t take long for people to encounter limitations. Between a new patch and an expansion, The Old Hunters, that’s no longer the case. Bloodborne originally shipped…

That Time Team Fortress 2 And Borderlands Changed Art Styles Mid-Development

Video games change a lot between announcement and release, but most of that happens under the hood. What the game looks like is usually set in stone. But that’s not true of every video game, and it certainly wasn’t true for Borderlands and Team Fortress 2, games that looked very different by the time they…

Killer Instinct, Deus Ex Headline Xbox’s Games With Gold For January

With December nearly over—is your shopping done?—it’s time for Microsoft and Sony to reveal their lineups for Games With Gold and PlayStation Plus. While we’re still waiting on Sony’s news, here’s what Microsoft’s offering: Remember, Games With Gold is not actually free; it requires you to sign up for an Xbox Live Gold subscription. And…

Unearthed 1990 Interview Reveals Great Insights About Super Mario World

Worth Reading won’t be around next week, due to the holidays, so it’s time to savor this week’s roundup of the best games writing around. Hey, You Should Read These “Super Mario World – 1990 Developer Interview” from the Super Mario World Guidebook People talk a lot about clickbait on the Internet, but interviews with…

I’ve been looking forward to the space horror game Routine for, quite literally, years now, but the most recent update suggests 2016 might be when the game finally arrives. The trailer for Routine still gives me chills! If we all watch it again, maybe development will finish faster. Contact the author at [email protected]

The Five Nights at Freddy’s novel, The Silver Eyes, has been released “early,” which has become a pattern for series creator Scott Cawthon. Cawthon likes to keep fans on their toes. The games are apparently over, though Cawthon’s putting the characters into an RPG called Five Nights at Freddy’s World

Dad Immortalized In His Favorite Game By Grieving Son

John Hathway’s father was a big fan of the Diablo-style action RPG Grim Dawn. He liked it so much that during an emergency room visit, he left the game running. In November, Lee Hathway died of lung cancer. Upon hearing the news, the developers of Grim Dawn decided to put Lee into the game. Diablo…

A grown man has never been so happy to finish a stage. I’ve finally beaten Doubleheader (E41C-0000-0117-BA72), which you can watch me play here. You can reach the author of this post at [email protected] or on Twitter at @patrickklepek