Patrick Klepek

NBA Live 17 will not arrive this fall, but early next year under the more generic title NBA Live. The series hasn’t been so hot for a while but try try again? On an investor call, EA said more details are coming soon, and a mobile game is coming later this year. The NBA All-Star…

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director’s Cut, Frogger 2, Final Fight: Double Impact, Faery: Legends of Avalon, and Puzzlegeddon are now backwards compatible on Xbox One, the company announced today. That new trailer for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided sure got me in the mood for sneaking around…

Windows 10 Getting Much Needed Gaming Improvements Today

Microsoft claims it wants to take PC gaming seriously with Windows 10, but the limitations of Windows 10-based games has undercut their message. They’re trying to address some of that today, with unlocked frame rates and support for AMD’s Freesync and NVIDIA’s G-SYNC. “A big thank you to those who have given us feedback,”the company…

North Carolina Game Companies Condemn State’s Ridiculous Bathroom Bill

Three game studios in North Carolina have come out against North Carolina’s controversial “bathroom bill,” a law seen by many as infringing on the rights of transgender individuals. The law, formally titled House Bill 2, bans individuals from entering a gendered bathroom different from what’s listed on their birth certificate, supposedly due to the need…

Jeffrey Lin, lead designer of social systems on League of Legends, has left Riot Games, the developer announced today Lin had focused on trying to improve the infamous levels of vitriol tossed in competitive games. “I have always said that passionate gamers, even angry ones, are gamers that care about the game—just like us,” he…

Remembering Naughty Dog‘s First Game

These days, people think of Naughty Dog as the company behind the Uncharted series, but it didn’t start that way. The company’s first game was a swords ‘n sorcery RPG called Keef The Thief, published by Electronic Arts. Naughty Dog has changed directions quite a few times throughout its history. It used to be known…

A Rare Mario Maker Super Expert Level That Is Not Trash

I’ve largely avoided stages labeled super expert in Mario Maker; they’re usually nonsense. Sometimes, they’re the right kind of nonsense. My intention this morning was to stream the latest stage from Tristan,an eight-year-old from Canada who’s been crafting devious levels for me. Sadly, Nintendo deleted his stage before I was able to play it for…

Fan Edits Full-Length Movie Telling Dark Souls 3‘s Confusing Story

It’s possible to beat Dark Souls 3 and have no idea what really happened. Fortunately, MoonlightButterfly on YouTube has been meticulously making sense of the series’ complicated storytelling by turning them into movies. I’ve previously highlighted MoonlightButterfly’s work on Kotaku, as the release date for Dark Souls 3 loomed. If you’re looking for an easy…

Plan New Dark Souls Characters With This Online Tool

There are a million stats to consider when building a Dark Souls character, but there’s a very useful online tool that lets you plan them out way in advance. A Dark Souls fan named nemesismonkey built a website called Mugenmonkey back in 2012, not long after the release of the original Dark Souls. Naiyt, another…

How Spelunky Makes Randomized Levels Feel So Good

The temperatures are rising, but who cares? Stay inside with Worth Reading, our weekly roundup of the best games analysis around. Hey, You Should Read These “How (and why) Spelunky Makes Its Own Levels” by Mark Brown OK, yes, so that’s a video from Mark Brown, but it’s so well done that I had to…

Forza Motorsport PC Has A Really Smart Way Of Keeping Your Frame Rate Constant

One of the reasons people love playing games on the PC is because of how many options it gives you, but that can be overwhelming, too. Forza Motorsport 6 Apex tries to split the difference by offering to handle the hard work for you. Forza Motorsport 6 Apex represents another attempt by Microsoft to take…

The Nostalgic Moment In Dark Souls 3 That Made Me Go ‘Oh, Shit’

If you’ve played the whole Dark Souls series, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t played Dark Souls 3 yet, there are huge spoilers ahead. Again, I’m about to spoil a huge reveal in Dark Souls 3. Reader beware! Pontiff Sulyvahn proved to be one of the toughest fights for me in all…

Samurai Showdown 2, Runner 2, Phantasy Star 2, and Sonic & Knuckles are now backwards compatible on Xbox One, Microsoft announced today. Even if people aren’t really using backwards compatibility, it’s nice to see the library getting updated every few days. Do you use it?

Both Star Wars: The Force Unleashed games are now backwards compatible on Xbox One, Microsoft announced today. While it’s not the Knights of the Old Republic remake I’ve been hoping for, it’s something.

Dark Souls 3 Player Wrecks One Of The Hardest Bosses In A Single Hit

Holy crap. Take a look at this. Yes, that’s someone beating Pontiff Sulyvahn in one hit. It’s one of the more impressive things I’ve seen someone pull off in Dark Souls 3 so far. This clip comes courtesy of neptunusequester on YouTube: They claim it’s part of the 1HKO Challenge, aka one-hit knockout. I suspected…

Seven-Year-Old Mario Maker Creator Just Hopes Nintendo Won’t Delete His Levels Again

My heart broke after reading a letter from a seven year old fan named Daniel, who was hoping I’d play his Mario Maker stage. The problem? He feared Nintendo would delete it before I had a chance to check it out. I play new Mario Maker stages every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on Twitchand YouTube.…

The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth, a major expansion for the game that adds tons of new areas and items, hits PS4 on May 10 for $10.99. It’s supposed to arrive on the same day for Xbox One, as well. No word yet on a Vita version.

Oculus Rift Pre-Order Issues Have Only Gotten More Confusing

Even though Oculus is woefully behind in shipping Rift pre-orders to customers, the company has courted more controversy by moving forward with its retail plans, which includes letting people buy Rifts at places like Best Buy. “For many, this is a first chance to jump into truly immersive VR,” reads a company blog post explaining…

Indie Shooter Alien Wasteland Hit With Cease And Desist By Wasteland 2 Devs

Alien Wasteland is a rudimentary looking first-person-shooter made by a single person. It looks pretty darn different from Wasteland 2, the gritty strategy game from inXile Entertainment. Nonetheless, the developer behind Alien Wasteland was recently issued a cease and desist from the creators of Wasteland 2 Alien Wasteland’s new name is Action Alien after nXile…

An Intro To The World of Dark Souls Hitbox Porn

You do all sorts of dodging in a Dark Souls game, sometimes by the skin of your teeth. Perhaps a blade just barely passes over your head, saving you from an instant death. Dark Souls fans call these moments hitbox porn. You might not notice hitbox porn when it happens; it becomes most apparent upon…