Happy Thanksgiving Kotaku! My name’s Peter Tieryas and I’m your guest editor for the next two days. Last time I was guest editor was about a year ago and I wrote about some of my favorite games including Chrono Cross, Metal Gear Solid 2, and even some Xenoblade Chronicles X. For the next two days,…
Eternal Darkness is a 2002 GameCube game featuring an epically dark story that takes place over thousands of years. It’s a series of interconnected tales, almost like a collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, that weave together myth, occultism, and some of the dark chapters in religion. While most people associate the horrors of…
While it's inspired many games, there have only been two Blade Runner games made
Square wasn’t pulling punches when they developed their very first M-rated survival horror game, Parasite Eve. In the opening scene, the main character, Aya Brea, attends an opera where the entire audience spontaneously combusts. But what makes Parasite Eve so unique is that it shares more in common with Final Fantasy than it does other…
Hideo Kojima's 1988 game is a cult classic for good reason
My childhood friends thought the original The Legend of Zelda for the NES was easy: just gather the eight triforces and defeat Ganon. I had a hard time just finding the second labyrinth. I eventually learned that my trek through Hyrule at the age of seven was actually the Second Quest, a remixed journey with…
My love for survival horror games began with the first Resident Evil. As a kid I hated everything related to horror, but, after Resident Evil, I came to love and even seek out horror games. I didn’t know anything about the game and had no idea what to expect. The opening, with its live-action footage,…
When I first heard the original Silent Hill was getting a “reimagining” from Climax Studios, I groaned, thinking it was an attempt at a cash grab. I initially didn’t bother playing Silent Hill: Shattered Memories because no Silent Hill had been up to the quality of the first three (and, to a lesser extent, the…
Romance of the Three Kingdoms (ROTK) is my Civilization, the tactical strategy game I poured hours of my life into without regret. As my parting article for my run as guest editor today, let me tell you why I love this series so much. Worldbuilding I grew up with the book on which the game…
Traveling the alien landscape of Xenoblade Chronicles X (Chronicles X) is sublime. You really feel like you’ve crashed onto a whole new world, where even gravity is different and you leap through the awe-inspiring environments of Mira. There’s whole ecosystems where creatures interact with each other and go about their business, too preoccupied to concern…
Most survival horror games give you weapons to improve your chances for survival. In the original Clock Tower on the SNES, all you can do is run, and even that’s limited by your stress gauge. Released in 1995 by Human Entertainment in Japan and inspired by an Italian horror film, Phenomena (Creepers in the U.S.),…
I’m not the biggest fan of traditional sports games. What I really enjoy are the wackier takes on popular pastimes that channel the familiar into a stranger landscape of rules and regulations. I’ve been hooked on HBO’s Hard Knocks which has led me back to American football. Following my series of “strange” articles, here’s five…
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was a revolutionary game because there wasn’t a traditional villain to fight against. Instead, the focus was on becoming the Avatar, chasing after honor, sacrifice, humility, and spirituality. In Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny, the teachings you’ve embodied have become totally corrupted. Twenty years have passed since the events…
It was E3 2000 when I nearly lost my shit. The sequel to one of the best games I’d played on the PS1, Metal Gear Solid, was coming out on the PS2 and the graphics showcased in Sons of Liberty were unbelievable. Realistic rain poured down on a tanker as it is taken over by…
I love origin stories, especially when they’re related to games. Back when I got my start in the game industry at LucasArts, there weren’t many schools for gaming or technical art. It was all about the reel. I made mine spending sleepless nights learning the 3D program, Maya, barely awake, sculpting polygons into spaceships and…
The Grand Theft Auto series is the modern epic, encompassing American culture in all its decadence and corrupted glory. The humor is crass, the violence is shocking, and the game’s allure keeps us going mission after a mission as we follow a cast of conflicted criminals. The latest in the series, Grand Theft Auto V,…
Hail Kotaku Readers! My name is Peter Tieryas and I’ll be your guest editor today. That means lots of retrogames, existential musings, and a list of the strangest football games I could find. I’ve heard people rhetorically ask, can a game make you cry? While that’s a great aim, I want games that make me…
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