Kotaku Game Diary Archives - Page 20 of 31

Helping People In Dragon Quest Builders 2 Gives Me So Much Joy

In Dragon Quest Builders 2, you play as a little anime friend who knows how to build stuff in a world where building things is outlawed. It’s very funny. Often in the game’s opening hours, you will construct something like a simple straw mat, and people will look at you like you invented a bubble…

By Joshua Rivera Published July 24, 2019

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I Brought My Switch To A House Full Of Kids And All Hell Broke Loose

I’m visiting my twin sister in Texas this week, where she has a lot of cool stuff: a swimming pool, the world’s most perfect dog, two horses, and my four nieces and nephews, aged 5 to 11. I have one very cool thing that I could offer to them: a Nintendo Switch. I thought it…

By Riley MacLeod Published July 23, 2019

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I Braved A Heat Wave For A Desolate Harry Potter: Wizards Unite Event

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite had its first Community Day this past Saturday. There was a heat wave in my area, but I headed out to play the game anyway. Ever since Wizards Unite came out, I haven’t run into anybody else playing it, and I figured the Community Day would be the chance to finally…

By Maddy Myers Published July 22, 2019

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I Play Destiny As A Warlock But Now Think I Should Be A Titan

As far back as I can remember, I, like Ray Liotta, have always wanted to be a Warlock. My daddy was a Warlock. His daddy was a Warlock. Warlockin’ is in my blood, I thought as I started up Destiny for the first time in 2014. When Destiny 2 was released three years later, I…

By Joshua Rivera Published July 19, 2019

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The Strange Guilt Of Changing Jobs In An MMO

As I continue to lose myself in the world of Final Fantasy XIV’s latest expansion, writing guides on how new folks can get started and fighting terrifying raid bosses, I’ve also taken the time to experiment with new jobs. I followed my co-worker Mike Fahey’s lead and started the new Dancer job. And oh my…

By Heather Alexandra Published July 18, 2019

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Sometimes It’s Nice To Stop Mid-Game And Watch The Players Around You

Yesterday I logged on to Destiny 2 for the first time in a very long while, intent on clearing out a chunk of the massive to-do list my character had accrued since this summer’s Season of Opulence update began. One of my many bounties and challenges involved killing a bunch of Fallen enemies on the…

By Joshua Rivera Published July 17, 2019

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I Love Games About Bluffing (Or Do I?)

I love games that involve bluffing, even though I can never tell when any of my friends are lying. This past weekend, my poker night buddies and I played a tabletop game called Skull, which involves bluffing. I didn’t win, perhaps because I have too much faith in my friends. The apocryphal origin story of…

By Maddy Myers Published July 16, 2019

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After Years Of Confusion, I Finally Understand How To Play Bridge

This weekend I faced my oldest nemesis: the card game Bridge. I don’t remember the first time my mom tried to make me play Bridge with her. In my memory, this cursed card game has been the bane of my existence since I was old enough to hold cards in my hand. I’ve never been…

By Gita Jackson Published July 15, 2019

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A Noble Stranger Stayed By My Side While I Died In Fallout 76

You do not want me in your Nuclear Winter squad. I have a penchant for switching my drop location at the last second, landing on the map hundreds of meters away from my teammates. I’m never on mic. And I’m terrible at staying hidden. But none of this stopped another player, let’s call him Bill,…

By Ethan Gach Published July 12, 2019

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I Can’t Deal With People Getting Ahead Of Me In MMOs

Earlier today, my Kotaku coworker Heather Alexandra posted what I am sure was an amazing and insightful look at the end of Final Fantasy XIV’s Shadowbringers expansion. An ending that I’m still a level and a half and a whole bunch of quests away from experiencing. I am so damn jealous. It’s not just Heather.…

By Mike Fahey Published July 11, 2019

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Some Hilarious Zelda Talk I Overheard At The Rock Climbing Gym

When your job involves talking about video games all day, you get pretty attuned to hearing people mention them when you’re outside of work. While eavesdropping can be a way to learn what games people are playing and thinking about, it can also provide neat insight into how those games fit into their lives. I’ve…

By Riley MacLeod Published July 10, 2019

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I Can’t Stop Being A Reckless Moron In Fire Emblem: Awakening

I have spent most of the last week feeling incredibly hyped for Fire Emblem: Three Houses, one of a handful of games I’m most excited to play this summer. Whenever I’m feeling pumped for a new game, one thing I tend to do is go back and play or replay old games in the same…

By Joshua Rivera Published July 9, 2019

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I Don’t Like Sea Of Solitude, And I Feel Really Bad About It

Sea of Solitude, a platforming exploration game published by Electronic Arts that came out July 5, tells the story of Kay, a young girl trapped in a watery world full of monsters. She travels the ruined world by boat, discovering where the monsters came from and why she looks like a monster too. The monsters…

By Riley MacLeod Published July 8, 2019

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I Will Never Make A Mario

Super Mario Maker 2 gives players a chance to flex their creative muscles and craft their own levels. These can be difficult, trap-laden hell worlds, oddball narratives, or classic platforming romps. As I’ve started playing, I’ve realized that I’m never making a Mario. And while that means missing out on a large part of the…

By Heather Alexandra Published July 4, 2019

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I Love When Video Game Music Is So Good I Forget To Actually Play The Game

One of my favorite games of the last several years is Facepalm Games’ The Swapper.I like it for a lot of reasons: it’s got this beautiful stop-motion clay art style, an immediately compelling hook in the titular Swapper, a gun that lets you clone yourself and zap your consciousness between those clones, and a disconcerting…

By Joshua Rivera Published July 3, 2019

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The Randomly Generated Art Made By My Dwarf Fortress Dwarves Is Terrible

One of my favorite parts of playing Dwarf Fortress is the randomly generated legendary artifacts that my dwarves make. Usually, they’re epic pieces of armor or furniture or crafts that are decorated in brilliant gems and images from the dwarves’ memories. In the game I was playing yesterday, the dwarves kept giving me dumb pieces…

By Gita Jackson Published July 2, 2019

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One Trick To Getting Better At Mario Kart: Relax

This weekend I learned the key to not sucking ass at Mario Kart: relaxing your hands. My general stance on competitive multiplayer games is that I play them to have fun with friends, and therefore I can’t be stressed about whether or not I’m good at them. That was again the case this Sunday when…

By Gita Jackson Published July 1, 2019

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I Don’t Know Where To Put My Heroes

DOTA Underlords is Valve’s stab at the auto-battler genre. In Underlords, just like in Auto Chess and Teamfight Tactics, you place heroes you buy on a board and then they attack other heroes and creatures. And while I understand the basic rules and mechanics of the genre, I still have no idea where to place…

By Zack Zwiezen Published June 30, 2019

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Street Fighter‘s Queer Stereotypes Kept Me In The Closet

Last year during Pride month, I wrote about my own queer reading of the Street Fighter V tutorial, which features Ken and Ryu fighting and, in my opinion, flirting. In the year since then, I’ve been thinking about the character Juri in Street Fighter, who is the closest the games get to having a canonical…

By Maddy Myers Published June 28, 2019

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Games Are Better With Double Jumps

Last night, after hours exploring Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, I unlocked the ability to double jump. It was such a simple thing—one jump, another jump—but I suddenly felt a rush of possibility hit me. That’s because of all the video game-y tricks, double jumps might just be the best. Whenever I think of game…

By Heather Alexandra Published June 27, 2019