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CultureKotaku Game Diary
PSVR Remains My Sixth Choice For Gaming
When I’m in the mood to play a video game, I’ll grab my Switch, a PS4 controller, maybe my Xbox One controller or my 3DS or perhaps my phone. I’ve got lists of games I’m eager to start or continue on those devices. None of them require me to unwrap the cords of a special…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 9, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
One Of My Favorite Red Dead Redemption 2 Details Exists Outside The Game
Many a critic will discuss a game’s verbs: the things you do in the game. That’s too general an approach for me. I’m here to praise Red Dead Redemption 2’s present participles. If you’ve played Red Dead Redemption 2, you may have not noticed them. You may have not noticed them because you can’t see…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 7, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
I Don’t Want Fortnite’s Cube Monsters To Go
For the last couple weeks, cube monsters have been rampaging through Fortnite matches (don’t call them zombies or you’ll hurt Epic Games’ feelings). But on Sunday, they, along with their namesake, disappeared from the game. It was beautiful, but I was sad. Cube monsters have been my favorite thing to happen to the game since…
By Ethan Gach Published November 6, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
If You’ve Played Undertale, You Must Play Deltarune
Last week, Undertale designer Toby Fox released a free new game called Deltarune, and you may be wondering if it’s worth your time. Well, yes. Yes it is. If you enjoyed Undertale even a tiny bit, you should really go play Deltarune ASAP. It’s not clear whether Deltarune is a prequel, a sequel, or an alternate…
By Jason Schreier Published November 5, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game DiarySave Me Mr. Tako Sure Feels Like A Game Boy Classic
If I didn’t know Save Me Mr. Tako: Tasukete Tako-San was a tribute to retro handheld games, I could easily be convinced it was a long-lost Game Boy classic. Released this week on Nintendo Switch and Steam, the game starts Mr. Tako, an octopus caught in the middle of a war between octopi and humans…
By Mike Fahey Published November 2, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
PSVR Platformer Astro Bot Is More Fun If You Don’t Try To 100% It
Ever since I played the first demo of Lucky’s Tale, I’ve been convinced that third-person platform games are a surprisingly perfect fit for virtual reality. It’s fun to play a platformer when you’re enveloped in the world itself. It’s more thrilling to make your character jump off a high cliff when you yourself can feel…
By Chris Kohler Published November 1, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
I Refuse To Stop Playing Assassin’s Creed Origins
I have Assassin’s Creed Odyssey installed and updated on my PS4, but every time I boot up my console, I select the game right next to it: Assassins Creed Origins. I want to beat the older game and move on to the newest one, but I can’t, because I keep accepting new side quests. For…
By Maddy Myers Published October 31, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryYou’re Just Not Scary Anymore, Cthulhu
I wanted to be frightened of Cyanide Studio’s new Lovecraftian horror game, but the scariest thing about Call of Cthulhu is the sloppy stealth action segments that try to add tension to an otherwise casual adventure game. Back in 1981, when Chaosium first published the tabletop role-playing game on which Call of Cthulhu is based,…
By Mike Fahey Published October 30, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
Until Dawn Is Much Different When You Play With Friends
Neither of my roommates play games, but they’re both fans of Halloween. To help get us in the spirit I introduced them to Until Dawn, a horror game with lots of branching narrative paths depending on what you choose. One of my roommates isn’t that into spooky stuff but is definitely down to watch scary…
By Gita Jackson Published October 29, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
My Red Dead Redemption 2 Playthrough Has Already Gone Way Off The Rails
I’m about to go away for a week, vacationing far from my PS4. I’ve been trying to use the last few days to get the most out of the early copy of Red Dead Redemption 2. I think I’m doing it “wrong,” but having a great time along the way. Lately I’ve stopped advancing the…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 26, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
My Quest To Be Gay In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey‘s Ancient Greece
Ever since it was revealed that you could have same sex romances in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, I’ve been chomping at the bit to be gay in ancient Greece. It’s turned out to be harder than I thought. In the fifth grade, my school went whole hog on ancient Greece. In our overstuffed school, we called…
By Gita Jackson Published October 25, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Acts Like An RPG, But It Doesn’t Go Far Enough
The other day, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey hit me with a real slobberknocker: It told me that a family I’d decided to save from impending slaughter earlier in the game was carrying a disease that ended up spreading to a whole island. My character, Kassandra, was immediately distraught. “We can go back anytime you want,” another…
By Nathan Grayson Published October 24, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
Other Player’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Photos Inspire Me To See Its World
I’m really loving Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, even if it took me a while to get to it. One of the features that is unexpectedly enhancing the game for me is being able to see all the pictures other people are taking with photo mode. When it comes to game, I usually know what I don’t…
By Gita Jackson Published October 22, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
My New, Healthier Mobile Game Obsession Is Fidel: Dungeon Rescue
Some mobile games play psychological tricks with you to get you to keep playing. Others hook you the much better way, simply by being great. So it is with the new iOS port of the stellar Fidel: Dungeon Rescue, which is billed as “the roguelike where you can rewind.” My colleague Heather highlighted the game…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 19, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryGwent‘s New Solo Campaign Includes Some Great Battles
I’ve been playing the same fight in Thronebreaker, Gwent’s standalone story, for a few hours now. I still haven’t beaten it. In most games, that would make me frustrated with myself or furious at the designers. But thanks to Thronebreaker’s unique mechanics, I’m itching to keep trying. Thronebreaker is the single-player standalone accompaniment to CD…
By Riley MacLeod Published October 18, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryMore Games Should Let Us Replay The Tutorial
Of all the many valid reasons I’m still playing The Witcher 3, there’s one that’s not related to the game’s quality. If I put it down for too long, I’ll completely forget how to play. It’s a problem that extends to every game I own. I recently discovered a game in my Steam library that…
By Riley MacLeod Published October 2, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryNintendo’s New Mobile RPG Is A Slick Version Of The Same Old Thing
Nintendo and Cygames’ Dragalia Lost is a very pretty mobile game. The characters are lovely, the music is gorgeous, and its overall presentation is quite charming. One could almost forget it’s just another generic character collecting mobile action RPG under all of that polish. Almost. Nintendo’s done some pretty innovative things since moving into the…
By Mike Fahey Published September 28, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryTowerFall May Be A Party Game, But It’s Also Fun Solo
TowerFall is out on the Switch today, just over five years after it originally released on the ill-fated Ouya. It was one of the best party games then and has continued to be one of the all-time best since. It’s still great on Switch, but more than anything I can’t get over is how much…
By Ethan Gach Published September 27, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game Diary
Frostpunk‘s New Expansion Is About Digging Through The Past
Frostpunk, a post-apocalyptic city builder, somehow manages to get even darker and more brutal in its latest expansion, a story-based scenario called The Fall of Winterhome. Rather than create and navigate my own messes, the game’s new scenario required me to clean up after somebody else’s with a feverish sense of urgency. In the main…
By Ethan Gach Published September 20, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryOne Part Of Hyper Light Drifter’s World Still Haunts Me
I’ve played Hyper Light Drifter a few times now, and I always start by going North. I’m drawn by the chilly, snow-covered peaks. But once there, this particular dead and lonely world rocks me to my emotional and spiritual core. Hyper Light Drifter came out on Switch Thursday, two years after its original PC release,…
By Ethan Gach Published September 7, 2018