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CultureKotaku Game Diary37 Days In, There’s No Sign I’ll Stop Playing Grindstone
I have a new love, and its name is Grindstone. We spend time together every night before we go to sleep. I do love a reliable indie developer. Capybara Games certainly meet that remit, having broken away from franchise work in 2011 with their astounding Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. Then came Super Time Force…
By John Walker -
CultureKotaku Game Diary200 Hours In The Division 2 Surprises Me With A Sentient, Murderous RC Car
Eventually, games stop surprising you. That’s just how it goes. You put enough hours into a game, and eventually you’ve seen all there is to see. I thought I had reached that point with The Division 2. Yet, after 220 hours of playing, last night I encountered a battle bot that was the leader of…
By Zack Zwiezen -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryMy Nine-Day Final Fantasy XV Blitz Commences Tonight
Let me explain. Final Fantasy XV is one of my “ones that got away”—a game that I deeply enjoyed without ever finishing despite getting very close to its end. One day I just put down FF15 and walked away, like Andy abandoning Woody. Thanks to Xbox Game Pass, however, I have the opportunity to correct…
By Ash Parrish -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryBugsnax Is Mass Effect And I Can (Somewhat) Prove It
I enjoyed Bugsnax far more than I thought I would. At first, it didn’t strike me as my kind of game when I judged it by its saccharine advertising billing it as a cutesy adventure romp in which I would eat my way through an island of colorful foodbugs. The reality of Bugsnax is much…
By Ash Parrish -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryNier: Automata Dumped Me And I’m Okay With It
I finally finished Nier: Automata and I don’t think I’ll ever play it again. I don’t mean that in an, “Oh thank god the game is over, I am free now,” way that I felt finishing The Last Of Us 2—a game hellbent on holding on to you long after what any normal, non-sadistic storyteller…
By Ash Parrish -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryA Final Fantasy XIV Player Paid It Forward By Giving Me Money For New Clothes
Speaking to people online can be fraught with miscommunication, but a recent interaction in Final Fantasy XIV made my week. A much more experienced player, out of nowhere, dropped a few thousand gil in my pockets to upgrade my wardrobe. I started playing Final Fantasy XIV on the last day of my holiday break after…
By Ian Walker -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryImmortals Fenyx Rising’s Pinball Mini-Game Is The Best (And Worst) Puzzle In The Game
Last night, I stumbled upon a puzzle in Immortals Fenyx Rising that can only be described as “pinball, but Ancient Greek.” It’s cool as Hades, and I love it. I also hate it with the fire of the Phlegethon. You should definitely check it out. The pinball game in question is the crux of Aiolos’…
By Ari Notis -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryMy New Exercise Regimen Is A Plastic Taiko Drum Controller
Stuck in bed most days due to an ongoing medical condition and paralyzed from the chest down, I don’t have a lot of options for cardio exercise. Hand bikes, weights, and tension bands are boring. You know what’s not boring? Beating the hell out of Hori’s drum controller for Bandai Namco’s Taiko No Tatsujin games.…
By Mike Fahey -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryWith Xbox Game Pass I Am Too Powerful
Through a bit of luck, I managed to acquire an Xbox Series S for the holidays. I’ve only had it for about a week now, but the slim, be-speakered machine—and, more specifically, the Game Pass subscription I purchased for it—has utterly changed my gaming life in ways I’m still trying to process. For those of…
By Ash Parrish -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryThe Sephiroth Boss Fight Is The Most Fun I’ve Had In Smash Bros. Ultimate In A While
It’s been a rough year for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and me, mostly because with the ongoing pandemic I haven’t been able to play it IRL with anyone. The game’s new limited-time Sephiroth boss fight has helped me fall back in love with it though, by giving me a brief but excellent new single-player challenge…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryRabbits Won’t Stop Jumping In Front Of My Fucking Horse
With the release of the PlayStation 5, I’ve taken the opportunity to go back and play through a few games from the previous generation to see how they take advantage of the new console. One of those games is Rockstar’s western epic Red Dead Redemption 2. It’s great fun, but I can’t help but wonder…
By Ian Walker -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryReturn Of The Obra Dinn Is Scratching My Cyberpunk 2077 Itch
There are a lot of “want to play something cyberpunk without playing Cyberpunk 2077” posts going around and I have an addition to suggest: claims adjuster with a twist simulator Return of the Obra Dinn Wait, let me explain. I’ve played very little of Cyberpunk 2077, confining myself to the character creator and the prologues…
By Ash Parrish -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryI’m Juggling Four Alts To Get All The Loot In World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands
World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion asks players to choose between one of four Covenants, each with its own unique theme, storylines, and rewards to be earned. Rather than deal with the FOMO associated with picking only one of the four, I’ve chosen to play four characters at once, dammit. This is not how I normally…
By Mike Fahey -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryWoW’s Revendreth Makes Me Question If Bad People Deserve To Go To Hell
I really didn’t want to have to think about my country’s carceral state while playing a video game and yet, while strolling through Revendreth, learning about its vampiric venthyr denizens and where they fit into the bureaucracy of Death that is the Shadowlands, my mind couldn’t help but make the connections. Revendreth is a miserable…
By Ash Parrish -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryArdenweald Is The Best Shadowlands Zone And It’s Not Even Close
My Shadowlands experience has been an interesting curve. It started poorly in Bastion, picked up in Maldraxxus, and now, in Ardenweald, I’m at the top of the curve. Everything in this zone—the story, the questing, just being in Ardenweald is WoW at its best. Of all the new zones in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, I…
By Ash Parrish -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryCatching Covid-19 Sucked, Though Video Games Helped
Some call it a hoax. Others say it’s no worse than the common cold. But make no mistake: the covid-19 pandemic is very, very real. If you don’t believe the mountain of scientific literature, the army of medical professionals, the frontline reporting from countless reputable sources, the firsthand accounts, the secondhand accounts, the politicians, the…
By Ari Notis -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryYakuza: Like A Dragon‘s Crowded Pharmacy Really Stresses Me Out
In addition to battling randos and dodging traffic in the streets of Japan, I’ve spent a lot of time in Yakuza: Like a Dragon browsing the wares of various pharmacies and convenience stores. But one store is always so crowded that it’s impossible to navigate without shoving my fellow patrons out of the way, which…
By Ian Walker
