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CultureKotaku Game DiaryToo Fast Too Fantasy XV: Late, Broke, And Bodied By A Behemoth
In my push to finish Final Fantasy XV before it leaves Xbox Game Pass I had hoped to make up for lost time. Doing the math, I figured I’ll need to cover an average of five hours a day. But after Day Two I only have a grand total of seven hours clocked on my…
By Ash Parrish Published January 22, 2021 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryImmortals Fenyx Rising Lets Its Bad Dad Off The Hook Too Easily
Video games have a dad problem. My colleagues broached the topic a few months ago on an episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, where they dished on some of the worst dads in video game history. (What’s up, Kratos and Joel?) Now I’d like to nominate another member to the hall of fame of bad dads: Zeus,…
By Ari Notis Published January 22, 2021 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryToo Fast, Too Fantasy XV: Eight Days To Go
There are eight days left until Final Fantasy XV disappears from Xbox Game Pass and thereby, my Xbox Series S. Yesterday, I embarked on an epic quest to start and finish Final Fantasy XV in the few days remaining, and after Day 1, I’m only [checks watch] three hours in. Oh boy. Technically that number…
By Ash Parrish Published January 21, 2021 -
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 Published January 21, 2021 -
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 Published January 21, 2021 -
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 Published January 20, 2021 -
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 Published January 19, 2021 -
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 Published January 11, 2021 -
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 Published January 8, 2021 -
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 Published January 6, 2021 -
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 Published January 4, 2021 -
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 Published December 30, 2020 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryAssassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Glitch Kept Making Eivor Drunk, And Then It Got Weirder
Every time my viking hero Eivor dies in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, she returns to life drunk. This is a known bug that the developers appear primed to patch, but in trying to just bear with it last night, I somehow made it worse. Though, in this case, “worse” also means “better.” And now I’m conflicted…
By Stephen Totilo Published December 29, 2020 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryLost Odyssey’s Ending Felt Like A Bittersweet Farewell To The JRPGs Of Old
I wish I were immortal just so I could play all the games on my backlog. Lost Odyssey for the Xbox 360 is about immortals who’ve lived over a thousand years and they’ve experienced a lot. Maybe too much. Life has taken its toll and the only thing that’s made it bearable is the involuntary…
By Peter Tieryas Published December 27, 2020 -
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 Published December 18, 2020 -
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 Published December 16, 2020 -
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 Published December 16, 2020 -
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 Published December 11, 2020 -
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 Published December 7, 2020
