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CultureHalf-Life Fan Remake’s Final Chapter Is Now Partly Playable
The long-awaited Half-Life fan remake Black Mesa first came out back in 2012. Gee, sure has Xen a while since then, huh? And yet, only now is the saga finally nearing its conclusion. The Black Mesa team decided to take Half-Life’s divisive “Xen” chapters back to the drawing board and flesh out the alien fish…
By Nathan Grayson Published June 25, 2019 -
CultureKotaku Game DiarySometimes You Just Need A Good Game For When You’re Zombified
After a bunch of travel my brain is pretty much leaking out of my ears. Last night, I needed to play a game that would make me remember how to do critical thinking, but also wasn’t so involved that I would bounce off of it. Enter SteamWorld Quest I’d played a ton of SteamWorld Dig…
By Gita Jackson Published June 25, 2019 -
CultureA God Of War Fan Has Sketched Out A Sequel
God of War fan (and professional games artist) Yong Yi Lee has some ideas for a God of War sequel, and instead of writing them down in an overly-long Reddit/Tumblr post, has instead sketched it out. The gist: Kratos seems upset and is caught up in Ragnarök, and has to kill a lot of Gods.…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 24, 2019 -
CultureTwitchAnother Popular Twitch Streamer Is Trying To Leave FaZe Clan
Last month, popular Fortnite streamer Turner “Tfue” Tenney sued FaZe Clan, the esports organization whose banner he plays under, over a supposedly restrictive contract. The lawsuit sent shockwaves in all directions, resulting in, among other things, FaZe player H1ghSky1 getting banned from Twitch after it came to light in Tenney’s legal complaint that he was…
By Nathan Grayson Published June 24, 2019 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryOuter Wilds Is One Of The Best Games I’ve Ever Played
If you put me in a room with ten executives and asked me to pitch Outer Wilds, here is what I would say: “It’s got the exploration of a Metroid game and the structure of Majora’s Mask crossed with the interstellar wonder of No Man’s Sky and the narrative framework of Return of the Obra…
By Jason Schreier Published June 24, 2019 -
CultureWeek In Games: Let’s Go Make Another Mario
Perhaps the best-known game coming out this week is Super Mario Maker 2, a sequel much anticipated by many of us here at Kotaku, not to mention Mario fans everywhere. But that’s not the only cool game on the docket this week. There’s a Switch port of the original Devil May Cry, plus the 2019…
By Maddy Myers Published June 24, 2019 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryHow The Choose Your Own Adventures Of 428: Shibuya Scramble Reminded Me Of My Past
I’ve visited Shibuya before, but never like this. 428: Shibuya Scramble, which was developed for the PlayStation 4 by Chunsoft, released in September 2018 outside Japan. It’s kind of like those old full motion video (FMV) games. But instead of telling the story through badly compressed and grainy video, it uses a series of high…
By Peter Tieryas Published June 23, 2019 -
CultureSunday Comics: You Look… Different.
Hello! It’s time for Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published June 17. Read more of Awkward Zombie Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published June 20. Read more of Corpse Run Clueless Hero by…
By Maddy Myers Published June 23, 2019 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryFinal Fantasy V Reminds Me Of What I Loved About The Series
Talking about Final Fantasy has become complicated. A lot of my favorite Final Fantasy memories are from games in the series that are over a decade old. I’ve played through most of the main series Final Fantasy games, aside from FFV and the online ones. I genuinely enjoyed most of them (even XIII), though none…
By Peter Tieryas Published June 22, 2019 -
CultureE3John Wick Hex Is A Portal Into John Wick’s Mind
At a Keanu Reeves-filled E3 last week, I played a demo of John Wick Hex, a forthcoming action game directed and written by Mike Bithell, the creator of acclaimed indie games Thomas Was Alone and Volume. Playing John Wick Hex was like being transported inside of the titular assassin’s mind via a mashup of the…
By Gita Jackson Published June 21, 2019 -
CultureValve’s New Auto Chess Game Is Already Way More Popular Than Artifact Ever Was
The failure of Dota-themed trading card game Artifact might have left Valve with egg on its face, but the company has now scraped off that egg and made an omelette with Dota Underlords. Valve’s take on the obscenely popular Auto Chess genre hit a peak of nearly 180,000 concurrent players today, almost tripling Artifact’s all-time…
By Nathan Grayson Published June 21, 2019 -
CultureE3Xbox Boss On Microsoft’s Struggles With Game Quality And Efforts To Improve It
Whatever the strengths of the Xbox platform, it’s long lagged behind Nintendo and Sony in terms of homegrown, exclusive video games. There have been highlights in its history and even some stellar games of late, such as last year’s Forza Horizon 4, but the Xbox One era has been rough. There have been prominent cancellations,…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 21, 2019 -
CultureWhat Are You Playing This Weekend?
The weekend is for going rock climbing! I’m taking a class to learn to belay people so I can say “no, no, I’ll hold the rope” and cover up my ridiculous fear of heights. The weekend is also for playing video games. I’m really enjoying Lovely Planet 2, which looks relaxing but is actually twitchy…
By Riley MacLeod Published June 21, 2019 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryI’m The Only Person Playing Harry Potter: Wizards Unite In My Area
The first week that Pokémon Go came out, it was all my friends wanted to do or talk about, and we weren’t the only ones. Whenever I went on a jog around my neighborhood, I’d run into people of all ages and backgrounds at every PokéStop and gym on my journey. I expected the same…
By Maddy Myers Published June 21, 2019
