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Tips & GuidesPSA: Among Us Is Currently Free On PC
You no longer have a good excuse to turn your friends down for a round or eight of Among Us. Innersloth’s enormously popular subterfuge game is free via the Epic Games Store through June 3. Each week, the Epic Games Store puts up a game for free. All you have to do is add it…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To Kick (More) Ass In Biomutant
Biomutant, an ambitious yet messy RPG-cum-ASPCA advertisement, is full to the brim with mechanics. Though the combat system doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, it’s saddled by enough quirks that, yeah, it may take some getting used to, even for seasoned players of action games. The following advice should help. Consider playing through the opening hours…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To Choose The Right Faction In Biomutant’s First Major Choice
Within the first few hours of Biomutant, you have to make a choice. You’ll find yourself at the fulcrum of a war between two opposing factions. Whichever one you don’t choose will, by virtue of you being an unstoppable badass, eventually cease to exist. And the one you align with will dictate the rough roadmap…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesEverything You Need To Know About Creating A Biomutant Character
Following the long-standing convention of complicated role-playing games, Biomutant makes you customize your character—their stats, class, and so on—before you actually know how the game plays. You’re essentially funneled into a situation in which you make lasting decisions without fully understanding their context or long-term ramifications. The following advice should guide you. What breed should…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To (Mostly) Shut Up Biomutant’s Annoying Narrator
Biomutant is out today and if you’ve played the game for more than 30 minutes you probably have a question on your mind: How the fuck do I shut this narrator up? Good news! There’s a slider to do just that buried in the menus. Biomutant is a lovely-looking game that tries to do a…
By Zack Zwiezen -
Tips & GuidesXbox’s Quick Resume Might Mess Up Your Games’ Playtime Count
Last fall, while playing through Mass Effect 2 for the first time ever, I noticed that my endgame hour count tallied more than 87 hours. Weird, but whatever. Moving on. Turns out, Xbox’s ballyhooed next-gen Quick Resume feature appears to keep running the clock on some games. Of all the features introduced with the Xbox…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesSo, Is It Safe To Play Returnal Now?
Over the past 24 hours, Returnal, the PS5-exclusive action game about getting repeatedly bullied by space tentacle monsters, has weathered a serious patch of turbulence. Two patches in 12 hours. Myriad reports of corrupted save data. Me, getting killed over and over again by an irritating boss. Okay, fine, maybe that last one’s not Returnal’s…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To Beat Returnal’s Early Bosses
Returnal, the PS5-exclusive action game about pretending you’re in the Tom Cruise film Edge of Tomorrow, is no cakewalk. The rank-and-file enemies are one thing, what with their tentacle laser beams and relentless volleys of neon death basketballs. But it’s the boss fights that will really give you a run for your money. Read: Kotaku’s…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To Not Die (As Much) In Returnal
The science-fiction action game Returnal, out today for PlayStation 5, drops you all by your lonesome on a haunting, uncharted exoplanet. It’s a gorgeous, fresh, fascinating game that’s well worth sticking with. It’s also quite difficult. As with any game built around a live-die-repeat structure, you will die—a whole, whole lot—on your escapades through Atropos.…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesLet’s Hear It For ‘Death Chains,’ The Best Weapon Mod In Outriders
Like any loot-shooter, Outriders is based on chance. But you can sidestep luck by leaning on the game’s intricate network of gear mods, many of which can significantly change the way your guns and armor behave. Most are good, but none compare to Death Chains, a tier-two weapon mod that—and this is putting it lightly—fucks…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesTips For Playing Outriders
At first glance, Outriders might look like a game you’ve played one thousand times: a sci-fi third-person shooter in which you shoot stuff to get better gear in order to shoot more stuff. But there are plenty of quirks, making this loot-shooter more complex than you might think. Since the game’s early-April launch, a few…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesHow To Skip Monster Hunter Rise’s Pesky ‘Quest Complete’ Cutscenes
Once you get comfortable with the basics of Monster Hunter Rise, the real game of grinding out rare materials for high-level equipment can finally begin. While one would normally need to wait through a cutscene every time they finish a mission, a simple trick allows players to skip this brief vignette, reducing downtime between hunts.…
By Ian Walker -
Tips & GuidesFive Good Settings To Tweak In Outriders
As if there weren’t enough looter-shooters around, Outriders is out today. It’s a whole lot of game, with a whole lot of settings that can affect how you play. Some are obvious; some are not. It goes without saying that such things are a matter of taste, but I’ve found the following tweaks have made…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesPSA: If You’re Stuck On The Outriders Title Screen, Be Patient
Outriders is finally out today for all of the things (save for the Switch). But some players have reportedly found themselves unable to play, seemingly stuck on an infinite loading screen. Pro tip: Just stay in line. They have to count your login. A similar issue plagued the Outriders demo, which became available late February…
By Ari Notis -
Tips & GuidesIt’s So Easy To Carry Your Progress From The Outriders Demo To The Full Game
Following a delay and a month-long demo period, looter-shooter Outriders is out today for basically every platform but the Switch. If you played the demo, you can carry your progress over to the main game if on the same platform, something developer People Can Fly made clear from the jump. But it’s astonishing how seamless…
By Ari Notis