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The Week In Games: Birds

By Riley MacLeod Published December 27, 2020

Opinion

How The Past Year Got Me Thinking Of Post Apocalyptic Games In A New Light

Almost every day, I go for a walk with my kid. She’s just over two. There’s a strange serenity in the isolation of entire city blocks when there’s so few people out and about. In the first few months of the pandemic, it felt like we were walking through an abandoned city. I’ve lived in…

By Peter Tieryas Published December 27, 2020

Culture

Sunday Comics: Presents

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. Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published Dec. 24. Read more of Corpse Run Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published Dec. 21. Read more of Awkward Zombie Clueless Hero by…

By Riley MacLeod Published December 27, 2020

ReviewsYear in Review

Peter Tieryas’ Top 5 Games Of 2020

I can’t believe the year is almost over. 2020 has felt interminable. Between work, taking care of my kid, a new book release, various writing assignments, and all that life has thrown at me, my free time has been really limited. I usually only get a chance to play games after my kid falls asleep…

By Peter Tieryas Published December 27, 2020

OpinionImpressions

I Didn’t Expect To Like Deadly Premonition So Much

I crashed eight times during my playthrough of Deadly Premonition on the Switch, often at critical moments. In a game with long load screens, this seemed like an unforgivable sin. “So good it’s bad,” was testing my patience, even if I knew coming in that Deadly Premonition was a flawed cult classic. This wasn’t the…

By Peter Tieryas Published December 27, 2020

Culture

Phantasy Star III Is A Flawed, But Ambitious, Entry Into The Series

Phantasy Star III was a game I wanted to love, especially since its predecessor was a science fiction classic and arguably one of my favorite games on the Sega Genesis. I still remember when I first heard about Phantasy Star III, which released for the Genesis in 1991, I was blown away by the idea…

By Peter Tieryas Published December 27, 2020

OpinionImpressions

The Fascinating Visual Novel About Time Travel From One Of The Creators Of Suikoden

In Time Hollow, time travel is a painful, convoluted, and sloppy mess that makes history worse with every intervention. A spiritual successor to another game I enjoyed called Shadow of Memories, it actually took me a while to track down this obscure Nintendo DS visual novel that was published in 2008 from Konami. When I…

By Peter Tieryas Published December 27, 2020

Culture

Who’s The Strongest Video Game Character?

If all the video game characters ever created got together in a big rumble, who’d come out on top? Kratos, the one who took down the gods of Olympus? What about Asura who fought off a deity the size of a planet? What about the ancients who wore Majora’s Mask and caused so much havoc,…

By Peter Tieryas Published December 26, 2020

Culture

The Brilliant 16-Bit JRPG About The Death And Rebirth Of The World

Considered part of the Quintet Creation Trilogy, Terranigma was the culminating tour de force from the Japanese studio behind 16-bit games like Actraiser, Illusion of Gaia, and Robotrek. It was never released in North America (though it received a translated version in PAL), explaining why most of us here in the States, including myself, never…

By Peter Tieryas Published December 26, 2020

Culture

7 PS4 Horror Games That I Hope Get PS5 Sequels

The PS4 had some great horror games. The best had a way of creeping into my mind subconsciously, lingering until a vulnerable moment and striking terror when I least expected. It’s interesting that with the increase in graphical power, the games that scared me most last gen weren’t necessarily the best looking ones; sometimes, that…

By Peter Tieryas Published December 26, 2020

ReviewsYear in Review

The Video Game Music That Helped Us Through 2020

2020 was tough. There were nights we wondered where and how this year would end. Just when things seemed like they couldn’t get worse, they did time and again. On every level, it was difficult just to get through the day. One of the things that helped us through was music. Specifically, video game music.…

Peter Tieryas & Narelle Ho Sang Published December 26, 2020

Culture

How A Dark Time-Traveling Fantasy Game Became the Original Fallout

The end of the world was both darker and more humorous than anyone could have imagined, and in the original Fallout, released for the PC in 1997, gamers got to experience the apocalypse firsthand. The iconic, “War, war never changes,” introduction set the somber mood, which was written, strangely enough, during an episode of The…

By Peter Tieryas Published December 26, 2020

OpinionImpressions

Ys VIII’s Compelling Story Makes You Care About Every NPC

I always approach classics with a certain sense of trepidation, especially if I’m playing them outside of their original release window. Games that might have truly been remarkable in their day and age might come across antiquated and difficult to endure in the present, especially with how much game design has changed over the years.…

By Peter Tieryas Published December 26, 2020

Opinion

An Ode To The Games It Took Us Forever To Finish (Or How It Took Me Over Twenty Years To Finally Finish The First Suikoden)

Hi Kotaku! The last time I was a weekend editor for Kotaku was way back in February and honestly, that seems like a lifetime ago. So much has happened since then that even looking back at my old articles feels like I’m peeking at a time capsule from a different age. I’m honored, as always,…

By Peter Tieryas Published December 26, 2020

CultureSplitscreen

Why Ice Levels Keep Showing Up In Video Games, Even Though Most Of Them Are Bad

In games as in life, slipping and sliding on ice patches while torrents of snow transform your eyelashes into crystalline daggers can be frustrating, to say the least. And yet, ice and snow levels are a time-honored trope in video games. On this week’s episode of Kotaku’s Splitscreen podcast, we try to figure out why…

By Nathan Grayson Published December 25, 2020

ReviewsYear in Review

Ari’s Top 10 Games Of 2020

The past year has been one endless, pitch-black night with a single burning, incandescent star: video games. I mean, can you imagine what 2020 would’ve been like without video games? I, for one, cannot. Better yet, it’s not like the annual release calendar was a dry spell, either. From tip to tail, the hits kept…

By Ari Notis Published December 25, 2020

Culture

CD Projekt Red Faces Investor Lawsuit Over Cyberpunk’s Messy Launch

Two weeks after the troubled launch of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red is facing a class action lawsuit. But the filing isn’t on behalf of players who may feel burned over a pre-release cycle that hid the state of the game on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Rather, it’s on behalf of investors. Yesterday, the…

By Ari Notis Published December 25, 2020

CultureOdds and Ends

I Went On Vacation And Ended Up In A Video Game

On a trip to a state park, I’m pretty sure my partner, my dog, and I stumbled into a video game. My own personal isekai Last weekend, my partner Travis and I took my dog and traveled three hours south to the Hocking Hills area of Ohio, where we stayed in a rented cabin for…

By Ash Parrish Published December 25, 2020

ReviewsYear in Review

The Biggest Video Game Disappointments Of 2020

God, this year sucked. Video games were supposed to be a reprieve from that, and in many ways they were. But in other ways they were just as messy, ill-fated, and broken as the year itself. Some of 2020’s big video game disappointments were minor setbacks or run-of-the-mill annoyances—the type of thing that might loom…

By Ethan Gach Published December 24, 2020

ReviewsMultiplatform

Cyberpunk 2077: The Kotaku Review

It’s been two weeks since Cyberpunk 2077 officially released. In my initial impressions, I wrote that I was ready for everyone—developer CD Projekt Red, the studio’s PR people, fans—to stop talking about the game and just let me play it. I’ve been playing steadily since before launch, but weeks later, it feels like there’s barely…

By Riley MacLeod Published December 24, 2020