Assassin’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…

Poison Suspected In Death Of Yoozoo Games’ Founder Lin Qi

Lin Qi, the billionaire founder of China-based League of Angels developer Yoozoo Games, died on Christmas, several days after being admitted to the hospital. Shanghai police are now investigating the 39-year-old’s death as a possible poisoning, according to the Associated Press. Known worldwide for microtransaction-based mobile and browser games like League of Angels and Game…

Dragon Quest Speedrunners Are Roasting Their Classic Consoles To Trigger Glitches

Japanese speedrunners say don't worry, the consoles are fine

Call Of Duty‘s 1980s Shopping Mall Map Gets The Little Details Right

Maybe it’s the 2020 pandemic blues, but I can’t get enough of Black Ops Cold War’s retro shopping mall map. “The Pines” is a standard 6v6 multiplayer map that was added earlier this month with the launch of Cold War’s Season One. It’s a New Jersey-based mall filled with retail flashbacks. I’ve gotten so distracted…

Let’s Talk About How Much Mass Effect 2 Rules

Mass Effect 2. It’s widely regarded as one of the best games of all time, a sweeping space opera that set the standard for modern role-playing games. One of us (Ari Notis) is just now playing it for the first time, ahead of next year’s remastered trilogy. The other (Ash Parrish) basically has a PhD…

Super Mario Sunshine Mod Turns Every NPC Into A Chuckster

Indie game developer Bread released a very special Super Mario Sunshine mod over the holidays that makes every NPC in the game able to heave Mario over their heads with no regard for his safety. What a great gift! This ability is lifted from the Chucksters, a group of throw-happy Piantas who form the crux…

After 2020 Decimated Live Fighting Game Events Great Online Play Is No Longer Optional

2020 sucked. You know it, I know it. It was amid this chaotic year that the fighting game community found itself pushed out of the arcades, hotels, and convention centers to which competitors had grown accustomed and into the unpredictable world of online play. Early on, organizers were unsure if the community could survive, but…

The PS4’s Spectacular Dreams Game Is Hurting From A Lack Of Players

When LittleBigPlanet creators Media Molecule launched the game-as-an-engine PlayStation 4 exclusive Dreams into early access in April 2019, I remember feeling a cautious optimism. The technology behind the game was impressive, letting people make their own music, games, and artwork with its robust toolset, then share it for others Dreamers to play within the platform.…

Hi Kotaku, as always, it’s been a huge honor getting to be the guest writer for the weekend. I love reading the comments and so many of you share so many awesome things, I always feel I’m learning so much (and also getting some really cool game recommendations). Please have a safe holiday season and…

What Games On Your Backlog Do You Want To Finish This New Year?

I asked this same question last year and looking back on the list of games I hoped to finish, I actually am surprised I got to quite a few of them. That includes Deadly Premonition, Radiant Historia, Pikmin 3, Link Between Worlds, Trace Memory, and No More Heroes. The link between them all is that…

Lost 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…

The Week In Games: Birds

It’s a pretty quiet week for game releases. Look at it as a chance to catch up on your backlog. Monday, December 28 Quell Reflect | Switch Cube Raiders | Switch Void Source | Switch Professor Lupo: Ocean | Switch Dungeon Limbus | Switch Hell Sports | Switch Tuesday, December 29 Wingspan | Switch Back…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…