The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening: The Kotaku Review

The best feeling you can possibly feel while playing a video game is the act of swinging a sword in Zelda. I came to this conclusion recently, while playing the new remake of Link’s Awakening and trying to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes me love Zelda games so much. The answer, I think,…

Before The Harvest. Osaka, Japan. By Brian Ashcraft | Twitter JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: Deja Vu

Dreamcatcher is back again, and once more, they’ve taken a page from the Japanese Anime Opening School Of Music. Not that I’m complaining. I say once more, because Deja Vu is just the latest in their long line of songs that come from the same pedigree. See also: Chase Me, Good Night (especially this one)…

Disco Elysium, an off-kilter detective RPG I’ve had my eye on for what feels like forever, finally has a release date. It’s coming to PC on October 15 and boasts an inventive dialogue system rooted in a tremendous number of skills, where your character’s thoughts talk to you and tempt you. You can make your…

The Tankiest Of Tanks

Bruno Gauthier Leblanc is an art director at Eidos Montreal, the studio behind Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Thief and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided You can see more of Leblanc’s stuff at his personal site and ArtStation page

DOTA 2 Cheats Are Getting Their Asses Banned Until 2038

Valve released a matchmaking update for DOTA 2 yesterday, and as part of it, some players breaking the rules have begun receiving comically long bans. Valve’s notice for the updatesays it’s targeting “bad actors”, aka those with “exceptionally low behavior scores”, anyone buying or selling Steam accounts to get a higher rank, players “using exploits…

Eight Tips For Using The New Steam Library

Yesterday, Steam’s first big library overhaul in eons entered open beta. The fresh coat of paint and (virtual) new shelves make for welcome additions, but it’s going to take some getting used to. Then there’s the new community-centric game page display, which somewhat ironically has the community divided. Here are some tips to help you…

Crying Suns Is Like FTL But With A Better Story

After raising over €72,000 in crowdfunded donations last year, Crying Suns is set to arrive on Steam tomorrow, September 19. Its art style and core mechanics both draw obvious inspiration from similar, years-old releases, with a narrative that constantly makes promises of answers over the horizon. Despite a dizzying opening determined to beat players over…

Player Spends $62,000 In Runescape, Reigniting Community Anger Around Microtransactions

“At this point, it’s no longer pay-to-play,” said a commenter on Runescape’s subreddit. “It’s pay-to-pay.” Controversy over microtransactions is rocking the community of 18-year-old fantasy online role-playing game Runescape. Criticism of the game’s allegedly predatory microtransactions bubbled over after a recent UK Parliament report referenced disordered levels of spending in video games, specifically flagging Runescape…

Mutazione Is A Super Chill Game About Raising Plants And Talking To Mutants

Mutazione, an indie game from Die Gute Fabrik out tomorrow on Steam, Apple Arcade and PlayStation 4, does a lot of things well, but what really caught my attention was how it captured the magic of growing plants. To see a plant grow from a cutting into a fully formed plant, to see the sprouts…

Truck Carrying Gaming Dice Spills Onto Highway, Rolls A Perfect 756,000

On Friday, September 13, a truck bound for the Georgia-based tabletop and video game company Trivium Studios took a turn too sharply, spilling 216,000 gaming dice onto Interstate 75 in Atlanta in what could be the biggest unintentional dice roll ever. According to Trivium Studios’ community manager, speaking to Kotaku about the incident, the truck…

The Internet Reacts To Sirfetch’d, Pokémon Sword‘s New Farfetch’d Evolution

Farfetch’d, the leek-carrying bird pal that’s been around since the original Pokémon games, is finally getting an evolution of his own. His buff new form, appearing exclusively in Pokémon Sword, is called Sirfetch’d, and the internet has some thoughts about this smug bird knight. According to the official Sword and Shield website, Sirfetch’d is incredibly…

I’ve Finally Gotten Tired Of Making My Video Game Characters Look Like Boring Slobs

I recently got my hands on Daemon X Machina, the new mech action game for the Nintendo Switch, and I was immediately dazzled—not by the power and might of my giant robot armor, or the weighty action of sci-fi combat—but by how much fun it was to style my mech and its pilot in some…

Two Months After Turning Off Local Chat And Angering Players, EVE Online Is Back To Normal

After 66 days in darkness, EVE Online is turning the lights back on: The infamous Nullsec blackout came to an end on Monday, enabling players to once again use the “local” chat channel to see other nearby players. The blackout was one of the first changes implemented in the game’s so-called “Chaos Era,” a time…

The First Puzzle Quest Is Still The Best

2007’s Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords combined tile-matching puzzles and role-playing game mechanics to create an incredibly compelling hybrid game that was near impossible to put down. One sequel, several spin-offs, and countless copycats later, the Switch version of the original Puzzle Quest is just as captivating as it was 12 years ago. Launching…

Speedrunners Are Demolishing Celeste‘s Difficult New Chapter

Celeste’s recently added epilogue, Farewell, is an extremely difficult but charming send-off to a fantastic game. A normal playthrough takes anywhere from four to five hours and is immensely challenging. Skilled speedrunners are completing it in less than 20 minutes. Farewell adds tons of new mechanics to Celeste and even teaches players some advanced techniques…