I Accidentally Made A Nightmare Coaster In Parkitect

My park was hemorrhaging money, and lines for my steel coaster were depressingly empty. The only thing to do was take out a loan and try to make my ride less terrifying so people would actually get on it. Parkitect is a spiritual successor to the old Rollercoaster Tycoon games that I used to pick…

Final Fantasy XIV Update 4.5 Brings The Blue Mages Next Month

Before Final Fantasy XIV players can move on to this summer’s Shadowbringers expansion, we’ve got to finish the story of last year’s Stormblood. Part one of the epic conclusion arrives on January 8 in update 4.5, A Requiem For Heroes. A week later, the Blue Mages arrive. Blue Mages, one of the most player-requested professions…

Luke Plunkett’s Top 10 Games Of 2018

I played what felt like 1000 games in 2018, but I can only put ten of them on this list, so here we go. Here they are in absolutely no order other than the fact Odyssey was probably (I’m still stewing on it!) my game of the year. And before you ask “why isn’t [a…

Kerbal Space Program Can Do Transforming Macross Fighters

Since I last played the game years ago, and even then only for laughs, I haven’t been 100% on top of just what was possible with Kerbal Space Program these days. Turns out it can do (with some help from mods) transforming anime fighters. These Valkyrie were made by Colonel Cbplayer, who has built both…

The Best In Video Game Concept Art For 2018

My favourite feature here at Kotaku is Fine Art, a daily look at the concept art that goes into our favourite games. With the end of the year fast approaching, I thought it was time to look at some of the best work we’ve been able to showcase this year from some of the biggest…

Imperial Settlers Is A Damn Good Card Game

After what feels like years of gentle pressure (the game was released in 2014), I finally got around to playing some Imperial Settlers the other day. I regret not playing it sooner. A simple card game built around the idea that you’re an ancient civilisation expanding into new lands, Imperial Settlers is nominally based on…

War Has Changed

Scott Zenteno is a prop and environment artist based in Pasadena. You can see more of Scott’s work at his ArtStation page

Hearthstone Just Got Some Of Its Biggest Nerfs Yet

Yesterday, Blizzard dropped a Hearthstone balance update that could easily qualify as the most significant set of nerfs the game has ever seen. The Druid class, which from Hearthstone’s launch has been defined by the ability to “ramp” up its Mana pool and play more expensive cards at a faster rate than the opponent, will see…

Smash Ultimate‘s Big Boys Finally Kick Butt

There was a time when a popular Smash flex was showing someone that you could even beat them with Bowser, the hulking, slow-to-move Mario monster. Before Bowser’s huge form had even initiated an attack, it’s likely his opponent had already gotten in a shot or two. It’s not that he wasn’t powerful—he was, when he…

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe‘s Peachette Is Even More Interesting Than Any Of Us Predicted

Nintendo told us we could only stream New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch for exactly twenty minutes. So that’s what me and Paul did. You can relive our frantic act of improvised content-creation right here in this convenient YouTube archive. The game’s not out until January 11th, 2019, though we have…

FBI Seizes 15 DDoS-For-Hire Websites

Today, the FBI announced it took action against 15 domains that allegedly helped take down other people’s websites, game servers and other online services through distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The seizures comes a week before Christmas, which, the FBI says, is “a period historically plagued by prolific DDoS attacks in the gaming world.” The FBI…

Toy Somehow Makes Overwatch‘s Lucio Even More Adorable

The folks at Japanese toymaker Good Smile Company continue their quest to chibify the entire Overwatch roster with the Nendoroid version of Lucio. Look at his tiny tats! As Overwatch characters go, Lucio strikes me as one of the more confident, fun-loving members of the group. Good Smile’s tiny version captures his self-assured swagger perfectly.…

This day in history: Kids play the Epoch Cassette Vision, an early Japanese home gaming console, in a Tokyo department store on December 20, 1981. Cassette Vision was the most popular game console in Japan until the Nintendo Famicom came along in 1983.

Save The World By Building The Perfect Date For A Rampaging Monster

In the distant future, the world is beset by ferocious kaiju. These giant beasts threaten to destroy everything we hold dear. They are too strong to fight, which leaves only one option: romance. In Kaiju Super Datetech, which you can play on PC, Mac, or Linux, up to ten players work together to assemble a makeshift…

Gita’s Top 10 Games Of 2018

2018 has been a blur for me. It may just be that I’m in the last year of my twenties, or it could be that extreme events just did not stop happening this year. As with any year, I took refuge in games when I wanted to relax, enjoy myself, socialize with friends, or just…