I Love How Mimics Work In The Dark Souls Series

The mimic is a unique video game monster in the Dark Souls universe. These games reward players who pay attention and punish players who cavalierly make their way through the world. The mimic is the ultimate encapsulation of that design ideal. Mimics, well, mimic chests in the game, and when you go to open the…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Give Me All The Dogs, Winners!

I asked for dogs, and you gave me dogs. Lots and lots of dogs, some of them excelling at their craft, and others just hanging out. It’s the perfect storm of dogs and video games, so let me show you the submitted images that I enjoyed the most. Last week I politely requested dog mashups,…

Dota Team Ambushes Opponent With Sneaky Teleport Play

In last night’s Dota Asia Championships, the home-crowd team LGD Gaming was in a bit of a bind against Virtus.Pro. The high ground of their base was broken and VP was knocking on the door, but LGD did have one thing left: the element of surprise. Hiding in Roshan’s pit was a single Dire siege…

The Weekend In Esports: Welcome To Miami

The League of Legends spring split playoffs are this weekend, and North America is headed to sunny Miami for the big dance. Normally the spring split playoffs are just a nice test of the waters between teams. The winner gets some good points towards worlds qualification, but the summer split has always felt like the…

This Week in the Business: Loot boxes, clones, and the industry’s problem with women

QUOTE | “Simply being aware that they are available for purchase reduces the immersion in the world and takes away from the challenge of building your personal army and your fortresses.” – Monolith Productions acknowledges that the impact loot boxes had on Shadow of War in a blog post announcing their removal from the game…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for finally doing your taxes, partially because you’re running out of time and partially for the smug satisfaction of saying you did them “early” because you didn’t wait until the absolute last minute. It’s also for video games. I finally cleared out an area of Far Cry 5 and am determined to…

Tips For Playing Pharah From An Overwatch Pro

In Overwatch, I’m a Pharah main, but I have a problem: I’ve ridden her signature jetpack boosts all the way to my personal ceiling. So naturally, when confined in a small room with a person who, at times, has been called one of the best Pharahs out there, I had to ask: what should I…

Little Dragons Cafe is the latest game from Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada. It’s about running a cafe and raising a dragon—you know, normal small-town life stuff. Wada’s recent track record hasn’t been super hot, but this one at least looks nice. It’ll be out on PS4 and Switch this summer.

GTA Online Has A New Mode That’s Fun Even If You Play With Strangers

GTA Online received an update this week that added a brand new co-op racing mode, Target Assault. Usually I’m not a big fan of co-op modes in GTA Online—my friends aren’t always playing, and teaming up with randos can be frustrating. Target Assault, however, is perfect for lone wolves. Target Assault is an entirely new…

The Story Of Two Games That Took Forever To Make

Earlier this week, Chasm, the years-in-development action-adventure platformer inspired by games like Super Castlevania IV, finally got a release window of summer 2018. Below got similar news last month when its developers announced that the long-awaited roguelike would be out before the end of the year. It’s been a long road for both games, but…

What To Expect From Monster Hunter: World‘s Spring Blossom Festival

Monster Hunter: World offers a rotation of temporary quests with some pretty great rewards but they tend to come and go quickly. The game’s newest event, the Spring Blossom Festival, not only brings back old quests so players can get awesome loot but transforms the hub world into a bright garden full of special meals…

Overwatch Pro Says He Wishes His Dramatic Reprimanding Hadn’t Been Filmed

After a hot-and-cold season with Overwatch League team the LA Valiant, DPS player Brady “Agilities” Girardi found himself in a rainy In-N-Out burger parking lot with team CEO Noah Whinston. And a camera person. The resulting official “Inside LA Valiant” video segment, in which Whinston informed Agilities that he had one last shot at making…

Far Cry 5 Smartly Prunes The Far Cry Skill Tree

Compared with its most recent predecessors, Far Cry 5 makes some big changes to how you upgrade your character. Almost all of those changes are for the better. After spending 40-some hours finishing Far Cry 5, I thought I’d go back to its 2014 Himalayan predecessor Far Cry 4 and compare the two. (2016’s Far…

Some Ways To Make Crusader Kings 2 Less Intimidating

The confusing, fascinating historical strategy game Crusader Kings 2 is free on Steam until Saturday. If you picked it up, here are a few tips to get you started. Play The Learning Scenario The most intimidating thing about Crusader Kings 2 is the user interface. There’s a lot of stuff on screen, and none of…

Final Fantasy XV Is Never, Ever Going To End

Today at PAX East, Square Enix released this image (via ResetEra), proving definitively and thoroughly that Final Fantasy XV will never end thanks to downloadable content that’s currently planned through mid-2019. First up is Episode Ardyn, then Episode Aranea, then Episode Luna, then Episode Noctis, then Episode Bahamut, then Episode That Guy Who Looks Like…

The Worst Part Of Fortnite‘s Popularity Is The PUBG Snobs

Six months after gritty survival shooter PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ debut, the cartoony, lighthearted survival shooter Fortnite Battle Royale came along. If Battlegrounds is the pitbull of this genre, Fortnite is the golden retriever. One of its weapons is the “boogie bomb.” There’s a gingerbread man skin and a “bear force one” glider. Lots of kids play,…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: My Friends Say I Should Just ‘Date An Ugly Girl’

Hello all you beautiful urchins of impending doom, and welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the dating advice column with the skill of gymnastics and the kill of karate. This week, it’s all about the setbacks and disappointments. When you’re dealing with a dating slump, is it ok to do whatever it takes to break out…

Ready Player One Themed Roblox Event Becomes A Big Mess

Starting March 12th, as a sponsored promotion for the Ready Player One movie, Roblox, a Minecraft-esque MMO that also allows players to create their own games, held their own easter egg hunt of sorts. After a grueling set of challenges a player called R0cu was declared the winner of the event on April 3rd. However,…

Kotaku XP: Spider-Man, Spyro And Some Much-Needed Patches

We’ve got an Overwatch League faux pas, a big week for Insomniac fans, some posture advice, the next footnote in the history of the war against loot boxes, and even more on Kotaku XP, our weekly video roundup of what the heck is going on with games and the people who play them. This week,…