Sometimes A Weird Video Game Is Better Than A Polished One

I’ve been playing through Deadly Premonition and Binary Domain on Kotaku’s Twitch channel. One is an offbeat crime thriller and the other is a clumsy shooter about robots. They’re pure pulp. They’re also two of the best games I’ve ever played. Deadly Premonition and Binary Domain lack the refined technical polish or (supposedly) mature sensibilities…

Battle Chasers Works Much Better As A Video Game Than A Comic Book

In 2001, after a mere nine issues ending with an unresolved cliffhanger, popular fantasy comic series Battle Chasers was put on hold so creator Joe Madureira could pursue game development. If recently-released turn-based RPG Battle Chasers: Nightwar is any indication, it was a good move. The Battle Chasers comic book was pretty huge in the…

Despite Skepticism, Eevee Wins First Major Competitive Pokémon Tournament

After a season of competitive Pokémon players claiming that no one would win a major tournament with Eevee, Jeremy Rodriguez has pulled it off at one of the last events of this format: the Daytona Regional Championships. From the moment players learned Eevee would get a unique Z-move in Pokémon Sun & Moon that would…

Assassin’s Creed Origins‘ DLC Lets You Fight Zombie Pharaohs

Ubisoft today revealed details for Assassin Creeds Origins’ upcoming downloadable content, and it will involve Romans, mythological beasts, and zombie pharaohs. Here’s the full breakdown of the game’s $40 season pass: DLC 1 – The Hidden Ones: This story-driven expansion builds upon the growth of the Brotherhood, taking players years after the events of Assassin’s…

A Triumphant Father-Son Moment On Twitch

I have never beaten Dark Souls 3 and, also, I have never had a glorious father-son fishing moment. Part of why I love Twitch is because it lets me live those moments vicariously. ParoXitiCstreams himself fishing on Twitch, often with his son. He’ll take viewers to the tackle shop, on a kayak, at the pond, by…

Frostpunk Is A City-Builder Where You Can Eat The Dead

As a fan of any game with a temperature gauge, I’ve been excited about Frostpunk since the first snowy videos appeared. After playing a recent demo of the game’s opening hours, Frostpunk seems like it’s shaping up to be an interesting mix of city-building and survival. Frostpunkis currently in development by 11 Bit Studios, developers…

Middle-earth: Shadow of War: The Kotaku Review

When Shadow of Mordor released in 2014, its “nemesis system” was brilliant enough that many people hoped it would define a new generation of games. Years later, that vision of industry-wide character hierarchies that learn, evolve, and remember the player never came to pass. Shadow of War, the follow-up, further sophisticates its legion of orcs,…

In honor of the 20th anniversary of those annoying plastic keychain pets, Bandai America is releasing new Tamagotchi into the wild. The egg-shaped devices will hit stores in limited quantities on November 5 for $14.99. A small price to pay for an eating, pooping and dying digital friend.

Esports Team Jerseys Keep Getting More Athletic

In the early 2000s, pro gamers had much simpler uniforms. They wore cotton hoodies and T-shirts while competing for prize pools that were in the tens of thousands of dollars, rather than the hundreds of thousands. You can see how much has changed from looking at esports jerseys. SK Gaming, founded in 1997, is still…

Man Spends One Year Making Overwatch Themed Anime Tribute

In late 2016, a Korean blogger named Glayer made a short 28-second tribute to Overwatch’s D.Va based on the opening for the popular anime Himouto! Umaru-chan. Now in 2017, he’s finally finished the tribute.  As pointed out by tipster Sang, the clip clocks in at about 1:30, which is about how long the Himouto! Umaru-chan…

We’re starting up a playthrough of Binary Domain live now on Twitch Am I a robot? Are you a robot? Who knows!

Counter-Strike’s signature map, Dust2, is getting an official rework from Valve. The “updated, refined” version will be playable in beta form “soon.” For now, enjoy one whole screenshot

EVE Online Free Players Are About To Get A Lot More Stuff

Soon, EVE Online’s free-to-play players will be allowed to expand their spaceship repertoires. CCP Games is more than quadrupling the amount of ships that F2P players are able to fly, still for the low, low price of free. Added last year, the free-to-play mode lets players be active in the EVE universe gratis, albeit with…

Five Cool Games From Indiecade 2017

I spent the weekend in Los Angeles at Indiecade, an annual event that celebrates independent games of all sorts, from PC and console games to games where you put on costumes and pretend to be witches. Here are the coolest ones I got to play this year. The Black Widow The Black Widow is a…

Deadly Squishy Fingers Return To Call of Duty This Week

Gesture Warfare, the mode in which players kill each other with in-game gestures like smushing players with their fingers or zapping them from a distance by throwing up a finger gun, is returning to Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare through October 12. It’s all part of this month’s ongoing event, Halloween Scream. If you prefer…

World’s Best Smash 4 Player Lost Twice This Weekend To Upstart Players

Two unsigned, ambitious competitors shook up the competitive Super Smash Bros. 4 community last night after shutting down the game’s best player, Gonzalo “Zero” Barrios, in two fun-to-watch upsets. At the Big House 7, Smash 4’s biggest tournament in the midwest, Zero Suit Samus player Tyler “Marss” Martins and Corrin player Brian “Cosmos” Kalu each…