What Are You Playing This Weekend? 

The weekend is for figuring out what to do with the two pounds of squash you have in the freezer. Also, video games. I am more determined than ever to finish The Witcher 3. Come back next week for when I haven’t finished it. What about you? What are you playing?

Culdcept: Revolt Proves Once More How Great Monopoly And Magic Go Together

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this month, the Culdcept series is a unique combination of the property grabbing of Monopoly with the card-based monster battles of Magic: The Gathering. The latest installment, Culdcept: Revolt, is a very good reason to root around for your 3DS charger. My 3DS hasn’t gotten a lot of use since the…

Don’t Sleep On Oxenfree, A Spooky Adventure Game Now On Switch

If you’re into indie games and have a Switch, you’re drowning in options right now. Even though Stardew Valley and Golf Story are begging to eat up all your free time, don’t forget Oxenfree, a charming adventure game about being a teen, and also ghosts. Oxenfree is billed as a horror game, but it’s mostly…

SNES Classic Hacking Is Moving Rapidly

The Super Nintendo Classic has been out only a week and already there are videos circulating about how to add your own games. Like the NES Classic before it, this new retro device seems prime for emulation, and progress is moving very fast. There’s no way to officially add new Super Nintendo games to the…

Satanists Say Video Games Help Them Practice Their Religion

In survival game Ark: Survival Evolved, Church of Satan member Citizen V (his “under the horns name”) ignores the naked and empty-handed low-level players who supplicate at his tribe’s floating base. It’s an opulent base where his tribe hatches pteranodons and cultivates their naval armada. “Anyone worth my time, who enriches my life and brings…

Big Divinity: Original Sin 2 Patch Improves Final Act, Nerfs Chickens

It’s quite an achievement that Divinity: Original Sin 2 launched mostly functional despite how massive it is. That said, the experience had a few patches of pimples. Some quests were unclear or busted, it was too hard to talk your way through act 4, and most glaringly, chickens were way overpowered. Today, a big update…

Stardew Valley‘s Unexpectedly Realistic Take On Getting Rejected

Video games are very good at teaching, even if they have to repeat the lesson over and over. Sometimes the lesson is “don’t fall into that bottomless pit.” Other times it’s “she’s just not that into you.” This post originally ran on 3/07/2016. I’m bumping it up with minor edits because Stardew Valley just came…

Gundam Versus Buries A Good Game Under A Ton Of Unlockables

Giant robots are awesome and Gundam Versus has some of the best. But can a game offer you too many options? Heather takes a look in this critical video. Transcript: Gundam Versus is a fast affair full of laser swords, dashes, and sudden death. The game focuses on arcade battles between giant robots called mobile…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: My Coworker Won’t Stop Negging Me

Hello all you happy shiny pervert people of the Internets, and welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating advice column left standing in the Shatterdome. This week we’re talking about the unexpected twists and turns life throws your way. What do you do when you meet someone who may be perfect for you… but…

Getting Over It Is A Game About Using A Sledgehammer To Climb A Mountain

My longtime friend Bennett Foddy makes frustrating video games. You might have played QWOP, or GIRP. Somehow, making purposely frustrating video games about humans with malfunctioning legs landed Foddy a job teaching game design at NYU. In other words, the universe conspired to inspire him to keep doing it. So we absolutely deserve his latest…

Help I Don’t Know What To Do With These Damn PS2 And Wii Games

Yesterday I performed the holy ritual of moving to a new apartment, which means that my body is sore and there’s unassembled furniture everywhere. Also, I don’t know what to do with my old video games. While unpacking boxes yesterday, I dug up a bag full of PS2 and Wii games that I haven’t touched…

A Game Where No One Tells You Not To Play With Your Food

Nouris an art game about the beauty of food and playing with what you eat. With a few slaps of the keyboard, a ramen bowl gets packed with noodles while boba balls leap into tea cups. It’s silly but gorgeous. It’s this week’s Indie Pick. Made by TJ Hughes aka Terrifying Jellyfish, Nour seeks to…

This Is Either The Best Or Worst Thing In Shadow Of War

Forget the nemesis system, loot boxes, or the well of charisma that is Talion of Middle-Earth, the element of the new Shadow of War game that I’m currently most torn on is its ancient poetry mini-game. In the midst of this game full of bloody orc combat, in between moments of interrogating and decapitating your…

Star Fox 2 Is A Time Capsule Worth Opening At Least Once

One, sixty-four, zero, two. That’s the order of release for Nintendo’s Star Fox series, and it’s the order that I’ve now played them. Star Fox Adventures and Command turned up in the middle, if we’re also counting releases with subtitles instead of numbers. The most recently released game on that list, Star Fox 2, was…

Pinball FX 3gives Zen Studios pinball fans a very good reason to return to their old tables. Every table in the free-to-download game features unlockable upgrades and special abilities, which help players master mechanics and rack up higher scores. The call of “one more game” is very hard to resist.

Battle.Net Gets New Social Features

Blizzard’s Battle.net service is giving players what they want—access to their gaming friends on every device, whenever. It’s a push for hyper convenience, but will undoubtedly lead many players to wonder which chat service they should use. On Battle.net’s beta version of its desktop app, a “Social” tab is now visible. Players can voice or…

Everything You Didn’t Know About Drifting In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Every single time you do a drift in Mario Kart, you charge up a speed boost that unleashes when you exit the drift. But there’s a lot more happening under the hood when it comes to this speed boost: how fast it charges, how long it lasts, and whether or not it’s actually going to…

Telltale’s Batman Appears To Use Real Photo Of Assassinated Russian Ambassador [Update]

The latest episode of Batman: The Telltale Series looks to use a photo of assassinated Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov to depict the aftermath of a Gotham robbery. Warning: Graphic imagery. The image appears in the recently release Episode 2: The Pact when Bruce Wayne and Alfred are researching crimes. Kotaku has reached out to Telltale…

One Piece Turned Into A Massive Buddhist Rock Garden

To celebrate One Piece’s 20th anniversary, Buddhist temple Daikaku-ji in Kyoto is holding a special One Piece exhibition, with mixes the pirate characters with traditional Japanese motifs and art styles. One of the exhibit’s most impressive displays is an 800-square meter Japanese garden with a scene showing Luffy fighting a Nue, a Japanese-style chimera.  The…