-
UncategorizedA Game About Geckos Battling Each Other With Vomit
Gecko Ridemption, a game about the very real struggles geckos face in captivity, is not entirely “good” in the traditional sense. But it’s extremely good in many others. Published by Adult Swim, it’s a 1v1 gecko combat point capture sports game… I think? Yeah! Sure! Basically, though, you and your opponent are both geckos, and…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 30, 2017 - Uncategorized
There’s A Starbucks At Blizzard’s HQ, And The Menu Is Great
Blizzard’s company headquarters in Irvine is a big, fancy place. So big that it has its own Starbucks, selling coffee with a Blizzard twist. While the main menu is of course the same as any other Starbucks, the specials at the moment are based on WoW: And Overwatch: And StarCraft: As you can probably tell…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 30, 2017 -
ReviewsBlame!: The Kotaku Review
Tsutomu Nihei’s Blame!, first published in 1998, is a masterpiece in comic story-telling. Its 2017 animated adaptation, recently released on Netflix, is nothing like it. Blame! the manga is a sprawling, desolate exercise in environmental story-telling, about a gunman wandering the ruins of an endless cyberpunk cityscape. It doesn’t have much to say, and makes…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 30, 2017 -
UncategorizedDanger Zone Is A Great Revival Of Burnout‘s Crash Mode
At age 16, many teens learn how to drive. When I was 16, I learned the opposite of how to drive, by which I mean I spent hundreds of hours playing Burnout 3‘s Crash Mode. For years, I waited for some kind of successor to that gleeful demolition derby, but it never came. Until now.…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 30, 2017 - Uncategorized
We’ve destroyed two giant robot bosses and continued to slash our way through the post-apocalyptic Souls-like The Surge on Twitch. Will we survive or will a giant mech stomp us into bloody paste? Tune in to the archive to find out. Also, if you’re interested in helping decide what we stream on Thursday, cast your…
By Heather Alexandra Published May 30, 2017 - Uncategorized
New Sims Game Pack Makes Teens More Realistic, For Better Or Worse
The Sims’ new Game Pack, Parenthood, makes growing sims behave more like real life teens and children. While the new mechanics are fun, they’re also very stressful. The aim of Parenthood is to add some dynamism to families. I was really looking forward to this one—in the base game, there’s not a lot going on…
By Gita Jackson Published May 30, 2017 -
UncategorizedPyre, the next game from the creators of Bastion and Transistor, is coming to PC and PS4 on July 25. It’s got cool art and a unique battle system that lets you choose from a variety of characters. Our own Stephen Totilo got to play it last year, and he described it as a “sort of…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 30, 2017 - Uncategorized
A Nostalgic Game That Spills Out Into Your Internet Browser
If the medium is the message, then AOL’s messaging software—at least for my generation—has the same sentimentality as whatever we talked about over it. That’s the pitch of Emily Is Away Too, a new visual novel that plays out in “EOL” Instant Messenger windows, away messages and personal profiles. I played its predecessor, 2015’s Emily…
By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published May 30, 2017 - Uncategorized
Top Video Game Companies Won’t Stop Talking About ‘Games As A Service’
There was once a time when video game developers would make a game, release it, and then move onto the next big thing. That time has long since passed. These days, you’re more likely to see a new Metroid than you are to buy an AAA game that’s never updated, patched, or enhanced in some…
By Jason Schreier Published May 30, 2017 -
EsportsPopular Smash Bros Flash Game Gets Huge Update, New Characters
Super Smash Flash 2, a fan-made Super Smash Brothers tribute by Mcleod Gaming, that features anime characters like Naruto and Goku alongside Nintendo heroes like Mario and Samus, just pushed out a big new beta featuring tons of new heroes. Many of these new additions hail from previous Smash franchises but are new to the…
By Maddy Myers Published May 30, 2017 - Uncategorized
Fire Emblem Echoes‘ DLC Removes All The Challenge
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia normally provides a solid challenge, but the latest downloadable content might make the game too easy. There’s a lot of DLC available for Fire Emblem Echoes, enough that Nintendo’s charging a very steep $44.99 for a season pass. While future content includes prologue chapters that tell the story of…
By Heather Alexandra Published May 30, 2017 - Uncategorized
Arms Players: Motion Controls Or Standard Controls?
Over the weekend a bunch of people had their first chance to play Arms, Nintendo’s upcoming rubber-band boxing game. If you played one of the hour-long “testpunch” betas, I have one question for you: motion controls, or nah? Arms can be played by detaching the Switch Joy-Con and moving them through the air: push them…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 30, 2017 - Uncategorized
Judging MomoCon’s Indie Games Competition
Each year Atlanta-area anime and gaming convention MomoCon selects five independently developed video games to honor in its Indie Games awards, and each year I help pick the winners. Here’s how games like The Banner Saga 2 and Talent Not Included made it into the top five this year. MomoCon (“momo” is “peach” in Japanese,…
By Mike Fahey Published May 30, 2017 -
UncategorizedThe Friday the 13th Game Isn’t Very Good
Friday the 13th has a lot in common with some of the sillier sequels in the film’s franchise: it’s great for a laugh, but not much else. Friday The 13th is an online multiplayer game based on the long-running horror franchise about Jason Vorhees and the teenagers he murders. Up to seven players are counselors…
By Gita Jackson Published May 30, 2017 - Esports
Overwatch Training Apps Gave Me A Way To Obsess But Not Improve
After a two-week regimen with a pro gamer training app, I’ve made a stunning transformation into… a slightly better Overwatch player. Dojo Madness, an app developer with a whopping $12.75 million in venture capital funding, has put out four different video game training apps for League of Legends, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Overwatch.…
By Maddy Myers Published May 30, 2017 - Uncategorized
‘Life Is Unfair’: A Q&A With Nier: Automata‘s Director
Nier: Automata is both a wild action game and an introspective look at the things that make us human. We corresponded with director Yoko Taro via e-mail to talk about the game’s themes, what goes into writing memorable characters, and what he’d like video game players to stop doing. Here, in full, is our Q&A:…
By Heather Alexandra Published May 30, 2017 -
UncategorizedStreamer Jailbreaks Super Mario World Cartridge To Run Mods
Streamer and speedrunner Sethbling has taken Super Mario World hacking to the next level. Using a save glitch discovered by Cooper Harasyn, he’s managed to create a “jailbroken” Super Mario World cartridge with a mod-enabling hex editor built right in. Fooling around with Super Mario World code is usually a pretty complicated thing, as Sethbling…
By Mike Fahey Published May 30, 2017
