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…

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…

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…

Popular 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…

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…

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…

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,…

The 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…

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.…

Brave Players Who Entered Combo Breaker Mystery Game Tournament Had To Play Some Weird Stuff

When you enter a gaming tournament, you usually know what you’re in for. Unless you’re entering a mystery game tournament. Do that, as dozens of people did at the Combo Breaker event in St. Charles, Illinois last weekend, and you’re playing the notorious Dong Dong Never Die. That’s just for starters. Weird picks followed in…

‘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:…

Streamer 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…

Sony Finally Killed Off The PS3 In Japan 

In Japan, currently there is only one model of PlayStation 3: the charcoal black 500GB version. Make that, was. This article was originally published on March 17, 2017. It has since been updated. March 23 Update – 4:32am: Sony Japan tells Kotaku, “PS3 shipment in Japan is ending ‘soon’ but the production of PS3 itself…

That’s A Good-Looking Pikachu Train

Since 2012, the Pokémon With You train has been making kids happy in Eastern Japan. Now, in 2017, it’s time for the train to get a makeover. Over the years, Japan has seen various Pocket Monster trains, including a Pokémon-covered bullet train. Originally, the Pokémon With You train was inaugurated to help lift spirits in…

Square Enix Announces New JRPG Lost Sphear For PS4, Switch, And Steam

The followup to I Am Setsuna is Lost Sphear, the latest release from Square Enix’s Tokyo RPG Factory. Here’s how Square Enix describes the game: The adventure of LOST SPHEAR begins in a remote town where a young boy, Kanata, awakens from a devastating dream to find his hometown disappearing. To stop the world from…

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