Dev Offers Free Games For Steam User Reviews, Gets Nuked By Valve

Valuable life lesson: probably don’t do this. RosePortal Games, the developer of an RPG called Epic Quest of the 4 Crystals recently got caught offering compensation—in the form of free Steam keys—in exchange for Steam reviews. When Valve found out, they weren’t pleased. They wrote in a post on the game’s forums: “It’s come to…

What Works (And Doesn’t Work) In Today’s PS4 Firmware Update

If your PlayStation 4 looks a little different today, that’s because your machine probably updated overnight with firmware 3.00. While it’s a system update less sweeping than its version number implies, and the launch hasn’t been without hiccups and oversights, it comes with some pretty nifty new features. Here are the full patch notes for…

Destiny: The Taken King: The Kotaku Review

For most of last year, Destiny players have been spurred by hope and riled by impatience. We held out hope that this flawed but promising game would draw closer to its potential, despite our impatience with the sluggish pace of improvements. “Why do you even play Destiny?” a friend or acquaintance might ask, setting down…

Dota 2 Lost A Ton Of Players In September

So here’s an interesting statistic: Dota 2, Valve’s hugely popular MOBA game, lost almost 16 percent of its active players in September—the same month that the game’s long-awaited and much-hyped “Reborn” update finally went live for all players. Dota data (try saying that five times fast!) is easily available on Steamcharts, a third-party site that,…

New Horror Game Tries To Stop You From Playing It

If you ask me, the scariest things are the ones that feel a little too real Calendula is an upcoming horror game (currently on Steam Greenlight) that wants to be scary before you start “the game” proper. It might sound silly on paper, but even the main menu is eeeeeeeeeevil: So basically, the battle to…

The First Five Claymation Minutes Of Armikrog

What happens when the creators of two of the most beloved games of yore, Earthworm Jim and The Neverhood, join forces to fight crime? I don’t know, but they’ve made a lovely game together. Watch on YouTube here. I’ve been waiting to play the Kickstarter-backed Armikrog for what seems like ages but was actually under…

Thanks to Super Mario Maker (and Giant Bomb “editor”) Dan Ryckert, I was forced to commit a horrible act to finish this stage (5330-0000-0071-CCBE). Watch me play the whole thing here.

Nightwing DLC Is Arkham Knight’s Best Add-on So Far, But That’s Not Saying Much

The new DLC featuring one of my favorite Bat-characters is the best iteration of a bad formula Story spoilers follow for plot points in Batman: Arkham Knight, including the ending. The latest Arkham Episode designed to extend players’ relationship with the 2015 Bat-game has the same flaws as the Harley Quinn, Batgirl and Red Hood…

New League Of Legends Skin Makes Brand Look Like The Witch Doctor

Look at this fucking splash art. League of Legends developer Riot Games just added three new champion skins to the hit multiplayer game’s public beta, and staying true to the League brand, they all look very cool. Also very…Blizzard-y? Take Brand, for instance. His base appearance is a dude engulfed in flames with abs so…

Dear Lord, The PS4 Has Stickers Now

If you have ever thought to yourself, “Boy, the PS4 is great, I just wish it had stickers,” then oh man do I have good news for you. PS4 system update 3.00, which went live this morning, will finally add the one feature fans have been craving since the system launched in 2013: Stickers. Thanks…

They Made A Sequel to My Singing Monsters. Tell My Kids I Love Them.

Of all the free-to-play mobile games I’ve”donated” to, none received more of my hard-earned cash than Big Blue Bubble’s magical monster music game. Now there’s a sequel, and I am already hooked. My Singing Monsters is a clever combination of music and monster breeding. You begin with a single creature that makes a sound at…

An Ocelot Never Lets His Prey Escape

Revolver Ocelot, the eccentric gunfighter of the Metal Gear series, returned as a rather calm and reasonable figure in Metal Gear Solid V. He changed a lot. But for some people on YouTube, such as Lakitouille, it wasn’t enough. The top gif is just a tiny part of Lakitouille’s clip. He made an entire compilation…

Guy Builds Gaming Room With Fallout Vault-Tec Door

When the end comes, TreyHill will be safe. And his video games as well, since he built an authentic Vault-Tec Door from Fallout as an entrance to his gaming room. That’s really well done! I guess he’s ready for Fallout 4 To contact the author of this post, write to: [email protected]

Being a Cardboard Box Sure Looks Fun

And the game itself isn’t called Box Simulator, to boot. That’s a definite plus. Unbox, as it’s known, is an Unreal Engine 4 game about being a self-delivering (ie. live) cardboard box (via Screenshot Daily). It’ll be out on PC next year, featuring a single-player campaign based around physics platforming, and split-screen local multiplayer modes…