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OpinionImpressionsThe Last Campfire Is A Totally Chill Puzzle Adventure
The Last Campfire, the latest from No Man’s Sky studio Hello Games, is a perfect game for unwinding. There’s no urgency to hero Ember’s journey through the mysterious world they’re trapped in at the beginning of the story. It’s about wandering lush fantasy environments and solving puzzles as lovely music plays. Push some blocks, light…
By Mike Fahey Published August 28, 2020 -
OpinionPlease Keep Making Silly Soccer Games
Alpaca Ball: Allstars is an upcoming soccer game from Austrian developer Salt Castle Studio. It features alpaca using their long necks as clubs to score goals. I will buy it when it launches on October 15. I hope developers never stop making games that are just “soccer but silly.” While this is a relatively recent…
By Ian Walker Published August 28, 2020 -
OpinionCall Of Duty Trailer Recklessly Promotes Far-Right Conspiracy Theory
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s debut trailer—which has already attracted controversy—gives a lot of airtime to Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov and his views. Views which have, in recent years, become a dangerous rallying cry for far-right conspiracy theories and the people who peddle them. The teaser, which was released last week to hype…
By Ian Walker Published August 27, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsTell Me Why‘s First Episode Is Too Real
In a way, the first episode of Tell Me Why wants to convince you that people aren’t as bad as you think. It’s a weird message for me, a trans man playing a video game, to hear—both video games and the people who surround them can be worse than I think, and I’m constantly braced…
By Riley MacLeod Published August 27, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsControl’s AWE Expansion Leans Into Horror, And It’s Rad
Horror has always seemed right around the corner in Control. There’s a refrigerator that always needs to be looked at or it’ll kill you. A rubber duck teleports around maliciously. Your double is plotting your demise in a mirror world. Even so, horror was always the game’s selective spice, used sparingly to break up the…
By Cameron Kunzelman Published August 27, 2020 -
OpinionMaybe Just Delay Next-Gen Already
The Xbox Series X comes out in November, probably around the same time as the PS5 if Sony ever gets around to announcing its release date. But they don’t need to come out then. In fact, maybe it would be for the best if they were just delayed until some time next year. Lately I’ve…
By Ethan Gach Published August 26, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsWarframe‘s New Flesh Planet Is A Wild But Disjointed Ride
Warframe’s greatest strength is also its most intangible: It commits. Whether it’s the core idea of outer space ninjas who front flip down hallways at a million miles per hour or a full-on Hadestown-style musical intro for a planet focused on labor issues, Warframe is 100 percent all-in on everything it does. So when developer…
By Nathan Grayson Published August 26, 2020 -
OpinionAsk KotakuDo You Still Prefer Physical Games?
It’s Monday and time for Ask Kotaku, the weekly feature in which Kotaku-ites assemble to deliberate on a single burning question. Sometimes a serious one, other times less so; mostly it’s just a nice opportunity to talk more about video games. You down? This week we Ask Kotaku: Do you still prefer physical games? Fahey Prefer?…
By Alexandra Hall Published August 24, 2020 -
OpinionWith FreeFortnite Cup, Epic Continues Dragging Players Into Its Anti-Apple Crusade
While Epic and Apple wage their corporate war over the App Store, there’s not a lot Fortnite players can do but wait and see. This weekend, Epic is bringing its fight into the game once more with the #FreeFortnite Cup, a tournament in which players can win a nefarious-looking apple skin and even other consoles…
By Riley MacLeod Published August 21, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsFinally, A Video Game Worthy Of Samurai Jack
Samurai Jack, Genndy Tartakovsky’s excellent animated martial arts drama, debuted on Cartoon Network in December of 2001. It ran until 2004, returning for a fifth and final season on Adult Swim in 2017. In all that time only two games were made based on the series, and they weren’t great. Now, three years after the…
By Mike Fahey Published August 21, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsRaji: An Ancient Epic Is A Beautiful Exploration Of Love And Gods
Raji: An Ancient Epic plays like an epic poem. Shadow puppet cutscenes help tell the story of main character Raji and there are murals all over the world displaying stories from Hindu mythology. The music aids the grandness of the storytelling, with a sitar frantically strumming in time with Raji’s spear swipes or the wail…
By Ash Parrish Published August 21, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsChill Out, Battletoads
I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to call Battletoads 2020. A long-awaited sequel? A spiritual reboot? A love letter to an old classic whose most memorable quality was that hardly anybody could beat it? In any event, it feels good to play in short bursts, but its humor and chaos overshadow it. I wanted…
By Ethan Gach Published August 20, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsSpiritfarer Is A Chill, Touching Take On A Stressful Genre
Spiritfarer, which is described by developer Thunder Lotus Games as a “cozy management game about dying,” came out yesterday for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. I’m only a few hours into this massive, striking game—it’s reportedly 30 to 40 hours long—but those words seem remarkably accurate so far. To play Spiritfarer is…
By Ari Notis Published August 19, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsRogue Legacy 2 Is Definitely More Rogue Legacy So Far
Rogue Legacy 2, now available in early access on Steam, leans heavily on the first two nouns in its title. It’s a roguelike in which the player guides generations of adventurers through a grand castle in search of fame and fortune, leaving behind a legacy for the next family member to take up the cause.…
By Ian Walker Published August 19, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsThe New Total War Is Not A Complete Mess
Total War is a series whose games can swing wildly between “all-time classics” and “oh no”. So a few years back, developers Creative Assembly had a very good idea: in between major releases, they’d work on smaller, more experimental games, where they could test new ideas and features before rolling them out into the bigger,…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 18, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsEA UFC 4 Has Some Clever Surprises, But It’s Mostly More Of The Same
Sometimes, when an MMA fighter takes a couple years off, they come back transformed, throwing out so many new looks and techniques that it’s like they spent their entire time away in an extended training montage. Other times, they’re pretty much the same as before, but a little creakier, a little rustier, and a lot…
By Nathan Grayson Published August 18, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsSo Glad I Finally Discovered The Sci-Fi Puzzle Adventure Observation
“I am here.” You’ll hear that line often over the course of Observation, a puzzle-adventure game that came out last year for PC and PlayStation 4 and earlier this summer for Xbox One. (It’s also included in the Xbox Game Pass library.) If you’re looking for a short, satisfying adventure to help you weather the…
By Ari Notis Published August 18, 2020 -
OpinionAsk KotakuAsk Kotaku: What Was The First Game That Disappointed You?
It’s Monday, and that means it’s time for Ask Kotaku, the weekly feature in which Kotaku’s rank and file weigh in on the burning questions of our times. Sometimes serious, sometimes less so. Mostly it’s just another excuse to talk vidya games. You down? This week on Ask Kotaku: What was the first game that…
By Alexandra Hall Published August 17, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsEVE Online On Your Phone Is Enjoyable, If You Squint Enough
Officially launching this week on iOS and Android, EVE Echoes is all of the mining, exploring, transporting, pirate-fighting, fleet-battling action of CCP’s venerable science-fiction MMO in convenient portable form. See all of that tiny text? I might need a bigger phone. EVE Echoes wastes no time getting into the swing of things. Within the first…
By Mike Fahey Published August 14, 2020 -
OpinionEverything About This Sucks
I woke up this morning to the news that Epic Games, a plucky corporate underdog worth $17 billion, was trying to enlist the world’s help in taking on Apple’s “anti-competitive” practices. And my skin wanted to crawl right off my body. In case you’re just joining us, earlier today Apple booted Fortnite from the App…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 13, 2020