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ReviewsYear in ReviewThe State Of Xbox One In 2019
Nearing the end of its life, the Xbox One feels less like a box for spinning video game discs and more like a platform for selling digital subscriptions. The pitch of a mostly-digital future that blew up in Microsoft’s face the year the Xbox One launched is now mostly here in 2019 and it’s not…
By Ethan Gach Published December 3, 2019 -
CultureMario Kart Is Apple’s Most Downloaded Game Of 2019
Last night in New York City, Apple held its annual celebration of the best and most downloaded games and apps across its platforms. The iPhone game of the year is ThatGameCompany’s gorgeous social adventure Sky: Children of the Light, with the outstanding Hyper Light Drifter winning iPad game of the year. Neither of those critical…
By Mike Fahey Published December 3, 2019 -
CultureRed Dead Online Will Let You Make And Sell Moonshine Next Week
Get ready to make some moonshine, because the next big Red Dead Online update, releasing December 13, will add moonshine running, underground bars, and new missions, as well as a new Outlaw pass and weapon. Moonshiner is the first new career Rockstar has announced since adding roles in an RDO update in September. This new…
By Zack Zwiezen Published December 3, 2019 -
CultureDestiny 2‘s Next Season Is All About Osiris, Saint-14 And… Time?
Rough time for our biggest Destiny 2 expert to be on jury duty, folks, but here we are with some unskippable news. Bungie just posted a trailer to hype the Season of Dawn, which will run in Destiny 2 from December 10 through March 9. Whoa, that’s Saint-14! [Googles “Saint-14”…] Here’s the setup, spinning out…
By Stephen Totilo Published December 3, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformShenmue 3: The Kotaku Review
Shenmue has always straddled the line between the epic and the everyday. Yu Suzuki’s ambitious adventure game series is a story of globe-trotting vengeance and magical relics. It is also a story about helping an old lady around town, or wasting a day at the arcade. Shenmue III feels exactly like the classic that started…
By Heather Alexandra Published December 3, 2019 -
UncategorizedPersona 5 Royal drops on Playstation 4 on March 31 so you can start and never finish the sprawling JRPG all over again. The special edition adds more characters, a new part of Tokyo to explore, and an additional semester of school because who doesn’t want that?
By Ethan Gach Published December 3, 2019 -
CultureValve Finally Ran Out Of Steam Controllers
Valve’s Steam Controller, once useful for allowing players to enjoy their favorite games on televisions around the house, is pretty much dead. Following the Autumn Steam sale that drastically reduced prices, Valve is giving refunds as stock runs out. As reported by PC Gamer, the stock of Steam Controllers is drying up. The controller’s original…
By Heather Alexandra Published December 3, 2019 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryI Love Having My Own Spaceship In Video Games (And In Real Life)
Here’s a good way to win me over in both real life and in video games: Give me a damn spaceship. If you did, you’d find that the majority of my complaints against your considerable flaws (we all have them, except Toad, who is the best) would disappear. Because I now have a spaceship, and…
By Joshua Rivera Published December 3, 2019 -
UncategorizedThe console ports for CrossCode, one of last year’s excellent action RPGs, have been delayed until sometime next year. Deck13, the game’s publisher, says it’s currently working on the Xbox One version with PS4 and Switch to follow. The Post Game DLC is also still in the works.
By Ethan Gach Published December 3, 2019 -
UncategorizedResident Evil 3‘s Nemesis Is Still Terrifying
Resident Evil is the zombie horror game, but its shambling corpses are slow and easy to avoid. To reinvigorate the series, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis created an unpredictable nightmare man who attacked unpredictably with terrifying speed. It robbed players of their sense of control, and in doing so created one of gaming’s scariest monsters. This…
By Heather Alexandra Published December 3, 2019 -
CultureThe Art Of Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds
The Outer Worldsis one of the best games of the year, so it’s a treat tonight to be sharing some of the concept art that went into the game’s production. Below is a sample of work from some of the artists responsible for the game’s look, ranging from character art to weapon design to environments…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 2, 2019 -
CultureArkham Horror‘s April Fool’s Gag, Barkham Horror, Becomes Real Game
Earlier this year, Fantasy Flight’s April Fool’s joke was to announce an expansion to Arkham Horror’s card game called The Dogwich Legacy, in which the human heroes were replaced by dogs and the Lovecraftian horrors by cats. The joke came and went, but people loved it so much that it’s now an actual game. Barkham…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 2, 2019 -
CultureCivilization VI Bug Crashes Game Unless You Declare War
There’s a bug affecting the Switch version of Civilization VI at the moment that’s causing the game to crash just before the player claims victory, and the current solution is maybe not the most ideal for anyone with a pacifist’s approach to the game. This Reddit thread (via Eurogamer), beginning with one person complaining about…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 2, 2019 -
CultureYouTube Is Relaxing Its Rules Against Video Game Violence
In a “Policy enforcement update” posted earlier today, YouTube announced a series of changes coming to the site’s content moderation, most of them centred around new distinctions between actual real-world violence and the “scripted or simulated violence” you see in video games. Starting today, “scripted or simulated violent content found in video games will be…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 2, 2019 -
UncategorizedRiot Settles Lawsuit, Will Pay Every Female Employee Since 2014 With $10 Million Fund
Riot Games will pay out a huge $10 million proposed settlement collectively to every woman who has been employed by the company at any time over the last five years. The settlement is one of the largest in California history for a gender discrimination suit, says the plaintiff’s lawyer. The payout, which was first reported…
By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published December 2, 2019 -
CultureTwitch Briefly Bans One Of The Biggest Moderation Bots
If allowed to chatter and meme unchecked, Twitch chat can grow into an unstoppable avalanche of ugly behavior. Many streamers rely on at least a handful of volunteer or paid moderators, as well as chat bots that allow streamers to auto-block specific terms, stop spam before it starts, and quarantine questionable comments. Yesterday, Twitch accidentally…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 2, 2019 -
CultureInside Twitch’s Wildest Talk Show
It’s the beginning of another episode of the Rajj Show, a livestreamed reality show with what may euphemistically be described as 13 of Twitch’s strongest personalities, and already, it’s on a waterslide straight to hell’s navel. A new guest is immediately cut off after introducing himself as a lawyer who streams at night. “Can you…
By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published December 2, 2019 -
CultureMy Dad Would Like To Buy You A Drone For Christmas
Hi reader. Would you like a drone for Christmas? See, my dad really wants to give one to someone, and I’m trying to help him out. My dad loves tech toys, and often buys them for himself for Christmas. Many years ago I awoke on Christmas morning to find that my dad had haphazardly wrapped…
By Gita Jackson Published December 2, 2019 -
ReviewsControllersLet’s Hear It For Controllers That Glow Just Because They Can
This is PDP’s $50 Afterglow Wireless Deluxe Controller for the Nintendo Switch. I have many third-party game pads for the Nintendo Switch, with all sorts of special features. While the Afterglow has a couple of neat customization features, its main draw is glowing. That’s why I am using it. Glowing is great. Many PC peripherals…
By Mike Fahey Published December 2, 2019 -
ReviewsYear in ReviewThe State Of The Nintendo Switch In 2019
2019 was the year of the Switch. Wii U is so far in the rear view mirror now that it all just feels like a bad dream. 2019 was the year that Nintendo proved that its console, a true hybrid machine that works just as well as a TV-based player as it does a portable,…
By Chris Kohler Published December 2, 2019