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CultureThe Secret To The Success Of Bastion, Pyre, And Hades: No Forced Crunch, Yes Forced Vacations
It’s been ten years since Supergiant Games opened its doors. The team put all of their hopes into the studio’s debut game, Bastion, an action-RPG with a narrator. It succeeded with flying colors. Since then, the studio has released Transistor, Pyre, and Hades, every single one receiving critical acclaim and financial success. The team’s big…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 13, 2019 -
UncategorizedNobody Knows What’s Up With Tomb Raider‘s Eighth DLC
Back in April, players of the most recent Tomb Raider noticed something surprising. An in-game menu that was being used to list new downloadable tomb levels suddenly listed an eighth slot. The game’s publisher had only ever promised seven. At the time, there was still one more of the game’s seven announced bonus tombs to…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 13, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsSix Hours In, Borderlands 3 Just Feels Like More Borderlands (And It’s Kinda Busted)
Borderlands 3 is almost certainly the game that you think it is. Six hours in, a lot of my feelings remain the same as they were when I first played Borderlands 3 at an extended preview last month. In a lot of ways it’s a time capsule, in some ways embarrassingly retrograde in its sensibilities,…
By Joshua Rivera Published September 13, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsMy New Favorite Way To Play Pinball On Switch
Today’s release of Zen Studios’ Star Wars Pinball for the Nintendo Switch gave me an idea. I’ve been playing my Switch docked and connected to this cool little portable 15.6-inch Viotek monitor, and Zen’s Switch pinball games support vertical play, so what if we turn the portable monitor on its side? Perfection. There are plenty…
By Mike Fahey Published September 13, 2019 -
ReviewsMultiplatformFinal Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers: The Kotaku Review
Shadowbringers, the latest expansion to Final Fantasy XIV, released two months ago, and I cannot begin to fathom the amount of time I have spent in the worlds of Eorzea and Norvrandt. Shadowbringers is one of Final Fantasy’s finest stories, buoyed by powerful music and sweeping gameplay changes that make job classes sleek and enjoyable.…
By Heather Alexandra Published September 13, 2019 -
ReviewsToysI Have Several Issues With This Year’s Halloween Pokémon Toys
Pikachu as Mimikyu. Charmander as Cubone. Lucario and Celebi as live-action role-players. This year’s batch of special Halloween-themed “Pumpkin Parade” plushies from The Pokémon Company are adorable at first glance. But if you look closely, the cute facade begins to crumble. Let’s start with Charmander wearing another Pokémon’s dead mother’s skull as a costume. Depending…
By Mike Fahey Published September 13, 2019 -
CultureWhat Are You Playing This Weekend?
The weekend is for going to my neighborhood block party, which will hopefully be full of sweet neighborhood gossip. It’s also for playing video games! It has been way too long since I checked in on Subnautica Below Zero. Hopefully you can pet the penguins by now. Stealth game The Light Keeps Us Safe also…
By Riley MacLeod Published September 13, 2019 -
UncategorizedJoshua and I are streaming Borderlands 3 right now live on our Twitch channel! Come join us in the chat.
By Paul Tamayo Published September 13, 2019 -
OpinionImpressionsKind Words Is A Game Where You Send Confessional Letters To Online Strangers
“I always read the stuff people send me the wrong way,” a stranger on Kind Words, a new PC game where you write and receive confessional letters. “I read it as if they are upset with me and don’t want to talk to me. They’ve always told me this isn’t how they feel, but I…
By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published September 13, 2019 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryI Never Got Into Real Hockey But I Love NHL Video Games
I couldn’t tell you the name of the cover athlete of EA’s NHL 20 off the top of my head. For that matter, I couldn’t identify the players on the cover of NHL 18 or 19 ,despite both games still being installed on my Xbox One dashboard. I have little knowledge of the real-life sport…
By Mike Fahey Published September 13, 2019 -
CultureHow To Play Long Video Games When You Have No Time
For a lot of gamers with demanding jobs, marriages and/or families, the excitement of reading good reviews for games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is tempered by the sinking realization that they’ll never have time to play them. How do you make time for a 60+ hour game when you have…
By Keza MacDonald Published September 13, 2019 - Uncategorized
Nicalis founder Tyrone Rodriguez posted a statement on Twitter last night in response to a Kotaku investigation into his racism and mistreatment of employees. Addressing the former but not the latter, he did not apologize but called his comments “indefensible and unacceptable.”
By Jason Schreier Published September 13, 2019 -
ReviewsSwitchDaemon X Machina: The Kotaku Review
Daemon X Machina, out September 13 from Marvelous, is a game about gigantic customizable mechs. Here is another way to describe it: the worst filler episode of your favorite anime series. It is a mess of a game, with a story mode chock full of unintelligible cutscenes, repetitious anime tropes, and a core of mech…
By Natalie Degraffinried Published September 13, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanThe Merchandise Of The 2019 Tokyo Game Show
When you go to the Tokyo Game Show, you can play games. But if the lines are too long, you can buy stuff. Your choice! As in years’ past, TGS has a dedicated merchandise area. Certain things sell out, so if you are planning on going (and know what you want to buy), do your…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 13, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanThe Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro Is Massive In-Person
The images SNK have released do not convey the actual size of the Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro. It’s humongous. The stick comes packaged with 20 games and can be connected directly to the TV or PC, plug-and-play style. Huge arcade sticks aren’t uncommon, but this one seems especially jumbo. It seems that SNK also…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 13, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanWhy It’s Taken So Long For A New Space Channel 5 Game
It was at 1999 that the first Space Channel 5 debuted at the Tokyo Game Show. Now twenty years later, the classic music game is back. Following the success of the original Space Channel 5, Sega released a GBA version and a sequel called Space Channel 5 Part 2. While the main character Ulala had…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 13, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanThe Persona 5 PlayStation 4 Looks Beautiful
To mark the release of Persona 5: The Royal, Sony is releasing a special Persona 5 themed PlayStation 4 Pro. It looks quite nice! The Persona 5: The Royal PS4 Pro Limited Edition will be on sale between September 12 and December 25 in Japan
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 13, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanHands-On With Death Stranding: The Umbrella
Hideo Kojima’s upcoming release Death Stranding isn’t playable at the Tokyo Game Show. But you can demo Death Stranding: The Umbrella. Full disclosure: Even though it’s overcast here today at the Tokyo Game Show, I was not able to test this demo umbrella outside in the rain. While Death Stranding: The Video Game is a…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 13, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanThe New Resident Evil Is Good (So Far)
I’ll be honest. When Project Resistance was announced, I was skeptical. A multiplayer Resident Evil? Surely, that cannot work, I thought. At the Tokyo Game Show, I got hands-on with Project Resistance, and from what I played, I realized that, yes, yes it can. Project Resistance is a four-on-one asymmetrical co-op multiplayer game. Four players…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 13, 2019
