• Uncategorized

  The Year In Patch Notes [Updated To Version 1.02]

  2016 was a fine year for gaming at launch, but over the course of the past 12 months various updates and bug fixes have made it even better. Here are some of the year’s finest patch notes. Can you tell which games they are from? Before we jump into the notes for this year’s update,…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 30, 2016
• 

  Uncategorized

  I Introduced My Mom To VR For Christmas And She Took It Like A Champ

  On Christmas evening, after the rest of our extended family had fled to their respective homes, I hooked up my Oculus Rift to the new Razer Blade Pro, pushed aside the plants and cat food bowl on the keeping room table and introduced my 70-year-old mother to virtual reality. It went quite well. The idea…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 30, 2016
• Uncategorized

  A Friend Convinced Me To Shut Up And Enjoy Halo 3

  It took my buddy Dave several months to coerce me into playing play Halo 3 with him. “We should nail down our weekend plans,” he texted me on July 1st. “I’m thinking of getting an early start around 8 a.m. and just play straight through until we beat it.” “I can bring Mountain Dew and…

  By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published December 29, 2016
• Opinion

  A Game About Meeting Cool Weirdos At Train Stations

  Traveling for the holidays, I spent a lot of time sitting in trains and waiting on platforms. In the real world, it’s a pretty dry affair. In The Endless Express, it’s full of charm. Strange sounds play as bright trains shuttle wobbling creatures to and fro. It’s relaxing and makes for a Cool Indie Game.…

  By Heather Alexandra Published December 29, 2016
• 

  Uncategorized

  Furby Horror Game Captures The Terror Of Owning A ‘90s Robo-Pet

  ‘90s virtual pet horror game Tattletail, released yesterday, is a game specifically about my fear of Furbies. More specifically, it’s about how unoriginal, how generational and how predictable my fear of Furbies is. Tattletail taps the well of millennial capitalist terror that ‘90s Nickelodeon cartoons injected into our bloodstream. Your character wakes up in a…

  By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published December 29, 2016
• Uncategorized

  I Put A Bunch Of Celebrities In The Sims 4 And Drake Got Owned

  In The Sims 3 and 4, you can upload your creations to a virtual gallery for other players to admire and download for their own games. This means that virtually every celebrity has been made and is ready to download from the gallery. Today I decided to just throw a bunch in a house to…

  By Gita Jackson Published December 29, 2016
• 

  Uncategorized

  Pirates Leak Pokémon Prism After Nintendo Shuts It Down

  Pokémon Prism is a fan-made ROM hack for Pokémon Crystal. Over the course of eight years, creator Koolboyman and his team crafted a new Pokémon experience, which they hoped to release this Christmas. Nintendo hit them with a cease and desistfour days before release. Thanks to a group of pirates, the project still made it…

  By Heather Alexandra Published December 29, 2016
• Uncategorized

  The Parents Who Name Their Kids After Final Fantasy Characters

  The people who fell for Final Fantasy in its glory years when it was huge on the NES, Super NES and then the PlayStation are now adults. They’re having kids, and they’re the kinds of people who just might name their daughter Aeris or their son Kain. Giving your kid the name of a Final…

  Luke Winkie Published December 29, 2016
• 

  Culture

  Mafia 3 NPCs Realize They’re Supposed To Fall Now

  Today on Highlight Reel we have forced falls, takeoffs, landings, flips, horse kills, gritty reboots of the popular film The Santa Clause starring Tim Allen, and much more! Watch the video then talk about your favorite highlight in the comments below. Be sure to check out, like, and share the original videos via the links…

  By Chris Person Published December 29, 2016
• 

  Esports

  The Rise and Fall of Competitive Pokémon’s Most Hated Bird, Talonflame

  Talonflame, a fire/flying Pokémon, took over the competitive scene after it was added to the monster compendium with Pokémon X & Y. For the last three years, wise competitive players made sure to prepare for Talonflame’s appearance on the enemy team. Everything changed after the release of Sun and Moon. At first, many believed Talonflame…

  Jason Krell Published December 29, 2016
• CultureSplitscreen

  Podcast: AAA vs. Indie Development

  Kotaku friend and newly independent developer Matthew Burns joins us on this week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen to talk about the differences between AAA and indie development. We also talk Nier Automata, the must-watch Double Fine documentary (which Kirk finally started watching), and Star Wars: Rogue One. You can listen to this week’s episode on…

  By Jason Schreier Published December 29, 2016
• Culture

  Ask Dr. Nerdlove: Her Clingy Guy Friend Won’t Leave Us Alone

  Hello, all you electric blue sex-angels of the Twitternet. Welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the dating column that promises to introduce 2017 to the Chair Leg of Truth if it acts at all like its older brother. It’s the final column of the year and we’re going to talk about various dating anxieties from folks…

  Harris O'Malley Published December 29, 2016
• 

  Uncategorized

  Fahey’s Top Ten Games Of 2016

  When I’m not eating snacks or playing with toys, I like to relax with some video games. Through a careful selection process that mainly involved me staring at at a large list, shaking my head and swearing, I’ve managed to narrow the games I played in 2016 to ten favorites. I started off with a…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 29, 2016
• Uncategorized

  3DS Software Famed For Piracy Hit With Nintendo Takedown, Creator Says

  Freeshop is homebrew software touted as a tool used to download 3DS games that you already own. Most people, however, know Freeshop as a thing you can use to download entire 3DS games, free of charge (hence the name). Today, Freeshop’s main distribution source was hit with a DMCA notice. If you visit the old…

  By Patricia Hernandez Published December 28, 2016
• 

  Uncategorized

  Big Smash Bros. Melee Tournament Will Allow Controversial Controller

  Super Smash Bros. Melee players still compete at tournaments with the 15-year-old GameCube controller. But it’s got issues—namely, painful ergonomics and easily-degraded joysticks. So when Dustin Huffer introduced a modern controller into the Melee mix, he was shocked to hear that the huge, January, 2017 Smash tournament Genesis 4 was considering a ban. After a…

  By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published December 28, 2016
• 

  Uncategorized

  Final Fantasy XIV Players Create Their Own In-Game Theater Troupe

  Wanderer Sabaku met me at the foot of his mansion’s grand double stairway on the Diabolos server of Final Fantasy XIV. He was nearly twice my size and towered in a purple floor-length coat. A crown sat on his blue-gray head. He welcomed me from behind a partition and led me down some winding stairs…

  By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published December 28, 2016
• 

  Uncategorized

  Star Wars Video Game Players Honor Carrie Fisher

  All across the video game galaxy, players are gathering to memorialize Carrie Fisher, who died yesterday following a massive heart attack. The most prominent celebrations have taken place in the BioWare MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, where players are holding impromptu get-togethers in an area called House Organa, on the planet Alderaan. Fisher, of…

  By Jason Schreier Published December 28, 2016
• Uncategorized

  Kirk Hamilton’s Top 10 Games Of 2016

  Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A farmer, a hitman, and a little boy all walk into a bar. Everything’s moving in slow motion, so the bartender’s like, “Dishonored? I hardly even know ‘er!” No but seriously, folks, 2016 was a pretty great year for games. I had a hard time narrowing down my…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 28, 2016
• Uncategorized

  Life Is Hard, And Frog Fractions 2 Is Great

  To write about Frog Fractions 2, I spent three hours planting seeds and chopping wood in an entirely separate fairy resource management game. Finding Frog Fractions 2 was how I learned its first rule: It’s less about the game than the “fuck it” attitude you pick up on the ride. Frog Fractions 2 is the…

  By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published December 28, 2016
• 

  Uncategorized

  Day of the Tentacle Remastered, Titan Souls Headline PlayStation Plus Lineup for January

  There’s an interesting range of games in PlayStation Plus’ lineup next month. Most exciting to me is The Swindle, a steal ‘em up platformer I enjoyed a lot on PC. There’s also This War of Mine: The Little Ones, which adds what I’m sure is heart-wrenching content to an already heart-wrenching game. As ever, these…

  By Riley MacLeod Published December 28, 2016