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ReviewsMultiplatformEA UFC 3: The Kotaku Review
In MMA, there are fighters who’ve got all the potential in the world, but continually fail to put the pieces together. My heart breaks each time they steal a round from a canny vet, only to be force-fed a diet of dirt and canvas dust in the second. A slip or two on the way…
By Nathan Grayson Published February 2, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatformCeleste: The Kotaku Review
Celeste is pure. Each room offers new challenges, but the solution is always the same: jump. Jumping is remixed in dozens of different, exciting ways. Celeste is the very soul of simplicity, and that’s what makes it such a beautiful game. Celeste tells the story of Madeline, a young woman on a journey to climb…
By Heather Alexandra Published January 25, 2018 -
ReviewsBoard Games
Raiders Of The North Sea: The Kotaku Review
Raiders of the North Sea is the brightest, breeziest way to pillage the shores of Europe I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. It’s a worker placement game for 2-4 players, where everyone is in competition to build up a crew of bloodthirsty marauders, secure provisions then head out raiding monasteries and villages in an…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 17, 2018 -
ReviewsBoard Games
Android: Netrunner: The Kotaku Review
The card game Android: Netrunner does not feel like a game. Jacked into its system, Android: Netrunner’s thorny mechanics melt away until all that’s left are electric impulses in my brain interfacing with my opponents’. It becomes a stylish dance of psychology. Android: Netrunner is not a new card game, but it’s the most captivating…
By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published January 17, 2018 -
ReviewsBoard Games
Scythe: The Wind Gambit: The Kotaku Review
Scythe is one of my favourite board games of the last few years, and having missed its first expansion I was super excited to drop back into the game to test out its second, the airship-based Wind Gambit Having begun as a game about mechs and workers stomping their boots around the grasslands of an…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 9, 2018 -
ReviewsBoard Games
Civilization: A New Dawn: The Kotaku Review
It’s hard work, turning a video game into a board game. Video games are big, sprawling pieces of audio-visual entertainment. They come packed with AI, can resolve battles in an instant and look fantastic while doing it all. It’s unfair to ask a board game, with its sedate pacing, books full of rules and cardboard…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 4, 2018 -
Reviews3DS
Style Savvy: Styling Star: The Kotaku Review
The best thing about the newest Style Savvy isn’t the cute outfits or the glamorous fantasy. It’s that it makes you feel good about helping people. Style Savvy is a series of games about running a boutique. In them, you have to stock a store and then sell clothing to customers. It’s your responsibility to…
By Gita Jackson Published January 3, 2018 -
ReviewsMultiplatformPlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds: The Kotaku Review
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is straightforward. Dump 100 players onto a map, tell them that only one person can win, and watch them tear each other apart. It is brutal and base, violent and wonderful. It’s a game that could only be made in 2017, for better or worse. Battlegrounds, which officially launched on PC this week…
By Heather Alexandra Published December 22, 2017 -
ReviewsYear in ReviewFahey’s Top 10 Games Of 2017
Here are Fahey's favorite games from the year of our lord 2017
By Mike Fahey Published December 21, 2017 -
ReviewsBoard Games
Fallout: The Board Game: The Kotaku Review
Fallout: The Board Game is as faithful an adaptation of the source material as you could possibly hope for. There have been other good video-to-board games, sure—Doom most recently—but its similarities were merely thematic. Fantasy Flight’s Fallout game, on the other hand, has been built from the ground up to play the same on a…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 12, 2017 -
ReviewsSwitch
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild: The Champions’ Ballad: The Kotaku Review
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s second piece of downloadable content, The Champions’ Ballad, is a distillation of everything the game does well. Its collection of puzzle shrines holds some of the most inspired moments of the series, culminating in a wonderfully complex final dungeon. It is a strong end to the DLC…
By Heather Alexandra Published December 12, 2017 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Reigns: Her Majesty: The Kotaku Review
In my time as queen in Reigns: Her Majesty, I was torn apart by my subjects, eaten by wolves, and burned at the stake. I had affairs with pagan women, barbarian queens from other lands, and rakish explorers of new worlds. I was coronated again and again, born anew to rule once more. You’re always…
By Gita Jackson Published December 7, 2017 -
ReviewsMultiplatformNine Parchments: The Kotaku Review
When an explosion at the Astral Academy scatters nine magical parchments to the four winds, a group of irresponsible students sets off on an adventure to retrieve the lost magic for their own mischievous use. At least it should be a group. Action RPG Nine Parchments can be played alone, but where’s the fun in…
By Mike Fahey Published December 7, 2017 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp: The Kotaku Review
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, the new sequel of Nintendo’s cute neighborhood series for cellphones, is Animal Crossing but a bit more stressful. I love it and hate it at the same time. Pocket Camp takes elements from a few different Animal Crossing games and shoves them into a mobile app that’s surprisingly robust. It has…
By Gita Jackson Published December 1, 2017 -
ReviewsSwitch
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: The Kotaku Review
Inelegant and tedious, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the anti-Nintendo game. In a year full of triumphs for the spunky Switch, this massive role-playing game is a disappointment. I didn’t love the first Xenoblade Chronicles, a 2010 Wii game from veteran director Tetsuya Takahashi and his team at Monolith Soft. I hated the boring do-gooder Shulk…
By Jason Schreier Published December 1, 2017 -
ReviewsKeyboardsVortex Vibe Keyboard Review: Smaller By The Numbers
Sleek mechanical keyboards that strip away lesser-used keys in favor of a smaller footprint are picking up, but some people just can’t do without that number pad. Vortex’s new Vibe keyboard is a nice compromise, with some outstanding keycaps on top. A full-size keyboard has all the keys. A tenkeyless, or TKL keyboard, slices the…
By Mike Fahey Published November 29, 2017 -
ReviewsBoard Games
Whitehall Mystery: The Kotaku Review
In 2011, the board game Letters from Whitechapel put detectives on the hunt for Jack the Ripper. In 2017, that game has been stripped down to all but its most essential systems, and has become better for it. Whitehall Mystery is the name of the new offering. Made for 2-4 players, it puts one person…
By Luke Plunkett Published November 27, 2017 -
ReviewsMultiplatform
Battle Chef Brigade: The Kotaku Review
Battle Chef Brigade asks: What if you had to kill a Hydra before competing in Iron Chef? It’s a winning premise, and one that scaffolds the many-headed cooking game’s endless charms. Out today on PC and Switch, Battle Chef Brigade is one-part puzzler, one-part platformer and one-part role-playing game. Its eat-what-you-kill world revolves around Mina…
By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published November 20, 2017 -
ReviewsMultiplatformHand of Fate 2: The Kotaku Review
Hand of Fate is a unique hybrid of deck-building card adventure and action role-playing game that came out of nowhere to become one of my favorite games of 2015. Hand of Fate 2 improves upon the original in every way. One minute you’re moving a game piece across a table covered with Tarot-like adventure cards,…
By Mike Fahey Published November 20, 2017