Reviews Archives - Page 54 of 128

Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne: The Kotaku Review

The Iron Throne is what happens when you take pretty much every murderous stereotype about Game of Thrones, break them down then turn them into a board game where you lie to your friends before stabbing them in the guts. Based heavily on an older title called Cosmic Encounter, but here leveraging the immense popularity…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 31, 2016

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Titanfall 2: The Kotaku Review

When I finished Titanfall 2‘s campaign, my body felt numb. I left my apartment, walked to the street corner and bummed a cigarette. I needed to calm myself. I’d just been through an astounding experience. The original Titanfall was a game of overly high ambition. Fluid player movement led to frantic and gorgeous ground battles…

By Heather Alexandra Published October 31, 2016

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Civilization VI: The Kotaku Review

The trouble with reviewing a Civilization game is that they’re always good. From the 1991 original through to today, Civilization games have all shared the same core design ideas. 2K’s marketing will try and sell you on new stuff all they want, but the nuts and bolts of this game are the same as they’ve…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 26, 2016

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World Of Final Fantasy: The Kotaku Review

There are two Final Fantasy games out this fall. One is Final Fantasy XV, the latest step in the evolution of the series and a far cry from the turn-based dungeon crawlers of the past. The other is World of Final Fantasy, a candy-coated celebration of everything that came before. First announced shortly before or…

By Mike Fahey Published October 25, 2016

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Battlefield 1: The Kotaku Review

Matthew McConaughey once said that sometimes you need to go back to move forward. The team at DICE must have been very moved by that sentiment. Taking it to heart and pushing the Battlefield series nearly 100 years back into World War I for this year’s release of Battlefield 1 was a gamble. It has…

By Heather Alexandra Published October 21, 2016

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Skylanders: Imaginators: The Kotaku Review

After a bit of a stumble with last year’s Superchargers, Skylanders is back and ready to go toe-to-toe with Disney Infinity in the creativity side of the toys-to-life battle. Had the competition not folded, Imaginators would have given it a run for its money. Skylanders was always a better game than Disney Infinity. Disney spent…

By Mike Fahey Published October 16, 2016

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Gears of War 4: The Kotaku Review

Ten years ago, Gears of War helped define an age of blockbuster multiplayer games. Now, it’s the status quo. Gears of War 4 is more Gears of War. Luckily, Gears of War kicks ass. The newest game doesn’t offer many surprises, but it’s still enjoyable to play. Like the earlier games in the series, you…

By Patricia Hernandez Published October 13, 2016

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PlayStation VR: The Kotaku Review

Let’s cut to the chase: PlayStation VR should be better. At its best, Sony’s new virtual reality headset manages to conjure the astonishing, immersive wonder of modern virtual reality. Just as often it is frustratingly held back by outdated hardware that can’t quite do what’s being asked of it. This piece originally appeared 10/5/16. PlayStation…

By Kirk Hamilton Published October 13, 2016

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Mafia III: The Kotaku Review

Mafia III takes hours to really get going. Sometimes it’s a predictable, janky slog. Once it finds its groove, though, it’s an open-world crime game unlike any other. It’s a bold depiction of a difficult time and place—a portrait of New Orleans in the late 1960s, racism and ugliness included. Early on in Mafia III,…

By Nathan Grayson Published October 12, 2016

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Paper Mario: Color Splash: The Kotaku Review

I love when Nintendo games aren’t afraid to be weird. Paper Mario: Color Splash is funnier and more irreverent than anything else on the Wii U, occupying a strange, occasionally conflicted territory somewhere between platform-adventure and RPG. Paper Mario was once the only Mario role-playing series, but that’s changed since the handheld Mario & Luigi…

Keza MacDonald Published October 5, 2016

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Batman Arkham VR: The Kotaku Review

The hero of Batman: Arkham VR is a little clumsy. His hands shake from time to time. He sometimes drops his Batarangs. He doesn’t drive his own Batmobile, and he spends a lot of time standing in place as other people move around him. This Batman is not the aspirational, acrobatic crusader game creators usually…

By Stephen Totilo Published October 5, 2016

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NBA 2K17 MyCareer: The Kotaku Review

NBA 2K16’s ambitious attempt last year to get Spike Lee to run its centrepiece MyCareer mode (basically a giant singleplayer sports RPG) was a bit of a disaster. This year, it’s back to the drawing board. Note: As we’ve done the last few years, this is only a review of 2K17’s MyCareer mode, not the…

By Luke Plunkett Published September 29, 2016

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Acer Predator G1 Gaming PC Review: Small But Mighty

Thanks to some incredibly clever engineering and an incredibly cramped Geforce GTX 1080, the Acer Predator G1 gaming PC packs an amazing amount of power into 16 liters of space, small enough to fit in its own custom suitcase. The baby of Acer’s black and red Predator gaming line doesn’t look like it should be…

By Mike Fahey Published September 29, 2016

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Destiny: Rise of Iron: The Kotaku Review

A brief history for those who are new to Kotaku and our on-again, off-again obsession with this game. Destiny is a first-person action game in which players fly around the solar system fighting with aliens, evil cyborgs, and occasionally each other. Collectively, our staff has played over 2,000 hours. I account for more than half…

By Kirk Hamilton Published September 28, 2016

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Oversnatch: The Kotaku Review

Brazzers’ porn parody of Overwatch, titled Oversnatch, starts strong, but by the end it’s sweaty, spent, and sagging. Warning: this post is NSFW. Oversnatch begins promisingly, in an abandoned theater that almost doesn’t look like a porn studio. Widowmaker lurks, and Reaper skulks. Widowmaker (played by Aletta Ocean) is introduced with Overwatch-style text displaying her…

By Nathan Grayson Published September 28, 2016

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Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice: The Kotaku Review

There’s a pretty good Sonic the Hedgehog game lurking under the padding and sports tape wrapped around Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice for the Nintendo 3DS. If people are wary of new Sonic the Hedgehog games given the franchise’s hit-or-miss quality over the past couple of decades, they are doubly wary of Sonic Boom games.…

By Mike Fahey Published September 27, 2016

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FIFA 17 vs PES 2017: Which Is Better?

Welcome to the next generation, FIFA. What took you so long? Most video games, even blockbuster sequels, exist in a kind of isolation. You treat each one like a self-contained entertainment experience. Football/soccer games, though, live in a very different reality than most video games. For one, they’re sports games, which means a new one…

By Luke Plunkett Published September 26, 2016

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World Of Warcraft: Legion: The Kotaku Review

Over the course of the first five expansion packs, Blizzard has slowly evolved World of Warcraft into something very different than the MMO that launched back in 2004. The Legion expansion feels like an entirely new game. After 12 years of performing outrageous acts of heroism in the name of the Alliance or Horde, it’s…

By Mike Fahey Published September 26, 2016

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ReCore: The Kotaku Review

Irredeemably bad video games are a simple, tidy affair. Their badness is straightforward. The game stinks. It was a waste of time to play. Probably shouldn’t have even finished it. It is different and perhaps more frustrating to play a promising game that starts well, carries many great ideas and then stumbles. The new Xbox…

By Stephen Totilo Published September 16, 2016

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CybertronPC CLX Scarab Gaming System Review: Big Power In A Small Package

CybertronPC has around since 1997, but its CLX line of custom luxury gaming beast machines are a recent development. Today we look at the line’s small-but-powerful desktop, the Scarab. Before we begin, let me establish that the Kansas-based computer company has no connection whatsoever to Hasbro’s popular line of transforming robots, who happen to hail…

By Mike Fahey Published September 12, 2016