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Reviews
I Am Setsuna: The Kotaku Review
The name “Tokyo RPG Factory” conjures a dreary image. An assembly line for role-playing games, perhaps, where dozens of masked workers flank a conveyor belt, smashing together parts: an oversized sword here, a Firaga there, a melancholy hero to tie it all together. Every day they must crank out a new RPG to be shipped…
By Jason Schreier Published July 19, 2016 -
ReviewsBoard Games
Scythe: The Kotaku Review
It’s not every day you get to rampage through the 1920s countryside in control of a fleet of giant mechs. Scythe is a new board game from Stonemaier Games. If the art up top (which is on the front of the game’s box) looks familiar, that’s because the entire game is based on a universe…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2016 -
Reviews7th Dragon III Code: VFD: The Kotaku Review
The name might be a bit of a mess, but Sega’s new 3DS role-playing game is anything but. It makes a little more sense in context. 7th Dragon III Code: VFD is the first Western release for a Japanese RPG series that began with 2009’s more simply named 7th Dragon for the Nintendo DS. 7th…
By Mike Fahey Published July 12, 2016 -
ReviewsBoxBoxBoy: The Kotaku Review
How to improve a game like BoxBoy? How to create a sequel to a game that was simply perfect, flawless in both idea and execution? Easy: you add another box. Meet BoxBoxBoy, the wonderful successor to last year’s surprise 3DS gem. It’s got the same core concept as BoxBoy and it reuses many of the…
By Jason Schreier Published July 6, 2016 -
Reviews
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel: The Kotaku Review
Playing Trails of Cold Steel is like eating a hero sandwich that’s way too heavy on the bread. Often you’ll get nice big chunks of turkey and salami. But sometimes—more often than you’d like—you’ll realize that all you can taste is fluffy white filler. Cold Steel, which came out in December for PS3 and Vita,…
By Jason Schreier Published July 1, 2016 -
ReviewsLego Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Kotaku Review
After two Lego Star Wars games covering a movie trilogy each, can Star Wars: The Force Awakens carry an entire Lego game by itself? Not without a lot of help. For example, I launched the game halfway through downloading to my PlayStation 4. While most of the game was waiting for more data, I was…
By Mike Fahey Published June 28, 2016 -
Reviews
Zero Time Dilemma: The Kotaku Review
There are no video games like Zero Escape. No other series plays with the interactive form to tell stories in such an elaborate, satisfying way. No other game can fuck with your head quite this much. Nothing else even comes close. Zero Time Dilemma, the third game in the series, is no exception. Longtime fans…
By Jason Schreier Published June 27, 2016 -
Reviews
Counterpoint: The Warcraft Movie Is Good
Years of hollow hype and months of flashy trailers aimed at getting non-World of Warcraft players into theater seats left me with little hope that I would enjoy Duncan Jones’ Warcraft movie. Well, surprise. I’ve seen Warcraft twice now, the second time to ensure my enjoyment wasn’t a fluke of the Not Your Dad’s Root…
By Mike Fahey Published June 11, 2016 -
ReviewsKirby: Planet Robobot: The Kotaku Review
Kirby is approaching Mario and Sonic in terms of ubiquity. The little guy has starred in three games in as many years, all without a drop in quality. The newest game, the Nintendo 3DS’ Planet Robobot, is the best of the three. In the new game, the usually overpowered Kirby is even mightier. He can…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 11, 2016 -
Reviews
The Warcraft Movie Is Not Good
Some people had hoped, after months of hype and the pedigree of director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code), that Warcraft might break the long and storied Curse Of Bad Video Game Movies. I have some sad news for those people. Maybe video game adaptations were just never meant to be. This post originally appeared May…
By Jason Schreier Published June 10, 2016 -
Reviews
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst: The Kotaku Review
For a game about daredevil stunts and high-flying acrobatics, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst plays it remarkably safe. Catalyst is the long-awaited follow-up to development studio EA DICE’s groundbreaking 2008 game Mirror’s Edge. Maybe “long-awaited” is the wrong way to describe it: Most people who liked the first game, myself included, figured a proper sequel would simply…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 7, 2016 -
ReviewsHearts Of Iron IV: The Kotaku Review
You’ve probably won the Second World War in a video game before. Maybe as a commando, maybe as a pilot. But have you ever won the Second World War the way it was actually won? Because it was won with logistics, and…hey, wait, I promise it’s more exciting than it sounds. Hearts of Iron IV…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 6, 2016 -
ReviewsEdge of Nowhere: The Kotaku Review
Your head controls the camera floating just behind 1920s adventurer Victor Howard, star of the new virtual reality Antarctic action game Edge of Nowhere. The white wilderness is all around you. You control Victor with a controller that you cannot see, because you play this game with the Oculus Rift VR headset strapped to your…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 6, 2016 -
Reviews
Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070 Review: The New Sweet Spot
The Geforce GTX 1080 tops the performance of the $1,000 Titan X card for $700. The Geforce GTX 1070 basically matches it for under $400. That’s just nuts. Easily living up to the label of themost powerful graphics card yet, the Pascal powered Geforce GTX 1080 has been getting the lion’s share of attention since…
By Mike Fahey Published May 31, 2016 -
ReviewsThe Witcher 3: Blood and Wine: The Kotaku Review
I’ve spent more than 100 hours in The Witcher 3 over the past year. It’s become the background of my gaming life, a boundless, monster-ridden home I can always return to. As the last Witcher (for now), The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine is a grand goodbye, a final series of stories that sends Geralt…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 31, 2016 -
Reviews
Total War: Warhammer: The Kotaku Review
I was so ready to hate this game. Here, prior to last week, were my thoughts on Total War: Warhammer: I did not have the best time with the last Total War game, Rome II, finding it to be a bloated, soulless affair that undid much of the good work Creative Assembly had done with…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 25, 2016 -
ReviewsNvidia Geforce GTX 1080 Review: Time For An Upgrade
After months of speculation and anticipation, Nvidia’s latest piece of hardware you put in your computer to make things look pretty is here. The GeForce GTX 1080 is much better than the pieces of hardware you put in your computer to make things look pretty that came before it. Which is great, because introducing a…
By Mike Fahey Published May 23, 2016 -
Reviews
Homefront: The Revolution: The Kotaku Review
Glitches and wobbles aside, Homefront: The Revolution is an adequate shooter that features some interesting moments. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t good either. America was invaded by North Korea in the events leading up to the original 2011 Homefront. In this sequel, you play as Ethan Brady, part of a guerrilla resistance that is…
By Riley MacLeod Published May 18, 2016 -
ReviewsBattleborn: The Kotaku Review
If someone had told me at the beginning of the year that I’d be reviewing Battleborn in May, I would have asked them “Which one is Battleborn again?” Now that I’ve spent a couple dozen hours in Gearbox Software’s latest I think I’ve figured it out. It’s not Battleborn’s fault, really. Announced in July of…
By Mike Fahey Published May 17, 2016
