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CultureOdds and EndsTomorrow’s PS5 Beta Is A Great Reason To Get Into Final Fantasy XIV
Intrigued by how much players love Final Fantasy XIV but unsure how to get started? The game’s open beta for the PlayStation 5 starts tomorrow, promising sharper graphics, faster frame rates, and shorter loading times than the PlayStation 4 version. All that plus a generous free trial makes this week a good time to get…
By Mike Fahey -
CultureWhat Are You Playing This Weekend?
The weekend is for playing a 20-year-old action RPG classic with a substantial glow-up. Unless you’re not in the Diablo II: Resurrected alpha test. Then you should probably play something else. I’ve been fiddling with Diablo II: Resurrected’s alpha since yesterday and shall continue to do so over the weekend. So far I’m quite pleased.…
By Mike Fahey -
CultureMass Effect Legendary Edition Will Remove The Mako’s Bullshit Instant Deaths
Sorry, Ash. It looks like Mass Effect Legendary Edition touched the Mako. Touched it a lot, in fact. BioWare community manager Jay Ingram just updated the PlayStation Blog with a breakdown of the changes coming to the Mass Effect remasters when the three-game bundle launches on May 14 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.…
By Ian Walker -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryWhen My Disco Elysium Character Gave Up I Was Like Yeah, I Get It
I have never felt more in tune with a video game character than when Disco Elysium’s detective protagonist, his morale utterly devastated after a series of failed skill checks, tells his partner to fuck off and prematurely brings the game to a close. Disco Elysium: The Final Cut arrived on PlayStation 5 (as well as…
By Ian Walker -
CultureNBA 2K21 Arcade Edition Is NBA 2K21 Without Obnoxious Microtransactions
One of the most annoying aspects of modern sports games, including the console and PC versions of NBA 2K21, are the obtrusive microtransactions. NBA 2K21 Arcade Edition, released today for the Apple Arcade service, has no microtransactions whatsoever. What a breath of fresh air. One of the tenets of Apple Arcade is that no game…
By Mike Fahey -
CultureShark RPG Maneater Gets Fresh DLC This Summer
Chris Parnell reprises his role as investigative journalist Trip Westhaven and players reprise their role as Big Honkin’ Shark in Maneater: Truth Quest, a fresh batch of conspiracy-driven downloadable content coming to PlayStations, Xboxen, and PC this summer. From a press release I’ve read through a half-dozen times, because Tripwire Interactive thought it would be…
By Mike Fahey -
CultureMorning CheckpointGhost Of Tsushima Film Announced, Back 4 Blood Delayed, Xbox Live Name Change, And More
This week on Morning Checkpoint we talk about how great SonicFox is, dunk on Shinra, find out what games are now delayed, fondly remember demo discs, and say goodbye to Xbox Live and hello to Xbox Network. Great Kotaku Content From The Past Week SonicFox is the best and I’m so happy to see them…
By Zack Zwiezen -
CultureNobody Saves The World Is A New Action-RPG From The Guacamelee! Devs
Drinkbox Studios, the makers of popular brawler Guacamelee!, have a new game on the way. It’s an action role-playing game called Nobody Saves the World In Nobody Saves the World, the world in question needs saving from a doomsday event called the Calamity. Though it shares a name and purpose (destroy everything) with the Calamity…
By Ari Notis -
OpinionImpressionsPuzzle Quest 3 Does The Match-Three RPG A Little Differently
The game that kicked off the match-three/RPG genre in 2007 is back for a third go with Puzzle Quest 3. An early preview of the Android version of the threequel reveals a somewhat more dynamic take on the genre mash-up. Giving players two seconds to map out their moves makes a big difference. The basic…
By Mike Fahey -
CulturePlayers Aren’t Happy About Assassin’s Creed Valhalla‘s Transmog Tax
A couple months after release, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla finally has transmog, but not as some players had originally envisioned it. The feature falls short of how it’s been implemented in past games, and comes with a 50 silver tax on each transaction to boot, leaving a lot of us, myself included, scratching out heads. Transmog,…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureUndertale Makes Its Xbox Debut Via Game Pass Tomorrow
Undertale, the quirky 2015 role-playing game from indie dev Toby Fox, finally heads to Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S tomorrow, and it will be free for everyone with an active Game Pass subscription on console. After debuting on PC several years ago, Undertale was ported to several additional platforms, including PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita,…
By Ian Walker -
Tips & GuidesSo, Which Bethesda Game Pass Game Should You Play First?
Starting today, you can play a bunch of Bethesda-published games on Game Pass, thanks to Microsoft and ZeniMax’s recent marriage. Some were previously available. Many are new. However you slice it, if you’re a member of Microsoft’s games-on-demand service, you now have 20 largely excellent games at your fingertips. You obviously cannot play all of…
By Ari Notis -
CultureLoop Hero Will Soon Let You Save The Dang Game
The deck-building, dungeon-making roguelite RPG Loop Hero is getting some much needed quality-of-life improvements in an upcoming update, the game’s developers announced yesterday. The most important of these fixes? Finally letting you save your game. Technically, Loop Hero does that already, saving all progress automatically as you complete expeditions. But there’s no way to save…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureZynga Buys Torchlight Studio Echtra Games
Echtra Games, the San Francisco-based studio founded in 2016 by Diablo and Torchlight co-creator Max Schaefer, is now owned by Zynga, the company that gave us FarmVille. Fresh off the lukewarm release of Torchlight III, Echtra Games joins Zynga to work on an unannounced cross-platform action role-playing game in partnership with Zynga’s NaturalMotion Studio. According…
By Mike Fahey -
Tips & GuidesHow To Build An Unstoppable Party In Bravely Default 2
Bravely Default 2, out now for Nintendo Switch, is both a lot like and not at all like many other JRPGs you’ve played. For starters, combat is defined by the Brave/Default system, which allows you to shake up the turn order in battles for strategic gain. But the main big wrinkle is the job system.…
By Ari Notis
