-
CultureOdds and EndsShirley The Skyrim Grandma Has Her Own Fully Voiced Mod
The internet’s favorite Skyrim-playing grandma, Shirley Curry, now has her very own Skyrim mod which adds her to Bethesda’s RPG as a companion. And Shirley voiced the character herself. In Shirley – A Skyrim Follower Mod, she has provided her voice for the companion and according to the mod’s Nexus page, she will tell you…
By Zack Zwiezen Published May 8, 2021 -
CultureWhat Are You Playing This Weekend?
The weekend is for watching everyone else talk about Resident Evil Village while I have a damn good time playing a hack-and-slash action RPG from two decades ago. Y’all can have your giant lady survival horror, this weekend’s all about Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance for me, baby. It’s been ages since I last played the…
By Mike Fahey Published May 7, 2021 -
OpinionImpressionsIt’s A Shooter With Dinosaurs, And That’s Enough For Me
Dinosaurs are rad. Sadly, they rarely appear in video games. So I was excited to play Second Extinction, a new shooter featuring dinosaurs, both big and small. What I wasn’t expecting was how much this early access game would remind me of Destiny, or how much fun I would have playing it. Second Extinction is…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 29, 2021 -
The BestsLet’s Rank All The Doom Games, From Worst To Best
1993’s Doom is one of the most important, popular, and influential games ever made, and it spawned a whole franchise of (mostly) great shooters. To put it another way: Doom is very good. But even the best franchises have high points and low points. Before we jump into hell and start killing demons, a bit…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 24, 2021 -
CultureTales Of Arise Out September 10, Coming To Next-Gen Consoles Too
Tales of Arise, the next game in Bandai Namco’s long-running spikey-haired angst series, will come out on September 10, according to the game’s official Twitter account. Previously announced for PC and last-gen consoles, the action-RPG will also come to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Initially planned to release in 2020, Bandai Namco delayed the…
By Ari Notis Published April 21, 2021 -
CultureTroll Makes Up Path Of Exile Ban Over Accessibility, Is Asshole
This week, a supposed player claimed to have been banned from action RPG Path of Exile for using a macro to make the game accessible. Other players and accessibility activists took up their cause. Now, it appears the whole thing was a troll. In my professional journalistic opinion: what the hell? PC Gamer has an…
By Riley MacLeod Published April 17, 2021 -
CultureSplitscreenWhy Video Game Loot Is So Addictive, According To The Creators Of Diablo
Colors mean different things to different people, but very specific colors mean the exact same thing to everybody who plays video games. You know the ones: gray, green, blue, purple, and gold. You covet the latter and revile the former. Loot is a universal language at this point, but it wasn’t always. On this week’s…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 16, 2021 -
CultureWasteland 3‘s First Story Expansion Is The Battle Of Steeltown
Coming June 3 to consoles and PCs, The Battle of Steeltown takes Wasteland 3 players to the towering factory complex that creates the weapons, vehicles, robots, and armor that keeps the Patriarch in power. Apparently, it’s got problems, and it’s up to you to solve them. Workers are striking, bandits are raiding, and the rangers…
By Mike Fahey Published April 15, 2021 -
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 Published April 12, 2021 -
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 Published April 9, 2021 -
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 Published April 6, 2021 -
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 Published April 5, 2021 -
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 Published April 2, 2021 -
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 Published April 1, 2021 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryI Wish Genshin Impact Cared About My Time As Much As Its Story Seems To
Reused NPCs. An environment you’ve already spent dozens of hours in. Contrived progress gating based on time. On paper, Genshin Impact’s current event, the Windblume Festival, sounds like it’s scraping the bottom of the barrel. In reality it’s a chill yet inventive exercise in making an in-game holiday feel like, well, an event. But it…
By Nathan Grayson Published March 30, 2021 -
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 Published March 27, 2021 -
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 Published March 26, 2021