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Five Video Game Moments That Stressed Me Out In 2017

Video games gave me much comfort in this very trying year. They also stressed me out like you wouldn’t believe. As 2017 is coming to a close, it’s time to let go of all the worries and start anew. Before that, it’s good to reflect and confront those demons as part of a healing process.…

Who’s Your Favorite Game Character Of 2017?

There were so many great games in 2017 with fantastic stories and equally great characters. Persona 5’s entire ensemble added something to the gripping narrative and I found myself sympathizing with all of their plights. Nier: Automata had an amazing cast of robots who were memorable and fascinating, even if most of them ended up…

The Tragic Sidequests From Nier Automata’s Machine Village

Nier Automata is cruel to its characters. An action role-playing game from Square Enix, very few games have made me react as strongly to the story as Automata. While Yoko Taro’s games have always been disturbingly provocative as they dig at deep existential questions, the optional sidequests from the Machine Village exemplify what makes Automata…

These Food-Based Pokémon Concepts Are Simply Delectable

Developer and illustrator PaperBeatsScissors has prepared an entire menu of tasty Pokémon creations over the past few weeks. The Pokémon series is well known for turning anything and everything into a collectible monster. Keys? Yep. Chandelier? Absolutely. Steaming pile of garbage? You better believe it. But despite there being over 700 Pokémon in the current…

The World of Ruin In FFVI Is About Searching For Hope In Desperate Times

In Final Fantasy VI, the villains triumph. It’s one of the most shocking moments in gaming. As devastating at the moment is, the journey the protagonists take to defy the overwhelming odds against them is a message of hope during bleak times and represents what I most love about the series. Warning, spoilers abound!!! Celes’…

Enter The Gungeon‘s Addictive Gameplay Is Fueled By A Killer Soundtrack

No matter how many times the “You Died” screen pops up, I restart and keep pushing forward. Enter the Gungeon is punishing and hilarious. And its incredibly bad-ass soundtrack is what I love most about it. This year I discovered Doseone. After seeing him perform at Devolver Digital’s E3 parking lot party in June, I…

How Originality And A Shaky Launch Crippled One Of 2017’s Best Games

DropMix is fantastic. With the holiday season coming to a close, it’s a darn shame more folks aren’t talking about Harmonix and Hasbro’s new musical card game. As the creator of the original Guitar Hero franchise, as well as its expanded-instrument successor Rock Band, Harmonix is no stranger to the world of risky rhythm endeavors.…

The Trials And Tribulations of Shining In The Darkness

There’ve been lots of difficult games in my life. Shining in the Darkness was one of the hardest in my 16-bit era experience. A Sega Genesis game that was part dungeon crawler and part JRPG, Shining had a relentless enemy encounter rate and a Labyrinth that was very easy to get lost in. At the…

Star Vs The Forces Of Evil Has Dimensions Worth Exploring

Star Butterfly, the titular character of Star vs The Forces of Evil, is a perfect princess for a show that’s filled with rainbows and magic. Don’t be fooled, however, as this modern heroine is anything but the delicate pushover her name implies. Created by Daron Nefcy and currently airing on Disney XD, Star vs The…

It’s The End Of The Year As We Know It, And We Feel Fine

Prepare to end 2017 with a bang alongside guest editors Ben Bertoli, Narelle Ho Sang, and Peter Teriyas. Boy howdy. What a year it’s been. Aside from all the terrible happenings in the world, 2017 was a surprisingly stellar year for gaming. The Switch brought Nintendo back into the home console spotlight, SEGA released a…

Yo, Kiryu-chan! We’re starting up a playthrough of Yakuza Kiwami live on Twitch. It’s a remake of the PS2 classic and a great way (along with Yakuza 0) to check out the series.

Final Fantasy VIII Retrospective: The Greatest Love Story

How do you follow the biggest role-playing game of all time? How do you look at Final Fantasy VII and make something even better? If you’re Square in the 1990s, the answer is simple: You break everything. This is part eight of Kotaku’s Final Fantasy Retrospective, in which we take a look back at every…

The Endless Hunt For GTA V’s Missing Single Player DLC

GTA Online keeps expanding every year, but GTA V hasn’t gotten any single-player DLC. In response, fans have cobbled together theories about what ‘must’ have happened to GTA V’s single-player updates. With the addition of the massive Doomsday Heist, fans are once again looking for closure. At one point, single-player DLC once seemed like a…

Vintage Game Retailers Say Nintendo 64 Was Their Hottest Holiday Seller

Should Nintendo be looking at releasing an N64 Classic? Yes, if this year’s sales of the original 64-bit hardware are anything to go by. Sellers of vintage gaming hardware said they noticed a boom in Nintendo 64 sales this holiday season, a shift away from the previous generations of consoles that Christmas shoppers had coveted…

The 12 Best Video Games Of 2017

We downloaded, we installed, we played. We nominated, we debated, we decided. Here, in alphabetical order, are Kotaku’s top 12 video games of 2017. Divinity: Original Sin 2 Doki Doki Literature Club Gorogoa Horizon Zero Dawn The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild  Nier: Automata Night in the Woods Nioh Persona 5 Pyre Super…

The Year In Video Game Fashion, 2017

Video game fashion goes through trends just like fashion in the real world. In 2017, games let us pretend we were at a fashion week, express our true selves, and do somersaults in six inch heels and a miniskirt. Splatoon 2 Is A Street Fashion Zine Of all the games of 2017, Splatoon 2 might…

Nathan Grayson’s Top 10 Games Of 2017

It is the future. A young man, arms strong from competing with 100 other shoppers every day to be the only person to buy groceries at Target, eyes his grandmother expectantly. Her features betray exhaustion from years of delivering raw, unfiltered internet to those the three mega-providers deem unworthy, but there is fight in her…

Keza MacDonald’s Top 9 Games of 2017

Most years, I find whittling a best-of list down to just 10 entries a tortuous process. Not so in 2017, because in December 2016 I became a mother, and that brought with it a complete change in my video gaming habits. This year, I rediscovered how people play games when it’s not part of their…

The Year In Microtransactions, 2017

Games seem to get bigger and more complex every year: more levels to explore, more enemies to fight, and more stuff to collect. And as 2017 showed, there’s now more stuff to buy than ever before as well. This year saw the culmination of a trend on consoles arguably started with Overwatch. Blizzard’s hero-based shooter…

Paul Tamayo’s Top 10 Games Of 2017

2017 has been a wild ride for me personally, but it was also a year that reminded me why I love games so much. From being transported to the ruins of Hyrule to being in another set of ruins fighting to be the last one standing, this year was an onslaught of great games. There…