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Riley’s Top 10 Games Of 2016

My 2016 was a year of surprises. There were so many games I didn’t expect would capture me the way they did, featuring genres and mechanics I usually don’t like but that nevertheless thrilled me. I tried a lot of new kinds of games this year, and I found a lot of new favorites. Here’s…

The Two-Year Mystery Is Over: This Is Frog Fractions 2 [UPDATE]

Frog Fractions 2 has been unearthed. A collective called the Game Detectivesdiscovered the sequel to developer Jim Crawford’s viral, psychedelic browser game inside another Steam game after a two-year hunt. Glittermitten Grove, released on Steam mid-December, actually contains Frog Fractions 2, as I discovered while poking around in the Frog Fractions 2 Discord today. Its…

Pirate Warrior Decks Have Actually Been Great For Hearthstone

If you spend any time on deck building sites, the Hearthstone Reddit, or just play around on the game’s ranked ladder for any amount of time, you probably know that the community has been struggling with the rise of Pirate Warrior decks ever since Mean Streets of Gadgetzan released earlier this month. “Fuck Warrior Pirate”…

The Anime Prequel To Gravity Rush 2 Is Now Available In Full

Gravity Rush the Animation ~Overture~, a 17-minute short that seeks to tie the the original Vita game and upcoming sequel together, is now available on the PlayStation YouTube channel. We got a Japanese trailer for the one-off last week, but now you can watch the entire thing with English subs. Released in two parts, the…

Nintendo filed for a trademark for “Eternal Darkness” on December 20 according to a document submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The filing could be related the Nintendo Switch’s reported ability to play GameCube games. Kickstarters for a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem never got off the ground.

Father Asks Final Fantasy XV‘s Prompto To Give Daughter A Special Holiday Message

Robbie Daymond, the voice behind Prompto from Final Fantasy XV, helped make one little girl’s Christmas extra special by recording a personalized greeting for her as one of her favorite characters. Euphrates’ father had originally asked the voice actor what his rate would be to record the message, but rather than quote him, Daymond simply…

Final Fantasy V Retrospective: Wildly Underrated

Final Fantasy V, a video game about four warriors who get together and beat up a giant tree, doesn’t try particularly hard to be innovative. In fact, it doesn’t try at all. Final Fantasy V is essentially an enhanced version of Final Fantasy III, proving rather definitively that Final Fantasy games don’t have to be…

Guy Gets Working Gjallarhorn For Christmas

There are hardcore Destiny players, and then there is Redditor jagger393939, whose incredible wife built him a WORKING GJALLARHORN. It shoots nerf darts and plays the Gjallarwing honking noise. Witness: Sadly, the Wolfpack Rounds don’t activate. Must be bugged. THANKS, BUNGIE.

Happy Holidays, Kotaku

Whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, or just the general feeling of being alive, happy holidays to you and yours from all of the staff here at Kotaku! Use this post as a place to discuss: Sweet new presents you got Sweet new presents you gave other people Video games you’re playing today The best video…

Attack On Titan Season Two Gets Official Trailer

Why are the muscle dudes punching the other muscle dudes through trees? Why are some of them naked? What’s with all the weird faces? I have no idea. I know nothing about Attack on Titan or anime, so this trailer is indecipherable to me, but hey, I know you guys love this series so HERE…

Kickstarter Backers Are Not Reacting Well To Unsung Story

On Friday night at around 10pm ET—optimal time to release news—the developers of Unsung Story put out yet another update for their longrunning Kickstarter failure. Backers were… not happy. In case you haven’t followed the ongoing Unsung Story debacle, here’s the short version: In January of 2014, the developer Playdek raised $660,000 for a strategy-RPG…

Jason Schreier’s Top 10 Games Of 2016

From puzzlers to JRPGs to, uh, more puzzlers, this was a good year for video games. And my top 10 list will probably not surprise any of you. In no particular order, here are the best games I played in 2016: The Witness If I were to tell you that the best video game of…

The Best WWE Matches Of 2016

In 2016, WWE turned towards the future. The WWE Network expanded both its user base and its program offerings. The NXT developmental program graduated a new class of Superstars to the main roster. The main roster split into a Raw brand and a SmackDown brand, a healthy move for a company that had gotten complacent…

Final Fantasy XIV Gets A Raid In Ivalice

As if Final Fantasy XIV wasn’t rad enough already, last night Square Enix announced that one of the game’s next raids will head to Ivalice, the world of Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII. And, most importantly, the raid will be designed and written by Yasumi Matsuno, the director of those games The Return…

Once You Can Afford It, GTA Online‘s Newest Expansion Is Terrific

Last week I started sizing up the new GTA Online update, Import/Export. It added a ton of new missions and wacky cars. But a lot of this content was inaccessible if you didn’t have a lot of in-game money. You’d have to be rich (virtually, at least) to play it. So I spent the last…

On Its Fifth Anniversary, Star Wars The Old Republic Is Interesting Again

Star Wars: The Old Republic is celebrating its five year anniversary right now and has added some major changes. BioWare’s narrative heavy online experience keeps expanding. Last year, they began a large storyline that’s continuing forward in the new Knights of the Eternal Throne expansion. I sat down with producer Ben Irving to talk about…

The Gravity Rush 2 Demo Is A Good Time

Between the Nier: Automata demo we played yesterday and this dizzying 20 minute slice of Gravity Rush 2, PlayStation 4 owners have some pretty amazing trying-before-buying to do over the holiday weekend. Bright, colorful and cheery, the demo for SIE Japan Studio’s Gravity Rush 2 is a lovely complement to Nier: Automata’s monochrome post-machine invasion…

Steam Is Down [UPDATE: Steam Is No Longer Down]

UPDATE (2:06pm): Steam has returned. Carry on. Original post follows: Happy holidays. Steam is down. We don’t know why. Could it be back up by the time this post goes live? Absolutely. But for now, rest assured that A) it’s not just you and B) Half-Life 3 is never coming out. As we all wait…

YouTube Views Are Down, Analysis Says

For months, YouTubers have complained that their view counts are down. New data from the third-party stat tracker SocialBlade confirms what YouTubers fear: viewership is lower “across the board.” SocialBlade crunched some numbers for Kotaku and determined that, since the first half of the year, YouTube views are now 5-7% lower. Between July and September,…

Luke Plunkett’s Top Ten Games Of 2016

I played a lot of games in 2016, and as someone who loves strategy titles, it was a very good year. So drawing a line in the sand like this is always tough. Ah, who am I kidding, half the fun of these end of year lists is pitting your favourite (and often entirely unrelated)…