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Halo Infinite’s New Mode Is So Good It Should Be Permanent
20.1.2022
Step aside, Slayer. There’s a new deathmatch in Halo Infinitown: Attrition, a team-based mode wherein teammates share a limited pool of lives. It’s a total blast, an easy way to spice up Halo sessions, and a terrific addition to the first-person shooter’s arguably sparse range of playable...
Sisi Jiang’s Top Ten Games of 2021
29.12.2021
I’m not an accommodating video game critic. A game either sinks its hooks into me within the first hour, or I immediately bounce to something else. I’ve never had any patience for this “it gets good after ten hours” nonsense. A game either understands its own brilliance, or it doesn’t. And only...
The Witcher TV Series Needs A Map
21.12.2021
I’m about halfway through the second season of The Witcher on Netflix, and for the most part I’m loving it. It feels a lot more Witchery than the first season did, and is moving at a refreshingly brisk pace. One thing that’s really bugging me, though, is that series seems to have wildly...
The Top 15 Halo Multiplayer Maps
25.11.2021
By my own rough count, the Halo series has seen some 150 or so multiplayer maps over the course of its two decades. Many of these are good. Some are great. And of course, some are terrible. For this list, I and my fellow Kotaku Halo fans tried to narrow this extensive field down to what we consider...
Elden Ring May Just Reinvent The Open-World Genre
19.11.2021
From Software, as you may already know, has a new game coming out early next year. It’s called Elden Ring, and after spending a few hours with it during last week’s preview, I’m here to say that it’s shaping up to be something really special.Read more
A Simple Hole Killed Tons Of Elden Ring Players
15.11.2021
Among the scores of monsters and traps designed to kill Elden Ring players, an inconspicuous hole in the tutorial area proved to be the deadliest aspect of the game’s preview build.Read more
Skyrim's New Fishing Mini-Game: The Kotaku Review
13.11.2021
Fishing in video games is tricky to nail. Many games offer such a mechanic, but few actually pull it off. Personally, I can’t even recall a single fishing mini-game I’ve wrung enjoyment out of in the last few years. Pokémon? Tedious, annoying. Fire Emblem: Three Houses? Zzzzz. Hades? The only thing...
The New Tales Of Action-RPG You Probably Don't Know About
12.11.2021
The Tales series returned in flashy fashion this September with Tales of Arise, the 17th mainline title and one that breathed some life into the long-running action-RPG franchise. That’s a proper Tales game, replete with an anime opening and fast gameplay and all the good stuff series fans love....
More People Are Playing Left 4 Dead 2 Than Back 4 Blood
1.11.2021
A quick perusal of Steam-tracking sites indicates that players returned to Left 4 Dead 2 in droves following the October 12 launch of spiritual successor Back 4 Blood, so much so that the older game is now more popular than the newer one.Read more
The Art Of Back 4 Blood
26.10.2021
Tonight’s Fine Art is focused entirely on Turtle Rock’s new Back 4 Blood, the studio’s latest attempt to take the formula they almost perfected with Left 4 Dead and, well, perfect it. Read more
Every Far Cry Game, Ranked From Worst To Best
23.10.2021
Way back in 2004 a then-unknown developer called Crytek released the first game in what would become the Far Cry series, wowing players with its impressive visuals and sprawling, outdoor maps. Crytek moved on to creating the Crysis series, Ubisoft bought up Far Cry and continues to make new entries...
The 16 Best Cards In Back 4 Blood
22.10.2021
For the most part, Left 4 Dead 3– wait, no, that’s not what it’s called...for the most part, Back 4 Blood is a first-person shooter about teaming up with your friends to mow down hordes of zombies. But Back 4 Blood flips the script by including a decidedly non-shooting mechanic: a deck-building...
Back 4 Blood: The Kotaku Review
20.10.2021
Celebrated filmmaker Jim Jarmusch once said, “Originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it.” Back 4 Blood, a new zombie-themed co-op shooter developed by Turtle Rock Studios, sure puts this principle into practice. Even its name is a direct...
13 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Back 4 Blood
18.10.2021
At first glance, Back 4 Blood might seem like a paint-by-numbers co-op shooter whose lineage traces back to Left 4 Dead. You might think you know the drill: point, shoot, pick up weapon, point, shoot again. Make it to the end of the level. Try not to die. But there’s a deceptive layer of complexity...
Thank You Melty Blood For Adding Fate/Stay Night’s Saber, My Sword Wife
30.9.2021
I didn’t pay much attention to the anime fighting game Melty Blood: Type Lumina until just yesterday, when the developers made the official announcement that Saber, Fate/Stay Night protagonist and the “King of Knights” herself, would be joining the new game’s roster. After seeing her video gameplay...
Why The FGC Won’t Stop Talking About Melty Blood: Type Lumina
22.9.2021
Fighting game YouTubers (like JMSCrofts, Jiyuna, and Rooflemonger) are talking a lot about Melty Blood: Type Lumina. This is not a complaint. As someone very new to fighting games it has been great to watch people absolutely lose their minds over an upcoming release (while still expressing...
The 15 Best Games on PC
17.9.2021
PC gamers have got a pretty great thing going. Interesting, experimental indie games? Yup. Complex strategy simulations? Totally. The shiniest, prettiest versions of big-budget console games? They get a lot of those, too. Let’s say you’ve recently joined the ranks of the PC elite. Which games...
Get This: 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand Started Out As A Tom Clancy Game
11.9.2021
In an interview with NME, a developer who worked on 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand revealed that originally the game was going to be a Tom Clancy title. But because the publisher didn’t actually own the rights to Clancy’s name, this plan was scrapped. Read more
Six Hours With Garden Story, A Zelda-Like For The Stardew Crowd
30.8.2021
When I first watched the trailer for Garden Story, I was reminded of one of my favorite Game Boy Advance games from my childhood. I wasn’t given much money as a kid, so I would stand at the GameStop demo booth and play The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for hours on end. I wanted Garden Story...
Boyfriend Dungeon Director: Despite The Bad Faith, It’s Good That We’re Talking
25.8.2021
The recent discourse around Boyfriend Dungeon has distracted from something important: That it is a very good video game, which I like a lot. I hope to remedy that now. In fact, I like it so much that I felt the desire to sit down with the game’s director, Tanya X. Short. After a short conversation...