Single-player video games
How To Kill Simon Dead In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wears its Final Fantasy inspirations on its sleeve, so it makes sense that it has its own swath of optional super bosses. And there’s one particular boss at the end of the game that’s a cut above the rest: Simon. Dragon’s Dogma 2’s New Class Is A Twirling Death Machine Simon…
5 Switch-Exclusive Games That Run Better On Switch 2 (Without A Patch)
The Nintendo Switch 2 is already one of the most successful consoles ever launched, and with it came a roster of exclusive launch games that we can only describe as…a little lackluster. Don’t get me wrong, I am the target audience for a new Mario Kart and a remaster of a throwback 3DS RPG. And…
Steam’s Automation Fest Has Begun: Here Are Our Top Picks
Steam’s “Fests” are an almost weekly event now, growing ever more niche as the behemothic game store tries to think up another category to highlight. Now that the Steam Summer Sale is over, the board is cleared for another fest, and this time it’s Automation. Which is to say, all those factory-based games that you…
When I Stopped Playing Mission Stories In Hitman, I Discovered What A Great Stealth Game It Is
I spent about 35 hours in Hitman World of Assassination this past weekend—interrupted mostly by the non-optional need to sleep and occasional concerns over the health of my GPU running for so long in a non-air conditioned apartment room in New York City in the summer. But I was determined to find out if the…
Final Fantasy Doesn’t Need Turn-Based Combat Back, It Needs Better Stories
There’s been an undercurrent of opinion, ever since Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took audiences by surprise earlier this year, that the approach taken by the turn-based fantasy RPG is the cure for everything that ails Final Fantasy. It delivers an old-school take on the genre that’s much less flawed than both Final Fantasy XVI and…
The Complete Guide To What The Actual Hell Is Going On In Death Stranding
Given just how categorically weird Hideo Kojima’s games are, and how otherwise risk-averse AAA publishers tend to be, it is downright miraculous that Death Stranding was enough of a blockbuster hit for someone to greenlight a second one—even moreso since that’s a game where even the people who played it will give you one of…
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach: The Kotaku Review
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach assumes two things about anyone jumping into Hideo Kojima’s new cinematic post-apocalyptic open-world delivery sim…err, sorry, I mean strand-type game. One: It assumes you have played the first game and (mostly) understood what happened. And two: It assumes you liked all of that and wanted more. A lot more….
The Best Game Of All Time Just Turned 25 Years Old
Yesterday, June 23, marked the 25th anniversary of what can convincingly be described as one of the best games of all time. Deus Ex, created by the distinct Austin branch of John Romero’s controversial studio Ion Storm, was a first-person RPG that would change how an entire generation of players and developers thought about video…
Thief VR Is Not What We Wanted, But It Cannot Harm The Glory Of The Original Trilogy
Of everything that came out of yesterday’s PlayStation State of Play, the thing that’s stuck with me—in all the worst ways—is the announcement of Thief VR. Thief is, on most days, my favorite gaming series (it’s Deus Ex on the others). The idea of getting a new game in the franchise, even after the woefully…
A Game Of The Year Contender Is Passing Right Under People’s Noses
Despite having spent 45 hours with the game, I’m still not quite ready to slap “The Kotaku Review” on anything I write about The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy yet. Too Kyo Games’ tactical RPG has 100 endings and I’ve only seen a handful, the game’s “true” route not among them. But, my god, I…