Reviews Archives - Page 51 of 124

Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice: The Kotaku Review

There’s a pretty good Sonic the Hedgehog game lurking under the padding and sports tape wrapped around Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice for the Nintendo 3DS. If people are wary of new Sonic the Hedgehog games given the franchise’s hit-or-miss quality over the past couple of decades, they are doubly wary of Sonic Boom games.…

By Mike Fahey Published September 27, 2016

Reviews

FIFA 17 vs PES 2017: Which Is Better?

Welcome to the next generation, FIFA. What took you so long? Most video games, even blockbuster sequels, exist in a kind of isolation. You treat each one like a self-contained entertainment experience. Football/soccer games, though, live in a very different reality than most video games. For one, they’re sports games, which means a new one…

By Luke Plunkett Published September 26, 2016

Reviews

World Of Warcraft: Legion: The Kotaku Review

Over the course of the first five expansion packs, Blizzard has slowly evolved World of Warcraft into something very different than the MMO that launched back in 2004. The Legion expansion feels like an entirely new game. After 12 years of performing outrageous acts of heroism in the name of the Alliance or Horde, it’s…

By Mike Fahey Published September 26, 2016

Reviews

ReCore: The Kotaku Review

Irredeemably bad video games are a simple, tidy affair. Their badness is straightforward. The game stinks. It was a waste of time to play. Probably shouldn’t have even finished it. It is different and perhaps more frustrating to play a promising game that starts well, carries many great ideas and then stumbles. The new Xbox…

By Stephen Totilo Published September 16, 2016

Reviews

CybertronPC CLX Scarab Gaming System Review: Big Power In A Small Package

CybertronPC has around since 1997, but its CLX line of custom luxury gaming beast machines are a recent development. Today we look at the line’s small-but-powerful desktop, the Scarab. Before we begin, let me establish that the Kansas-based computer company has no connection whatsoever to Hasbro’s popular line of transforming robots, who happen to hail…

By Mike Fahey Published September 12, 2016

Reviews

Phoenix Wright: Spirit of Justice: The Kotaku Review

In a world plagued by legal manipulation, political corruption, and a general lack of fairness for the underprivileged, there’s something comforting about a video game where justice is always served. Sure, everyone lies under oath and one out of every four witnesses is a murderer, but at least the innocents always go free. Phoenix Wright:…

By Jason Schreier Published September 9, 2016

Reviews

Origin Omni All-In-One Gaming PC Review: Everything In Its Place

I spent my first hour with Origin PC’s Geforce GTX 1080-powered, 34-inch ultra-wide curved screen Omni all-in-one gaming PC just staring at my desk. There’s a lot more of desk now. I didn’t know I had so much desk. Technically I spent the first hour looking for my power screwdriver to extricate the system from…

By Mike Fahey Published September 6, 2016

ReviewsBoard Games

The Star Wars Board Games Just Keep Getting Better

Star Wars: Imperial Assault and Star Wars: Armada are two of the biggest and best board games around at the moment. Both have had recent expansions that shake things up, and both of those expansions have been terrific If you’re just joining us, both are games from Fantasy Flight. Imperial Assault is a turn-based tactical…

By Luke Plunkett Published August 30, 2016

Reviews

Pan-Pan: The Kotaku Review

Indie game Pan-Pan offers players a world they desperately want to be in and then hampers their ability to enjoy it. The game’s take on exploration kept me pushing through frustrating puzzles. By the end of my journey, I’d worked through confusion all for the purpose of remaining in a fantasy paradise. Pan-Pan is an…

By Heather Alexandra Published August 29, 2016

Reviews

Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV: The Kotaku Review

Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV is what you’d get if you took two hours of JRPG cutscenes and edited them into a movie: It’s oddly paced, confusing, and full of corny dialogue. It’s also surprisingly fun to watch. As a standalone movie, Kingsglaive is kind of a mess. Most of the plot threads are left unresolved,…

By Jason Schreier Published August 26, 2016

Reviews

The Olympic Summer Games: The Kotaku Review

The Olympic Games is a massively multiplayer event wherein local champions from various territories convene in a single geographic location to compete in a wide variety of mini-games within larger categories (aquatic, track, gymnastics, cycling, and others). Winners in each event acquire a gold medal. Second prize is a silver medal; third prize is a…

Tim Rogers Published August 26, 2016

Reviews

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: The Kotaku Review

Adam Jensen needs a nerf. Five or six hours into Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, I imagined the game’s bad guys sending angry emails to developer Eidos Montreal complaining about their overpowered player-controlled adversary. Every fortified area Jensen entered started out full of alert, dangerous guards and ended with a heap of unconscious men piled up…

By Kirk Hamilton Published August 23, 2016

Reviews

Metroid Prime: Federation Force: The Kotaku Review

Despite abundant expectations that it would be bad, Nintendo’s new Metroid spin-off turns out to be very good. Metroid Prime Federation Force, which runs on the 3DS, is the first game with the M-word in its title since 2010. It is barely a Metroid game, something series fans sniffed out the moment it was first…

By Stephen Totilo Published August 19, 2016

Reviews

No Man’s Sky: The Kotaku Review

My lengthy first tour of No Man’s Sky was a disappointment. I spent 30 hours skating across the surface of an endless puddle, searching for depths that didn’t exist. I skipped and skimmed until, with great regret, I stopped. On my second time through, I liked it a lot more. I spent 15 hours standing…

By Kirk Hamilton Published August 17, 2016

Reviews

Starbound: The Kotaku Review

The moment Starbound really clicked for me I was tunneling into the center of a planet. I burst through yet another layer of stone, bone, and who knows what else, and I discovered the ruins of an abandoned civilization. It was made up of… tiny toy houses that seemed to have been terrorized by an…

By Nathan Grayson Published August 4, 2016

Reviews

Abzu: The Kotaku Review

The ocean can be a difficult setting for games. Some, like SOMA or Depth, embrace the horror of the unexplored, while others, like Subnautica, emphasize the survival aspects of being underwater. But Abzu, Giant Squid’s new game for the PC and PS4, frames the ocean’s unknown depths as a place of life, beauty, and discovery.…

By Riley MacLeod Published August 2, 2016

Reviews

Quadrilateral Cowboy: The Kotaku Review

Staring off into space. Drumming a desk with your fingers. Loading the Facebook app on your phone for the fifth time in 20 minutes. Then, it happens: the a-ha moment where experimentation has a baby with logic and a previously “impossible” puzzle is solved. There are many moments like this in Quadrilateral Cowboy, the closest…

By Patrick Klepek Published August 2, 2016

Reviews

Near Death: The Kotaku Review

There are no monsters in Near Death, a new video game about escaping an otherwise abandoned, wrecked and unbearably cold Antarctic research station. There are no bad guys at all. There is just the menace of weather: sub-zero temperatures that make it fatal to be outside for more than a couple of minutes, howling winds…

By Stephen Totilo Published August 2, 2016

Reviews

King’s Quest: Quest For the Crown: The Kotaku Review

Deadspin writer and Chopped champion Drew Magary wrote a new book, The Hike, which comes out next week. Since the novel was inspired by old point-and-click adventure games, we’ve asked Drew to come review the original King’s Quest for Kotaku. Don’t worry: the book is way better. – Jason I should not remember the King’s…

By Drew Magary Published July 29, 2016

Reviews

Half-Life 2: The Kotaku Review

Half-Life 2 has my favorite moment in any game. It’s this: I never played the original Half-Life, so I didn’t understand a lot of what was going on in Half-Life 2’s opening minutes. Half-Life 2 makes it clear from the get-go that something is wrong: your sudden appearance on the train after G-Man’s eerie monologue,…

By Riley MacLeod Published July 22, 2016