Kotaku's Reviews
I'll remember Celeste for a long time to come, thinking back on its mystical ruins and wind-swept peak. It's a joyous game brimming with hope and one of the best video game jumps ever.
Even though I knew I was playing a game, it meant a lot when I saw how I'd help these characters in their lives, and to be thanked for it.
In spite of technical flaws and the dreary mirror it holds up to us, Battlegrounds in consistently enjoyable and surprising. There is a reason why it is the battle royale game.
Breath of the Wild's latest adventure is well worth the time and effort, ending on on a triumphant high.
If you're planning to venture into the magical world of Nine Parchments, heed my words: It's tedious to go it alone. Take friends. Maybe wear some fireproof gloves.
In my time as queen in Reigns: Her Majesty, I was torn apart by my subjects, eaten by wolves, and burned at the stake. I had affairs with pagan women, barbarian queens from other lands, and rakish explorers of new worlds.
Like the world of Alrest, there's very little holding up Xenoblade 2. It is dull, dreary, overly complicated, and unconcerned with wasting the player's time. Life is just too short for that—even if you don't live on a sea of sinking clouds.
Hand of Fate 2 improves upon the original in every way.
Battle Chef Brigade delivered exactly what I wanted out of it: an engaging, but light game between visual novel segments with eccentric fantasy chefs. It's a delightful way to while away subway rides when, at home, mountains of heavy-lift AAA games are piling up.
Star Wars: Battlefront II frustrates me in ways I never knew I could be frustrated. It is both a lovingly crafted companion to the films and a tangled mess of corporate meddling. There is a strong heart at the center but finding it means peeling back layers of unnecessary and infuriating nonsense.
It's another Lego Marvel game with a so-so story leading to an immensely engaging open-world experience. That's fine if you primarily play Lego games to collect all the things.
Sledgehammer Games has delivered a polished experience across all areas of Call of Duty: WWII, showing us exactly what a classic Call of Duty game should look and feel like in 2017. This entry shouldn't disappoint fans, whether their preference is campaign, multiplayer, or zombies
It's a playable Saturday morning cartoon: silly, janky but for a brief period of time, a fun distraction.
The Frozen Wilds doesn't revolutionize or even significantly expand on the best ideas introduced in Zero Dawn. It succeeds in a more straightforward way: by giving us more of an already fantastic game.
The New Colossus crafts a world that can deliver exciting action and human drama. The messy gunfights give way to something much larger. The New Colossus examines violence, resistance, and the necessity of revolution. It's bloody and occasionally silly but never stupid or crass.
Assassin's Creed Origins is ungainly and uneven, beautiful and frustrating, expansive and unexpectedly conservative.
Every element gelled so well that I was simply enraptured by the beauty of the whole experience.
Fire Emblem Warriors lacks charm but compensates with spectacle.
When I finished the story, I had to stop myself from immediately starting a new game. That's partially because this is one of the best survival horror games I've played, but also because you unlock several snazzy new shirts for Sebastian, alongside other goodies to take with you into NG+.
It is a well-crafted game, and like its predecessor, it feels like an authentic recreation of South Park the show. It is full of shocking, outrageous moments. But it can also feel sanitized, like a Disney-fied rendition of a cartoon that won many early fans over with how crappy and explicitly un-Disney it was.