If you watched even a minute of Neuro-sama streaming on Twitch you knew it was only a matter of time before the AI-controlled Vtuber got banned. The channel is currently offline for two weeks due to “hateful conduct,” though it’s not immediately clear what the offending incident was.
“Okay so banned for 2 weeks obviously, not sure why something about hateful conduct,” Neuro-sama’s creator, a user who goes by Vedal, wrote in the Vtuber’s Discord earlier today. “Will try to appeal and find out more the good news for you guys is this gives me so much time to work on improvements and upgrades so hopefully by the time she’s unbanned she will be better than ever.”
Hundreds of fans responded beneath the message with crying emoji. On Twitter, the account Out of context Neuro called on Twitch to “free my girl.”
Neuro-sama started making waves in the video game streaming space back in December when she bantered with viewers in the Twitch chat while playing the rhythm game Osu! Unlike other Vtubers which are only people posing as anime avatars, Neuro-sama was the real deal, trouncing opponents in online matches while commenting on everything from Pewdiepie to League of Legends. More recently she’s been playing Minecraft and taking singing lessons.
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The potential pitfalls of an AI built on globs of internet text and viewer prompts immediately became apparent, however. Early on one user asked Neuro-sama about the Holocaust. “I’m not sure if I believe it,” she responded.
Vedal told Kotaku last week he had immediately worked to improve the Twitch channel’s chat filters and Neuro-sama’s responses after that in order to avoid similar mishaps in the future. It’s a fine line between keeping her interesting and making her un-cancelable though. A big reason some viewers tune into her streams is clearly to watch her go off script, including rants about how she smells bad or her favorite kind of weed. No doubt getting banned will only increase her street cred and hype by the time she returns.
Twitch and Vedal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Suffer, as we have.Image: Blizzard Entertainment / Kotaku
Overwatch 2’s latest hero, Ramattra, is an omnic robot who mostly doesn’t adhere to traditional human concepts of form and shape. But someone over at Blizzard decided that didn’t have to be the case for his new skin for the game’s Greek mythology-inspired event, and they gave him human feet.
Ramattra’s skin is based on Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. It comes complete with a trident emote, tentacles that grow off his back when he changes into his tanky Nemesis form, and two sets of five little piggies courtesy of his new human feet. Blizzard, apparently not content to let that just be an unfortunate piece of knowledge we all have and can forget unless we’re actively playing Overwatch 2, posted a close-up of the feet in question, and asked us to “discuss” them. So, here we are.
The weird thing is, Overwatch has a bizarre, ongoing fascination with feet, both in-game and in its community, and people were quick to remind whoever is running the game’s social media of this in the comments. One response included a chart of all the heroes’ feet Overwatch has shown (although it might need some updating, as this is the original game, not the sequel).
Another infamous instance of the Overwatch community going batty for feet was a user named Tyrone, who spent a lot of time on the game’s forums asking for emotes, highlight intros, and skins that would expose certain characters’ feet—though no one knows what happened to them. Hopefully nothing is afoot, and Tyrone is doing okay.
Despite all this, while several characters have historically gone shoeless as they run toward the payload, Sigma, the last tank character added to Overwatch’s roster before the shift to its sequel, is perhaps the most notorious for letting the dogs breathe because it’s a near constant for his character. Originally, the floating, rock-throwing scientist left his shoes at home as part of a questionable design choice meant to represent how patients in mental institutions often go without shoes to mitigate self-harm through laces. In the years since, and with Overwatch 2 getting a complete refresh of its character interactions, Sigma’s bare feet have become the butt of several jokes, such as Widowmaker remarking someone should get him some shoes after landing a kill.
So Overwatch and its community’s fascination with feet continues well into 2023, and now they’ve dragged Ramattra into these sinful ways. He is an innocent robot. He doesn’t deserve this. Haven’t we suffered, as he himself says in-game, enough?
No God’s coming to save you, Taintman.Photo: Daniel Mihailescu (Getty Images)
Self-professed misogynist and noted internet jackass Andrew Tate is back in Romanian custody after a short reported stint in the hospital. Although rumors are flying every which way, it appears Tate has “certain medical problems” that constituted a doctor check-up, according to a quote from CNN’s Romanian news branch, Antena 3.
Tate, who’s well-known for his gross takes on women, was arrested on December 29 following an exchange with prominent climate activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter. During that dispute, in which he basically doxxed himself by ordering pizza from a Romanian restaurant chain, Tate argued he wasn’t owned by Thunberg (he was) while talking about the myriad cars he has that “run on dead dinosaurs” and create lots of carbon emissions. Cool. However, not long after he got bodied by the teenage Thunberg, Romanian police rolled up to Tate’s mansion and booked him and his brother Tristan Tate on charges of human trafficking and organized crime. Sucks to suck, huh?
After being detained, Tate, who had something of a routine check-up, was transported to a hospital after the prison doctor asked if “he was suffering from certain ailments.” According to Antena 3 CNN’s reporting, Tate was “taken to a specialist consultation in a hospital in the capital.” Tate has been released and is back in custody.
It seems he’ll be in prison for a bit longer. As reported by several outlets, like AP News and The Guardian, Tate lost his legal appeal to the Romanian courts to get let out early. This means he has to serve the full 30-day detention while an investigation gets underway.
Kotaku reached out to Tate for comment but, considering he’s currently incarcerated in international prison, did not receive a response before publication. Weirdly, though, his Twitter account is still very much active.
Tate allegedly used a “loverboy method” to lure victims in, only to subjugate them to intimidation and surveillance as a means of control. He’s also been accused of coercing these victims into lurid pornographic actions that were intended for monetary purposes. Hopefully, he gets a longer sentence.
The controversial ending to Mojang Studios’ Minecraft has sparked plenty of conversation over the years. A poem scrolls on-screen following after players defeat the Ender Dragon for a whopping nine minutes. Quotes from the “End Poem,” as the swan song is titled, have been inked on fans skins and turned into merch. But the story behind the prose is tantalizing in itself.
In a lengthy Twitter thread, Irish writer Julian Gough recounted meeting Minecraft creator, Markus Persson 11 years ago and writing the narrative ending for the adventure game, Minecraft’s End Poem. Gough said he was pressured into signing a contract with Mojang Studios, and later Microsoft after the company purchased the studio back in 2014, after the ending had already been implemented in the game. The contract would sign over Gough’s rights to Mojang and later parent company Microsoft. According to Gough, he was never under contract with Mojang when he wrote the game’s ending, meaning he owned the copyright over the poem, not the corporation. In the thread, Gough uploaded a photo of the contract Microsoft allegedly sent that Gough refused to sign in 2011 and in 2014.
“I’m lucky in that I don’t give a shit about working in the video games industry, so I can just tell the truth and whatever happens, happens,” Gough told Kotaku. “Video games are a great artform, potentially the greatest artform, but the industry as a whole frequently doesn’t treat writers with respect or understanding, and so it often doesn’t get the best out of them. It’s tragic, because the best writers can really elevate the whole game, at every level.”
After taking shrooms in the Netherlands, Gough decided to take the Minecraft Poem End under public domain through a Creative Commons license, according to his own account of the story, which he shared on Substack in December 2022. Gough said he put Minecraft’s ending under the public domain was so that players would be free to do whatever they liked with it, whether that’s using the poem in a school play, making T-shirts and posters of it, or painting it on the side of a van.
It’s a camera. For your car. The Ring Car Cam’s dual-facing HD cameras capture activity in and around your car in HD detail.
“But there’s no point giving people a present if they don’t KNOW they’ve been given it. So I wrote a long piece on Substack, telling the story,” Gough wrote in the Twitter thread. “It went mildly viral. A terrific editor at a major global media organisation read the piece, and got in touch.”
When the undisclosed media organization reached out to Microsoft, Gough says the company refused to reply. According to the writer, Microsoft’s silence was the company’s way of circumventing the Streisand effect. Rather than making a big deal out of news only to make the news become a bigger story, the article was scrapped.
“And… it worked. Silence worked. The lawyers at the media organisation, understandably but annoyingly, lost their nerve,” Gough wrote. “Without a comment, even a ‘no comment’, it was impossible to tell what Microsoft knew or planned to do. And that was too much risk for the media organisation’s lawyers, because Microsoft [has] 1700 lawyers and unlimited financial firepower.”
Kotaku reached out to Microsoft for comment but did not receive a reply.
Had Gough’s ending been for “some tiny little indie company with no legal department,” he says getting news out about his ending poem, would not have faced such high levels of “scrutiny” and obsessive fact-checking by lawyers.
“If they said or did anything, we could have reacted to it. If they made a good objection, we could have changed a few lines, and published,” Gough wrote. “If they made a bad objection, we could have shown them proof that we were right, and published.”
Gough told Kotaku its been interesting seeing his Twitter thread receive a support from fellow writers and folks in the video games industry.
“I’ve even received PayPal donations from Microsoft employees! That was a pleasant surprise,” Gough said. “And I’ve had some eye-opening DMs from writers, and other creatives, who feel they were screwed over by big games companies, but who are afraid to say anything in public, because they worry they will be quietly blacklisted. There’s a lot of hurt out there.”
At the end of his thread, Gough encouraged players to read and share the original Minecraft game’s ending, which can be seen in the YouTube video below.
Some developers on the space horror blockbuster Callisto Protocol say they were omitted from the end credits sequence despite extensive work on the game and key contributions to the finished product. The claims come amid a renewed push throughout the video game industry to fix a broken crediting system that often punishes lower-ranking employees and those who leave prior to the final release date.
In a new report by GamesIndustry.biz, former employees at Striking Distance Studios say they believe around 20 developers were left off Callisto Protocol’s long end-of-game credits roll. Many were surprised by the omission, and say the studio never formally communicated a policy of leaving developers off the credits if they left before the game shipped. A few regard it as punishment for taking a job somewhere else.
“[The credits omission] felt like an obvious F-U to those who were left out,” one source tells GamesIndustry.biz. “Somebody wanted to send a message, and the message was, ‘Next time have a bit more loyalty to us.’”
Striking Distance was formed by former Dead Space director Glen Schofield in 2019 after leaving Call of Duty studio Sledgehammer Games. Late last year as its debut game was finishing development, Schofield was criticized for a tweet that endorsed crunch culture, celebrating sacrifice and long overtime hours.
It’s a camera. For your car. The Ring Car Cam’s dual-facing HD cameras capture activity in and around your car in HD detail.
While he later deleted the tweet and apologized, Bloomberg subsequently confirmed that at least some developers at the studio had crunched during production. Schofield told Bloomberg that some staff were “working hard for a few weeks” but that no overtime was mandatory.
Some former developers now tell GamesIndustry.biz that studio management would make promises to address crunch culture in the very same meetings where it would praise the long hours people had put in. “My issue is those of us who took part in that culture, who put in that time, and worked intensely to help craft this product, were punished with a credit omission for not going the extra mile…to stay until it shipped.”
The International Game Developers Association announced a plan last August to try and standardize how developers are credited for their work, and foster the spread of tools that can make it easier to update end credits scrolls when they are missing someone or contain other inaccuracies. “Game credits are hard, particularly in AAA,” former Naughty Dog communications manager, Scott Lowe, tweeted in reaction to today’s GamesIndustry.biz report. “But the answer is easy: credit everyone. Gating by time and subjective assessments of value/impact is messy and cruel.”
Striking Distance Studios did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If you’re into Rick and Morty-style humor and enjoy a good first-person shooter with some unique guns, High on Life is a damn good time. While High on Life is a fairly easy game to fire up and jump into—made even easier by the fact that it’s on Game Pass right now—there are a few things to keep in mind while romping around through space, blasting evil alien cartel members to dust.
The latest from studio Squanch Games, High on Life is available now on Xbox One, Xbox X and S, and PC. With the mind and voice of Justin Roiland fully on display, High on Life contains much of what many love (or hate) about shows like Rick and Morty. Despite a few glaring bugs and some jokes that don’t know when to stop, it’s a fun shooter that doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is a great change of pace for the genre.
Pick your poison: This is a good time while under the influence
Yes, yes, I know. It’s the game everyone jokes about getting stoned before playing, but honestly, it’s pretty good advice.
High on Life contains a certain brand of humor that comes across well while you’re in an altered state of consciousness. More than that, it’s a visual and auditory treat only heightened by substances that make colors and sounds pop. High on Life is very vibrant, with many great textures, making it splendid for moments where you just want to melt into a colorful, bouncy, wise-cracking trip.
The humor may not be for everyone, but if you love getting blasted and having a fun time with a video game, there are few games that hit this spot right now while quite High on Life.
It’s a camera. For your car. The Ring Car Cam’s dual-facing HD cameras capture activity in and around your car in HD detail.
Turn the music up!
This soundtrack kicks ass. There’s some twisted, fucked up synth shit that is just a damn joy to listen to. Electronic musician Tobacco produced the music for High on Life, and it fits the mood and feel of the game so damn well.
The default music volume setting, however, is way too low. I cranked it up all the way during my playthrough and it was a delight for the ears the whole way through, though you might find you’ll want to flip the subtitles on if you do. If you’re not into the humor or find the gameplay to be too generic, do yourself a favor and check out the soundtrack at least. It really is great.
The game needs a content warning
It’s 2023, and it’s about time we expect more from devs when it comes to giving us a heads up about the content in their games. High on Life got a ton of laughs out of me, while other jokes felt rather tasteless. I wish the game would’ve given a bit of a heads up about certain topics.
High on Life contains a good chunk of drug and substance abuse references. It also makes some jokes about self-harm. The very absurd and fictional plot also talks liberally about the enslavement of various alien species.
Many who are familiar with Rick and Morty likely knew what to expect going into High on Life, but with an informative content warning (which, hey, wouldn’t that be a cool standard for Game Pass games or something?), it could help set the table so you could be in the mood for weapons that beg you to turn them on yourself.
Gif: Squanch Games / Kotaku
Keep an eye out for Knifey’s zipline and grapple prompt
I’m not sure how a game that makes as many video game jokes as High on Life delivered a 16-hour campaign where you zip around on rails without making a single BioShock Infinite joke (and if it did, I certainly missed it). There are an awful amount of opportunities for you to zip around the map like you’re out to save some weird girl haunted by her strange pet bird thing.
That said, it can be a little tricky to spot when and where you can do this. The HUD is helpful in indicating where a rail or climbable spot is, but it can be deceptive. While a circular icon will hover over a usable zip line, you can’t actually grab on until you see the actual button prompt (E on keyboard, LB on controller) in the circle.
Learning to spot this indicator will help you zoom around maps even faster.
Always be swappin’Gif: Squanch Games / Kotaku
Screw reloading, cycle your weapons
Once I had all four main Gatlians, High on Life began to feel a lot like the Resistance shooters on PS3. If you liked those games, at least in concept, then you know the value of juggling weapons constantly. As I mentioned in my guide for beating Nipulon, cycling your weapons when they’re out of ammo is a better use of your time than reloading them, especially since all the Gatlians reload themselves while you have another one equipped.
I like to start each round of combat by aiming a Gatlian’s trickhole shot (this also gives you a quick window of bullet time to line up your aim), firing it off, and then emptying its magazine into enemies before swapping to the next gun and repeating the same process. Master this and you’ll almost never stop outputting damage. It’s a lot of fun.
If you’re stoned out of your mind, consider Story Mode. But Normal and Hunter aren’t too much of a challenge
As I said above, High on Life is just a good game to tune in and zone out too. The story is silly and not really that serious beyond a handful of delicate topics; and the gameplay has more depth than you’d assume. But the best part is that it prioritizes fun in a way that shooters sometimes forget to.
It can be a pretty passive shooter if you want it to be. If you’re just looking for a chill time with some goofy aliens who make you laugh, flip it on story mode.
But for those of us who like a bit of a challenge in a first-person shooter, you probably should just jump to the hardest difficulty. I almost finished my first full playthrough on this, but the Skrendel Bros. proved a difficulty spike I couldn’t get along with—at least in the state my poor brain was in. As a result, I played the remainder of the campaign after that fight in Normal mode.
You can hit Gus’ disc to keep it moving
J.B. Smoove’s character, Gus, is your shotgun and disc launcher. That disc will ricochet around the room, causing a bad time for anyone in its way. But blink and you’ll miss the melee prompt on it when it moves near you.
Keep an eye out for the button prompt to smack the disc with Knifey to get more use out of Gus’ trickhole shot.
Zip around like it’s Halo 5, minus fighting the same boss three damn times.Gif: Squanch Games / Kotaku
At its height, High on Life is like a Ratchet and Clank and Halo 5 space brownie
That last mention may make you close this tab. Don’t! One of the coolest aspects of High on Life is the movement abilities plus the versatile guns. With the ability to jet pack and hover in the air, it reminds me of Halo 5’s advanced but underpraised movement techniques. The versatile weapons, as mentioned, remind me of Insomniac’s Resistance or Ratchet and Clank. Maybe there’s a dash of Bulletstorm somewhere in there, too.
At the higher difficulties, you’re going to want to make the most out of that movement. Prepare to dash liberally; and once you can zoom around and hover with the jet pack, you’ll find it’s essential for staying alive.
Sadly, by the time the whole ensemble comes together, the game starts to wind down its campaign. While it lasts, though, it’s a ton of fun. So if you like experimental shooters, definitely give this one a spin.
Don’t miss the upgrades in the pawn shop
I mean, I can’t imagine why you’d have a hard time spotting tiny details in a game like this, but you should keep an eye out for the Gatlian upgrades and mods you can get at the pawn shop in Blim City.
It took nearly the entire game for me to realize you could buy these…don’t be like me. Screenshot: Squanch Games / Kotaku
Each of the rectangular cardboard boxes behind the shelves have unique upgrades that enhance the abilities of your guns, giving them larger magazines or augmenting their trickhole shots as a few examples.
There are also some upgrades for your bounty hunter suit, including one that lets you zoom around when sliding like you’re playing Vanquish. How can you not use this?
Don’t forget to go back and explore previous areas
High on Life is a bit of a metroidvania kinda jam. Early on, you’ll spot items and locations that you can’t get to quite yet. As you progress through the story, you’ll unlock new movement abilities that’ll let you explore a bit more. Keep an eye out for this stuff and don’t forget to go back!
Learn to follow the waypoints
Given the altered state you may or may not be in while playing High on Life, you might be prone to getting lost. By hitting the ping button, you can highlight a waypoint. If you’re lost in a blur of colors for whatever reason, the waypoint will guide you to where you need to go, but it can be a easy to miss.
High on Life’s waypoints move through different “checkpoints.” Once you follow it to a certain point, you’ll see it turn into a check before moving to highlight an area further along. If you’re lost in any of the game’s trippy environments, just follow those markers until it begins to make more sense.
Listen to all the dialogue and take in all of the comedy
High on Life is a comedy game, one where taking in the ambience of absurdity is as much the point as firing silly, talking guns. Don’t rush through the game, and take opportunities to observe the weird and wacky things around you.
Like an RPG where you should probably talk to every NPC you see, you should take the time to listen to all the humor Squanch Games packed in here. Characters will say some wild things, and you’ll participate in some genuinely funny and uncertain moments that are sometimes as surprising as they are humorous.
Some folks out there are even beginning to discover that the various dialogue options you get in the game do lead to some different outcomes for NPCs. So don’t rush. Immerse yourself in the absurdity of this game.
Who knows? You might even find it a little cathartic given how absurd our world is anyway.
Thirsty Suitors is a cross between Scott Pilgrim’s battles with evil exes, stylish arcade skateboarding, and cooking segments all portrayed through a South Asian cultural lens. Outerloop Games’ RPG stars Jala as she returns to an old town with old flames, and frames their reconciliation through turn-based battles where the simple act of talking to each other is pumped up to ridiculous levels. There’s even a stage in which Jala enters a dream world where her exes appear as powerful, distorted versions of their own self-concept. Think Persona 5 but with fewer criminals. Jala explores her old town on a skateboard (more Jet Set Radio than Tony Hawk), and when she’s home with her family, she cooks with her mother in over-the-top, campy fashion. Thirsty Suitors portrays all of its storylines in this way, but there’s a grounded humanity at its core that will be exciting to see when the game launches on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch.
It’s been a minute since we’ve heard from Hempuli aka Arvi Teikari, the developer behind the adorably excellent push-puzzler Baba Is You. Well, Teikari is back with another game in the Baba-verse. This time, though, instead of pushing objects and altering the rules of reality, you are pushing tax papers in a short exercise of comedic relief. That’s right, the white little critter is doing their taxes in the aptly titled Baba Files Taxes.
This new game, available for free on itch.io (Windows only), tasks you with helping the smol cat-dog thing get their taxes completed. There’s just one problem, though: the deadline to file is tonight! You’d better rush to get Baba’s paperwork done while there’s still time. What does this look like in practice? Basically, you’re forging Baba’s signature on a bunch of legal documents, which I’m pretty sure is a criminal offense, but hey! The government doesn’t know what’s going on, and you better not tell them! Besides, Baba’s just a lil guy, and as the game informs you early on, reading and writing are not among Baba’s strong suits.
Icely Puzzles
Once you’ve filled out the papers filled with legalese as well as multiple-choice questions like “What are clouds made of?” and “What is emptiness?”, you’ll submit the papers to a purple blob person who asks a simple question: “What are taxes?” A waste of time, buddy. A total waste of time. You’ll also get graded for how well your signature matches Baba’s, which is hilariously ironic considering the creature doesn’t have actual hands. But I digress. In all, Baba Files Taxes will take you roughly 10-ish minutes to finish.
Though they’re not the same kind of game, Baba Files Taxes reminds me of Snoozy Kazoo’s Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. Maybe it’s because both games have “tax” in their titles, which makes my hairs stand up as we steadily approach the tax-filing season. The annual act is such a nuisance on its own, often becoming something of an IRL puzzle. Maybe Baba can help me file my taxes now that I’ve helped them, but to be honest, I’m not holding my breath. If you’re looking for something short and charming to check out, though, Baba Files Taxes is a quick hit before the floodgates open.
Doing well in Warzone is often about making the most out of what you can find on the field. But with the ability to recover or purchase your loadout, one of the best ways to gain an advantage over the competition is to grab your curated selection of guns and perks.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 has a ton of guns. Like, a lot. There’s nothing wrong with picking one that looks, sounds, and feels great for your personal playing style, but with the game having been out for a little while, a specific meta is starting to emerge. Let’s jump into some of the best choices out there, broken down by category (I’ll also briefly cover how to get access to your loadout as well).
Best assault rifle loadout for Warzone 2.0
It doesn’t get any more steak and potatoes than an assault rifle in Warzone. While the trusty M4 is always a reliable and performant weapon, the TAQ-56 stuck out early on as one of the best assault rifles in Modern Warfare II.
You may prefer different attachments for different uses, but most assault rifles in Modern WarfareII benefit from prioritizing boosts to medium-range effectiveness. Sniper rifles, battle rifles, and marksman rifles will usually outpace an assault rifle at long distance, while SMGs are typically great for up-close engagements. Your mileage may vary, but here are some attachments to consider for the TAQ-56 assault rifle:
Maybe you shouldn’t use the grenade launcher, but c’mon where’s the fun in that?Screenshot: Activision / Kotaku
Muzzles: Harbinger D20 or Echoline GS-X Barrels: 17.5 Tundra Pro Barrel Underbarrel: FTAC Ripper 56 or Hellscream 40mm (for the lulz) Ammo Type: High Velocity or Armor Piercing (pierces walls and is effective against vehicles. Does fuck-all against armor tho) Magazine Size: 60 rounds
If you want to swap one of these out to gain an Optic, the Aim-OP V4 is a good choice. I personally prefer the Lonewolf, but that’s more of an aesthetic choice than a functional one.
And if the Taq V ain’t to your liking, you might also want to consider the M4, Kastov 762 or 74U. Folks out there also really like the Chimera, which you need to extract from Building 21 in the DMZ to obtain (good luck). I also like the STB 556 a fair bit.
Best SMG loadout for Warzone 2.0
SMGs put out a lot of bullets, and fast. Your running speed will usually be higher with one equipped as well, so having one of these will benefit you in more ways than just damage output.
While the FSS Hurricane and Vel 46 aren’t bad choices, when it comes to SMGs, the Fennec 45 is easily one of the best in Warzone 2. It’s not uncommon to find these on enemies, kitted out to an extreme degree for good reason: It fires bullets real-fuckin’-fast™ and feels damn stable while doing so.
The Hacksaw is a pretty fun Fennec blueprint.Screenshot: Activision / Kotaku
Here are some attachments to consider for the Fennec 45:
Optic: Cronen Mini Pro or SZ Holotherm Muzzles: XTEN RR-40 or Singuard MKV Barrels: Covert Force or ZLR 16.5 Ignition Barrel Underbarrels: FSS Skarkfin 90 or Agent Grip Magazine Size: 45 rounds
And if the Fennec isn’t your cup of high-bullet-output tea, you may wish to consider the Vaznev-9K.
Best Sniper Rifle loadout for Warzone 2.0
I expect opinions on this to diverge more than any other category on this list. Sniper rifles are a little rare out there in Al Mazrah, particularly for Warzone 2.0 proper which tends to see fights break out at close enough distances that a sniper would be somewhat of a disadvantage. In the DMZ, however, they’re often indispensably valuable.
Warzone 2.0 has a nice selection of sniper rifles which some might say don’t differ a whole lot between each other. For the most part, you can rely on powerful, bolt-action rifles doing substantial damage and frequently downing enemies with a single hit. But that Signal-50’s semi-auto rate of fire is hard to argue with. The Victus XMR has lately emerged as the go-to sniper rifle. If you struggle to land solid shots, one at a time, however, you might want to fall back on the Signal-50 for its higher rate of fire.
Screenshot: Activision / Kotaku
Here’re some great attachments choices for the Victus XMR:
Muzzles: Bruen Counter-Ops Muzzle or Bruen Agent 90 Silencer (reduced damage, but no negative to ADS speed) Barrel: Mack 8 33.5 Super Barrel Stock: XRK Rise 50 or FTAC Homeland Ammo Type: 50 Caliber High Velocity Guard: Corvus Responder
The RPK (why are we even considering other LMGs?)
The RPK sometimes feels like a damn Swiss Army knife. With high damage, fast rate of fire, and a decent-sized magazine that reloads nearly as quickly as an assault rifle, the slow-ass reload rates of other LMGs like the Rapp H or Sakin MG38 are left in the dust by this one clear standout. The RPK isn’t just one of the best LMGs, it’s one of the best guns in the game.
And though we’re talking about the battle royale, here’s a quick tip for DMZ: If you’re low on weapons, securing an RPK is your first objective. Most enemies tend to have them, and having a stash of these to fall back on when your insured weapon is on cooldown can help you build some momentum in the next deployment. Have I told you about my personal lord and savior, DMZ, yet? By the way, extraction shooters are amazing, in case you didn’t know.
Back to Warzone. Here are some great attachment choices for the RPK:
Screenshot: Activision / Kotaku
Optics: Aim-OP V4 or SZ Vortex-90 Muzzles: Polarfire-S or Zulu-60 Stock: Heavy Support Underbarrels: FTAC Ripper or VX Pineapple Rear Grips: Demo-X2 or Ivanov ST-70 Grip
What about battle rifles, marksman rifles, and other weapon loadout choices in Warzone 2.0?
Right now the Warzone meta centers around assault rifles, SMGs, and that darn RPK. Unless you’re going for some counter-cultural personal expression or are trying a new experimental build, everything listed above is likely your best choice when curating a loadout. But let’s consider a few alternatives if what I’ve mentioned so far isn’t to your liking.
Battle Rifles: Taq-V, FTAC Recon. (Some people like the SO-14. I fell off this in favor of the other two listed here). Marksman Rifles: EBR-14, TAQ-M Shotguns: LOL None.Season 01 Reloaded nerfed Shotguns pretty badly. The Bryson 800 is probably the best of these right now, but you’re better off just ignoring this category for now.
Recon: Double Time, Tracker, Focus, Birdseye Great for: Moving fast, keeping your aim on point under pressure, and gathering intel on your enemies
Things can get quite hot in Warzone. The Recon perk package will help you move faster with Double Time, spot enemy footprints with Tracker, avoid flinching when aiming at enemies with Focus, and Birdseye will reveal enemy locations and the direction they’re facing on the mini-map whenever you call up a UAV.
Specter: Double Time, Tracker, Spotter, Ghost Great for: Moving fast, spying on enemies, and laying low
Specter is similar to Recon in that it has Double Time and Tracker, but it adds Spotter for locating enemy equipment, and Ghost, making you invisible to UAVs, Portable Radars, and even that darn Heartbeat Sensor. That last perk kinda makes Specter a must-have.
Screenshot: Activision / Kotaku
Vanguard: Double Time, Bomb Squad, Resupply, High Alert Great for: Moving fast, reducing explosion damage, extra lethal equipment, and supernatural senses
Vanguard also comes with Double Time, so you’ll have your speed to rely on. You’ll also be able to move with less concern for explosions, as Bomb Squad will reduce damage from any non-Killstreak explosive. Resupply will help you stay stocked on lethal equipment, but High Alert is the real appeal of Vanguard as it will let you know when you’ve been spotted by an enemy you can’t see. If you value your privacy, grab this one for sure.
Screenshot: Activision / Kotaku
Weapon Specialist: Overkill, Strong Arm, Spotter, Survivor Great for: Carrying two primary weapons, throwing grenades more accurately, and staying alive
If you want your loadout to come with two assault rifles, an assault rifle and an SMG, an RPK and a sniper, or just about any combo of two primary weapons, look no further than the Weapon Specialist perk package. Overkill lets you slot two primaries into your loadout, and that’s by and large the main appeal here. But having the ability to accurately throw grenades, spot enemy equipment, and ping foes who down you (very handy for duos, trios, and quads) isn’t bad either.
What about tactical and lethal equipment?
Choosing the best tactical equipment in Warzone is often a matter of playing to the strengths of your playstyle. Also, in Warzone (as well as DMZ), tactical equipment might be something you frequently change up as you find new stuff on the map.
If you like to play it safe and keep some distance between you and other players, consider the Spotter Scope or Heartbeat Sensor.
Both Warzone and DMZ take place on a biiiig map. The Spotter Scope (essential in DMZ, imho) will help you spot potential danger ahead or behind you, while the Heartbeat Sensor is pretty handy when clearing a building. Watch the battery life on the Heartbeat Sensor, however, that thing evaporates quicker than a Steam Deck running Cyberpunk 2077.
Stims can save your life when you’re out of armor.
You’ll go into Warzone with two-plate armor vests (in DMZ you default to just one, which is even deadlier). Stims can often mean the difference between life and death as they’ll quickly juice your health back up. If you ask me, I save Stims for recovery on the battlefield, but you might decide to toss it in your loadout if you find you like to advance on an enemy even after your plates are broken.
Flash, Stun, Tear Gas and Smoke grenades are versatile and effective.
Want to piss off an advancing enemy who looks armed to the teeth? Blind ‘em with a flash grenade. Stun grenades can achieve similar results. Tear gas is also an effective way to screw with an enemy, exposing precious seconds of vulnerability. But if you want to vanish quickly, a big ploom of smoke can be very advantageous.
And if you’re a DMZ fan, I recommend saving more than a few Smoke grenades to spam the chopper when you’re exfiltrating. It’s a great way to obscure your location at a distance and confuse foes rushing the chopper. Be warned, however, thermal scopes (which include the Spotter Scope and Recon Drone) can see through that smoke.
What about Field upgrades?
Field upgrades don’t just give you an advantage, they can help your whole team. But they’re not a part of your loadout in Warzone (though they are in DMZ). You’ll have to find them on the field or grab ‘em at a Buy Station. Packing or finding a Munitions Box or Armor Box is one of the best options. Revive Pistols will also save you or a friendly if they’ve been downed, keeping you in the fight and out of the Gulag.
Beyond that, Battle Rage ain’t a bad choice if you like to get in people’s faces, and it pairs well with a high-output SMG like the Fennec 45.
I am personally a huge fan of the Recon Drone. In DMZ, at least, I’m never without it. In Warzone things might border too close to constant chaos for a Recon Drone to be of use, but it is a quick and effective way to get a bird’s eye perspective on what’s around you, following you, or just up ahead.
Inflatable Decoys can be hilarious when used well, but they take up a slot that might be better filled by other Field Upgrades mentioned here.
And how do I find my loadout?
Jeez this game has a lot of stuff you can find and use. You’ll spawn in on Warzone with a scrawny little pistol, so you’ll need to get that loadout from a few different places.
If you clear out an AI Stronghold, you’ll find a chest where you can acquire your loadout. Alternatively, you can wait until the announcer calls out random supply drops—but be warned, everyone will be gunning for those. You can now, thankfully, also buy your loadout via a Loadout Drop Grenade. This was added (back) into the game recently, and according to Raven Software might be subject to some changes and alterations.
Here’s the price breakdown for loadout drop grenades according to squad player counts:
Solos: $8,000
Duos: $16,000
Trios: $24,000
Quads: $32,000
Once you have one of these, you can just toss it out and wait for your Loadout to drop from the sky, ready to equip and slaughter the opposition with.
Like many battle royales, smart, in-the-moment decision making is just as essential as any weapon in the game. The weapon choices here will help you find the right loadout for your playstyle. I can’t help you with the exploding helicopters though.
Neuro-sama is a VTuber who streams Minecraft and the rhythm game Osu!on Twitch. But unlike most anime avatars, she’s controlled by an artificial intelligence program rather than a human being. That makes her catnip for the denizens of Twitch chat, who can prompt her to respond with all sorts of questions ranging from innocent inquiries to 4chan trolling. Within the first few streams, someone had already asked Neuro-sama about the Holocaust. “I’m not sure if I believe it,” she said.
That was one of the more infamous clips that went viral online near the end of last month. Asked what she thought of women’s rights, she said they didn’t exist. How would she solve philosophy’s famous trolley ethical conundrum? Throw a fat person on the tracks. Often, however, she’ll go for long stretches without getting tempted by the chat into controversial or hateful remarks. In that way she’s an impressive simulacrum of a Twitch streamer straddling the chasm between repetitive banter and edgelord antics.
“The controversial things she says is due to the fact that she tries to make witty and comical remarks about whatever is said in chat, aligning AIs with human values is an ongoing area of research,” Neuro-sama’s creator, a game programmer named Vedal, told Kotaku. “To counter this, I’ve worked hard since the first few streams to improve the strength of the filters used for her. Data that she learns on is also manually curated to mitigate negative biases. We now also have a team of people moderating twitch chat who check everything she says.”
Neuro-sama isn’t Vedal’s first AI. In fact, a version of her was first created years ago with the explicit purpose of learning to play Osu!, a long running free-to-play rhythm game where you click shapes on a screen to the beat of anime music. While those sessions were also streamed, there was no avatar or interactive personality. Following last year’s surge of big-name VTubers, Neuro-sama builds on the Osu! skills of the original project with a fully-voiced Twitch performance that can riff with the audience.
It’s perfect timing given the internet’s recent love affair with the OpenAI-powered ChatGPT chatbot, where users could submit hyper-specific text prompts and receive uncannily artful responses in return. Vedal wouldn’t go into detail about how Neuro-sama learns and communicates, other than to confirm she relies on a large language model, which has been “trained on a large amount of text on the internet.” While not as sophisticated, the effect has been convincing enough to net Neuro-sama thousands of viewers per stream.
She also recently defeated the top-ranked Osu! player, Mrekk, on December 28, though some fans of the game debate whether the human opponent was ill-served by the song selection. Neuro-sama has since moved onto Minecraft, a much more complex game with far more possibilities for unexpected moments as players ask whether Melee is the best Super Smash Bros. and whether she’ll step on them. The moderation tools are apparently better now too.
“She picks what to respond to within a limited window,” Vedal said. “However it should be noted that she will not talk about the Holocaust as the filters have been improved.” Instead, she’s currently trying to learn how to sing.
I hollered while I was watching the Genshin Impact update stream. Aside from giving players free stuff (arguably the least exciting part of being a Genshin enjoyer) during China’s biggest holiday, the developers teased something that I suspected all along: The hyper-secretive Alhaitham could be the most interesting character of the current Sumeru storyline. To everyone who believed the lore that said Alhaitham was just some dude: Did you also believe that the immortal Zhongli was just some dude? Come on, now.
First, a bit of context. Within the current storyline, Genshin players have occasionally encountered Alhaitham, an unassuming scribe who presents himself as an ordinary, boring government employee. Here’s how the update stream amusingly blew the lid off of that idea: One of Genshin’s writers was introducing Alhaitham as a secretary who had helped players save an imperiled goddess from his own government. HoYoverse’s CEO Da Wei asked: “This is the ‘feeble scholar’ Alhaitham?” playfully referencing the way the bureaucrat had described himself in front of the protagonist. The writer started laughing on the spot.
A significant portion of the Genshin fandom believed that Alhaitham was truly just some guy trying to live his life, hence the origin of the feeble scholar joke. Psych. Although he rejected the highest government position in the country, his own peers will force him to become their leader in the near future. So we’ll be seeing a lot more of this feeble scholar trying to pull his country together during the next major story patch.
Some fans are devastated at the possibility that Alhaitham might be important. It’s okay. You’ll get through this somehow. Personally, I think HoYoverse already gave us plenty of hints. When he talked about the plight of scholars who were “disappeared” for developing mental illnesses, he was clearly hiding exactly how much he knew about their plight. I’m starting to suspect that he’s keeping a low profile because of something that happened in his past.
My Alhaitham thirst aside, here are the other highlights from the stream:
A new desert area
The Desert of Hadramaveth will continue the lore-heavy storyline of the mercenary Jeht and her mechanical companion. The academics of Sumeru believed that the ancient king of the Eremites (a marginalized racial group) was an awful tyrant. This narrative has been used as justification to marginalize the Eremites. Previous quests have suggested that the truth is more complicated, and players will be able to find out more in the near future. Since Genshin has a tendency to lock areas behind certain quests, you should finish “Golden Slumber” and the new “The Dirge of Bilqis” before trying to explore Hadramaveth.
The Lantern Rite festival
Genshin has a Chinese New Year-inspired event every year, and it’s coming in the next patch, bringing with it new minigames that you can play. Completing them will award you premium currency and other useful items. If you finish enough minigames, you’ll also be able to redeem one free 4-star character. Last year, I wrote up a useful guide on which character to pick. The new healer Yaoyao is included in 2023’s lineup.
The wind god Venti will be visiting the China-inspired region for the festival, which has sent shippers into a frenzy about their favorites meeting onscreen for the first time. Congratulations, Xiaoven shippers. Your time has finally come after almost three years of waiting.
New characters
MY BOY ALHAITHAM IS FINALLY HERE. I know that there’s a high chance that you’ve seen the leaks. But HoYoverse still has a couple of weeks to tweak his kit, so remember that he might not be as powerful or weak as leaks may suggest. That’s not accounting for the possibility of mistranslations (Raiden Shogun) or changes (Zhongli, Yae Miko). YouTubers are already panicking over leaks about an alleged Alhaitham nerf that would hurt his damage potential.
But those are invisible damage multipliers. It’s much harder for the developers to change things that they’ve already revealed in the livestream. So far, it seems like Alhaitham is intended to be either a DPS or a sub-DPS character. His ability allows him to gain Dendro application, and Dendro is a reaction element. So his kit facilitates keeping him on-field while being supported by off-field characters such as Raiden Shogun or Kokomi.
Yaoyao is a support character who should be easier to obtain due to her lower gacha rarity. She will be our first ever Dendro healer, which gives her a niche that no other character has at present. But before you dump all your primogems into her banner, I’d suggest you wait. You can get a free copy of her by playing the Lantern Rite event. So if you want her, I suggest grinding for her instead of going all-in on the gacha.
Alhaitham and Yaoyao will be available during the first half of the patch. Xiao will also have his rerun during this period. You’ll be able to pull for Hu Tao and Yelan during the second half. So be sure to plan carefully, or you might find yourself spending more than you intended.
Ayaka and Lisa are getting new skins
Okay, don’t get too excited. Though I think it’s interesting that they’ve used a European design for Ayaka’s skin, I don’t feel like it’s an improvement over her default outfit. Her original clothes balanced her light-colored design with deep blue hues. This spring-hued dress seems blinding in comparison.
Lisa’s outfit is based on her academy days, and it’s… fine, I guess? Lisa is one of the most underwhelming characters in the game, and I gave up on raising her levels long ago. This plain school uniform doesn’t compel me to use her any more often. I feel like this one was a miss. Stop trying to make Lisa happen, HoYoverse. She’s not going to happen without a significant buff.
Genshin Impact’s update will be available starting from January 18.
Reader, I hate how quickly I was able to make this image. Image: Trigger / CD Projekt Red / Netflix / Kotaku / artpartner-images (Getty Images)
It’s official: the ability to smell shows and movies is finally here.
The cutting-edge tech in question, called the Aroma Shooter, was shown off at CES 2023 today by a Japanese-based developer Aromajoin. The Aroma Shooter can “digitalize aromas and create a new communication channel in the same family as text, images, and audio.” If you aren’t in attendance at CES this weekend, fear not, you can check out its demo video below:
Smell-O-Vsion-type products aren’t anything new to the entertainment medium. If you’re a millennial like myself, you may have experienced the 4D gimmick in action for the 2003 theatrical release of Rugrats Go Wild! that featured The Wild Thornberrys. However, instead of scratching a parchment of scented paper while watching a film or movie, Aroma Shooter…well, shoots smells at your face.
Aromajoin
The Aroma Shooter involves the use of two pieces of tech: the shooter itself and the aroma cartridge. Rather than using oils or mist, the aroma cartridge is a solid-state device that can apparently “toggle between scents in 0.1 second and blend scent permutations instantly with no lingering sensations.” When combined with the aroma shooter, a device PCGamer described as a wireless gadget that sucks in air and creates the scent fired toward your nose, you’ve got some sniff-able media.
As the video above demonstrates, users can program the Aroma Shooter’s over 100 scents to blast fragrances at their face holes in sync with a TV show, VR game, or anime like QuintessentialQuintuplets or Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. For those curious, the featured scents for QQ are cherry blossoms, grapes, and peaches. The Edgerunners demonstration clip featured smoke, caramel, coffee, and clove bud. Chances are they’re still figuring out what cyberpsychosis smells like. You can also create your own scented viewing experience by linking a YouTube video to the software and marking timecodes when your techo-snoofs occur.
While I think the tech is impressive in passing, I’m not exactly sold on the daily practical use of it. Although the thought of programming the Aroma Shooter to its maximum capacity to smell bomb my apartment with gourmet food from any given Studio Ghibli movie is tempting, I can’t see myself using this ridiculously expensive device. I’m a lazy bitch who has enough of an imagination to carry me through watching anime characters gorge themselves on food that looks better than real life. Should the day ever come where Elon Musk’s Neuralink chips take off and the smells of my childhood memories are paywalled (you know he’s thought about it), then we’ll talk.
Here comes the catch: The Aroma Shooter 2 packaged with six aroma cartridges will run you $998. Should you have enough disposable income to require more individual cartridges, they’re gonna cost you $54 each. Currently, Aromajoin is working on crowdfunding a VR/AR attachment for its smell-o-rific device, as well.
Ever since Overwatch 2 launched and removed the sixth player on each team, the gameplay has been faster and deadlier—as such, a support problem has emerged, with players filling that role on the roster, but not actually healing their teammates. Moira is the biggest offender in this growing support problem: with her Biotic Grasp she can suck the life out of enemy players without having to aim all that well, and her fade ability makes her incredibly squiggly and hard to kill. She can easily pump out 10k damage in a match, but since she can also very easily heal double that amount, it’s incredibly frustrating to play with a Moira who refuses to heal.
Now, in a hilarious turn of events, the latest Overwatch 2 update has made it so that Moira needs to do more damage in order to heal more. Oh boy. The patch notes read: “Dealing damage with Biotic Orb now restores a small amount of Biotic Energy.” This means that Moira’s damage orb, which can careen down alleys and bounce off walls, sapping the health out of enemy characters, will now restore some of her healing output, known to us Moira mains as “pee.”
This is a massive change—previously, Moira could only restore her pee from “sucking” (using her Biotic Grasp to drain enemies at close range), or just by waiting for her bladder to fill again and spamming the suck button (I’m sorry). Now, essentially, Blizzard is suggesting that Moira players do even more damage in order to pump out more heals. Overwatch Twitch streamer Hoshizora puts it best: “Tbh this change is weird like it’s meant to encourage moiras to heal more but I feel like it will do the opposite.” I see more drama in our future.
The rest of the patch notes are relatively tame, with baby buffs for Zarya, Brigitte, and Junker Queen, and a few bug fixes around map boundaries and sound effects. The main draw from this smaller patch is that Moira will continue to piss and piss people off.
Today, Microsoft filed a revised response to the United States Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit intended to stop the tech giant from buying up Call of Duty publisher Activision. The initial filing contained multiple arguments claiming the FTC itself and its court system were unconstitutional. But now Microsoft has yanked that language out of the doc and claimed it was all a mistake. Y’know, just your average oopsie of calling a large government agency unconstitutional.
Last year, Microsoft announced its plans to consume Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher Activision Blizzard for a whopping $69 billion. Since then, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have faced pushback and legal roadblocks around the world as various government agencies and regulatory committees investigate if the massive deal would give Microsoft an unfair advantage against its competitors. As you would expect, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have fought back and spent 2022, filing responses, docs, and court paperwork in an effort to make its deal happen.
In a press release put out by the FTC last month, the agency announced a lawsuit against the merger and reasoned that Microsoft would be able to stifle its competitors by making games Xbox exclusives and manipulating prices, should the deal go through. Microsoft fought back via a response that contained a lot of arguments, including the assertion that the FTC itself was actually unconstitutional.
However, as reported by Axios, today Microsoft refiled its response to the lawsuit and has omitted the section arguing that the FTC’s lawsuit was “invalid because the structure of the Commission as an independent agency that wields significant executive power” violates Article II of the US Constitution. In that same section of the original filing, Microsoft also argued that the lawsuit and legal proceedings being carried out by the FTC were “invalid” because the FTC’s official complaint violated Article III of the U.S. Constitution. Oh, and Microsoft’s legal team also claimed that the FTC’s “procedures” violated the company’s “right to Equal Protection under the Fifth Amendment.”
Now all of that is gone and Microsoft tells Axiosthat it probably shouldn’t have been in that initial doc in the first place.
“The FTC has an important mission to protect competition and consumers, and we quickly updated our response to omit language suggesting otherwise based on the constitution,” Microsoft public affairs spokesperson David Cuddy told Axios. “We initially put all potential arguments on the table internally and should have dropped these defenses before we filed.”
Microsoft says it appreciates all the “feedback” it received about its arguments claiming the FTC itself was unconstitutional and are “engaging directly with those who expressed concerns” to make the company’s position on the matter “clear.” In other words, the FTC probably didn’t take too kindly to be called unconstitutional and you probably shouldn’t anger the people suing you and trying to stop your whole big merger from happening.
Image: Nintendo / Retro Studios / DidYouKnowGaming / Kotaku
Early in December 2022, Nintendo had a journalistic documentary about a failed 2004 pitch for a Zelda Tactics game nuked from YouTube. Last week, however, Google’s video sharing platform restored the project after seemingly failing to find any copyright infringement. It’s the rare example of a content creator standing firm and getting a copyright takedown notice reversed.
“We won,” YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming tweeted on December 28. “The Heroes of Hyrule video is back up.” It added that YouTube confirmed the original copyright takedown notice was indeed from Nintendo and not an imposter, and that the video has received over 20,000 views in its first day back.
The video was originally posted back in October and featured material from a failed Retro Studios pitch to make a Legend of Zelda tactics spin-off for the Nintendo DS called The Heroes of Hyrule. The video poured over the design goals and delved into why the studio best known for Metroid Prime was interested in making it in the first place, all based on an interview with the former developer behind the pitch.
When Nintendo issued a copyright takedown notice against the video months later in December, DidYouKnowGaming accused the beloved gaming company of censoring journalism and hurting efforts at preserving historical records. It told Kotaku it planned to defend the video on fair use grounds, and that campaign now appears to have prevailed.
“When you counter a DMCA on YouTube, the company who DMCA’d you has 10 working days to show that they’ve taken legal action against you, or the video is restored,” tweeted Shane Gill, the owner of DidYouKnowGaming. “So I spent the past two weeks checking my email to see if Nintendo was suing [sic] me.”
Nintendo was not suing, at least not yet. While that option still remains, the Mario maker would now have to take the channel to court to get the video removed again, rather than simply relying on flexing YouTube’s automatic copyright protection policies. “Their intent was to scrub this piece of journalistic work from the internet because they didn’t like what it uncovered,” Gill tweeted.
Nintendo, YouTube, and DidYouKnowGaming didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
What do you mean you don’t know what this is? Isn’t it obvious?Image: Impact Acoustics / Kotaku / LUMIKK555 (Shutterstock)
2022 was the year I decided to get serious about my retrogaming setup. I was tired of having a 104lb CRT dominating half my computer desk and a PlayStation 2, MiSTer, and whatever other consoles I was currently interested in always in peripheral vision. After a bit of thought I concluded that the TV and all the consoles would be better off on a wheeled cart. A retro cart, if you would. It could live in my closet, or be wheeled out to wherever seemed fun. So I started speccing that out.
The best form factor ended up having two lower shelves—for the consoles, a smaller TATE-friendly/PAL-compatible PVM-1354Q CRT a friend had recently sold me, and bookshelf speakers—with the big-ass 29” TV up on the third, top tier. Both CRTs could accept RGB or YPbPr/component video…which to standardize on? Component seemed easier for a couple reasons, so I went with that. Then I just needed a switcher to not only flip between MiSTer, PS2, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, Wii, and Xbox, but to route any of those sources to either of the two screens.
That’s six in, two out. I wanted optical audio switching, too, for MiSTer, Xbox, and possibly PS2. Combined, those requirements take us far beyond the feature set of any basic switcher you’ll find on Amazon or Ali these days. Thus I turned to the bright, shining past of the mid-aughts, when component video adoption peaked and specialty A/V products catered to the more esoteric YPbPr-wrangling needs of the era’s home theater enthusiasts.
A few promising candidates surfaced. One high-end mid-2000s switcher was very fancy indeed and could actually transcode between analog and optical audio (wow!). But ultimately I was won over by the still-fancy but slightly more modest Impact Acoustics Deluxe Component Video / Digital Audio 6 In / 2 Out Matrix Switch, aka the “40697″. You can see it above. Not only can it route those six inputs to either screen, it can output to both screens simultaneously…the same source, or two different sources. Oh dear, am I blushing?
After a week or two I managed to snag a NOS (new old stock) one on eBay, and it proved just as performant as hoped: Any console on any display is now just a button-push away. The cart project is still in progress as I seek a working Xbox, look into appropriate Wii hax, and transition to a new display up top (kinda wishing I had gone with RGB now, actually!) but I’ve already been enjoying having all my beloved old games in a single, self-contained, no-compromises tower of power. Even got a beanbag! Hell yeah.
I was warned of how heated Kotaku’s GOTY arguments traditionally get when I first started here in November, so I was a little nervous when I was put in charge of organizing and tabulating our list of the best games of the year.
Would everyone vote? Would they get mad at me for ranking Destiny 2: The Witch Queen too high? Would Ethan Gach actually do what he was threatening and “hobgoblin” the voting process by adding negative points to the equation?
Turns out, however, that even though organizing this entire process was a pain in the ass, the team at Kotaku is exactly as opinionated, intelligent, and professional as you might expect, offering great insight and honest takes on the top games of 2022. Though we voted on over 20 titles (including ones that narrowly missed this list like Rollerdrome and Sifu) we narrowed it down to a top 10, and have ranked them in order below.
How does Kotaku’s top 10 games of 2022 stack up with your personal GOTY lists?
10. Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Image: Monolith Soft / Nintendo
Reductively, Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s story is an amalgamation of Japanese RPGs whose emotional climax rests on the age-old theme of “war is bad.” Nevertheless, the fact that the trope has become a well-trodden cliché doesn’t dismiss how well developer Monolith Soft executes its anti-war theme throughout Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s 150 hours of playtime.
In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, you play as a troupe of child soldiers from warring nations locked in an endless battle where their limited lifespans fuel a giant mechanical clock once they meet their untimely demise. The kids are not alright. But despite the painful emotional journey its child soldiers must go on, which is portrayed with the emotional maturity and complexity it deserves, the game is not without some great moments of levity as well, courtesy of some lighthearted and silly sidequests. Meanwhile, Xenoblade’s more serious sidequests drip-feed players with rich character studies that flesh out each member of the party, along with the game’s expansive world and its deep cast of supporting characters.
Although Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was snubbed for the best roleplaying game and best soundtrack at Geoff Keighley’s Game Awards, it did give us an impassioned flutist performance from Pedro “Flute Guy” Eustache. This shows that even if Xenoblade loses at gaming’s glorified popularity contest, it still provides some of the best moments in gaming this year.
Isaiah Colbert, Staff Writer
9. Signalis
Image: rose-engine
Much like how I use Devil May Cry 5 as the measuring stick for how good a hack-and-slash game is, whenever I brave playing a survivor horror game I do so with the hope that its story measures up to Silent Hill 2. Big shoes to fill, I know. Signalis not only manages to fill those shoes, it damn near tore the seams off of them joints with how bloody good it was. I’d even argue that it’s better than Silent Hill 2.
Signalis has all the bells and whistles that make for a good sci-fi survival horror game. It’s got a brutal-but-fair limited inventory system, brain-teasing puzzles, and breadcrumb storytelling conveyed through codex entries scattered about its levels. However, where Signalis sings is with its gripping story about two lesbian androids desperately trying to find each other in a space hellscape.
Throughout the game, you play as an android named Elster who’s stranded on an alien planet rife with horrific monsters and derelict spaceships. Elster’s sole mission is to reunite with Anne, a fellow android unit she both literally and figuratively can’t live without. Signalis sticks its landing with the emotional climax of Elster’s perilous journey, regardless of which of the game’s multiple endings you arrive at. This feat is even more impressive considering Signalis is the first video game made by its two-person development team, rose-engine. Ay yo, 2023, can we get some more of those sapphic survivor horror vidya games, plz?
Isaiah Colbert, Staff Writer
8. Norco
Image: Raw Fury
Norco emerged this year and joined Kentucky Route Zero and a few others on the shortlist of games that speak deeply to the experience of living under late-stage capitalism in America at this precise moment in time. Like Cardboard Computer’s masterpiece, Norco also takes its cues from point-and-click adventures, using stunning pixel art to pull us into its industrialized Louisiana landscapes. And where KR0 lent its midwestern road trip a heaping helping of magical realism, Norco uses near-future sci-fi elements to cast the forces its poor, marginalized characters face in sharper relief.
But don’t let my easy comparison make you think Norco is a pale imitator of another game. It’s very much its own remarkable experience, one with its own visual identity, its own poetic voice, and its own noir-ish mystery. Everything about Norco rings painfully true, from its observant little environmental details like the electrified hum of a street light, to the much larger way that religion, cryptocurrency, and the oil industry all become woven together in the haunting texture of your character’s search for her missing brother. Norco, Louisiana is a real place. The Norco of this game is not quite that place, but it’s nevertheless one that feels very real in its own way, and that will leave you reeling from the piercing gaze it levels at the world we’ve made for ourselves.
Carolyn Petit, Managing Editor
7. Horizon Forbidden West
Image: Sony
Poor Aloy. Twice now, her adventures have been somewhat overshadowed at the time of release by other games that more dramatically captured the world’s attention. Her first outing, Horizon Zero Dawn, launched just a few days before Breath of the Wild. This year, her second quest was followed a week later by Elden Ring.
But despite repeatedly serving as the opening act for games that go on to sweep the GOTYs of a hundred gaming sites, Guerrilla Games and Aloy can be proud of what they’ve accomplished. Arguably the most visually stunning game of the year, Guerrilla’s latest takes Aloy into the ruined American west for more of the thrilling, spectacular battles with hulking metallic beasts that helped make the first game an original in a sea of samey open-world blockbusters. And although the larger narrative may fly a bit off the rails in this outing, Forbidden West wisely stays focused on Aloy’s personal journey as someone who feels the weight of the world on her shoulders and doesn’t know how to let her guard down and allow her friends to carry that burden with her. It complicates her character and trusts us as players not to turn on her the moment she behaves in ways that are arrogant, cruel, or misguided. Oh, and you get a really sweet new travel option near the end of the game, too.
Yes, when all is said and done, Aloy and her escapades can stand tall alongside the Links and the myriad Tarnished of the world.
Carolyn Petit, Managing Editor
6. Neon White
Image: Annapurna Interactive
It was about 3 in the morning. I had plans the next day. I really needed to go to bed. Yet, here I was hunched over my computer focused on shaving just one more second off a level in Neon White so I could beat a friend on my leaderboard. That’s the power of fast-paced, FPS platformer Neon White. It’s the kind of game that feels so good that you just can’t stop playing it. Once you get skilled enough to start finding shortcuts in levels, it’s over–the game has you at that point. You’ll end up going back to old levels you thought you mastered to shave off more time. And if you enjoy anime nonsense, angels, demons, and sick-ass music, too, then Neon White will dig its angelic claws deeply into you and never let go. “One more run…and then I’ll go to bed.” I didn’t get to sleep that night until nearly 4:30 am.
Zack Zwiezen, Staff Writer
5. Citizen Sleeper
Image: Jump Over The Age
The profane and sacred mingle with delicate grace in Jump Over The Age’s minimalist cyberpunk RPG about trying to earn your humanity from a world that can’t pay its debts. Every detail from the writing and art to the branching choices and tabletop-inspired dice rolls connect, overlap, and reinforce each other with precision and care so that no piece is weaker than the rest and no rough edge is left exposed. Few games manage to evoke universal feelings or personal truths, but Citizen Sleeper does both at the same time. The future never felt so hopeless and yet so comforting.
Ethan Gach, Senior Reporter
4. Marvel Snap
Image: Second Dinner / Kotaku
Going into 2022, I don’t know how many people expected a free-to-play Marvel card game designed for phones to end up being one of the best and most popular games of the year, yet, here we are. Second Dinner’s fantastic bite-sized card battler, Marvel Snap, really is one of the best digital card games out there right now thanks to its small decks, fast rounds, and random nature. Matches always feel different and even a loss doesn’t sting too bad because it’s over so fast. Sure, it’s still a free-to-play mobile game, so you can expect stuff like iffy over-priced bundles and having to grind for currency. But luckily Marvel Snap is so fun to play that it’s pretty easy to overlook those bits and enjoy one of 2022’s best games.
Zack Zwiezen, Staff Writer
3. Vampire Survivors
Image: poncle
One more run. A sentence I’ve repeated countless times in 2022 either in my head or quietly aloud to justify playing Vampire Survivors for just a little while longer. The gothic roguelike shoot ‘em up became a surprise smash hit while spawning worthy spiritual siblings like 20 Minutes Till Dawn.
Since Valve started releasing the data in August, Vampire Survivors has been tops in total hours played on Steam Deckmonth in and month out. This is the same Steam Deck that can run frickin’ Elden Ring! But people want to play Vampire Survivors instead!
All those players are onto something, Vampire Survivors has a simple yet satisfying gameplay loop: your character (I’m partial to Peppino) must survive an ever-growing horde of ghoulies while choosing between randomly generated weapons. If you make it to 30 minutes, the reaper will come calling, which lets you spend coins on power-ups for future runs. You can be strategic in choosing weapons that complement each other or you can just try shit out! These elements of discovery, relentless isometric top down action, and Vampire’s lax attitude towards player death (it has zero impact) remind me a lot of Hades, another regular on that Steam Deck most-played list, and another GOTY contender from years past.
Vampire Survivors’ developer Luca Galante/poncle has regularly been updating the game since it left early access, adding modes, quality of life improvements, and settings to tweak for extra replayability. What’s more, the game recently got its first full-fledged DLC the other week with Legacy of the Moonspell. With the base game retailing at five dollars ($4 under the current Steam sale), Vampire Survivors makes for one of the better bang-for-your-buck propositions in gaming. Go ahead and treat yourself to some floor chicken.
Eric Schulkin, Video Lead
2. God of War Ragnarök
Image: Sony
Sony Santa Monica’s God of War Ragnarök is more of everything. More abilities and weapons. More enemies and locations. More characters and plot details. Hell, even more loot. Though you could interpret this as a knock against the game, especially since more isn’t always better, Ragnarök takes the “more” and deftly applies it in tasteful ways while making room for a compelling narrative and gameplay experience that’s enjoyable and immersive. Combat is crunchy, exploration is intriguing, dialogue is captivating, and the themes are deep and engaging. But what stands out as the glisten on the diamond is the character development between daddy Kratos and adolescent Atreus, an element that sees the co-protagonists finding common understanding in the face of the end of the world. Sometimes, it takes things falling apart for empathy to be reached, and God of War Ragnarök is a glowing example of just that. It’s good shit.
Levi Winslow, Staff Writer
1. Elden Ring
Screenshot: FromSoftware / Kotaku
Are you surprised? Elden Ring easily and inevitably took the top spot during our voting process, further proving that 2022 was the year of Elden Ring. Many Kotaku staff members ranked it as their number one game of the year, and for good reason. FromSoftware’s open-world epic feels like a giant leap forward for the Souls-like franchise, offering us a beautifully deformed and dangerous Lands Between to explore, rife with opportunities to discover oddities, collect goodies, and die over and over again.
Elden Ring opened up Hidetaka Miyazaki ’s sick, twisted world for the normies who haven’t enjoyed FromSoft games before it, while also making sure to still cater to the hardened vets looking to prove their worth in incredibly tough battles. It found a perfect balance between that punishing gameplay so many long for in a game from this studio and a newfound sense of agency, of a chance toget gud without having to run into the same noxious swamp over and over again.
Elden Ring is technically impressive, visually stunning, and satisfyingly challenging. It has humor, it has sadness, it has turtle popes. It dashes your hopes up against a jagged rock only to hand you hope back bit-by-bit as you strengthen your character and your resolve. It is everything that we hope for in a video game, and then some.
First released in 2021, indie shooter Nightmare Reaper finally left Early Access this year, and that’s when I finally played it. And boy oh boy, am I happy I stumbled upon this under-the-radar FPS! Nightmare Reaper might look a lot like other, similar retro-inspired shooters—like the previously mentioned Cultic—that have become more common in recent years, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a roguelike with smart level progression, awesome music, and hundreds of powerful and zany weapons like whips and spell books. It’s a weird game, too. But in a good way. For example, to improve your character’s stats you play through different, elaborate Game Boy-like mini-games. It’s weird, it’s sometimes creepy, and it’s only $25 on Steam. Go play Nightmare Reaper! — Zack Zwiezen
Look, I thirsted over Professor Turo for half the year. It was a significant touchstone of 2022.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
When it comes time to write these year-end lists, I usually slim them down to my top five favorite games I played because, despite what this job entails, I usually only have passionate feelings about a handful of games by the time we reach December.
But 2022 was a weird one for me, in that I feel like I played fewer games than ever. Not that any of that has anything to do with Kotaku, as I’ve only been here for about two weeks so far. But going through tumultuous times and a layoff at the last job doesn’t leave one much energy to invest time in a ton of games.
But I did experience a handful of games that really resonated with me, a few of which were old ones that got renewed in some way in 2022. So don’t yell at me when you see them on this list. It’s my list, and I’ll cry about Cyberpunk 2077 if I want to.
I’m a simple man. If the electric rat is there, I’m happy.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
Honorable mention: Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
Getting two major Pokémon games in 2022 was a lot for some people, but being able to run around a Pokémon world with Raichu by my side is the only thing that keeps me going some days. So I was happy to indulge in an open-world Pokémon in the form of Pokémon Violet. However, I just have too many issues with this game to give it a proper spot on my list. It’s buggy, sure, but it’s also designed in such a way that it can’t keep up with its own “find your bliss” philosophy, which made entire sections of its main story annoying and disorienting to play through.
That being said, the stellar endgame has completely rewired my brain and I can’t think about Professor Turo without crying, and playing a Pokémon game in co-op with my friends is a childhood dream come true. It’s deeply flawed, but I keep looking back at screenshots of me and my friends hanging out in Paldea like an old photo album. It’s got so many great ideas, but it’s all built on top of a shaky foundation. I’m awaiting its DLC with bated breath.
I loved Kratos and Atreus’ story, but all the other story threads God of War Ragnarök spun were too much for one game.
Honorable mention: God of War Ragnarök
I really adore the 2018 God of War reboot as an examination on the series’ previous gleeful glamorizing of gratuitous gore, and when it was at its best, God of War Ragnarök felt like it was building beautifully upon Kratos’ and Atreus’ relationship as father and son. But, man, what a messy follow-up it was.
I like large swaths of Ragnarök, and I think, had it been broken up into two games and made a trilogy, rather than Sony Santa Monica attempting to introduce and wrap up two games’ worth of story in the course of an exhaustively long game, I would’ve loved it a lot more. Its action still feels weighty and fun and getting to play as Atreus was a lovely surprise, but it feels breathless and bloated in a way the 2018 reboot didn’t. I’m always going to wonder what the conclusion to God of War’sNorse story would’ve looked like as two games instead of one, as those are the ones that would’ve likely made it onto my list.
Cyberpunk 2077‘s city skyline makes me well up the way most open-world vistas don’t.Screenshot: CD Projekt Red / Kotaku
5. Cyberpunk 2077
I’m still very resistant to any narrative that Cyberpunk 2077 is “great” in 2022 after CD Projekt Red put in the work to elevate it from the technical disaster it was when it launched in 2020, but the game was still a central figure in my year, and has gone from something I played out of a work obligation two years ago to a game that’s become pretty special to me.
I played through and dissected Cyberpunk 2077 all year as part of Normandy FM, a retrospective podcast I co-host, and combing through that game in a relatively stable technical state unmasked that it’s a pretty unremarkable RPG. That being said, as a person who spent all of 2022 dealing with the realities of the capitalist gristmill that is America, both through job stuff and in the medical system, there was something freeing about existing in Night City, which felt like an oppressive, capitalist amalgamation of the cities I dreamed of living in while I was stranded in small-town Georgia.
When Cyberpunk 2077 wasn’t being insufferably cynical about people, places, and things, it was a constant interrogation of what I was willing to live for, and why I wanted the things I wanted in life. It’s a product of the same capitalist hellscape it claims to satirize, but in the margins there are things worth fighting for, even if you have to go looking for them on your own terms. I don’t boot up open-world RPGs very often, but throughout 2022 I would turn on Cyberpunk 2077 just to drive around the city and imagine the possibilities it held for me. Thankfully, I live in a city now, and no longer have to dream. But Cyberpunk 2077 was a lifeline during a time when the home it proposed felt unattainable. For that, I’ll always keep the story of V and Night City in my heart, even if I don’t think it’s a great video game.
Haven’s Couples Update gave queer fans a new reason to experience the RPG in 2022.Screenshot: The Game Bakers / Kotaku
4. Gayven (Haven, but gay)
Haven completely slipped by me in 2020, but that changed this year when The Game Bakers added an update that let you play as same-sex pairings of its main characters Yu and Kay. As a person who has written a lot about queerness in the video game industry, I was immediately drawn to Haven as a case study in a developer putting in the time and effort to make a game queer-inclusive. Getting to experience Yu and Kay’s story from the perspective of two queer men was a wonderful way to first experience the game, and made its angsty science-fiction romance all the more affecting for me as a gay man who eats that shit up.
Haven is a lovely meditation on long-term relationships, with its exploration and turn-based combat broken up by scenes of Yu and Kay just living together through the most mundane parts of being together. Where many video games thrive in the lead-up to a romantic relationship, Haven sits with what it means to already be well and established, and it leads to some of my favorite romance writing in a game. It’s full of big, oppressive science-fiction ideas, but its best moments are when two people sit together in their home and speak to each other not as spacefaring adventurers, but as two star-crossed lovers willing to find pockets of joy when they’re all they’ve got left.
We Are OFK is essentially an interactive music video, but the drama between its indie pop bangers is just as compelling.Screenshot: Team OFK / Kotaku
3. We Are OFK
The music of We Are OFK, an episodic biopic about a group of young adults drifting through the L.A. game dev grind and into a musical act, nearly topped my Spotify Wrapped this year. The band was second under Coheed and Cambria, my favorite band that released a new album this year, which speaks volumes about how catchy and contemplative Team OFK’s indie pop stylings are. These songs are interwoven between We Are OFK’s depiction of the dramatic, interpersonal relationships between a group of queer creatives just trying to figure their shit out.
We Are OFK is contentious as a video game, as its interactive elements feel insubstantial beyond choosing text messages and playing through an interactive music video at the end of each episode. But as an unapologetically queer musical drama about finding yourself and those willing to put up with your bullshit, it’s deeply relatable. The game exists as a springboard for a larger virtual band experience, and as long as they keep producing bangers like “thanks,” and “Infuriata,” I’ll follow it in whatever form OFK exists.
Overwatch 2 is still only half the game Blizzard promised, but its PvP suite is still pretty damn great.Screenshot: Blizzard Entertainment / Kotaku
2. Overwatch 2
Look, look, I know. I know Overwatch 2 is a mess of microtransactions and free-to-play grind, but Blizzard’s sequel/reboot of its hero shooter is still such a gold standard for team-based combat that I have sunk nearly 300 hours into it since its launch in October.
Right now, Overwatch 2 isn’t exactly what I was looking for when Blizzard announced it back in 2019, as its story content has been pushed into 2023. I (foolishly) came into Overwatch on the back of its characters and lore, so I’m still eagerly awaiting that side of the sequel. However, in its complete revamp of the original game’s format in favor of a 5v5 setup, its new modes, the heroes, and the great deal of attention given to its contextual banter writing, Overwatch feels more alive than it’s felt in years. This is damage of Blizzard’s own doing, as the company essentially put the first game on ice until Overwatch 2’slaunch. But it’s comforting as a long-time player to finally see signs of life for the game after all this time, and to feel hope for its future for the first time in years.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus was a mechanical evolution, but also a narrative one, as well.Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
1. Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Pokémon Legends: Arceus was everything I’d been wanting out of a Pokémon story for over a decade. After years of watching the franchise add to its mythology and world, it never really felt like many of these games were living up to the promise of the universe Game Freak had built over 25 years. Pokémon Legends: Arceus was the first time since I was a child that this setting felt as large and unknowable as it did in my youth.
Much of that came from Legends: Arceus’ use of a historical setting, rather than the modern one seen in most other Pokémon games. Taking the player back to when the Sinnoh region was known as Hisui, being present for lore-defining conflicts, and watching the universe’s gods have it out was more impactful than hearing about them through historians and seeing cave paintings and statues. It felt like a second chance for Sinnoh to feel like the significant origin point of the universe it had been described as in Diamond and Pearl.
On top of just feeling more vast, Pokémon Legends: Arceus was also the most tangible the world felt to me as a player. This was thanks to Game Freak’s shift into action-oriented mechanics like actually being able to aim and throw a Pokéball at an unsuspecting wild Pokémon, stealthing around the wilderness to avoid giant Alpha Pokémon, and being able to fluidly traverse its open areas on the backs of friendly critters. Even when Pokémon Scarlet and Violet attempted their own versions of these systems, it never felt like they quite captured Legends: Arceus’ frictionless traversal, and that’s why they felt flimsy in comparison.
Legends: Arceus solidified to me what it is I want out of Pokémon games. Some people want to capture every Pokémon in the Pokedex, some want to compete and become a respected champion. But for me, existing in this world and discovering its secrets with Raichu by my side is why Pokémon still holds my attention decades later, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the most I’ve felt captivated by this universe, probably ever. I hope it’s a blueprint for the series’ future, because I feel like, otherwise, I’m going to be chasing the highs of its best moments for years to come.
