Remember when we thought star field was going to be a $60 role-playing game coming out in 2022? Good time. While we have to wait until September 6 to gain heightexplore its 1,000 worlds, and listen to its 250,000 lines of dialogue, we now have a much better idea of ​​what you’ll actually be doing in the game. And at today’s Xbox showcase, Bethesda pulled back the curtain again further, giving us our best look yet at what will likely be one of the biggest games of 2023.

There will be a more Starfield-focused show later on Sunday, but for now, you can check out a fully in-game trailer that…sounds like Fallout?

Official Starfield Story Trailer

And here is the longest deep dive in the Starfield Direct:

Starfield Direct – Deep Dive into Gameplay

What we know about Starfield

As you may already know, achieving liftoff seems to be a key concept in all of this. Unlike most portrayals of space travel, it looks like Starfield will show a grittier, more dangerous approach. This is not futuristic Star Trek. Humanity travels through the stars, but in a precarious way.

Much like other Bethesda games, the focus is on player choice. It has a classic Bethesda dialogue system, as well as a persuasion system influenced by your stats. You can choose a career background for your character as well as personality traits that will influence your build, but Todd Howard assures players that the system is pretty relaxed when it comes to allowing for different playstyles. traits that give you advantages, but each comes with some type of disadvantage to balance it out. It’s very convenient, but in many ways Bethesda wrote the playbook to begin with. And if nothing else, one reason to be excited is that this isn’t a re-release of Skyrim and it’s been a while since Bethesda released an original game!

Learn more: Everything we know about Starfield, from its world to your companions

In an interview with IGN, Howard said the developer has put off its next fantasy RPG for a bit in favor of exploring a new world, which it hasn’t been able to do in a long time. Unfortunately, this vast expanse of space not going to have a lot of sex in it. Boo.

Also, Starfield will have a very sleek controller it’s probably one of Xbox’s finest accessories to date.

Todd Howard pointed out that Bethesda didn’t have the technology to create something like this until now, allowing them to “realistically” generate the world around you.

Highlights of Bethesda’s Starfield Showcase

During Starfield’s longest showcase, Bethesda’s gameplay of a character arriving at a base, where they quickly began gunning down enemies for some XP. And then the looting began. There seems to be plenty to collect and customize, with a particular focus on food. They call the vibe of it all “NASA punk”, which you can do whatever you want. Oh, and there’s a photo mode.

The space gameplay, meanwhile, was very reminiscent of No Man’s Sky. We see a ship land on a planet, where the biggest city Bethesda has ever built (according to them) is. Their hope is to try to tell as many stories as possible in one area. We also got to meet some of the factions, including the obligatory humanity-focused one.

However, just because we’re in space doesn’t mean we can’t embrace a different aesthetic. There is civilized space, and then there are things beyond, where everything goes. We got a glimpse of a city that looked straight out of a western, and moments later something that looked like cyberpunk. Each planet will have its own gravity, and sometimes this gravity can affect you while you are shooting.

“We are pushing our cities and settlements further than we have ever done before,” Bethesda said.

Each time you level up, you get a skill point that you can use to rank up skills. You can do challenges to earn skill points. One skill, for example, lets you control the minds of aliens while another lets you boost your jet all over the place. Another skill lets you hit really, really well. But you can also sneak through the world, crawling through air vents if that’s what you prefer. Or you can blow things up. There seems to be a skill tree for almost every approach.

You can buy a ship, customize that ship, and even hire a crew to operate it. Some teammate interactions can turn into romance, although the conversation that was shown did feel a bit wooden. I guess it’s because the dialogue isn’t as fleshed out as a full-fledged companion. Just like companions, most crew members can lend a hand in the field.

Space game in Starfield

During space combat, you can redirect energy from your shields to your weapons to boost them. After destroying ships, you can loot them in the air. You can turn them into scrap metal or board enemy ships themselves. The gameplay revealed that enemy ships will often have things to shoot inside them, but if you prevail you can take control of the actual ship.

What systems will Starfield launch on?

In related news, you should know that Starfield is an Xbox console exclusive, though it will also release on PC and Steam. by Bethesda Pete Hines wants you to know he’s so sorry about itbut hey: that’s what happens when you’re bought out by Microsoft for billions of dollars.

Kotaku covers everything about Summer Game Fest, from Thursday’s main show to other events happening throughout the next week. Whether you like larger-than-life triple-A games or intimate, offbeat indies, you can follow all things SGF here.

Ever since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom released on May 12, fans have been obsessed with the game’s new crafting abilities. With Link’s new skills, including Fuse and Ultrahand, players are build nonsense like planes and tanks to commit war crimes in the kingdom of Hyrule. But there is one thing people can’t help but create: dicks, dicks, shlongs, penises, wangs; you understand.

Learn more: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Players take forever in the massive tutorial area

Critics called the sequel Breath of the Wild a certified classic, which makes excellent use of the Switch’s aging hardware. And with Link’s many new rune abilities that allow him to combine items or rewind an item’s place in the world, people are letting their imaginations run wild. Like, really wild.

Hyrule Kingdom can’t escape the dicks

Link gets a whole new suite of runic abilities in TotK that replaces his old BotW abilities. So say goodbye to things like Magnesis and Stasis and instead say hello to things like Ascend and Autobuild, two skills that allow Link to glide through solid surfaces and instantly build previous creations. respectively. Fuse and Ultrahand are mixed together, abilities that give Link the power to combine items to create anything from giant mechs to pickup trucks. And while people are totally building these things, many players here are flooding Hyrule Realm with dicks. So many cocks, in fact.

You’ve got flamethrower, thick cocks, cars that look like dicks, cock rockets, cocks with rocks for balls-The list goes on and on and on. Hell, Twitter user HKSIcabb even had our Hero of the Wild ride a dick…a raft.

Meanwhile, hideyopo made a wheeled mecha monster that sprayed a patch of hyrulean grass with his water-squirting dick.

What is going on? Why are TotK fans just days after launch stuck on dicks? There are some interesting theories, like a Freudian fear of castration or the idea that it’s all a dick measuring contest. Glamor wrote in 2017 that dick drawings are actually about toxic masculinity– which is not so surprising. Even Kotaku pondered this question in a blog from 2013, speaking to developers and psychologists about why dicks are everywhere in games. And even though we’ve come to the conclusion that drawing a dick is “pushing the limits”, there’s another simpler answer here: dicks are fun.

They are (mostly) hairy and (sometimes) curved. They come in different shapes and sizes and more often than not function as if they have a mind of their own. They are bizarre, serving both comedy and sexuality. And as Maxim wrote in 2015, dicks are fun for “despite what they mean, there is no real place for them in the world, and yet they are there”.

Learn more: Tears Of The Kingdom Could Include The Zelda Series’ First Gay Character

These are facts. Because no matter where you look online, from TikTok to Reddit to Twitter, there’s a TotK dick. They are almost unavoidable now. At least Autobuild’s other abilities, Fuse, Ultrahand and Link can be used for something other than genitals –although players use them for torture. I guess our weird code nature hero is actually nature’s war criminal. Whoops.

It’s May 12, 2023, and on this beautiful day, Nintendo’s much-hyped sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, finds itself in the eager hands of gamers around the world. But you: Maybe you stand out. Maybe you didn’t end up playing the previous game, 2017’s hit Breath of the Wild. Or maybe you touched it and fell for some reason. I won’t judge, I’m here with you.

Now here you are, seeing all those cool trailers and…interesting things you’re jumping into the new Zelda game and wondering, “Should I play Breath of the Wild before Tears of the Kingdom?” Should I?” Well, that’s what I’m here to help you understand.

A series purist will always say to go back and play the games in the correct order (which, if you’re considering how long Zelda has been around, you might want to be careful with that line of thinking). But here I will lay out some pros and cons for each action plan. There are valid reasons for either approach, so let’s go.

By the way, this article is a spoiler-free zone. So feel free to keep reading even if you haven’t touched 2017’s Breath of the Wild.

Is the Breath of the Wild story worth living before Tears of the Kingdom?

Breath of the Wild tells a very average fantasy story. Hold your farmer’s pitchforks; I’m not saying that to put him down. In general, the overall story beats are very familiar to almost anyone who has experienced a joint from Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. You have your dark lord, your threat to peace, your amnesiac protagoboy, your magic items of power, rinse and repeat. Watching a short recap video would be enough to give you a general idea of ​​BotW’s plot, and you won’t be missing out on an all-time great epic if you do.

Learn more: Catch up on Zelda: Breath of the Wild before the sequel in under seven minutes

How Breath of the Wild tells its story, however, is something you might want to consider living through, not just via synopsis. Link’s journey to regain his memories has led him to meet countless charming and memorable characters along the way, which will get you much more emotionally interested in Hyrule’s bigger story (as simple as that is) and the people who live there only if you just blow. through a summary.

If you’re just interested in a SparkNotes brief overview of Hyrulian history, a wiki or video will do. But if you enjoy the experience of meeting interesting characters and gaining a greater emotional investment in a fictional world, jumping into Breath of the Wild first will be time well spent.

Does Tears of the Kingdom make Breath of the Wild gameplay obsolete?

We’ve all been there: first you play a sequel, then the original just seems old in comparison. Some sequels improve on their predecessor so much that it’s hard to go back. Mass Effect 2 is an example. Skyrim may be another.

First of all, no: Tears of the Kingdom certainly has its share of quality of life improvements, as in fast travel and cooking– but nothing as earth-shattering as Breath of the Wild suddenly feels Neolithic in comparison.

Tears of the Kingdom does not make Breath of the Wild gameplay obsolete. Image: Nintendo

As for whether or not they feel too similar, never fear. While very similar in some ways, Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild are distinct enough that going back to the old game after Tears of the Kingdom would still give you plenty of new experiences to enjoy.

Learn more: Zelda: Tears Of the Kingdom fixes some of BotW’s failures

As my colleague Kenneth Shepard told me after his early hours in Tears of the Kingdom, the sequel’s gameplay is “less of an evolution and more of a sidestep.” Link’s new abilities, especially the crafting and new Ultrahand abilitymake it a distinct enough experience that if you play them in reverse order, you won’t feel like your abilities have been greatly reduced.

Tears of the Kingdom is a looker – and it won’t melt your Switch into plasticky goop. Image: Nintendo

Tears of the Kingdom looks graphically daunting for the old Switch, so should you wait for future hardware?

It’s no secret that the aging Wii U wasn’t too kind to Breath of the Wild. And basically, anyone who saw the first footage of Tears of the Kingdom was a little nervous wondering if the humble Nintendo Switch, released over six years ago, might be able to keep up.

Learn more: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Switch performance feels like a minor miracle

Well, I have good news. Or rather, Digital Foundry has good news: Tears of the Kingdom will work damn well on your old Switch. You can expect a very close to solid 30fps with a few drops here and there, especially when using Link’s new Ultrahand ability. Fast loading times are also quite fast, around 30% faster than in BotW.

Nintendo / Digital Foundry

I hear you thinking, “surely there’s another Nintendo console on the way, isn’t there?” The Switch has been out for a while, that’s true, but as we reported on tuesday 9th mayNintendo has no plans for a hardware refresh or follow-up to the Switch in 2023.

Learn more: Nintendo says it’s not expecting a new Switch this year either

And no, I have no idea what a “You Zoo” is.

How long is Breath of the Wild?

Say you don’t mind waiting for the game everyone’s talking about right now and that you’re cool to jump into Breath of the Wild first. Can you expect to knock him out in a weekend? Well no.

Breath of the Wild is a long game, and every moment is worth it. Image: Nintendo

According Howlongtobeat.com, the main story of Breath of the Wild is around 50 hours long. What if you want to do all the side quests? You’re looking at just under 100 hours. If you’re a completion fiend, HLtB estimates 189 hours. Our own experiences confirm these numbers.

Breath of the Wild is a game of massive proportions. The world is huge and there is so much to do. If you haven’t played it yet and you’re really interested in seeing the release of Tears of the Kingdom to see what this whole Link thing is all about, expect to have to set aside some time for BotW if you’re jumping in first.

Even if you’re not a finalist, stepping into the world of Hyrule in Switch’s first Zelda title is an experience best enjoyed at a gentle pace, and you won’t feel worse for taking time to let everything sink in.

So yes, BotW is long. Which is good, because it’s a great game.

While some franchises can enter at almost any time, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild offers compelling reasons to give it a shot first. The plot consists of standard fantasy concepts, but is told very memorably and in a sight-rich open world that is a joy to explore.

But, if you decide to jump straight into Tears of the Kingdom, a brief summary or two of BotW’s story beats will get you up to speed quickly. And with the differences in gameplay, playing the two games in reverse order shouldn’t feel too strange.

Order aside, another question is whether you should play the old game. You may feel differently, but my personal view is that Breath of the Wild is a truly wonderful experience, from the well-told story with satisfying gameplay, and a truly vibrant and beautiful world to explore, that you owe it to yourself to play this modern classic if you haven’t already, even if you’ve already spent a good few hours in it. Tears of the Kingdom.

Twitch streamer and YouTuber Simply attempted the unthinkable: giving himself just 12 hours, he set out to learn the tricky speedrun from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and nail one as quickly as possible. . The speedrun challenge was insane, full of death and glitches to make for a hilarious and entertaining watch even if the feat wasn’t exactly accomplished as expected.

Learn more: Breath of the Wild’s hottest new Speedrun is getting all the hoes

BotW speedruns are absolutely cracking. According Speedrun.coma site that tracks speedruns for various games, the fastest time for Nintendo’s 2017 hit was set earlier this month and currently stands at just under 24 minutes by BotW speedrunner Player 5. This was for the any percent challenge, an achievement in which a player strives to roll credits as quickly as possible without worrying about completing any main quests or side activities. There are other speedrun categories that add extra stipulations to the bet, like hitting all dungeons or shrines, but sometimes you just want vanilla, you know? (Unless you’re a Limcube speedrunner, which recently collected all the hoes strewn around Hyrule in less than 30 minutes because he was just bored and desperate.)

All this to say that simply, a speedrunner who ran a few Super Mario 64s categories over the years, wanted to see if he could beat BotW as fast as he could, vanilla. In other words, he attempted a run at any percentage of Link’s latest adventure. However, to give this vanilla a bit more flavor like a French vanilla or a vanilla bean, he simply added an extra challenge to the mix: achieving a solid time in the open-world action-adventure game as newcomer to the category any percentage of 12 hours or less. The results were fun and have now been edited into an entertaining half hour video that really makes you feel the struggle of Simply.

Simply’s quest to become “the best speedrunner ever”

In April 18 YouTube video, Start simply by explaining how BotW works with any percentage of speedruns. You start by collecting Link’s Runic Abilities like Magnesia and Stasis from the four main shrines of the Grand Plateau so you can grab the Paraglider for air travel. From there you book it to Hyrule Castle to cheer the four Scourge Ganons of existence before taking down the big bad himself, Calamity Ganon. I simply had to learn a plethora of glitches, shield clips to enter shrines faster For the BLSS technique to fly over the Grand Plateau, to complete his timed challenge, all with the goal of becoming “the best speedrunner ever”. But learning was the hardest part here.

Merely

Simply died a handful of times trying to skip the intro section of the game. However, using scope clip And whistle– two issues that lock the game into its day cycle and preserve Link’s stamina, respectively – he was able to leave the early shrine and skip the first cutscene. From there, Simply picked up their first gear (after a few more kills, of course) to continue cracking BotW with glitches. With the help of the aforementioned BLSS technique and shield clip issue, alongside the movement of the wind bomb which launches Link several feet into the air, he simply gathered all four rune abilities to then grab the old man’s (aka King Rhoam) paraglider at the Grand Plateau tower. It was already about three hours into his 12-hour challenge. So he sent it back to see if he could do that sequence of events in under 35 minutes. The movement of the wind bomb made him back up a bit. So, too, made a death. Unfortunately, he didn’t finish in less than 35 minutes, but he was still having a good time. Just four hours into their 12-hour challenge, Simply had plenty of time to beat the game.

Limcube entered the chat to help Simply with his speedrun

Limcube, the noted BotW speedrunner responsible for March’s all hoes challenge, sought to give Simply some pointers to finish his speedrun, which only gets more difficult as you fling yourself to Hyrule Castle and the fight against Calamity Ganon ahead. After collecting mushrooms to cook up some Mighty Mushroom Skewers, which buffs Link’s attack damage for 13 minutes, simply used the BLSS technique to infiltrate Hyrule Castle, dodging all the guards patrolling the area. He picked up weapons with higher durability in hopes of making future fights a little easier. Unfortunately, they weren’t easy enough, because despite the coaching he received from Limcube, including how to perform a glitch to easily kill Windburn Ganon, Simply dead. A lot.

Now, normally, casual players would have completed all four Divine Beast dungeons to halve Calamity Ganon’s health. At this point, you’d probably also have more than three hearts so Link could survive more than one hit in the final encounter. But Simply was learning the all-percent route, which, in the interest of going fast, does none of that. So not only did he have to fight all four Blight Ganons in a row, but he also had to defeat Calamity Ganon at full health, a tall order for even the most skilled BotW players. I’m sure you can guess what happened. If you can’t, then let me tell you: just dead. Again and again and again, each attempt slightly better than the last. He simply completed the challenge, of course, but not in 12 hours or less as he had hoped. Instead, Simply’s last time to learn and complete a run at any percentage was around 12 hours and 40 minutes. His total speedrun time? Just under five hours. It’s not the fastest BotW speedrun, but hey, at least it did, and it’s probably faster than most of us could have too.

Kotaku has reached out to Simply for comment.

Learn more: Breath of the Wild’s greatest stuntman is back, and better than ever

I love stuff like that. The determination it takes to push through despite the insurmountable, if self-imposed, challenge before you. It’s amazing to see, especially considering that Simply could have given up on the feat once the going got tough. But he did not do it. It’s a good reminder that anything can be done if you try hard enough…and get a little coaching from a speedrunning master.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is almost here, and at first glance the enigmatic faction called Zonai could play a big part in the sequel after mostly existing in the background of Breath of the Wild. If you feel like you walked into something or missed a big storyline in the last game, don’t worry. Despite many theories being hatched over the years, even the biggest Zelda fans don’t have many concrete details about who or what the Zonai were. But let’s break down what we know and why fans think the Zonai are becoming a key player in Tears of the Kingdom.

What do we already know about the Zonai?

In Breath of the Wild, the Zonai are depicted as a tribe that no longer exists within Hyrule, but their nature is apparently up for debate in the game world. They are depicted as both a savage tribe of barbarians , as well as strong magic users who worship animals, especially Farosh, a water dragon that can be found in places like the Gerudo Highlands. Traces of their existence can be seen in places like the Zonai Ruins in the southern area of ​​the map, with long-abandoned architecture hinting at their reverence for Hyrule’s wildlife. In the story and art book The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Creating a Champion, it is revealed that the animals that feature prominently in what remains of Zonai’s house refer to the three rooms of the Triforce: a dragon for Courage, an owl for Wisdom, and a boar for Power. Beyond the animals, the Zonai also have their own spiral-like crest, seen on architecture associated with the tribe.

Beyond that, Link can acquire Barbarian armor in Breath of the Wild that is said to have been worn by members of the Zonai long ago after navigating specific labyrinths believed to have been built by the tribe. While it all fits together, much of what we know about the tribe is speculation fueled by the game’s ambient storytelling. It’s a very minimalistic, FromSoftware-style approach to world-building and largely rewards those who want to explore the big game world. However, it could pay off for all of us in Tears of the Kingdom.

Nintendo of America

Why do fans think Tears of the Kingdom will involve the Zonai?

Theories that the Zonai would be a major player in Tears of the Kingdom have been rumored since the game’s reveal in 2019 due to the emphasis on the spiral pattern at the heart of Zonai architecture. However, the connection is much more concrete now thanks to the latest gameplay showcase. During this stream, Nintendo revealed that the Zonai were tied to the events of Tears of the Kingdom via a piece of loot. In the 10-minute gameplay trailer, Link defeats an enemy in the Sky Floating Islands and drops an item called Zonai Charge. The video doesn’t dwell on the object, but it clearly has the same green energy seen powering up the machine-like enemies Link is fighting, the (broken) seal around Ganondorf seen in the original trailer, and the Link’s corrupted and shiny arm.

Will we encounter the Zonai in Tears of the Kingdom?

Given Nintendo’s silence regarding the story of Tears of the Kingdom, it’s hard to say whether or not Link will encounter a member of the Zonai tribe. Given that the group seems to have disappeared entirely from Hyrule in Breath of the Wild, with the only information we have about them coming from theories and their remaining architecture, it seems more logical that the Zonai were wiped out or went into hiding. . But even so, their technology and magic are still present and causing problems for our hero in Tears of the Kingdom. That being said, it’s not entirely out of the question that some survived and waited for the events of this game to unfold. The series is also no stranger to time travel, as it’s a key mainstay in games like Ocarina of Time and Oracle of Ages. So there’s a chance that Link could come face to face with the Zonai during their prime, but it’s unconfirmed.

Wait, how does Twilight Princess play into all of this?

Like most of the possibilities discussed here, the connection between The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Tears of the Kingdom is still speculation, but fans believe they have found connections between the Zonai and the Twili, which were introduced in Twilight Princess. . Breath of the Wild incorporates multiple tribes and species of life from the series, from the Sheikah to the Zora. The Twili, however, are notably absent, but given the similarities to the architecture and magic seen in Tears of the Kingdom and that of the Twili, fans believe the Zonai might be the original race that were turned into monsters by Zant in Twilight Princess. There are even breakdowns of iconography and sigils throughout Breath of the Wild which look a lot like the images from Twilight Princess. It’s all theory at this point, and Breath of the Wild itself doesn’t do much to make this possible connection directly apparent. So don’t feel like you’ve completely missed out on a potential connection. That’s all the fan interpretation, for now.

Whatever the Zonai are, it looks like they will at least be part of the larger Tears of the Kingdom setup. Whether we’ll encounter one remains to be seen, but we’ll find out when the game hits Switch on May 12.

At Kotaku, we get a lot of tips by email. Some are spam, some are hateful messages filled with errors, and a few are serious allegations that require serious investigation. So it’s refreshing when something comes up that just points us to something fresh and cool, as was the case with a recent boot fashion tip from the house. Like a dragon: Ishin! developers, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.

A development subdivision of Sega with roots dating back to 1998, Ryu Ga Gotoku (“RGG”) is a Japanese studio responsible for the 2012 third-person shooter Binary Domain. However, you’re probably most familiar with RGG’s most important work, the Yakuza series. Since 2012, RGG has been in charge of the action-adventure franchise, developing new main entries and remastering old ones while assembling spin-offs such as the Judgment series and the latest remake, Like A Dragon: Ishin!

It was this latest game, which was originally a Japan-only release in 2014 before making its global debut earlier this week, that was the subject of the advice email we received this week. In love with editor Alyssa Mercante “fashion legend” of The Game Awards bland dripthe reader (whose name we decided to keep hidden) said we should check this making-of of the video Like A Dragon to see “cool costumes”.

Learn more: The Best Fits at The Game Awards 2022

“I loved the fashion caption and The Game Awards follow-up article and 40 seconds in this video about Ryu Ga Gotoku making the next game Like A Dragon, there’s an amazing promotional photo of the staff,” said the reader in an email to Kotaku. “I guess if you’re in charge of the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series, you’re basically obligated to wear a cool costume.” And they don’t lie! RGG is literally setting the entire industry back in one fell swoop.

SEGA Asia

In the first episode of a multi-part series on Sega Asia’s English YouTube channel, we get a quick look at RGG’s fashion sense. Japanese fashion is quite captivating if you follow it. Filled with flowing silhouettes, wild colors and patterns, and an interesting mix of casual and smart aestheticthe inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun know how to dress. RGG is no exception. Sure, the suits the developers are wearing about 40 seconds into the video above are all black, but the nuance is in the details. Two staff members have jackets with interesting markings: one with a variety of white dots and another with many small crosses. A different member of staff has a coat with tastefully accenting white lines. Three other staff members have all-over designs, with two of the staff members’ costumes having a nice shine. If you told me it was an alternative J-Rock band and not a video game developer band, I’d believe you.

Even the developers’ boots, while indefinable on the surface, really add to the developers’ collective drip. Most in the photo have round shiny pointed toe boots without laces like they all just came out of filming The Matrix or something. Two others mix things up a bit, one staff member wearing what appear to be Dr. Martens lace-up round boots (but maybe not that exact brand) and another apparently wearing very dark boots, maybe Suede. Either way, RGG’s cuts are on point! I may not be the fashionista that Kotaku’s Alyssa Mercante is, but I, too, gag at the confident simplicity that RGG exudes in their almost matching looks. It’s great to see, especially in an industry known for some of the most predictable (graphic tee and blazer) outfit combos ever.

Learn more: Like a dragon: Ishin! : The Kotaku Review

Anyway, kudos to RGG for killing the entire industry in seconds with both their killer mode and their even more killer samurai game, Like A Dragon: Ishin! In fact, writer Sisi Jiang called it “the best samurai game you can play right now.” You should take a look at it.

It was announcement earlier today than Elden Ring, FromSoftware’s Game of the Year 2022 for many people (including most employees of this website), has sold 20 million copies worldwide since its release a year ago. It’s a lot.

You might be wondering why am I reporting this on Kotaku, a website that in 2023 generally couldn’t care less about sales numbers, especially when featured in a publisher press release?

That’s because I think Elden Ring, a nail-biting action/RPG that’s essentially a single-player experience, is making a hell of a point by releasing and selling 20 million copies in 2022-23. This shows publishers and people who control their purse strings, that not every video game released in the modern era has to be a forever game, a live service time that not only demands our constant attention, but constantly demands money while it does so.

You buy Elden Ring, you play Elden Ring, you rinse Elden Ring and you’re done! There are no DLC packs, no season passes, no multiplayer modes selling skins for $2. What you paid for is what you got. For many people raised on less exploitative games, or tired of the demands of modern gaming (or both!), Elden Ring was, conceptually, a near perfect video game experience.

I know it’s far from the only one. It’s not like every game ever released these days is a live service leak. Indeed this GOTY list I linked to above is dominated by standalone single-player experiences.

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But none of them have sold 20 million copies. That’s what makes Elden Ring’s sales so important. They don’t just show a traditional video game can do well, they show it can be an absolute blockbuster. While nailing down specific sales figures in these days of digital shopfronts can be hard, 20 million puts the game in the same ballpark as Modern Warfare 2 And EA’s FIFA Seriesan extraordinary achievement for a game that’s as tough as hell and enjoyed a fraction of the promotional budget than those behemoths – two full-priced retail games that then try to scam players for even more money on the road – have received.

Do you know what else is in this sales stage? Cyberpunk 2077 – which, admittedly, had its issues and also an astronomical marketing budget – sold over 20 million copies. God of War Ragnarok, another very single-player experience released in 2022, has itself sold over 10 million copies (to Sony’s credit, much of their proprietary strategy, from Horizon to The Last Of Us, follows a similar path). Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the first single-player Star Wars game in a very long time? Oh hey, it also sold for over 10 million, making more than enough to warrant a big-budget sequel coming out very soon.

These huge sales figures are not only success stories for the companies involved, but also a sign for other publishers that perhaps the people who buy and play games are tired of this obsession with ripping us off at every turn and to rip our hearts out in a desperate attempt to prolong our time with them. I understand that companies know that a live service game can potentially make more money than a regular game – look at FIFA, which has made billions in digital card sales on top of its retail profits – but it is not guaranteed. Not all games have to do this. We don’t have the time or the money for that.

Sometimes people just want to play a video game, finish it, enjoy it for what it was, and then move on with their lives. And these folks are showing that there’s enough to not just buy a few million copies of these games, but turn them into absolute blockbusters.

Last year, footage of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto, believed to be GTA 6, leaked online. While Rockstar quickly tried to erase the videos from the internet and plug holes in the ship, it was impossible to completely contain such a massive and unprecedented leak. So fans around the world got a really good look at the future of Grand Theft Auto. And now myself and others are struggling to get back to aging GTA Online.

Late September 19, 2022, 90 short early gameplay videos of what would later be confirmed by Rockstar as the next GTA entry leaked online via hacker. The footage revealed a lot about the upcoming game in the massively popular open-world franchise, including that the series would return to Vice City, Florida, a fan-favorite location last seen in GTA: Vice City Stories, the prequel to the beloved PS2 classic, GTA: Vice City. It also gave us a good look at the new protagonists in this upcoming crime adventure and some of the missions we might experience when GTA 6 finally releases. Fans have even started mapping the game’s virtual world using leaks.

Rockstar definitely hates leaking and probably wishes he could go back in time and prevent that from happening, but it ended up revitalizing the playerbase. For the first time in a long time, there was enthusiasm and energy in the GTA community, which after years of GTA online updates and badly received remasters was in a very bad place before the leak. Even an early, unfinished or unpolished leak of GTA 6 was better than radio silence and glitchy remasters. People were excited about the future of Grand Theft Auto in a way I haven’t seen in years.

But then, once the leaks cleared the web and it became clear that Rockstar wasn’t going to release an official teaser or trailer to capitalize on the moment, all me and other fans of GTA could do was go back to GTA Online. And it’s harder to do now that I’ve seen the future.

rock star games

The last big free expansion for GTA Online, War on Drugs in Los Santoss, came out late last year at a really bad time for me to play and cover it for the site. So I… didn’t play it. For the first time in the history of GTA online, I completely skipped a new update. I still haven’t played it. At first, I blamed my skipping the last update on bad timing and a busy schedule due to holidays and year-end content. But now, a few weeks away from all that, with more free time to play, I still haven’t launched the new update. And I think it’s time to admit that my growing exhaustion around GTA Online has been greatly heightened by this little taste of what’s to come. This look at the future of GTA in Florida has ruined me.

I could go back and drive on the same highways and streets of Los Santos that I have been driving since 2013. I could launch the game and discover the new activities and missions that come with it. I could, of course. The thing is, I don’t know if I want to. I mean, eventually, I’ll be playing GTA Online more. I kind of have to because it’s part of my job here at Kotaku. Still, if that wasn’t part of my career, chances are I’ll never play GTA Online again.

To be clear: it’s not because GTA Online is worse today than it was ten years ago – it’s actually much better to play in 2023 than in 2013 – but because getting a glimpse of… ‘a fresh new world killed my desire to boot up the same old Los Santos after a decade of GTA Online and GTA V. I mean, just having new songs on the radio will be amazing. I love Queen’s ‘Radio Ga-Ga’, but you can only hear it so many times in 10 years before you’re ready for some new tunes as well.

That much, Hope the wait for Grand Theft Auto 6 and its sunny beaches, palm trees, and new characters aren’t too long because I’m ready to leave Los Santos for a tropical vacation in Vice City.

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.

Read More: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Is A Genius JRPG Vision That Began 25 Years Ago

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.

Read More: Signalis Is A Grimy Exercise In Survival Horror, And I Love It

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.

Read More: A Stunning Southern Dystopia Is One Of The Best-Written Games Of The Year

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 Deck month 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 to get 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.

Image: THQ Nordic/Black Forest Games

The PS2 era of video games was defined by wacky and quirky titles, especially compared to what we see in the gaming industry today. It was a wonderful time, and it was during this time that the Destroy All Humans franchise emerged. Now, after remaking the first game in the series in 2020, Black Forest is back with a whimsical new remake of the bigger, wilder sequel. And while it has a few technical flaws, it’s still a wonderful alien-themed blast from the past.

The original Destroy All Humans! 2 was released in 2006 on PS2 and Xbox. It was developed by Pandemic, the same studio that developed the first game in the franchise, with the original Star Wars Battlefront Games. Like the first game, DAH2 lets you step into the tiny silver boots of an alien invader on Earth who has access to a growing arsenal of strange alien weaponry and even has his own personal UFO, complete with a powerful death ray . While the first game was set in the 1950s and was heavily inspired by alien films of that era, DAH2 is set in the 1960s and expands its parodies to other film genres and general hippie jokes, the beginning of the cold war and the sects. Also, now the main alien in the game has genitals, and hey, does he like to make jokes about it.

Destroy all humans! 2 – Reprobed – Exit Trailer | PS5 Games

Like the first Destroy All Humans remake, this new and improved version of DAH2 was developed by Black Forest and is a true remake, with an all-new engine and entirely new textures and models. And it’s a damn beautiful game. Sometimes when I was jetpacking around the various levels, destroying humans, of course, I would stop and soak up the gorgeous vistas that exist in this game. The lighting in particular is often gorgeous, reminding me more of a animated film than an open-world PS2 game. And there are a lot of little details in the game, like how the characters get covered in dirt as they walk through the mud and then leave muddy footprints.

Although these improved visuals come at a cost. The game occasionally has framerate issues in busy scenes, as well as screen tearing and hitching in large parts of cities. It’s not unplayable, but it pops up once in a while.

The story behind this alien adventure is that a decade after the events of the first game, the Russian KGB somehow figured out what happened and attacked the Furon invaders’ mothership, destroying their plans to conquer the world and steal human DNA to help rebuild their species. Naturally, Crypto (the alien you play as) and his boss fight against the KGB and begin to learn about Russian history with aliens as they fly around the world, visiting and destroying various cities. famous, like San Francisco and London.

Screenshot: THQ Nordic / Black Forest Games / Kotaku

Just as with the first remake, DAH2: Reprobated reuses the audio files from the original, and as a result, it ends up being a fairly faithful recreation. Maybe too loyal? There are definitely some missions and activities that feel weird, like something you’d play in a PS2-era open-world game, which I guess makes sense, because it’s basically… an open-world game from the PS2 era. Additionally, some jokes and dialogue seem a bit out of place and dated 2022, which the game even warns you about before you start. Luckily, you can skip all dialogue and cutscenes in DAH2 if you just want to blow up buildings with your UFO or human anal probe.

While its story and general mission structure remain unchanged, Black Forest has done a lot to improve the combat to make it more modern and responsive. You fire with the right trigger and aim with the left trigger, while the sticks react to your movement as you’d expect from any good third-person shooter released in 2022. As a Crypto, you have access to a large wheel of weapons of destruction, including flash guns, plasma guns, anal probe weapons and even a “Free Love” ray that can force all humans around you to start dancing and is useful to escape difficult situations.

And all of that, along with your shield, jetpack, and hover boots, can be upgraded over time as you visit new towns and complete missions. Of course, nothing revolutionary, but the progression is fun and after a few hours I felt more powerful and badass than when I started.

Screenshot: THQ Nordic / Black Forest Games / Kotaku

Most missions involve a mixture of heavy firefights, a bit of physical fun and a bit of stealth – you’re an alien after all and people will call the cops if they spot you. Luckily, no mission in the game takes more than a few minutes to complete and with all the weapons and abilities at your disposal, missions can be completed in a variety of ways without becoming boring or stale. Each mission also has at least one optional objective that gives you additional upgrade resources to do something like “Kill 10 cops” or “Blow up five hippie vans”.

Destroy all humans! 2: Reprobed doesn’t reinvent the wheel or shake up the original sequel’s formula too much and that’s fine with me. In many ways, it was nice to have a wacky open-world game that doesn’t feel too big and overloaded, with a map with a million icons. It’s the kind of game that will only take most people around 20 hours, not 200 hours. And most of that time will be spent having fun and doing silly things, like fighting mutants or putting hippie trucks on rooftops to start a cult.

It’s not a game for everyone, but if you miss that era of goofy and weird PS2 originals, it’s a faithful, modern remake of one of the best from that era. Let’s just hope they fix some of the performance issues in a future patch.

Destroy all humans! 2: Reproved is available now on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC.