All three of us on Kotaku Splitscreen have begun to play Death Stranding, but only one of us did so with a newborn baby in the mix. Jason explained to me and Kirk this week that it’s just not cool to put your baby down for a nap and then get prompted to rock your PS4 controller back and forth while it emits crying noises.

Apple Arcade offers up a ton of cool mobile games for only $7.99 per month. The price seems more than fair from the player side, and it helps that these games aren’t packed with microtransactions, since they’re already funded by the subscription fee.

But is that subscription model actually sustainable? And do we want to see other game stores heading in this direction? On this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen, Kirk and I discuss.

Do you have any bizarre rituals that you always perform in a video game, no matter what? This week on Kotaku Splitscreen, we discuss that question and much more.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a big, chewy role-playing game that benefits from a mouse and keyboard, but sometimes, you just want to lie down on the couch and play a game on the Switch. The game’s new Switch port allows players to go from one to the other, like magic. On this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen, we talked about how great that feels.

You look left and see a giant alien behemoth. You look right and see your spaceship. And then you re-adjust your virtual reality helmet to account for all the head turning you just did. That’s the dream, right? At least that’s what Kirk assured me and Jason on this week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen when he recounted No Man’s Sky’s latest VR improvements.

If you’re reading this, you probably know the feeling: You’re trying to get into a flow state on something productive, but somehow, your mouse gravitates to your bookmarks and suddenly you’re browsing Twitter, or Tumblr, or another internet addiction of your choice. Today on Kotaku Splitscreen, we discuss.

The Fortnite World Cup was packed with young faces, both attendees and competitors. Unlike many other esport events, this one had a kid-friendly, earnest vibe that dovetailed well with the chaotic playground atmosphere of Fortnite. Kotaku U.S. editor-at-large Riley MacLeod came on Kotaku Splitscreen this week to talk about his coverage of the Fortnite World Cup and the game’s competitive scene.

How far is too far when it comes to gaming trash talk? And how do you go about confronting a friend, or a stranger, for some seriously uncool comments in chat? On this week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, we brought in Kotaku senior reporter and trash talk aficionado Cecilia D’Anastasio to discuss gaming etiquette.

Video games can be frustrating. Sometimes, that frustration can overpower your ability to play them well. There’s a term for that: In those moments, you’re “tilted”. On this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen, we had Kotaku’s newest staff writer Joshua Rivera join us to discuss the ways that games have tilted us and how we deal with it (or, in some cases, don’t).

From XCOM to Fire Emblem, it feels bad to watch your team die in a tactical game. It’s way better to save a million times so that you can re-do part of a battle to keep everyone alive. On this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen, Kirk and I brought on Gita Jackson to talk about Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which has a time travel mechanic that will make the game a lot less gruelling for players who can’t stand to let any of their fighters fall.

Remember the Nintendo 3DS? Enjoy that while you can, because after the Nintendo Switch Lite comes out, the 3DS will be erased from all of our collective memories. OK, not really, but the Switch Lite does look nifty. On this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen, we talk about playing Switch games while lying in a hammock and also the cool limited edition 3DSes we bought for no reason.

If Google Stadia games work as advertised, it’ll become all too easy for students everywhere to play video games on their school-issue laptops instead of listening to their teachers’ lectures.

On this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen, we answer questions from listeners, including one from a high school teacher about how much of a pain Stadia will be, on top of all the other typical distractions that students already battle in the classroom.

Last week, as part of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s June 26 update, Treyarch quietly removed split screen co-op play from the game’s battle royale mode, Blackout. At first, no one was sure what was going on, but today, Treyarch said the feature will return on July 10.

Outer Wilds may be the best game we’ve played this year, but it can be tough to get into—allow us to offer some tips on this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen.

E3 2019 brought us demos and details about games we can’t wait to play, like Link’s Awakening and the Final Fantasy VII remake, but it also threw us some real head-scratchers, like that upcoming Avengers game. On this week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, we ran down all the coolest and most befuddling games that we got to see at E3 last week.

How is Baldur’s Gate 3 going to implement the modern rules of Dungeons & Dragons? Last week in Los Angeles, we sat down with creative director Swen Vincke and D&D head honcho Mike Mearls on a bonus episode of Kotaku Splitscreen to discuss. One thing you can definitely expect: the ranger is getting some changes.

How does the Chicago-based studio Iron Galaxy maintain a healthy work-life balance for all of its employees? On Kotaku Splitscreen, we talk to founder and Giant Bomb jokeman Dave Lang about his leadership philosophies and how Iron Galaxy avoids crunch.

If you fall into the category of people who believe that 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas was the best game in the series, then The Outer Worlds might be for you. Last week at E3, I spoke to the game’s co-director, Leonard Boyarsky, for a bonus episode of Kotaku Splitscreen digging deep into this cyberpunky role-playing game.

Esports commentator and host Alex “Golden Boy” Mendez started out hosting Call of Duty tournaments in hotel ballrooms in 2011, and covering esports for websites such as Kotaku. Now, he hosts esports events in stadiums for thousands, as well as esports matches for TV broadcasts.