The Epic Games Store has a surprising number of exclusives coming over to their platform that used to be on the default one-stop shop on PC: Steam. And everyone lived happily ever after. Oh wait, actually, it led to Steam users “review-bombing” games such as Borderlands 3 and Metro Exodus after they went to the Epic store.

The bigger concern here is the whole idea of games that are exclusive to just one platform, and whether our game libraries really belong to us or not.

This week saw Sony and Microsoft both getting in on the video news show format. Sony had its first PlayStation “State of Play” video, focused on PSVR titles. And Xbox put out the first episode of its “[email protected] Game Pass”, a mouthful of a name for a presentation that included both announcements and developer interviews. Neither of them were as good as a Nintendo Direct.

Google’s upcoming video game streaming service Stadia aims to eliminate the middleman by letting you play games in 4K and 60 fps on almost any device as long as you have a decent internet connection (and are in the US, Canada, the UK or Europe). While this sounds pretty incredible on paper, it leaves us with a ton of questions.

Between the recent releases of Far Cry New Dawn and The Division 2, I took a step back and took stock of how many post-apocalyptic games I’ve played and the future releases on the calendar that I plan on digging into, and it got me thinking: Why are there so many games that deal with the end times? Not that I think it’s a bad thing necessarily, but it is intriguing.

The newly released Devil May Cry 5 inspired Tim and I to talk about the idea of games that some might consider “guilty pleasures”, and why sometimes that can be a little misguided. I’m totally fine with liking things that don’t necessarily qualify as artistic masterpieces and delving into what makes “trashier” games so damn good.

Apex Legends blindsided me in more ways than one. I had already been making a loose gaming schedule for the weeks ahead, and now this fantastic battle royale game is pretty much the only thing I want to play.

Despite Anthem’s confusing release schedule and rocky demo last weekend, it has potential to go toe-to-toe with the growing selection of games that want to keep you around for a long time. But what’s it going to take for Anthem to start strong?

With the long-awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 almost upon us, I wondered how much the entertainment landscape has changed since the series first showed up on the scene. In today’s media, nearly every franchise has started to build their own vast universes, just like the Kingdom Hearts franchise did 17 years ago.

With the spiffy Resident Evil 2 remake right around the corner, I got to thinking about remakes versus remasters. At what point should you just go back and boot up the original?

With Smash Bros. Ultimate right on the horizon, I am experiencing my usual case of wondering if it’s way too late for me to get on that ship.

I sat down with Kotaku’s Maddy Myers to figure out if now is the time for me to start playing Smash or if I should just be OK with being the little sibling who gets an unplugged controller so I can feel like I’m “participating.”

As Nintendo starts to take a more strict approach to ROMs, players’ access to older games is changing. Sure, you could try to find a working retro console and pony up for expensive cartridges, but there has to be a better way.

After pouring a ton of time into Death's Gambit, a 2D action RPG inspired by the Dark Souls series, I'm now really curious about jumping into the souls-like genre.

With the post-E3 lull before the September/October/November blockbuster window, I thought I could chip away at my game backlog. But with the steady flow of re-released indies hitting the Switch and older games getting massive updates, my pile of shame grows bigger every day.

After building my first PC a year ago, the one thing that still feels overwhelming is the world of gaming peripherals. Trying to decipher what the hell a refresh rate is or the speed of my mouse’s DPI sounds intimidating, but seeing how these things impact competitive gaming on my sweet rig is something I’m still learning.

There are certain games that you play to feel an adrenaline rush, and others that you play when you need to just chill after a stressful day at work. Relaxing games can work wonders for catching up on podcasts, brainstorming, or if you need to put your brain on autopilot while you sort out some things in your head.

Sometimes, a game that I fell in love with takes a wild left turn and breaks my heart with a punishing save system or a never-ending final section. When a game does you wrong, that means it’s time to break up.

Sometimes I’ll remember a game series that disappeared into the ether that used to be a huge part of my life. With so many remasters and ports popping up, it got me thinking about those games that I would love to see make a comeback.

Art is always going to express a certain point of view because ultimately, whatever form it comes in, art is made by human beings. It's a responsibility that can sometimes feel weird in big-budget games that don't double down on the questions they present and treat real life-inspired issues like theme park attractions.

I've always been fascinated by those games that we return to over and over again. I like to refer to them as "forever games". They are the ones you've either played since you were a child, or the ones that feel like favourite movies you know line by line.