Patricia Hernandez-Senior Reporter

Patricia Hernandez

Contributor Since May, 2025
Expertise
Pokémon, Steam, Nintendo
  • 1139
    articles
  • 746
    News
  • 363
    Features
  • 12
    Lists
  • 16
    Guides
  • 1
    Reviews
  • 1
    Deals
Polygon.com logo Profile

About Patricia Hernandez

Patricia is the former editor-in-chief of Kotaku, where she spent a decade writing and editing. Prior to that, she served as the Culture Editor at Polygon, and as a reporter at The Verge. She specializes in offbeat internet culture stories, along with reports on unbelievable player triumphs.

What's a recent obsession?

Attempting a master trading card collection of Pokemon like trash-based monster Garbodor and the appliance creature, Rotom. I am playing a lot of Monster Train 2, and in the middle of binging For All Mankind.

What's your origin story?

Patricia began writing about video games in college in 2012, while procrastinating her computer science work. She began as a monthly contributor to Kotaku; years later she became its editor-in-chief. Her first game was Donkey Kong Country.

What did you play or watch that changed your life?

Fallout 2 was the first title that made me realize games could be more than mere entertainment. 

A screenshot of After Hours, a 2018 alternate reality puzzle game where players peruse a computer interface in order to solve a larger mystery.
Feature

Steam dev says his game got harder because young people can't write an email

By  POLY Staff
Jolina Gisele, the name and proprietor of the world's biggest, most valuable Pokemon card collection.
Feature

Her multi-million dollar Pokémon card collection is unprecedented. It's raising eyebrows.

By  POLY Staff
The female protagonist in the upcoming Japanese vehicle sim, Honcho.
News

Steam game gets unexpected update after fan complained that women broke immersion

By  POLY Staff

Latest

A portrait of a character in Wasteland Remastered.
Iconic RPG devs let fans keep game they accidentally gave away for free
News

The Wasteland series has influenced major post-apocalyptic franchises like Fallout

The Weeknd, as he sings a song in front of a piano.
The Weeknd's fumble of a Persona 5 baddie has fans cracking up
Culture

Even Abel Tesfaye can't bag Takemi in Persona 5 Royal

A Vault Boy and Vault Girl carrying a shovel and ax stand over corpses of monsters in an illustration from Fallout 76
This Fallout 76 fan's pie vault is a shrine to one of the game's silliest rare items
Fallout 76

Even players with a maxed out Luck stat have a hard time finding a single slice

Pokémon TCG Pocket Pulsing Aura screenshot
Rejoice: Pokemon's infamous 'hole' card has arrived in TCG Pocket
News

Welcome back, Hole Bonsly

A line of dancing cats in Mewgenics. Each one is a different color, but they're all kicking up their paws in unison.
These might be the most unhinged video game patch notes of 2026
News

Between the large list of diseases and a meta revolving around inbred cats, it's hard to talk about Mewgenics without sounding absurd

The Team Fortress 2 spy gets ready to backstab other characters in Valve's Meet the Spy animation.
In this game, your Steam backlog tries to kill you
News

Things like time played, Metacritic score, and even game type will affect how Game Quest approaches the player

2
pokemon 2000 misty
Beloved Pokémon YouTuber says channel is getting deleted due to Nintendo copyright strikes
News

Over three years, PokéNational kicked off a trend of Pokémon nature documentaries on platforms like YouTube and TikTok

7
A smiling anime boy with black hair and a red cap (Ash) rubbing his face against a yellow smiling creature (Pikachu) on his shoulder.
Card game show officially bans greedy Pokémon scalpers once and for all
News

A Baltimore-based TCG show has taken a stand against vultures who are only in it to profit from real Pokémon fans

3
A screenshot of Temple Maker 64, a level design suite where players can make their own Zelda-like dungeons.
This Steam game is the 3D Zelda Maker you’ve been asking for
News

Temple Maker 64 is the work of a solo dev who left his full-time software engineering job to make it happen

6
Olympus Rangers key art
New Steam creature battler does what Pokémon would never
News

Olympus Rangers comes with vast customization options, mod support, and multiplayer

Colorful, graphic illustration of Steam logo
Steam pulls game made by White House Correspondent's Dinner shooting suspect
News

Cole Tomas Allen's game is no longer available on Valve's popular PC platform

2
Pikachu in the Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves Announcement
Pokémon Winds and Waves' massive map might have leaked already
News

Leakers with proven track records have shared a map illustration that reveals all of the game's islands, including gym types

1
Cats sit in a pile in art from Mewgenics.
The violent truth about Mewgenics that no one is talking about
Feature

Cats constantly dying isn't just a roguelike gameplay mechanic

The developer of Wordless Forest hangs on to debris in the middle of a raging river.
He spent 40 days in the wild to make the most photorealistic Steam survival game ever
News

Wordless Forest is an FMV game that takes player immersion to a totally new level

17
Brotherhood of Steel armor from Fallout 4
Fallout: New Vegas dev claims Bethesda made a PowerPoint of everything Obsidian did 'wrong'
News

Former Obsidian dev Chris Avellone dishes on contentious conversations with Bethesda after Dead Money

28
Jessie, James, and Meowth from Pokemon's Team Rocket, depicted hiding behind a tree in the anime.
GameStop is laughing all the way to the bank with its new Pokémon card system
Feature

GameStop's Power Packs allow the retailer to squeeze money from customers without ever handing out a real Pokémon card

6
A GTA V player holds a snowball after starting a riot in Los Santos.
GTA 5 fans are starting riots in the silliest way possible
Culture

A new TikTok and YouTube trend tries to trigger chaos in Los Santos in unexpected ways

promotional art for Xbox Game Pass with five columns of artwork: from Avowed, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Age of Mythology: Retold, and Sid Meier’s Civilization 7
Xbox Game Pass gets a price drop under new CEO, but there's a catch
News

Microsoft is changing how Call of Duty games get added to Game Pass

14
A close-up of D4vd, a pop singer known for his Fortnite montages and anime music videos.
Fortnite star D4vd charged with first-degree murder
News

After the arrest of David Burke, the LA District Attorney's office has an update on the Celeste Rivas case

Two Dragon Ball FighterZ pros fight a match as Vegeta in an encounter that begins with a perfect mirror of each other's moves.
This unbelievable Dragon Ball FighterZ match begins like an actual anime fight
Culture

The 2026 Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour featured a rematch between two fighting game rivals worthy of Goku and Vegeta

1 2 3 4 5