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ReviewsPlayStationReturnal: The Kotaku Review
I’m sure you’ve felt it too. For the past year and some change, life has fallen into a rut more than usual. Life is always cyclical to some degree—humans are, after all, creatures of habit—but the stresses that go hand-in-hand with a certain mismanaged pandemic have made the day-to-day feel more dreary and cyclical than…
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CultureDespite Supply Issues, PS5 Sales Outpace The PS4
The PlayStation 5 is nowhere, and yet, the PlayStation 5 is everywhere. Sony has sold 7.8 million PS5s since the console officially launched last November, according to a company quarterly earnings call held this morning. It’s no secret that getting your hands on a PS5 is nearly impossible, in part thanks to a global semiconductor…
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CultureOdds and EndsThe PS5’s Screenshot Overlay Is Incredibly Annoying
Last night, I tried to snap multiple rapid-fire screenshots of a [redacted big scary thing] in Returnal, the upcoming PlayStation 5-exclusive action game. (Sorry, can’t share ‘em yet. Embargos!) When I looked back at the collection, many of them were tarnished, overlaid by a little box with a check mark and a film reel in…
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CultureAssassin’s Creed Valhalla Will Finally Let You Skip Kill Animations
Ahead of its first major expansion, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will receive a title update tomorrow introducing a raft of changes to the game, including the ability to (finally!) turn kill animations off. Valhalla’s title update 1.2.1—which clocks in at 5.5 GB on PlayStation 5 and 16 GB on Xbox Series X—will add a toggle that…
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CultureLeaked Documents Show EA Really Wants You To Buy FIFA Loot Boxes
EA purposefully drove players toward gambling-like microtransactions in FIFA 21, according to an insider who leaked internal documents to the CBC. “Video game company wants to make money” isn’t exactly a bombshell, but in light of EA’s long-held stance on loot boxes and microtransactions, the 54-page document might raise an eyebrow. FIFA 21 features microtransactions…
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OpinionEnough With The Red Screen Of Almost-Death
Returnal, a relatively punishing action game out next week for PS5, treats your character being near death the way many games do. When your health gets dangerously low, your screen displays a series of cracks (meant to mimic a busted visor) and starts pulsating red (meant to mimic…the blood rush of adrenaline?). These “red screens…
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ReviewsBacklogWhat Defines A Backlog?
It’s Backlog Month at Kotaku, which means we’re spilling a lot of ink on a plight shared by basically everyone who plays games. But this got us wondering: What defines a backlog? At what point does a game jump from being anything else in your library to being a (likely permanent) fixture on your ever-growing…
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CultureLast Stop‘s Meant To Feel Like A Playable TV Show
You’d think a game featuring mysterious green magic swirling in the London underground would be all about weird stuff. But Last Stop—at least from what I’ve seen of it so far—is first and foremost a game about people. Last Stop is the latest from Variable State, the U.K. indie studio behind 2016’s oddball mystery Virginia,…
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CultureDestiny 2‘s New Transmog System Sounds Like A Grind-In-The-Ass
Bungie finally shed some light on Destiny 2’s upcoming transmog options in a blog post today. The new system, called Armor Synthesis, will be added to the loot-shooter service game within a few weeks, fulfilling a long-standing request of the Destiny community. Unfortunately, its implementation sounds like more of a grind than anything you’d find…
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OpinionImpressionsReturnal Feels Like An Actual PS5 Game
A busted spaceship. An uncharted exoplanet teeming with hostile life. An emphasis on scanning objects, upgrading equipment, and retracing your footsteps. Those might sound like core components of a new Metroid Prime, but they’re not, at least not in this case. They’re the ingredients of a riveting—if somewhat punishing—action game called Returnal, out next week…
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CultureTales Of Arise Out September 10, Coming To Next-Gen Consoles Too
Tales of Arise, the next game in Bandai Namco’s long-running spikey-haired angst series, will come out on September 10, according to the game’s official Twitter account. Previously announced for PC and last-gen consoles, the action-RPG will also come to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Initially planned to release in 2020, Bandai Namco delayed the…
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CultureXbox Free-To-Play Games Are Finally Free To Play
Starting today, all Xbox players can play more than 50 free-to-play games without an Xbox Live Gold membership, Microsoft announced in a blog post. The update comes on the heels of a ballyhooed reversal of longstanding Xbox policy. In January, Microsoft announced a steep price increase to Xbox Live, essentially doubling the cost of the…
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CultureReport: Microsoft No Longer In Talks To Buy Discord
Last month, Bloomberg reported that Microsoft was in exclusive talks to acquire Discord. Today, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, those talks are off. Microsoft initially considered buying the popular chat and community platform for a figure north of $10 billion, but it wasn’t the only interested buyer. Per the Journal’s sources,…
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CultureOdds and EndsApparently, Some Steam Users Have More Than 25,000 Games
And you thought your backlog was bad. According to the patch notes of a recent Steam Beta Client update, some Steam users—or, more specifically, Steam libraries—may own north of 25,000 games. Woah. The update, pushed live yesterday, is fairly slim and includes this patch note: “Fix a possible crash for users with around 25,000 or…
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CultureHere’s Everything Coming To And Leaving Game Pass Soon
The baseball game is the big one, but that’s not the only game en route to Xbox Game Pass Here’s everything coming to Microsoft’s games-on-demand service in the next few weeks: April 20 MLB The Show 21 (Cloud, Console) April 22 Phogs! (PC) April 28 Second Extinction, Game Preview (Cloud, Console, PC) April 29 Destroy All…
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Tips & GuidesLet’s Hear It For ‘Death Chains,’ The Best Weapon Mod In Outriders
Like any loot-shooter, Outriders is based on chance. But you can sidestep luck by leaning on the game’s intricate network of gear mods, many of which can significantly change the way your guns and armor behave. Most are good, but none compare to Death Chains, a tier-two weapon mod that—and this is putting it lightly—fucks…
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ReviewsBacklogPfft, The Medium Isn’t Even That Scary
Full disclosure: I am a wimp. Horror games? Can’t do ‘em. So it is with a modicum of surprise that—and I say this hesitantly—a couple hours in, I’m not scared of The Medium. At least not yet. The Medium, developed by Bloober Team, is billed as a psychological horror game, and is one of the…
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OpinionOutriders Could Really Use A Self-Revive
Outriders is a game about balance, but it’s not always finely balanced. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the game’s revive mechanic, which is seriously biased toward players of the game’s cooperative mode. If you’ve played Outriders by yourself, you’ve no doubt encountered the absent revive. You’re doing your thing (turning baddies into bloody…
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CultureHelp, Returnal Looks Terrifying
Today, Sony released a trailer and a collection of artworkfor Returnal, an upcoming PS5-exclusive bullet hell game from the makers of Resogun. The game looks neat. It also looks positively terrifying. Exhibit A: If that looks like a waterlogged version of a clicker from The Last of Us, you’re not far off. Housemarque, the studio…
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