Ash Parrish

Going Under’s Lo-Fi Soundtrack Makes Me Feel Like I’m Not Working At All

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, we’re heading into the office in Going Under, a roguelite dungeon crawler where work is hell. Going Under (playlist / longplay) is a game about navigating the hellscape of working in America. In Going Under,…

What Your Favorite Hades Weapon Says About You

In Hades, each Infernal Arm you use to escape from Hell has its own unique abilities. The different weapons—combined with the various perks and god-given boons you can choose and the artifacts you can equip—ensure no two escape attempts are quite the same. Like the gods, I do not play favorites when it comes to…

Going Under Is Another Roguelike In A Hellish Setting: Late Stage Capitalism

Capitalism sucks. It is a brutal economic system that is the source of poverty, war, famine, and the other two horsemen of the apocalypse. A new Steam, Xbox, PS4, and Switch rogue-like called Going Under takes all the dehumanizing and depressing bits of our current flavor of late stage capitalism, softens it with bright colors…

Earlier today, Nintendo announced it will be releasing information on upcoming DLC for Pokémon Sword/Shield. In June of this year, Nintendo released the Isle of Armor DLC as a part of it’s Expansion Pass, containing new gym trainers, updates to gameplay, and a new Pokémon, Kubfu. This announcement could possibly cover the second portion of the…

Black Athena: How Hades Gets Its Gods Right

I love Hades. It’s a great roguelike, has a cleverly-crafted story, and is stuffed with beautiful art and design. But what I like most about it is its commitment to diversity among its characters. Hades’ pantheon of Greek gods is diverse. Athena is a dark-skinned Black woman. Dionysus is south Asian. Hermes is east Asian.…

I Guess I Actually Like Roguelikes Now

Roguelike is a dirty gaming word to me: I can’t think of a genre of game that appeals to me less than one in which you do the same things over and over again in slightly tweaked variations until you somehow find the magical combination of paths, abilities, or spells to win the game. But,…

BlizzConline Coming February 2021

After cancelling BlizzCon in May, Blizzard has announced an online version of its massive convention will be held February 19-20, 2021. “While circumstances are keeping us from gathering in person this year,” Blizzard wrote in a blog post. “We’re putting together a little something early next year to channel the spirit of BlizzCon into the…

Final Fantasy XVI’s Trailer Looks Like A Mix Of IX And XII (And That’s Great!)

  One of the biggest surprises of the Sony PS5 event on Wednesday was the reveal of a new main-line Final Fantasy game, the 16th in the series (more like the 36th if you count all the sequels and spinoffs and Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus). Fans of the series are excited, and some…

Transphobic Creator J.K. Rowling ‘Not Involved’ in New Harry Potter Game

Warner Brothers, publisher of the upcoming open-world Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy, released an FAQ on the game’s official Discord yesterday. In addition to answering questions about the game’s development and platforms, the FAQ asserts that Rowling, who’s recently drawn criticism for transphobic statements, has no involvement in the game. Teased in yesterday’s PS5 event,…

Watch Dogs 2 is free on the Epic Games Store right now. In what is perhaps a mea culpa for including the wrong Watch Dogs protagonist in Watch Dogs: Legion, the Epic Games Store has Watch Dogs 2 available for free until September 24th.

BPM: Bullets Per Minute Is A Shockingly Fun First-Person Rhythm Shooter

“Rhythm FPS roguelike” is not a series of words I thought I’d see strung together to describe a video game. But the year 2020 is committed to surprising the hell out of me, sometimes for ill (mostly for ill nowadays) but sometimes for good. BPM:Bullets Per Minute is one of those good surprises. Out now…

Undertale Creator Says Next Chapter Of Deltarune Is Almost Done

Nyeh heh heh! Today marks the fifth anniversary of the release of Undertale, and creator Toby Fox is celebrating the milestone with new information on the progress of its sequel, Deltarune It’s been two years since the first chapter of Deltarune was released for PC/Mac, PS4, and the Nintendo Switch. In a post today on…

Immortals: Fenyx Rising Trailer’s Choice Of James Brown Sample Confuses The Hell Outta Me

As a rule, I am a big proponent of having more diverse music in my entertainment. I’m so used to hearing that poor brown woman wailing or the overused “Braaaam” in various movies and trailers that it’s nice when companies break the mold. I especially love when movies and TV shows put contemporary music in…

EA Play Coming To Xbox Game Pass At No Extra Cost

Tucked into today’s announcement of the Xbox Series X pricing and release date was the announcement that EA Play, EA’s subscription game service, is coming to Xbox Game Pass at no extra fee. Available only in the PC and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate bundles, EA Play grants players access to exclusive in-game content, early access…

Xbox Series X Will Cost $499, Out November 10

This morning, Microsoft confirmed the price and release date of the new next generation Xbox. With a suggested retail price of $499, the Xbox Series X, Microsoft’s beefier, terafloppier, next-gen console, will be available for pre-orders beginning September 22, with a retail release date of November 10th. This news comes just one day after the…

Overwatch Team with 4-17 Record Could Somehow Win the League Playoffs

Over the weekend, the Washington Justice became the embodiment of Overwatch League playoff chaos. They are other teams’ spoilers and the playoff Cinderellas. They’ve gone from one of the worst regular season performances to knocking out one tournament champ and almost knocking out another. And although their chances of ultimate triumph are still mathematically slim,…

I Can’t With These Confusing Xbox Names

With the price of one of the next-generation Xbox consoles confirmed and the other one likely forthcoming as Microsoft and Sony’s big game of next-gen pricing chicken drags on, there needs to be a frank discussion about the names of these consoles. A discussion wherein I sit down with Mr. Microsoft and ask a simple…

Playoff Season Is The Best Time To Get Into Overwatch League

You do not need to have watched a single match of the 2020 Overwatch League season to follow the playoffs. Playoffs are the playoffs, you already know the stakes, no background information required. The playoffs themselves will provide their own self-contained narrative that newcomers can understand and invest in. The 2020 Overwatch League playoffs began…

He Comin’: Fall Guys Devs Tease The Arrival Of The Big Yeetus

Fall Guys developer Mediatonic hinted today on Twitter to the addition of a new element to maps called the Big Yeetus. The tweet features a gif of a Fall Guy being yeeted (yeet · ed verb to be thrown, punched, or otherwise flung over a great distance) by a big rotating hammer toward the Dizzy…

Upcoming Indie Game Nour: Play With Your Food Wants To Make You Hungry

At the elementary school lunch table, after I was finished with my chicken nuggets or whatever else the cafeteria had served up for the day, my friends and I would mix all our leftovers together. We’d use empty milk cartons as the vessel for our alchemical experiments, throwing in whatever we weren’t eating anymore to…