Ethan Gach

Gunsport, a game where you play volleyball with a gun, is coming to Stadia this summer. Made by Necrosoft Games, Gunsport has been bouncing around the internet for several years now but it sounds like it’s finally ready to usher in a new era of cybersports. It’ll come to other platforms later.

Phantasy Star Online 2‘s beta is over and it’s officially out on Xbox One. The free-to-play MMORPG originally came out in 2012 but was never released in North America. Kotaku’s Heather Alexandra called it late-night gaming popcorn in her write-up. The game is also coming to PC in late May.

Latest Cooking Mama Game Was An Unauthorized Release, Say Creators [Update]

The creator of the Cooking Mama games says it pulled the plug on the latest game, Cooking Mama: Cookstar, over quality concerns. Except the publisher went ahead and released it anyway. Controversy has been swirling around Cooking Mama: Cookstar ever since it temporarily went up for sale on the Nintendo Switch eShop at the end…

Fallout 76‘s Wastelanders Expansion Is Underwhelming So Far

Running down the hill from Vault 76 where I emerged a year and a half ago, I spot a couple hiking up a stone path. They are the first people I’ve ever seen in Fallout 76 in my over 100 hours with it. They ask me if the vault’s still open and if I’ve heard…

Minecraft Gets Graphics Overhaul Later This Week On PC

Players will be able to explore Minecraft with dazzling new visuals when its RTX Beta gets underway on April 16. Nvidia announced it was working on bringing real-time ray tracing to the popular open-world crafting game at last year’s Gamescom, and according to a new blog post by the company, the fruits of that labor…

The Nintendo Switch Finally Lets You Remap The Controls

At long last you can customize the button layout for your Joy-Con or Pro Controller on the Switch. The much-requested feature was added last night in a firmware update and means players can now change their controller layouts at the system level rather than only if specific games that allow for it. While great in…

Fallout 76 Players Brace For Possible Evictions In Wastelanders Update

Fallout 76’s sweeping Wastelanders expansion arrives tomorrow, bringing a bunch of new content to a game that hasn’t seen much of that in the last six months. While most players are eagerly awaiting the update, some are sitting with their fingers crossed hoping the new changes won’t force them to relocate the elaborate campsites they’ve…

Side-scrolling crafting game Terraria is getting its final update May 16 on PC Originally released in 2011, the 2D take on Minecraft has received tons of updates and ported to just about every platform. Titled Journey’s End, the final update will add a bunch of new items, characters, and mini-biomes.

Journey comes to Steam on June 11. Thatgamecompany’s serene exploration game first arrived on PC by way of the Epic Games Store last summer.

ESRB Ratings Will Now Tell You If A Game Has Loot Boxes

Today the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) announced a new ratings description specifically for games with loot boxes. Currently, games that have microtransactions in them come with an ESRB description that states “In-Game Purchases.” The ESRB is now going to add the follow-up description “Includes Random Items” if there are items players can buy in…

Nintendo Says Stop Using Alcohol To Clean Your Joy-Cons

You might have heard there’s currently a global pandemic going on. As a result you might be using things like alcohol and disinfect wipes to clean off your stuff, including your Switch. Nintendo says don’t, at least if your priority is not damaging the system’s finish. For many, it probably isn’t. “Recently, customers have been…

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Pulled From Some Chinese Stores After In-Game Hong Kong Protests

Listings for Nintendo’s adorable life sim Animal Crossing: New Horizons have been taken down from online Chinese stores Pinduoduo and Taobao. This comes on the heels of some players using the game to share pro-Hong Kong protest messages. Reuters reported earlier today that searching for the Switch game on Pinduoduo and Taobao no longer returns…

The Pokémon Company Is Investigating Sword And Shield Cheaters

Pokémon Sword and Shield players recently discovered an exploit they can use to inflate their competitive rankings, and the Pokémon Company is now threatening to ban anyone who doesn’t stop doing it. The exploit revolves around quitting an online match right before you lose by holding down the power button on the Switch. It was…

Six years later Dungeon of the Endless is still getting ported. The excellent tower defense roguelike will finally come to PS4 and Switch on May 15, only five years after it came to iPad and Xbox One. Better late than never though, especially for a strategy game as good as this one.

Minecraft Dungeons Is Like Family-Friendly Diablo

Minecraft’s transformation from an open-world crafting game into a linear dungeon crawler is an odd one, but Minecraft Dungeons is still shaping up to be a serenely welcoming loot-based hack n’ slash. Mojang demoed the game for me remotely last week due to the new work-from-home constraints imposed by the ongoing covid-19 crisis. These constraints…

Next-Gen Consoles Reignite An Old Argument Over Controller Batteries

Without electrical juice controllers are just paperweights, and Sony and Microsoft continue to take dramatically different approaches to solving that problem. Yesterday Sony revealed its PlayStation 5 controller: the DualSense. It’s chunkier than the current-gen DualShock 4 and comes loaded with a number of new features, including haptic feedback and a built-in microphone. People wasted…

Google Stadia Pro Goes Free For Two Months

Google announced today that it’s making its Stadia Pro video game streaming service free to everyone for the next two months, as people stay home to limit the spread of Covid-19. “Video games can be a valuable way to socialize with friends and family when you’re stuck at home, so we’re giving gamers in 14…

Tips For Playing Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord can be an extremely overwhelming game. While it only just came out in Early Access and it still has plenty of aspects that need fleshed out or fixed, it already offers a ton of medieval role-playing possibilities in which to lose yourself, from managing large-scale battles to cementing political alliances…

Kotaku Reacts To Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Two weeks have passed since Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out, and almost everyone on the Kotaku staff has poured themselves into trying to make our new desert islands feel like home. It’s been…a process—full of blood, sweat, and a lot of broken axes—and we have some thoughts about it. Hopefully by now you’ve read…

Woman Who Played 4,000 Hours Of Animal Crossing: New Leaf Finally Starts New Horizons

After playing over 4,000 hours of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, 88-year-old Audrey at long last embarks on her deserted island getaway in Animal Crossing: New Horizons The last time we saw her, she was diligently checking in on the villagers of her New Leaf town and tending her huge flower garden. Now she’s returned along…