Mike Fahey

Massive Pokémon GO Update Raises Level Cap, Adds Gen 6 Pokémon

Pokémon GO gets its biggest update ever on November 30. Niantic’s “GO Beyond” update raises the game’s level cap from 40 to 50, introduces seasons that change every three months, and introduces pocket monsters originally found in the Kalos region, including Chespin, Fennekin, Froakie, Fletchling, Pyroar, and more. They had me at Fennekin. Pokémon GO…

Sackboy: A Big Adventure: The Kotaku Review

Ever since the launch of the original LittleBigPlanet back in 2009, I’ve wanted a full, proper game starring Media Molecule’s stitched-together mascot, without any of the building tools that are the main focus of the series. Now I have that in PS5 launch title Sackboy: A Big Adventure, a mostly non-threatening platformer with great music.…

Animal Crossing‘s Winter Update Brings New Hair, More Storage, And Save Data Transfers

Along with the expected Turkey Day and Toy Day seasonal celebrations, the free winter update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, launching November 19, adds 800 more slots of home storage, a bunch of new emotes and hairstyles, and the long-awaited ability to transfer save data between systems. Why celebrate Thanksgiving by traveling and risking getting…

Lego Super Mario Kicks Off 2021 With A Bunch Of New Sets

The already expansive Lego Super Mario line expands even more come January 1, with the launch of a new series of character packs, Tanuki and Penguin Mario power-up packs, three new expansions, and a new creative toolbox called the Master Your Adventure Maker Set. Now that kids of all ages have figured out how to…

Missing Sequential Collectibles Is The Worst

In Sackboy: A Big Aventure, a mostly harmless platforming game for PlayStations 4 and 5, each level has a series of Imagination Orbs that Sackboy must find. As they are collected, the Imagination Orbs fill a little cloud-looking object in the order they appear in each level. Should the first Orb you collect show up…

Over 100 Backward Compatible PS4 Games Might Have Some Issues On PS5

Though the vast majority of the 4,000+ PS4 game catalogue works without a hitch on the new PlayStation 5, around 115 games in the US PlayStation Store are tagged with a warning: “When playing on PS5, this game may exhibit errors or unexpected behavior and some features available on PS4 may be absent.” That doesn’t…

No Wonder Billie Eilish Likes Ilomilo So Much

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re checking out music from Ilomilo, a puzzle game so overwhelmingly delightful that Billie Eilish wrote a song about it One of my favorite games of all time, Southend Interactive’s Ilomilo (playlist / longplay /…

This Speedy Gaming Monitor Was Co-Designed By Porsche

Non-congressional gaming monitor maker AOC and Porsche Design have teamed up to create exactly what one would expect from such a collaboration—an incredibly fast gaming monitor. The $800 Porsche Design AOC AGON PD27 is a 27-inch QHD monitor with a 240 Hz refresh rate, .5 millisecond response time, and a stand design inspired by a…

Vaping Trick Makes It Look Like New Xbox Is Blowing Smoke [Update]

Viral videos are circulating on Twitter showing the newly-released Xbox Series X seeming to billow smoke. While this would certainly be cause for concern, others have pointed out possible causes besides the console burning up, and Spanish Twitter news account Xbox Studio demonstrated how easy the effect is to recreate using an ordinary household vape.…

PS5 And Xbox Series X Loading Times, Compared (They’re Close)

So far we’ve shown you how PS5 loads games very quickly and Xbox Series X and S load games very quickly. Long story short, both systems load next-gen games at ludicrous speeds while giving older games a little push. But in order to gauge how ludicrous is ludicrous, we needed to get a couple of…

RepliCade’s Dragon’s Lair Is The Coolest Mini Arcade Machine I’ve Played

It’s an astounding little tribute to one of arcade gaming’s greatest.

Xbox Series X: The Kotaku Review

The Xbox Series X does not feel like the kind of machine we usually get at the start of a new generation, when we’re used to clean breaks with radical new hardware that basically starts our time with a PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo device over. Instead, the Series X feels like another version of Microsoft’s…

The remastered version of early Telltale Games episodic adventure Sam & Max Save the World arrives on Switch and PC on December 2. It’s the same great game from 2006 with revamped graphics, restored audio, controller support, and more angry little rabbit creature than ever before. Or the same amount, only better. 

Suddenly I Feel The Need For A Faster Monitor For My Xbox Series X

So I’m booting up Ori and the Will of the Wisps, one of my favorite games, just after its Xbox Series X/S upgrade patch applied, and I’m greeted by a message that basically says I need a faster monitor as soon as humanly possible. The notion of 120 frames per second console gaming hadn’t hit…

Horizon Forbidden West Won’t Be Out Until The Second Half Of 2021

Fans of Aloy’s adventures in robot dinosaur land hoping we were but a few short months away from a Horizon Zero Dawn sequel have a bit more waiting to do. Today’s PlayStation 5 “New Worlds to Explore” trailer from Sony says Horizon Forbidden West is currently anticipated for release somewhere in the second half of…

PlayStation 5 Versus Xbox Series X/S: Ready, Fight!

The PlayStation 5. The Xbox Series X. The next generation of console gaming is upon us. As is our sacred duty, we must now compare the two in a variety of very important scientific categories: Size. Design. Molecular density. Usefulness at a picnic. And of course, the dreaded essay section. Which next generation console reigns…

Ask Us Anything About Xbox Series X And S [Update: All Done]

It’s Thursday, November 5, our Xbox Series X and S review is up, and the embargo has fallen. It’s time to ask us anything you want to know about the new Xboxen, and we’ll answer as best we can. Three of us here at Kotaku have spent the past couple of weeks playing with Microsoft’s…

Fortnite Is Ready For PS5 And Xbox Series X/S

When the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 consoles drop next week, so do new versions of Epic’s popular battle royale. Next-gen console Fortnite is prepped for launch, with 4K60 performance, faster loading, and enhanced visuals on each system. Not only does Fortnite run at 4K, 60 frames-per-second on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5…

Bravely Default II Misses 2020, Launches February 26

The Switch sequel to Square Enix’s 3DS RPG Bravely Default, originally slated for a 2020 release, is now scheduled to arrive on February 26, 2021. According to the opening segment of this morning’s surprise Nintendo Direct Mini Partner Showcase, developers are using the additional time to work on balancing difficulty and reworking controls after the more…

Next-Gen No Man’s Sky Launches With The Xbox Series X/S And PS5

No Man’s Sky’s biggest year yet continues in early November, when next-generation versions of Hello Games’ procedural space opera launch alongside the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Existing console players get a free upgrade to more densely populated planets running at 4K 60FPS. Capping off a year that’s brought mechs, living ships, and an…