Gita Jackson

You Can Thank The Developer Of Everything For This Creepy Instagram Filter

David OReilly, developer of Mountain and Everything, is now making terrifying Instagram filters. OReilly creates work that one might call “weird,” as either a compliment or an insult. Mountain is a simulation game in an extremely literal sense. It simulates a mountain, which changes over time, as more and more stuff appears on it and…

I Made A Radical (Literally) Playlist For The Outer Worlds

Whenever I really love a piece of media, I make a mixtape of songs that remind me of it. As soon as I finished The Outer Worlds, I began compiling my mixtape. There’s something nice about having a compilation of songs that take you back to a tone and a mood, since it allows you…

Suddenly There’s A Homestuck Sequel

Homestuck was a long-running webcomic, published from 2009 to 2016, that began as a story about a kid named John who got a mysterious new game called Sburb, and over time, turned into a sprawling epic about adolescence. Today, with no warning or preamble, the official Homestuck twitter account tweeted out the website for its…

We Checked Out The Outer Worlds‘ Second, Monster-Filled Planet

Yesterday, Paul Tamayo and I played through a small portion of The Outer Worlds. The game is out today, but if you haven’t picked it up yet, let us wet your whistle. Paul and I played through the beginning portions of Monarch, the second planet you’ll visit in The Outer Worlds. If you want to…

Yes, The Outer Worlds Is Coming To XBox Game Pass

Want to play The Outer Worlds, but don’t have the spare cash? If you’re planning on playing on XBox One or PC, you can pick up the game on Game Pass. Game Pass is a subscription service for the XBox One that allows players to pay a monthly fee for access to hundreds of games.…

After Leaving A Game For A While, Sometimes It’s Best To Just Start Over

After finishing The Outer Worlds, a dense role-playing game, I did what any sensible person would do and returned to playing Divinity: Original Sin 2, a much longer and denser role-playing game. After a moment of contemplating whether or not to pick up my old save or start a new one, I made the choice…

Love To Log Into Overwatch And Play Some Tetris

Someone made Tetris using the Overwatch workshop. It’s pretty incredible. The Overwatch workshop allows players to make custom modes by altering in-game scripts, and players have already been making some nifty things with it. To me, this latest creation is more than just nifty. This is Tetris. Somebody put a whole-ass other game in this…

Finally The Sims 4 Gets College, And ‘Juice Pong’

The Sims 4’s college expansion pack, Discover University, is coming to PC on November 15th and consoles on December 17th. Simmers everywhere can now breathe a deep sigh of relief that one of the most longed-for expansion packs is soon to arrive. Discover University comes with a new world, Britechester, where Sims can enroll in…

The Outer Worlds Will Rattle Your Idea Of A Perfect Planet

The very first quest in The Outer Worlds, Obsidian’s highly anticipated first-person RPG out October 25, asked me to make what felt like an impossible choice. On one side was a community of outsiders frustrated by corporate control. Their outpost was something like a worker’s paradise—they were well fed and mostly happy, surviving by relying…

We Discuss HBO’s Unsettling New Watchmen TV Show

Like the graphic novel did over 30 years ago, HBO’s adaptation of Watchmen immediately surprises viewers with one of the most arresting takes on a comic book in years. As fans of good television and good comic books, Kotaku’s Michael Fahey, Gita Jackson, and Joshua Rivera gathered around the digital water cooler to talk about…

Why I Still Love The Thing, 40 Years After Its Release

As the weather gets colder, all I can think about is the impending holiday season. I am talking, of course, about Halloween. As a horror movie fan, I take the opportunity to snuggle up with a blanket and scare myself for fun. When I’m feeling this way, a movie I inevitably return to is John…

Crusader Kings 2 is now free to own on Steam. If you grab the game now, you’ll be able to assassinate your wife so you can marry your mother any time you want.

Minorities In Game Development Still Don’t Have The Support They Need

The New York Times profiled six minority game developers today on their experiences in the industry. Their anecdotes are both illuminating and depressing. As a fan, I know how discouraging it can be not to see yourself reflected in the media that you love. A story I often tell is that until I saw Shawn…

No Man’s Sky Players Build Creepy Spaceship Recreation Of The Bermuda Triangle

Seven No Man’s Sky players came together to build an atmospheric location that they’re calling “Bermuda,” made up of a series of crashed intergalactic freighters. It’s a haunting reference to the Bermuda Triangle, the real-life location where many aircraft and ships have supposedly gone missing. It’s beautiful. Crashed freighters are already a feature of No…

I have never wanted a photo mode for a game more than I want one for Control, and it’s coming tomorrow It comes with ten different filters, as well as the option to hide Jesse and other characters. But why would you do that when you could turn the our humble Director into an Instagram star?

Twitch Streamer Says She Was Banned For ‘Suggestive’ Attire After Brigade From Racist Trolls

For women streaming on Twitch, being questionably banned for “suggestive” clothing or behavior is an increasingly visible problem. Some feel that Twitch’s policies over sexual content unfairly target women, especially women whose bodies are curvier. Twitch streamer ExohydraX, who received an indefinite ban from the platform last week over her attire, is now among that…

Where To Start If You Haven’t Played Video Games In A While

Maybe you’ve taken an extended break from gaming and now want to get back into things. It can feel very intimidating: there are new games, new consoles, new slang, a lot of teenagers, and what’s the deal with Twitch? Here’s some tips on where to start. I played a lot of games through high school,…

Upcoming Museum Sim Lets Players Combine Artifacts To Tell Cool Stories

According to its creator, upcoming management sim Mondo Museum represents an ideal version of what museums can be. Game designer Michel McBride-Charpentier, who loves management sims, told Kotaku over the phone that he couldn’t believe that there hadn’t been one based around curating and running a museum before. “I think the first time I ever…

On Cinema Is Funny Because It’s About Everything But Cinema

When I was first introduced to On Cinema At The Cinema, a bizarre comedic movie review show starring Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington, I didn’t quite realize how cultish the fanbase for it was. Now that they’ve released a feature film, Mister America, all I want is to tell people why they should watch this…

PewDiePie Is Having Second Thoughts About The Whole YouTube Thing

A profile of YouTuber Pewdiepie in the New York Times titled “What Does Pewdiepie Really Believe?” does not quite answer that question. In fact, Pewdiepie himself does not seem to know. New York Times writer Kevin Roose spoke to Pewdiepie, nee Felix Kjellberg, in the aftermath of March’s shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, where a…