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CultureOdds and EndsHear Me Out: Pandorum Is The Dark Souls Of Movies
It was while rewatching 2009 space horror flick Pandorum over the weekend that I realized it’s essentially a Souls movie in disguise, released just a month before Demon’s Souls arrived in the United States. No, wait, don’t go! I can explain! In my mind, there are three key elements to a Dark Souls story: a…
By Ian Walker -
CultureOdds and EndsAll Doom Demons, Ranked
Doom Eternal is coming to Xbox Game Pass on October 1 and that got me thinking about Doom. I like Doom a lot. I’ve written about it many times before onKotaku and it seems like it’s about time I sit down and rank all the demons who have appeared in Doom games throughout the years.…
By Zack Zwiezen -
CultureOdds and EndsNintendo’s 35th Anniversary Mario Pin Set Spawns Another Pre-Order Hell
Have you heard? It’s the 35-year anniversary of Super Mario Bros. Nintendo commemorated the occasion with, among other things, a special limited-edition Mario pin set. A lot of people wanted it. Unfortunately a lot of them also didn’t get it. The pin set was announced back at the beginning of September, but didn’t finally go…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureOdds and EndsMortal Kombat 11 Datamine Uncovers New Voices From 1995 Movie Actors
It’s hard to hide anything in your game when thousands of players can search through it with a fine-toothed comb. The folks at NetherRealm Studios found this out recently when one fan uncovered a variety of unused Mortal Kombat 11 audio files that sound as if they were recorded by the stars of the 1995…
By Ian Walker -
CultureOdds and EndsDestiny 2 Honors Deceased Developer With Moving Piece Of In-Game Lore
When players log onto Destiny 2 this week they’ll be asked to go investigate some lost Golden Age tech on Mars as part of a special tribute to Matt Helsom, an artist at Vicarious Visions who passed away last year. Touching down on Mars there’s no objective marker for where to begin the Signal Intercepted…
By Ethan Gach -
CultureOdds and EndsBlack 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.…
By Ash Parrish -
CultureOdds and EndsRandom Generator Spits Out Hilarious Guilty Gear-Style Round Openings
Fighting games, especially those made by Japanese developer Arc System Works, are known for having some pretty wild start-of-round messages. Someone named ArcaneMonkey took all those lines—as well as some choice memes and other non-sequiturs—and inserted them into an online generator, which randomly spits out some really funny stuff. Here are a few of my…
By Ian Walker -
CultureOdds and EndsFinal 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…
By Ash Parrish -
CultureOdds and EndsHideo Kojima, Please Work With Junji Ito
Horror mangaka Junji Ito is apparently down to work with video game auteur Hideo Kojima if the opportunity presents itself. Those sounds you’re hearing are me furiously typing my demands that Kojima call Ito as soon as possible. During a recent Polygon interview, Ito was asked about his involvement with Silent Hills, the late Konami-era…
By Ian Walker -
CultureOdds and EndsSuper Mario Galaxy’s Opening Is Still Terrifying
Super Mario 3D All-Stars, launching tomorrow for the Nintendo Switch, gave me the opportunity to revisit a trio of classic video games. It also brought me face to face with what is perhaps the most terrifying opening of any Mario game, wherein Bowser literally carpet bombs the Mushroom Kingdom. As with most games in the…
By Ian Walker
