Culture

Fortnite‘s Batman Event Turns Tilted Town Into Gotham City

Today is “Batman Day,” which explains why banks are closed and your town is hosting its annual Batman Day Parade. Fortnite has gotten in on this most solemn of occasions by adding new Batman-themed items and turning part of its map into Gotham City. A livestream announcing the Fortnite/Batman crossover took place on YouTube at…

Untitled Goose Game’s Developers Stopped Work On Launch Day To Attend The Climate Strike

Today is the long-awaited launch day of Untitled Goose Game, the avian sensation that’s been sweeping multiple nations since its first trailer came out in 2017. It’s also the day of the Global Climate Strike, meaning that people across more than 150 countries are walking out of school and work to demand urgent action in…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for having finally gotten certified to belay people in rock climbing, so skulking around the gym looking for people to belay. It’s also for playing video games. I’m looking forward to playing more Overland, as well as more Untitled Goose Game. They’ve both been fun to have on my Switch: easy to…

Despite The Haters, The Division 2‘s All-Women Gaming Group Is Going Strong

The note atop the thread in The Division 2 subreddit was awkward. “The moderators have allowed for many congratulation raid completion posts,” it began. This was one of many threads in celebrating various groups of gamers for clearing The Division 2’s daunting eight-player raid. But, it continued: “This one is unfortunately being locked due to…

If I Had Infinite Time I Would Never Stop Chasing Perfect Ranks In Games

I play games because they give me pleasure, but sometimes, that pleasure comes specifically from a desire to master all of their secrets. Clear all the time trials, get higher ranks, collect all the goodies. Sayonara Wild Hearts, Devil May Cry 5, Monster Hunter World. Sometimes you just want to be the best. I felt…

Person Naruto Runs Through ‘Storm Area 51’ Newscast

In what started as a joke and is now our manifest reality, thousands of people are expected to storm Area 51 today. Today, we witnessed just one of many on camera running through the desert like characters from the popular anime series Naruto “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” began as a…

The Creepypasta Community That Influenced Control

Control’s setting, a secretive government facility that studies supernatural happenings, is engrossing. If you can’t get enough of the game’s surreal atmosphere, perhaps you should check out the SCP Foundation, a community-run fiction archive that many speculated was an inspiration for Control. It turns out that speculation was correct. Kotaku spoke with the SCP Foundation…

Track: Everyday | Artist: Perfume | Album: Perfume The Best “P Cubed”

SNK Reveals The 20 Games For Neo Geo Arcade Stick

Earlier this month, SNK announced the Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro. It’s packed with 20 built-in games, which weren’t revealed—until now. According to IT Media, the 20 games SNK is including for the release are: The King of Fighters ’95 The King of Fighters ’97 The King of Fighters ’98 The King of Fighters ’99…

Nagoya. Japan. By Brian Ashcraft | Twitter JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

Our Favorite Cosplay From Fan Expo Canada 2019

The Metro Toronto Convention Centre played host this year to 2019’s Fan Expo Canada, which attracted around 150,000 people with video games, comics, anime and, hey whaddya know, cosplay as well. Mineralbluventured north of the border to take these photos and shoot this video of the latter, and as usual you’ll find each cosplay shot’s…

Darth, Put Your Helmet Back On, Please

Kevin Cassidy is a character and creature artist who has worked on games like BioShock Infinite, Just Cause 3 and Spec Ops: The Line You can see more of Cassidy’s work at his ArtStation page

There’s An XCOMish Narcos Game, Which Just Might Work

There’s already one game based on Netflix’s excellent series Narcos, and it sucks. The second game, though, is looking a lot more promising, as it’s a turn-based tactical combat experience similar to XCOM Announced today, the game is out in Fall 2019 for PC, Xbox One and PS4. For a licensed game coming so long after…

What’s Your Weirdest Video Game Ritual?

Do you have any bizarre rituals that you always perform in a video game, no matter what? This week on Kotaku Splitscreen, we discuss that question and much more. First, Kirk, Maddy, and I talk about the great new visual novel AI: The Somnium Files, the wonderfully addictive Fire Emblem, and Remnant: From the Ashes,…

French Court Says Valve Must Allow Steam Users To Resell Games

Back in 2015, Valve got sued by a French consumer organization called UFC-Que Choisir (not to be confused with non-French, non-consumer organization the Ultimate Fighting Championship). UFC-Que Choisir had a multitude of bones to pick with the longtime Steam steward, the biggest among them being that Steam doesn’t let users resell their games. Four years…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: I Still Hate My Ex

Hello, you hideous and shimmering sexbeasts, and welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating advice column to guide you through the Metroidvania of love. This week, it’s all about the end of relationships. Break ups and divorce aren’t the end; they’re the beginning of a new chapter in your life. But how do you…

I Wish Games Didn’t Update So Much

Where a video game goes, a patch will surely follow. It wasn’t that long ago that updates were rare things, but today almost every game will get updated at some point—some far more than others. While it may sound strange, there are times when I wish that biweekly updates just weren’t a thing anymore. Sometimes…

I Have Had It With Games That Always Send Me On Detours

I don’t trust waypoints anymore. You know, those little icons on video game maps that show you where your goal is? They’re filthy liars, and I wouldn’t trust them with my coffee money. It happens all the time: A character will tell me that I need to get to a certain location to get a…

Haven Island, the next location in the Hitman 2 Expansion Pass, arrives September 24. Set in the Maldives and following up on the events of the previous Bank map, Haven comes with a host of new challenges and full support for Contracts mode. It also comes with this excellent new trailer.

Track: Never Say Never | Artist: That Dog | Album: Retreat from the Sun