Culture

Borderlands Is Getting Review Bombed On Steam Over Epic Store Exclusivity [UPDATE]

Yesterday, Gearbox announced that Borderlands 3 will be an Epic Games Store exclusive for six months after its September 13 release. Like clockwork, Steam users began review bombing previous games in the noted dabbing robot shooter series shortly after. Twenty-four hours and thousands of negative reviews later, Steam’s new anti-review bomb system has yet to…

New Afro-Futurist RPG Is A Fresh Break From Sci-fi’s Tired Tropes

The art book Kickstarter for Swordsfall, a tabletop roleplaying game set in an Afro-futurist African nation, raised over $64,000 in about 24 hours and cleared its $2,000 goal with ease. Creator Brandon Dixon told Kotaku that he’s not all that surprised by the success of this campaign. He knew that he had something unique, that…

Kirby Star Allies‘ Developers Explain How They Improved The Game A Lot After Launch

The early 2018 Switch game Kirby Star Allies improved a lot over the past year thanks to a stream of free downloadable updates. Some significant parts of those updates weren’t originally planned, according to the game’s developers at Kirby studio HAL. HAL’s chief creator, Shinya Kumazaki explained the process of expanding the game to me…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: Help, I Still Love My Ex-Wife!

Hello all you fiery sex-buckets, and welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating advice column to pivot entirely to Fortnite This week, we’re tackling the thorny questions of what to do when relationships don’t go the way you hope or expect. What do you do when you’re divorced… but still very much in love?…

The Best Part Of Yoshi’s Crafted World Is The Scenery

Games traditionally propel us forward with any one of these methods: increasingly tough bosses, collectable outfits, competitive skill points, unlocking new abilities, and, of course, story beats. Yoshi’s Crafted World is not like those games. For me, the paper carrot at the end of its fuzzy pipecleaner stick is discovering what charming and surprising thing…

Captain Toad’s Treasure Crusher

Kleiner Hai is an artist from China. You can see more of Hai’s work at his ArtStation page

Accusations Of Sexual Predation Shake Pokémon YouTube Community

Accusations of sexual predation are rocking the Pokémon YouTube community after 12 alleged victims made public statements against four individuals in that scene, including Kyle “TheKingNappy” McNeal, a well-known Pokémon YouTuber with over 500,000 subscribers. Pokémon is a franchise that typically appeals to kids and teenagers, plus adults who grew up with the games and…

I Want To Delete Sekiro From My Brain So I Can Experience It Again

I finished Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice earlier this week and had a fantastic time learning its combat and tackling challenging bosses. I’m eager to play more and if I want to, I could start right over with New Game Plus. Taking that plunge, however, has me wondering about the experience I’ll have. If the joy…

Track: Oretachi No Susumu Michi Wo Kanashimi De Tozasanaide | Artist: Sambomaster | Album: Yes Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Dusk. Osaka, 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! 

Aces High

Alex Kim is an illustrator and concept artist who has recently worked on stuff like War Thunder and the tabletop game Star Wars: Legion You can see more of Alex’s work at his ArtStation page

Super Mario Lost Levels, Punch-Out!! Heading To Switch This Month

Punch-Out!!, Star Soldier, and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, aka the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, are the next games coming to Nintendo’s NES library on Switch Online, on April 10. In other words, it’s another fairly safe, predictable month for Nintendo, with no especially surprising releases and nothing that hasn’t already been in…

Magic: The Gathering‘s Next Expansion Will Radically Alter The Game

Wizards of the Coast is pulling out all the stops for Magic: The Gathering’s April 25 expansion, Ravnica: War of the Spark. The latest is a beautifully animated cinematic lore trailer that launched at PAX East over the weekend. In it, a brooding, sinister take on Linkin Park’s “In The End” plays while Planeswalker Liliana…

Elder Scrolls Online Used To Be A Bad Theme Park And Now It’s A Great Theme Park

I flippin’ love theme parks. I loved them as a kid, and I love them as a grown-ass man. I also love anything that reminds me of a theme park—and for me, the game that feels most like a theme park is The Elder Scrolls Online. Unfortunately, when it first launched on consoles four years…

All Aboard The Kyoto Express

Jose Vega is a freelance background artist who most recently worked on the Castlevania animated series. You can see more of Jose’s stuff at his personal site and ArtStation page

That Is A Lot Of Shy Guy Cosplay

For the last few years, an ever-growing group of cosplayers have been using April Fool’s day as an excuse to team up all over the internet, pulling off massive showcases of characters like Nurse Joy and Misty. This year, the focus was on Shy Guy. Here’s Nurse Joy, for example: And Misty: The group has…

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Is Finally On Steam, And It’s Great

You might think that four gangly muppets pushing wheelbarrows have no place on the same battlefield as a battalion of catapults, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my time with Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, it’s that strategy requires an open mind. It also requires that you accept a fundamental truth of the universe:…

Sekiro Speedrunners Discover Wild Techniques To Beat The Game In 40 Minutes

Since Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice came out, speedrunners have been attacking the game at full force, ripping through the game’s early routes and finding ways to go fast in a game full of difficulty walls. Last week, speedrunner Danflesh managed to knock out the game’s shortest route in 50 minutes. Since then, the record for…

Dwarf Fortress Has Destroyed My Perception Of Time

This weekend I played Dwarf Fortress until the sun came up. Again. I don’t know why this keeps happening when I play Dwarf Fortress. On Saturday evening, after I got back from my boyfriend’s place and had thrown my laundry in the washing machine, I was alone in my apartment and not in the mood…

The Week In Games: Darkside Of The Switch

After a busy last week, this week is much quieter. No huge games, but for Switch owners looking for some demon killing, Darksiders Warmastered Edition hits the portable system this week. I just started playing the first Darksiders game. I needed something to play as I take some time away from The Division 2. I…