Culture

Relax, With A Game About Owning A Fish Tank

If Blinkclick Games wanted to make the most relaxing management game possible, they’ve certainly picked the right subject matter with their upcoming Fishkeeper It’s a management game in the vein of stuff like Planet Zoo, only on a much smaller scale, since you’re being tasked here with simply…filling a fish tank. Now we’ve all enjoyed…

The Xbox Series X’s Backward Compatibility Effort Is Pretty Interesting

Here’s something I like very much: interviews with console executives about upcoming next-gen machines that get very into hard numbers, internal procedures and an explanation of just how much work went into making sure the Xbox Series X/s backward compatibility was up to scratch. Like this one that Inverse didwith Xbox Director of Program Management Jason…

I Miss The Crazy Batshittery Of The Original Tomb Raider Trilogy

Since mounting anxiety has robbed me of higher cognitive thought, let’s talk about dinosaurs—specifically, why the hell are there dinosaurs in the first three Tomb Raider games? To be clear, I don’t mind that they’re there—they’re challenging to fight and make for some thrilling jump-scares. I’m also aware of how odd it is to focus…

Among Us Will Soon Let You Report People For Being Assholes

Purple being toxic? Red using hacks? Among Us developer InnerSloth says players will have new tools for punishing these impure souls come December when the game gets a new account system. “[Accounts] will allow players to report accounts that are toxic and/or hacking,” the developer wrote in its latest unofficial roadmap on Monday. “They may…

Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Is 40GB Bigger On Next-Gen Consoles

Call of Duty games are routinely some of the biggest you can download on console, and this year’s Black Ops: Cold War is continuing that trend, especially on PS5 and Xbox Series X. Today, Activision revealed how much space you’ll need on each console’s hard drive to pre-load the game: PlayStation 4: 95GB PlayStation 5:…

GameStop Challenges Employees To TikTok Dance Contest To Earn Extra Hours During Black Friday

There’s something about Black Friday that seems to bring out the worst in GameStop’s corporate leadership, and this year the video game retailer has found a bizarre new way to appear petty and out of touch. The company has invited employees to submit dance videos in the hopes of winning prizes that include extra work…

Turn-based roguelite RPG Star Renegade is coming to Switch and Xbox One on November 19 and PS4 on November 25. It’s a beautiful game with a great combat system and thanks to a recent patch it now has an easy mode. It’ll also be on Game Pass.

Our Yakuza: Like A Dragon Review Is In Progress [UPDATE]

UPDATE: IT’S DONE Original post: Wondering where our Yakuza: Like a Dragon review is? It’s in progress! This is a huge game, like any Yakuza title, and to rush it to meet an embargo date (which just ticked over), skipping over its bounty of sidequests and secrets, isn’t fair on any of us. So stay…

Demon’s Souls Understands There’s Beauty In Silence

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, we return to one of the most influential games of the last decade on the eve of its PlayStation 5 remake. From Software’s Demon’s Souls (playlist /longplay /VGMdb) became the template for many games to…

Street Light. Tribalj, Croatia. By Eduard Tucaković | Instagram  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!

The Political Donations Of Top Video Game Execs

An elderly man contest is happening today. It is the product not of a functioning democracy, but a system fueled by corporate lobbying, vast fortunes, and the whims of the wealthy. So let’s have a look at what some video game executives have been up to recently. (This information was obtained using OpenSecrets.org, a database…

Nintendo Switch Emulator Adds Online Support, Quickly Regrets It

Yuzu, a popular Switch emulator, earlier this week decided to add limited online multiplayer support for its games. A decision it swiftly reversed.

Apex Legends Gets A New Map (And A New Season) Tomorrow

Apex Legends’ new season launches tomorrow, alongside the game’s arrival on Steam. I’ll admit this hellscape of a year has given me little time for Titanfall developer Respawn’s battle royale, but the upcoming season’s changes could entice me back in—at least until I fall off the game’s new map too many times, which I undoubtedly…

As Destiny 2‘s Commander Zavala, Lance Reddick Finally Gets To Be The Good Cop

I am a lapsed Destiny 2 player. In anticipation of the Beyond Light expansion coming out November 10th, I thought I’d reacquaint myself with the game which I hadn’t touched in years. Even though I probably should have waited for Beyond Light and its promise of a revamped and heavily streamlined new player experience, one…

Pokimane’s New $5 Donation Cap Sends Ripples Through The Twitch Community

Giving money to streamers can be weird. It makes sense when a streamer is a scrappy up-and-comer for whom even a few coins in the cup can make a difference, but we live in an era in which big streamers are millionaires with exclusive contracts and brand deals. While popular streamers have expressed awareness of…

RIP Destiny 2’s Useless Spicy Ramen Coupon

A bunch of old items are vanishing from Destiny 2 players’ inventories next week when its expansion Beyond Light launches, including an expired ramen coupon handed out years ago. Now players are celebrating the memento before it disappears, and its creator says he had originally hoped to do more with it. As first spotted by…

The Head Of Xbox Says The Gaming Industry Needs More Black Leaders

Time passes strangely these days, so it is easy to forget things that happened or were said or were pledged just five months ago. But it was indeed in June 2020 that institutions around the world, including video game companies, vowed to do better by their Black customers and Black workers for the cause of…

Watch Dogs Legion’s Podcasts Are Great When They Aren’t Constantly Restarting

I love listening to podcasts while I drive because I am sick in the head, so naturally I do the same thing when driving around in Watch Dogs Legion. Unfortunately, I spent my first few hours cruising the game’s London in a stolen hatchback while the same podcast reset over and over every time I…

11 Real Chinese Foods In Genshin Impact

My favorite part of Genshin Impact isn’t the exploration, or the combat, or the characters. It’s the food. I love entering new areas in the fictionalized world of Teyvat and discovering ingredients and recipes. The various dishes in the game are consumables that can be used to restore health, stamina, or increase combat stats. You…

Dawn Of The Final Day

While doomscrolling through Twitter the past few days, I noticed a lot of people making the same Majora’s Mask joke. Today does feel like the Final Day, doesn’t it? Either the moon will crash into the Earth, or the clock will reset and Americans will have another chance to maybe get it right this time.…