Culture

Someone Actually Beat Spelunky 2’s Daunting Cosmic Ocean

Spelunky 2 is a massive game, even more so than the original. While most of us are just trying to survive the first couple of biomes, the best players can follow a variety of intersecting quest lines in pursuit of several unique endings. The holy grail of Spelunky 2 runs has been traversing the Cosmic…

Avengers Patch 1.3.3 Eliminates Some Of The Game’s Biggest Nuisances

Along with planting the seeds for new story content with the addition of a new remote S.H.I.E.L.D. outpost, tomorrow’s patch 1.3.3 for Marvel’s Avengers does away with several annoyances players have been complaining about since day one. For example, it adds remote faction terminals to outposts, increases the radius in which items are automatically picked…

Sega Is Releasing A Mashup Of Yakuza And Streets of Rage 2

Streets of Kamurocho is Streets of Rage 2 starring Yakuza’s Kiryu and Majima and will be free-to-play on October 17 as part of Sega’s 60th Anniversary event on Steam. In addition to iconic Yakuza characters, the remixed beat ‘em up, created by Empty Clip Studios, will also feature levels inspired by the games and will…

Survival horror puzzler Disc Room is coming to PC and Switch on October 22. I played it at PAX East earlier this year and was instantly hooked on its twitchy mix of gory humor and arcade action.

Twitch’s Latest Horror Sensation, Phasmophobia, Has Streamers Screaming (At Each Other)

It’s not uncommon for horror games to take off on Twitch. Usually they’re flashes in the pan: The janky P.T.-alike du jour grabs eyeballs for a few days and then quickly descends back into the poorly-lit pits of obscurity. Phasmophobia is different. Sure, it’s inspired by P.T., and yes, it’s janky as all get out,…

Here’s The Trailer For The Monster Hunter Movie

Less fantasy than sci-fi, the new Monster Hunter movie is giving me major Stargate vibes. Instead of taking place completely in the world of Monster Hunter, the movie sees a military unit commanded by Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil) transported through a magical portal while out on patrol. The place they end up in is full…

Comic Book Covers Make Lousy Video Game Collectibles

First Marvel’s Avengers, now G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout. Over the past couple of months two video games, one a major release and one G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout, have rewarded my exploration and gameplay efforts with the front covers of classic comics. If you’re going to give me a comic book, give me the whole damn…

Oh No Steve

Minecraft’s Steve went live in Smash Bros. Ultimate overnight, and yup, no problems there. None whatsoever. Enough beating around the block: Steve looks like he’s got a massive boner every time he wins a match. He’s actually just holding a hunk of, well, meat at a weird angle, but the way the camera zooms in…

World Of Warcraft‘s Shadowlands Pre-Patch Drastically Changes The Game

The pre-patch for the next World of Warcraft expansion, Shadowlands, went live yesterday afternoon. Faces and hairstyles changed. Level 120 characters became level 50 characters. There’s a new starting experience that leads directly from level 10 to 2018’s Battle for Azeroth expansion. I barely recognize the game anymore. As someone who’s played since 2014, that’s…

Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II’s Bosses Were Cheap, But Its Music Wasn’t

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today it’s time to take stock of the eerie pulsations that power Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II, an incredibly little 8-bit adventure game with an even more incredible 8-bit soundtrack. The first time I played Ironsword:…

PS4 System Software Update 8.00 Goes Live

Sony’s latest PlayStation 4 software update is launching today, tweaking a host of existing features. As the PlayStation Blog details, there will be updates to Party and Messages, bringing noticeable changes to the UI, streamlining them, and linking them more closely. Instead of having separate groups, both Party and Messages will now use the same…

Actually, Metal Gear Solid V Players Didn’t Destroy Every Nuke In The PS3 Version, Konami Now Says

Earlier this summer, a cutscene nestled deep in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s PS3 version was triggered because, it seemed, players had located and destroyed every single nuke in the game. Konami now says that disarmament was not achieved. According to the Tokyo-based game company, one player’s “improper conduct” caused the cutscene to play.…

Track: Like No Other (2006 Remastered Version) | Artist: Electronic | Album: Get The Message: The Best of Electronic 

Nap Time For Adam

Nicolas Lizotte is an artist at Eidos, the studio behind Tomb Raider and Deus Ex You can see more of Lizotte’s stuff at his personal site and ArtStation page

Dark Souls Player Drenched In Blood Every Time He Gets Hit

A YouTuber named Big Secret recently uploaded a video to his channel chronicling his adventures in building and using a contraption that sprays him with fake blood every time he gets hit in Dark Souls 3. I’m both fascinated and repulsed. The machine has two modes: “easy mode,” which sprays Alex every time he dies,…

NBA 2K Players Say They have Been Scammed Out Of ‘At Least $215,000’

Dozens of players of online basketball series NBA 2K claim they’ve lost “at least $215,000” to scammers using the name of one of the community’s most popular figures. This story originally appeared on Kotaku Australia NBA 2K, a virtual basketball series for PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox, allows gamers to chat to and play…

Tales of Vesperia Comes To Game Pass This Week

Tales of Vesperia, a stalwart entry in Bandai Namco’s long-running Tales series, will become available on Xbox’s games-on-demand service on Thursday. Better yet, it’s the definitive edition, a 2019 re-release that offered high-definition graphics, more playable characters (at least stateside), and exactly the same amount of Troy Baker’s iconic silky pipes. Like many of the…

Yakuza: Like A Dragon Localization Breaks The Fourth Wall For A Unique Joke

Video game localization is a balancing act of preserving the original language’s meaning while also making sure it’s understandable for a wider audience. In one unusual example, Sega’s localizers faced a tricky situation trying to localize an NPC who already spoke English for the Western version of Yakuza: Like a Dragon Yakuza is full of…

Xbox 360 Users Are Getting Free Cloud Saves To Help Upgrade To Series X/S

As Microsoft gears up for the release of the fourth generation of Xbox game consoles, it throws a bone to the likely few and probably quite proud gamers who’ve stood by the second generation for 15 years. Xbox 360 users will soon be getting free cloud saves, to make upgrading to Xbox Series X/S easier.…

How Hades Speedrunners Clear The Game In Under Eight Minutes

Supergiant Games' roguelike has been mastered by speedrunners