Culture

Destiny 2‘s Intro Is Getting Overhauled To Make It More Welcoming To New Players

Starting out Destiny 2 as a new player is a bit of a mess at the moment. You’re almost immediately thrown into a huge solar system full of weird economies and esoteric systems, left to muddle through years of old content. Bungie plans to change that next month with a completely new tutorial experience. Starting…

Fallout 76’s Music Was Always Great

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re going to talk about Fallout 76’s pastoral ode to nuclear death and irradiated rebirth. No other soundtrack in recent memory has breathed so much life into an otherwise empty and broken game. I’m speaking,…

Report: Microsoft Bringing Xbox Game Pass To iOS In 2021

A few months back it seemed pretty unlikely that Microsoft would be able to bring its Xbox Game Pass (via xCloud streaming) to iOS devices, but a report today says that games boss Phil Spencer is telling employees it’ll be ready next year, and it’ll likely be using a browser to get around Apple’s restrictions.…

Bloody Hell Here’s Some Bloodborne Cosplay

Photographer Nikolay Zharov put this incredible shoot together featuring the work of three cosplayers: Tina Morbid (Good Hunter), Shion (Father Gascoigne) and Zep Hindle (Old Hunter Henryk). The costumes are amazing! Ditto the props! But I also deeply love the action figure-style pedestal shots, it’s a great way to give us a look at a…

Lowlands Away

Alisher Mirzoev is an environment artist and matte painter based in Russia who has worked on projects like Pathfinder and Styx You can see more of Mirzoev’s stuffat his ArtStation page

Nicolas Cage Does His Best Travis Touchdown Impression

Croatian newspaper DuList recently snapped some photos of actor Nicolas Cage filming his upcoming movie, the aptly named The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in the village of Cavtat. As many folks have pointed out on Twitter, the pink leather jacket makes him the spitting image of Travis Touchdown, the otaku protagonist of the No…

Maybe Rhythm Games Can Help Teach Fighting Game Skills

Fighting games are hard, but what if they taught players how to perform combos with concepts from a more approachable genre? A new video imagines what it might be like to learn important techniques by way of a rhythm game-style tutorial. The proof of concept, which is actually the product of clever video editing rather…

Ghost Of Tsushima Will Now Let You Pet The Beautiful Dogs

We’ve already told you all of the big things coming in Ghost of Tsushima’s 1.1 update coming next week, but we haven’t told you the most important thing: you’ll now be able to pet the dogs. While playing in the new New Game+ mode, if you equip the Charm of Canine Recruitment, you’ll be able…

Crystal Dynamics Claims Relief In Sight For Bored Avengers Players

It’s been a little over a month since Square Enix launched Marvel’s Avengers, and players are getting tired of running the same missions with the same characters ad infinitum. We need new content. New enemies. New game mechanics. Crystal Dynamics studio head Scot Amos says more content, including new mission types, a new hub, and…

Report: Employees Accuse Twitch Of Indifference To Sexual Assault, Harassment, And Racism

In a new report by GamesIndustry.biz, current and former Twitch employees recount issues of racism, sexism, and assault at the company that they say were never properly dealt with and often even enabled by a white bro tech startup culture. GamesIndustry.biz spoke to 16 employees that span the streaming platform’s history, and their stories paint…

They Finally Did It: Fallout 76 Is Pretty Good Now

Last April I bought a PC copy of Fallout 76 for $17. It was such a cheap price that I finally couldn’t resist trying it out. After five or so hours of doing some quests and building a small shack I called home, I moved on. While I enjoyed exploring the world, the performance issues,…

Did You Let The Vampire Succ, And Other Choices We Made In Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out in early access this week. While noted Divinity: Original Sin II enthusiast Nathan Grayson and I (noted Divinity: Original Sin II hater Ash Parrish) suggest you wait for the full release before diving in, we wanted to talk about some of the different in-game story choices we made and how…

Fall Guys Introduces Four New Stages And A Mode Selector In Season Two

After a morning of shaky login issues, Fall Guys’ medieval-themed second season is officially here. If you’ve fallen off Mediatonic’s platformer royale in recent weeks, today’s update might be enough to draw you back in—for a little bit, at least. The main draw here is the prospect of playing new rounds. All of the stages…

Sci-Fi Loot Shooter Outriders Delayed Until February, Will Support Free Next-Gen Upgrades

Outriders won’t be out this year after all. The game’s been delayed until February 2, 2021. People Can Fly, best known for Bulletstorm, announced the news in blog post today over on Square Enix’s website. The shooter RPG with a Diablo-like loot system was originally slated to have arrived last summer back when it was…

PlayStation confirms the Kronenbergian adventure game Bugsnax will be out on PS5 and PS4 on November 12. The follow-up from Octodad makers Young Horses was already assumed to be a launch game, but tit’s nice to hear it hasn’t slipped.

Mortal Kombat 11 Is Getting New Fighters, Cross-Play, And Free Next-Gen Upgrades

Rambo and a bunch of other stuff is coming to Mortal Kombat 11 on November 17. First there’s the Kombat Pack 2 which will add Mileena, Rain, and Rambo as new downloadable fighters. People who pick up the new Ultimate edition will get them automatically, while people with the existing version of the game can…

Xbox Deletes Tweet Dunking On PS5 For Having A Removable Stand

The UK Twitter account for Xbox fired some shots at PS5 yesterday in one of the silliest ways possible because it’s 2020 and these are the console wars we deserve. It all began after Sony released a tear-down video of the PS5 highlighting all of the next-gen console’s internal components. The first step in that…

Sonic Adventure 2’s Peppy Pop-Punk Is The Escape From The City I Need Right Now

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, we’re finally rolling around (at the speed of sound) to a song that has a money-back guarantee on putting a pep in your step: Sonic Adventure 2’s “Escape From the City.” We’ve run this feature…

Hello Big Soft Friend

Roberto Padula is a freelance concept artist and illustrator from Brazil. You can see more of Roberto’s stuff at his Instagramand ArtStationpages.

Riot’s Australian Office And The Oceanic Pro League Are Shutting Down

Riot Games, makers of games such as League of Legends, Valorant and Legends of Runeterra, has announced the closure of their Australian operations. This story originally appeared on Kotaku Australia The news immediately spread like wildfire among the local League of Legends scene, which has built up around the Oceanic Pro League, the professional circuit…