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CultureTwitchTwitch’s ‘Hot Tub Meta’ Has Sparked Off Yet Another Debate About Women’s Attire
Twitch trends come and go, but one thing remains constant: the endless debate around what women should be allowed to wear on the platform. Now it comes in a summery new flavor: hot tub streams. Recently, streamers have declared these broadcasts the new “meta,” outraging the usual suspects—but also leading some female streamers to voice…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 2, 2021 -
CultureNBA 2K21 Arcade Edition Is NBA 2K21 Without Obnoxious Microtransactions
One of the most annoying aspects of modern sports games, including the console and PC versions of NBA 2K21, are the obtrusive microtransactions. NBA 2K21 Arcade Edition, released today for the Apple Arcade service, has no microtransactions whatsoever. What a breath of fresh air. One of the tenets of Apple Arcade is that no game…
By Mike Fahey Published April 2, 2021 -
CultureLEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Delayed Again, Dammit
Well, this sucks: TT Games announced today that LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will not be released in Spring 2021 as planned. It has been delayed. Again. And this time we don’t have a new release date or window. “All of us at TT Games are working hard to make Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 2, 2021 -
CultureWhat Are You Playing This Weekend?
The weekend is for needing to do laundry but probably not doing laundry because laundry sucks. It’s also for playing video games! I’m excited to check out the new stuff in Hitman 3, which includes the “Greed” expansion and an Easter egg hunt in Berlin. I’ve seen other players say cool things about them, and…
By Riley MacLeod Published April 2, 2021 -
CultureSony’s MLB The Show Comes To Xbox Game Pass Day One
MLB The Show 21, a game published by PlayStation maker Sony, will launch day one on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox announced today. “We’re delighted to announce that MLB The Show 21 is coming to Xbox Game Pass on day one and will be available on April 20 for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, as…
By Riley MacLeod Published April 2, 2021 -
CultureApple Arcade’s Biggest Expansion Yet Adds 30 New Games Including Fantasian, NBA 2K21, And Oregon Trail
Apple Arcade exploded this morning, adding 30 new titles across three categories: “Arcade Originals” like Mistwalker’s RPG Fantasian and a game from the makers of Hot Shots Golf, “App Store Greats” like Monument Valley and Threes!, and “Timeless Classics” like Zach Gage’s Really Bad Chess and good old Solitaire. It’s the biggest influx of games…
By Mike Fahey Published April 2, 2021 -
CultureMorning MusicThe Best Music Ever Made (For A McDonald’s Game)
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s ongoing hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. You deserve a break today, so we’re kicking off the weekend with something tasty from McDonald’s… McDonald’s Treasure Land Adventure that is, a game that plays and sounds better than a licensed platformer has any right…
By Mike Fahey Published April 2, 2021 -
CulturePlatinum Games Announces First Game For New Neo-Classic Arcade Brand
Sol Cresta will be released this year as a download title on the Nintendo Switch, the PlayStation 4, and Steam. “It is a brand new title bearing the soul of the classic docking and shooting games Moon Cresta (1980) and Terra Cresta (1985),” says developer Platinum Games in an official statement. The Osaka-based studio is…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 2, 2021 -
CultureWatch Dogs: Legion Will Eventually Get 60 FPS Option On Next-Gen Consoles
During a recent “ask me anything” session on Reddit, Watch Dogs: Legion live producer Lathieeshe Thillainathan said that Ubisoft is working on adding a higher framerate option to the game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. “60 fps for next-gen consoles is in development, and we’ll announce the exact release dates with our future…
By Ian Walker Published April 1, 2021 -
CultureOops, Activision Forgot About The Streisand Effect
I can’t fully express how little I care about Call of Duty: Warzone or any leaks thereof. What I do love, however, is giant gaming conglomerates making fools of themselves, and Activision Blizzard really stepped in it this morning when it used draconian copyright law to try to cover up a trivial news story about…
By Ian Walker Published April 1, 2021 -
CultureBorderlands 3 Finally Gives Players Something Good To Spend All That Eridium On
Borderlands 3’s upcoming Director’s Cut expansion brings many updates, but the most exciting bit combines two things players have been requesting for years: something to spend Eridium on and a way to reroll equipment bonuses. Gearbox announced today that Borderlands 3 will get two new vending machines when the Director’s Cut update drops next Thursday.…
By Ian Walker Published April 1, 2021 -
CultureFortnite Stonks Skin Not A Joke, Unfortunately
April Fool’s Day is terrible. Things you wish were real are fake. And things you wish were fake are real, like this Fortnite stonks meme skin. Fortnite got a “Diamond Hanz” skin in the item shop today, as part of the “To the Moon” set. For 1200 Vbucks, you get a crash test dummy in…
By Riley MacLeod Published April 1, 2021 -
CultureShark RPG Maneater Gets Fresh DLC This Summer
Chris Parnell reprises his role as investigative journalist Trip Westhaven and players reprise their role as Big Honkin’ Shark in Maneater: Truth Quest, a fresh batch of conspiracy-driven downloadable content coming to PlayStations, Xboxen, and PC this summer. From a press release I’ve read through a half-dozen times, because Tripwire Interactive thought it would be…
By Mike Fahey Published April 1, 2021 -
CultureThe Beautifully Blocky Earth Defense Force: World Brothers Launches Worldwide May 27
Voxel soldiers battle the giant voxel insect aliens invading their voxel planet in Earth Defense Force: World Brothers. This colorful new take on the beloved budget shooter series is launching across all regions on May 27 for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC. World Brothers is a stylized love letter to D3Publisher’s long-running series, a somewhat…
By Mike Fahey Published April 1, 2021 -
CultureAh Loot River Looks Fantastic
A few seconds into this announcement trailer for Loot River and I’m thinking, OK, it’s a top-down Dark Souls game. Fine, whatever. A few seconds later suddenly there’s Tetris in there too and everything looks a lot more interesting. The combination of slow and methodical combat, puzzle elements as you race across sliding barges/platforms, and…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 31, 2021 -
CultureMicrosoft Sells Three Bethesdas Worth Of Minecraft Goggles To The U.S. Military
In 2015, Microsoft showed off its fancy new HoloLens augmented reality goggles with a very impressive Minecraft demo. In 2021, the company has just agreed to sell “up to 22 billion” worth of headsets based on that original tech to the U.S. military. As TechCrunch reports, while the military and Microsoft originally agreed to some…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 31, 2021 -
CultureTwitchDifferent Millionaire Fights Refrigerator
Sometimes, you just decide that you’ve gotta fix something, and you’re not going to rest until you’ve won a battle of wits and wills against a piece of plastic. Most of the time, though, you don’t have 80,000 people watching you do it. Today, Twitch star Ludwig Ahgren, trapped in the purgatorial “final” hour of…
By Nathan Grayson Published March 31, 2021 -
CultureWind Waker Speedrunners Finally Found A Way To Skip Cutscenes
The latest trick in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker speedrunning has the potential to do away with the game’s previously unskippable cutscenes entirely. Much to the chagrin of speedrunners, Wind Waker has a few super-long cutscenes. Not Kojima long, mind, but long enough to be annoying if you’re repeatedly playing the game from…
By Ian Walker Published March 31, 2021
