Culture

Sorry, That PS5 Is A Cake

Last night, streaming platform Twitch held the first Chat Choice Awards, allowing viewers to vote for their favorite games live. It also teased the audience with what appeared to be a PlayStation 5, which sat in the background for two hours before finally being revealed to be an exceptionally large, elaborate cake. The teasing started…

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Replaces Archaic Subway Tokens With Soon-To-Be-Archaic MetroCards

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, out today for PC, PlayStation4, and Xbox One, is a tour de force—a rare redux that modernizes the original games while staying true to what made them such hallmarks in the first place. The remaster has also, finally, after decades, brought Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 into… the early ‘90s?…

Twitch Sings Is Shutting Down On January 1

Today Twitch announced that its online karaoke game, Twitch Sings, will be shutting down on January 1, 2021. Many in the community were caught off guard by the announcement and its details, which seems to be part of a larger problem Twitch has with music licensing. Twitch Sings was co-developed by Twitch and Rock Band…

Streamers Upset At Twitch For Fixing Bug That Actually Gave Fans A Good Deal

For the past handful of years, Twitch has run an annual “Subtember” promotion that lets viewers subscribe to streamers’ channels at a discounted rate. The longer they opt to subscribe for, the bigger the discount on the first month of a new subscription. This year, it seemed like Twitch had sweetened the deal in a…

I Really Need A New Chair

This was never part of the plan, but it’s 2020 and here I sit. I’ve heard it all: “That can’t be comfortable,” “You’ll ruin your back,” “Why the hell are you doing this to yourself,” “It’s a crime against god.” And of course it’s all true. I work eight, nine, sometimes 10 hours a day…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

Let’s be honest. The weekend is for sleeping as much as possible while still doing enough to have something interesting to talk about on Monday. Reading books. Watching television. Maybe even playing some of them video games. Along with my ongoing playthrough of Marvel’s Avengers, now in multiplayer, my rare waking moments this weekend will…

Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising Comes Out This Year, According To Leaked Xbox Listing

Based on a now-deleted Xbox listing that went live overnight, it looks like Immortals Fenyx Rising, formerly known as Gods & Monsters, will be out on December 3 of this year. The listing, screenshots of which were shared online by Twitter user Wario64, shows new art for the game, alongside its new title, which Ubisoft…

The Witcher 3 Is Getting Ported To PS5 And Xbox Series X

The beloved 2015 role-playing game The Witcher 3 will get a next-gen port that includes faster loading times, development studio CD Projekt Red announced this morning. The expansive open-world RPG has no release date, but, come on, this is the next-gen where nothing has release dates, anyway. In its announcement, CD Projekt notes that the…

Pilotwings’ Mellow Jazz Showed SNES Had A Sound All Its Own

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today our ears will take flight with one of the very first soundtracks composed for the Super Nintendo. It was not a banger. Pilotwings (longplay) was one of the very first games for the Super…

Track: Drive-In Saturday (Live) | Artist: David Bowie | Album: Something In The Air

Welcome To China Town

Liang Mark is an artist from China who has worked for companies like Gameloft. You can see more of Liang’s stuff at his ArtStation page

Oh Man, Look At Nike’s “Doraemon” Dunks

Dropping later this month—or maybe even later this week—this upcoming colourway of Nike’s resurgent Dunk line has been dubbed the “Doraemon”. It’s not an official licensed deal between Nike and the blue cat, hence the lack of overt branding, but thenlike Nike’s “Gundam” Air Max 98, it doesn’t need to be when the homage is…

Nearly Every Super Mario Game Posing For A Family Photo

In case you’ve ever wanted to see it, here is every major game from the Super Mario series (and some spin-offs), all gathered together for a beautiful group shot. So yes, that’s why Super Mario RPG and Super Mario Kart aren’t there, which despite the names aren’t members of the Super Mario platforming family. (It…

Skullgirls Developer Lays Off Everyone Who Hadn’t Already Quit

Lab Zero Games’ controversial owner Mike “Mike Z” Zaimont fired the studio’s entire staff last week following a series of high-profile departures, leaving several full-time employees and contract workers scrambling for support. News of these mass layoffs became public yesterday thanks to former Lab Zero artist Jonathan “Persona” Kim, who helped promote fellow departee Marial…

Valorant Temporarily Jettisons Omen After Accidentally Making Him Godlike

Team-based shooters like Valorant regularly add new heroes, but they’re not generally in the business of banishing them. Unfortunately, after a recent update, Valorant’s shadow-dwelling Reaper riff, Omen, transcended the game’s figurative and literal boundaries, which forced Riot to give him the (temporary) boot. This week, a Valorant patch not intended to make Omen briefly…

Nintendo Just Threw Super Mario Galaxy 2 Down The Memory Hole

One of the best mainline Mario games ever was nowhere to be found during today’s Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Direct Nintendo celebrated 35 years of Super Mario Bros. today by announcing that a number of the most beloved games in the series would finally make their way onto Switch, including Super Mario All-Stars, Super…

Halo 3 Mod Turns Everybody Into Rats

Halo 3 has a rat. It looks like what would happen if you genetically modified a potato to give it legs. So of course, the rat is beloved by the Halo community. Now, thanks to the magic of modding, you can play Halo 3 as the Halo 3 rat. Originally just a background prop in…

Serious Sam 4 Devs Dropped ‘Planet Badass’ Subtitle Because It Wouldn’t Make Sense In Other Languages

The latest installment of the tongue-in-cheek Serious Sam franchise was first announced in 2018. While the game was known then as Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass, it will arrive on PC and Stadia later this month without the subtitle. Why this happened is different depending on who you ask. According to a comment on the…

School’s Out In Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 Due To Covid-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned schools into a very different place, with numerous countries closing schools or adding new safety measures and rules for children and teachers. These changes are a part of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2’s reimagined School level. The new Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game, out tomorrow, takes all the levels from…

Nintendo’s New Mario Games Have A Purchase-By Deadline, And It Sucks

No one does things more strangely than Nintendo. In an ambush Mario Direct this morning, the 35th birthday of the world’s worst plumber was celebrated with all manner of surprise announcements. The most surprising feature of all being that two of the products would be time limited. Both the triple-pack of remastered Super Mario 3D…