Culture

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

Final Fantasy XIV’s Glorious Rak’tika Greatwood Song Takes Me Back In An Instant

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we take shelter from Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers’ everlasting daylight under the canopy of twisted trees in the Rak’tika Greatwood. Under the watchful eye and skillful ear of sound director Masayoshi Soken (interview), hundreds of…

Track: New World Coming (darkDARK Remix) | Artist: Nina Simone | Album: New World Coming 

Gone Fishin’

Khan Kotjan is a freelance artist from Poland. You can see more of Kotjan’s stuff at their ArtStation page

Nintendo Goes After Adult TikTok Influencer Over Pokémon Branding

Pokeprincxss, a TikTok user with 1.9 million followers, has been forced to change her name and pay back some of her earnings after Nintendo issued a cease and desist. As first reported by Gamerant, Pokeprincxss—now known as Digitalprincxss—was recently contacted by Nintendo not long after her attempts to trademark her own username. She was told…

Football Player Changes His Name To “Goku”

Joan Román, a 27 year-old footballer formerly on the books at both Manchester City and Barcelona, has officially changed his name to Goku. Yes, like Dragon Ball Goku, who currently plays in Poland for Miedź Legnica, seems to have made the change a few weeks back, but given the relative obscurity of the league he’s…

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Take On Gods In Smite’s Latest Battle Pass

In action MOBA Smite, gods and creatures from various mythological pantheons battle each other in an all-out war for divine supremacy. Next month, the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles join that battle. I’m sure they’ll do just fine against Odin, Bastet, King Arthur, and Cthulhu. Partnering once more with Nickelodeon, who lent developer Hi-Rez Studios…

Fall Guys’ Crossover With Sonic The Hedgehog Is, Uh, Something Else

Despite the horrorshow that’s supposedly hiding beneath its contestants’ bean-shaped facades, Fall Guys is a pretty cute game with some neat costumes. I’m not quite sure how I feel about the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog crossover, though. Fall Guys will get a Sonic-themed costume on October 14, Mediatonic and Sega announced during a joint stream…

Crackdown 2 Developer Is Now Called Rockstar Dundee

According to documents filed on the UK’s Companies House registrar, Crackdown 2 developer Ruffian Games is now operating as Rockstar Dundee and has become part of the large stable of worldwide Rockstar studios. As first reported by TheGamer, Ruffian Games became Rockstar Dundee on October 6, with Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive, taking ownership of…