Culture

On Your Marks

Denis Melnychenko is an artist from Ukraine. You can see more of Denis’ stuffat his ArtStation page

Nintendo Nerfs Steve’s Meat

Steve Minecraft, the latest addition to the ever-growing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster, has been nerfed. He’s lost his mojo, so to speak. When Steve joined Super Smash Bros. Ultimate last week, players were surprised to see him holding a piece of grilled meat in a very…let’s say provocative position. So provocative that we here…

EA Accused Of Running “Unlicensed, Illegal Gaming System”

A pair of Canadians have filed a class action lawsuit against Electronic Arts, alleging that the company’s use of loot boxes violates the country’s Criminal Code. As The Patch Notes report, the civil action has been instigated by Mark Sutherland, who bought some stuff in Madden, and Shawn Moore, who did likewise in NHL. The…

NBA 2K Just Keeps Putting Unskippable Ads In A $60 Video Game

One of the many shitty things about the NBA 2K series is the fact that, for the last few years, there have been unskippable ads that sometimes load before a game. This year is no exception. The ads usually turn up as part of a pre-game video, and while in previous years they’ve been for…

Cynthia Harrell, The Woman Who Sang ‘Snake Eater,’ Is Ready To Be Heard Again

Her powerful vocals suffuse “Snake Eater” with such gravitas, elevating it from a simple song on a video game soundtrack.

Doom Eternal Patch Adds Hidden Reference To Popular VTuber

Inugami Korone is a lot of things. She’s a cute anime girl. She’s a dog. She’s one of the most popular VTubers—a subset of YouTube personalities who stream with virtual avatars—on the internet. And now, she’s an Easter egg in Doom Eternal After applying the most recent Doom Eternal patch, players can find a peculiar…

Ubisoft Unlocks Over 1,000 Club Rewards As Uplay Phases Out

Ubisoft has announced that its Ubisoft Club and Uplay services will be coalescing under a single banner on October 29 as Ubisoft Connect. As several older games won’t be making the transition, however, the publisher has decided to unlock over 1,000 Club rewards that will no longer be accessible under the new program. “Some of…

Fortnite‘s Latest Patch Makes The Game Smaller

Fortnite’s patch 14.40 arrived today, bringing this year’s Halloween event and drastically reducing the game’s file size. According to the Fortnite Status Twitter account, the 14.40 patch is “larger than normal on PC (approx. 27 GB). This is to make optimizations on PC resulting in a massively reduced Fortnite file size (over 60 GB smaller),…

What The Hell Is The Atari Mini PONG Jr.?

Coming this holiday season from arcade amusement company UNIS Technology, and the hollow, spider-infested shell of Atari, is the Mini PONG Jr.—an electronic device that is both Mini and Jr. at the same time, and features a PONG-like game for up to two players. There’s no price or release date for the Atari Mini PONG…

If I Die In Space Please Play The Among Us Theme At My Funeral

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Prepare yourself, things are about to get spooky. Today’s soundtrack comes from the recently exploded-in-popularity murder-mystery party game Among Us There’s really only one extended piece of music in Among Us, and it’s the main HQ…

Track: Wasurerarenaino | Artist: Sakanaction | Album: 834.194

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Streams On Twitch With Hasan Piker And Pokimane, Draws Over 430,000 Viewers

It began on Monday with a simple question: “Anyone want to play Among Us with me on Twitch to get out the vote?” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked on Twitter, and nearly every even vaguely left-leaning streamer on Twitch answered. Mere hours later, AOC had a verified Twitch channel with hundreds of thousands of followers. Tuesday…

An Afternoon Stroll

Robin Tran is an artist at Massive, the Ubisoft studio behind games like World in Conflict and The Division You can see more of Robin’s stuff at his ArtStation page

Civilization VI Gets A New Mode That Sounds A Lot Like Sid Meier’s Classic Pirates! Game

Back in the 1980s, Civilization co-creator Sid Meier released a game that in some ways is his best ever: Pirates!. Now, a new game mode for Civilization VI is paying homage to it in a very cool and unexpected way. If you’ve never played Pirates, or one of its many remakes, here’s how I’ve written…

Control Ultimate Edition Doesn’t Quite Fit On Its Xbox One Disc

505 Games has clarified that the physical version of Control Ultimate Edition, released today, has a one-time internet connection requirement on Xbox One to download everything in the expanded package. “Control Ultimate Edition, including all the latest expansions, is over 50 GB, so we’re unable to fit everything on the Xbox disc,” 505 Games wrote.…

Twitch DMCA Purge Deletes Thousands Of Streamers’ Videos

It’s finally happening: Twitch is taking action against copyrighted music—long a norm among streamers—in response to music industry pressure. Today, hundreds of streamers received emails from the company stating that videos or clips in their back catalogues had run afoul of copyright rules, resulting in deletion. This, it seems, is just the beginning. Something similar…

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be streaming Among Us live on Twitch tonight at 9pm, alongside HasanAbi and Pokimane, on her new channel

EVE Online‘s Alien Invasion Is Finally Over

EVE’s long-running alien invasion has come to an end. Over the last few months, the aliens known as Triglavians have taken over many of the game’s star systems, with the help of some players. The mysterious forces’ ultimate goal was not known until the launch of the Phoenix Quadrant last week, when 27 of those…

Stadia Is Getting A Pac-Man Battle Royale Game

The battle royale train apparently hasn’t run out of steam yet, as now Pac-Man is jumping aboard. Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle is a spin-off of the classic arcade series in which players will try to survive an all-you-can-eat buffet of death. Announced during a brief Stadia presentation today, the 64-player competitive game will be coming…

Players Discover Luigi Easter Egg In Super Mario Bros. 35

It turns out there’s a way to unlock 8-bit Luigi in Super Mario Bros. 35 after grinding through a bunch of the game, because it’s always the Year of Luigi somewhere. It’s unclear who was the first person to discover Mario’s brother in the battle royale game, but players started to take note after Tetris…