Culture

Bowser’s Fury Co-Op Sucks, But Super Mario 3D World’s Is Amazing

Nintendo’s first big release of 2021, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, packages together a re-release of a seven-year-old game alongside a new, yet bite-sized, adventure. The main draw is the latter, which offers a showcase of what an open-world Mario game could be. What’s more, Bowser’s Fury technically has a couch co-op mode.…

Valve Bans ‘Very Positive’ Developer For Trying To Trick Steam Users

Emoji Evolution is a puzzle game on Steam about combining weird symbols. Or at least it was: Valve recently removed it from the storefront and banned its creator’s developer account after apparently discovering how they were exploiting Steam’s layout to try to trick people into playing the game. “Valve has banned my developer account due…

No Man’s Sky Players Can Now Tame, Breed, And Train Alien Creatures

Showing no sign of slowing down after a 2020 filled with game-changing updates, Hello Games starts off the fifth year of No Man’s Sky with the “Companions” update, which gives players the ability to befriend procedurally-generated alien creatures, turning them into loyal universe-exploring companions. After last year’s mech, living ships, and space horror updates, I…

Say Whatcha Wanna About Final Fantasy XIII, You Can’t Deny Its Amazing Soundtrack

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s ongoing hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re continuing to indulge my terminal case of Final Fantasy brain with a deep dive into Final Fantasy XIII’s mold-breaking soundtrack. I’m not here to discuss the merits of Final Fantasy XIII (playlist / longplay / VGMdb) itself,…

Let’s Compare The Nier Replicant Remaster To The Original

To mark the game’s tenth anniversary, a Nier Replicant remaster was announced for the PS4, Xbox One, and Steam. Let’s see how the game, so far, stacks up against the PlayStation 3 original. While there could be slight differences in the final retail version, the comparison shows that the remaster has undergone a good polish…

Track: No Longer | Artist: YeYe X Moto Kawabe | Album: No Longer (single) 

New Microsoft Program Could Help Devs Make Games More Accessible

Microsoft is starting a new program that will allow developers to send in Xbox and PC games to be evaluated by a team of accessibility experts, the company announced today. “Where issues are found, they are noted with reproduction steps, screenshots, and other information to help the developer understand what aspect of a given experience…

Metal Gear Solid’s Board Game Has Been Cancelled

IDW was supposed to be releasing Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game later this year, but after a succession of delays the company has decided to walk away from the project instead. As Dicebreaker report, after delaying the game from “early 2019″ to “summer 2020″ and then “2021″, IDW felt they needed to make even…

Valve & Netflix Are Making A DOTA Anime

Sure, why not? Dragon’s Blood is an upcoming anime series that is “exploring the Dota universe like never before.” It’ll be out on March 25, and as the trailer below says, the series has been made, “in collaboration with Valve.” This is cool for DOTA fans, I guess? Though it’s also a damn shame Valve’s…

Stan LePard, Composer On Games Like Halo Reach & Guild Wars 2, Has Died

Stan LePard, a veteran composer who has worked in the video game business since 1994, died last week. News of his death was publicly announced by his friend and fellow composer Maclaine Diemer, who says LePard, “passed away unexpectedly”. LePard contributed to the score on all kinds of games, including the Halo series (ODST, Reach),…

The ‘All Your Base Are Belong To Us’ Video Is Now 20 Years Old

The early aughts were a weird time. George H. W. Bush’s loser son somehow became president, god-awful bands like Crazy Town and Staind had songs on the Billboard Hot 100, and we made do with, like, one meme a year. In 2001 that meme was “All Your Base,” a Newgrounds video that ironically celebrated the…

Friendship Ended with Azeroth, Now Final Fantasy XIV Is My Best Friend

I’ve done it. I’ve finally begun my journey with Final Fantasy XIV, after six years of aborted attempts I made it through the still strangely unfriendly onboarding process and am now roaming free in the world of Eorzea. This was a long time coming. This previously glaring omission in my Final Fantasy record lead to…

Stadia Leadership Praised Development Studios For ‘Great Progress’ Just One Week Before Laying Them All Off

Developers at Google’s recently formed game studios were shocked February 1 when they were notified that the studios would be shut down, according to four sources with knowledge of what transpired. Just the week prior, Google Stadia vice president and general manager Phil Harrison sent an email to staff lauding the “great progress” its studios…

Silent Hill Creator Returning To Horror With New Studio’s First Game

Keiichiro Toyama, creator of the Silent Hill, Siren, and Gravity Rush series, left Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2020 to open his own company, Bokeh Game Studio. Now, he’s ready to pull the curtain back a bit on its first project, which he says is inspired by his past as a horror game designer. In a…

Marvel’s Avengers Receives Hawkeye, Next-Gen Versions On March 18

The Avengers can’t stop assembling. Clint Barton—also known as Hawkeye, or the “Really? Him?” Avenger—is coming to Marvel’s Avengers on March 18, alongside dedicated next-gen versions of the game. Marvel’s Avengers was initially planned for release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S alongside the launch of the new consoles. Three weeks before…

Amazon’s New World MMO Delayed Again, Now Due August 31

It's going to take the new frontier a bit longer to open

Thank God, Blaseball Returns On March 1

The cultural event of Blaseball returns on March 1, developer The Game Band announced today. Blaseball is an absurdist baseball simulator that took the weirder corners of the internet by storm last year. It spawned a passionate community that contributed heavily to its complex lore—both through in-game voting and largely unofficial world-building—and was a great…

Today’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Update Finally Adds Those Mysterious Skills

Last month, three skills mysteriously showed up in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but only if you disconnected your console from the internet. Now, those skills are officially available, included in the game’s 1.1.2 patch, out today for all platforms. The massive 1.1.2 update (it’s 10GB on PlayStation 4, 19.5GB on Xbox Series X and S) adds…

Microsoft Announces The All-New Xbox Wireless Headset

Behold the new official Xbox Wireless Headset, a sleek and stylish-looking set of ear cups packed with fancy features like voice isolation and supporting spatial audio technology like Windows Sonic, Dolby Atmos, and DTS Headphone: X. It’s even got auto-mute, which can be toggled on or off but should probably just be left on. On…

There’s A Nintendo Direct Tomorrow, Finally

Earlier today, Nintendo announced their first Nintendo Direct of 2021 will take place tomorrow at 5 p.m. ET. According to Nintendo, the showcase will run a beefy 50 minutes and feature news on already available games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as well as new games coming to the Switch in the first half of…