Culture

Final Fantasy XV Could Have Had A Much Better Villain

There are a lot of things I love about Final Fantasy XV. Its tale of brotherhood is bar none and representative of some of the best “it’s the little things” storytelling I’ve ever experienced in a video game. But there are, of course, elements I don’t like. In particular, the game’s villain. Final Fantasy XV’s…

Someone Already Sold The Movie Rights To An Unpublished GameStonk Book

Someone is already writing a book on the saga that has been GameStop’s stocks, which in turn is already primed to become a movie. It’s barely been a week. Deadline reported yesterday that Ben Mezrich, whose 2009 book about Facebook’s founding, The Accidental Billionaires, became the David Fincher-directed biopic The Social Network the following year,…

So, I May Have Made A Mistake In Mass Effect 2

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I did everything right in Mass Effect 2. I slapped armor plating on the Normandy and equipped it with a shield. I gave it a big fucking cannon. I even tackled (most of) the game’s loyalty missions. I was ready for the final battle, and went through the…

PlayStation Studios’ First Xbox Game Comes Out In April

As part of the new multi-year deal made between Major League Baseball and Sony back in late 2019, long running PlayStation-exclusive baseball game MLB The Show is no longer PlayStation-exclusive as of April 20. That’s when Sony releases an Xbox game with a PlayStation logo on the cover. Weird. For years now Xbox owners have…

Report: Nintendo Gives Non-Answer When Asked About New Switch Model

Despite years of rumors and reports indicating that upgraded Switch hardware is in the works for 2021, Nintendo continues to dance around the question of a Switch Pro. During a quarterly earnings report Q&A earlier today, company president Shuntaro Furukawa said there were no plans to announce a new Switch model anytime soon. Nintendo had…

Yakuza: Like A Dragon Is Really Into Peking Duck

Yakuza: Like A Dragon is many things: a satire, a melodrama, a business/real estate simulator, and a dungeon-based RPG. It is also a 60-hour public service announcement for Peking duck. Growing up in New York as a second-generation Cantonese-American, I rarely ate Peking duck. Instead, I ate Cantonese roasted duck, which is filled with a…

The Week In Games: Ah-hooooo, Werewolf: The Apocalypse

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood comes out later this week for all the consoles and PC. It stars a werewolf. You probably guessed that. Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is a long name. You probably wouldn’t be able to say it all before a werewolf transformed before you and attacked. Give it a shot during…

Namco’s Critical Velocity OST Is Another Jazzy PlayStation 2 Gem

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s ongoing hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today let’s check out a combo of two of my favorite things: PlayStation 2 B-titles and jazz fusion. When I was conducting my deep dive into the PlayStation 2 library early last year I managed to…

Well, Nintendo Is Still Doing Incredible

Today, Nintendo released its financials for the nine-month period ending December 31, 2019. Once again, the company posted some truly staggering figures. Net sales were up 37.3 percent year on year, while operating profit increased an eye-watering 98.2 percent, doubling last year’s results and reaching nearly $5 billion. During the same period, Nintendo sold 24.1…

Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator 2 Will Put “Millions” Of Characters On The Screen

Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator could do some very cool things with thousands of soldiers/ducks/zombies on the battlefield at once. Its upcoming sequel has only one place it can go to push the envelope. Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator 2, due sometime in the fall for the PC, does all the stuff the original did, like a…

A Four-Year-Old Muslim Boy Was Reported To A Terrorist Watchdog For Talking About Fortnite

The Guardian reportsthat the British government’s Prevent system, a community terrorism watchdog brimming with baked-in racism, once received a tip about a four-year-old boy who was overheard talking about Fortnite, which resulted in police turning up at the family’s home. The boy was reported in 2019, having been overheard after school saying his father had…

Enormous Dark Souls Mod Adds Halo’s Blood Gulch, Completely Changes Multiplayer

Modder InfernoPlus,the same guy who turned Mario into a battle royale game, has done wonders with Dark Souls, releasing an ambitious mod that transforms the game’s multiplayer and turns the map into something decidedly less horrific. Dark Souls: Remastest is “a multiplayer focused mod for Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition that adds a variety…

Good Night

And sweet dreams. (Please keep watching the video after the original horror, as it shows how the costume was put together and filmed, which is interesting, but also unsettling in its own ways)

Track: Aloo Gobi | Artist: Weezer | Album: OK Human

A First-Person Shooter Where You Can Fire 8 Guns At Once

One gun in a shooter is boring. Two guns are a bit more interesting, but still nothing new. Three? You got my attention. Four? Five? Eight?! Whoa… Now we’re talking. As spotted by Warp Door, RAYKA is a small and free first-person shooter made by Voxel for the recently ended 9th Kajam game jam event.…

‘Shop Contest: It’s Never Too Late For The Tall Lady

I resisted the siren’s call one week. But this week I can’t again. We need to do a tall lady from Resident Evil Village contest. It has to happen. Your challenge this week: Add the Tall Lady to more video games. This is a video game blog, at least that’s what they keep telling me.…

Sunday Comics: Loves To Party

Hello! It’s time for Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published Jan. 25. Read more of Corpse Run Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published Jan. 25. Read more of Awkward Zombie Clueless Hero by…

‘Shop Contest: Muncher, Winners!

Last week we met Muncher, a new ghost from the upcoming Ghostbusters film. He’s a big jolly-looking blue blob. But the internet was all obsessed with tall vampire ladies and Bernie Sanders, as usual, so Muncher got overlooked. But not around these parts! Our winning image this week comes from EpicTacoSam who creates the ultimate…

That’s A Big Horse

After a quick break, Snapshots is back! This week we have some very colorful photos from a wide selection of games including Horizon Zero Dawn, Immortals, God of War, Control, and more! This big horse is a fraud! It’s just an optical illusion. I’m very sorry. Kotaku Snapshots is a weekly look at some of…

Here’s A Full Playthrough Of That Canceled GoldenEye 007 XBLA Remake

Back in the day, Rare was working on a remake of their popular N64 shooter GoldenEye 007. It was almost done, but due to some rights issues, the game was canned. Over the years footage and screenshots have leaked, but now we have a full 4k/60 FPS longplay to see what might have been. Like…