Culture

Speedrunner Beats PS5 Demon’s Souls In Less Than 20 Minutes

It took me 20 hours to beat the Demon’s Souls remake on PlayStation 5, but speedrunners have already discovered a massive bug that lets them beat it in less than 20 minutes. The set-up, known as “wrong-warping” or “force quit,” takes some explanation. Demon’s Souls is made up of checkpoints known as archstones, which are…

Head Of Xbox Calls Out Toxic, Console War ‘Tribalism’

Xbox boss Phil Spencer said in a new interview that if there was anything that could make him quit the video game industry altogether, it would be the ongoing toxic fandom around consoles. Spencer discussed a number of subjects with Verge Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel on the latest episode of the Decoder podcast, from why Microsoft…

Bastion Might Be The Bad Place In World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

It’s World of Warcraft: Shadowlands week and while some players have already reached max level, most of us are still puttering around Bastion taking in all the sights and sounds of Blue Man Group: The Zone. Though myself–intrepid Shadowlands correspondent Ash Parrish—and seasoned WoW veteran Mike Fahey are still firmly in camp “Puttering Around,” we’ve…

Is Spider-Man: Miles Morales Better Than 2018’s Spider-Man?

Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the new PlayStation superhero game from Insomniac, is pretty damn good.

Red Dead Online Will Be A Standalone Game

Rockstar will start selling Red Dead Redemption 2‘s online mode as a standalone game for $5 starting December 1. “For the first time, new players who do not already own Red Dead Redemption 2 can experience everything Red Dead Online has to offer, including access to all future content updates,” Rockstar announced on the game’s…

Here’s December 2020’s Xbox Live Games With Gold

The Xbox Series S and X might be new, but Games with Gold marches on. As always, these games are only “free” if you have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription. December’s Games with Gold are: Xbox X/S and Xbox One The Raven Remastered (December 1-31) Bleed 2 (December 16-January 15) Xbox 360 (compatible with newer…

Fortnite‘s Getting A Monthly Subscription Service

Starting next week with Chapter 2, Season 5, Fortnite will get a monthly subscription service for cosmetics and currency. Subscribers will get the latest battle pass, and each month they’ll get 1,000 V-Bucks and some cosmetics. The $11.99 subscription, called Fortnite Crew, was announced this morning. In addition to the battle pass, each month players…

Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There With The Persona 5 Soundtrack

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re gonna steal your heart with some tunes from the Persona 5 soundtrack. I’d never played a Persona game before Persona 5 (playlist / longplay / VGMdb). The game came highly recommended by friends, so…

Track: Caroline | Artist: Arlo Parks | Album: Collapsed In Sunbeams

Super Mario Bros. 3 Cartridge Sells For $156,000

A rare copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 for NES is the new king of video game auctions, selling last Friday for an incredible $156,000. While a lot of that price is wrapped up in the sealed game’s near-perfect quality grading, this copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 also comes from an early production run…

Grand Theft Auto V Has Outlasted An Entire Console Generation

It’s 2020, and one of the biggest video games on the planet is Grand Theft Auto V. In 2021, Rockstar will be releasing an “expanded and enhanced” version of the game for next-gen consoles. Grand Theft Auto V, in case you forget, was first released on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in September 2013. It…

Soccer Superstars Unaware How FIFA Licensing Works

Earlier today, Sweden’s undying demigod Zlatan Ibrahimović, perhaps for the first time ever, realised that his likeness was being used in video games without his explicit permission. And didn’t like it. His sudden realisation came of course on Twitter, where Zlatan wondered aloud who had actually given EA Sports permission to use his likeness in…

I’m Suddenly Very Interested In Immortals Fenyx Rising’s Expansions

I am not very surprised when Ubisoft announces that one of its big games will get piles of post-release expansions. It’s news when they don’t. But I am surprised at how interesting and unusual the recently announced expansions for next month’s Immortals Fenyx Rising seem to be. The first one, “A New God,” sounds like…

Overwatch League Shares Roadmap For 2021 Season

It’s going to be a long winter as we wait for the Overwatch League to return in 2021. But to tide us over, the league released a video outlining some of the plans Blizzard has for this year’s off season and the 2021 season in general. The video, narrated by VP of Overwatch Esports Jon…

RIP To Assassin’s Creed‘s Best NPC, A Real One

In gargantuan games full of quests and characters, it’s hard for any single moment to really stand out. Ubisoft has made a career out of this, with activity-dotted landscapes that lull you into a sort of dreamy adventure haze; when you come to, you know that something happened, but you’d be hard pressed to pick…

Fans Think This Strange Road In Virginia Is Connected To GTA 6

Middle Mountain Trail is a quiet dirt road located in the middle of nowhere in Virginia, with nothing but trees surrounding it. But, according to some Grand Theft Auto fans, it might be a clue connected to GTA VI, the long-rumored sequel to one of the best selling games of all time. Late last week,…

Two Weeks After Launch, Xbox Series X’s Quick Resume Feature Isn’t Working Great

For several days after the launch of the new Xbox Series X and S, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla supported the consoles’ best new feature, Quick Resume. Today, that no longer appears to be the case, another sign that something is awry with what was supposed to be a key next-gen Xbox perk. For those who don’t…

All The Big Games Coming Out In Fall 2020

It’s fall and not just any fall. It’s election year fall. It’s two brand-new video game consoles fall. It’s tentatively stepping outside to see if everything is okay fall. We’d probably be better off staying inside baking pies and playing video games. Fortunately, there are plenty of games on the way. As of this writing,…

The World Ends With You Is Finally Getting A Sequel

After a long drought spent wondering when Square Enix would show a crumb of attention to fans of their 2007 action RPG hit, The World Ends With You is finally getting a sequel. Announced via YouTube, NEO: The World Ends With You returns to the streets of Shibuya featuring all new protagonists and a fully…

Capcom’s Latest Retro Console Is So Adorable

Recently listed on Amazon Japan (via Siliconera) with a release date of December 1, Capcom’s Retro Station is a cute-as-a-button machine with five Street Fighter and five Mega Man games built-in. According to the Amazon Japan listing, the Retro Station is a showcase for two of Capcom’s more venerable series. There’s Street Fighter II, Street…