Culture

How Speedrunners Can Now Beat Ocarina of Time In Under Eight Minutes

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of the most beloved games of all time, has always had a devoted community of speedrunners—people who try to complete the game as quickly as humanly possible. Ocarina of Time, released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, usually takes around 20-30 hours to finish. Using bugs and…

I Like One Of Xbox’s Two New Controller Colors

Look at this beautiful piece of gaming equipment. Microsoft calls it Phantom Magenta, but we’re calling it “purple.” Not the Atomic Purple of Nintendo fame, but a richer, more mature hue. I want to uncork it and drink deeply from it’s hand oil-caked reservoirs. It’s up for preorder today, along with a white camouflage number…

Outriders Is Like Destiny Mixed With Heart Of Darkness

Outriders’ art makes it seem like a grittier rip-off of Destiny, but having played the game for a couple hours, it feels more like Gears of War mixed with Mass Effect. It occasionally reminded me of a James Cameron sizzle reel: the bucolic paradise of Avatar giving way to the bloody horror of Aliens occasionally…

Marvel’s Next Mobile Game Is An All-Star Open-World RPG

Revealed during the “Marvel Mystery Panel” at PAX East Sunday afternoon, Marvel Future Revolution is an open-world role-playing game featuring iconic characters in all sorts of funky outfits. Easy, Marvel and Netmarble, some of us still haven’t gotten over the death of Marvel Heroes. Marvel Future Revolution is the follow-up to Netmarble’s successful action RPG…

Track: Ikkyu-san | Artist: Wednesday Campanella | Album: Superman

A Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo Is Out Now

You’ve read our impressions of Final Fantasy VII’s remake, sure, but if you want to try out (part of) it for yourself, good news: as of right now, a demo is available on the PlayStation Store. It’s available worldwide, and covers “the opening chapter from the game, and the events of the iconic Mako Reactor…

Seattle’s Big Comic Con Is Going Ahead, Despite Coronavirus Fears [Update: Postponed Until Summer]

Despite there currently being a reported 13 cases of coronavirus in Washington State, and two deaths, the organisers of the Emerald City Comic-Con have pledged to go ahead with the show, which is due to be held March 12-15 at the Washington State Convention Center. Updated: 3/6/20, 1:56 p.m. ET: The organizers of the Emerald…

Oni 1, Reporting In

Victoria Zavershinskaya is an artist based in Russia who works for 1C Studios, creators of the IL2-2 Sturmovik series. You can see more of Victoria’s stuffat her ArtStation page

FIFA 20 Pros Play Play Rock, Paper, Scissors To Decide Winner After Server Problems

Last week, EA’s servers were having some pretty serious problems. That impacted regular players, sure, but also pros trying to play international tournaments. At one point things got so bad for FIFA players that they resorted to playing Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide winners. As Polygon reported, amidst other players being unable to connect to play…

Dead or Alive 6 Is Charging Players To Change Hair Colour

Well, here’s some bullshit: fighting game Dead or Alive 6 has, in a recent update, introduced a new form of microtransaction, in which players are charged real money to change a character’s hair colour. Then charged again to change it back. The move went live in the recent 1.60 update, whose big deal was that…

The Week In Games: I Choose You, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon!

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX releases this week for Switch. A remake of the beloved 2005 Rescue Team games, this new Pokemon game is the biggest release in a rather quiet week. I love the art style for this remake. It looks so nice. Some of the artwork created for this game could easily…

Track: Queen Of The Rodeo | Artist: Orville Peck | Album: Pony 

‘Shop Contest: Pokemon Of The Year

As has been documented many, many times on this very website, I don’t know much about Pokemon. The games, the shows, the movies, the creatures. But even with my limited knowledge of Pokemon, it seems odd that Greninja is the Pokemon Of The Year. Your challenge this week: Make some images featuring the Pokemon Of…

Developers And Publishers Say Google Isn’t Offering Them Enough Money To Bring Their Games To Stadia

Google Stadia hasn’t been a huge success. One big reason is the lack of games. And it seems the reason Stadia’s library of software is so small is that Google isn’t willing to spend the money to get more games on the platform.  As reported by Business Insider, many developers have explained that one of…

Sunday Comics: Totally Hidden

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 Feb. 27. Read more of Corpse Run Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Originally published Feb. 24. Read more of Awkward Zombie Clueless Hero…

‘Shop Contest: Tom Nook On Vacation, Winners!

Vacations! We all want one, but most of us can’t really take one. Animal Crossing’s Tom Nook, on the other hand, has plenty of bells to spend on some rest and relaxation. So I asked you fine folks to create some images of what he did on his long vacation. Our winning image this week…

Bad Kitty!

This week on Snapshots, some Spider-Men, some Stormtroopers, a cool collection of feathers, a gold mask, some shoes in a maze and one bad kitty. And more! I never noticed those shoes in the Ashtray Maze in Control. Which is wild. I wonder what other details I missed in that game? I guess I’ll have…

To Celebrate Leap Day, All The Daily Challenges In Red Dead Online Involve Jumping

I forgot today was Leap Day. But the folks over at Rockstar Games didn’t and decided to have some fun by making all the daily challenges in Red Dead Online about jumping. As pointed out by Reddit user HoneyNoots, it seems someone at Rockstar is a big fan of Leap Day. All of the daily…

Malamar Has The Strongest Hypnotic Powers Of Any Pokemon (And Might Be Evil)

Every Pokemon is interesting and worth talking about. I don’t play a ton of Pokemon, but I do enjoy the universe and I love learning more about the creatures in it. So, Here’s Another Pokemon! It’s Malamar! Malamar Details Type: Dark/Psychic Average Height: 4′ 11″ Average Weight: 103.6 lbs. First Added In Generation VI I’ve…

Smoosh

Hello! This week we fall asleep while playing games, learn about all the companies skipping GDC, ask how Greninja won Pokemon Of The Year, check out the new GTA Online DLC, fight some Ewoks and crush a Furby. Great Kotaku Content From The Past Week Democracy was a mistake. I fell asleep once playing Far…