Culture

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…

I Can’t Stop Playing Picross, Send Help

I’m going to make this quick so I can get back to the game that’s making me write this in the first place: Picross has taken over my life. Mario’s Super Picross (pronounced PIE-cross) is a free puzzle game on the Super Nintendo service available to all Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. (Yes, I know the…

Genshin Impact‘s Sidekick Is Annoying As Hell, But Also Good

When I first met Genshin Impact’s mascot character, Paimon, I had serious second thoughts about playing any more of the game. This was an issue, because she first shows up approximately two minutes after the game begins. Many things about Genshin Impact, the free-to-play Breath of the Wild-inspired JRPG that’s blown the absolute heck up…

Master Chief Collection Is Getting Upgraded To Play At 120 FPS On Xbox Series X/S

Halo fans on console will finally get to see Master Chief at double the frames per second when Halo: The Master Chief Collection gets upgraded for Xbox Series X and S on November 17. Microsoft announced the news on Twitter today, stating that the next-gen optimized version of the collection would play at 120 FPS…

Inject The Whimsy Of Balan Wonderworld’s Opening Directly Into My Veins, Please

As the U.S. barrels towards a history-shaping day of reckoning, I find myself craving lighter, happier things. The bright, colorful, and slightly creepy intro movie for Balan Wonderworld, the new game from the creators of Sonic the Hedgehog and Nights Into Dreams, is exactly what I need. Magic happens when director Yuji Naka and designer…

Final Fantasy XIV’s Grand Score Shows Masayoshi Soken Is Every Bit Uematsu’s Equal

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re talkin’ about how Final Fantasy XIV’s incomparably huge soundtrack manages to whip ass in so many different ways. So many When you think of Final Fantasy, one of the first names that comes to…

Track: Can I Believe You | Artist: Fleet Foxes | Album: Shore

The Bomberman

Evgeny Kashin is an artist at Sperasoft, who have helped out on everything from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to Halo Infinite You can see more of Evgeny’s stuff at his Behanceand ArtStationpages.

Bungie Cracks Down On Destiny 2 Cheat Seller

The website PerfectAim no longer sells cheats for Destiny 2 after it says it received a cease and desist letter from Bungie. PerfectAim sells access to cheats that give players an unfair advantage in a whole range of games, but Destiny 2 will no longer be one of them. When you visit the site’s cheat…

World Of Warcraft’s Speedy New Leveling Experience Leaves Me Cold

I started a new World of Warcraft character last week, following the release of the Shadowlands expansion pre-patch that, among other things, reduced the game’s level cap from 120 to 50. I’ve only adventured in two different zones and I’m already level 32. It’s all going by so fast. World of Warcraft launched in 2004…

The PS4’s New Party Chat System Is A Pain, But Sony Is Looking Into It

Sony says it will “keep you posted” about recent changes to party chat on PS4 after users complained about how much more restrictive they make the feature. “Hey folks – just wanted to let you know that we’re looking into your feedback on the recent changes to Parties on PS4,” PlayStation tweeted out over the…

Dear Double Fine, What The Fuck Dude?

Nope! Nope. Noooope. NOPE! NOOOOPE. NOPE. What the fuck? No really, Double Fine. What. The. Fuck.? Psychonauts 2 comes to Xbox in 2021 and I really hope they leave this part out. (Seriously. Leave it out.) Note: Former Kotaku staffer Heather Alexandra now works at Double Fine in comms and community.

Please Enjoy This Ridiculous FIFA 21 Glitch

No good FIFA game is complete without the occasional bonkers moment and FIFA 21 doesn’t disappoint. As spotted by Eurogamer, Reddit user BuschLatte146 kicked off their Squad Battle against the computer by trying to catch the keeper off guard with a shot from way downtown. The seemingly sticky crossbar had other plans though, leading to…

The Week In Games: Autobots Rollout! (When It’s Your Turn)

This week we get Transformers: Battlegrounds, a game that looks a lot like another game I’ve played before. It had aliens and turn-based combat… hmmm. I don’t want to talk about that new Transformers game, instead, I want to talk about Ray’s The Dead. When I was writing up this list I thought that name…