Culture

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Release Date Moved Up A Week

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is now set to come out November 10, Ubisoft announced on Twitter today. That’s a week earlier than its previous release date of November 17. It’s also just in time to make it a launch game for the Xbox Series X, which Microsoft revealed this morning is also coming out that day.…

Xbox Series X Will Cost $499, Out November 10

This morning, Microsoft confirmed the price and release date of the new next generation Xbox. With a suggested retail price of $499, the Xbox Series X, Microsoft’s beefier, terafloppier, next-gen console, will be available for pre-orders beginning September 22, with a retail release date of November 10th. This news comes just one day after the…

Alien Crush Made Pinball Weird, Squishy, Gross

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’ll hit our first PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 chip soundtrack, the brief but memorable Alien Crush. Weird pinball! (That was my nickname in high school.) In theory video games and pinball are a great…

Track: Fade Away (War Child ver.) | Artist: Oasis | Album: Help!

Report: Nintendo Asking Studios To Make Switch Games “4K-Ready”

Tucked away ina Bloomberg story about Nintendo ramping up manufacturing of the Switch in the lead-up to the holiday season is yet another mention of an upgraded version of the console, one that will allow for 4K visuals. Thelast we heard about this was only last month, but this new report goes a little further,…

A Very Dashing Han Solo

Yeeky Zhang is a Chinese student who has re-imagined Star Wars from the ground up, taking inspiration from both the middle ages and steampunk, and ending up with something that wouldn’t have looked out of place in Final Fantasy XII You can see more of this idea—and of his work in general—at his ArtStation page

Former Paradox Testers Say “We Were Severely Underpaid” Before Being Laid Off

Paradox Interactive, one of the biggest developers and publishers of PC strategy games—they’re responsible for this month’s Crusader Kings III—closed their internal Quality Assurance (QA) department last year, and a report on Rock Paper Shotgun alleges it was done in about the worst way possible. Speaking with former employees of the department responsible for testing…

Joy-Con Fighting Game Character Is So Accurate, It Constantly Drifts Left

Smash-like platform fighter Rivals of Aether allows players to create custom characters and put them up for download through the Steam Workshop. One such character, modeled after the Nintendo Switch’s ubiquitous Joy-Con controllers, is pretty dang accurate. So accurate, in fact, that it even drifts like a real Joy-Con. The fighter, simply named Joy Con,…

Among Us‘ Improbable Rise To The Top Of Twitch

When Among Us, a game of deception set in deep space, was first conceived a few years ago, online multiplayer wasn’t in the cards. It wasn’t even going to be on PC. Streamers were the last thing on its developers’ minds. And yet, over the weekend, the game solidified its status as a Twitch phenomenon,…

I Can’t With These Confusing Xbox Names

With the price of one of the next-generation Xbox consoles confirmed and the other one likely forthcoming as Microsoft and Sony’s big game of next-gen pricing chicken drags on, there needs to be a frank discussion about the names of these consoles. A discussion wherein I sit down with Mr. Microsoft and ask a simple…

EA Sports Adds Colin Kaepernick To Madden NFL 21

Colin Kaepernick, the former NFL quarterback whose political activism made him a divisive figure, has today been added to Madden NFL 21 as a free agent after being left out of several previous iterations due to his status with the league. “Knowing that our EA Sports experiences are platforms for players to create, we want…

How’s It Going? Young Wallander Edition

Younger is not always better, especially when it comes to rough-and-tumble Swedish police inspectors. Welcome back to our daily open thread. I am a big fan of Kurt Wallander. He’s a detective whose adventures were chronicled by Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell. He’s the star of a series of novels, a bunch of films, a…

New Hyrule Warriors Is A Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Prequel, Arrives In November

Nintendo’s not ready to tell us more about the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but they’re fine springing a surprise prequel on us. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, due out November 20 for the Switch, is a hack-and-slash RPG set 100 years before Breath of the Wild. Developed by Koei…

Everything You Need To Know About Kamala Khan, The Star Of Marvel’s Avengers

When you think of the Avengers, you think Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, and Black Widow, comic book characters who’ve been around for over half a century. The main character in the Marvel’s Avengers video game, however, has only been in existence since 2013. That makes it pretty easy to read up on Kamala…

What the world needs now is incredibly underdressed zombie slayers? D3Publisher’s unconventional hack-and-slash series returns on October 14 with Onee Chanbara Origin for PS4 and PC. Want to know if this game is for you? Hit play on the trailer above with the sound on, see how long you last. 

Gate of Thunder Had A Weird Duran Duran Connection

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re checking out one of the more acclaimed CD shmup soundtracks of the 16-bit(ish) era, which has a surprising connection to ‘80s superband Duran Duran. Red Company’s 1992 PC Engine Super CD shooter Gate…

The Internet Reacts To Xbox Series S

Today, Microsoft revealed its smallest Xbox ever, the Xbox Series S. The internet, inevitably, reacted. Upon first glance, the console does not look like a console, but a speaker, or maybe a washing machine, among other things… But let’s not just judge the way it looks. That’s so superficial! There are many more important things,…

Track: Fake Plastic Trees (cover) | Artist: Phoebe Bridgers x Arlo Parks | Album: N/A

Microsoft’s Next-Gen Xbox Series S Is Only $299

After a series of leaks last night, Microsoft has finallyand officially announced their second next-gen console: the smaller, cheaper Xbox Series S. And it is cheap While the bigger next-gen machines from both Microsoft (Xbox Series X) and Sony (PlayStation 5) are expected to sell later this year for at least $499, this smaller console…

Now For Some Beautiful Grand Theft Auto Poetry

Here is a beautiful idea. An idea involving writing down the off-hand stuff people will mutter at a TV screen while playing video games, and turning it into literature. This is Reb Day, who in addition to singing catchy pop tunes also has no idea why she’s being shot at: If you’re on mobile and…