Track: Shimanchu nu Takara | Artist: Begin | Album: Begin no Shimauta: Omoto Takeo 2 

China’s Steam Only Has 53 Games

Steam is now available in China, and if you thought that would give Chinese gamers instant access to the weird, wonderful and sometimes deeply offensive depths of the service’s catalogue, well lol, no, of course it doesn’t. At time of posting this custom, localised version of Valve’s shopfront only has 53 games available, with the…

Bloodborne Modder Releases Long-Awaited 60 FPS Hack

Bloodborne can now be played with smooth 60 frames-per-second visuals thanks to the long-anticipated release of an unofficial patch. You will need a modded PlayStation 4 to try it out, however, preferably a PS4 Pro. The patch’s creator, Lance McDonald, is something of a video game archaeologist, with cool stuff on his resume like discovering…

Destiny 2‘s Season Of The Chosen Is Good So Far

Season of the Chosen went live in Destiny 2 today, and with it a whole new set of things to grind for. So far, these things—new armor, guns, and exotic gear—seem pretty cool, with interesting new perks to make them worth chasing. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t already feeling daunted by…

17 Years Later And I Still Can’t Beat Hannibal In Age Of Empires

Xbox Game Pass has once again proven its worth by allowing me to confront a bully of my past: the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca. Yes, I’m serious. Every night for the last two weeks, when normal people would wind down for bed with a nice hot mug of tea and their favorite background noise show,…

PS5 Controllers Are Drifting, And The Repairs Are A Hassle

Few things about the PlayStation 5 are better than the DualSense controller. It feels terrific to hold, somehow just as solid as it is light. The haptics are truly dynamic, at least for games that offer such support. It’s beautiful. But even the mighty DualSense reportedly isn’t immune to the Achilles’ heel of modern video…

Overcooked 2 Is Free On Switch This Weekend, If You Want To Be Alone On Valentine’s Day

Have any plans cooked up for Valentine’s Day? From tomorrow through February 16, relationship ruining co-op game Overcooked 2 will be playable at no extra cost for anyone with a Nintendo Switch Online membership—“just in time for Valentine’s Day!” Overcooked 2 is a game that involves preparing meals in the pressure-cooker environment of a busy…

I Hope This Final Fantasy XIV NPC Finally Got To Take A Dump

One meets a variety of NPCs while playing Final Fantasy XIV. Some can be pretty annoying—looking at you, Thancred—while others are instantly memorable. A poor Ishgardian sentry who desperately needs to find a bathroom while her country is being invaded by dragons falls into the latter category. At the beginning of Final Fantasy XIV’s patch…

Pokémon World Championships Skip 2021 Over Covid-19 Concerns

After canceling in-person competition in 2020 due to the rise of the covid-19 pandemic, The Pokémon Company announced it will skip official tournaments through 2021 as well. “The safety and well-being of our competitors, organizers, employees, local communities, and partners [continue] to be our top priority and is the primary consideration with every decision we…

What We Loved About Hitman 3

If there’s one thing Kotaku can’t get enough of, it’s Hitman 3. Between the wide-open levels, rapid-fire costume changes, and throwable bananas, IO Interactive’s latest stealth sandbox has enraptured many of us. Three of us (staff writer Ari Notis, staff editor Lisa Marie Segarra, and weekend editor Zack Zweizen) snuck into one of Kotaku’s many…

Crash Bandicoot 4 Comes To PS5, Xbox Series X/S And Switch March 12

The excellent if a bit sadistic Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is about to get two upgrades and hopefully not too much of a downgrade on March 12, when the game launches for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch. Activision announced the next-gen and friend releases this morning, along with a PC…

13 Sentinels Plushies Band Together To Save The World

Japanese toymaker Mamegyorai has transformed the teenage heroes of Atlus’ 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim into 14 adorable plushies, complete with puffy pompadours and magnetic hand-holding. I need them all. Available for pre-order on the Mamegyorai website for a March release, each of the 14 Aegis Rim characters has been reimagined in six-inch plushie form by…

Over 10 Hours With Bravely Default II

Bravely Default II offers a return to a simpler time where heroes lined up on one side of the screen, fought monsters on the other side of the screen, and then rinsed and repeated until peace and tranquility were brought back to the land. I’ve spent over 10 hours with it, and while what I’ve…

EA Buys Glu Mobile For $2.1 Billion

EA adds a massive amount of mobile gaming power to its portfolio with the $2.1 billion acquisition of San Francisco-based Glu Mobile, makers of Diner Dash, Cooking Dash, Restaurant Dash: Gordon Ramsay, and Kim Kardashian: Hollywood … Dash. Nothing accelerates the growth of a company’s mobile business like acquiring an already massively successful mobile business.…

The Original Voice of Studio Ghibli’s Porco Rosso Has Died At 86 Years Old

Shuichiro Moriyama, known for his acting and voice work, has passed away after entering a hospital in Saitama, Japan for pneumonia. He was 86. Moriyama had a long, varied career. Not only did he appear in Japanese theater, live-action TV shows, and feature films like 1996’s Shall We Dance?, he also did a range of…