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CultureOdds and EndsRunning Around During Loading Screens Is An Important Part Of Assassin’s Creed
Loading screens often suck. But they can occasionally become more than just periods of time where you are forced to sit around and wait. In Assassin’s Creed, a tradition has formed of letting players run around in an endless void and it has (mostly) stuck around. (This post was originally published on July 26. It’s…
By Zack Zwiezen Published December 13, 2020 -
CultureShop Contest‘Shop Contest: National Horse Day
Forget about Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa! The biggest holiday in December is National Horse Day. Your challenge this week: Add more horses to video games! I went with a horse mask above, but feel free to use real horses, digital horses, talking horses who starred in popular TV shows, Mr. Ed, and so on. The…
By Zack Zwiezen Published December 13, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicHalo 4 Is A Lot Better Than Its Soundtrack
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, we return to the combat-filled levels of Halo 4 for some…actually, rather forgettable music. Controversial opinion alert: I like 2012’s Halo 4 (playlist / longplay/ VGMdb), originally released back on the Xbox 360 and developed…
By Zack Zwiezen Published December 13, 2020 -
CultureSunday Comics: Now, Are You Ready?
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 Dec. 10. Read more of Corpse Run Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published Dec. 7. Read more of Awkward Zombie Clueless Hero by…
By Zack Zwiezen Published December 13, 2020 -
CultureShop Contest‘Shop Contest: Monoliths, Winners!
Monoliths! Remember those? Yeah, over the last few weeks they were popping up around the world. Strange. However, the world moved on and now we are the last ones left, to kick this dead horse for a bit more comedy. ‘Tis the ‘Shop Contest way. Our winning image this week comes from… Kerning! It’s a…
By Zack Zwiezen Published December 12, 2020 -
CultureSwinging In A Winter Wonderland
This week on Snapshots, a surprising lack of Cyberpunk 2077 screenshots. We got some good ones already, but I was expecting more! Maybe folks are too busy playing the game to snap photos or perhaps it’s just too buggy at the moment. But it’s okay, because we got some great photos from a bunch of…
By Zack Zwiezen Published December 12, 2020 -
The BestsThe Best Snowy Video Games And Levels
For many folks, December marks the start of colder weather, barren trees, and of course, snow. And just like real life, video games often include snowy and wintery levels or entire areas. Let’s put on some gloves and a good coat and trek out into the best snow in video games. Just a quick note:…
By Zack Zwiezen Published December 12, 2020 -
CulturePokemonTeddiursa Is Always Sticky
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 Teddiursa! Teddiursa Details Type: Normal Average Height: 2′ 00” Average Weight: 19.4 lbs First Added In Generation II A…
By Zack Zwiezen Published December 12, 2020 -
CultureOdds and EndsLow Poly Animals Are The Best
There you are, playing a game, and without thinking about it you run by a bird off in the distance. However, the odds are very high that the bird you ran by was nothing more than a few simply textured polygons pretending to be a bird. And yet it worked. Back in October a new…
By Zack Zwiezen Published December 12, 2020 -
CultureMorning CheckpointWhere Is Goofy’s Wife?
This week we watch a bunch of new trailers for upcoming games, check out the latest characters coming to Fortnite and Smash, fight our dads, get our first look at strange PUBG spin-off and ask the burning question: Where’s Goofy’s wife? Great Kotaku Content From The Past Week I love posts like this, where someone…
By Zack Zwiezen Published December 12, 2020 -
CultureReport: Cyberpunk 2077 Devs Will Now Receive Bonuses No Matter How It Reviews
CD Projekt executives said they accept responsibility for Cyberpunk 2077’s shortcomings in an email sent to staff earlier today, Bloomberg reports “We underestimated the lengths and complexity involved to make this a reality, and still you did everything you could to deliver an ambitious, special game,” CD Projekt Red studio head and game director Adam…
By Ian Walker Published December 11, 2020 -
CultureDemon’s Souls, One Month Later
Can you believe it’s been a month since flagship PlayStation 5 game Demon’s Souls released? I feel like I’ve spent every waking hour of the past 30 days with the Bluepoint Games remake. While the game is mostly the same as the PlayStation 3 original, the community has been hard at work sussing out the…
By Ian Walker Published December 11, 2020 -
CultureAnd Now The Moment Avengers Players Have Been Waiting For
Shield refraction, everybody. Thanks to community feedback, Iron Man can now bounce his Unibeam off Captain America’s shield in Marvel’s Avengers, amplifying the beam’s damage. As it should be. It’s a classic Marvel Comics combo move, one you’d think would be a no-brainer for inclusion in a cooperative multiplayer-focused game. It’s okay; Developer Crystal Dynamics…
By Mike Fahey Published December 11, 2020 -
CultureCyberpunk 2077 Gets Epilepsy Fix
Cyberpunk 2077 was updated today with a patch that, among other things, fixes the strobing effects that reportedly caused a Game Informer journalist to suffer an epileptic seizure The patch, which is available on PlayStation 4 and PC with an Xbox One release still forthcoming, adjusts the flashing effects during Cyberpunk 2077’s braindance sequences in…
By Ian Walker Published December 11, 2020 -
CultureSplitscreenCyberpunk 2077‘s Genital Customization Options Leave A Lot To Be Desired
Cyberpunk 2077 has dicks. Cyberpunk 2077 has vagina (singular). Already, you might be getting the impression that these things were not created equal. It’s a strange imbalance, especially given the way other characters in the game end up perceiving you regardless of your choice. On this week’s episode of Splitscreen, we bring on a special…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 11, 2020 -
CultureWhat The Hell Is Going On In That Mass Effect Trailer?
I have not been able to stop thinking about the Mass Effect trailer from last night’s Game Awards. After the seemingly definitive end of the Shepard trilogy and the personally unsatisfying Mass Effect: Andromeda, I had given up hope that BioWare could create a new Mass Effect game that I could be excited about. But…
By Ash Parrish Published December 11, 2020 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryI’m Juggling Four Alts To Get All The Loot In World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands
World of Warcraft’s Shadowlands expansion asks players to choose between one of four Covenants, each with its own unique theme, storylines, and rewards to be earned. Rather than deal with the FOMO associated with picking only one of the four, I’ve chosen to play four characters at once, dammit. This is not how I normally…
By Mike Fahey Published December 11, 2020 -
CultureSo About That Batshit Ending To Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Between the rideable wolves, anime references, and random American baseball players, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is full of surprises. But the biggest surprise, without question, comes at the end. Two of us (staff writer Ari Notis and weekend editor Zack Zweizen, who also reviewed the game for Kotaku) have finally completed the main narrative of Ubisoft’s…
Zack Zwiezen & Ari Notis Published December 11, 2020 -
OpinionGames Made Under Crunch Conditions Don’t Deserve ‘Best Direction’ Awards
Last night, The Last of Us Part II walked away from The Game Awards with seven trophies, including those for Game of the Year, Best Narrative, Best Audio Design, Best Performance (by Laura Bailey as Abby), Innovation in Accessibility, and Best Action/Adventure. Arguments can be made as to whether it deserved those or not, but…
By Ian Walker Published December 11, 2020 -
CultureWhat Are You Playing This Weekend?
This weekend is about getting my children to tell me what they want for Christmas beyond “a toy.” It’s also about not putting Cyberpunk screenshots where you’d expect them, like in a “What are you playing this weekend?” post. While I probably will partake of some of that punking of the cyber variety this weekend,…
By Mike Fahey Published December 11, 2020