Heaven’s Vault: The Kotaku Review

“Stories don’t have tidy beginnings,” says the main character of Heaven’s Vault, outer space archaeologist Aliya Elasra, at the beginning of the game. “The past is always present.” I was immediately enthralled. I often see people hyper-simplifying history in bad faith and weaponizing it as propaganda, so I was excited to play a game that…

Microsoft plans to sell a combo deal of Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Gamepass for $14.99 a month, the company announced today in their Inside Xbox game stream. While both services already exist, Microsoft isn’t offering the bundled sub until “later this year.” No word if they’ll offer a better deal for an annual subscription…

This year’s Gamescom may be more of an event to watch Friend of the site Geoff Keighley is creating “Gamescom: Opening Night Live” which he describes to Kotaku as “sort of like an all-in-one press conference” full of game announcements and news. It will stream from Cologne, Germany at 2pm ET on Monday, August 19,…

The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa for the Nintendo Switch combines a River City Ransom-like brawling Japanese school punk action RPG with the tone of existential cinematic artistry. It rules. I am playing it on our Twitch channel right the heck now

On March 4, 2022, Warner Bros. and Mojang will be releasing a Minecraft movie. It’s about a teenage girl and “her unlikely group of adventurers. “After the malevolent Ender Dragon sets out on a path of destruction, they must save their beautiful, blocky Overworld.” It’s directed by Peter Sollett (Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist).

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order comes out on Switch on July 19. Announced at last year’s Game Awards, the action role-playing game has four player coop both online and locally, and revolves around trying to hunt down and collect the Infinity Stones before Thanos can.

Track: Misirlou | Artist: Dick Dale & The Del Tones | Album: A Swingin Affair (Movie) Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

At a recent SNK investors event in South Korea, exec Ge Zhihui reportedly said that a Neo-Geo 2 and Neo-Geo 3 are in the planning stage. Details are scant, but these are apparently not Neo-Geo Mini successors. Also announced was a new Metal Slug in development for home consoles. 

A Persona 5 themed air-soft gun is going on sale in Japan. Priced at 24,000 yen ($214), this Joker model has “The Phantom” and “Trickster” emblazoned next to the Phantom Thieves of Hearts logo.