We played Kingdom Hearts III live on our Twitch channel earlier today. We played on an Xbox One X and skipped all the cutscenes. Here’s two hours of sweet 60fps battle action in Hercules town!

Alien: Blackout Is A Great Concept But Falls Flat

Alien: Blackout sounds great on paper. Take the grimy world of the films and boil the terror experience into a tense management game during which you direct survivors, lock doors, and watch for the alien on your motion tracker. Mixing real-time strategy and survival is a smart concept, but Alien: Blackout is a bit too…

For Honor‘s Third Year Looks Promising

Ubisoft detailed upcoming plans for For Honor’s third year in a developer livestream today, showing/hyping new heroes, maps, and balance changes, alongside narrative driven seasonal events. The first major update of year three goes live on January 31 adding a new heavy class fighter belonging to the Black Priors, a cult-like group of “dark agents”…

Survey Of 4,000 Game Developers Says Half Of Them Want To Unionize

In a survey of nearly 4,000 game developers published today by the Game Developers Conference, half of developers surveyed said they thought game industry workers should unionize. Unionization has been a hot topic among game developers over the last few years, as anecdotes of 100-hour work weeks and $28 million CEO salaries circulate among game…

Games Are Made By More Than Just One Famous Figurehead

We all know that Cory Barlog didn’t single-handedly make the latest God of War, and Hideo Kojima didn’t go it alone on making Metal Gear. Yet as human beings, we can’t help but latch onto figureheads and their personal successes and failures. On this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen, Kirk and Jason and I discuss video game…

Overwatch‘s New Skins Are Based On Historic Figures

It’s that time again: Another year has passed, sapping us all of precious vitality and slowly pulverizing our faculties until we’re unidentifiable powder in the wind. But in return, we get new Overwatch skins as part of the game’s annual Lunar New Year event. Really, it’s a pretty even trade. Overwatch’s “Year of the Pig”…

Bethesda Outlines How Fallout 76‘s New PVP Mode Will Work

In a blog post today Bethesda announced that Fallout 76’s upcoming new player-vs.-player mode will go into beta in March and will be called Survival. Unlike in the regular game, the stakes in Survival will be higher, with no rules of engagement and the potential to lose more valuable items if you die. According to…

Kingdom Hearts’ Multiverse Paved The Way For Everything Else

With the long-awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 almost upon us, I wondered how much the entertainment landscape has changed since the series first showed up on the scene. In today’s media, nearly every franchise has started to build their own vast universes, just like the Kingdom Hearts franchise did 17 years ago. Tim and I chatted…

Life Is Strange 2 Is More Moving If You’ve Played Captain Spirit

Before you start the second episode of Life Is Strange 2, you’ll get a prompt that it’s more enjoyable if you play The Awesome Adventures Of Captain Spirit first. After finishing the Life Is Strange episode, I’d recommend taking that advice. I didn’t play Captain Spirit initially. Its preview made it look a little too…

BioWare Says They Are Adding A Social Hub To Anthem Because Fans Asked For It

Anthem, BioWare’s upcoming online loot shooter, is only a month out from release and is already changing based on player feedback. The game’s lead producer, Michael Gamble, announced on Twitter yesterday that, following feedback gathered from alpha test players in recent weeks, the game will be getting a social hub. “After a mission, you can…

FutureGrind Is A Trippy Stunt Fest

Tron’s lightcycles are some of most iconic bikes in the history of nerddom, but they could honestly use a few more backflips. The stylish racing game FutureGrind, for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC, combines all the stunts of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater with the neon looks of cyberspace landscapes. Created by Milkbag Games, FutureGrind takes the…

When You Realize Your Strategy In A Video Game Is Doomed

When I landed at the location I’d designated in my latest game of Rimworld, I felt optimistic. It was permanent summer, but not so arid that there wasn’t anywhere to plant. I thought that this time, I’d make it a few years. A few minutes later, I realized I had gotten myself into a death…

What We Love (So Far) About Kingdom Hearts 3

Tim Rogers and I have had Kingdom Hearts 3 for only one full day, and we played as much as we could. Here’s what we think so far. We try not to spoil anything major, but of course, we can’t spoil anything that happened beyond the first ten hours or so. Enjoy! Maddy Myers: Are…

Tetsuya Nomura Explains How To Unlock Kingdom Hearts III‘s Secret Movie

When Kingdom Hearts III leaked, creator Tetsuya Nomura said the biggest spoilers in the game were the game’s secret movie and epilogue. Earlier this month, Kotaku reported on how players can watch the epilogue, but the details for the secret movie were vague. In a newly published Famitsu interview, Nomura explained how the secret movie…

Silly Doodles Make School Books Fun

There’s doodling in your textbook. And then, there’s elevating these drawings to a wonderfully twisted art form. Previously, Kotaku showed off inventive school text drawings from throughout Asia. Here are some more terrific textbook doodles Chanta is pushing the envelope even further, by erasing and redrawing the textbook images—instead of simply doodling over them. The…

Memories of Summer. Kyoto, Japan. By Troy Ford | Official Site JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line! 

A Platformer Where You’re Too Exhausted To Do Anything 

When I first started playing the demo of Yet Another Exhausting Day, I careened headfirst into a pillow and died. This, I believe, is what is known as a Big Mood. Yet Another Exhausting Day bills itself as “a 3D crawling platformer about ordinary people’s exhausting lives.” In it, you play as a noodle-limp worn-out…