- Uncategorized
How Animal Crossing Characters Can Read Your Letters
Ever wonder just how Animal Crossing characters—pieces of code, unable to comprehend complex human prose—are able to read and understand the letters you write them? James Chambers did, so he dug into the game’s code to find out. A software security researcher—who we’ve featured before here for his work on Animal Crossing—Chambers found that your…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2018 -
UncategorizedHow Myth Became Twitch’s Second Most Popular Streamer
For most streamers, “making it” on Twitch is a painstakingly slow process, a years-long grind that reduces even iron resolves to rubble. And while there’s no doubting that Ali “Myth” Kabbani worked hard, he reached the top of the mountain on a, well, accelerated time scale. As of yesterday, Myth became the second most-followed streamer…
By Nathan Grayson Published August 6, 2018 - Uncategorized
Goodbye, Sports Game Cover Man, You Will Be Missed
While other sports games change their cover athletes every year, strategy stalwart Football Manager has for over a decade stuck with the same basic template: show a man from the nose down, usually in a suit, usually with a scruffy beard, standing around looking like the boss. For this year’s Football Manager 2019, though, he’s…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2018 - Uncategorized
Mod Brings Lord Of The Rings To Age Of Empires
Whilewe wait for a Battle for Middle Earth remake, an alternative might be Tales of Middle Earth, a mod that transforms Age of Empires II into a Lord of the Rings game. Tales of Middle Earth isn’t 100% complete (the mod has been in development for six years!), but a near-final build is downloadable and…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2018 - Uncategorized
Fallout 76 Isn’t Launching On Steam
All of Bethesda’s previous Fallout games have been available to buy on Steam, but that looks like it’s changing for the upcoming Fallout 76’s PC version, at least when it comes to the game’s beta and launch. After folks started noticing some odd signs related to Fallout 76’s marketing—like the game’s purchase page having a…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 6, 2018 - Uncategorized
Hearthstone’s Balancer-In-Chief Prepares For Boomsday
Hearthstone’s science-themed expansion The Boomsday Project drops tomorrow, and players are out in numbers doing what they do best: speculating about which cards and classes are going to be overpowered once the expansion is live. A few common themes have already made themselves clear, namely: that Boomsday looks like one of the strongest sets released…
By Joshua Calixto Published August 6, 2018 -
CultureSkyrim Lumberjacks Have It Rough
Today on Highlight Reel we have rough sawmills, broken vertebraes, No Man’s Sky moments, Black Ops 4 Beta kills, and much more! Watch the video then talk about your favorite highlight in the comments below. Be sure to check out, like, and share the original videos via the links below. Subscribe to Kotaku on YouTube…
By Chris Person Published August 6, 2018 - Uncategorized
Delayed Battlefront II Fix Leads To Monthlong Fan Fiasco
The makers of Star Wars Battlefront II will restore Emperor Palpatine to the game a little over a month after they removed him. That will cap several weeks of online discussion about how long an announced “hotfix” should take and just what a game studio and a fandom should do when the community manager is…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 6, 2018 - Uncategorized
Breath Of The Wild Gets Official Placement On The Zelda Timeline, But There Are Shenanigans
Since The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild came out in March 2017, fans have been dying to know where it fits on the series’ official timeline. Now, Nintendo has provided an answer—sort of. Breath of the Wild is way at the end, but it’s not connected to the rest of the timeline. In…
By Jason Schreier Published August 6, 2018 -
CultureThe Internet Reacts To D.va’s New Summer Skin
The Overwatch summer event is starting on August 9th, and Blizzard has slowly been revealing new skins in the lead-up. D.va’s new beach-y look has captured fans’ hearts. Reinhardt and Ana have also had new skins revealed to promote the new Summer Games event, but given that it will take place in a new map…
By Gita Jackson Published August 6, 2018 - Uncategorized
Destiny 2’s New Grind For 400-Level Armor Is No Joke
Destiny 2’s Solstice of Heroes event debuted last week. Until it ends on August 28, you can relive the glories of the past while earning powerful new armor… as long as you have a lot of time to spare. The Solstice is the last of Destiny 2’s timed special events before the much-anticipated Forsaken expansion…
By Kirk Hamilton Published August 6, 2018 - Esports
Smash Pro Plans To Donate Some Of His Evo Winnings To Lesser-Paid Players
Yesterday, William “Leffen” Hjelte won Super Smash Bros Melee gold at Evo, fighting games’ biggest stage, but now he’s cementing himself as one of the greats. Leffen announced that he will donate a portion of his prize money to lower-placing players, who took home pennies by comparison. Leffen explained his rationale on Twitter. “I will…
By Nathan Grayson Published August 6, 2018 -
CultureThe Joy Of Super Mario Odyssey‘s Hint Art Challenges
While playing Super Mario Odyssey, you’ll occasionally come across portraits like the one pictured above.They are visual puzzles that lead players to hidden Power Moons. Odyssey calls them Hint Art, and there are 21 of them scattered throughout the game. They’re visually intensive and clever, and they’re a great addition to the arsenal of mini-games…
By Kevin Wong Published August 6, 2018 - Uncategorized
My Obsession With CPU Cooling Is Becoming A Problem
Everyone chases some kind of low-key but elusive white whale, a casual desire or goal that remains forever out of reach. For some, it’s finding the best possible cup of coffee, or the perfect pair of jeans. For me, it’s getting my PC CPU to run below 70 degrees Celsius while under load. This goal…
By Kirk Hamilton Published August 6, 2018 - Uncategorized
Releasing Cool New Games On 3DS Is Such A Waste
You have probably been here before. A Japanese company announces an exciting new game. The concept sounds great, the trailer has you hyped, and everything seems perfect… until you see those three words that you’ve grown to loathe in 2018. “Only for 3DS.” Last Friday, Nintendo released a new WarioWare, the first in nearly ten…
By Jason Schreier Published August 6, 2018 - Uncategorized
Two Very Different JRPG Approaches To Old-Fashioned English
Sprawling role playing games often come with an abundance of proper nouns and a medieval flavor to their setting. Sometimes games like this try to make their dialogue match the olden times vibe. Getting this antiquated English to sound right is pretty hard, though. I first started thinking about this when I started Octopath Traveler,…
By Gita Jackson Published August 6, 2018 - ReviewsMultiplatform
Dead Cells: The Kotaku Review
In my first game of Dead Cells, I died after about four minutes. In my most recent one, I lasted almost an hour. The time difference between those two attempts says a lot about how Dead Cells evolves as you play it, and how you evolve alongside it. That first game went something like this:…
By Kirk Hamilton Published August 6, 2018 - Uncategorized
I Am Buying A Silly Number Of Switch Games
In what is supposed to be a slow part of the year, I am filling my Nintendo Switch to bursting with new releases and ports. Last week, I bought the Switch ports of sidescrolling action-adventure games Iconoclasts and Salt & Sanctuary along with the puzzle game Picross S2. I had enough self control to download…
By Stephen Totilo Published August 6, 2018
