Halal Snack Pack: The Kotaku Review

The Halal Snack Pack (aka HSP, or ‘Snacky’) is a modern Australian delicacy that combines the best of Middle Eastern and British cuisine in a single dish. Typically served in a styrofoam box, it consists of a giant heap of kebab meat, a number of sauces mixed together, some hot chips (thick-cut fries, Americans) and,…

Glitched Assassin’s Creed Hippo Is Terrifying

Today on Highlight Reel we have animal nightmare glitches, lucky window kills, grabby passengers 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 for more! Catch up on…

Blizzard Built A ‘Strike Team’ To Put An End To Overwatch Jerks

These days, it’s hard to talk about Overwatch without mentioning its ongoing struggles with sexism, racism, griefing, match throwing, andworse. At BlizzCon, game director Jeff Kaplan told Kotaku that fighting toxicity is now more of a priority than ever, to the point that Blizzard has formed a “strike team” to do so. In recent months,…

Second Destiny 2 PC Ban Wave Has Some Players Crying Foul Again

Just weeks after developer Bungie erroneously banned a wave of players on Destiny 2 for PC, a new wave of bans has hit the first-person shooter. And with that, a new round of players is claiming that they were banned unjustly. After a banwave during Destiny 2’s PC launch, numerous players claimed that they were…

Esports Needs To Embrace Its Moments Of Honest-To-God Emotion

The most memorable image from this weekend’s League of Legends world championships wasn’t of the winner’s podium, the trophy, the stadium, or even the freaking dragon in the arena. It was of Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, a godlike figure in League of Legends, brought to tears after a crushing 3-0 loss. Faker is one of the…

The Xbox One X’s Hard Drive Can Fill Up Pretty Fast

Games optimized for the Xbox One X can look better on the new console than they do on older hardware, but adding HDR support, 4K textures and other enhancements takes a bit more space. With three games taking up over a third of my console’s drive, 1TB of storage isn’t gonna cut it. I’ve spent…

What We Liked (And Really Liked) About Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok dropped last Thursday night, and Mike Fahey and Gita Jackson had a chance to see it shortly afterward. We sat down to talk about the movie’s great jokes, Space Jeff Golblum, and where Ragnarok ranks for us amongst the other Marvel movies. Gita Jackson: Hi Fahey! We both got a chance to see…

Super Lucky’s Tale is a delightful take on Nintendo 64-era 3D platformers. The titular fox hero wanders through a mix of free-roaming 3D and 2D platforming levels, searching for coins, letters and other collectibles in a very pretty game with responsive controls. It could use a bit more personality, but otherwise it’s lovely.

Bot Studies Mario Kart Videos, Learns To Play

Ever wonder what it would be like for a bot to learn how to play Super Mario Kart? YouTuber and programmer SethBling’s newest creation MariFlow uses machine learning to create a bot that can zip through Donut Plains 1 just like a human. SethBling’s done some pretty impressive stuff before now. He’s put a working…

Video Games Are Embracing Being Weird

On this week’s Fave This, Gita and guest Heather Alexandra talk about how games can benefit from being campy. Whether it’s Metal Gear Solid’s Vamp or Deadly Premonition’s sinner’s sandwiches, lots of games embrace how weird they are to be more fun. (Get the MP3 here.) With Patricia Hernandez out sick, I’m joined by Kotaku…

The New Call Of Duty Could Learn A Thing From The First Call Of Duty

Call of Duty: WWII wants to tell a harrowing tale of heroes and sacrifice by following the US Army’s 1st Infantry Division throughout the war. The game’s squad-building mechanics are supposed to have impact, but they mostly mean having a dude sometimes toss you a medkit. In Call of Duty: WWII, your squadmates can assist…

Fortnite Player Snipes Opponents From Atop A Flying Pumpkin

Some streamers just discovered that, in Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode, rockets are both dangerous weapons and efficient modes of transportation. A Fortnite Battle Royale player named Zaccubuswas streaming the game, which just got a very cute Fall expansion, and stumbled upon the event’s rocket launcher, which shoots pumpkins. In the clip below, he and his…

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds: The Kotaku Review

Horizon Zero Dawn was a terrific game. Guess what? Its new expansion, The Frozen Wilds, is also good. For more on the many things that made Horizon Zero Dawn a good game, go read my colleague Patricia Hernandez’s review from February. Developed by Killzone studio Guerrilla Games, it was an open-world action game about a…

How Microsoft Almost Published Torchlight, And Other Memories From Runic Games

Last week, publisher Perfect World shut down Runic Games, the Seattle-based developer of Torchlight and Hob. To commemorate, we asked one of the studio’s co-founders to share some thoughts and anecdotes. Runic was founded in 2008 by Travis Baldree, Diablo co-creators Max Schaefer and Erich Schaefer, Peter Hu, and members of the defunct Flagship Studios,…

Delicious Recreations of Studio Ghibli Food

One of the things that makes Studio Ghibli movies so great is that they’re filled with delicious-looking food. But you can eat animated food! That’s why Instagram user En93 has been making them real.  Not only does she recreate the food, but she also does her best to make the dishes and the tableware. Her…

This Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Character’s Voice Is Complete WTF 

Musubi is a rare Blade in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. She looks like an angel, but certainly doesn’t sound like one. Her voice is a total mismatch.  Have a listen for yourself. Redditor WildToeFu put it best: “I was expecting some angelic lady voice, but then I was hit with a little sister voice.” Kotaku East…

A New Version Of The Classic Pokémon Theme Song

When the English-language version of Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! opens, the movie will get a new version of the iconic theme. The “Pokémon Theme” debuted in 1999 and is also known as “Gotta Catch ‘Em All.” Here is how the theme will sound when Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! comes out in…