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Kotaku EastChinaGiant Gundam Statue Finished In China
A life-sized, one-to-one scale Freedom Gundam statue has been completed in Shanghai. The 59-foot Freedom Gundam went up in front of the Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport Shanghai Jinqiao, making this the first official giant Gundam to go up outside Japan. This is not the first life-sized one to go up in China. Way back in…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 30, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsT-Pain Throws Racist Call of Duty Players Straight Into The Trash
T-Pain may have been in the news today for his heartbreaking Instagram confession, but don’t let that distract you from the fact he has also been busy distributing swift and remorseless justice to racist assholes on Call of Duty “Stupid idiots”.
By Luke Plunkett Published April 29, 2021 -
CultureMall Craze Is A Shopping Mall Management Game
I remember when I was younger, seeing games like Theme Park and Rollercoaster Tycoon, and wondering why nobody could do something like that only for my teenage spiritual home: the mall. Sure, there have been some mall games, the best probably being Kairosoft’s Mega Mall Story, but none that have been as good or as…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 29, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsBaseball Superstar Mike Trout Answers Call Of Duty Hecklers In The Middle Of A Game
An actual game of Major League Baseball, that is, not a round of Call of Duty Baseball superstar Mike Trout is a known Call of Duty fan, and so it’s not that big of a surprise that we are now in the age where fans can go to a baseball game, see Trout in the…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 29, 2021 -
CultureHere’s A Whole Lot Of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Gameplay
Today, during Sony’s State of Play event, developer Insomniac Games revealed new gameplay footage from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, the latest entry in the long-running series of oddball action games. The 17 minutes of gameplay opens with Ratchet, absent Clank, alone in a metropolis (dubbed Nefarious City) that looks straight out of Coruscant. Ratchet’s…
By Ari Notis Published April 29, 2021 -
OpinionSorry, Your Cis White Woman Protagonist Isn’t Progressive
The future is bright for the current and upcoming crop of AAA releases. Reviews for Returnal are positive. I’m gassed as hell to have Lady Dimitrescu chase me around in Resident Evil Village before I let her snap me in half. Rift Apart looks so sharp on the PS5 that it might become my first…
By Ash Parrish Published April 29, 2021 -
CultureMonster Hunter Rise Companion Poll Overrun By Dog People
Are you a cat person or a dog person? A life of raising pets traditionally imbues one with a preference, but a new poll shows Monster Hunter Rise players are overwhelmingly in favor of its canine companions. According to a Frontline Gaming Japan report, Famitsu recently asked a large group of Monster Hunter Rise players…
By Ian Walker Published April 29, 2021 -
CultureTwitchWatching Animals On Twitch Is My New Daily Dose Of Chill
The baby geese have just started showing up at CritterVision, making things a bit tricky for the squirrels. On HootHouseLivestream, mother Hootie has her wings full with rapidly-growing babies Dax, Jin, San, and Fiz. Speaking of babies, a new litter just arrived at Adorable_Kittens. I’ve become a Twitch nature stream enthusiast over the past month,…
By Mike Fahey Published April 29, 2021 -
OpinionImpressionsIt’s A Shooter With Dinosaurs, And That’s Enough For Me
Dinosaurs are rad. Sadly, they rarely appear in video games. So I was excited to play Second Extinction, a new shooter featuring dinosaurs, both big and small. What I wasn’t expecting was how much this early access game would remind me of Destiny, or how much fun I would have playing it. Second Extinction is…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 29, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsGrand Theft Auto Speedrunner Has Terrible Luck
Speedrunning takes a tremendous amount of skill, but there are still many moments in even the most well-understood games that boil down to luck. A hapless Grand Theft Auto player known as English Ben was recently reminded of the fickle whims of the universe firsthand. Early into an attempt at completing the Grand Theft Auto…
By Ian Walker Published April 29, 2021 -
CultureActivision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick Halves Pay, Still Rich
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is voluntarily halving his salary, as well as his target annual bonus. But in case you were worried, he’s still making a ton of money. Recent SEC filings show the salary cut as a reduction to $875,000, down from $1,750,000. The annual bonus cut, meanwhile, is “a potential reduction of…
By Riley MacLeod Published April 29, 2021 -
CultureThe Nintendo Download: Oh Snap
There are only 19 games coming to the Nintendo Switch over the next week, but don’t be sad. One of them is New Pokémon Snap, another is R-Type Final 2, and none of them is sexy anime mah-jong. Actually, I can’t guarantee that none of this week’s releases are sexy mah-jong, but I’m pretty sure.…
By Mike Fahey Published April 29, 2021 -
CultureMicrosoft Will Give More Of The Revenue To PC Developers
Game developers on the Microsoft store will soon get a greater cut of the profits, Microsoft announced today. The change comes at a time when many developers and storefronts are rethinking the way profits are split. “As part of our commitment to empower every PC game creator to achieve more, starting on August 1 the…
By Riley MacLeod Published April 29, 2021 -
ReviewsPlayStationReturnal: The Kotaku Review
I’m sure you’ve felt it too. For the past year and some change, life has fallen into a rut more than usual. Life is always cyclical to some degree—humans are, after all, creatures of habit—but the stresses that go hand-in-hand with a certain mismanaged pandemic have made the day-to-day feel more dreary and cyclical than…
By Ari Notis Published April 29, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsDark Forces II’s Opening Remade In Unreal Engine 4
The original Dark Forces might be our Best Star Wars Game Ever, but its sequel is also great. It is, however, a little dated in 2021, so game developer and artist Acke Hallgren decided to see what it could look like with a modern coat of paint. So here’s the game’s opening level remade in…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 28, 2021 -
CulturePlease Enjoy These Fake Nintendo Games That Should Also Be Real Nintendo Games
As it has managed every year since 2005, even through global pandemics, Japanese game store Meteor is once again holding its annual Famicase exhibit where it asks artists from around the world to submit their original designs for Famicom cases. Cases for games that don’t actually exist. We’ve been covering the exhibit for 14 years now,…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 28, 2021 -
CultureNew Expansion Is Steam’s Worst-Rated Launch Ever
Leviathan, the latest expansion for classic strategy game Europa Universalis IV, has had a rocky launch. So rocky that, uh, it has become the worst-rated product available on Steam. It’s an unexpected turn of events, because EUIV is one of the all-time greats, a Paradox grand strategy game that eight years after release still commands…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 28, 2021 -
CultureGoogle Revolutionizes Stadia Experience With Search Bar
Today, Google Stadia announced it will add a search bar function to its web store. Yes: Google, the company that literally began as a search engine, finally realized its video game platform could use a search function. “Search bar on Stadia for Web is rolling out now and will reach all players this week,” Stadia…
By Ash Parrish Published April 28, 2021 -
CultureNow You Can Play The Canceled Dreamcast Castlevania Prototype
Earlier this month, it appeared as if Castlevania Resurrection, a canceled Sega Dreamcast project from the early 2000s, had somehow escaped the dark confines of a Konami warehouse somewhere. Now, everyone has a chance to play that prototype thanks to gaming preservationists having archived that early build. This has all been made possible by the…
By Ian Walker Published April 28, 2021
