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Tips & GuidesPSA: Go Sit At The Campfire In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla [Updated]
Last night, former MTV News staffer Stephen Totilo sent me a text about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: “Go sit at the campfire.” We’d been talking on and off about the game, and he suggested that I check something out. Apparently, even though I’d sunk 90 hours into last year’s biggest game—even though I’d completed all of…
By Ari Notis Published February 19, 2021 -
CultureApple Wants Valve To Hand Over A Bunch Of Steam Info For Its Fight With Epic
Epic Games’ legal battle against Apple over App Store fees continues to drag on into ever weirder and more esoteric fronts. The latest development? Apple is actively trying to subpoena years of in-depth sales information from Valve about all of the games listed on Steam, in order to show that Epic has plenty of other…
By Ethan Gach Published February 19, 2021 -
CultureStrixhaven, Magic: The Gathering’s Newest Set, Is Hogwarts Without The Terf
Do you still love the Harry Potter franchise but absolutely cannot abide supporting its terfy author? If so, Magic: The Gathering’s latest card set, Strixhaven: School of Mages, might be for you. More than being a simple card game played to demoralize your friends, Magic: The Gathering has its own story, with each new card…
By Ash Parrish Published February 19, 2021 -
CultureSplitscreenWhy Do We Call The Hardest Video Game Enemies ‘Bosses,’ Anyway?
In real life, if you encounter a large being hell-bent on beating the crap out of you, you call them “an asshole” or “a fully grown polar bear, but in my backyard, like in those nightmares I have.” In a video game, you call them “a boss.” That’s weird! Plenty of people want to fight…
By Nathan Grayson Published February 19, 2021 -
CultureWhat Are You Playing This Weekend?
The weekend is for angling the monitor away from prying eyes while you attempt to use the power of gem-matching to get snarky anime women to agree to participate in group sex. That, or maybe playing Animal Crossing. In case you missed it or were purposefully avoiding it, HuniePop 2: Double Date came out on…
By Mike Fahey Published February 19, 2021 -
CultureBungie Is Looking To Expand The Destiny 2 Universe
Yesterday, Bungie announced some big plans over the next few years, including new offices, new games, and a new leadership team seemingly in charge of branching out the the Destiny 2 universe into other media. “[O]ne of the primary drivers of Bungie’s expansion is to increase the commitment to the long-term development of Destiny 2,…
By Ethan Gach Published February 19, 2021 -
CultureMorning Music‘Seven Rings In Hand’ Is The Best Song From One Of Sonic’s Worst Games
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s ongoing hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re going to enjoy a song that rocks much harder than the 2007 side-story it sprang from, Sonic and the Secret Rings. No wait, come back. Part of what’s now called the Storybook Series alongside…
By Mike Fahey Published February 19, 2021 -
Kotaku EastRising Sun Removed From Street Fighter II In Capcom Arcade Stadium
E. Honda’s Street Fighter II bathhouse stage is iconic. On the back wall is a mural with Mount Fuji, a kabuki actor, and the Rising Sun design. The mountain and the thespian stay in Capcom Arcade Stadium’s re-release, but the ray design does not. Here is how the stage appeared in the original Street Fighter…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 19, 2021 -
CultureTrack: Country Road (cover) | Artist: Goose House | Album: N/A
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 19, 2021 -
CultureNew Subscription Service Is JUST For Crusader Kings II
While you may be increasingly used to paying a monthly fee to get access to a lot of games, Paradox is trialling a new subscription service where you pay to play just one. Which sounds slightly mad until you realise that one game is Crusader Kings II For $5 a month, you’ll be able to…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 18, 2021 -
CultureStreamer Beats Hades With A Literal Pomegranate
In Hades, the pomegranate is a key item, one that grants you very real power by buffing your abilities. The pomegranate also grants unimaginable power in the real world, at least if you’re the streamer Dylan “Rudeism” Beck. He harnessed the power of ancient fruit to beat the game’s final boss not with a controller…
By Ari Notis Published February 18, 2021 -
CulturePC Case That Could Burst Into Flames Officially Recalled
As we reported earlier this month, NZXT’s (admittedly lovely) H1 case had an issue where at a certain point it could literally burst into flames. The company reluctantly apologised, but that process has now progressed into a full “recall” for over 30,000 of the cases. The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a full…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 18, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsFinal Fantasy VII Has Been Upscaled To HD Using AI
If you want to play Final Fantasy VII in HD on your PC you could wait for the remake to get ported, or you could play the original game using this mod that employs artificial intelligence to upscale its visuals. While I’ve written about witchcrafty efforts like this previously—with this game, even!—this latest effort by…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 18, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsA Princess Charm Game Would Be Great, Thanks
During yesterday’s Nintendo Direct presentation, Mario Kart Live developer Velan Studios revealed its next game, Knockout City. But all I really care about is the spunky (and wholly unrelated) little princess that was used to market it. Knockout City publisher EA decided to fill the multiplayer dodgeball game’s reveal trailer with clichéd CG characters that…
By Ian Walker Published February 18, 2021 -
OpinionImpressionsAssassin’s Creed Valhalla’s New River Raids Ain’t It
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is the last game that needed any extra content right now, but this week it got some anyway, and since I’m still fresh on the game I thought I’d jump back in and check it out. That content arrived in the form of “River Raids”, a new game mode that adds three…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 18, 2021 -
OpinionImpressionsRed Dead Online’s New Solo Missions Are Pretty Good
The latest Red Dead Online update, released earlier this week, added a few new missions to the game. These new telegram missions are short and simple but are also built to be played alone, another sign that Rockstar is willing to give players more single-player content even in ostensibly online games. While Red Dead Online…
By Zack Zwiezen Published February 18, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsYep, Splatoon Is Set After A Climate Apocalypse
Splatoon 3’s reveal yesterday took many folks by surprise, both because there was little indication beforehand that the aquatic shooter would get a third installment and because of the presence of an upside-down Eiffel Tower in the trailer. No, your eyes weren’t deceiving you: Splatoon is set on Earth, thousands of years after the world…
By Ian Walker Published February 18, 2021 -
CultureMister DeepFuckingValue Goes To Washington
History was made today when Reddit user DeepFuckingValue, who goes by Roaring Kitty on YouTube, opened his Congressional testimony in a hearing about GameStop stock by specifying, for the literal record, that he is not actually a cat. “A few things I am not,” the meme stock icon, whose real name is Keith Gill, said…
By Ethan Gach Published February 18, 2021 -
CultureSaudi Arabia Acquires $3.3 Billion Stake In EA, Take-Two, Activision Blizzard
Saudi Arabia has utilized its Public Investment Fund to invest over $3.3 billion (that’s $3,300,000,000 for the more visual learners out there) in Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, and Activision Blizzard, Al Jazeera reported (h/t Eurogamer). This move, undertaken by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (known colloquially as MBS), equates to millions of shares in…
By Ian Walker Published February 18, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsIn Bugsnax, Grumpuses Used To Be Frogs With Thicc Butts
Bugsnax developer Young Horses shared some early design concepts for its what-if-we-ate-the-Pokémon-instead, body-horror game, and they are as out there as you’re probably hoping. Starting on the more mild but technically ambitious front, the developers original experimented with making the Grumpus’ relationships more dynamic and fungible: Procedurally generated relationships between Grumpuses could’ve been interesting! It…
By Ash Parrish Published February 18, 2021