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CultureTrump Pardons War Crimes, Illegal Steam Spending
The White House announced a new round of presidential pardons yesterday, granting clemency to several controversial figures. Among them were the perpetrators of the Nisour Square massacre and Duncan Hunter, a former California congressman who was indicted for illegally using campaign funds to purchase, among other items, video games on Steam. Hunter, who was first…
By Ian Walker Published December 23, 2020 -
CultureCD Projekt Red Estimates Cyberpunk 2077 Has Sold Over 13 Million Copies, Despite Being A Potato On Consoles
After a week of refunds, apologies, and patches, CD Projekt Red announced yesterday that its open world scifi RPG Cyberpunk 2077 nevertheless sold over 13 million copies total since its December 10 release. This despite the game’s busted performance on last-gen consoles and some low-end PCs, as well as the reportedly overtime-fueled labor conditions that…
By Ethan Gach Published December 23, 2020 -
CultureThe Best Games Of 2020 That You’ve Never Heard Of
There are so many games. The Nintendo Switch sees 30 releases a week. More than 50 PC games come out a day on Steam. Fifty. A day. And yes, most of them are shovelware or just plain drivel, but that only makes things worse for the little gems that are hidden within. In such a…
By John Walker Published December 23, 2020 -
CultureOdds and EndsYou Can (Carefully) Pet The Zombie Dogs In Black Ops Cold War
I love when games give me the option to pet dogs, and surprisingly, you can pet the Plaguehounds in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s Zombies mode. But unless you use a specific weapon effect, you’d never even know you had the option to pet them. Die Maschine’s Plaguehounds are special round-based enemies that…
By S.E. Doster Published December 22, 2020 -
CultureRare Gokus Possibly Lost At Sea After Major Shipping Accident
Goku collectors are left wondering what fate awaits their beautiful sons after a bad storm caused the massive One Apus container ship to potentially lose over $200 million worth of cargo in the Pacific Ocean northwest of Hawaii late last month. The ship was hit by a massive storm on November 30 that, according to…
By Ethan Gach Published December 22, 2020 -
CultureOdds and EndsMarvel vs. Capcom 2‘s Iron Man Infinite Combo Makes For A Great Beat
Musician Akito Bass recently shared a great video showing how the iconic Iron Man infinite in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 can be used as the foundation for a catchy track. A big part of learning even basic fighting game combos is getting the rhythm down. You don’t always need to count frames or learn concepts…
By Ian Walker Published December 22, 2020 -
ReviewsYear in ReviewAsh Parrish’s Top 10 Games Of 2020
Ahh! My first “Top 10 Games” post for Kotaku, so exciting! Arriving here has fundamentally changed my relationship with gaming. I have a lot more time to play a lot more brand-spankin’ new games, versus the slow arrival to already well-beloved titles that was typical of my pre-Kotaku life. So if you see some non-2020…
By Ash Parrish Published December 22, 2020 -
CultureHere’s January 2021’s Xbox Live Games With Gold
Writing “2021” in a headline is giving me more feelings than I expected, so thanks for that, Xbox. January’s Games with Gold lineup is a mix of horror and fighting games; as always, these games are only “free” if you have an active Xbox Live Gold Subscription. January’s Games with Gold are: Little Nightmares (Jan…
By Riley MacLeod Published December 22, 2020 -
CultureThe PS5 Now Warns You If You’re About To Play The Last-Gen Version Of A Game
After a month of some players accidently playing the older version of new games on their PS5, Sony’s next-gen console now has a feature that fires off a warning if you’re about to load up the PS4 version of a PS5 game. Originally spotted by VGC, the console now asks players to “confirm game version”…
By Ethan Gach Published December 22, 2020 -
Culture7 Games To Play With Your Kids Over Christmas
For parents, the Christmas vacation is, at its best, a fortnight of Sundays. No school, but also everything else is closed, too, and everyone you know is busy seeing family. 2020’s holiday break is, as is only proper for 2020, all of that but even harder. Two weeks of being at home, unable to go…
By John Walker Published December 22, 2020 -
CultureOdds and EndsCyberpunk 1997
Wake the fuck up, Samurai. We have a city to burn. An original PlayStation-era city, courtesy of game developer Anders Lundbjörk’s completely accurate demake of Cyberpunk 2077. We’ve already seen a PS1 demake of Cyberpunk 2077 made in Dreams, but that one was too clean, too sharp, and too functional. I prefer Lundbjörk’s vision of…
By Mike Fahey Published December 22, 2020 -
CultureEVE Online Players Are Calling A Christmas Truce
Two of EVE Online’s biggest factions have been engaged in open war for the last six months, fighting for their continued existence on the server. Tensions are high, and players on both sides of the conflict are starting to show signs of wear and tear. What better way to provide those players a small breather…
By Lee Yancy Published December 22, 2020 -
CultureSource: GameStop Now Accepting Returns Of ‘Defective’ Cyberpunk 2077
GameStop has joined the growing number of retailers that are fully refunding customers who bought Cyberpunk 2077, according to an internal memo acquired by Kotaku The memo instructs GameStop employees to accept Cyberpunk 2077 returns on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, even if the game has been opened, and label the games as “Defective” before…
By Ian Walker Published December 21, 2020 -
CultureTwitchCovid Relief Bill Still Includes Felony Streaming Act, But Twitch Streamers Are Probably Safe
Earlier this month, Republican senator Thom Tillis managed to graft an act that would turn streaming copyrighted material into a felony onto the much-debated omnibus spending bill, which also includes a paltry second covid relief check, among many other things. After even more debate (and many concessions), Congress is poised to pass the bill this…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 21, 2020 -
CultureStardew Valley Just Got Another Massive Update [Update: And It’s Also Out On Console Now]
Pixelated farming sim Stardew Valley continues to grow, this time with a big 1.5 update for PC that adds a bunch of new stuff, including a beach farm map where veteran green thumbs can try their hand at growing crops in the sand. “This update adds some significant ‘late-game’ content to Stardew Valley,” developer Eric…
By Ethan Gach Published December 21, 2020 -
ReviewsYear in ReviewLuke Plunkett’s Top 10 Games Of 2020
It has been a bad year. A bad year with, mercifully, some very good video games. Last year I remember struggling to scrape together even 10 games for my list, so sparse had my good times been, but in 2020 I’ve had no such trouble. And no, it’s not because I’ve been stuck inside all…
By Luke Plunkett Published December 21, 2020 -
EsportsAn Esports Team Signed An 8 Year Old, But Nobody Is Sure If It’s Legal
If nothing else, Team 33 certainly made a splash when it arrived on the esports scene earlier this month. In a press release, the previously unknown organization boasted of a Hollywood team house that had already played host to big names like Janelle Monáe, Post Malone, and Drake. But it wasn’t glitz and glamour that…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 21, 2020 -
OpinionAsk KotakuWhat’s The Best (Or Worst) Gaming Gift You’ve Ever Received?
It’s Monday and time for Ask Kotaku, the weekly feature in which Kotaku-ites deliberate on a single burning question. Then, we ask your take. This week we Ask Kotaku: What’s the best (or worst) gaming gift you’ve ever received? Fahey This one’s easy. For years my family has been conditioned to the fact that if…
By Alexandra Hall Published December 21, 2020 -
CultureAll The Big Games Coming Out In Winter 2021
We made it, everyone. It’s winter 2020, which is really just a couple of weeks of 2020, with the vast majority of game releases coming in the year 2021. What will we be playing as we put the year of hell behind us and move on to what’s hopefully not just more of the same?…
By Mike Fahey Published December 21, 2020
