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CultureOdds and EndsIt Didn’t Take Kingdom Hearts PC Mods Long To Go Off The Rails
Kingdom Hearts III has been out on PC for less than two weeks. Anyway, here’s Thomas the Tank Engine If you’ve played a Kingdom Hearts game before, you can probably already guess what Thomas’ nightmare visage takes the place of: Yep, the tram in Twilight Town. “I wanted to bring in a bit of that…
By Nathan Grayson Published April 13, 2021 -
CultureBlack Is Magic: How Magic: The Gathering Is Transforming One Teacher’s Game Club
On the wall in Mike Lawton’s classroom rests a cardboard cut-out of a Black man. It’s not Martin Luther King Jr. or any other famous Black figure from history—it’s a mage—dark skinned and powerful-looking as a spell shoots from his fingertips. It’s Teferi, one of Magic: The Gathering’s most powerful main characters known as Planeswalkers,…
By Ash Parrish Published April 13, 2021 -
CultureFortnite Says Ahoy To Horizon‘s Aloy
Aloy, the protagonist of robot-dinosaur-busting game Horizon Zero Dawn and its upcoming sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, is the latest crossover character to join Fortnite. She’ll be playable starting April 15. Aloy’s addition is part of Fortnite’s “Primal” season, which added crafting, wildlife, and a new biome to the game. It also saw the death of…
By Ari Notis Published April 13, 2021 -
CultureCrusader Kings III Will Soon Let Modders Create Same-Sex Marriages
While Crusader Kings III shipped with the ability for characters to have a same-sex relationship, that could only happen behind the scenes, with concubines and marriage reserved for a man and a woman. After feedback from fans and modders, that’s about to change. As part of a blog post outlining some changes to the way the…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 13, 2021 -
OpinionImpressionsThe Year Is 2021 And I Just Played A New Official Halo 3 Map
The Master Chief Collection’s latest season, Season 6: Raven, launched last week on April 7 for Xbox and PC. I’ve been busy with Outriders, so I didn’t get to check it out until now. This update adds a lot, but the most exciting new piece of content is a new map for Halo 3 The…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 12, 2021 -
CultureOutriders Can’t Catch A Break
It’s been a long week-and-a-half for the loot-shooter Outriders, a game rocked by eleven days of missing functionality, server issues, and player uproar. The latest wave of problems started Friday afternoon when developer People Can Fly pushed out a patch for PC and PlayStation consoles, with an Xbox version to follow at a later, unspecified…
By Ari Notis Published April 12, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsTomorrow’s PS5 Beta Is A Great Reason To Get Into Final Fantasy XIV
Intrigued by how much players love Final Fantasy XIV but unsure how to get started? The game’s open beta for the PlayStation 5 starts tomorrow, promising sharper graphics, faster frame rates, and shorter loading times than the PlayStation 4 version. All that plus a generous free trial makes this week a good time to get…
By Mike Fahey Published April 12, 2021 -
CultureOutriders Bug Is Still Costing Players Dozens Of Hours Of Lost Progress
Outriders had a few bugs at launch, like most online games do, but the worst was one that simply wiped player’s inventories, robbing them of hours of progress. A big patch went live over the weekend to fix the game and…that bug is still there, only now it’s costing players a lot more progress since…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 11, 2021 -
CultureWitcher 3 Fans Build A New Quest With Perfect Geralt Voice Acting
A Night to Remember is a brand new, fan-made quest for The Witcher 3, set after the events of Blood & Wine, and while I’m keen to check out new writing and new battles, I’m also interested in the AI tech being used here to simulate the trademark sounds of Doug Cockle, Geralt’s voice actor.…
By Luke Plunkett Published April 11, 2021 -
ReviewsBacklogAmid Evil Is A Good Shooter That Doesn’t Need Guns
Amid Evil is a wild, weird, and wonderful retro-inspired FPS that ditches the traditional shooter arsenal of pistols and SMGs in favor of more exotic weapons. Like a magic staff that shoots planets or a sword that flings waves of energy. Almost two years ago former Kotaku writer Heather Alexandra wrote about Amid Evil and…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 11, 2021 -
CultureEpic CEO Tim Sweeney Is Very Excited About The Epic Games Store Losing A Ton Of Money
Epic is going to lose at least $330 million as a result of all those Epic Game Store exclusives and free games. But on Twitter, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney considers this an investment and seems surprisingly excited about losing hundreds of millions of dollars. This information was spotted and reported by PC Gamer from new…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 11, 2021 -
CultureI Want To Go On Vacation In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
This week on Snapshots, some empty areas, a few bits of urban sprawl, a nice looking car, a superhero shot, and a lovely landscape from Assassin’s Creed. I mean, once I’m fully vaccinated and I’m allowed to leave the United States. And I get the money saved up. I also guess I have to figure…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 10, 2021 -
ReviewsBacklogNo One Warned Me About Hitman 2’s Cutscenes
Over the past few months, I, late to the party, have fallen head over heels for the new Hitman trilogy. Pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to, including several Kotaku colleagues, have said Hitman 2 is the best of the three, or at least the one I should play first. They did not mention how jarring…
By Ari Notis Published April 9, 2021 -
ReviewsBacklogI Finally Played Quake 4 Last Week And Have Already Forgotten Most Of It
Quake 4 has essentially been forgotten in 2021, and most folks are fine with that. Even id itself seems willing to let it rot away in some forgotten morgue, with the official Quake collection on Steam omitting Quake 4 entirely. But I was curious. Was Quake 4 really that bad? And if so, what went…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 9, 2021 -
Tips & GuidesTips For Playing Outriders
At first glance, Outriders might look like a game you’ve played one thousand times: a sci-fi third-person shooter in which you shoot stuff to get better gear in order to shoot more stuff. But there are plenty of quirks, making this loot-shooter more complex than you might think. Since the game’s early-April launch, a few…
By Ari Notis Published April 9, 2021 -
ReviewsMultiplatformOutriders: The Kotaku Review
Outriders isn’t what I was expecting. In the lead-up to launch, it looked like one more Destiny-like looter shooter to toss on the pile. But while it does have looting, shooting and even online co-op, Outriders isn’t just another live service game. In a lot of ways, it feels like an experiment to blend looter…
By Zack Zwiezen Published April 9, 2021 -
OpinionImpressionsOddworld: Soulstorm Has More Heart And Less Farts
My name is Abe, and I have to save my friends. I’m locked in a multi-level, two-dimensional room. In the distance, I see my buddies, all 200 of them, climbing a ladder that will lead them to safety and where. they can reach the lock that will free me. Suddenly, a loud crackling noise alerts…
By Ash Parrish Published April 9, 2021 -
CultureWhat Are You Playing This Weekend?
The weekend is for playing a 20-year-old action RPG classic with a substantial glow-up. Unless you’re not in the Diablo II: Resurrected alpha test. Then you should probably play something else. I’ve been fiddling with Diablo II: Resurrected’s alpha since yesterday and shall continue to do so over the weekend. So far I’m quite pleased.…
By Mike Fahey Published April 9, 2021 -
ReviewsBacklogOnly After I Embraced My Doom Did Abadox Reveal Its Charms
I’ve been playing a lotta Nintendo Entertainment System lately, partially to make sure RetroArch’s workin’ fine on this new PC, and also just because I’m jonesin’ for some simple, classic fun. Natsume’s 1989 shooter Abadox was one of the first new-old games that came to mind, so I took it for a spin. Abadox (longplay)…
By Alexandra Hall Published April 9, 2021 -
CultureThat Dusk Puzzle Game? Not Actually An April Fool’s Joke
Dusk, the decidedly old-school first-person shooter from 2018, is getting an even older-school demake that riffs on classic puzzle games like Chip’s Challenge and Sokoban. And no, this isn’t a joke, despite first word of its existence having dropped on April 1. Dusk ’82 has everything you’d expect from a Dusk game—shotguns, cultists, explosions—except now…
By Ian Walker Published April 8, 2021