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The Division 2’s Secrets Were Developed In Secret, Even In The Studio

The development team behind The Division 2 might have been literally and figuratively Massive, but the riddles sprinkled into the game for players to solve were concocted by just four people, according to creative director Julian Gerighty. Those riddles have been the most prominent example of a batch of mysteries woven into a game that…

Fallout 76 Player Turns Their Camp Into A Disco For Mutant Cows

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Flames bursting out of the walls of a haunted church. A labyrinth funneling vault dwellers into the clutches of a hungry Deathclaw. And now this: a disco full of Brahmin getting down and getting electrocuted. As GamesRadar points out, some Fallout 76 players have become obsessed with Brahmin,…

New Windows Game Bar Does Spotify, Friends And Memes

The Game Bar is what pops up when someone presses the Windows key plus G while playing a game on a Windows PC, giving quick access to screenshot, capture, and streaming tools. Now it does a bit more: Friends lists, messaging, Spotify access and the ability to drop funny text on screenshots. Or just regular…

Change To EA’s Community Management Safety Policies Was Badly Needed, Sources Say

The video game giant Electronic Arts says it is improving its systems for elevating safety and harassment issues that emerge from its player communities in order to ensure the company addresses them. The changes have been a long time coming and are desperately needed, sources tell Kotaku “Recently, we’ve updated our escalation procedure for all…

Islanders Is Almost The Perfect City-Building Game

When I first saw Islanders last month, I thought it was going to be very chill, but also barely a game. I was only half right. The chill part is definitely right. This is a very light and breezy game, its beautiful colour palette and lo-fi soundtrack making it the perfect thing to boot up,…

Fan-Made Overwatch Mode Makes Players Rely On Each Other To See

Overwatch is a game where visual language is paramount to keep the fast-moving action readable. Characters, for example, are designed so that their unique silhouettes are eye-popping even from far away. It also helps to be able to see anything literally at all—something you really come to appreciate when 90 percent of the screen is…

This week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen digs into some of the behind-the-scenes and after-effects of our BioWare reporting. We also talk about the brilliant Baba Is You, Sekiro, and Phoenix Wright. You can listen to the show on your favorite podcast provider or right here:

Invisible Beetle Is The Key To A New Donkey Kong Country 2 World Record

One of Donkey Kong Country 2’s best speedrunners, who goes by V0oid, recently took first-place in the game’s 102 percent category, completing and collecting everything in the game in 1:26:28. He’d been working on it for months, but was able to shave a full nine seconds off the previous record thanks to a newly discovered…

It turns out Game Boy shells make great dioramas. Reddit user trythisfuckingone recently shared pictures of Zelda and Pokemon nature scenes recreated with used Game Boy cases they ordered online and combined them with some faux-grass and tree miniatures

I Video Gamed So Hard That I Broke My Xbox Elite Controller

I don’t have many strong feelings about video game controllers, except for this: The Xbox Elite Controller is the most comfortable thing on the planet. It’s a highly customizable and reliable option for any video game enthusiast. But last night, I encountered a problem. The shoulder button broke, turning limp and useless. My Elite controller…

Me (Tim Rogers) and Gita (Jackson) are streaming The Sims (4) “Black Widow Challenge,” in which our Sim must meet, marry, cheat on, and then kill people. To you this may sound sick. To me it sounds like Thursday. Join us, loudly, in the chat!

We loved Runic Games’ Hobwhen it came out for PC and PS4 in 2017. Now Hob: The Definitive Edition is out for the Switch, and it’s just as lovable. Panic Button’s Switch port of the open-world adventure runs very well, and includes Switch exclusive features like HD rumble and touch screen support.

Ubisoft’s Starlink Won’t Get Any New Toys

Ubisoft’s 2018 game Starlink: Battle for Atlas gives players a choice between purchasing physical toy spaceships, pilots and weapons to use in-game or paying substantially less for purely digital versions. It looks like the digital version won, as Ubisoft announced today there will be no more physical toys created for the game. While there are…

A new opinion piece published in The New York Times today calls for video game developers to unionize. Momentum is building. (The author of said piece might look familiar.)

Respawn Entertainment has fixed the problem which had caused players to lose all of their progress following yesterday’s patch. The studio said it was a server-side issue and that everything that was lost should now be restored.

BioWare Boss Addresses Studio Issues, Vows To ‘Continue Working To Solve Them’

The head of BioWare addressed a Kotaku report on the studio’s cultural issues yesterday afternoon, acknowledging that “these problems are real” and promising that it is “our top priority to continue working to solve them.” On Tuesday, Kotaku posted an investigation into what had happened behind the scenes on Anthem, a story that also dived…

A Super Nintendo World is also reportedly opening at Universal Studios Singapore sometime between 2020 and 2025. The theme park will also open at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka next summer and at Universal Studios Hollywood sometime after that.

Making Peace with Buddha. Tian Tan Buddha, Hong Kong. By Martin Tan. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!   

Minecraft With Fancy Lighting Looks Great

Sonic Ether’s Unbelievable Shaders is a shaderpack that adds the kinds of effects we normally associate with ray-tracing— like light that’s able to bounce off other objects—to ol’ blocky-ass Minecraft, and do it while you’re playing in real-time. It’s not technically ray-tracing (he’s actually using path-tracing), but the effects are still incredible. Here are some…

Destiny’s Books of Sorrow Changed Its Lore For Good

“Video game lore” seems like an oxymoron, at first. “Lore” suggests mystery, something known only to a few. Yet here we are, drowning in the stuff. So much of it taken for granted that it’s often a surprise when we look at a game’s lore and notice, like we did with Destiny five years ago,…