Uncategorized

Six Months After Release, Shadow Of War Will Remove Microtransactions

Middle Earth: Shadow of War, a game whose loot box system helped spark 2017’s backlash against the practice, is removing all forms of real-money purchases later this year. Publisher Warner Bros. announced the move in a community post earlier today, saying: The core promise of the Nemesis System is the ability to build relationships with…

Let’s Take A Leisurely Stroll Across Far Cry 5’s Map

Fun fact: it takes 58:41 to get from the NE of Far Cry 5’s map to the SW, walking the entire way. We know this because How Big Is The Map? walked the whole way and kept the clock running. My God the scenery in this game can be beautiful. If you’d like to see…

An Overwatch Battle Royale Mode Would Be Tricky To Make, Jeff Kaplan Says

Unless you haven’t looked out the window or spoken to Drake recently, you’re probably aware that battle royale mania is sweeping the nation. Jeff Kaplan, director of Overwatch, certainly is. He’s seen the requests for a battle royale mode in his own game, and he’d love to make it happen. It is, however, a taller…

Lord Of The Rings Returns To Total War With Impressive New Mod

Third Age, an old mod for Medieval II Total War, remains one of the best mods you can get for any PC strategy game. It’s about to get some competition, though, from Total War: Rise of Mordor, a new mod that’s now got a playable alpha available you can check out. While both are essentially…

Well, This Was A Pretty Ridiculous Far Cry 5 Bug

As fun as Far Cry 5 can be, it’s definitely got its share of bugs. There are looping lines of dialogue, inconsistent enemy behavior, physics glitches, and a few bugs that straight-up break the game. I ran into a funny one of those a few nights ago. Like a lot of people, I started out…

Another Sea of Thieves player has become a pirate legend. Streamer SniperNamedG achieved the feat this weekend after another streamer controversially first gained the title with help from viewers. There’s plenty of room for two Pirate Kings, right?

Blizzard tried to embed a giant axe in the side of their office building. The developer commissioned a massive replica of Gorehowl, from World of Warcraft, for an ad display. Afterward, it considered plunging the axe into its building in Irvine, California as decoration, I learned while visiting for an event today. Unfortunately, the Irvine…

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, One Year Later

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds released on Steam early access on March 23, 2017. Since then, it has erupted into one of the largest games in the world and expanded with new features and maps. The road has been bumpy, with raucous highs and dire lows. Created by Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene, Battlegrounds is a standalone battle royale game that…

Far Cry 5 Players Are Looking For Bigfoot 

It started with an abandoned cabin on the western edge of Far Cry 5’s fictional setting of Hope County, Montana. There, players found clues to what they now believe are possible Bigfoot locations. They’ve since set off scouring the world for more clues, desperate to see their belief in the supernatural vindicated. Who was Dansky?…

GTA Online’s Car Exploit Is Still Polarizing Players

A few nights ago, I was in a GTA Online stunt race in a packed lobby. Suddenly, I heard another player start losing it. He was upset about something called “curb boosting.” I’d never heard of it before, but as it turns out, some players exploit GTA Online’s physics to push cars beyond their limits.…

Fortnite Mobile Is Out Now For Everyone

You can now officially stop begging people for invites to Fortnite mobile, as the portable battle royale game is now downloadable to anyone on iOS and other Apple platforms. According to Epic, the game will work on “iPhone SE, 6S, 7, 8, X; iPad Mini 4, Air 2, 2017, Pro.” So, if you’re not on…

Pokémon Go Players Are Capturing Mews Under Trucks

Back when Pokémon Red and Blue came out, there was a rumor surrounding the elusive legendary, Mew. As kids around the playground told it, you could find the mythical Pokémon under a truck near the S.S. Anne. The rumor, though pervasive, was complete bullshit. But now, 22 years later, Pokémon fans are technically making the…

Kotaku Reacts To Far Cry 5

Far Cry 5 came out last week, and most of Kotaku are playing it. Here’s a collection of our best stories, tweets, and experiences. Far Cry 5 is a fun, dumb time. While the story isn’t all that deep, the gameplay is engaging enough that I accidentally played it until 6am. Riley MacLeod has been…

Into The Breach Tells Its Story Through Its Characters

Into the Breach depicts a conflict between human civilization and giant alien bugs. Dialogue is scant and world building is pretty minimal. The game is primarily interested in throwing puzzles and tactical obstacles your way. But the game’s mechanics often intersect with its characterizations in interesting ways, and I wouldn’t think about Into the Breach…

What happens when you spend a ton of money on your indie game and then nobody buys it? This postmortem of Where The Water Tastes Like Wine is worth reading for its candor. “So far, I have made $0 from the game.” (Note: Kotaku staff writer Gita Jackson wrote for the game.)

After Ten Years, SpyParty Will Finally Be On Steam Next Week

It’s been nearly a decade since designer Chris Hecker announced the subterfuge multiplayer game SpyParty, and it’s been even longer since he first started working on it. In just a week, short of a meteor strike or other cataclysm, SpyParty will finally hit Steam. Well, technically the April 12 Steam release of SpyParty will be…

StarCraft As We Know It Exists Because Of A Terrible Game’s Demo

StarCraft’s visual style was once very different, and if not for a spectacular demo for a horrible game called Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3, we might still remember it as purple Warcraft In a great piece over at The Ringer, journalist Ben Lindbergh details the making of StarCraft, which came out 20 years ago. The…

Here Are The Biggest Selling Games In Japan In 2017

A few years back, traditional games and game hardware were not doing so hot in Japan. That has started to change. As Kotaku reported earlier this year, the Japanese console game market grew for the first time in 11 years. This came after the Nintendo Switch had an incredible 2017 in Japan. According to Famitsu,…

Politicians Should Always Cosplay As Dragon Ball Characters 

This is Shigeru Ishiba. He was previously Japan’s Minister of Defense. But here he is dressed as Majin Buu from Dragon Ball Ishiba recently appeared at the opening ceremony for the Enkei Gekijou Kurayoshi Figure Museum in Kurayoshi City, Tottori Prefecture. The city’s mayor also dressed up. Politicians should always cosplay as anime characters. If…

Japan’s Best April Fool’s Day Jokes

Today is April 2. But let’s look back to yesterday and round up the best April Fool’s Days gags Japan had to offer. Such as… The Dragon Ball Super vs. Pretty Cure Super Stars mash-up we’ve all been waiting for. Kagawa Prefecture, aka “Udon Prefecture,” is changing its name to Yadon (Slowpoke) Prefecture. Vegetable flavored…