Kotaku
Yesterday, Microsoft surprise-released Halo Infinite’s multiplayer mode on Xbox and PC—albeit in a beta state—weeks ahead of its planned December 8 target. Feedback thus far is largely in lockstep: Hot damn, this shooter is fun to play, but, um, what’s up with the more-withholding-than-a-rich-parent battle pass? And…
Kotaku
Earlier this year, an email was sent to all employees of Activision Blizzard from the email account of Chief Compliance Officer, former Executive Sponsor of the ABV Employee Women’s Network and former Torture Apologist Fran Townsend. Sent in the midst of historic allegations of harassment against the company, it was …
Kotaku
Social media is aflame with demands that video game industry exec Bobby Kotick resign from his position as CEO of Activision Blizzard in the wake of reporting from The Wall Street Journal about his own terrible treatment of women. Leading the charge are Activision Blizzard employees themselves, who are planning…
KotakuGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — Definitive Edition may have shredded some signature tunes from the series’ radio stations, and may, in just about every conceivable way, make the descriptor of “Definitive” sound like a joke, but—at the very least—you can still make an invulnerable, wiggly, and constantly swelling car…
Kotaku
Fandom, the company that now hosts a solid majority of video game and other pop-culture wikis, recently updated its “community creation policy” with a new section stating that it will no longer host pages that contain “fetish” content. Thanks to this policy update, the Monster Girl Encyclopedia Wiki, a compendium of…
Kotaku
Amongst the latest wave of troubling revelations to come out of Activision Blizzard, the Wall Street Journal reports that former exec Jennifer Oneal’s incredibly brief stint as co-head of Blizzard ended due to her being “tokenized, marginalized, and discriminated against.”
Kotaku
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick claimed to be in the dark about widespread allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination that surfaced at the company earlier this year, but according to a new bombshell report by The Wall Street Journal, Kotick wasn’t just aware of the misconduct, he was also involved in…
Kotaku
Dragon Ball villains Cell, Buu, and Frieza might not be much of a threat to Super Saiyan God Goku With Cheese, but to normal, non-fighting characters they’re downright terrifying. Bandai Namco harnesses that terror in Dragon Ball: The Breakers, an asymmetrical survival game that pits seven non-powered players against…
Kotaku
While Fortnite’s Naruto crossover was teased on Twitter last week, the developers finally confirmed the details of the collaboration today. Starting right now, players can purchase costumes of Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi from Naruto Shippuden. Yes, at long last, Sakura can make short work of Sasuke with a…
Kotaku
Did you just eek out a nail biting victory in a Big Team Battle Slayer match? Bash a bunch of your fellow Spartans’ heads in with a flaming skull in Oddball? Capture a ton of objectives in Total Control, putting big numbers on the board for all your PVP comrades to see? Halo Infinite’s battle pass does not care. It…
Kotaku
As threatened back in September, the lovable childhood heroes known as the Neopets have turned to the dark side, transformed randomly into a series of non-fungible tokens and sold to folks interested in owning their own small slice of the death of our planet. Of the 10,000 tokens created less than half were purchased,…
Kotaku
It’s hard to believe, I know, but there are other games coming to Xbox that don’t start with Halo and end with Infinite. Over the next two weeks, Microsoft will add 10 more games to Xbox Game Pass. Here’s what’s struck me: I’ve been watching these rollouts like a hawk for several years. For the first time I can…
Kotaku
Dying Light 2 was announced all the way back at E3 2018. A lot has happened in the three years since, including multipledelays and the departure of RPG writer/designer Chris Avellone from the project following sexual harassment allegations. Now set to come out in February 2022 (alongside a bunch of other games) Dying…
Kotaku
Rusty Lake, the studio, have for years been creating some of the spookiest, most bizarre, and engrossing puzzle games. Becoming known for their incredible series of (free) short mobile games, Cube Escape, they then moved into full-length Lynchian creep-fests like Rusty Lake Hotel, Rusty Lake Paradise, The White Door,…
Kotaku
Companies around the world are worried about chip shortages. But in Japan, if you like convenience store fried chicken, add another worry to your list. Family Mart is running low on its delicious Famichiki.
Kotaku
In 2019, there was a global manhunt for the manager of manga piracy site Manga-Mura. The manager, a Japanese citizen named Romi Hoshino, was arrested in Manila on copyright violation charges. In June 2021, he was found guilty, sentenced, and fined. If you thought that was the end of Japan’s piracy crackdown, you were…
Kotaku
I’ve reviewed a _lot_of video game adaptations as part of my board game coverage for Kotaku. As you’d expect, since this is first and foremost a video game website. Some of those adaptations have been OK, some have been pretty good, but I haven’t played any quite like Company of Heroes before.
Kotaku
The good news first: EA’s classic Skate 2 is one of the over 70 games coming to the Xbox Series X/S’s backwards compatibility list. The bad news? It’s going to be missing its online multiplayer shortly afterwards, because EA is turning off the game’s servers next month.
Kotaku
Earlier today, Star Fox received a patch that allows the 1993 Super Nintendo classic to perform as if it was taking advantage of an advanced accelerator chip, boosting its framerate from the single digits to something nearing a more modern game.
Kotaku
In a blog post published last week innocuously titled Ricochet Anti-Cheat Progress Report, the Call of Duty team slipped in some drastic news about how their anti-cheat system is going to work going forwards.
Kotaku
When I nail an MV-38 Condor transport hovering in the lens flare-filled sky with my rocket launcher, Battlefield 2042is awesome. When my squad bursts onto the climate-torn scene in a massive tank, ramming through debris and blowing up abandoned office buildings, it’s a thrill to return to DICE’s militarized…
Kotaku
It’s not always easy to predict which shows will instantly become appointment television. A dark fantasy series based on a half-completed run of novels? Yup! A profane but sardonically humorous soap inspired partially by Rupert Murdoch? Okay, sure! How about an animated prequel for a multiplayer game with more than …
Kotaku
In 2006, quadriplegic video game tester and streamer Randy Fitzgerald helped create “NOM4D,” a button layout for Call of Duty designed for disabled players. At the time, he says, he was told he’d be credited by name in the game, but that didn’t happen. All CoD titles since then have omitted his name too, but kept the…
Kotaku
In my mind, The Legend of Tianding is a perfect gaming experience. Not because it can do everything, or that it allows the player to do anything. It’s perfect because it accomplishes all of its aesthetic and storytelling goals without overstaying its welcome. Despite offering only six story-driven chapters, its gritty…
Kotaku
Today during Microsoft’s 20th anniversary Xbox event, the company announced that 76 new games are being added to the Xbox backwards compatibility library, including the entire Max Payne franchise, F.E.A.R series, multiple Star Wars games, and more. Xbox also announced that some of these classics will support FPS boost…
KotakuLet’s get this out of the way: Given all the ~everything~, simply releasing a game in 2021 is nothing short of a miracle. Every single one deserves a round of applause. But some, let’s face it, are better than others. As summer wraps, we thought it’d be fun to shine a light on the games that have excited us, moved us,…
Kotaku
Among the scores of monsters and traps designed to kill Elden Ring players, an inconspicuous hole in the tutorial area proved to be the deadliest aspect of the game’s preview build.
Kotaku
When Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa isn’t getting banned from Twitch for things like wearing a horse mask and suggestively slurping a microphone, she’s pulling huge viewership numbers month after month. Not only was she Twitch’s leading female streamer for October, she accrued almost as many view hours as the next two…
Kotaku
The item polishing mechanic introduced in the excellent Happy Home Paradise DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons starts off harmlessly enough, giving players a way to add a bit of sparkle to their home furnishings. But when all of the new features’ options are unlocked, including the ability to use custom patterns…
Kotaku
You might want to dust off your fake sneeze. Halo Infinite’s multiplayer component, which was initially slated for a December 8 release, is available today. Microsoft announced the news during Xbox’s 20th anniversary stream. And yes, it’s still a separate free-to-play mode. I’m, uh, suddenly not feeling so hot, boss.