Kotaku
The PlayStation 5 Got Some Great Games In 2021 But Not Much Else
Who would have guessed that one of the most eye-catching video game consoles ever made would also be one of the least exciting?
KotakuKotakuThe Ten Biggest Kotaku Posts Of 2021
A year ago, many of us had never even heard of NFTs, and Alex Trebek was the only _Jeopardy!_host most of us had ever known. Well, a lot has changed since then. Relive a time before we knew what a disaster the remastered _GTA_trilogy would be. Reminisce about how we all got that song from the Ankha porn video in our…
KotakuOriginal Splinter Cell Being Remade By Far Cry 6 Devs
After refusing to do anything meaningful with the Splinter Cell license in the years since 2013’s Blacklist: Aftermath, Ubisoft seems to haTve heard the fans’ plaintive cries because it’s decided to bring sneaky spy Sam Fisher back in a new remake of the original 2002 Xbox classic.
KotakuBob Ross Died Fighting Profit-Driven Vultures Only For Them To Turn Him Into A Funko Pop NFT
Beloved painter Bob Ross died in 1995 due to complications from lymphoma, but before he passed away he made it very clear to the world that he didn’t want his likeness used for profit. But recently, Pop figurine maker Funko went in on the hot new digital grift by turning turned Ross into an NFT that’s purchasable on…
KotakuEverything Shown At Today's Nintendo Indie Direct
Nintendo aired a 20-minute Direct showcase today, focusing on third-party games from independent developers. Those holding their breath for news of Hollow Knight: Silksong will, sadly, have to continue holding their breath. Still, Nintendo packed a whole lot of announcements in not a whole lot of time. Here’s…
KotakuS.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Wants To Turn You Into An NFT, For Some Reason
In video games, non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are no longer relegated to the realm of underperforming Ubisoft games and Peter Molyneux’s fever dreams. One of the spring’s ballyhooed Xbox shooters, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl, will feature NFTs, developer GSC Game World announced in a press release today. Big…
KotakuIndie Studio Forms First Video Game Union In The Country
Developers at Vodeo Games, the indie studio behind this year’s excellent turn-based pinball RPG Beast Breaker, revealed over at Polygon today that they’ve unionized. Management at the studio is voluntarily recognizing the newly formed group, called Vodeo Workers Unite, making it the first of its kind in the video game…
KotakuThe Best Video Games Of 2021 So Far
Let’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,…
KotakuDeathloop Redefines Blackness In Video Games
Good Black characters in gaming are rare, and extraordinary Black characters are even more so. Despite the gaming industry continually improving in its portrayal of Black characters, protagonist or otherwise, it still struggles with the concept. I, like most Black gamers who have long had to deal with games that…
KotakuGenshin Impact's First Full Year: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
It’s been a little over a year since miHoYo launched Genshin Impact, and in that time the game proved that it wasn’t a one-off fluke (or a Breath of the Wild clone). The developers continued to add new characters, features, seasonal events, and regional updates. Many of the new updates centered around the…
KotakuMakoto Shinkai's New Movie Revealed
Makoto Shinkai, the writer and director of Your Name, has revealed his latest project. It’s called Suzume no Tojimari (Suzume Locking Up The Doors), and it will be released in Japan in fall 2022.
Above is the key art for the upcoming film.
Suzume no Tojimari follows a 17-year-old girl named Suzume who lives in a quiet…
KotakuDead By Daylight's Next Chapter Will Feature The Ring
Koji Suzuki’s 1991 novel The Ring was adapted into a hit Japanese film, which was later remade by Hollywood. Next year, The Ring (aka Ringu) is teaming up with survival horror game Dead By Daylight.
KotakuBroken Arrow Is Trying The Whole Modern RTS Thing Again
The RTS genre as we know it, or at least the popular perception of it, is dominated by its most traditional efforts, the kind of base-building-then-rush approach seen in everything from Command & Conquer to StarCraft. That’s not the only way to play an RTS, though.
KotakuSix Years (And One Bethesda Problem) Later, Shadow Of The Colossus Tribute Is Finally Out
It was all the way back in 2015 that I first wrote about a game called Prey For The Gods, an indie homage to Shadow of the Colossus. Six years later, with a name change along the way, the game is now out.
KotakuReloading Everyday Stuff Like Video Game Weapons Is Immensely Satisfying
Whether it’s Call of Duty or Battlefield, one of the low-key nicest parts of a shooter can be just watching (and listening to the KAH-CHUNK sounds of) the player reloading various weapons. This video by Kommander Karl is a compilation of exactly that kind of action, only it’s a man reloading toasters, smoke alarms and…
KotakuTwitch's 'Pay-To-Win' Boost Feature Doesn't Actually Help People, Surprising No One
It seems Twitch’s controversial “pay-to-win” Boost feature is a bust. There was no positive impact for streamers who took part in a test of the Boost feature, according to a data analyst who crunched the numbers.
KotakuHalo Infinite's Battle Pass Is Adding Better Challenges That Are Perfect For The New Playlists
In a newHalo Infinite update released today, developer 343 Industries is again tweaking the way battle pass challenges operate. This time, the first-person arena shooter will see an assortment of new challenges introduced, while some existing ones are being removed, all in an effort to alleviate the frustration…
KotakuUbisoft Devs Don’t Understand Company’s NFT Push, Either
Last week Ubisoft revealed its new NFT tech platform, called Quartz, and it didn’t go well. The announcement that_Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint_would be the first game to implement cryptocurrency-backed items was downvoted on YouTube over 40,000 times. Now it turns out even many developers at the Assassin’s Creed…
KotakuAxe-Wielding Man Locked People Inside Arcade, Smashed Games In Two-Day Rampage
On the evening of Sunday, December 14 a patron of the Sea Cave Arcade and Bar in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans allegedly began covering a vintage arcade cabinet with stickers from a supermarket price gun. When arcade owner Judah Lea asked him to leave, the customer responded by asking if he was “interested…
KotakuThe Top Ranked Steam Games of 2021, According To Users
Forget awards shows and press accolades. The top games of the year are really determined by player behavior. And if you want to see what people are playing, and loving, there are few places better than Steam, which was apparently dominated this year by a mix of games you’ve definitely heard of alongside some that may…
KotakuHalo Infinite Players Keep Jumping Off The Edge To Victory
You may have seen it too: In a recent match of Halo Infinite—specifically, the oddball game type—a player runs toward the edge of the map and leaps to their death. This isn’t some furtive gesture of inner bravery. Rather, it’s a bona fide strategy for victory, and it’s annoying AF.
KotakuGenshin Impact Condoms Are Real And Fans Want Them
Ever since Genshin Impact’s developers legally sanctioned the commercial production of fan merchandise, I’ve been seeing all sorts of unusual Genshin products pop up on the internet. I thought I’d seen it all after the Zhongli titty mousepad. I had not. I nearly burst a gut laughing when a friend linked me to these…
KotakuSocialist Twitch Streamer Banned For Calling White People ‘Cracker’
Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch considers “cracker” a serious racial slur, a fact many only learned this week after socialist streamer Hasan Piker and others were banned for saying it. This latest bizarre moderation decision comes months after protests for Twitch’s failure to protect streamers of color for…
KotakuA Year Later, It Still Sucks Getting A PS5 Or Xbox Series X
We’re more than a year into the ninth console generation, and it’s still largely a pain in the ass to get one. No matter where you go, whether it’s Microsoft and Sony’s official websites or any of the many retailers, both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S appear constantly sold out. Unless you’re privy to console…
KotakuDuring A Preview, Forspoken Devs Described Their Black Protag In Cringe-Inducing Ways
When I was scheduled for a preview of Forspoken, formerly Project Athia, there were three questions I was pressed to know. One, how the team went about handling the portrayal of its Black protagonist. Two, what the gameplay was like, and three, how _Forspoken_stands out among other fantasy action role playing games.…
KotakuThe New, Chill Xbox Game Pass Titles You’ll Probably Download Over Winter Break
For its final update of the year, Xbox Game Pass is getting some of the best adventure games in recent memory, including Firewatch and Broken Age. But, like the strangest charcuterie station you’ll hover around next week, they’re paired with debatably the least chill game of the past few years: Mortal Kombat 11. …
KotakuThe Most Broken Games Of 2021
Let’s be honest: 2021 saw a number of games get released in a pretty shameful state. None were nearly as busted as the catastrophe that was—still is?—CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, but this year’s crop of broken games was atrocious all the same. And though some eventually got patches that fixed various issues,…
KotakuThe Switch Had An Uneven 2021 Despite Outselling The Competition All Year
The Nintendo Switch had a pretty odd 2021, all things considered. This has been a bit of a slow year, and it is no wonder why. Developers were thrown into panic, as most of us were, by 2020’s covid-19 outbreak. While this did slow things down in 2020, a lot of games released that year were already mostly complete when…
KotakuDragon Ball Voice Actor And Narrator Joji Yanami Dies At 90
Joji Yanami was a mainstay in the Dragon Ball franchise. During his career, he voiced a number of Dragon Ball characters, as well as serving as the anime’s narrator. His agency Aoni Production announced that the veteran voice actor passed away on December 3 at the age of 90.
KotakuNew Cloning Glitch Found In Pokémon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl
Earlier this month, the Ver. 1.1.2 update was released for Pokémon Brilliant Diamond And Shining Pearl. It might have fixed the known cloning glitches, but another one has been found.