Kotaku
It was the best of games, it was the worst of games. 2021 was another year where we flocked to our gaming consoles and computers for shelter from the virus-ridden world outside. While there were plenty of good games to play this year, there were also those so bad that they made everything more horrible. Let’s scrape…
Kotaku
Today, one of the largest companies in the world, Tencent, announced it acquired Turtle Rock Studios, the developers behind the recently released zombie shooter_Back 4 Blood_. The deal is just the latest in a long list of acquisitions over the last few years for the Chinese tech giant, including at least five in 2021…
Kotaku
Halo Infinite may have launched without the series’ ever-popular co-op feature, but an innovative player has discovered a glitch that makes playing locally with a friend possible, albeit in a limited capacity.
Kotaku
When Halo Infinite’s recurring “Fracture: Tenrai” event comes back in January, it’ll be significantly more generous with its rewards. That’s according to 343 Industries’ head of design, Jerry Hook, who said as much during the company’s holiday community stream on Twitch earlier this week.
Kotaku
Niantic’s recently declared intention to better communicate with Pokémon GO players isn’t exactly going well. In the last week, trainers have realized that they’re all being charged different amounts for a particular item in the game’s store, without being told why. And Niantic’s explanation to us isn’t great.
Kotaku
2021 was a helluva year for games. Some of it good, most of it bad, and a handful of it truly disappointing, particularly around preserving older titles. Games deserve to be played in their entirety forever, regardless of when they came out, yet this year saw so many of them unceremoniously delisted by publishers…
Kotaku
Japan is the home of Final Fantasy. It’s not only where the games are developed, but where some of FF’s biggest fans reside. Yesterday, Square Enix announced that it would be halting the sale of Final Fantasy XIV and yanking ads due to server congestion. I’m sure you have lots of thoughts about this—so do folks in…
Kotaku
In a first for the super group, BTS performed two of its biggest hits in Minecraft. If you’ve ever wondered what the square-headed, blocky version of your favorite member looked like, now you know.
Kotaku
Last week, Kickstarter made a rather terrible announcement: the crowd-funding platform would be switching its services to the blockchain, somewhere it absolutely does not need to go, but feels compelled to anyway by the lure of...something. Probably money.
Kotaku
This time last year a group of investors filed a class-action lawsuit against CD Projekt Red over Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous launch, saying the game was “virtually unplayable on the current-generation Xbox or Playstation systems due to an enormous number of bugs”.
Kotaku
STALKER 2 developers GSC Game World announced yesterday that they’d be adding NFTs to the game. Public reception was, as you’d imagine, not kind.
Kotaku
Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ days as a virtual nudist colony are no more. Nintendo has released a patch fixing a glitch that caused villagers to walk around their island paradise in their fuzzy birthday suits.
Kotaku
Grand Theft Auto Online’s relationship with GTA V’s timeline and narrative has been weird for years, thanks in large part to continued free expansions that sometimes contradict past updates or events. However, that hasn’t stopped Rockstar from trying to connect GTA Online and GTA V’s narrative and the latest DLC…
Kotaku
Thanks to the ongoing covid threat, 2021 was another banner year for sitting inside your house playing with lovely bits of colored plastic and cuddly plushies. That being the case, we thought we’d rustle up our picks for the best action figures, playsets, and building toys of the year, everything from transforming…
Kotaku
Today, publisher EA released its annual “Year in Gaming” report, which details player behavior from across its portfolio of games. Most of the data are relegated to the realms of sports games, Apex Legends, and The Sims 4, but there are some juicy tidbits for Mass Effect fans, too—specifically, the survival rates of…
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In an industry that can all too often feel like it wants to wring us of every last drop of money, there’s a special pleasure in noting those most entertaining of freebies: the games hidden inside other games. For instance, did you know the original Animal Crossing was crammed with classic NES games? We’ve rounded up…
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Apparently, the rivalry between Twitch and YouTube is so cutthroat that Twitch has dipped into revisionist history with some of its former streamers. Ludwig, DrLupo, and TimTheTatman were removed from Twitch’s end of the year celebratory recap event.
Kotaku
Video games had a lot to be sorry for in 2021, from the usual screenshot apologies over delays and busted launches, to things that actually matter like years of reported workplace abuse. Don’t worry though, everyone’s trying to do better.
Kotaku
You may have seen me writing tons of Genshin Impact blogs around here, and that is definitely a free-to-play game that I think is outstanding and deserving of extensive coverage. However, there are actually tons of other great free-to-play games in the mobile gaming ecosystem, too.
Kotaku
Grand Theft Auto Online’s latest update, The Contract, is a great reminder of just how much time has passed since GTA V’s 2013 release. Now, over eight years later, Franklin is an older and richer man running a Los Santos company dedicated to helping the rich and famous with their problems. And he needs your…
Kotaku
Face it: The past year has been…not great. Over the course of 2021, the global temperature rose at a once again alarming rate, Marvel released not one but two panned films, and we’ve all gotta come to terms with the sobering realization that this covid-19 pandemic might never fully end. A fitting timeline for a year…
Kotaku
Halo games have always encouraged the player to go where they’re not supposed to go. Halo Infinite, which saw its campaign hit Xbox and PC last week, is no different. Free advice: If you haven’t done so yet, scale the Tower. It’s a fun climb, and you get a terrific view, but you’ll also unlock the IWHBYD skull, an…
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Yusaku Maezawa, the billionaire who founded Japanese internet fashion retail site Zozotown, is the first space tourist to visit the International Space Station in a decade. The entrepreneur told AP that his self-funded trip “pretty much” cost over $80 million. While in space, he’s done a PR stunt for Uber Eats, showed…
Kotaku
Endwalker is Final Fantasy XIV’s biggest expansion yet. Lots of people want to play it. That’s a good thing, yes? Usually! But the servers are getting congested to such a point that Square Enix is temporarily halting digital and retail sales.
That’s right, FFXIV is so popular that Square Enix is suspending the sale of…
Kotaku
A week after a major report from _IGN_detailing troubling allegations of workplace culture, crunch, and hiring practices within Bungie, the studio’s Head of HR has stepped down from her role.
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On tonight’s feature we’re showcasing the art of Ami Thompson, who has worked on movies like Ponyo and Across The Spiderverse.
Kotaku
The Embracer Group, a collection of companies like Gearbox, THQ Nordic and Deep Silver, announced today that they’re in the process of trying to buy Asmodee, perhaps the single biggest name in specialist board gaming, for €2.75 billion (USD$3.1 billion).
Kotaku
Like clockwork, players of Halo Infinite’s free-to-play multiplayer mode are bristling at the price of a cosmetic item. But wait! It’s different this time, I promise. For one, the backlash comes on the heels of a positively received slew of changes in Halo Infinite. For another, it’s only partially due to the price…
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The scene early on in Grand Theft Auto V where Lamar stands outside Franklin’s aunt’s house and has a moment has entered meme folklore, to the point where the actors responsible recently re-filmed the sequence as homage.
Kotaku
Elden Ring isn’t coming out until February 25 of next year, but that hasn’t stopped modders from adding some truly hilarious content to the game. Thanks in part to the newfound ease of jailbreaking the PS4, one modder was able to add Grand Theft Auto San Andreas’ iconic protag Carl “CJ” Johnson to the previously…