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New Microsoft Flight Simulator DLC Adds Dune Buggies🤔

Sure, Microsoft Flight Simulator is a robust and impressively realistic video game dedicated to recreating the feel of flying an airplane around the world. But what if you flew by some sick-looking hills or ramps and wanted to hit them in a dune buggy? Well, now a new DLC from a third-party developer can help.

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Cyberpunk 2077 Dev Says The Game Was A Lesson In Avoiding Crunch

Callous, crunch-heavy work culture keeps shaking the games industry, but it seems like some developers are at least trying to safeguard against it. Colin Walder, a CD Projekt Red engineering director with over a decade of AAA audio programming experience, discussed game industry leadership during Inven Game Conference…

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Super Mario Bros. Wonder Leaks Online, Raise Your Spoiler Shields

Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the latest 2D platformer from the masters of the form at Nintendo, is due out this week, on October 20. So it’s unfortunate news for both the Japanese gaming giant, and everyone who wants to avoid spoilers, that it’s already leaked online.

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Like A Dragon Gaiden Won’t Include a Key Feature At Launch

Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, the upcoming spinoff in Sega’s Yakuza series, is set to release on November 9. But unlike several recent games in the franchise, it will not launch with an English dub version. Instead, English audio will come to the game in a post-launch update. Sega has yet to…

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The Best Retro Console Creators Are Making A Nintendo 64

Analogue, maker of retro consoles for games from the SNES to the Game Boy, are back with their most ambitious project yet: a Nintendo 64-compatible machine called the Analogue 3D.

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Bethesda Exec Pete Hines Leaving Company After 24 Years

Bethesda publishing head Pete Hines is retiring from the Starfield developer after 24 years, he announced on Twitter (or X) on October 16. Hines’ decision comes only a few days after Microsoft, which owns Bethesda Game Studios, was rubber-stamped to complete its $69 billion Activision Blizzard buy.

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Spider-Man 2: The Kotaku Review

Being Spider-Man never gets old. The rush of swinging like a pendulum through Times Square, the thrill of pirouetting through a high-stakes crime bust, the satisfaction of watching a chorus of tiny Spidey gizmos wrap up another band of bad guys with elegant ease—even after completing everything there is to do in Marvel…

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Pokémon Has A Reseller Problem, And It’s Only Getting Worse

On September 28, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam opened its doors with an exciting new display inside. That day, visitors would delight in new, featured artwork based on Vincent Van Gogh’s iconic paintings, but with a Pokémon twist. Or at least, that was the idea. However, rather than fans happily enjoying the…

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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Matt Mercer Is Vincent Valentine

Today at New York Comic Con, it was revealed that voice actor Matt Mercer, perhaps best known as the Dungeon Master of popular actual-play webseries Critical Role, will be starring as gunslinger Vincent Valentine in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second chapter in Square Enix’s ongoing remake of the classic ‘90s…

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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Fan Theory Hints At A Major Story Change

As Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s February 29 release date grows ever closer folks are getting antsy about seeing beloved characters like Cait Sith (pronounced “Kate Sihth,” apparently) Vincent Valentine, and Cid party up with Cloud. Although creative director Tetsuya Nomura has already confirmed that the aforementioned…

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How GTA Online’s Halloween Update Made A GTA V Urban Legend Real

Grand Theft Auto Online’s latest update unleashes ghosts across the world of Los Santos, letting players track down and photograph them for rewards. And one of these ghosts might look kinda familiar if you’ve played GTA IV’s Lost and the Damned DLC

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In The Year 2023, One New Wii U Was Sold

The Wii U was certainly not the most successful console Nintendo’s ever released, and while some may fondly remember it in 2023, at least one person actually bought a brand new Wii U from a store as if it was 2013 all over again.

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Kaiju No. 8 Anime Comes To Crunchyroll Spring 2024

At New York Comic Con on October 13, Crunchyroll announced Kaiju No. 8, a popular Shonen Jump sci-fi monster fighter series, will come to the anime streaming service exclusively next spring.

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PS5 Slim Is A Lot Smaller Than We Thought

Earlier this week, Sony officially revealed the smaller and sleeker PlayStation 5 “slim.” Sure, the console looks a hell of a lot thinner than its gargantuan predecessor, but the PS5 slim’s white void-ass production shot doesn’t do gamers any favors in guesstimating exactly how much space they’d save by purchasing the…

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Every Franchise Xbox Now Owns After Buying Activision

On October 13, Microsoft completed its nearly two-year-long process of consuming Activision Blizzard King. And while it will take months and years for Xbox and all the parties involved to sort everything out and start bringing past Activision Blizzard games to Game Pass, for now, we can tally up everything Microsoft…

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Starfield Planet Schrodinger III Is The XP Farm You’ve Been Dreaming Of

A Starfield player on Reddit noticed recently that the temperate, agreeable planet Schrodinger III is “made of XP,” something the sci-fi role playing game’s players are increasingly stumbling upon on their own. The planet—and the entire Schrodinger system it belongs to—is heavy with resources, making it a great place…

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Microsoft And Activision Just Revealed Their Biggest Weakness

If you haven’t heard the news already, Xbox finally closed its Activision Blizzard acquisition deal to the tune of $69 billion. With this move, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is getting ousted at the beginning of the year, all while getting a golden parachute of $400 million. Well, at least the silver lining in all this…

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Sonic Superstars’ Early Reviews Wish It Would Pick Up The Pace

Sonic Superstars has developer Sega journeying all the way back to the beginning of the Sonic franchise, remembering when it was born in 1991 in the 2D tropics. Like nostalgic platformer Sonic Mania did in 2017, Superstars devoutly walks the same path as Sonic the Hedgehog and its early ‘90s sequels. But unlike Mania,…

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Hands On With Halo Infinite’s New Forge AI Toolkit (It’s Awesome)

Forge, Halo’s in-game map creator, has appeared in every mainline Halo game since Halo 3, allowing fans to bring back beloved older maps, fashion creations of their own, or just create unique, quirky experiences within Halo’s timeless and tweakable sandbox. Once season five of Halo Infinite launches, however, players…

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The 9 Best Pokémon TCG YouTubers To Follow

Anyone surprised by what manages to become popular on YouTube clearly hasn’t been paying attention. From magnet fishing for trash, to trampolining off high platforms, there’s a channel with over a million subscribers for everything. So it shouldn’t shock anyone that when it comes to watching other people open Pokémon…

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Microsoft Asks Controversial Activision CEO Bobby Kotick To Stay For Two More Months

Longtime Activision Blizzard CEO, Bobby Kotick, is almost gone, but not quite yet. Nearly two years after over 1,000 of his employees called on the controversial executive to resign, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer confirmed that Kotick will remain the head of the Call of Duty publisher until the end of 2023, to…

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Kotaku’s Weekend Guide: 6 Games To Escape From Reality With

Another weekend draws near, this time preceded by a Friday the 13th, in October of all months. Spooky vibes for sure, but if you’re looking to ward off some bad luck, might I suggest playing some video games?

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Microsoft Closes Activision Blizzard Acquisition, Making Call Of Duty Officially Part Of Xbox Now

The video game industry just got a lot smaller. The long and winding saga of Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard has finally come to a close with the companies announcing the completed merger today following one last greenlight from regulators in the UK. Call of Duty is now part of Xbox and the…

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Hold Onto Your Butts, Microsoft's Massive Activision Blizzard Deal Is Finally Happening [Update]

Twenty months after it was first announced, Microsoft’s unprecedented deal to buy Call of Duty and Candy Crush publisher Activision Blizzard for $69 billion appears to have beaten its final boss. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority revealed on Friday that it has provisionally approved the tech giant’s latest…

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EA’s Next Soccer Game Is Turn-Based And Looks Like An RPG

EA’s next soccer game is going to be a bit different than most of its countless sports releases. That’s because, unlike FIFA or Madden, its upcoming FC Tactical is a turn-based RPG-like soccer game featuring magical-seeming special moves. Weird, but intriguing!

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Take A Tour Through Halo Infinite's Newest Arena Maps

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Diablo IV’s Season 2 Patch Notes Are Over 10,000 Words Long

Diablo IV’s second season, the “Season of Blood,” is set to go live next week, bringing with it some big changes that Blizzard hopes will improve the action-RPG and bring back players. And while we’ll have to wait to see if Patch 1.2.0 can pull that off, I can at least tell you that, yes, update 1.2 is massive, with…

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Dragon Ball Daima Is The Newest DBZ Series And Toriyama Is Back

Today at New York Comic Con, Toei Animation announced a brand-new Dragon Ball anime series coming next fall.

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Bayonetta Creator 'Over' PlatinumGames, Starts YouTube Channel Instead

After announcing that he would do so late last month, Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya left his job as vice president at PlatinumGames on October 12. And the very same day he became free of the studio he’d co-founded, he also hard-launched a new YouTube channel, “Hideki Kamiya Channel.” Its first and only video (which…

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Xbox Series S Starter Bundle Might Be Best Gaming Deal Of 2023

Microsoft’s getting ready for the holiday shopping season with a new Xbox Series S bundle that includes three months of Game Pass Ultimate at no additional cost. When you consider how many great games are available on Game Pass and how solid the tinier Xbox Series S is as a console, this new starter bundle might be…

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