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CultureIn Mass Effect Legendary Edition, BioWare Bounces Bootylicious Butt Shots
With the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, the team at BioWare is working on updating graphics and textures and showing a little more love to the first game’s Female Shepard model, to bring her image in line with the rest of the trilogy. The team is also tweaking some camera angles to make things a little…
By Ash Parrish -
CultureOdds and EndsA Traveler’s Guide To The Best Final Fantasy Worlds To Live In
I’m a few days past my Final Fantasy XV blitz and I’m still enmeshed in a quagmire of feelings and emotions. Since finishing the game, I watched Kingsglaive the prequel movie, I’ve considered re-watching the prequel anime, and I’m one retail therapy session away from buying the novel. I’ve already raided Etsy looking for cute…
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CultureOdds and EndsDo Not Touch The Mako!
The Mass Effect Legendary Edition will be out May 14th, and amid the myriad of emotions I am feeling right now, one tidbit of information gives me pause. According to reports on Eurogamer and VentureBeat, in addition to all the fancy graphical bells and whistles BioWare is adding to the eldest of the trilogy, the…
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CultureOdds and EndsFinal Fantasy XV Could Have Had A Much Better Villain
There are a lot of things I love about Final Fantasy XV. Its tale of brotherhood is bar none and representative of some of the best “it’s the little things” storytelling I’ve ever experienced in a video game. But there are, of course, elements I don’t like. In particular, the game’s villain. Final Fantasy XV’s…
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CultureKotaku Game DiaryToo Fast Too Fantasy XV, Finale: I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends
Last night, after just over a week of daily playing, I finished Final Fantasy XV. And I realize now why I stopped so near the end during my first run some five years ago. It was a defense mechanism, my body’s way of protecting itself from the emotions that are going to utterly ravage me…
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CultureKotaku Game DiaryToo Fast Too Fantasy XV: Dawn Of The Final Day
Noctis drains his fifth elixir in as many minutes, rising to his feet as Prompto, Gladio, and Ignis groan on the ground. The aramusha lurks silently, waiting. When Noctis stands, the monster makes ready, body crouched, bony hand on the hilt of its egregiously long sword. “Can’t take much more of this.” Noctis thinks to…
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CultureKotaku Game DiaryI Threw $1,000 Into That Stonks Game Because Why Not
My partner and I spent $1000 on a game yesterday. We didn’t spend it on Pokémon cards, or Fortnite V-bucks, or decide to become whales in Genshin Impact. But, at my insistence, we combined some funds, downloaded the Robinhood trading app, and bought some stock. I mean, why the hell not right? We’ve seen the…
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CultureKotaku Game DiaryToo Fast Too Fantasy XV: Episode Gladio? More Like Episode Bad-io
When I sit down for my daily session of Final Fantasy XV I’m expecting one of two things: A happy-funtime road-trip adventure with my boys, or a sad, emotionally wrought meditation on the bonds of friendship. I am not expecting a horror-suspense thriller filled with stealth mechanics and jump-scares, yet that’s exactly what I got…
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CultureKotaku Game DiaryToo Fast Too Fantasy XV: Planes, Trains, And Wrecked Automobiles
In my epic quest to finish Final Fantasy XV by Friday, I am literally and figuratively on a train that is barrelling toward the final stop. I am in FF15’s endgame—a section of short, brutal chapters that no longer allow you to freely roam the open roads of Eos. Even if I somehow could return…
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CultureOdds and EndsFinal Fantasy XV’s Photo Mode Captures Everything I Can’t
I’m going through Final Fantasy XV before it leaves Xbox Game Pass this Friday. It’s a game about having adventures with your best friends all while on a road-trip to, inevitably, save the world. Playing FF15, in addition to servicing my goal of finally completing beloved games I’ve left half-done, has become therapeutic. The game…
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CultureKotaku Game DiaryToo Fast Too Fantasy XV: Chocobros Vs. The Volcano
Stop the Regalia, I want to get out. In my quest to finish Final Fantasy XV before this Friday, when it disappears from both Xbox Game Pass and my Series S, I’ve reached the point in the game I’ve been dreading. It’s the moment when the story takes a 180-degree turn from lighthearted road-trip romp…
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CultureTevinter Is Nice, But I Hope Dragon Age 4 Visits Rivain, Too
It wasn’t hard to guess that Dragon Age 4 might take place in the Tevinter Imperium. After all, at the end of Dragon Age: Inquisition you stab a big knife through your lovely map table right where the Tevinter Imperium is. Today,Eurogamer wrote that BioWare’s book BioWare: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game…
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CultureMorning MusicNier: Automata’s Soundtrack Is Real Sad-Girl Shit
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re back from our winter break, refreshed and ready to dive into Keiichi Okabe and co’s masterful soundtrack for Nier: Automata I was late to the party with Nier: Automata (playlist / longplay / VGMdb). I…
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CultureKotaku Game DiaryToo Fast Too Fantasy XV: Late, Broke, And Bodied By A Behemoth
In my push to finish Final Fantasy XV before it leaves Xbox Game Pass I had hoped to make up for lost time. Doing the math, I figured I’ll need to cover an average of five hours a day. But after Day Two I only have a grand total of seven hours clocked on my…
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CultureOdds and EndsI Figured Out How Tall The Sexy Resident Evil Lady Is Because Of Course I Did
Oh, Tall Lady, how do I love thee, let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth, breadth, and height so much so that I took great pains to actually calculate your height. First, I downloaded Resident Evil Village’s Maiden demo on PS5. Even in my brightly lit living room, in the middle…
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CultureKotaku Game DiaryToo Fast, Too Fantasy XV: Eight Days To Go
There are eight days left until Final Fantasy XV disappears from Xbox Game Pass and thereby, my Xbox Series S. Yesterday, I embarked on an epic quest to start and finish Final Fantasy XV in the few days remaining, and after Day 1, I’m only [checks watch] three hours in. Oh boy. Technically that number…
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CultureBugsnax Devs Say The Ending Could Have Been A Lot Darker
I’ve been thinking about Bugsnax so much that it feels like I’ve eaten one of the suspiciously addicting little critters myself. It’s been a week since I’ve finished the game and I still catch myself muttering “bunger bunger bunger” as I go about my day. To satiate my hunger for more Bugsnax without actually consuming…
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CultureKotaku Game DiaryMy Nine-Day Final Fantasy XV Blitz Commences Tonight
Let me explain. Final Fantasy XV is one of my “ones that got away”—a game that I deeply enjoyed without ever finishing despite getting very close to its end. One day I just put down FF15 and walked away, like Andy abandoning Woody. Thanks to Xbox Game Pass, however, I have the opportunity to correct…
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CultureKotaku Game DiaryBugsnax Is Mass Effect And I Can (Somewhat) Prove It
I enjoyed Bugsnax far more than I thought I would. At first, it didn’t strike me as my kind of game when I judged it by its saccharine advertising billing it as a cutesy adventure romp in which I would eat my way through an island of colorful foodbugs. The reality of Bugsnax is much…
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EsportsOverwatch League Announces 2021 Season Details
With around three months to go until Overwatch League Opening Day (for which we still don’t have a firm date), the League has released a new video detailing how the OWL 2021 season will play out. Here’s a look at what to expect. Heck Yeah Tournaments! For the entirety of the first and second seasons,…
By Ash Parrish
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