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If The NES Had A Screensaver, It Might Look Like This
Alter Dark is a new project that lets you create your own screensavers out of NES ROMs. It was put together by Rachel Weil, an NES homebrew expert and glitch enthusiast, and recently shown off at NodeConf EU in Dublin. For Weil, it combines two of her favorite things: messing around with NES software and…
By Ethan Gach -
The Call Of Duty: WWII Fiasco vs. The Star Wars: Battlefront II Mess: The Comparison We Had To Make
Call of Duty: WWII and Star Wars: Battlefront II are two giant games that have somehow both managed to spawn clusterfucks surrounding their release. It’s only natural that we try to do a thorough accounting of which one fucked up more. Activision’s WWII had massive server issues at launch leading the series’ most diehard fans…
By Ethan Gach -
Super Hexagon Developer’s New Game Creates Surreal Worlds Through Typing
“Type stuff in, see what happens!” is Terry Cavanagh describes his latest game, Constellation. It’s a simple pitch that belies a mind-bending journey of free association. The free, browser-based PC game was commissioned and created for Now Play This 2017, a small alternative gaming festival hosted at the Somerset House in London. For an art…
By Ethan Gach -
Players Are Having A Lot Of Fun With Vaulting On The Battlegrounds Test Servers
A recent update to the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ test servers has added vaulting and climbing. The game’s island is now part morbid death trap and part playground for extras in an 80s buddy cop movie. I say that because vaulting in PUBG is almost exclusively about anxiously climbing over things the way you might if, like…
By Ethan Gach -
Bungie Details Destiny 2 Curse Of Osiris’s ‘Infinite Forest’ And ‘Raid Lair’
Today on a livestream, Bungie showed off footage and discussed some details surrounding Destiny 2’s next DLC, Curse of Osiris, which comes out December 5. Curse of Osiris will include “new raid content” and a new area called the Infinite Forest. The Infinite Forest is actually a simulation created by the Vex. Referred to by…
By Ethan Gach -
The mysterious new fighting game from Akira now has an official name and it’s…Fighting EX Layer There’s also a trailer. Akira Nishitani, the developer behind Fighting Layer andStreet Fighter EX announced the news over at PlayStation Blog. The game is also getting a two week beta test on PS4 starting December 11.
By Ethan Gach -
Russian Military Uses Video Game Screenshot To Allege US Support For ISIS
A post on the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation’s Facebook page earlier today purported to show photographic proof that the US was aiding ISIS fighters in Syria. It turns out that one of the photographs included was from a video game. According to the post, Russian air power was used to help Syrian…
By Ethan Gach -
It Happened To Me: I Kept My Redbox Game For Way Too Long
I just got totally owned by my local Redbox. I thought I was beating the system by enjoying a new game at a fraction of the cost of buying it. As it turns out, I’m a Redbox whale: one of those poor sops who’s helping prolong the company’s slow decline because I can’t keep track…
By Ethan Gach -
Report: Nintendo Making Animated Mario Movie With Studio Behind Minions
Nintendo is in talks to bring Mario back to Hollywood, according to a report today by the Wall Street Journal The paper reports that Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures are close to reaching a deal with Nintendo for an animated Super Mario Bros. movie. Illumination is the company behind Despicable Me—which foisted Minions on the…
By Ethan Gach -
Someone’s Making A Spiritual Successor To Theme Hospital
On the back of the recent revival of management sim games, a new studio out of Prague has decided to tackle healthcare with an upcoming game called Project Hospital As the name suggests, the game revolves around building and maintaining a hospital. Players will focus on identifying diseases, researching cures, and treating as many patients…
By Ethan Gach -
Culture
This Week In Games: It’s Star Wars Season
Pew pew. We’re about a month out from The Last Jedi, which Disney is apparently so thrilled about they’ve decided to give director Rian Johnson his very own Star Wars trilogy to do what he will with. Until then there’s Star Wars Battlefront 2, the first game since Disney purchased the license to feature a…
By Ethan Gach -
The New Wave Of Indie Arcade Cabinets Continues To Look Beautiful
Fewer and fewer new releases find their way into arcades these days. Even the latest version of Street Fighter, a series synonymous with the scene, ended up forgoing an official arcade cabinet having settled instead solely on the virtual arena of online multiplayer. Fortunately, there are still people trying to preserve the feeling of local…
By Ethan Gach -
Looking Back On The Promise Of Second Life
A year before World of Warcraft came out, Linden Lab released Second Life, a virtual world that was supposed to be an alternative to this one but became for many a hopeful replacement. Over a decade later it looks archaic and feels almost quaint, but for the hundreds of thousands who still live part-time there,…
By Ethan Gach -
Guy Celebrates Super Mario Odyssey With 148,777 Falling Dominoes
It took him two months to set them all up with different configurations including everyone from Bowser to Pauline because Nintendo has a way of making people do weird things. This isn’t TheDominoKing’s first rodeo by any means. He was at itlast year as well putting together small scenes from Super Mario World with just…
By Ethan Gach -
Unlocking Heroes In Star Wars Battlefront II Could Take A Long Time [Update]
Players who have been spending time with Star Wars Battlefront II pre-release trial period have already started trying to calculate how long it would take to unlock every hero in the game without paying money and the results aren’t pretty. By some estimates, the likes of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader could take close to…
By Ethan Gach -
Culture
Sunday Comics: Nesting With Sin
Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics that usually occurs on Sunday except when it doesn’t. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published November 10. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published November 6. Read more…
By Ethan Gach -
It’s Impossible To Separate Cuphead From The Era That Inspired It
Cuphead is a beautiful looking game with tight controls and grueling combat that culminates in game unlike many others. But as a throwback to the animation of the early 20th century, it finds its muse in a troubling past it never gets around to actually confronting. There’s a famous saying often attributed to Sigmund Freud…
By Ethan Gach -
Culture
Player Collects Every Super Mario Odyssey Moon In A Single Sitting
It took Okikurume just over 17 hours to collect every moon in the latest Mario game. He completed this feat of focus and determination late yesterday and is now the world record holder for doing so. Lots of players have been racing one another to try and beat Super Mario Odyssey as quickly as possible.…
By Ethan Gach -
This ad for the Nintendo Switch shows how great it would look without bezels. Actual Switches have a thick border around the edge of the screen with plastic underneath. The one advertised by German hypermarket chain Real does not. With smartphones all chasing edge-to-edge displays, it would be great to see Nintendo’s first re-design of…
By Ethan Gach
Ethan Gach
I'm a senior reporter who's been writing about games and internet culture at Kotaku for almost 10 years. I cover everything from company earnings and player boycotts to emerging trends in gaming like AI, creator economies, and the changing console landscape. You can share story and news tips securely and anonymously at [email protected] or over Signal at +12673263042.
Ethan Gach's posts