Culture

Bug-Riddled Update Shows Why Fallout 76 Needs A Public Test Server

This week marks eight months since Fallout 76 released as a buggy mess. Since then, Bethesda’s online survival game has improved a lot. But while it has had a lot of good days, the arrival of patch number 11 yesterday was not one of them. Instead, it’s renewed players’ calls for Bethesda to try updates…

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Just Got A Completely Bananas Backstory

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, the 2017 Early Access hit that kicked off gaming’s battle royale craze, has never really had a backstory. Why bother? The appeal was immediate: You’re thrown from a plane with 99 other people onto an island full of weapons. This being a video game, everyone is going to try and kill one another.…

How Japanese RPGs Inspired A New Generation Of Fantasy Authors

When I think back to my childhood and teenage years, when my literary tastes were being forged in the crucible of youthful emotion and impressionism, particular scenes come to life: Sam carrying Frodo up Mt. Doom. The Reaper chasing Wil Ohmsford through the Westland. Marle hugging Crono on top of Death Peak. Most fantasy readers…

Sometimes It’s Nice To Stop Mid-Game And Watch The Players Around You

Yesterday I logged on to Destiny 2 for the first time in a very long while, intent on clearing out a chunk of the massive to-do list my character had accrued since this summer’s Season of Opulence update began. One of my many bounties and challenges involved killing a bunch of Fallen enemies on the…

Nintendo Announces New Joy-Con Colors, Which Look Pretty Damn Nice

This morning, in addition to a new Switch with longer battery life, Nintendo announced some fresh new Joy-Cons. As a plebeian stuck with drab grey controllers, these neon wonder-cons have literally brightened my day. The new Joy-Cons will come in two colors: the somewhat less impressive Blue/Neon Yellow combo and the actually super great Neon…

Playing As Luigi In Super Mario Maker 2 Probably Won’t Help You Complete Levels Faster

Last week, after a few individual level records were broken in Super Mario Maker 2 using Luigi, a question began to form: Was Mario’s lanky brother somehow faster? Was playing as the Big L essential for getting records? After some investigating, there’s now an answer: probably not. Questions about Luigi’s efficacy started after Mario speedrunner…

Nintendo Releasing New Switch Model With Better Battery Life

This August, Nintendo is releasing a new Switch model with a longer battery life. It will be priced the same as the current model and, aside from the improved battery, feature the same specs. The new model’s battery life will last between 4.5 and 9 hours, depending on the game. For Breath of the Wild,…

Track: Mayor Of Simpleton | Artist: XTC | Album: Oranges & Lemons Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment. 

Mike Tyson Says He Just Learned About Balrog In Street Fighter II

In 1991, Street Fighter II was released. Now, in 2019, Mike Tyson just heard about Balrog, a character who also boxed and originally had a name that rhymed with Tyson’s, for the very first time. As EventHubs points out, EPSN asked the former heavyweight champ if he knew the story about the character. Tyson replied,…

Chicago Riverwalk. USA. By Martin Tan | Instagram JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

Holy Shit Jet Set Radio Cosplay

Look! Jet Set Radio cosplay! In 2019! Bless all of these cosplayers and keep them safe until the ending of the earth. This group was at Blerdcon, which was held in DC over the weekend. As he was last year, Legend of Micah was there shooting video, and managed to capture this group outside, who…

Some Cosplay From Germany’s Biggest Anime Con

DoKomi is Germany’s biggest anime show, with over 45,000 people turning up in Düsseldorf last month for video games, panels, music acts and cosplay. So Say We All photography took the trip over from the UK to be there, and was kind enough to share some pics with us (you can see more at his…

A Slightly Different Take On Metroid’s Samus Aran

Trevor Carr, an artist at Riot, has been working on this version of Metroid’s Samus Aran for a while now. Originally wanting to “deviate pretty wildly from the core design,” he eventually settled on something closer to her original appearance, “or you’d lose what was so iconic about that classic look.” You can see more…

When City-Builders Meet Mario Galaxy

Not too long after Islanders, there’s another peaceful, cute-as-hell city-builder on the way, only this times things are on a more planetary scale. This is Before We Leave, “a non-violent city building game set in your own cozy corner of the universe.” “Rediscover and rebuild civilization,” the game’s official description continues. “Create a multi-planet resource…

The Internet Reacts To Hanzo’s Abtacular Summer Skin

We’re once again in the midst of summer’s steamiest months, and you know what that means: Blizzard has made yet another Overwatch character hot. Also, Lucioball is back for the fourth year in a row. Between those two things, it’s unsurprising that it’s Hanzo “Hotzo” Shimada who’s the talk of the balmy beach town right…

Cities: Skylines Map Becomes A Poop-Powered Computer

While it’s impressive seeing games like Minecraft being turned into weird little computers, there’s something about achieving the feat in Cities: Skylines that makes it seem so much more impressive. Daniel Bali has, with the aid of some wind turbines and water pumps, managed to build a very small, very slow “4-bit adder” machine that…

We Debate The Best And Worst Super Smash Bros. Games

Among the greatest video game debates—should hard games lower their difficulties? What’s the best controller?—is one that can make even the most docile Nintendo fan into a belligerent shit: Which Super Smash Bros. games are the very best and the very worst? In the Nintendo series’ 20-year run, Smash has had some major bumps in…

Okay, Seriously, Maybe VR Gaming Is About To Have Its Big Moment

I keep thinking about a video game I played in Los Angeles a month ago that’s what you’d get if the renowned covert ops Splinter Cell series required your character to always be in a kayak. The game is called Phantom: Covert Ops, and it’s pretty cool. The catch is that it’s all in VR.…

Destiny 2’s Latest Exploit Lets You Farm Materials By Doing Nothing

For the entire five-year span of Destiny’s existence as a series, players have been looking for ways to exploit it. Any old Destiny head will speak fondly of the days we had Loot Caves and cheesed bosses without shame. In the pantheon of cheap Destiny exploits, the latest Destiny 2 scheme for scoring loads of…

Joy-Con Drift Is Becoming A Real Problem On The Switch

For months, Nintendo Switch users have been plagued by what’s become known as “Joy-Con drift.” Although they’re not touching the joystick on their Nintendo Switch controller, the console still thinks it’s moving. With no permanent fix being offered by Nintendo, they’re just sick of it. Recently I’ve been doing nothing but playing the upcoming Switch…