Culture

Dragon Ball FighterZ Gets Harsher Penalties For Rage Quitters

The latest Dragon Ball FighterZ update includes a new system that will impose harsh penalties on those who rage quit, in an effort to stem the tide of players disconnecting from online matches. According to an in-game news bulletin, players who “deliberately disconnect” from an online match will be restricted from entering online lobbies for…

PS5 Will Only Be Backward Compatible With PS4 Games, According To Ubisoft [Update]

A new support page about the transition to next-gen consoles over on Ubisoft’s website appears to confirm that PS3, PS2, and PS1 games will not be backward compatible on PS5. “Backwards compatibility will be available for supported PlayStation 4 titles, but will not be possible for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, or PlayStation games,” the support…

Mysteries Are The Heart Of Control

Control originally presented itself to me as a mystery. It was a new game from Remedy, the favorite development house for those of us unnaturally attached to Alan Wake and Max Payne, and it took place in some kind of shadowy government facility. I remained gracefully unspoiled and uninformed until I launched the game, and…

Platforming roguelite Scourgebringer is leaving Early Access on Steam and coming to Xbox One and Switch on October 21. It’s a bit like Celeste with twitch hack’n slash combat. You can read our impressions here.

My Son And I Are Trying To Learn Pokémon Go In 2020

Four years ago, the entire population of planet Earth played Pokémon Go. Niantic’s mobile AR game fell perfectly into the timeline, with large-screened phones sporting decent cameras being far more affordable, and VR/AR being the buzziest of attention-grabbing bees. Also, it was actual magic: You could walk around your own local streets and fields, capturing…

How’s It Going? Bill And Ted Edition

Be excellent to each other and welcome back to our daily open thread, dudes. Two movies came out this past weekend. One, New Mutants, only came out in theaters, forcing folks to brave movie theater crowds during a global pandemic in order to be horribly disappointed. The other, Bill and Ted Face the Music, launched…

The Week In Games: Avengers Assemble!

It’s time to grind for gear and beat up bad guys. Marvel’s Avengers comes out this week on PS4, Xbox One and PC. Our own Mike Fahey didn’t love the beta for this upcoming superhero game. I wasn’t as down on it, but I also found myself hoping the full game has more to it.…

Shadowgate’s Simple Melodies Conjure Danger And Unease

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. The deadly adventure game Shadowgate was an unlikely hit on the NES, and I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest its tremendous soundtrack played a role in that. Shadowgate was originally a…

Track: Cathedrals of the Mind | Artist: Doves | Album: The Universal Want

And Now For Some Incredible Ciri Cosplay

Narga, who we last saw on this site mastering Warcraft cosplay, is now doing the same for The Witcher 3. This Ciri is just perfect, from the outfit to the scars. All photos by KIRA (who also took those amazing Last of Us 2 shots a few months back). And if you’re a cosplayer and…

Sony Is Going To Bring More Games To The PC

So far, we’ve seen Horizon Zero Dawn and Death Stranding make the jump to PC, with varying levels of success. But they won’t be the last first-party Sony titles to make the jump, according to the company’s corporate report. Sony’s full year corporate report was published over the weekend Australian time, and as always it…

Call Of Duty Cheat Makers Now Very Sorry After Activision Threatens Them

CxCheats, a small company that sells cheats and trainers for a variety of games, will no longer be offering Call of Duty services after receiving legal threats from publisher Activision. They would also like to “apologize for any pain we’ve caused to players of Call of Duty.” The company posted this notice on their private…

Track: Caution | Artist: The Killers | Album: Imploding The Mirage

That’s One Good Looking Capybara

Age of Empries III: Defintive Edition comes out October 15 and it updates the classic RTS with new and improved 4k visuals and modern features like crossplay. But it will also include some HD capybaras. I didn’t realize I wanted HD capybaras until now. Look at that original capybara compared to the new one. It’s…

‘Shop Contest: Lonely Crash Bandicoot

Gamescom’s Opening Night Live event happened earlier this week. It had a few game announcements, some new trailers, and other stuff. But it also provided us with a haunting image that summarizes 2020 in a single photo. Your challenge this week: Put sad Crash in images. Within the fiction of Opening Night Live, Crash had…

Sunday Comics: Adorable

Hello! It’s time for Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published Aug. 27. Read more of Corpse Run Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published Aug 24. Read more of Awkward Zombie Clueless Hero by…

Ubisoft Apologizes For Tom Clancy Game Imagery That Suggests Black Lives Matter Is Part Of A Terrorist Plot

Today Ubisoft announced it will remove raised fist imagery from the opening cinematic of its new mobile game, Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad, following widespread criticism that the game’s intro plays on right-wing conspiracies about the Black Lives Matter movement. Elite Squad, which came out on iOS and Android earlier this week, begins with a narrated…

‘Shop Contest: King Shark, Winners!

If you are a fan of comic book character King Shark, last week was a treat. We got two different and new versions of King Shark announced at DC’s online FanDome event. One from the new Suicide Squad movie and one from the new Suicide Squad game. So to celebrate, I asked you all you…

Some Heads Are Gonna Roll

This week on Snapshots: Control’s latest DLC just came out and it seems a lot of folks are going back to the game and taking some cool screenshots. Of course, we also have more Ghost of Tsushima photos too! One day people might stop taking great pics of that game..but that ain’t today. And some…

The People In Ghost Of Tsushima Need To Clean Up All The Corpses

Imagine you are visiting a quiet little inn or village out in the countryside. The sun is up. The sky is clear and life is good. You are happy. And then you round a corner and you see a dead body just lying in the middle of the place, with people walking around and going…