Culture

Xbox Series X Launches In November

Until today, we only knew that the next Xbox, the Xbox Series X, was coming out sometime later this year. Now we’ve got a firmer date: November. Microsoft made the announcement as part of a post also acknowledging Halo Infinite’s delay to 2021. “We have plenty to keep you busy until Chief arrives: There will…

Halo Infinite Delayed To 2021

343 Industries has announced that Halo Infinite will launch in 2021, missing its original “holiday 2020″ release window. “The decision to shift our release is the result of multiple factors that have contributed to development challenges, including the ongoing COVID-related impacts affecting us all this year,” studio head Chris Lee explained via Twitter. “I want…

Post-Mixer, Popular Streamer Shroud Is Returning To Twitch

Last year, noted man with godlike aiming skills Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek was among a handful of top Twitch stars who shocked viewers by departing the Amazon-owned platform for Microsoft’s Mixer. In June of this year, Mixer suddenly died. Now, after a couple months of silence, Grzesiek is returning to Twitch. Grzesiek spent the past couple…

Inscryption Is The Next Game From Pony Island Creator Daniel Mullins

This morning, Pony Island and The Hex creator Daniel Mullins unveiled his next trippy video game, Inscryption Mullins described the game as an “inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie.” Watching the reveal trailer, I find it hard to disagree with any of…

Fall Guys Has A Hacker Problem, But Developers Are Starting To Issue Bans

The struggle against hackers is never-ending even for mega-studios like Epic, Valve, Blizzard, and Riot, so when Fall Guys kicked down the doors to the zeitgeist treehouse, it was inevitable that hackers would worm their way in, as well. Now developer Mediatonic is dealing with one of the downsides of overwhelming success. Hackers, at this…

After a year of Apple Arcade exclusivity, Cornfox & Brothers’ Zelda-riffic sequel, Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm, is coming to Nintendo Switch this fall. Where the original Oceanhorn is more of a Windwaker-esque affair, Oceanhorn 2 is a full-on open-world action RPG shades of Breath of the Wild.

Maneater Players Get To Be Garbage-Munching Tiger Sharks For Shark Week

Not only do players of completely accurate aquatic murder simulator Maneater get to mutate into the garbage-munching tiger shark for Shark Week, they get to do so with a skin that makes them look like the tiger shark member of the band KISS. Look at that mighty beast. The tiger shark is one of the…

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 Delayed To 2021

What’s another year to the eternal undead? Last night, under the cover of darkness, Paradox Interactive and Hardsuit Labs delayed the long-awaited follow-up to Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines once again, this time from 2020 to 2021. According to the message shared on the game’s official Twitter last night, it’s the developer and publisher’s pesky quality bar…

Sega Mega Drive Super Medley Leaves You Wanting More

Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we check out an album of energetic Sega Genesis / Mega Drive medleys that hit 15 years ago, almost to the day. I happen to own a copy of Sega Mega Drive Super Medley…

Sibling Rivalry

Jessica Oyhenart is an artist at Riot Games, developers of League of Legends and Valorant You can see more of Jessica’s stuff at her ArtStation page

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Has The Best ‘Squeezing Through Narrow Passage’ Moments

I, uh, have to make a confession: I like those moments, now ubiquitous in modern gaming, where you squeeze through narrow passageways that obviously exist just to hide asset loading. Not sure why, to be honest. Maybe it’s Freudian? In any case, what I do know is that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has the…

A Fall Guys Video Has Made My Soul Leave My Body

If this happened to me I would simply never play video games ever again.

Max Payne Killed Over 2000 People In 11 Years

We’ve all got a lot more time on our hands as we wait for new consoles to come out and the planet to stop burning around us, so why not spend that time constructively? Like working out just how many people Max Payne manages to kill over three video games. SEX-POSITIVE GAMER have crunched the…

What Is The Forbidden Book, And Other Blaseball Questions Answered

As the baseball season hobbles on like a drunken three-legged cat with rickets, fans in search of an organized sports fix have found a new sensation on which to hyperfocus: Blaseball. Blaseball (and I’m going to kill my autocorrect function before this piece is over, I swear) is what would happen if the delightfully twisted…

New The Last Of Us Part II Trophies Tease Grounded Mode, Permadeath [Update: Naughty Dog Explains]

The Last of Us Part II has a couple new trophies that indicate the impending arrival of both Grounded mode and a permadeath option, both of which should make the game exponentially harder. Grounded mode first appeared in 2013’s The Last of Us as a heightened difficulty level made available post-release. Although Naughty Dog hasn’t…

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Streaming Beta Starts Tomorrow

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will be able to start playing a limited number of Game Pass games streamed to their phones as part of a new xCloud beta starting August 11. “[W]e’re entering a limited beta period to ensure a smooth transition of the cloud gaming experience to the Xbox Game Pass app on…

Fall Guys, As Told By Steam Reviews

I think it’s pretty safe to say that 2020’s flavor of the month, of the year, is here. Fall Guys is a tail-grabbing, bean-flinging phenomenon. It’s managed to turn Twitch, Steam, and PS4 into its own personal game show stages, with millions watching and playing. This might be a stretch on my part, but it…

James Might Actually Be Looking At You In The Silent Hill 2 Intro

Silent Hill 2 is pretty damn creepy, but nothing prepared me for a possible new discovery in the game’s opening cinematic. A little over a week ago, an interesting image was posted to the Silent Hill subreddit. By brightening a screenshot of the iconic mirror scene in Silent Hill 2’s intro, the original poster said,…

Ubisoft Finally Puts Female Eivor In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Reveal Trailer

Last Friday, Ubisoft quietly put out a remixed version of the cinematic trailer it used to reveal Assassin’s Creed Valhalla back in April. The big difference? This version features the female Eivor, one of two versions of the game’s hero who had originally been shown-off via a collectible statue and a couple of screenshots. “Watch…

Slime Climb Should Never Be The First Fall Guys Round

Fall Guys is the game of the moment. Everyone, including myself, is absolutely enamored with these terrifyingly talljellybean friends competing to see who can win at this game show battle royale. Games are divided into rounds of mini-games, some of which are definitely more fun than others. One game that is always bad, though, is…