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Ubisoft Pestering Far Cry 6 Players For Not Playing Enough
27.10.2021
One of the bleakest things about modern video gaming is the way major publishers are obsessed with not just gaining your attention but keeping it, holding it trapped and exposed to their monetary ecosystems for as long as humanly possible while they do everything they can to bleed you dry.Read more
Spirit Halloween’s Video Game Costumes Are Pretty Good, Actually
26.10.2021
It’s not too late to pick up a Halloween costume—well, so long as you’re down to go as a character from a popular video game. Kotaku (that is, I) recently visited a local Spirit Halloween (“the world’s #1 Halloween store!”) to get a sense of the gaming-themed costume offerings you can expect...
Blizzard Cancels Online BlizzCon 2022
26.10.2021
It’s been a rocky couple of years for Blizzard’s annual fan celebration, with the 2020 and 2021 shows canceled due to the ongoing covid-19 epidemic. Now, as fallout continues from the California lawsuit over the studio’s culture of abuse, discrimination, and harassment toward women, Blizzard...
Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack Would Be A Terrible Deal, Even If It Worked Properly
26.10.2021
As Nintendo’s roll-out of the upgraded Nintendo Switch Online goes so very poorly, there’s a bigger question hovering over it all: even if it had launched with working controllers, functioning control schemes, and no input lag, would it be worth the price? And the answer is, from pretty much...
Players Have A Ton Of Complaints About Nintendo Switch Online’s N64 Games
26.10.2021
Nintendo 64 games finally became officially playable on Nintendo Switch Online last night and they run...less than stellar. Almost immediately, social media started filling up with examples of technical shortcomings, emulation woes, and button layouts that prove there is no god. It once again calls...
You Can Finally (Finally!) Suspend Your Returnal Runs
26.10.2021
It only took 179 real-world cycles, but Returnal, history’s glossiest Blue Öyster Cult music video, will finally let you close the game without erasing your progress. Developer Housemarque revealed the news of a “suspend game” option—easily the most-requested feature among fans—in a video detailing...
Metroid Dread Speedrunners Are Beating The Game In 90 Minutes Flat
26.10.2021
There comes a time in every game’s life-cycle when speedrunners crack the code, and a baseline time against which to compete reveals itself. Now that we’re a few weeks removed from the release of Metroid Dread, such a benchmark has crystallized: The game’s fastest players are racing from start...
Pokémon Unite Hides Score To Stop Players From Rage Quitting, Devs Say
25.10.2021
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been in the thick of a Pokémon Unite match, feeling good about my team’s chances of winning, only for the timer to countdown to zero and reveal that we actually got wrecked. According to makers TiMi Studio Group, that’s by design.Read more
Halo Infinite’s Craig, Once A Laughingstock, Now Looks Better Than Ever
25.10.2021
If any single character is a visual shorthand for Halo Infinite—more than Master Chief, more than Cortana, more than...that other AI—it’s Craig the Brute. A screenshot of his character model served as evidence for the game’s supposed graphical shortcomings last year. He showed up again during this...
Halo Infinite's Campaign Finally Re-Revealed, And It's Looking Much Better
25.10.2021
After what’s felt like an infinity of waiting, we finally have an idea of what Halo Infinite’s campaign will look like. Developer 343 Industries re-revealed the mode for the first-person shooter in a digital showcase today. Take a look:Read more
Intel Says CPU And GPU Shortages May Last Until 2023
24.10.2021
Bad news to folks out there trying to get a new console like the PS5 or a fancy, more powerful graphics card for their aging PC. According to Intel, the ongoing semiconductor shortage will continue to make it hard to find and buy new electronics well into 2023. Read more
GTA Has A Weird History On Nintendo Consoles
24.10.2021
Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest, most popular video game franchises in history. It has sold millions of games across nearly every platform released since the PS1 and courted more controversy than perhaps any other video game series ever created. And it’s done all this while mostly avoiding...
Destroy All Humans! 2 Remake Skipping Old Consoles So Devs Can Create Bigger, More Detailed Maps
23.10.2021
The devs behind THQ Nordic’s Destroy All Humans! 2 remake, out sometime next year, explained recently in an interview why the remake of the cult classic game is avoiding PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. The team decided to go for bigger, more detailed open world levels on next-gen consoles instead...
Someone Put OLED Switch’s Durability To The Test
23.10.2021
Nintendo’s new, updated Switch is selling well and looks great. But if you are lucky enough to find one this year, you might want to buy a screen protector for it as one YouTuber has discovered the Switch OLED screen is very soft and easily damaged by objects like coins or keys.Read more
Every Far Cry Game, Ranked From Worst To Best
23.10.2021
Way back in 2004 a then-unknown developer called Crytek released the first game in what would become the Far Cry series, wowing players with its impressive visuals and sprawling, outdoor maps. Crytek moved on to creating the Crysis series, Ubisoft bought up Far Cry and continues to make new entries...
Flipnote Studio Creations Find New Life On Crank-y Playdate Handheld
23.10.2021
Although it won’t officially be in our hands until later this year (if you got in on the first wave of pre-orders, that is), Panic’s unique Playdate handheld is already being poked and prodded by folks lucky enough to score a dev unit. One such developer recently shared a neat little project that...
The GTA Trilogy Remasters Look Great, But Shouldn’t Replace The Originals
23.10.2021
Today Rockstar finally showed footage of the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy remasters and they look surprisingly good, but also very different from the original games. This has raised concerns about erasing the series’ past, and also called to mind the fragmented state of game preservation.Read more
Square Enix Is Removing The Hated Denuvo DRM From A Bunch Of Games
22.10.2021
Square Enix patched the controversial digital rights management and anti-cheat software Denuvo out of Nier Replicant, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider earlier this week. Read more
Epic Games Faces Backlash After Ending Popular Time-Off Policy
22.10.2021
Epic Games, creator of the massively popular and lucrative battle royale Fortnite, decided to end a popular policy of allowing staff every other Friday off earlier this week. According to a new report by Bloomberg, which a source corroborated for Kotaku, the move angered staff who were caught...
What Happens When AI Tries To Review A Video Game
22.10.2021
It’s a comment I’ve seen hundreds of times, or variations of throughout my time here at Kotaku: internet complaints about the quality of reviews. “A bot can do better than this,” some would cry. So let’s put that to the test.Read more