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F*ck, Marry, Kill: Mass Effect Party Member Edition
14.5.2021
It certainly says something about the video game industry that the most anticipated release of the year so far is a remaster of a sci-fi RPG trilogy from a decade ago. Mass Effect has some memorable characters—and a lot of less memorable ones, a fact that many people have fittingly forgotten....
Uncharted 4 Has The Perfect Video Game Ending
11.5.2021
It’s the fifth anniversary of the release of Uncharted 4, and while the developers are reminiscing over on Naughty Dog’s site, I thought I’d revisit this 2016 story I wrote about the perfect video game ending.Read more
That’s A Wrap On Backlog Month
8.5.2021
This past month was Backlog Month at Kotaku. April, our thinking went, would be fairly slim in terms of new games, bookended by two blockbusters (Outriders and Returnal) but devoid of tentpoles in the interim. What better time to play the games we already have?Read more
Resident Evil Village's Lady Dimitrescu Was Worth The Wait
7.5.2021
After the internet spent months pining and meme-ing, she’s finally here: Lady Dimitrescu—and also Resident Evil Village, I guess. But was she (and, I suppose, the game) worth all the hype and marketing-driven hoopla? On this week’s village- (and Village-) themed episode of Splitscreen, we find...
Epic Paid $115 Million For The Borderlands 3 Exclusive
4.5.2021
As the bizarro-world bunfight between Epic and Apple enters its second day in court, more extraordinary information is coming out in court documents. Like, how Epic paid Take-Two/Gearbox one hundred and fifteen million dollars for the exclusive rights to sell Borderlands 3.Read more
Sometimes You Just Have To Let Backlog Games Go
23.4.2021
Most of us will probably never play every game we own right now, let alone all the others we’ll buy or download in the future. In that sense, backlogs are like the universe: infinitely expanding and confounding to physicists. Sometimes you just have to make peace—or force yourself to make...
Why Video Game Loot Is So Addictive, According To The Creators Of Diablo
16.4.2021
Colors mean different things to different people, but very specific colors mean the exact same thing to everybody who plays video games. You know the ones: gray, green, blue, purple, and gold. You covet the latter and revile the former. Loot is a universal language at this point, but it wasn’t...
In 2007, Video Game Memes Took A Dark Turn
10.4.2021
Memes. These days, they’re everywhere. They are the pillars upon which internet culture—and by extension, pop culture—stands. But once upon a time, memes dwelled in the internet’s dankest sewers, traded in the darkness by geeks, nerds, and outcasts. On this week’s Splitscreen podcast, we examine...
Harold Halibut, You Have My Attention
7.4.2021
We last saw Harold Halibut at GDC 2018, but the folks at German indie studio Slow Bros. are back with another fascinating preview of this unique game.Read more
Clap Hanz’ First Non-PlayStation Golf Game Is My New Happy Place
7.4.2021
Japanese developer Clap Hanz has been making colorful cartoon golf games for PlayStation consoles since 1999’s Hot Shots Golf 2. The studio’s first non-PlayStation game, Apple Arcade’s Clap Hanz Golf, is more of the same, only now all it takes for me to tee up is a few taps of my iPad screen.Read...
Single-Player Games Are Finally Making A Comeback, Sort Of
3.4.2021
Once upon a time, Shigeru Miyamoto famously said, “A delayed game is eventually good. A bad game is bad forever.” It’s a statement that felt like it would never fall out of fashion, until it did. Modern games are never finished. Bad games become good. Good games become bad. Games of all stripes...
Where Did Gamer Snacks Come From, Anyway?
27.3.2021
There are snacks, and then there are snacks for gamers. Through chalky chemical combinations of dubious repute, they will somehow make you aim better in Fortnite. How did we reach the point where snacks for a hobby that takes place primarily on the couch are basically workout supplements? On this...
John Wick Director Working On A Ghost Of Tsushima Movie
25.3.2021
Sony is developing a movie adaptation of last year’s terribly decent Ghost of Tsushima, Deadline reports. John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski is, you guessed it, directing.Read more
Serious Sam 2 Gets Massive Update 15 Years After Release
23.3.2021
Croatian studio Croteam has partnered with independent developer Nathan “DwK” Brown to release a huge update to Serious Sam 2 today, more than a few years removed from the first-person shooter’s late 2005 launch.Read more
Video Game Companies Keep Coming Up With New Ways To Take Our Money
19.3.2021
Video games are expensive. They have been expensive for a very long time, and they keep getting more expensive. To an extent, it makes sense: Game developers need to eat! But after a certain point, it gets excessive. Loot boxes, gacha, and now NFTs are signs of that excess. On this week’s...
How Plague Inc Evolved Once A Real Global Pandemic Came Along
13.3.2021
Somehow, horrifyingly, it has been nearly a full year since most of us went into lockdown to wait out covid-19. And while there is a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a slowly, confusingly distributed vaccine, we’re still in the thick of it. On this week’s episode of the Splitscreen...
Destiny 2's New Boss Is Turning Players Into Reply Guys
11.3.2021
Much of Destiny’s story exists anywhere but the main game. The version you get from playing through its campaign today is very different from the one that existed only a year ago, and it’s also very different from the one you’ll get having played Destiny for hundreds of hours, soaking up its lowkey...
Grindstone’s Irresistible Hip-Hop-Inflected Tunes Made Me Abandon My Principles
10.3.2021
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s ongoing hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re hacking our way through the music of Grindstone, which was good enough to make a mockery out of my best intentions.Read more
Compare Which Presidents Had the Tackiest Office Decor
8.3.2021
The Oval Office is the closest thing the U.S. has to a throne room. It is the inner-sanctum of the presidency. Most of us know it through news broadcasts, photos published by the news media, and its many depictions in pop-culture, and we know there’s a desk, some flags, a couple couches, and...
Valheim Is Great Because It Doesn't Care About Boring Survival Stuff Like Eating And Pooping
5.3.2021
Survival is a term you hear a lot in video games, but what does it actually mean? For some, it’s all about crafting and base building. Or eating and sleeping. Or razing other people’s bases in the cold, cruel night. For others, it might mean a totally different genre—like survival-horror—or...