Developer CD Projekt Red is still tinkering with Cyberpunk 2077 ahead of DLC Phantom Liberty’s September release. Case in point: The studio dropped a new patch for the open-world sci-fi RPG on June 20, detailing fixes for a number of bugs, including a few that seem to have been around since day one.
Source: Kotaku – Cyberpunk 2077 Gets Sizable Patch Right Before Phantom Liberty Expansion
Every time I hop into a lobby in Street Fighter 6, it feels like I’m one of the only people who has an avatar that looks just like a regular guy. This game’s character creator is wild, folks. You can create near-perfect recreations of just about anyone, or you can make some weird little guy, and if I’ve learned…
Source: Kotaku – Street Fighter 6’s Lobbies Are Full Of Chaos Freaks, It Rules
Square Enix’s once-abandoned Chocobo racing game, a Final Fantasy spin-off titled Chocobo GP, has received a second chance at life without all the bad microtransactions, which previously ended up nickle-and-diming players for game features.
Source: Kotaku – Square Enix Re-Releases Game Without Its Controversial Microtransactions
Final Fantasy XIV is out on June 22, but you can play the opening prologue for free right now on PlayStation 5. You should. It’s incredible and the only thing I’ve wanted to play since I finished it last week.
Source: Kotaku – I Wasn’t Prepared For Final Fantasy XVI’s Demo To Be So Amazing And Brutal
Xbox announced a new wave of subscription service Game Pass titles in a June 20 blog post, and it looks like late June and early July will be stocked with hidden gems.
Source: Kotaku – The Latest Game Pass Titles Are Mostly Hidden Gems
My fellow slackers, bohemians, and those who’ve made a point of getting through difficult challenges in life by exerting the least amount of effort, I bring you a success story. Recently, a streamer has climbed to the top of Fortnite’s competitive ranks by camping in the bushes and hugging the circle to victory.
Source: Kotaku – Fortnite Twitch Streamer Hits Max Rank By Just Hiding
Kaitlyn Siragusa—you’ll recognize her as variety streamer Amouranth—is leaving behind 6.4 million Twitch followers behind to stake a new claim on livestreaming platform Kick. Like other streamers fed up with poorly communicated changes around stringent monetization rules and an uncomfortable, confusing 50/50 revenue…
Source: Kotaku – Amouranth Follows xQc’s Lead And Leaves Twitch
Not one to be left out of the Big Summer Video Game Revealapalooza, Nintendo has announced it’s holding a Direct presentation this week, and it will feature Switch games coming out in the second half of 2023.
Source: Kotaku – Get Ready For A 40-Min Nintendo Direct For 2023’s Big Switch Games
Five people are currently missing after a tourist sub called the Titan tried searching for remains of the HMS Titanic. We don’t yet know why contact was lost, but the emergency search now underway has people pouring over every detail of the OceanGate Expeditions voyage and how the sub for it was built, including the…
Source: Kotaku – Why The Missing Titanic Tourist Sub Has Everyone Talking About A Cheap Old Gaming Controller
If there’s a big enough data set to pull from, AI can create audio and visual replications of anyone suddenly saying and doing things they’ve never said before. You’ve probably already seen this in action, whether it’s those popular AI TikTok songs that show you what Ariana Grande might sound like singing a Taylor…
Source: Kotaku – You Can Watch AI Trump Vs. AI Biden In An Endless, Unhinged Live Debate
I played the original farming sim Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life on my GameCube religiously as an 11-year-old. I don’t know why I was so drawn to it as a kid. I had no interest in farming in real life, but somehow was transfixed by it in a video game. I married the girl next door Celia, and we raised a son and grew…
Source: Kotaku – This Classic Farming Sim Remake Does Right By Its Queer Fans 20 Years Later
Ruth Bosch is an artist who has worked for companies like League of Geeks and creative studio Volta, and who is now art director at Studio Fizbin, developers of the excellent Say No! More.
Source: Kotaku – Prepare For Trouble, Make It Double
Grimace, an ancient McDonalds character who—recent marketing blitz aside—may be so unknown among younger readers they will actually need to consult a website to find out who the hell he is, has for a very long time had an extensive page up over at the unofficial McDonalds Wiki. Until this week, at least, when…
Source: Kotaku – McDonalds & Fandom Replaced A Wiki Page With An Advertisement
Next Fest is Steam’s triannual event where hundreds of developers upload demo builds of their games for you to try for free. And it’s one of the very few things in gaming that just feels unambiguously positive! Indie sits alongside—or often above—AAA, nothing is about gouging anyone, and it revives the lost art of the…
Source: Kotaku – 7 Essential Demos Featured In Steam’s Next Fest
During 2023’s Summer Game Fest, something really rather awkward became all too apparent as the gruelling hours of commercials wound on: there were no women on stage. At the time, Kotaku and others wondered of frontman Geoff Keighley why this happened, but answers weren’t forthcoming. Since, Keighley has spoken to…
Source: Kotaku – There Would Have Been A Woman At Summer Game Fest, But She Couldn’t Make It
Gaming still isn’t all about you. New data released by PwC shows that “traditional” games make up only 26.7 percent of the revenue earned by the U.S. games industry, the vast majority of 2022’s $54.1 billion coming from social or casual games. Esports, meanwhile, contributed just 0.8%. Added together, that total also…
Source: Kotaku – Gaming Just Isn’t About You: Consoles Are Thrashed By Casual Games
When it comes to buying Pokémon trading card packs, there’s pretty much one thing that people care about the most: pull rates. What are the chances of getting a special card in any given foil-wrapped packet? And with early 2023’s Crown Zenith set, they suddenly got a whole lot better. Then, come the Scarlet & Violet…
Source: Kotaku – Pokémon Spoiled The TCG By Making One Set Far Too Good
Overwatch 2‘s fourth season blessed players with the fabulous, sexy support hero Lifeweaver. But unfortunately, for those who wanted to run around with this gloriously pink and pansexual healer, he hasn’t exactly made waves as a strong support hero. Quite the opposite, in fact, as the community has basically all but…
Source: Kotaku – Overwatch 2 Twitch Streamer Hits Grandmaster On Lifeweaver After 1,000+ Games
I don’t know about Eternights just yet. I played the opening chapter of Studio Sai’s Persona-influenced action game/dating sim hybrid at Summer Game Fest, and on paper, a game that combines those elements should be my jam. But while what I played demonstrated good foundations and fun ideas, it didn’t make the best…
Source: Kotaku – 30 Minutes With That New Persona-Inspired Dating Sim
