Final Fantasy XVI is out in mere weeks, arriving on PlayStation 5 on June 22. And while the game looks like it’ll be quite a bit of fun to play, questions over the radical shift in tone for the series remain. And in a recent blog, the developers shared some of the thoughts, considerations, and challenges that went…
Source: Kotaku – Final Fantasy XVI Devs Almost Cut Moogles Due To The Game’s Mature Tone
June 1 is here, which means it’s Pride Month, baby, and the Queer Games Bundle is back with another massive collection of games, zines, and more for less than the price of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Now that’s a good way to celebrate Pride, ain’t it?
Source: Kotaku – Celebrate Pride With A Queer Games Bundle That Costs Less Than A Single AAA Game
While Redfall’s rough launch and poor reviews scores caught many Xbox fans off-guard, Bloomberg now reports that developers at the studio behind it, Arkane Austin, were aware of the issues for years. The online vampire shooter was pitched as a live service game with microtransactions, but production was apparently…
Source: Kotaku – Report: Xbox Exclusive Redfall Suffered From Few Resources, Poor Direction
Reddit is one of the biggest and most important websites on the planet, especially since it’s one of the last places human beings can get questions answered by actual human beings. So it sucks to see that the company is about to crush many of the best ways to actually experience the whole thing.
Source: Kotaku – Reddit Is Killing The Best Way To Read The Site
A report from Japanese magazine Shūkan Bunshun says that in the leadup to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom earlier this month two men—in isolated cases—got contract jobs at Amazon for the express purpose of getting their hands on a copy of the game early.
Source: Kotaku – Report: Two Men Got Jobs At Amazon Just To Steal Copies Of Zelda
Season Three of Fortnite’s fourth chapter is almost upon us, but we’ve still got quests left to do. For Week 12, you’ll be chattin’ it up with NPCs, spending money, stealing money, doing some amateur geology, and killing other players dead.
Source: Kotaku – How To Find Everything For Fortnite’s Week 12 Quests
The official Overwatch 2 forums have been abuzz ever since Blizzard confirmed that there are more queer characters in its hero roster than we were previously aware. While some posts are from folks suspiciously eyeing the welcome confirmation that Pharah is in fact a rocket-powered lesbian as if it must portend some…
Source: Kotaku – Overwatch Forums Get Heated Over Baptiste’s Bisexuality
Konami is slowly sharing more details about Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, and it’s not sounding exactly like what some fans were expecting. The game will indeed be using the original voice cast, but it won’t be recording any of their performances. The PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC game will be sticking with old…
Source: Kotaku – Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Remake Will Reuse Old Voices
A whole new sub-genre of awful “true crime” content is taking root on TikTok. Posters there are using “artificial intelligence”-powered media creation tools to create fake videos that purport to show actual murder victims, often children, sharing grisly details about how they were killed. Even worse, these…
Source: Kotaku – New TikTok Trend Uses AI-Generated Kids To Exploit Real Murder Victims
The official PlayStation UK Twitter account has decreed it’s “OK to throw away the cardboard box your PlayStation came in now,” but squirrelly fans aren’t convinced. What if they might actually one day need the dusty, frayed cardboard their PS4 arrived in 10 years ago?
Source: Kotaku – PlayStation Fans Refuse To Throw Away Box Even After Sony Tells Them To
Diablo IV, out on June 5 for most major platforms, features an assortment of side quests. The loot-hunting RPG has some 213 optional missions, half of which I haven’t seen during my short time with the game. But of the others I’ve played during the open beta in mid-March and the review build earlier in May, there’s…
Source: Kotaku – Diablo IV Has A Sexy, Gross Side-Quest That Will Haunt You
Ahead of the two-year anniversary of Activision Blizzard being on the receiving end of an unprecedented video game industry lawsuit accusing the publisher of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination, CEO Bobby Kotick has appeared on the cover of Variety to loudly proclaim the innocence of both himself and his…
Source: Kotaku – Call Of Duty CEO Says Activision Never Had A ‘Systemic Issue With Harassment’
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon have just released a new trailer for the upcoming animated film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, finally giving fans a hint at what the movie’s story is going to be about.
Source: Kotaku – TMNT Movie Gets Shell-Shockingly Existential New Trailer
What’s the most you’ve ever won in a single hand of poker with some friends? Maybe $50? $60? Perhaps you got really lucky at a casino and walked away with a few hundred. A pleasant evening, but that’s nothing compared to what one player won last night during a livestreamed poker tournament. When all was said and done,…
Source: Kotaku – Someone Just Won The Biggest, Wildest Pot In TV Poker History
When the first few sounds of a video game’s loading screen music are glinting synth starbursts, disintegrating into airy jazz chords like they got splashed with warm water, I know I’m about to play something cozy.
Source: Kotaku – Here’s The Reason Your Games Nail That Cozy Vibe
Another month, and another chance to add more games to your PlayStation library if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber. While May 2023 saw GRID Legends, Chivalry 2, and Descenders (which you can still grab if you’re reading this before June 6) added to Sony’s subscription service, June’s got some sports, totally…
Source: Kotaku – PlayStation Plus Adds Some Great Games For June
Last week, Nintendo mistakenly blocked and rejected the release of a cutesy animal game, after it took a jokey TikTok from the developer at face value and pulled its release in North America.
Source: Kotaku – Game Gets Wrongfully Banned On Switch After A Child Gambling Joke
A new study has uncovered a not-so-surprising truth about gender bias in video games: Across 50 role-playing games, male characters have about twice as much dialogue as female characters. Shocking, I know.
Source: Kotaku – Male Video Game Characters Talk Way More Than Women, Research Shows
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has plenty of tough bosses, but the Frost Gleeok in Tabantha Tundra is one of the game’s hardest encounters. Fighting it will require some preparation and careful planning, but if you know what to look for, you can slay it and rid Hyrule of this icy menace once and for all (or…
Source: Kotaku – Tears of the Kingdom’s Frost Gleeok Is One Of Its Toughest Bosses, Until You Know This
It’s Wednesday, May 31, and that means it’s another day where I tell you about something you might not’ve known you could do in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. While many of us are already aware that you can fuse all sorts of regular items to arrows to increase their efficiency, as some are revealing on…
Source: Kotaku – Tears Of The Kingdom: Yes, You Can Fuse Zonai Devices To Arrows And It’s Awesome