We finally got a full overview of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 today and the upcoming Switch JRPG looks massive. A 20-minute Nintendo Direct showed off more of the game’s existential story beats, multi-layered combat mechanics, and other activities players will get up to in its giant open world. Hopefully you like on-screen…
Source: Kotaku – In-Depth Look At Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Shows Off A Massive, Messy JRPG
Just yesterday, Activision Blizzard shareholders voted to approve a report looking into the company’s anti-harassment efforts. While the company itself is “carefully considering” that, stockholders also gave the green light to the Board of Directors nominees, which included shitty CEO Bobby Kotick. So great, Kotick…
Source: Kotaku – Bobby Kotick Is Staying On Activision Blizzard’s Board, Ew
Video games provide an opportunity for team building, relaxation, and vicarious experiences you couldn’t have anywhere else, but for couples where one person is more interested in them than the other, video games might only produce the inconvenient question: should we break up? In a relationship, the video game…
Source: Kotaku – Read This Before You Break Up Over Video Games
What is this, a series now? One guy builds a tiny little PS5 so someone else has to go out and build an enormous Xbox Series X?
Source: Kotaku – Dude Builds An Xbox Series X That’s Over Six-Foot Tall
Senator Ted Cruz is a man who were I to list all his political and moral shortcomings would be detaining you for hours. He is also, like most of us, someone who plays video games, and how he plays them will not be a surprise to anyone.
Source: Kotaku – Ted Cruz Is A Microtransaction Whale
OG Doom is everywhere at this point. It’s on consoles and phones and computers. Someone’s put it on a rotary phone and a calculator. I mean, jeez, you can even play it on Twitter now. But in case you thought folks ran out of ways to play Doom, guess again. It turns out there’s still plenty of creative methods to rip…
Source: Kotaku – Doom Modder Ports Game To [Checks Notes] A Lego Brick
Today, Activision Blizzard shareholders voted to approve a proposed annual report that would document the company’s ongoing efforts to stop workplace abuse and harassment as well as catalog the company’s total number of sexual harassment settlements and pending complaints.
Source: Kotaku – Activision Stockholders Vote To Release Annual Harassment Reports, Company Will ‘Consider’ It
Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri is apparently under the assumption that his studio is being criticized for casting Chris Pratt as the eponymous plumber in its upcoming Mario movie due to concerns over Italian representation and not because, you know, Chris Pratt sucks.
Source: Kotaku – Mario Movie Producer Says Chris Pratt Won’t Offend Italians, Completely Missing The Point
Online co-op superhero action game Gotham Knights is set in an open world. And as with all recent open-world games, people are asking: Just how big is the map? Ignoring that this is a pointless piece of information—both big or small maps can work if what’s in them is good and interesting—WB Montreal devs recently…
Source: Kotaku – Gotham Knights Contains The ‘Biggest Version’ Of Batman’s City Ever Seen In A Game
You wouldn’t believe this from reading its reviews on Steam, but Neon White is squarely a T-rated game. Seriously, people, keep it in your pants!
Source: Kotaku – Neon White’s Steam Reviews Are Horny As Hell
The embargo just lifted on Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, the musou-based follow-up to Nintendo’s critically acclaimed strategy game, Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Most reviewers seem to agree that Three Hopes is a worthwhile successor to Three Houses, though many seemed to burn out on the repetitive-feeling combat.…
Source: Kotaku – Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes Reviews Say It’s Not For Everyone
Hope you’re still a fan of battle royale games with a penchant for cognitively dissonant crossovers because Epic Games has announced that more Naruto characters are airdropping their way into Fortnite.
Source: Kotaku – Fortnite Welcomes War Criminal Orochimaru, More Naruto Characters To The Festivities
Call of Duty is plagued with cheaters, but Activision’s Team Ricochet is always developing new tools to stop bad actors from exploiting Vanguard and Warzone to cheat. Now, Ricochet has implemented another anti-cheat measure as part of its “mitigation toolbox” that steals cheaters’ guns right from their hands and even …
Source: Kotaku – Call Of Duty Cheaters Are Getting Their Guns Taken Away
Xbox Game Pass has had a rocky few months, seeing it lose major games and failing to add marquee additions to plug the gaps. But on the heels of Xbox’s big marketing blitz—including a promise that 50 games will hit Xbox over the next year, many on Game Pass—the popular games-on-demand service is picking up steam.
Source: Kotaku – Xbox Game Pass Summer Releases Are Heating Up
Over a year later, mod support for Cyberpunk 2077 continues on apace, and one of the coolest yet turns every car in the game into a Back To The Future II-style Dalorean. It doesn’t transform Night City into a bustling Bladerunner-opolis, but the mod will let you see the game from a whole new elevation.
Source: Kotaku – Cyberpunk 2077 Mod Lets You Get Behind The Wheel Of A Flying Car
From 1991 until 2021, Vicarious Visions was the name of a studio that made a ton of pretty cool licensed games, but which had also contributed to the beloved Tony Hawk Pro Skater series. Then Activision stepped in and made some changes.
Source: Kotaku – Tony Hawk Says A Pro Skater 3+4 Remake Was Killed By Activision’s Moves
It was so long ago, and the space is now so thoroughly dominated by two games that it’s almost impossible remembering any other way things could be, but for a brief window of time the MOBA genre—basically any and every game that was copying WarCraft III’s DotA map—was a warzone.
Source: Kotaku – Heroes Of Newerth, Once League Of Legends’ Rival, Has Shut Down
Er, whoops. Aspyr, the developer/porter behind the recent release of Knights Of The Old Republic II on Nintendo Switch, has tweeted that it’s aware the game is currently impossible to finish.
Source: Kotaku – Developers Admit There’s No Way To Complete KOTOR II On Switch
There’s a reason you subscribe to some developers’ Itch.io feeds. Ismael Rodriguez is an excellent example, who released the wonderful Below The Ocean last year. Into my emails pinged an update for a new, free game, Toy Cavers, and I’m just so pleased it did.
Source: Kotaku – This Free Low-Res Six-Color Game Will Take Over Your Day
There’s a street in Edinburgh, Scotland, that offers a real-life version of Paperboy’s zigzag cycling routes, and I’m here to celebrate it for just that. As part of the city’s £207 million ($253m) project to run trams through the famous road, a new section of cycle lane has been put in, which, as a recently tweeted…
Source: Kotaku – This Scottish Cycle Lane Is Harder Than Any Video Game