Sonic the Hedgehog, a live-action/CG hybrid based on the popular video game series, is racing its way to theaters everywhere, especially now that it has a villain.
Saturday, 30 June 2018
'Shop Contest: Summer Sports, Winners!
It’s time to go outdoors and get sweaty in pursuit of fun, but we don’t want to leave our favorite video game characters out of the action. I asked you to make summer sports happen, and you delivered.
Saturday's Best Deals: 4K Smart TV, Philips Hue Bulbs, Breda Watches, and More
Grab discounts on a 4K Smart TV, Philips Hue bulbs, Breda watches, and more of Saturday’s best deals.
This Week In The Business: Moving At The Speed Of Sony
QUOTE | “We’re hearing it. We’re looking at a lot of the possibilities. You can imagine that the circumstances around that affect a lot more than just one game. I’m confident we’ll get to a solution which will be understood and accepted by our gaming community, while at the same time supporting our business.” - Sony…
Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader-run community: Beat Two Games For Every One You B
Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader-run community: Beat Two Games For Every One You Buy • Other Players Are The Best And Worst Parts Of Sea of Thieves • Shonen Jump’s Greatest Villain Must Be Jump Force’s • My Pokemon Blue Team From 1999 Was Better Than Yours, Fight Me • Nintendo Labo Review
Make the Switch to 4K With This Discounted IPS Display From Dell
Dell’s P2715Q 4K monitor has always been one of the most affordable 27” 4K IPS display on the market, but today, it’s all the way down to $360, within a couple bucks of the best price we’ve seen.
Overwatch Is Getting Wackier, And That’s Great
Yesterday, Overwatch added a hamster. The hamster’s name is Hammond, or Hammy for short. In a game about cyborg ninjas, strained mother-daughter relationships, and terrorist groups with edgy-ass names like Talon, here’s Hammy the Hamster. It’s just one more example of how Overwatch is embracing its wacky side.
These Are Our Readers' Four Favorite Sheet Sets
We asked about your dream sheets and you answered. After reviewing all votes, these four were on the top of the pile. Head down to the bottom of this post and cast your vote for your favorite.
Warring EVE Factions Take A Break To Remember A Fallen Friend
EVE Online factions have been at each others’ throats for ages, but they do occasionally do nice things for each other. Recently, one of these rare awwwww moments happened: the donation of a memorial to player Sean “Vile Rat” Smith, who lost his life in the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi.
Fan Calculations About Fortnite's Big Missile Event Were Off By A Day
Fortnite is no stranger to countdowns and theatrics, but this weekend’s mysterious (though probably missile-related) event is a little different. It’s happening just once. Fans thought they’d pinned down exactly when, but today Epic announced the actual date: one day before fans had calculated.
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
The weekend is for it being too hot to avoid turning the air conditioner on but feeling a little guilty about it. Also, video games.
The 10 Best Deals of June 29, 2018
We see a lot of deals around the web over on Kinja Deals, but these were our ten favorites today.
Ultimate Custom Night Will Keep Five Nights At Freddy's Fans On Their Toes
After an hour of playing Ultimate Custom Night, I was nursing a throbbing headache. I had spent that time clicking through rooms, winding up music boxes, and taking on and off a Freddy Fazbear head, all while I braced myself for the imminent jump scares. Even after the ordeal I put myself through, I wanted to play…
I Hated Until Dawn's Emily, Until We Were Fighting For Our Lives
Until Dawn is one of gaming’s greatest love letters to horror movies. It conforms to and subverts the slasher paradigm so well that it often feels like playing through a long-lost classic film from the sub-genre’s early-80s heyday. It’s creepy, atmospheric, gory, and occasionally goofy. The game is at its most…
Mystery Men clumsily spoofed superhero movies before the genre even really took flight
For whatever reason, a lot of the early superhero movies were also superhero-movie parodies. Before the genre was fully formed—before it was even close to fully formed—movies were using it as grist for jokes. The idea, I think, was that the superhero was a ridiculous and outdated form of American cultural lore, the…
Amazing Mario 3 Speedrun Is Full Of Setbacks And Sportsmanship
Last night, the top two Super Mario Bros 3 speedrunners faced off for a race that ran into problems—including game crashes. Despite the hurdles, speedrunners Mitchflowerpower and GrandPOObear bounced back and showed sportsmanship and skill under stress.
We Talk About Queerness In Games, From Overwatch Ships To E3 Smooches
We celebrated Pride this week at Kotaku with stories from queer staffers about Street Fighter ships, queer fandoms in Overwatch and in K-Pop, and our desire to see queer characters survive and thrive in the games we play. Before we take down the beautiful rainbow logos that festooned the site this week in celebration,…
Hisense's Absurd 100-Inch Laser TV Turned Me Into a Big Screen Believer
When discussing a big-screen TV, size is bound to be the primary topic of conversation, but with Hisense’s 100-inch Ultra HD Laser TV, bigness approaches a thought-terminating cliche—one I have been happy to let take over my puny mind.
The Best 4th of July Sales Happening Right Now [Updating]
The 4th of July brings sales and deals from all corners of the web, and we’ve collected them here. Keep checking back throughout the weekend and into next week as we update with sales as they go live.
Ask Dr. NerdLove: How Can I Trust The Men I Work With?
Hello all you death monkies of the noosphere, and welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating advice column with a battle royale mode.
Custom D&D Character Sheets Are A Critical Hit
Cartoonist and self-described Dungeons & Dragons nerd Luke Howard hand-crafted a convincing argument in favor of pen-and-paper role-playing: custom character sheets for D&D.
Tips For Playing Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight is finally out for Nintendo Switch, which means a lot more people are playing it than when it hit PC last year. People like me! I’ve put almost 40 hours into the game, and I have some tips for anyone starting out.
A Note To Our Readers
Here’s our most heated gaming moment yet: Compete in its current iteration is shutting down next week. Esports coverage at the company will live on at Kotaku, but this joint project that Deadspin and Kotaku started in March 2017 to cover competitive gaming is ending.
Friday, 29 June 2018
What's So Great About Banjo-Kazooie
People poured money into a Kickstarter for a spiritual successor to the 1998 Nintendo 64 game Banjo-Kazooie. Why? Because Banjo-Kazooie was a wonderful game and no mere Mario 64 me-too, as some detractors claim.
Gaming's Other Great Rodents
Hackers have cracked the Nintendo Switch all the way open, Bethesda sues the Westworld game developers, and Overwatch gets infested with rodents—in a good way! All these topics and more on this episode of Kotaku XP, our weekly video about hot game stuff.
Walmart Has NES Classics in Stock For $60, If You Hurry
Ah, nostalgia. Pick up your very own NES Classic for $60 at Walmart while supplies last.
Riot Accidentally Sends A ‘Few’ League of Legends Players Other People’s Personal Info
Some League of Legends players received sensitive private information that belonged to other people earlier this week due to errors by Riot, makers of the internationally acclaimed multiplayer game. Instead of getting access to their own requested account info, several received phone numbers, email addresses, and…
The best TV of 2018 so far
Disappointing season of your favorite prestige drama got you down? Let down by the big sitcom revival that promised to open up a dialogue, but just wound up taking potshots at easy (and vulnerable) targets while setting up a runway for Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing over at Old Man Murdoch’s place? A thousand Netflix…
Shape Of The World Is A Gorgeous Exploration Game
Shape of the World is an exploration game that weaves colors into breathtaking landscapes. The shifting pastel horizons create one of the best game worlds I’ve ever explored, capturing both the thrill of hiking and the colors of a solid psilocybin trip.
Here Is Pixar's Dory Fighting Crime
I had many possible topics in mind for today’s Kotaku Game Diary: The slew of wonderful Metroid-like games I’ve been playing on the Switch. An analysis of a vexing Nioh boss. A meditation on the lack of playable denouements in video games. All will be covered in due time.
Friday's Best Deals: eBay Sitewide Sale, Laptop Sleeves, Electric Lawn Mower, and More
Two giant eBay sales, the sleeve your laptop deserves, an electric lawn mower, and more kick off today’s best deals.
To Eliminate Match-Fixing In Esports, Pay The Players More
Spend an afternoon at a Top 8 Finals of any fighting game tournament, and you will find there is a robust side-betting culture in esports. Pseudo-gambling activities like “skin wagers” in Counter-Strike have been a part of esports culture from the beginning, and fringe sites like XLBet have included StarCraft games…
Big Data Is The Future Of Esports
“Game developers don’t like me,” said Sabina Hemmi. “Before I came around, there was no insight into how balanced a game was.”
Give Your Laptop the Sleeve It Deserves For 15% Off
Your laptop is one of the most expensive things you own, and it deserves to be treated as such. Rather than throwing it roughshod into your bag, slip it into one of PicasoLabs’ beautiful, hand-stitched leather sleeves, now back on sale just for our readers, this weekend only.
Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader-run community: The Official AniTAY Summer 2018 Se
Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader-run community: The Official AniTAY Summer 2018 Sequel Guide • One Of The Best Guitar Charts In The Rock Band Series • I Found Some Old Journals With Video Game Stuff In Them, And Hoo Boy They’re Amazing • Sports With An NES Twist • Feel-Good Anime
Beat The Summer Heat With These Alexa-Enabled Portable Air Conditioners
Roll in one of these RolliCool portable air conditioner units in your bedroom, living room, garage, or anywhere else that might need a little extra cooling this summer. All of them are at least $100 off in today’s Gold Box, and double as heaters and dehumidifiers so you can use them year-round.
Japan's Video Game Bars Are In Danger
I press record. “Just by doing this interview,” I say, “to a certain degree you’re really putting a target on your back.” It’s important Matt Bloch understands this before we proceed, especially after the recent video game bar arrests in Japan.
As revealed earlier this year, the Famicom Mini is going back into production.
As revealed earlier this year, the Famicom Mini is going back into production. And now we know when it’s hitting store shelves. This week! Sales resumed of the little Famicom resumed yesterday in Japan.
Cosplayer Job Site Launches In Japan
It’s called “Cos Job,” and the new recruitment site is aimed at cosplayers and the businesses that want to hire them.
Thursday, 28 June 2018
We Talk PS4's Lack Of Cross-Play
In 2013, Sony handily won the war of words against Microsoft’s customer-unfriendly policies, but in 2018, we’re seeing a role reversal. On this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen, let’s discuss.
Diner Dash Mobile Is A Soulless Shell Of The Original Diner Dash Games
The original Diner Dash series taught me to persevere, despite what life throws in your way. The mobile version, on the other hand, insists that you give into the corporate overlord.
Thursday's Best Deals: Fitness Tracker, Lodge Dutch Oven, Breville Smart Oven Pro, and More
Save big on an actually nice-looking Withings fitness tracker, a Lodge dutch oven, Breville’s highly-rated Smart Oven Pro, and many more of today’s best deals.
The best films of 2018 so far
Conventional wisdom holds that the best movies of any given year tend to arrive sometime between Labor Day and Christmas—those few weeks annually and unofficially designated as “awards season.” But while the major studios and their indie subsidiaries do tend to hold their big prestige titles until at least early…
America's Largest K-Pop Festival Was Inspiring
One dreary Saturday morning in New York, I shuttled across the river into New Jersey for what can be best described as fandom gone wild: KCON, an annual K-Pop festival. It draws fans from all over the region for a two-day celebration of everything Korean culture.
Here's July's Xbox Live Games With Gold Lineup
There’s nothing too exciting in July’s Xbox Live Games With Gold. I will confess a deep fondness for Splinter Cell Conviction because when it came out in 2010 I’d never seen a game that projected the objective text into the world, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I still kinda think that.
With Its Massive Cast, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Desperately Needs A Tournament Mode
When it arrives in December, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will feature over 60 playable characters from the franchise’s 20-year history. While this caters to both the nostalgia-minded and completionist alike, it has the potential to be a nightmare for anyone looking to host competitive events.
Artist Envisions The Incredibles' Future, and It's Powerfully Bleak
Disney’s The Incredibles series might be about a happy-go-lucky superhero family balancing superhero work, school crushes, and diaper changes, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to stay that way. Comics artist Warrick Wong has created an art series dedicated to his vision of the Parr family’s future, and it’s pretty…
Overwatch's Latest Hero Appears To Be A Rodent In A Robot
It looks like Overwatch’s newest hero might be who—but not what—we thought. Fans speculated that the first-person shooter’s 28th hero could be Hammond, a Lunar companion to the genetically-engineered gorilla Winston. What came as a surprise this morning is the fact that the game’s new champion appears to be a rodent:
How to Buy an NES Classic This Week
I remember when Nintendo’s NES Classic came out the first time—that joyful November week when everyone went crazy calling every retailer they could find to get their hands on a pretty emulator in a box.
Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader-run community: Five Years Later, Ridiculous Fishi
Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader-run community: Five Years Later, Ridiculous Fishing Is Still The Best Mobile Game Available • Video Game Movies: Edge of Tomorrow • A Few Words On Blade Kitten • Remembering Empathy • Star Ocean Anamnesis Impressions • What Happened To You, Destiny?
Save $15 On a Hard Drive That Speeds Up Your PS4
Seagate’s FireCuda is one of the most popular PS4 replacement hard drives out there, mostly thanks to its built-in 8GB of flash storage that can speed up loading times, and you can get the 2TB model for just $80 today, or roughly $15 less than usual.