Kotaku

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Love is in the air this week at Kotaku Towers, and the PS3-era charms ofHelldivers 2 have us totally smitten. Meanwhile, the Palworld hype train charges on, but we’re still keeping an eye on old loves and frenemies like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Overwatch 2. These are the week’s can’t-miss tips and guides.

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This week, after days of swirling rumors and fan speculation, Phil Spencer and other Xbox bigwigs finally pulled back the curtain (a little bit, at least) on what the future holds for the console and the Xbox brand. Sony also hinted at what 2025 will bring for the PlayStation 5 (or at least what it won’t) while Helldiv…

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We’re just six weeks in to 2024, and we’ve already seen the release of some absolulte bangers, including Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Persona 3 Reload. But the year’s biggest surprise so far has been a game most observers wrote off as a Pokémon-knockoff—until millions of people realized there was a lot more…

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Third-person co-op shooter Helldivers 2 has been rocking PS5 and PC players’ worlds as of late. Featuring intense co-op shootouts and extraction challenges against big bad bugs and robots, Helldivers has a thoroughly satisfying gameplay loop with a difficulty challenge that feels tough, yet masterable. And if you’re…

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After rumors and leaks indicated that Nintendo’s next console would be releasing in the second half of 2024, it appears that the launch has now been pushed back to 2025. This is according to multiple reports, including an O X do Controle video in which journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Libbe claims to have received the…

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Wanna feel old? One of the greatest gags in Simpsons history just turned older than several members of the Kotaku staff. That’s right, the instant-classic Season 8 episode “Homer’s Phobia” debuted on this day in 1997. In it, Bart befriends John, the owner of an antiques store (played by the iconic filmmaker, writer,…

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Baldur’s Gate 3’s sixth patch is out, and it brings a slew of new kiss animations for its various love interests. While everyone can kiss their better half at camp, one of the best parts of the patch is for us Gale lovers, as a new touch animation has made one of his romantic storyline’s most pivotal scenes a little…

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After developing two of the best Star Wars games in recent memory with 2019’s Jedi: Fallen Order and its sequel, 2023’s Survivor, Respawn Entertainment is reportedly working on another title set in a galaxy far, far away. Insider Gaming reports that the title will be a first-person game focused on a Mandalorian bounty…

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One of the biggest complaints about last year’s Game Awards was that the show did not let winners talk. Even when folks from Larian Studios got on the stage to accept the Game of the Year award for Baldur’s Gate 3, they were told to “wrap it up” and weren’t even able to make the announcement that the game was out on…

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Greetings, fellow solitary gamer. If you’re thinking of giving the third-person co-op shooter Helldivers 2 a shot on your own, well, you’ll have your work cut out for you. Helldivers 2 is not only typically more fun with friends, much of the game’s challenges and mission structures are designed with multiple players…

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In the spirit of the season of love we asked you, dear readers, to share with us your biggest video game crushes. The answers are in, and they are varied. Turns out there are a lot of characters to love across countless video games. Heroes, villains, sidekicks, you name it, somebody is crushing on them. While there…

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If you’ve been looking to pick up a new-gen console on the cheap, then today’s your lucky day. Target’s got the Xbox Series S on sale at an eye-popping discount—$219.99, or $80 off. Sure, it kinda looks like a hot plate. But it’s still a lot less fugly than the PlayStation 5, and we’re big fans of the small-but-mighty…

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Madame Web, the new Sony film about the titular Marvel comics character starring 50 Shades of Grey’s Dakota Johnson, just released on Valentine’s Day. As if Johnson’s press tour (where it seemed very clear that she does not like the movie) wasn’t enough, the reviews are pouring in—and according to them, the film is…

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February is here. Let’s watch some movies. Welcome to io9's latest edition of the Nerd’s Watch, where we pare down the enormous lists of new films and television shows arriving on all your favorite streaming services into the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror titles we think you’ll like most. (And sometimes, just the ones…

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One of the best things about video games is that they can act as a form of wish fulfillment for the player. Save the world, go to space, or harness the power of dragons. But one of the newest additions to Game Pass offers one of my personal favorite bits of wish fulfillment: having a clean apartment. A Little to the…

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Dune: Part 2, the long-awaited follow-up to January’s erotic popcorn bucket, is less than two weeks from release. Among the most anticipated films of the year, Dune missed its original October bow because studios were trying to bankrupt writers and actors, forcing the film to compete in the shadow of Madame Web. But…

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After days of basically edging the community with videos of new kiss animations, Larian Studios has finally released Baldur’s Gate 3’s patch six. The roughly 21GB update brings new kisses for your lovers, quality-of-life improvements, and a slew of bug fixes. Here are a few of the highlights:

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It’s been a whirlwind week or so for Xbox. The weekend of February 3, rumors began swirling that major console exclusives like Starfield and the upcoming Indiana Jones game would head to other platforms, and Xbox fans’ reactions were intense, to say the least. The backlash prompted head honcho Phil Spencer to announce…

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Dune: Part Two, the upcoming sequel to Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 sci-fi epic based on the Frank Herbert novels, is releasing in just two weeks, but somehow the team behind it kept one major star’s involvement a total secret. During the February 15 world premiere in London, The Queen’s Gambit actor Anya Taylor-Joy…

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Embracer Group, the proverbial grim reaper of video game acquisitions, has been wreaking havoc on the studios and IP it has acquired in the past few years. From layoffs across several companies to shutting down of beloved studios like Saints Row developer Volition, and cancellations of big, exciting projects like a…

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During a special episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, Phil Spencer revealed the first wave of Xbox titles coming to rival platforms will include four games. “We are currently in the process of bringing four Xbox games to other platforms. These are titles which have been available to Xbox players for at least a year,”…

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Online co-op shooter Helldivers 2 contains a number of nasty enemies across its Terminid and Automaton factions. The Chargers are one such foe: Large, heavily armored Terminids, they will happily charge toward you and your party to send you all to your deaths. They can prove quite a challenge if you’re not prepared,…

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On Thursday, the leadership of Microsoft’s Xbox gaming division shared an update on their plans for the platform going forward. And, surprise! It wasn’t exactly the earth-shattering paradigm shift the internet doomsayers had predicted. Yes, some Xbox games will be going multiplatform—we don’t know exactly which ones…

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After weeks of reports, rumors, and speculation around Xbox first-party games coming to competing platforms and potentially even making an exit from the console market entirely, Xbox publicly addressed the elephant in the room in an episode of the Official Xbox Podcast. The show featured Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil…

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Last week things got a little hectic in the world of Xbox. Following January reports and speculation that Xbox exclusives Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush could arrive on PS5, February saw convincing rumors about higher profile games like Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, as well as long-standing Xbox…

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After weeks of rumors and leaks about what the future holds for Xbox, the company finally shared some official news via a special episode of the Official Xbox Podcast. One lingering question that Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Matt Booty addressed during the episode was just when Activision Blizzard titles would be…

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After weeks of rumors regarding Xbox games’ exclusivity and whether or not big-budget titles like Bethesda’s Starfield or the upcoming Indiana Jones and The Great Circle would end up on other consoles, we’ve got some clarification. The February 15 special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast saw Microsoft gaming CEO…

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When X-Men: The Animated Series aired its final episode in 1997, it marked the end of one of the best comic adaptations ever put to screen. With the stylistic flair of Jim Lee’s iconic designs and the excellent narratives pulled straight from Chris Claremont’s all-time great story arcs, it gave X-Men fans everything…

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Ahead of my hands-on preview with Unicorn Overlord, the new tactics RPG from developer Vanillaware and published by Atlus, I was told that nobody had beaten the demo yet. So I made it my mission to see if I could change that. Cut to two-and-a-half hours later, and I can see why people were having difficulty. I was in…

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If you’ve never jumped into Hello Games’ open-galaxy exploration game No Man’s Sky, there’s no time like the present. The studio is making the game free for everyone this weekend as part of its big Omega update.

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Valentine’s Day has come and gone, which means it’s time to solemnly mark a major milestone for one of the most anticipated video games of all time. That’s because five years ago, on February 14, 2019, developer Team Cherry announced a sequel to their 2017 debut title. It was the first time the world heard of Hollow…

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The opening scene in Halo season 2’s third episode (titled “Visegrad”) has a telltale marker of prestige television: It’s dark as shit. As John/Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) and the rest of his crew head off to pick up the cliffhanger from episode two, I’m squinting like a grunt staring into the sun right before its…

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A random player and I are surrounded by giant, alien bugs who want to rip out our guts and eat our bones. We are trying to destroy their nest, which lies in a rocky crater on some backwater alien planet. Low on ammo, out of health items, and unsure of what to do next, it seems we are screwed. But this is Helldivers 2—w…

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A new and free update for The Sims 4, EA’s uber-popular life sim, has added cosmetic options to the game that let you give your Sims vitiligo skin patches and patterns. To help celebrate this awesome addition, EA has brought in the world-famous model Winnie Harlow.

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Free-to-play shooter Halo Infinite just got a long, long overdue update to one of its more troubled modes: Big Team Battle. Featuring 24 players at once, Infinite’s large-scale playlist was always beleaguered by the fact that it had too few maps. Any session spent in large brawls would inevitably orbit the same…

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It’s Valentine’s Day, which means love is in the air. Maybe you have someone to squeeze, or maybe you’re holding on to an unrequested crush. And to be clear, we’re talking about video game characters. Because let’s be honest, for some of us who have been playing video games since we were kids, game characters helped…

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Update: 2/14/24, 3:30 p.m.:Last week’s demo for the hotly anticipated RPG Final Fantasy VII Rebirth hit digital shelves and although public perception remains positive, there has been some concern over the visuals, specifically when using the game’s high frame rate “Performance” mode. That’s hopefully going to change…

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The start of February brought a short list of new games to PlayStation Plus, and while it did have some underrated gems, it was lacking big hitters. The subscription service is rectifying that in a big way as it approaches the end of February by adding a slew of new hugely popular titles for subscribers. It’s an…

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Sony announced its third-quarter earnings on February 14, and they weren’t exactly full of glad tidings for PlayStation fans. For starters, the company revealed it doesn’t plan to release any new titles in its major franchises for the remainder of 2024. Sony execs also said that its current-gen hardware, the PlayStatio…

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