In case you haven’t heard, Persona 3 Reload is out, and it’s awfully darn good. Whether you’re a longtime series die-hard or just hopped on the bandwagon after Persona 5, there’s a lot to sink your teeth into here. But not every game left us feeling quite so satisfied this week. Read on for our thoughts on Silent…
The end of January and first week of February brought with it the launch of a couple long-awaited RPGs—Atlus’s remake of a 2006 classic, Persona 3 Reload, and the Hawaiian-style yakuza tale Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth. The “Pokémon With Guns” sensation Palworld continues to grow in popularity, closing in on more…
After years of trailers, delays, controversy, and leaks, Rocksteady’s big, live-service, open-world, villain-themed, DC third-person looter shooter—Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League—is finally out (for real). The narrative that has formed around this game over the last few years has grown as large and epic as a…
We’re starting to get a much clearer look at the 2024 gaming calendar, after the Xbox Developer Direct on January 18 and now Sony’s State of Play event on January 31. The Sony event gave us an in-depth look at Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding sequel, On The Beach, and boy was there a lot going on. We also got a teensy…
Anyone who was on the internet around the release of The Last of Us Part II knows it was a bad time. But while we, as fans and writers, saw the vitriolic backlash unfold in real-time, it was far worse for the creative team who was directly targeted by it. Laura Bailey, who played the secret second protagonist Abby,…
A new game industry survey revealed that over 500 studios around the world are currently working on or maintaining live-service video games like Destiny 2, Suicide Squad, and Fortnite.
Sony’s massive State of Play presentation on January 31 gave us a look at a bunch of upcoming PlayStation 5 games, including the first-person shooter Judas, the action game Stellar Blade, and many more. Stunlock Studios’ 2022 breakout game V Rising also made an appearance, with an announcement that the open-world…
If, for whatever reason, you weren’t satisfied with the hopeful ambiguity of The Last of Us Part II’s ending, it sounds like Naughty Dog still thinks there’s at least one more bullet in the chamber for the series. Director Neil Druckmann has revealed in the Grounded II: The Making of The Last of Us Part II documentary…
The roster for the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us grows bigger every day. The latest actor to jump on board the critically acclaimed adaptation of Naughty Dog’s series of games is Catherine O’Hara of Beetlejuice and Schitt’s Creek fame. She’ll be joining returning leads Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, along with…
The newest game in the Like a Dragon series, Infinite Wealth continues the series’ focus on interpersonal relationships. In fact, it even has a button dedicated to saying hi to people. And once you hit the streets of Hawaii, you won’t just say hello, you’ll say aloha, and will gain a friend in the game’s in-world…
It has been a big week for Sonic the Hedgehog fans. Not only did we get the Sonic X Shadow Generations announcement during Sony’s State of Play presentation, but we also have a new tease and a ton of casting news for the third live-action movie set to premiere on December 20. This teaser used a Sonic Adventure 2-style…
Carl Weathers, the legendary Black actor who portrayed Apollo Creed in the Rocky films and starred in dozens of other movies and TV shows like Predator, The Mandalorian, and Toy Story 4, died on Thursday, February 1 at the age of 76. According to Deadline, his family released a statement confirming Weather’s passing.…
Persona 3’s cast, much like the game itself, is the best one. This is only solidified by Persona 3 Reload’s new side stories that flesh out some of the cast into the best versions of themselves. The third iteration of the Megami Tensei subseries pivots into a supernatural, social sim-driven dungeon crawler. Part of…
Omnipresent brothers, Travis and Jason Kelce (who are NFL players, commercial stars, SNL hosts, podcasters, and members of Taylor Swift’s inner circle) are looking to add a game development feather to their caps—specifically, they want to reboot ‘90s classics Backyard Football and Backyard Baseball. Whether or not…
Jobs. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em. In Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Jobs are simply another term for “Class,” and switching them up will alter your characters’ stats and reward them with new abilities as you increase their ranks. Some Jobs can be equipped on multiple characters, while others are…
Video game publisher Activision Blizzard has been embroiled in controversy within the last few years, from allegations that a culture of sexual harassment was allowed to thrive to reports of union-busting by management. But in January 2024, when a new lawsuit was filed against the Call of Duty and Overwatch publisher,…
It’s been over a decade since we’ve gotten a BioShock game and no official follow-up has been announced, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something on the horizon for fans of the franchise. Upcoming shooter Judas looks to be a BioShock game in everything but name, and it’s helmed by none other than Ken Levine, the…
February is in full swing, new games have arrived, and we’re looking at a month full of some pretty neat games to pick up in the coming weeks. So what are we here at Kotaku looking forward to spending our time with this weekend?
Developer Shift Up Second Eve Studios made quite the splash at Sony Interactive Entertainment’s recent State of Play broadcast with a gameplay reveal trailer for Stellar Blade (previously known as “Project Eve”). The PS5 character-action exclusive is looking real good, thanks it part to its stylish combat and even…
In a year of AAA tentpoles like Armored Core VI and Final Fantasy XVI, one of the most surprising games of 2023 was the short narrative cooking game Venba. It tells the story of an immigrant family, centering on the strained relationship between mother Venba and her son through traditional Tamil cuisine. It’s a…
Preservation is a nightmare in the games industry, especially as some 87 percent of retro games are swiftly vanishing with the passing of time and many recent games get unceremoniously killed off for…reasons. It seems things may only get worse before they get better, as there are now indications that some European…
When Veronica Taylor was called to audition for a Japanese cartoon in 1998, she had no idea what to expect. Heavily pregnant and living in New York, the 33-year-old actor had just finished a run of commercials, soaps and theatre productions, before a chance call from her acting coach sent her hurrying downtown. It was…
Every Persona player knows that the most difficult part of these games isn’t taking down shadows, managing your hangout time, or getting Morgana to let you stay awake past 8 at night. The toughest part of being a Persona user is answering the difficult questions your teachers ask you during school hours.
If there’s one thing I’m going to do in Final Fantasy XIV, it’s endlessly spam emotes at all of my friends while we stand around in the middle of the Limsa Lominsa Aetheryte Plaza. But there’s only so many times I can /pet, /cheer, or /lalihop before it gets old. Thankfully, Square Enix is delivering unto players a…
Open-world survival game Palworld lets you explore the world and craft away at your own pace, tending to your survival needs and your crafting goals as you like. But of course, there are always some best practices. And when it comes to the game’s early moments, you’ll want to find the right Pals for the job and gather…
I didn’t expect to check Twitter or X or whatever today and see a Super Bowl advertisement featuring Patrick Stewart, Master Chief, Arnold from Hey, Arnold!, the band Creed, Knuckles from the Sonic franchise, and Survivor host Jeff Probst. Yet, folks, here we are. Welcome to 2024. It sucks.
It’s Black History Month, y’all, which means it’s time to uplift anything and everything connected to the African diaspora. And whoa, would you look at that! Coinciding with the first day of this celebratory and historic month is a free Steam demo for Tales of Kenzera: Zau, a stunning side-scrolling Metroidvania that…
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League isn’t the game a lot of Arkham fans wanted. It’s also yet another live-service video game, something that folks are less and less excited about with each passing year. And it’s not had great previews or trailers. But, I’ve enjoyed Rocksteady’s past games a lot and the idea of…
Did you know there is a large portion of the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom that ships the blue blur with his black-and-red rival Shadow? The golden retriever boyfriend and black cat boyfriend dynamic apparently stirs something in people. If you weren’t aware of the Sonadow ship, you, and likely many others, are about to…
I might be in the minority, but I enjoyed the first season of the Paramount+ Halo TV series. Though it stumbled at times, I appreciated its attempts to flesh out characters like franchise lead Master Chief John-117, expand upon well-established Halo lore, and give us more than just a video game retrofitted into an…
Ever since HoYoverse released Genshin Impact in 2020, the developer has been on a winning streak. Major updates of Genshin Impact have continuously delivered interesting story expansions and new characters. Then 2023’s Honkai: Star Rail showed HoYoverse could replicate its success with a sci-fi turn-based RPG. Heading…
Rocksteady’s new co-op looter-shooter, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, might not be the Batman sequel many fans wanted, but an early section of the game does offer some Arkham-like action. But this time, you are the ones being hunted by a powerful superhero hiding in the shadows.
It can be tough figuring out how to manage everything Persona 3 Reload throws at you. Between school life, social life, and fighting demonic shadows during the Dark Hour, your time in Gekkoukan High School is hectic, to say the least. So whether you’re returning to Persona 3 or playing it for the first time via the…
This story is part of our new Future of Gaming series, a three-site look at gaming’s most pioneering technologies, players, and makers.
The announcement during last night’s State of Play that a new entry in the Silent Hill franchise was out now and available for free immediately brought to mind the legendary P.T. demo. Sadly, the intrigue Silent Hill: The Short Message stoked during its trailer never pays off after playing through the entirety of this…
Remember fast-food kids meals with specially marketed pop culture toys? They just don’t make ‘em like they used to. In the 1990s, Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, and Burger King often chose chaos with their tie-ins, like the Batman Forever glass mugs or the Hercules plates. Heck, even when big event films like…
Everything about the moviegoing experience is merchandisable, and long has been. But the rising trend of increasingly complex and elaborate collectible popcorn buckets might have finally reached the apex with Dune: Part Two, which invites you to place your hand in a very different kind of Gom Jabbar test.
Alan Wake II’s 1.15 update is now live on Xbox, PlayStation and PC. It fixes a ton of bugs, improves some visual issues, and also adds an option to make the game a little less scary. Importantly, it may also render the game more playable for those with certain sensitivities to flashing lights.
Sony’s January 31 State of Play gave hungry gamers a heaping helping of upcoming titles to drool over, including the long-awaited Silent Hill 2 remake and deeper dives into Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade. But the biggest reveal of the evening came with an extended look at the story and gameplay of Hideo Kojima’s D…
