Cecilia D'Anastasio

Tekken game director Katsuhiro Harada has made some hard decisions to keep the 23-year-old franchise current—without compromising its classic appeal. In an interviewwith Gamasutra, Harada explains why he had to cut some beloved moves’ frames, put his chips on online play and “give up” on features considered “offensive.”

Stay With Me Here: Dungeons & Dragons, Except You Cook What You Kill

So, uh, I’ve been pretty fixated on the idea of a dungeon-crawl-slash-cooking show—a Dungeons & Dragons game where you kill what you eat. A few questionably-spent days of vacation after spawning this ludicrous idea, I found a way to mod Dungeons & Dragons to accommodate my cooking fantasies. And, surprisingly, it turned out great. The…

I’m Obsessed With Battlegrounds‘ Brutal Hospital

In Battlegrounds’ bombed-out hospital, I can’t tell whether my footsteps are my own. Every few meters, I duck into a room and stop to listen to my own movement, taking a few test steps to match them with their corresponding sounds. If there’s silence, I keep moving. That way, I can amass a dozen items…

Final Fantasy Netflix Show Nails Weird Behavior of Rookie MMO Players

A new Netflix show about a kid playing the MMO Final Fantasy XIV with his out-of-touch dad totally nails the freaky and opaque behavior of new players in MMOs. Dad of Light is follows Akio, who lures his father into playing FFXIV in an effort to finally forge a relationship with him. The catch: His…

Let’s Play Copyright Threat Raises Questions About The Law And How To Use It

Copyright, free speech, and entertainment lawyers have mixed opinions on the legality of game developer Campo Santo’s decision to fight hate speech with a copyright strike after reaching abreaking pointwith YouTube celebrity Felix “Pewdiepie” Kjellberg. Over the weekend, Campo Santo co-founder Sean Vanaman said he would use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to “cut off”…

Splatoon 2‘s Post-Release Guns Are Keeping My Playstyle Fresh

Since Nintendo released the Switch’s cephalopod third-person shooter Splatoon 2 in late July, they’ve been injecting the game with a continuous stream of excellent weapons. After finding my cozy comfort zone of Splatoon 2 weapons immediately after launch, Nintendo’s dedication to varying the game’s weapon arsenal is now inspiring me to try out different playstyles…

Overwatch ‘Bronze To Grandmaster Challenges’ Are Fun To Watch, But A Little Shady

“We’re gonna have some fun here,” Beeftipsy said, spraying his tag on the ground of Overwatch’s Oasis map, the Overwatch equivalent of cracking one’s knuckles. It was the first day of the Twitch streamer’s “Bronze to Grandmaster challenge,” a trendy stunt in which master players who want to flex their competitive muscle live for fans…

Nintendo Announces A Bunch Of Cool Indie Games For Switch

Today’s Nintendo Indies Summer Showcase, or “Nindies,” didn’t bring many Earth-shattering revelations, but did share news of a few fun ports. And if you were looking forward to some new games—we hope you like platformers! Below are a few of our highlights from today’s livestream. Nintendo’s YouTube channel is full of new trailers for fans…

Overwatch Finally Gets A Reporting System For Consoles And Here’s How It Works

A year after release, Overwatch players on PS4 and Xbox One now have recourse for the trash Mei who won’t stop icing her teammates into the spawn point. Overwatch, a pleasant game that recently has taken a turn for the toxic, has gotten flack for how long console players waited to get their reporting system.…

How do you practice consent in an online role-playing game? Game designer Raph Koster published a fascinating blog postyesterday about how players in MMOs now have tons of agency over their characters’ actions (“/bite”), but others can’t control what is done to them (have you ever seen “/accept”?).

With Destiny 2 Coming, Destiny YouTubers Fear Losing Money To YouTube’s Ad Bots

Michael “MTashed” Tash has become superstitious about Destiny footage on his YouTube channel. To keep his videos on the first-person shooter monetized and his bank account in the green, Tash has developed a sort of spiritualistic approach to determining what YouTube thinks is advertiser-friendly. He doesn’t use all-caps lettering in titles, but is experimenting with…

Thousands of People Say They’re Going To Run Like Naruto This Weekend

A minute watching a kid run can speak volumes about how much anime they consume. Are their arms thrust out behind them? Is their head down, their back bent over, their legs churning along a diagonal axis? And are they wearing a headband with a swirly metal thing? If so, that kid is running the…

Developers Put Popular Horror Game On Pirate Bay For Players Who Can’t Afford It

On torrent site The Pirate Bay, typically the domain of illegal rips of media, one username among dozens uploading the horror game Darkwood stands out: the game’s publisher. Today, the Poland-based Acid Wizard Studio uploaded their own game for free with “no catch, no added pirate hats for characters,” their torrent description reads. A lot…

Crypt Of The Necrodancer Developer Announces Sci-Fi City-Builder

Crypt of the Necrodancer developer Brace Yourself Games just announced its upcoming title, Industries of Titan. And it’s very different from what we’ve come to know the studio for. Industries of Titan will be an “industrial city building sim/strategy game, set on Saturn’s moon Titan,” according to the developer. Players can design industrial cities, which…

Dungeons & Dragons Promises To Make Its Adventures More Queer

As we sat together at Gen Con in Indianapolis this weekend talking Dungeons & Dragons, the game’s lead rules developer Jeremy Crawford motioned towards a copy of the Player’s Handbook resting on the table between us. “I wasn’t about to have this book go out and not acknowledge that people like me exist,” he said.…

Fortnite’s first update will add a new mode, “Survive the Storm,” plus some new weapons and loot to the survival/fort-defense game for a limited time. It will be available on August 29th.

H3H3 Productions Wins Lawsuit Filed By YouTuber They Made Fun Of

After a year-long legal battle, A New York District Court judge yesterday ruled in favor of YouTube channel H3H3 Productions, who had been accused of copyright infringement, misrepresentation and defamation by another YouTuber whose comedy-slash-pick-up-artist video they parodied. H3H3 Productions’ February, 2016 parody video poked fun at the video “Bold Guy vs Parkour Girl” and…

KFC Employee Training Game Is A Raw Chicken Escape Room

There are a lot of nightmarish things about KFC, including but not limited to mutant chickens and a sandwich where the bread is chicken filets. Now KFC is owning the darker, crispier parts of its brand with a new VR horror game that’s become a “bizarre initiation rite” for new employees, according to Eater. The…

At Gamescom, Battlegrounds creator Brendan Greene (aka PlayerUnknown) gave attendees a first look at the game’s upcoming desert map. Greene says it’s a work in progress, but damn am I excited to drive a 4×4 around here.

Adorable platform fighter Rivals of Aether comes to Xbox One today. In March, Kotaku wrote that it “makes the Smash Bros. formula feel new again.”