Cecilia D'Anastasio

Ghost In The Shell Really Bummed Us Out

Last night, Kotaku’s intrepid anime and snack reporters, me and Mike Fahey, saw the anticipated and controversial live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, an anime we both love. It was, to say the least, an utter disappointment. We spent some time this morning sharing our thoughts on the film, and now we’re sharing them…

If you’ve seen the absolutely ridiculous trailer for The Fate of the Furious, you will be thrilled to know that Rocket League is adding a car from the movie. Dom Toretto’s Dodge Ice Charger is will be downloadable on April 4th.

As For Honor Players Threaten A Boycott, Ubisoft Offers Some Changes

Thousands of For Honor players are threatening to boycott the very flawed fighting game they nevertheless love. Today, Ubisoft addressed some of the most frequent complaints, but not everyone is satisfied just yet. This afternoon, Ubisoft updated For Honor’s currency system, increasing steel incomeby 25 percent across all matches. A map players liked is getting…

Twitch is rolling out support for 1080p and 60 fps streaming. For esports heads especially, this is good news. Viewers can now choose a higher stream quality, so they’ll see every little detail of every silly Overwatch play. 

Smash Pros Do IRL Taunts For Charity

Earlier this morning, two top-five Super Smash Bros. Melee players, Adam “Armada” Lindgren and Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman, and a well-known Fox player named Danny “UUAA” Diaz got together to do Smash taunts, IRL, for charity. The results are amazing and adorable. Here’s Mewtwo’s taunt from Lindgren: And the original to compare: I think this is…

Blizzard Overhauls Heroes Of The Storm’s Progression System

Today, Heroes of the Storm announced some big changes to its progression system. Heroes 2.0, launching in beta today, aims to make leveling up more interesting. Currently, each heroes’ level caps at 20 and, at later levels, their XP curve is, in game director Alan Dabiri’s words, “punishing.” Heroes 2.0 will remove the level cap…

The Xbox One’s new UI just dropped. It emphasizes streaming games with the just-released Beam app, discovery and sharing over navigating to apps you already use regularly. It’s also a little faster.

For Honor’s Peacekeeper Is Apparently So Overpowered, A Tournament Is Now Banning Her

It was inevitable: For Honor players have determined which of its heroes is overpowered and must be banished. In a game so dependent on balance, For Honor’s Peacekeeper won’t jibe at an upcoming Major League Gaming tournament. Eurogamer reports that the Peacekeeper is rubbing players the wrong way. She can spam her light attack, which…

Rivals of Aether Makes The Smash Bros. Formula Feel New Again

Rivals of Aether, out today, wants to become every newbie’s first platform fighter. Rather than relegating that throne to Smash Bros., Rivals of Aether guts the iconic Nintendo game while retaining the skeleton of its famous playstyle. In a genre monopolized by an established AAA game, Rivals succeeds at nearly everything it sets out to…

‘The Doomvault’ Is A D&D Map For Sadists

If you, like me, are an evil dungeon master, you will love Dungeons & Dragons adventure Dead in Thay’s map. If you are a mascochistic D&D player who loves getting trapped in fiery pits with ferocious liches, you will also love it. Dead in Thay is one of the seven revamped adventures in upcoming D&D…

Smash 4’s Competitive Scene Is Hype Because Nintendo Leaves It Alone

Last weekend’s Super Smash Bros. 4 tournament, one of the most anticipated yet, was a wrestling-style rivalry match between two crews led by two Smash titans. Drawing over 50,000 viewers, Civil War was a DIY event from the ground up. It’s the kind of event that could only exist around a gaming community left to…

How To Get Into Dungeons & Dragons

Getting into Dungeons & Dragons can be intimidating. You need maybe three or four other nerds to play with, some pricey tomes full of numbers and tables, ample free time and several dice with as many as 20 sides. It’s a lot to fathom, and even more to set up. How will you find D&D-curious…

Three Indie Games Are Vying To Out-Smash Smash Bros.

18 years after Super Smash Bros’ initial release, a slew of indie games are challenging its dominance of the platform fighting genre. Rivals of Aether, Brawlhalla, and Melee Masters are all upcoming indie platform fighters riffing on the theme Smash has been singing for two decades—one that 2013’s Towerfall circled with its archery-based play. Players…

The Live-Action Death Note Movie Gets A Trailer

Netflix just showed off its trailer for the live-action adaptation of horror anime Death Note. Slated for release later this year, the film is directed by Adam Wingard. Here’s the trailer: Death Note is about a teenaged boy who mysteriously acquires a book that kills anyone whose name is written in it. Flush with power,…

Pokémon Go‘s New Water Event Makes The Rare Lapras More Common

If you’re still waiting for Lapras to land in your Pokémon Go PokeDex, it might be your lucky day. Pokémon Go announced its new Water Festival event today, which will increase select water spawns globally. Totodile, Squirtle, Magikarp and others will appear more often after 1 P.M. PDT for the next week. To celebrate, your…

Yesterday, Dungeons & Dragons announced they’ll be translating and localizing all major 5th edition rules books into French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Polish and Portuguese. Over two years post-release, it was about time!

Microsoft Is Making A New Xbox Controller Inspired By The Military

Xbox just announced a new controller: the special edition Recon Tech wireless controller, to be released next month. With a stylized utilitarian look Xbox says was inspired by “military technology,” combat armor and sci-fi mechanical gear,” the controller has etched textures on the front and back, apparently for grip. Like other Xbox wireless controllers, it’s…

Hyper Light Drifter Keeps Me Coming Back

Hyper Light Drifter is backbreaking, but never needlessly so. The dash-and-slash action RPG is in equal parts elegantly designed and punishing, posing the fairest challenge I’ve ever encountered in a game. A year post-release, Hyper Light Drifter’s clean (and ball-busting) gameplay still has me addicted to the adrenaline rush. I picked up Hyper Light Drifter…

Beloved anime One-Punch Man is now on Netflix. Praise be to the anime gods.

Over the last few days, LGBTQ YouTubers have spoken out about how YouTube’s “Restricted Mode,” a safe-browsing mode used in schools and workplaces, is hiding their videos. In a blog post yesterday, YouTube apologized, explaining that the “feature isn’t working the way it should,” and will be fixed.