Cecilia D'Anastasio

Popular New YouTuber Also Happens To Be Virtual Anime Girl

It turns out that 2017 isn’t only the year of self-driving cars and robots that rap; now, we have virtual anime girl YouTubers. A.I. Kizuna does everything a meatspace YouTuber would. She debates hot topics like buying friends with money and does Let’s Plays of games like Inside. She talks about furniture she wants and…

Why Opening Loot Boxes Feels Like Christmas, According To Game Devs

Opening Overwatch loot boxes or Halo 5 REQ packs adds a special drama to a gaming session. The crate shakes. A jingle chimes. Lights peek out from the cracks. It swells with potential. Game developers make subtle design decisions that stoke the hope that keeps players opening mystery boxes, crates and packs. And not just…

Trump Plan To Defund U.S. Arts Endowments Could Impact Video Game Programs

President Trump’s proposal to slash funding for federal arts endowments may have consequences for video games. The types of federally-funded education and social change-related games projects that have received grants in the past may need to scale down or search for other funding channels. Nothing is being cut just yet, but the President’s proposed 2018…

Seven Cool Games From PAX East To Watch Out For

At last weekend’s PAX East, Kotaku’s Patricia Hernandez and I had the chance to check out a ton of games in various stages of development. Several showed promise and we’re excited to follow them as they move closer to release. Overall, pink and purple platformers and action RPGs dominated the floor, reminiscent of indie success…

Smash Bros. Community Raises Over $23,000 For Sick Player’s Hospital Bills

On February 19th, 2017, Nicholas “Ministry” McGuire went into cardiac arrest at the Swedish Super Smash Bros. tournament Beast7. Now, the Smash community at large has banded together to raise over $23,000 for his estimated $200,000 hospital bill. During a match, McGuire collapsed onto the floor when an artificial valve in his heart, which he…

Overwatch’s newest hero, the “anchor tank” Orisa, will see a wide release on March 21st. Early on, she seems like a powerful tank with a long range who functions best when mired to her team.

A Musical Indie Game Starring A Teen With A Cosmic Guitar

Game designer Johnny Galvatron first doodled the monsters of The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti in his student math book, years ago. “I wasn’t a great math student,” he said, delightfully pointing out The Artful Escape ’s space whale and “suborbital jellyfish.” The short PAX East demo of The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti showed…

‘Let Him Fix It’: The Battle Over Who Gets To Repair Your Consoles

In a gritty vintage video games store in Manhattan’s East Village, a man who would only be identified by GorillaStomp, his PlayStation username, firmly explained why he should fix your video game console. Long before it was his livelihood, it was his fascination, and one he’d never asked for permission to do. Now, as the…

A VR Game That Laughs In The Face Of VR

In Virtual-Virtual Reality, a satirical Google Daydream VR game released today, a melting slab of butter orders you to smear toast on his unctuous body. When he demands more toast, 32 toasters appear. Toast is burning, popping out onto the floor. The butter is unhappy; he yells at you to “cover his butter body,” but…

YouTubers Are Fighting Over Destroyed Bases In Conan Exiles

Survival game Conan Exiles is gritty. On one level, that means butt-naked menhacking each other up with axes. On another, that means you can spend a month lovingly constructing a base, only for another player to destroy it. Over the weekend, a huge gaming YouTuber got a ton of hate after griefing a smaller YouTuber’s…

Overwatch Players Are Making Custom Sex Role-Play Rooms Now

Predictably, several 18+ sex role-play rooms have made their way into Overwatch’s new “custom games” lobby. “MERCY ABUSE RP 18+,” “ROADRAT GAY BATH-HOUSE RP,” “HIGHSCHOOL ROLEPLAY 18+ HOT,” and at least five “DADDY” rooms, typically in reference to the tank Reinhardt, have crept into the “custom games” lobby after the feature’s launch last week. In…

Kiss Him, Not Me Is A New Iconic Shoujo Anime

In shoujo anime, or anime made for women, “love” is the gravitational center around which the characters and plot points fold. Our leading lady’s flaws are gaps only her crush can fill. The plot is a slow sanding-down of her hard edges, preparing her for companionship. And, when the string track swells at the end…

Man Drops Nintendo Switch On Concrete 11 Times, For Science

What did you do with your brand new Nintendo Switch when it arrived in the mail? Did you rip the box open and pop in Zelda? Did you lick the cartridges? Did you, perhaps, repeatedly drop it on concrete? YouTuber Brandon Baldwin (GimoSlip) did. For nine minutes. It hurts to watch. But now we know…

Overwatch‘s Newest Character Orisa Is A Dynamic, Deadly Tank

Overwatch’s new hero Orisa, released yesterday on the PTR, is an “anchoring tank,” in the words of Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan. Her moveset affixes her to her allies, buffing and protecting them in turns. She boasts a killer gun that fires from extreme distances, but one-on-one, she’s not much of a challenge to take…

Overwatch’s New Hero Is Orisa

Overwatch’s new and 24th hero is the robot tank Orisa, who fights with a “fusion driver,” or a projectile machine gun. In a developer update video, Overwatch game developer Jeff Kaplan says her weapon has more range than nearly any other tank hero. She’s currently on the PTR. The robot was created by the 11-year-old…

Overwatch Team Will Roll Back Bastion’s Unpopular Buff

Earlier this week, Overwatch’s Bastion buff went live and, as usual, the sky fell. Players were so devastated about the changes, and so vocal, that the game’s director Jeff Kaplan just said he’d roll them back, a little consolingly. But two days post-patch, did players really have enough time to develop workable strategies to counter…

Pokemon Go’s upcoming trading feature won’t be over the internet, senior project manager Tatsuo Nomura told Polygon yesterday. Players will have to be physically proximate, reinforcing the game’s emphasis on real-life interaction.

To Maintain High Ranks, Overwatch Players Will Need To Play Way More Often Now

Yesterday’s Overwatch patch will force players with high competitive skill ratings to play at least seven games a week or see their ranking decline. It’s a smart move to combat foul play, and in the comings weeks, top Overwatch players should see fewer “smurf” accounts and more fair skill rankings. In response to the patch,…

Some YouTubers Are Overjoyed That Maker Studios Is Firing Them

When news hit that Disney subsidiary Maker Studios was dropping support for over 59,000 YouTubers, the mood for many was less “I’m fired” and more “I’m free!” YouTubers interviewed described their struggles against Maker’s detached management, late payments, high fee and undelivered features, painting the picture of an inflated network whose bubble may have popped.…

Video game companies are lobbying against a bill that protects independent business’ and gamers’ right to repair personal gaming consoles, VICE Motherboard reports. Several states have introduced bills that will force manufacturers to release tools and information required for fixing their products, exploding their so-called “repair monopoly.”