Cecilia D'Anastasio

Five Must-Watch Anime Of Summer 2016

Summer can mean a few things: Frolicking in unbearable humidity until your skin is a festering wreck, or cuddling up next to the AC and binge-watching anime. No judgment here. Kotaku East’s Brian Ashcraft wrote up our Summer 2016 Anime Guide last month with nearly 50 listings. Below, I’ve narrowed down this summer’s anime bounty…

Days Later, Overwatch Fans Can’t Figure Out The ‘Sky Code’ Mystery

Overwatch fans’ investigation into the identity of unreleased stealth hero Sombra is moving slowly, even after game director Jeff Kaplan personally gave them a push along. Over 5,000 Overwatch fans have been working to solve the puzzle since Tuesday without much success. In July, Kaplan told Kotaku reporter Nathan Grayson that “Sombra will let people…

Here’s What It Looks Like To Play The New Quake

Quake Champions, Bethesda’s arena shooter for PC, is looking awesome. Its debut gameplay trailer just dropped, teasing some new champions and weapons. The game will enter closed beta in 2017. Take a look:

11 Fans Who Love Overwatch So Much, They Got Tattoos

It’s no news that Overwatch is in vogue, but for some fans, the game is more than just the flavor of the week. Overwatch heroes’ elaborate backstories and compelling character design has led some players to identify with them on a deep, personal level. And what happens when people really, really like something? They get…

Overwatch Fans Find New Clues About The Mysterious Hero Sombra

About 2,000 Overwatch fans are currently hard at work deciphering the game’s latest clue about the unreleased hero Sombra. Yesterday, Blizzard published a video announcing their Summer Games seasonal event, which, Redditors think, surreptitiously holds new hints about Sombra, allegedly a hacker hero whose name translates to “Shadow.” A day later, these “Game Detectives” have…

Somehow, the anime and light novel series Sword Art Online is being developed into a live-action television show, Crunchyroll reports. Centered on a virtual reality MMORPG, Sword Art Online follows the story of protagonist Kirito, who is trapped alongside 10,000 other players in the virtual world. Skydance Television is taking on the task with Laeta…

Overwatch Gets Rocket League-Like Summer Games Mode

Overwatch today launched its first seasonal event, and with it comes the new gameplay mode Lúcioball. As an introduction to Overwatch’s Summer Games, Lúcioball will have players battling it out on a “futuristic soccer field” in a Rocket League-esque seasonal soccer brawl set in Rio de Janeiro. Overwatch’s Assistant Game Director Aaron Keller elaborates on…

Banned Overwatch Players Are Not Reacting Well

Overwatch cheaters yesterday were squashed under Blizzard’s ban hammer. Predictably, they are whining on cheating forums about it. In the second banwave Blizzard has sent against Overwatch cheaters, players who use bots to boost play were removed from the game. By early June, just a few weeks after the game’s release, thousands of players had…

Today, Overwatch cheaters were squashed under Blizzard’s ban hammer. Players who use a “triggerbot,” which shoots for players when their cross-hairs are over an enemy, or an “aimbot,” which aids accuracy, appear to have been banned en masse. “Justice rains from above,” quoth the hero Pharah.

Artist Re-imagines Smash 4 Characters In Mayan Style

Tucson-based artist Sita Navas has given Super Smash Bros. 4 the Mayan makeover. Since 2014, Navas has been re-imagining her favorite video games in ancient Mesoamerican art styles. The results are stunning. These 2D prints featuring Smash 4 heroes like Mega Man, Pac Man and Ganondorf were originally printed on wood panels with acrylic paint.…

Russian Officials Think Pokémon Go Is Evil

Russian officials are flipping out about Pokémon Go. And what will dispel its destabilizing effect on society, the Moscow government believes, is developing their own, more patriotic, version of it. The viral mobile game still hasn’t seen a Russian release more than two weeks after its German launch. Yet, Russian Pokémon fans have found workarounds…

D&D‘s Dungeon Masters Guild Wants Players To Monetize Fan Content

Dungeons & Dragons has opened the gates to its ivory tower. Earlier this year, the behemoth role-playing game franchise announced the launch of its Dungeon Masters Guild, a platform for players to publish lore, maps, character designs and adventures based on Dungeons & Dragons intellectual property. In the process, content creators can earn a few…

Classic mecha anime Patlabor will see a reboot this fall. Studio Khara, founded by Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno, will release Mobile Police Patlabor Reboot on October 15th at the Japan Animator Expo. The last Patlabor anime installment was published nearly 15 years ago.

Playing D&D Online Is About To Get Easier

Everything is getting uploaded, including stalwart meatspace occupant Dungeons & Dragons. Today, Roll20, an online “virtual tabletop,” announced its new licensing deal with D&D to offer the pen-and-paper RPG’s original content on their digital platform. Although D&D intellectual property is already accessible on popular digital RPG platform Fantasy Grounds, D&D’s Roll20 collaboration is the latest…

Guy At Local Dave & Buster’s Bends Space-Time With His Feet

Pump It Up player Drake Davis (aka Shockwave) has some fancy feet that appear to defy known laws of physics. Describing himself as “pretty ok” for someone who’s “been playing for 2 years,” Davis was recently caught on video by musician Ryan Oakes absolutely killing it on a console at a Virginia Beach Dave &…

The Mom Who Moderates Her Daughter’s Rowdy Twitch Chat

Anisa Jomha was a so-called “boobie streamer” until last March. Her sizable Twitch following includes ardent fans, horny dudes, toxic trolls, and an unusual chat moderator: her mother. On Twitch, Jomha, known online as Raihnbowkidz, streams League of Legends for her over 200,000 followers, many of whom originally subscribed for something other than her gameplay:…

Final Fantasy XIV‘s New Fat Moogle Mount Costs A Whopping $30

I’m over Fat Chocobo, the bloated bird that has enraptured Final Fantasy fans for two decades. In Final Fantasy XIV, the gluttonous avian became a popular mount and meme when it was released as a part of 2014’s A Realm Reborn Collector’s Edition. Today, the FFXIV team has unleashed what will inevitably take Fat Chocobo’s…

Acclaimed slash-and-dash RPG Hyper Light Drifter is now available for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. We really loved it on PC.

Wahaha, Smash Bros. Players Mod Waluigi Into Brawl

Project M, the unofficial lovechild of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Melee, has been abandoned by its developers, but fans are still churning out content for the popular mod. As of last Sunday, our favorite conniving Mario underdog has earned his own—again unofficial—Smash character in Project M. Waaahaaahaa Currently in Smash, Waluigi exists as a…

Three Anas Can Get An Overwatch Player Kicked From A Match

Overwatch’s new sniper mom hero Ana, it turns out, has secret trolling capacities. Ana’s “Sleep Dart,” which makes enemies unconscious for a few seconds, can actually render a player inactive and kicked from the game. If you collect three Anas around an enemy and keep that enemy constantly asleep, that player will get removed from…