Cecilia D'Anastasio

Watch Out For World Of Warcraft‘s Newest Thieving Scam

The World of Warcraft community is abuzz over an infectious, gold-stealing scam affecting players across realms. This morning, VICE Motherboard reported that a scam with “a sophisticated combination of social engineering and malicious code” is spreading through a sort of viral word-of-mouth chat script. On Reddit, WoW player MrNoobyy described how another player, impersonating a…

Infamous Price Gouger Martin Shkreli Wants To Collect Rare Magic: The Gathering Cards

Infamous price gouger Martin Shkreli has found his next potential scheme, and it’s a little less glamorous than his shady pharmaceutical company: Magic: The Gathering. Shkreli posted on the MTG subreddit last night fishing for details about collecting rare Magic cards. He identifies as a “new and wealthy player” who collects “wine, art and other…

A DIY Version of FFXIV In VR

While there are no plans for an official PlayStation VR version of Final Fantasy XIV, there are actually some pretty cool unofficial ones you can try. This week in the FFXIV subreddit, a fan named Donald Annis posted a 3Dvideo in which he rode his mount around the Lavender Beds zone. He made the video…

VR Has Its Roots In Ancient Rome

Probably my favorite virtual reality experience was unearthed around 1863 in the Roman suburb of Prima Porta. Well, it’s not a virtual reality experience as much as it’s an illusionistic fresco on four walls, but bear with me. In the villa of Livia Drusilla (58 BCE-29 CE), the wife of the first emperor of Rome,…

Indie Boss Battler Furi Is The Wrong Kind Of Hard

My issue with Furi isn’t that it’s too hard. For a fast-moving action game entirely built around boss fights, a certain amount of exasperation is to be expected. My issue is that the game is too hard in the wrong ways and, perhaps, for the wrong reasons. Furi, released today for Steam and PS4 by…

The New Berserk Anime Already Outshines The ’90s Original

Berserk’s first episode of its 2016 TV series premiered today. My jaw is still on the floor, where my tongue will need to be scraped off with a spatula. That’s some damn good anime WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD The dark medieval manga boasts 343 chapters of fantasy gore, which creator Kentaro Miura has been industriously producing…

Seven Changes Nintendo Could Make To Splatoon Instead Of Killing Splatfest

Splatoon’s Splatfest, its eight-player inky turf war, is ending on July 24th, Nintendo announced yesterday. And it’s the ultimate battle: Callie vs. Marie, Splatoon’s two spunky mascots. Inklings are riled up over #waifuwars, as it’s being called, and already picking sides — or bemoaning Splatfest’s end: But fans across the globe are wondering: Now that…

Chinese Splatoon Rip-Off Sure Looks Like Splatoon

Something about this Chinese mobile game looks… similar… to another game I like. I can’t quite place it, though. It might be its cast of spritely kids with neon hair that resembles tentacles. But, on second thought, maybe that’s just a really popular and unoriginal thing in video games. It could be the game mechanic…

Zarya From Overwatch Has Become A Gay Icon, Ironically

Lots of Overwatch fans read the game’s proud, pink-haired Russian lady soldier Zarya as gay. While perhaps not a huge deal on its own, that interpretation conflicts with homophobic views widely held in Russia and backed by the state, forcing Russian Overwatch players to reconcile two clashing interpretations of a widely admired character. Overwatch’s intricate…

The Secretive Creator Of Yandere Simulator, A Game About Murdering High School Girls

Yandere Simulator would be less messed up if it was just about murdering high schoolers. In the game, which is still in development but available for PC, you play as the psychotic Japanese schoolgirl Ayano Aishi, who will do anything to be with her senpai — including torturing and killing her competition. A bland older…

Campo Santo offered a tongue-in-cheek response to a Ford dealership’s art appropriation. Yesterday, Firewatch’s signature mountain panorama appeared in an ad for a Ford sale without the designers’ permission.

Takashi Murakami’s New Godzilla Vs. Evangelion Promo Art Is A Wonderful Fever Dream

Famed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami justlent his signature psychedelic visuals to the latest Godzilla film, Godzilla Resurgence, according to Crunchyroll. Co-directed by Hideaki Anno (Neon Genesis Evangelion) and Shinji Hugichi (Attack on Titan), the 29th Godzilla movie has been promoted with Evangelion vs. Godzilla merch since April 1st as a nod to Anno’s role in…

Ford Dealership Takes Firewatch Art To Advertise Sale [UPDATE]

A Ford car dealership in Quincy, Massachusetts used art from the hit indie game Firewatch in a recent advertisement, displaying the game’s signature mountain panorama in an e-mail blast sent to customers about a new sale today. Kotaku reader asmallcat forwarded us an e-mail of the ad, which clearly uses art from the game. Olly…

Little Witch Academia TV Series Announced

This morning, studio TRIGGER announced the television adaption of hit shojo anime Little Witch Academia. Yoh Yoshinari, whose work appears in Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill, will return to direct the 30-minute episodes. We will update when a release date is confirmed. A sort of anime Harry Potter, the story follows amateur witch Akko…

Upcoming Anime By One-Punch Man Creator Looks Stunning

From the creator of viral manga/anime One-Punch Man, the anime adaption of Mob Psycho 100 is slated for release on July 11th. And it’s shaping up to be just as visually stunning and hilarious as its predecessor. Mark my words: This is the anime you’ll be watching this summer. With an all-star cast of artists,…

Meet The YouTube Gamers Who Want To Make Your Brain Tingle

The video that led me to Nick, known on YouTube as the ASMRnerd, was “Soft-Spoken ASMR: Elder Scrolls Maps.” I have no idea how I found it–probably late at night in a semi-conscious YouTube trance. “Join me for a relaxing cartographic journey across Tamriel and its provinces,” the description reads. “Triggers include paper sounds, pointing…

Cyberpunk Bartending Game Mixes Waifus With Great Storytelling

Bartending for a delinquent cast of sci-fi characters, it turns out, is the ideal way to world-build a dystopian visual novel/game. VA-11 Hall-A, released yesterday on Steam, offers players the chance to serve up noxious drinks to the sketchy citizens of Glitch City, circa 207X A.D., the kind of place that would star as the…