Ethan Gach

Epic Games announced that based on its own internal investigation, a group of players colluded during last weekend’s World Cup Open Qualifiers and as a result will undergo a 14-day competitive ban. Though Epic did not name him, XXiF, accused of cheating earlier this week, has been stripped of his qualification spot.

Every Big Game Coming Out In Spring 2019

At the start of spring, just for an instant, the Earth’s equator lines up perfectly with the center of the sun marking the first day of spring, at which point we are collectively thrust into another season chuck full of game releases. “A walk on a spring morning is better than an eighty-mile ride in…

Video Of Odd Behavior In Fortnite Match Leads To Accusations That Pro Was Cheating [Update]

Earlier this week, Fortnite pro Damion “XXiF” Cook was accused of colluding with other players during a World Cup open qualifier match in which he took second place, earning $4,000 in prize money and a spot in the eventual finals this summer in New York. In a statement, XXiF denied any wrongdoing, but that hasn’t…

Some Players Are Really Excited About Rocket League’s New Icon On Switch

Two years out from its release, the Nintendo Switch’s user interface design remains incredibly minimalist and barebones in comparison to other modern consumer electronics. Maybe that’s why its biggest fans get so excited about especially striking art for game icons, or in this case, icon redesigns like the one Rocket League just got. The icon…

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is getting a bunch of Apex Legends-inspired stuff added to its battle royale mode. This includes a new ping system, respawns, and a set of futuristic boots that let you run faster and jump higher. The mode also has a new map based in northern Africa called Sirocco.

The Echo Fox esports organization shareholder who was accused of using racial epithets in emails to business partners has issued a statement to Dexerto confirming one of the instances but denying that the language was ever directed at former NBA player Rick Fox or that his family had ever been threatened. 

CROSSNIQ+ is a tile-matching puzzle game set to come to Switch later this year. It’s got an early 2000s bubblegum aesthetic that really pops and a great soundtrack. As for the puzzle elements and competitive play potential, there’s an earlier build of the game on itch.io you can check out.

Mordhau Is A Clunky Game For Swordplay Nerds That I Can’t Put Down

Mordhau is a medieval multiplayer fighter named after a German sword technique from the Renaissance era in which knights hold their weapons by the blade and try to bash their opponents heads in using the pommel. Like its namesake, Mordhau is slow, awkward, and bloody, but for some reason, I want to keep playing. To…

Microsoft has announced the new games coming to Game Pass in May and they start with Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus on May 2. Wargroove also joins that day, followed by Surviving Mars, Black Desert, and Tacoma arriving on May 9. The month ends with Lego Batman 3 on May 16. 

Fallout 76’s New Camera Quest Helped Me Fall In Love With The Game’s Broken Beauty

Fallout 76’s world is lonely. Despite being a multiplayer game, it hosts just a couple dozen people around a sprawling map in any session you play. Other Fallout games might have a lot of computer-controlled civilians to chat with. Not this one. All of the non-player characters died long ago, or mutated beyond recognition. This…

The New Magic: The Gathering Expansion Makes Every Match More Spectacular

War Of The Spark, Magic: The Gathering’s latest expansion, is available one week early in Magic: The Gathering Arena, the card game’s digital version. It’s already shaping up to be one of the more memorable climaxes in the game’s recent history. Narratively, War Of The Spark couldn’t have arrived at a more opportune cultural moment.…

The Overwatch League Goes To Texas This Weekend

I normally try to zero in on one particular esports event or theme around it each weekend for this post, but this time there is just too much god damn high-level, mouse-clicking, button-mashing, card-dropping, play-calling competitive gaming action going on not to run through all of it. First up we have the Overwatch League. Week…

Valve Is Finally Replacing Its Ugly Dota 2 Statue With A Better One

Back in 2017, some of the most dedicated Dota 2 players spent hundreds of dollars on microtransactions to win a special collectible statue. The versions that Valve shipped out were so ugly, and so poorly received, that Valve said it would make replacements. Yesterday, it said that it was finally ready to ship them out.…

PlayStation Now Has Gotten A Lot Better

PlayStation Now used to be a pricey way to stream the PlayStation’s back catalogue of games, which was only useful for people with good internet and no bandwidth caps. Last September the company added an option to download certain games directly, allowing users to play them offline. PlayStation Now is now a lot more like…

Players Are Creating Amazing Things With Overwatch’s New Workshop Tools

Earlier this week, Blizzard added a Workshop to Overwatch that makes it possible to modify in-game scripts to create all sorts of new custom modes. Players have wasted no time in doing some really cool stuff with it. When Blizzard announced the Overwatch Workshop on Wednesday, it led with the example of a level inspired…

Report: Rick Fox Leaving Esports Organization Because Of Racist Comments By Shareholder [Update]

Retired NBA star turned esports entrepreneur Rick Fox is preparing to cut ties with Echo Fox, the competitive gaming organization he helped found, after another shareholder allegedly used racial slurs during an email exchange, according to a report by Richard Lewis for Dexerto According to Lewis, the racist remarks came from an investor at Vision…

Pagan Online Mixes Diablo-Style Loot With Arcade Combat

What surprised me most about Pagan Online, a new action role-playing game that launched on Steam Early Access last week, was how meaty the moment-to-moment fighting felt. When I launched an attack and connected with a wave of enemies, it really felt like I was messing up their day. Pagan Online is a collaboration between…

SteamWorld Quest: The Kotaku Review

I never know exactly how I’m going to approach each new battle in SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech. No matter how much I plan and prepare ahead of time, I can’t control the cards that end up in my hand in this turn-based role-playing card game. Perfect optimization is always a few steps out of…

BlizzCon, Blizzard’s annual convention for all things, well, Blizzard, will take place November 1 and 2 this year. Tickets go on sale May 4. The event will host all of the regular esports tournaments for games like Overwatch and Hearthstone, and who knows, Blizzard might even announce another mobile game.

Nintendo has opened up signups for a Mario Kart Tour beta set to begin May 22. The full mobile game will be released later this summer. Beta signups are currently only for Android.