Ethan Gach

What We Know And Don’t Know About Google’s New Gaming Platform Stadia

Google shared a lot of information about it’s new video game streaming platform at yesterday’s GDC presentation, and we’ve learned even more about the technology through interviews, like the one Kotaku had with Stadia boss Phil Harrison on Splitscreen. But there’s still a lot we don’t know. Google has not said exactly when it comes,…

Heroes of the Storm is ditching paid loot boxes. Announced in yesterday’s patch notes for the latest update, starting March 25, players will no longer be able to use Gems, the game’s premium currency, to buy loot chests. Instead, they’ll have to either earn them by playing or spending currency earned in-game.

Halo: Reach Will Bring Back Customizable Armor Sets When It Comes To PC

Halo community director Brian Jarrard said in an AMA on Reddit today that players’ existing progress from Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One—including all stats, achievements, Forged maps, and game variants—will carry over to the upcoming PC version. He also said that while nothing is guaranteed, the studio is exploring options for adding…

“Gaming has always been the backbone of YouTube since it was founded in 2005,” Ryan Wyatt, the head of YouTube gaming, said at the unveiling of Stadia today. Then he flashed a slide of YouTube’s biggest gaming content creators up on the screen. Is it just me or is someone missing?

Castle Crashers Remastered is coming to PS4 and Switch this summer. The remastered version, currently out on Xbox One and Steam, has better graphics and runs at 60fps. In addition to making the game portable, the Switch version will make use of the HD Rumble and single Joy-Con for multiplayer.

SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is out today on PS4. We wrote about how it was a great look back at some of the best retro games SNK’s early days when it came to Switch last fall. It also has some great features like videos of perfect playthroughs of all the games.

Nintendo Tortures Animal Crossing Fans With Tweet About Taxes

Yesterday, the Nintendo of America Twitter account posted the above image of Animal Crossing’s Tom Nook and suggested the money-lending raccoon had special news. Then it turned out Nook was just hocking new Nintendo Switches and fans were crestfallen. “Tom Nook is here to help you file your tax returns…and he already has an idea…

Players Debate Whether Red Dead Redemption 2‘s New Patches Downgraded The Game’s Graphics

Post-launch updates are supposed to make a game better, but some players now believe Red Dead Redemption 2’s graphics have been slightly downgraded following the release of the most recent patch. They have been sharing before and after screenshots to try and prove it. Rockstar Games released Title Update 1.06 on February 26. It introduced…

BadLand Gaming has responded to the accusations that it’s refused to pay Tom Happ, creator of Axiom Verge, the money it owes him as part of a publishing deal, claiming instead that it has always tried to negotiate a repayment plan. Happ and business manager Dan Adelman dispute that characterization. 

StarTropics On Switch Is Missing The Clue You Need To Beat The Game

Last week, Nintendo added the cult-classic 1990 NES game StarTropics to the Switch Online library. There’s just one problem: it doesn’t contain the secret clue necessary to actually beat the game. StarTropics follows a young boy named Mike Jones as he searches a mysterious island for his researcher uncle who’s gone missing. In the process…

Halo: The Master Chief Collection Won’t Be Part Of Xbox Play Anywhere

343 Industries studio head Bonnie Ross confirmed yesterday during the Halo Championship Series Invitational at South By Southwest that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will not be part of the Xbox Play Anywhere program which makes Xbox One games cross-buy and cross-play on PC. Those who already own it on console will have to buy…

Pathway is an upcoming game that mixes role-playing strategy with archaeological exploration and it looks excellent. It’s kind of like if Indiana Jones was turned into an Advance Wars game, but with some D&D thrown in. The game’s currently slated to come to Steam sometime later this year.

Axiom Verge Developer And Distributor Say Its Publisher Owes Them Over $250,000 [Update]

Axiom Verge, the celebrated Metroidvania from developer Tom Happ, is getting a physical release on Wii U this year. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the game’s distributor Limited Run Games and its business manager Dan Adelman have said that its publisher BadLand Games still owes them around a quarter million dollars.…

Old School Halo Crashes SXSW This Weekend In $100,000 Tournament

SXSW used to be a cool festival for musicians and artists to hang out. Now in its 30th year, it’s become other things: Woodstock for tech geeks, Davos for hipsters, spring break for nerds. So where do esports fit in? The cultural cache of SXSW might make it the ideal platform for showcasing something like…

BioWare Community Manager Says Hostile Replies Make Developers Less Likely To Engage

In a recent post on the Anthem subreddit, BioWare community manager Jesse Anderson explained that the increasing negativity has driven some of the game’s developers away from wanting to interact directly with players, demonstrating what a fraught relationship the constant feedback demands of Reddit can create. “To start, things used to be a lot friendlier…

BioWare has announced it’s increasing some of the loot drop rates in Anthem in a server-side update today. Missions on Grandmaster 2 and 3 difficulties will now drop more Masterwork and Legendary loot, as will Legendary enemies. The game’s community manager has called the drop rate increases “pretty significant.”

Five Free Switch Games Worth Playing

There’s no shortage of great games you could buy on Switch, but there are also a handful that are free. There was a time when a game being free-to-play marked it as subpar in some way. Now, free games can often be every bit as good as the paid ones and sometimes they aren’t even…

Fans Are Finally Coming To Terms With The Vita’s Death

The PlayStation Vita spent much of its brief life dying. Now that Sony has officially ended production in Japan, who’s left to mourn its passing and pour one out for all the good times? In May of 2015, then-CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Andrew House referred to to the Vita as a “legacy platform,” eliciting…

Fallout 76’s New Booze Questline Offers A Fun Reason To Return

Fallout 76’s seventh major patch Wild Appalachia arrived today and with it comes a host of changes. There are the usual fixes and improvements, but the new update also includes some new content that helps bring some life back into the game’s previously stagnant world. The biggest new addition is a quest called Wasted on…

Lego Are The Perfect Size For Building A Switch Game Case

Someone made a fun Lego replica of a Nintendo Switch that doubles as a nifty little case for Switch games. A user by the name of Squid50s recently shared the creation on the Switch subreddit along with a brief clip of the case in action. What makes the entire thing work is the size of…