Ethan Gach

Artist Re-Imagines One Little Corner of Final Fantasy VII

Ben Nicholas is an artist and concept designer formerly with 343 Industries who worked on Halo Wars 2. He’s also a huge fan of Final Fantasy VII, which is why he decided to embark on a project to re-imagine the game’s various interiors, beginning with pharmacy nestled deep inside the Wall Market strip of the…

Pro Overwatch Player Fined For ‘Lewd Comment’ About Interviewer

Timo ‘Taimou’ Kettunen, a member of competitive Overwatch’s Team EnVyUs, was fined by the South Korean esports network OGN for making “a lewd comment” in a Twitch chat about one of its interviewers. Taimou made his sexist remarks during an interview with Thomas “Morte” Kerbusch of REUNITED after the latter was defeated 3-0 by Team…

The Weekend In Esports: Capcom Pro Tour And League of Legends Quarterfinals 

While the rest of the competitive gaming world is relatively quiet this weekend, things are heating up in League of Legends with the Worlds 2016 finals quickly approaching at the end of the month. The Capcom Pro Tour is also going strong, with a ton of action kicking off in Italy as Milan Games Week…

Why The Super Mario Bros. World Record Has Been Broken So Many Times Recently

As late as 2013, the record for finishing Super Mario Bros. was held by andrewg1990 at 4:58. In April of this year, it was 4:57.427, and held by Darbian. Last weekendthe record was tied by Kosmic at 4:57.244. He then broke it with a new time of 4:57.194. But only a few days later, Darbian…

Dota 2 Player Accuses Former Team Of Mishandling Prize Money

Earlier today, Jack ‘EternaLEnVy’ Mao published a nearly 7,500 word blog post accusing leadership within Team Secret of being, well, secretive about how it handled prize money, sponsorship deals, and a whole host of other financial matters. His remarks were archived here after the traffic they originally generated crashed his blog EternaLEnVy joined up with…

The Week In Games: Virtual Fatality

As another wave of virtual reality technology breaks along the shore of humanity this week with PSVR, it’s only a matter of time until someone becomes the first person to die as a result of virtual reality. “We made some core decisions early on that we weren’t going to kill people.” That’s what Piers Jackson…

Professional Smash Bros. Continues To Grow With Luminosity Gaming’s Latest Signing

Pro Super Smash Bros. for Wii U player Yuta “Abadango” Kawamura has signed with Luminosity Games, according to an announcement made by esports organization last night. The news comes in the middle of the The Big House 6 tournament currently going on in Michigan and after a string of other recent signings over the past…

League of Legends Pro Suspended During Worlds For Toxic Chat, Will Be Fined $2,000

Yesterday, Riot, creator of League of Legends, announced a ruling suspending pro player Hankil “Road” Yoon for one match and fining him $2,000. The ruling came after it was discovered that Road had been verbally abusing other players in the game while solo-queuing for ranked matches in order to practice. This leaves I May, Road’s…

Sunday Comics: Icicles Of Death

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published October 7. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published October 3 as part of the 24-hour comic event. Read more of Awkward…

Darkest Dungeon Ruins Its Endgame

I love Darkest Dungeon, which is why I decided never to finish it. It’s the only reasonable response to a game whose gruesome charm fades so drastically overtime. Its cruel world and Lovecraftian savagery rival games like Sunless Sea and Don’t Starve, but stay too long and you’ll eventually see its grizzly nightmare transformed into…

Samsung Galaxy Punishes TSM In Second Meeting At Worlds 2016

After a tough fought forty five minute match that left everything on the table, South Korea’s Samsung Galaxy came out on top against North America’s Team Solo Mid. Every time TSM looked to have accumulated a meaningful advantage, Samsung would slowly dismantle it. Every time Samsung looked like they had the game under control, TSM…

Top Smash Player Saves Partner With Lightning-Quick Thinking

The Big House 6 tournament is utterly stacked, and the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U 2 vs. 2 “doubles” bracket is no exception. With Phase I and II wrapped up, the winners bracket currently has Ally and Mew2King facing off against Ryuga and Rayquaza07, followed by ZeRo and Nairo taking on ANTi and Kamemushi.…

Miguel Caballero Rojo is the latest character announced to appear in Tekken 7. The Spanish fighter was revealed at the by Bandai Namco at the Barcelona Games World event, and will be entering the fray to avenge the death of his sister from the previous game. Check out his trailer below.

Tales of Symphonia and Sniper Elite 3 are both free on Steam this weekend. That means that for approximately the next 24-32 hours, you can download either game and try it out. Shooting Nazis in the face is always fun, and Symphonia on PC should be a less broken now after months of patches

Counter-Strike Pro Obliterates Other Team Without Using Crosshair

We all knew Spencer “Hiko” Martin had mad skills. Despite losing to his former brother in arms, Oleksandr “S1mple” Kostyliev, in last weekend’s semifinals where Team Liquid fell to the eventual ELS One New York champions, Natus Vincere, there are few people more terrifying to meet in a lonely CS:GO alleyway. Hiko did nothing to dispel…

The Weekend In Esports: More Worlds 2016 and Rocket League Mayhem 

There’s a ton going on in pro gaming this weekend, starting with the concluding matches of Worlds 2016’s first phase, followed by major tournaments across the fighting game community stretching from Dearborn Michigan to southern Malaysia. There’s also still plenty going on in the world of competitive Counter-Strike and Rocket League in both Europe and…

World Record For Super Mario Bros. Broken By A Single Frame [UPDATE]

UPDATE – 10/2 8:30pm: After Kosmic’s speed-run was reviewed further, it was discovered that his time was actually off by exactly one frame. His actual speed-run was 4:57.244, the same as Darbian’s, with whom Kosmic now shares the world record In a follow-up, Kosmic explained where the original recorded time was incorrect, “Basically we know…

The Week In Games: Don’t Drink The Paint

The Paper Mario series got started fifteen years ago on the N64. In light of the fact that Super Mario RPG never received a proper sequel, it was welcome compromise. Even if the series seemed to have lost its way during the Wii era and more recently with Paper Mario: Sticker Star for the 3DS,…

Valve’s Latest Dota 2 Patch Is Chock Full of Nerfs

It’s been more than a month since TI6, Dota 2‘s largest tournament of the year. After a number of team roster shake-ups and the conclusion of the MDL Autumn 2016 tournament in China this weekend, which saw the newly formed Evil Geniuses beat Team Newbee 3-1, Valve decided it was time to drop the latest…

Counter-Strike Pro Clutches Round By Throwing His Gun

In the ESL One New York 2016 semi-finals for CS:GO, European powerhouse Natus Vincere took a three game series against the previously unstoppable Team Liquid 2-1. Despite Ice-T telling everyone not to fuck with Team Liquid, NaVi dared to and came out the other side looking better than ever. Perhaps the match’s best moment came…