Nathan Grayson

Prison Architect just broke out of Early Access. The long-in-development prison management game is finally “done”—or at least out of alpha testing. Inspired by the likes of Dungeon Keeper and Dwarf Fortress, it’s full of chaotic possibilities. If you’re new, there’s now a campaign story mode.

Steam Customer Service Is Still Terrible

This is getting ridiculous. In March of this year, I spoke with Valve business development authority Erik Johnson about Steam’s dubious reputation for customer support. He did not disagree with general sentiment: Valve badly needs to step up their game. Among other things, Johnson said: “We think customers are right. When they say our support’s…

Else Heartbreak Is One Of The Most Interesting Steam Games I’ve Played In Ages

Else Heartbreak is an ambitious game about hacking, parties, and blowing it with cute girls. It also refuses to hold your hand. Else Heartbreak is a new Steam hacker adventure about a young man named Sebastian making his way in a surprisingly hip backwater town. Its first five hours had me hearkening back to the…

Dev Offers Free Games For Steam User Reviews, Gets Nuked By Valve

Valuable life lesson: probably don’t do this. RosePortal Games, the developer of an RPG called Epic Quest of the 4 Crystals recently got caught offering compensation—in the form of free Steam keys—in exchange for Steam reviews. When Valve found out, they weren’t pleased. They wrote in a post on the game’s forums: “It’s come to…

New Horror Game Tries To Stop You From Playing It

If you ask me, the scariest things are the ones that feel a little too real Calendula is an upcoming horror game (currently on Steam Greenlight) that wants to be scary before you start “the game” proper. It might sound silly on paper, but even the main menu is eeeeeeeeeevil: So basically, the battle to…

The New Ark: Survival Evolved Update Messed Up Some Players’ Bases

Ark: Survival Evolved just got a big new update that added snow and swamp biomes. It’s awesome. Except for, well… one pretty big thing. Players who had already settled down to live out the white picket fence/dodo army in the yard Arkmerican Dream are discovering that their bases are now, um, different. The new biomes…

Counter-Strike Player Wins Match By Throwing Grenade At Rifle

That’s some serious teamwork. In the video below, Galore S00K and a friend manage a trick shot so absurd that I (and a handful of others, evidently) can’t help but wonder if it was a fix. Observe: Yep. He tosses a grenade, drops his AWP just so, and lets gravity (or the defiance thereof) do…

That’s not Skyrim. It’s Ark: Survival Evolved. The megalodon of Steam survival games is getting two new biomes today: snow and swamp. There are new creatures populating each, including dire wolves and giant devil frogs. More details here. You’re reading Steamed, Kotaku’s page dedicated to all things in and around Valve’s stupidly popular PC gaming…

Players Still Haven’t Figured Out All Of Undertale‘s Secrets

Undertale is an RPG where you can talk your way out of every battle. It’s amazing. And yet, that might be the least remarkable thing about it. (Warning: BIG spoilers for Undertale follow. I’m not gonna spoil everything, though. Rather than discussing each specific secret, which would be terrible of me, I’m gonna talk more…

Mad Max Contains Grim Half-Life 3 Easter Egg

Hey Gordon, long time no see! When’s Half-Life 3 coming ou— oh. Yikes. Player Swagmastavondagmasta recently discovered a very interesting easter egg in Mad Max: The Game That A Lot Of People Hate But I Love So There. As you might have suspected, it involves a tremendously dead Gordon Freeman. First, go here: Lodged in…

Twitch Is Adding A Bunch Of New Features

Twitch is far-and-away the biggest video game streaming service on the planet, but it’s definitely not perfect. As part of a kick-off keynote for TwitchCon today, Twitch announced a handful of new features that are coming to the streaming platform in early 2016. Biggest on the list is video uploads—sans streaming. If you decided to…

Fourteen Things Every Steam User Should Know About

What in the hell is “Steam WebHelper” and why is it always running on my PC? That is a damn good question. [This post originally ran on May 7th, 2015. Updated with more ‘Things’ (TM) on September 25th, 2015.] Steam is great and ubiquitous, yes, but it’s also pretty bloated and messy. Over the years,…

The Flame In The Flood Is Like Oregon Trail, Except Mean

New Steam game The Flame in the Flood just gave me one of my most brutal video game deaths ever. The Flame in the Flood is a new survival “roguelite” with a long-term travel (think Oregon Trail) twist, born of an intriguing Kickstarter by a bunch of ex-BioShock developers Here’s the setup: It’s the apocalypse…

For the next day, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee is totally free on Steam. Just add it to your account and it’s yours forever. The platforming adventure classic is grim, endearing, and above all else, odd. It’s a must-play, even if you were born after the year 1997.

Steam’s Big Picture Mode Is Now A Lot Nicer

The new Big Picture Mode is slick. I might actually use it now. Valve recently released a new beta update primarily focused on Steam Big Picture Mode, with changes running the gamut from subtle to “Good, good. This pleases the Eye Council greatly. We shall rescind our bounty on your miserable planet… for now.” The…

DOTA 2’s first Valve-hosted major is happening in November. Valve is hoping to give pros a more reliable source of income by hosting multiple events throughout the year (instead of just The International). This one will take place in Frankfurt, Germany, with $3 million on the line. More details here

The Story Behind Steam’s ‘Framerate Police’

Not all PC games run at 60 frames per second, and for some people, that’s a big problem. The Framerate Police group is, with nearly 100,000 followers, the tenth most popular curator on all of Steam. Their aim? To list the top possible framerate of any game that’s locked at 30 FPS or less. As…

Steam Fighting Game Takes Risks That Super Smash Bros Won’t

Confession: despite being mostly a PC guy, I adore Super Smash Bros. Now my lack of a Nintendo console isn’t much of an issue. Rivals of Aether—which just launched on Steam and rocketed straight into the service’s top ten best sellers—is not shy about its primary influence. It may not be wearing Mario’s trademark hat…

Track: Hold Back The Night | Artist: The Protomen | Album: This City Made Us Single Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Dick move, camptrigg22. But also… bravo. The Steam Community Showcase is a regular look at the cream of the Steam community’s boundless crop. Art, videos, guides—whatever. Each installment highlights a specific piece or person. If you find anything cool on Steam or would like to have your work featured, drop me a line. To contact…