Nathan Grayson

Batman Should’ve Stolen Shadow Of Mordor‘s Nemesis System

Random thug number 127 managed to defeat the goddamn Batman. I’m pretty sure that qualifies him for super villain status. I spent the weekend playing a bunch of Batman: Arkham Knight, and I came away with one thought: “Damn, I wish Warner would hurry up and release Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor 2 already.” OK, actually…

Players Turn Team Fortress 2 Into Splatoon

I suppose it was inevitable, wasn’t it? Pretty much since day one, comparisons between Wii U-exclusive Splatoon and early Team Fortress 2 have run thick, like wet paint or a rotting bucket of squid chum. Both are fast, fun team-based shooters that eschew grimdark trappings in favor of cartoon whimsy. This mash-up TF2 mod by…

Even In Borderlands, Telltale Makes Choices Agonizing

Tales from the Borderlands episode three is out, and it’s good. Really good. As we did with Telltale’s Game of Thrones a while back, I feel like a choice breakdown is in order. Telltale’s games are, after all, largely about choice—even if not every choice has earth-shattering ramifications. But first, some general impressions: I plan…

New Portal Fan Campaign Is Awesome

Portal Stories: Mel was not made by Valve, but it’s probably the closest thing we’ll get to Portal 3 for a while. The long-in-development Portal 2 mod just launched on Steam, and it looks damn impressive. Boasting a 6-10 hour standalone storyline and puzzles every so slightly more challenging than Portal 2’s, it aims to…

Artist: The Dear Hunter | Track: A Night On The Town | Album: Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Batman: Arkham Knight And The Art Of A Good PC Port

Prevailing wisdom says that if you delay the PC version of a major game, PC gamers get mad. Really mad. Funny thing about prevailing wisdom, though: it’s often wrong. Or, to be more precise, it’s rarely unanimously right. I can understand why Warner and Rocksteady might’ve felt like they needed to have Batman: Arkham Knight…

The First Big Game That Brought Mods To Consoles

Fallout 4 is gonna let players bring PC mods over to consoles. Years ago, however, another game did it—with mixed results. The game? Unreal Tournament 3, the third main entry in Epic’s pioneering arena shooter series. The console? PlayStation 3. The year? 2007. So then, what happened, how’d it work, and—most importantly—why didn’t it catch…

The Best Batman Mods For Good PC Games

So Batman: Arkham Knight on PC is kinda… not great. Having waited in desperate anticipation for months, you’re probably feeling pent up—like you need to don bat pajamas and fall to your knees in the cold night, weeping. But wait, there are other options. OK, for the sake of this piece I’m gonna go ahead…

How Counter-Strike‘s Most Popular Map Has Changed Over 14 Years

Counter-Strike’s most popular map, Dust2, has been around since 2001, making it more than a decade old. This video from ESCalation chronicles Dust2’s evolution throughout Counter-Strike’s many iterations. While the layout and general theme of the map might seem similar throughout, the architectural style, graphical fidelity, and readability of each area has changed markedly. It’s…

TIL What A ‘Conganado’ Is

This. This is what a ‘conganado’ is. Unhinged Gamer posted a video of Team Fortress 2 in which this… thing was born. Here’s the video: And here’s how it works: “By forming a circle of alternating team members, and connecting them with the grappling hook, it’s possible to make a thrill ride out of thin…

How Valve Could Solve The Steam Backlog Problem

As part of this whole running-a-site-dedicated-to-Steam gig, I check for new releases every day. Last week, a peculiar thing happened: there were hardly any. At all. I kinda wish it would happen more often. Giving games a chance to breathe—what a novel idea. I think Valve could stand to turn that into a Proper Thing,…

Rust Randomizes Penis Length, Players Compare Sizes

Faces and skin tones? Just the beginning. Now we’re getting to the real meat of the conversation. Beware: NSFW. Multiplayer survival game Rust (you know, the one from the dude who created Garry’s Mod; I think his name is Jeff or something) randomly generates players’ physical characteristics for them, imitating the screaming chaos of biology…

How Players Gamed The Steam Summer Sale

It is possible to “beat” the Steam summer sale Monster Game. You’ve just got to be willing to bend the rules. 100,000,000. That’s the level you’re going for in the seemingly endless clicking game. As players discovered when they reached it, that’s the end of the line. At that point, the game goes nuts, and…

My E3 Hype Died Quickly This Year

I was really excited about this year’s E3. At first. It’s the end of E3 day one, and I’m looking back on all the news the press conferences brought us. Fallout 4, Fallout Shelter, Dishonored 2, Doom, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, Unravel, Tacoma, Hololens, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, The Last Guardian, Horizon, Uncharted 4, Shenmue III,…

25 Minutes Of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Here is Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s entire E3 gameplay demo. It’s pretty hot. Normally in order to view this demo before, like, a week from now, you’d have to go crawling through E3’s vents and stain your sensation-less mechanical arms with the battery acid-infused blood of countless Square Enix employees. But not now, not today.…

Fans Are ‘Fixing’ The New Doom‘s Colors, Speed

The new Doom looks like a cartoonishly over-the-top romp through gore hell, land of infinite sorrow (and gore). But I don’t know. It kinda feels like something’s missing. Some players have taken to imagining what the long-in-development Doom reboot would be like if it stuck a little closer to its roots. Linkzaki sped it up…

The new Animal Crossing is letting you choose your skin tone People have been asking for the option for years, and Nintendo’s granting their wish with Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. It’s a step in the right direction, albeit a long overdue one. Hopefully it’ll carry over to the next full Animal Crossing game.

Ark: Survival Evolved Player Creates Murderous Dodo Bird Army

Ark: Survival Evolved is the third most popular game on all of Steam right now, and there’s an obvious reason for that: dinosaur-annihilating dodo bird armies. Jessa of NerdHunk took advantage of Ark’s best feature—the ability to tame Jurassic beasts and have them do your bidding—to create an army of seemingly harmless dodo birds. Then…

You can play DOTA 2 Reborn right now. Valve just launched the beta for the Source 2-powered DOTA 2 relaunch, which totally overhauls the game’s engine and interface, and puts custom game types front-and-center. It looks super hot. Go play.

You Won’t Be Able To Use Guns In Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

Oh thank goodness. During EA’s E3 press conference, the company said that Faith “doesn’t need any guns,” which prompted a collective sigh of relief so powerful that it nearly leveled the city of Los Angeles. However, there was still doubt. She might not need them, but would guns—perhaps the single worst aspect of the original…