Nathan Grayson

World Of Warcraft Bot Maker Calls It Quits After Massive Ban Wave

Blizzard just banned over 100,000 World of Warcraft accounts in the name of stopping cheaters. But did it work? It’s doubtful that all cheaters and botters are gone from WoW forever, but it sounds like Blizzard latest huff and puff succeeded in blowing them down. Bossland, creator of WoW’s most notorious bot, the PVP-centric Honorbuddy,…

Mortal Kombat Player Takes Revenge After Jerk Teabags His Friend

If you’re gonna be a dick about winning, you probably shouldn’t do it to someone whose best friend is waaaaaaaaay better than you. In the above video, MrGrawrD witnesses his friend get mercilessly pummeled and then tea-bagged—that most disrespectful of video game victory gestures—by some jerk online in Mortal Kombat X. So what does MrGrawrD…

I Didn’t ‘Get’ DOTA 2 Until I Watched It Live

I’ve tried watching DOTA 2 online. I’ve tried playing it. It just wasn’t for me. Going to a big pro event changed that. Walking into the Red Bull Battlegrounds DOTA 2 event at The Warfield in San Francisco (it’s a venue, not a, er, field of war) was kinda surreal. For one, I’d seen countless…

Heads-up: retrolicious metroidvania Axiom Verge is now available on Steam It’s basically a nostalgia volcano, so beware of nostalgia lava, which corrodes new ideas. However, it’s still quite good, as our own Mike Fahey explained in his review

An Unfinished Game About Finishing An Unfinished Game

Sometimes, the stars align a little too perfectly. The Magic Circle, from former BioShock 2 director and recent Kotaku Asks participant Jordan Thomas, is now on Steam Early Access. This means that it’s unfinished, which is wonderful when paired with the fact that the game is about these things: “You are the protagonist of an…

Malebolgia Is Dark Souls‘ Frustration Without Dark Souls‘ Fun

Should I care about Malebolgia? I wish I could say yes. It’s a Dark Souls-alike with its own intriguing world and atmosphere, but it feels awful to play and treats the player like garbage. What’s it about? I was gonna put its Steam description here, but its a monster-sized hairball of untanglable lore. Basically though,…

Valve Isn’t Evil, They Just Don’t Understand People

In recent times, people have taken to calling Valve “evil.” Not negligent, not out of touch with their fans, but evil. I do not think Valve is evil. But I think it matters that people have started to view them—once gaming’s do-no-wrong golden child—that way. I think Valve’s brand of “evil” comes from a place…

Fallout: New Vegas, Turned Into A Hardcore Survival Game

No quests, no factions, people and places you knew and loved reduced to ash. This is a new Wasteland. This is a meaner Wasteland. One of the things I loved about Fallout 3 was how hostile the wasteland felt when you first emerged from the comfy, radroach-infested confines of your Vault—even on lower difficulties. The…

Dying Light Goes To Outer Space. Thanks, Mods

This isn’t the Dying Light you played when the zombie parkour mash-up first came out. This isn’t that game at all. OK, it is that game a little bit, if only in the sense that there is jumping. Thanks to Steam user Pawciak, though, the rest is nearly unrecognizable. Dying Light, as you likely know,…

That Sure Looks Like Brock Lesnar In The New Assassin’s Creed

Hm, what have we here? While watching today’s Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate reveal, reader Adam Curtis spotted something odd: a brief shot of a muscular man tank who definitely appears to be Brock Lesnar. Let’s do a quick comparison. Here’s the Assassin’s Creed shot, which appears to be art, not in-game (you can find it at…

Darth Vader, Modded Into DOTA 2

“Luke, I am your father and for the love of god stay in your lane.” Steam user RustardGaming has modded DOTA 2’s Juggernaut into Dark Vader, complete with his own little R2-D2 to remind him of better days. He also has his trademark red lightsaber, which presumably reminds him of worse days, like the time…

Please, Steam Dinosaur Game, Don’t Suck

Goodness gracious, ARK: Survival Evolved looks cool. So of course, I’m worried. I don’t mean to sound cynical, but well, we’ve been here before. A bunch of times. With survival games specifically—especially ones headed from the frying pan of hype into the sloooooooow burning fire of Early Access. And for some reason, double-especially when dinosaurs…

Rock Opera Video Game Somehow Totally Works

In a single moment, Karmaflow: The Rock Opera Video Game won me over. I was close to the beginning of the game, a 3D adventure-platformer, when I saw a glowy red thing off in the distance. “Collectible!” said my brain, because that always signals a collectible in these sorts of games. But then I picked…

Skyrim Mod Gives You Horrifying Followers

Why did someone make this? Why? Remember that horrifying Thomas The Tank Engine mod for Skyrim? The one that turned dragons in howling, demon-possessed husks of the childhood favorite? Yeah, well Trainwiz’s Funny Followers mod does it one better. It turns Thomas-style trains into followers with strange, spindly bodies. They wander around and whisper dark…

Think Twice Before You Kill A Counter-Strike Chicken

Well, that certainly puts things in perspective. This video by ShookBox depicts the final moments of one of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s infamous chickens. As a grenade sails lazily, almost nonchalantly in its direction, its life flashes before its (and our) eyes. Even the part where it hatched from its own egg, implying that this chicken…

Deer Astronaut

Deer astronaut. Deer astronaut deer astronaut deer astronaut deer astronaut deer astronaut deer astronaut deer astronaut.* Deer astronaut deer astronaut deer astronaut.** *Steam user Tomas made a goddamn fucking deer astronaut for use in endlessly popular construction game Space Engineers. Look at that. LOOK AT THAT. (Update: Turns out, the deer astronaut was actually created…

Rockstar Says They Won’t Ban Anyone For Using Single-Player GTA V Mods

Well, that’s a relief. Mostly. If you were to look at any given GTA forum, you’d think the sky was falling (as opposed to whales falling from the sky, which is actually happening). Rockstar is banning people right and left for using mods, single-player or multiplayer, claim fans. Rockstar, however, says they’re doing nothing of…

Like Dark Souls, But Spookier: The Steam Stream Plays Malebolgia

Malebolgia is best described as Dark Souls, except gorgeously cel-shaded and spooky as hell. I hope it’s as good as it looks. Watch me play it below. Also on the docket for today’s stream: Karmaflow, a rock opera video game with involvement from a surprising number of metal stars, and a game where you’re a…

Hacker’s MMO Character Publicly Stripped, Killed & Banned

A hacker terrorized Guild Wars 2 for weeks and weeks. When the game’s creators finally took action, they humiliated the crap out of the dirty cheater. They took control of the hacker’s character, stripped them naked, and made them jump to their death. Then they systematically deleted each of the hacker’s characters and banned them.…

Grand Theft Auto V‘s Confusing Mod Situation

Grand Theft Auto V players claim they’re getting banned on PC right now, but why? Well, it’s complicated. Players are fairly certain that mods are involved, but that’s where things get weird. Ever since the PC version of GTA V came out, user-made mods have been the story of the game, breathing strange new air…