Nathan Grayson

Meet Magic: The Gathering‘s First Trans Character

Over the years, there have been thousands of Magic: The Gathering cards, many with their own characters and mini-stories. Only one, however, is trans, and this one is pretty darn cool. Though most players don’t dig into the collectible card game god emperor’s mythos, they’re expansive—untapped lands open for exploration. Sometimes it’s generic fantasy, sometimes…

Two Of Pro Counter-Strike‘s Best Matches Yet

MLG X Games Aspen, the year’s first seriously big pro Counter-Strike event, took place over the weekend, and people were expecting big things. It did not disappoint. Not in the slightest. Day one actually saw many of the sport’s top teams—including Dream Hack Winter 2014 champs LDLC—lose in relatively inauspicious fashions, but apparently they were…

Soon You Will Be Able To Take Selfies In World Of Warcraft

Maybe you love them. Maybe you loathe them. Maybe you’re taking one right now. Selfies are everywhere, because we are painfully vain creatures. And now, finally—after you begged, pleaded, groveled, and probably didn’t ask for it at all—they’re coming to World of Warcraft. People have begun discovering an item called the S.E.L.F.I.E. Camera on WoW‘s…

American Counter-Strike Scene Hit Hard By Pro Cheating Bans

Recently, substantial evidence came to light that a number of pro players had been involved in a huge Counter-Strike: Global Offensive match-fixing/gambling scandal. Valve took their time investigating, but now they’ve finally decided to bring the hammer down. Hard. In the wake of a multi-team conspiracy that saw one of the best Counter-Strike teams in…

The Biggest First-Person Shooter Battle Ever Had Over A Thousand Players

1,158 players. 5,089 vehicles destroyed. 53,729 kills. Big numbers, is what I’m saying. Over the weekend, community site PlanetSide Battles managed to rally 1,158 players to smash the Guinness world record for single largest online first-person shooter battle. Their game of choice was, of course, PlanetSide 2, SOE’s MMOFPS about angry people in purple pajamas…

I Played The Witcher 3 And I Still Have Some Doubts

“Eh, it was a video game,” I flippantly told a friend shortly after I got back from a recent Witcher 3: Wild Hunt preview event in San Francisco. “I don’t know. It was alright, I guess.” I’d had a nice enough time tracking down supernatural beasties (and regular, non-supernatural arsonists) and snarling my way through…

The first big Counter-Strike competition of the year is happening right now. MLG X Games Aspen just kicked off, and it’s running all weekend. GosuGamers has a good primer on the big storylines to keep an eye out for. Watch it all unfold below. If you want to know when various teams are playing, there’s…

If Microsoft is serious about PC games, Xbox One should be the real Steam Machine. Here’s some interesting reading fromVG247 on how Valve’s living room centric Steam Machine plot failed, and how Microsoft—fresh off a years-long stint of pretending PC gaming doesn’t exist—could partner with Steam and pick up where they left off. The gist:…

Sometimes, All Your World Of Warcraft Opponents Are Bots

If you’ve played World of Warcraft for any long span of time, you’ve likely encountered a bot, a player character controlled by a third-party program. Maybe it was mindlessly thwacking the loot out of some small woodland creature, or maybe it was just staring at a wall. Whatever happened, it probably wasn’t this bad. In…

Popular YouTuber Denounces Steam, Plans To Curate Own Store

Despite practically being PC gaming, Steam is by no means perfect—as we’ve discussed on numerous occasions. But is the whole enterprise busted, not so much a sinking ship as it is a ship that’s sinking a lot of great games? Popular YouTuber NerdCubed thinks so, and that’s why he’s abandoning Steam altogether. Daniel “NerdCubed” Hardcastle…

Months Later, Dragon Age‘s PC Version Is Still Frustrating Players

I remember when I first booted up Dragon Age: Inquisition on my (not exactly wimpy) PC. The framerate was unexpectedly low, and there were stutters and crashes. Moreover, the controls were awkward as all get-out. Months later, some problems have been solved, but many still linger. PC players are getting fed up. Over the course…

One Of The Best Counter-Strike Teams Practices In A Spooky Mansion

Ninjas in Pyjamas—aka NiP—came so close to pulling off a massive upset and winning last year’s Dream Hack Winter finals that it hurt. But the stinging taste of defeat eventually fades, and I imagine having a rad (though weirdly spooky) mansion to train out of doesn’t hurt. Pro Counter-Strike teams like NiP pretty much have…

Classy Steam Redesign Is Better Than The Real Thing

Steam is looking better these days than it has for most of its lifespan, but it’s still got far too much clunk in its trunk. The interface is unwieldy, its backend clearly designed years ago with generations of progress awkwardly grafted on. It needs a real makeover, not just a blue one. This fan was…

Children of Morta—aka the most GIF-able game ever—is now on Kickstarter. If you need a refresher, it’s a story-driven hack ‘n slash with roguelike elements (read: lots of dying, but you learn a little something about yourself in the process). It looks gorgeous, not to mention pretty interesting. Check it out

Valve Looking Into Steam Linux Bug That Deletes Hard Drives

Steam on Linux users, beware! Your hard drive(s) could be in grave danger. Per PC Gamer, here’s the skinny: last week Github user Keyvin found that, after moving his Steam folder to a new location, it suddenly and inexplicably stopped launching. After a crash, he restarted Steam. It seemed like things were in working order…

The Funniest Guns In Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell

I didn’t exactly loveSaints Row: Gat Out Of Hell, but it definitely had some great moments. One in particular earns you a weapon that’s among the silliest in the entire series—and that’s saying something. Hell hath no fury like a spoiler hater scorned. So, you know, spoiler warning. One of the best aspects of Saints…

Skyrim Vs Fallout Battle Ends Gruesomely

People love pondering who’d win impossible fights. Superman vs Goku, Godzilla vs a Pacific Rim robot, my dad vs your dad. Finally, though, here’s one we can actually watch: Fallout 3‘s main character vs Skyrim‘s Dovahkiin. Andrewmfilms put together this impressively choreographed, reference-packed battle between Bethesda’s two biggest stars. In it, both combatants pull out…

Pro Teams Implicated In Huge Counter-Strike Match Fixing Scandal

It has not exactly been smooth sailing (or terrorist blasting, given the lack of boats) in Counter-Strike land lately. First there was the big pro cheat tool bust right before Dream Hack 2014, then there was foul play at Dream Hack 2014, and now we can add a team purposefully losing a match to the…

Fan-Made Silent Hill Game Is Nearly As Creepy As The Original

In case you forgot, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima and horror movie maestro Guillermo del Toro are making a new Silent Hill together. If you’re not excited/weeping in terror at the prospect, you might actually be one Silent Hill’s soulless denizens. Sadly, it’s still a long way off. Thank goodness for fan games. Silent…

Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell: The Kotaku Review

“Is that all hell’s got?” Johnny Gat, main character of Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell, would often taunt as I mowed down Satan’s demonic hordes. As the game went on, I couldn’t help but find myself asking the same question. It’s not that Gat Out Of Hell is particularly bad in the grand scheme…