Nathan Grayson

Someone Made Mario Kart In Team Fortress 2

This is probably the closest thing we’ll get to a PC version of Mario Kart, er, ever. Well, that was fast. Only a little more than a day after Valve added karts/bumper kart combat toTeam Fortress 2, someone’s already released a Mario Kart mod with three levels. It’s mostly rooted in the Halloween event’s brand…

You Can Call This Video Game From A Real Phone

Dial this number, and it will take you to far away places. MINOR SPOILER ALERT. The game—really more of an interactive phone line—is the latest extension of the brilliant Kentucky Route Zero series, a serenely bizarre (or perhaps bizarrely serene) theatrical adventure game. This is an extension of that universe, and a weird one at…

Valve doesn’t seem too pleased that devs have made a group to upvote each others’ games on Steam Greenlight. A rep said, “Clearly this is not the feedback we are seeking from Greenlight. We do track these sorts of things and folks ‘going this route’ will likely not find the results they may have hoped…

Team Fortress 2‘s New Map Is Totally Bonkers

It has kart racing. Kart racing! With adorable chubby faced characters. Valve has finally lost it—in a good way, mostly. The new map, Carnival of Carnage, is the biggest addition in Scream Fortress VI, this year’s Halloween event. Here’s an overview from Valve News Network of its relentless spookitude: I wasn’t kidding about the bumper…

I Bet Brock Lesnar Could Beat Up Goku

I doubt the greatest fighters in modern martial arts will square off against Street Fighter or Dragon Ball Z characters any time soon, largely because of rights issues. Also some of the fighters in this equation are, you know, fictional. But oh what a fight card it would be. I recently stumbled across the artwork…

If Harry Potter Were About DOTA 2

“Harry, yer a DOTA player.” Former Team Liquid admin Ken “Hot_Bid” Chen and Mark “SirJolt” McEntegart are Kickstarting their eSports satire publication in an attempt to turn it into a full-time job. Among many samples of their work is a chunk of the first Harry Potter book rewritten to be aboutDOTA 2, which they’ll rewrite…

I Hate Starting New Games In RPGs

Is there anything more paralyzing than a blank slate? I’ve had Fallout 2 open for three hours. I have played it for zero. I’m bleary eyed. Exhaustion is clinging to my eyelids like some mad brigand swinging from a chandelier. How did things end up like this, I wonder. Why can’t I just make a…

Valve Won’t Let Hackers Ruin Team Fortress 2‘s Halloween

Halloween makes people do strange things—for instance dress up in costumes and beg for candy from people who might be murderers. Sometimes it also makes them create Team Fortress 2 cheat plugins that teleport players between Halloween items, which ruins the game. It’s a trick alright, but it’s definitely not a treat. Team Fortress 2‘s…

Fed Up With Steam, Devs Unite To Get Extra Greenlight Votes [UPDATED]

Steam Greenlight was originally envisioned as a way for fans to help select which games would make it onto Valve’s ridiculously ubiquitous PC gaming storefront. Unfortunately, it’s kinda busted sometimes. A group of game creators has decided to take matters into their own hands by gaming the system. Kinda. Indie GameDev Greenlight is a recently…

Indie RPG Is An Apocalyptic Sausage Fest

Lisa takes place in a bizarre, unpleasant world without women. There are grotesquely elongated spider men, writhing flesh pile people, and giant intestine walls, though. So that’s something. Luke wrote about the game, subtitled “The Painful RPG,” back when it was on Kickstarter a year ago. Since then it’s made quite a bit of progress,…

The End Of The World Doesn’t Always Have To Be Brown

Submerged is an exploration adventure from ex-BioShock devs that takes place in the technology-spattered ruins of a place that’s seen better (and less water-logged) days. If you ask me, though, it looks almost… pleasant? Don’t know about you, but I’d hang out there. I love it when a single shot/gif of a game can make…

No More Getting Half-Naked On Stream, Twitch Says

No shirt, no shoes, no service. Uber-popular game streaming service Twitch has made a slight yet impactful change to its rules of conduct. Where once it merely put a big, fluffy blanket over all naughty bits—banning “sexually explicit acts or content,” which included “nudity, stripping, or performing/discussing sexual acts”—it’s now seen fit to prohibit sexually…

I’m Worried We May Never Get A Good Avatar Video Game

Yesterday I posted my review of the Legend of Korra video game. While it had some high points, I mostly wasn’t a fan. And now, with the Korra cartoon and entire Avatar universe winding down, I can’t help but worry that we might never see a video game truly do the series justice. First off,…

The New Borderlands Is Loaded With Secrets And References [UPDATED]

Continuing in the Borderlands series’ grand tradition of making sly winks at everything from Minecraft to Game of Thrones to a whole lot of Internet memes, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is littered with secrets and references—some especially elaborate. Here are all the ones we know of so far. As ever, beware of the over-9000-eyed spoiler beast…

The Legend Of Korra: The Kotaku Review

The Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra universe is tailor-made for a good video game. It boggles my mind that the much-loved series still hasn’t gotten one. The Avatar series, for those not in the know, is about a world in which many people can manipulate the elements—earth, water, air, or fire—through (beautifully choreographed) martial…

Counter-Strike‘s Zombie Chicken, In Action

Fact: Halloween is the best holiday. As outlined in this video from Otoris, massively popular multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is celebrating Halloween. Now, this shouldn’t be confused withCounter-Strike Nexon: Zombies, which is sort of a) always celebrating Halloween and b) terrible. Foremost among the additions from yesterday’s the Mask-erade update were, you know, masks…

It’s Not A New F-Zero, But It’s Damn Close

Red:Out is fast. Red:Out is the daredevil speed demon lovechild of futuristic racing classics F-Zero and WipeOut. Developer 34BigThings explained: “‘Redout’: a condition experienced by pilots in which blood is forced to the head and results in a reddening of the field of vision during maneuvers that produce a negative gravity force. Also, the fastest…

Video Games Get Gun Silencers All Wrong

You round a corner. You think you’re in the clear but—oh no!—an enemy is standing guard. How will you ever bring him down without alerting other guards? Aha, your pistol has a silencer. One mouse squeak gun shot later and you’re free. Except that’s not how silencers work at all This video from RagnarRox debunks…

How Can You Fly Inside An Inside-Out World?

I’m not entirely sure, to be honest, but InnerSpace sure looks pretty. Developer PolyKnight Games calls InnerSpace an “exploration flying game.” The premise—like the game’s dreamy, almost creamy look—is simple but elegant: “Set in a world where physics are inverted, the player flies in a spherical world surrounded by water, where gravity falls away from…

Unlock A Secret Borderlands Boss By… Calling Someone A ‘Dick’

We might just have a new contender for the title of most Borderlands boss in the history of Borderlands bosses. Spoiler alert for those who’ve rejected the infinite communication potential of the Internet in favor of scouring games for days, months, even years, in search of every last secret. (More power to you! I’m just…