Nathan Grayson

World Of Warcraft Fan Server Unleashes Days-Long Virtual Plague To Teach Covid-19 Prevention

During a pandemic, illness isn’t the only thing that spreads. Fear and panic set in, leaving room for misinformation to seep into newly formed cracks in society’s foundation. Some people believe that sunlight kills covid-19. Some think that drinking water is enough to keep it at bay. Some don’t know what to believe. In light…

A New XCOM Game Is Coming Out Next Week

I definitely didn’t wake up today expecting to suddenly have a new XCOM game on my radar for next week, but here we are. XCOM: Chimera Squad is a new standalone game set five years after XCOM 2. It’s coming to PC on April 24. Chimera Squad, announced today by publisher 2K and developer Firaxis,…

NASCAR Driver Suspended For Saying N-Word On Stream [UPDATE]

Yesterday evening, professional NASCAR racer Kyle Larson used the n-word during an event hosted by prominent simulation esports league iRacing and broadcast on Twitch and eNASCAR.com. He’s since been suspended by NASCAR, as well as his racing team. With covid-19 forcing people across the world to pump the brakes on everything, professional racing organizations have…

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, As Told By Steam Reviews

Eight years after its announcement, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is finally out. Sorta: The long-awaited sequel to cult classic open-world lord sandbox Mount & Blade entered early access last week. For the most part, Steam users love it, despite some girthy warts that are hard to ignore. In his impressions, Kotaku’s Ethan Gach said…

Accomplishing Things In Animal Crossing Leaves Me Feeling Kinda Bummed

Earlier this week, my partner quit playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I have continued to incrementally improve my island with new establishments, nicer houses, and a preponderance of glassy-eyed, unblinking gnome statues. But mostly, I just fish and catch bugs. “It’s something to do with my hands,” I say to her in an attempt to…

Overwatch’s newest hero, Echo, is bringing her brand of glowy blue justice to the live game on April 14 She’s been on the PC public test server since shortly after her announcement a few weeks ago. Her ult lets her transform into another hero of her choosing, so things are about to get wacky. 

‘OK, Boomer’ Girl’s Rise To Twitch Fame Was ‘A Perfect Storm’ Of Memes And Politics

Several decades ago, at the beginning of March 2020, when Bernie Sanders was still in the race for president, a streamer who goes by the handle Neekolul posted a short video of herself lip syncing and dancing along to a song by YouTuber Senzawa made up entirely of variations on the phrase “OK, boomer” to…

Riot’s New Game Valorant Has 1.6 Million Viewers On Twitch Right Now [UPDATE]

Valorant, a game that’s not out yet and that most people can’t play, currently has 1.6 million concurrent viewers on Twitch, putting it within spitting distance of the all-time record. The new game from League of Legends (and only League of Legends, until now) developer Riot Games mashes up Counter-Strike-style tactical shooting with hero powers…

Overwatch League Players Fined $1,000 Each For Typing ‘Sex,’ ‘Big Dick’ Into Chat

Friendly fifth-grade-level banter between foes is all well and good, but there’s a time and place for it. When you’re a professional Overwatch League player, the big stage—even during a quarantine—is not it. While Overwatch League initially reacted to covid-19 by postponing all March and April matches, it’s now making up for lost time with…

Mixer Gifts All Partnered Streamers $100 To Help During Covid-19 Pandemic

Even for streamers who can comfortably do their jobs from inside their homes, seemingly indefinitely, it’s impossible to ignore covid-19. Before it’s all said and done, everybody will be impacted. To help streamers make ends meet, Microsoft-owned Mixer has given all its partners $100. Any Mixer streamer can apply to be a partner, and if…

With Tours Canceled, Venues Closing, And Futures Uncertain, Musicians Flock To Twitch

Popular musician Marc Rebillet’s March 17 Twitch stream—the first in his “Quarantine Livestream Tour”—began just like his other shows: Wearing a silken robe, he improvised a series of songs based on topic suggestions from his audience. People asked for songs about the apocalypse and toilet paper. About an hour and a half in, he announced…

Twitch Just Made It Harder To Be A Jerk In Chat

A good Twitch chat is like a serene sea: always welcome, but all too rare a respite from the choppier waters of the internet. Over the years, Twitch has given chat moderators tools to lock out ugliness-spewing ne’er-do-wells, but a number of loopholes have allowed dedicated trolls to slip back under the gates with relative…

Half-Life: Alyx Mod Recreates Iconic Half-Life 2 Environment

Half-Life: Alyx has only been out for a week, and the Alyx-specific version of Valve’s “Hammer” mapping tool isn’t yet available. That, however, has not stopped one enterprising modder from cracking open the dystopian destination VRcation, scooping out its insides, and replacing them with Half-Life 2‘s. Without streamlined level-creation tools at their fingertips, modder Vect0R…

I’m Driving Myself Crazy Trying To Name My Animal Crossing Island

It is important, in these trying times, to take it easy on yourself. That self-critical voice constantly berating you in your head? Turn it down to a whisper. Unfortunately, I am a gigantic dummy incapable of following my own advice. Case in point: I’ve spent the better part of three days (and counting) trying to…

Half-Life: Alyx Players Are Using VR To Teach Math Classes, Kiss Headcrabs

Virtual reality means options. If you own a high-end VR headset like the Valve Index, you likely have money and, therefore, options that those less fortunate than you do not. Also, you can do funny things with headcrabs. Half-Life: Alyx players have embraced VR’s bold new frontier voraciously, testing the limits of the medium’s invisible…

Why You Can’t Use A Crowbar In Half-Life: Alyx

In truth, the Half-Life series has always had two main characters: Gordon Freeman and his crowbar. The nondescript piece of curved metal is one of the best-known pieces of iconography in all of gaming. And yet, in Half-Life: Alyx, you cannot use a crowbar as a weapon or puzzle-solving tool. Not even once. Valve did…

Playing Nothing But Half-Life: Alyx In VR Made Me Hallucinate

Late Saturday night, I removed my Valve Index VR headset. I’d done it. I had finished Half-Life: Alyx. As I blinked, a faint outline clouded my vision; I quickly realized it was the headset’s blue wireframe barrier, which flashes when you move too close to a wall. “That’s weird,” I said. It was about to…

Half-Life: Alyx: The Kotaku Review

Mere minutes into Half-Life: Alyx, I encountered a Strider. These behemoths cast ominous shadows on all who dare pass beneath them, their spindly legs and jagged haunches forming a silhouette of sheer threat. I gazed up at the Strider in awe. I could practically feel the wind buffet my face as it lumbered past the…

Why Valve Gave Up On ‘Multiple’ Half-Life 3s

Half-Life: Alyx comes out today. It’s the first Half-Life game since 2007’s Half-Life 2: Episode Two—a conspicuous fact given that Episode Two was supposed to be followed by Episode Three in fairly short order, and it is now, according to my cyberpunk futurephone, 2020. This is not to say, however, that Valve didn’t try. It…

Satirical Twitch Streamer Kaceytron Suspended For ‘Insensitive’ Coronavirus Joke

While Twitch has not explicitly stated that dark jokes about covid-19 are grounds for an indefinite stay in the site’s purple-barred slammer, it’s now spoken with its actions. Popular satirical streamer Kaceytron has been suspended after making such a joke last week. Kaceytron (real name Kacey Caviness) was on an episode of reality show streamer…