Nathan Grayson

Kerbal Space Program 2 Will Have Real Science Underlying Its Wacky Spaceships

One generally accepted idea about outer space is that it’s really, really hard to get there. It took pretty much the whole of human existence for any of us hairless apes to sail among the stars, and we basically had to break the concept of physics to make it happen. That in mind, the developers…

Frog Detective‘s Creator Is As Surprised As Anyone That Her Weird Comedy Game Is A Hit

There is no formula for surefire success on Steam, but there are at least some commonalities among games that pull ahead of the rest of the 30,000-strong pack. A big name. Roguelite elements. Survival. Multiplayer. Hundreds of hours of content. Frog Detective, a game about a detective who is also a frog, has none of…

‘It Wasn’t Meant To Be This Lightning Rod’: Valve Developer Looks Back At Company’s Epic Store Exclusivity Comments

When Metro Exodus was made an Epic Store exclusive just two weeks before its launch, Valve added fuel to the fire by appending a note to the game’s Steam page that called the move “unfair to Steam customers.” A Valve developer has told Kotaku that it wasn’t expecting the vitriolic reaction that followed. It’s as…

Boat-based mystery darling Return of the Obra Dinn is coming to Switch. Nintendo announced during today’s Nintendo Direct that the Switch version of the 2018 already-classic will be out sometime this fall.

Steam Libraries Are Getting Long-Awaited Overhaul In September

In the time since Valve first started alluding to (and accidentally leaking mock-ups of) a mysterious Steam library overhaul, eras have ended, empires have risen and fallen, and we’ve all grown weary and hunched. Or at least, it feels that way. Now, the time for change is nearly upon us: Valve will begin rolling out…

Disintegration Looks Like Destiny But Definitely Doesn’t Play Like It

If you follow video game news relatively closely, you probably know Disintegration as “that upcoming game by one of the co-creators of Halo” or “that game that looked a lot like Destiny in its reveal trailer.” In reality, however, the similarities are only skin-deep. Disintegration, a production headed up by former Bungie creative art director…

Sighted outside PAX West: Satanists. The Seattle chapter of the Satanic Temple was looking for new recruits outside the Seattle-based convention earlier today, bearing signs with phrases like “Love thyself” and “Love is never a sin.” I was surprised to see them orbiting PAX until I remembered that Satanists love video games. I do not,…

WoW Classic Players Are Using Illicit Tools To Stay Logged In And Avoid Login Queues

If you watch people play games on Twitch, or you read about them on websites, or you just awoke from a thousand-year slumber and the first thing anybody explained to you was the concept of “video games,” you’re probably aware that everybody’s going bonkers for WoW Classic right now. This has resulted in hours-long queue…

After Player Outcry, Fortnite Reverts Turbo Building Changes

In the wake of widespread outcry over yesterday’s changes to building, Fortnite developer Epic Games has done a 180 on its decision. A lot of Fortnite’s success comes from its building mechanic. Apex Legends and PUBG might also strand competitors in an inescapable death arena with tens of other people, but only Fortnite lets players…

Shovel Knight Is Getting A Spin-Off Game And New Features

Even after years of updates, Shovel Knight does not tire, nor does he slow down. He is determined to shovel onward, even if it costs him his life. Today, developer Yacht Club Games unearthed a veritable treasure trove of new stuff for gaming’s foremost knight (who wields a shovel), including an all-new game. First and…

One Monster RPG is a game in which you raise a slime as though it was your own… so you can kill it. You play as a level 99 hero who’s on the tantalizing cusp of level 100, but there’s only one monster left in the world, and it’s history’s scrawniest slime. So you lead…

Remnant: From The Ashes, As Told By Steam Reviews

A week after its release, Remnant: From The Ashes remains at the top of the Steam charts. It’s safe to say that its core conceit—what if Dark Souls, but guns—is resonating with people. Is the game living up to lofty, gothy expectations? For the most part, so far, so good. Kotaku’s Heather Alexandra found herself…

Over A Million People Are Watching World of Warcraft Classic On Twitch

After two years of anticipation, WoW Classic is finally live. Top streamers from every corner of Twitch are streaming it right now, resulting in an audience of over one million concurrent viewers—and some seriously congested starter areas. As of this writing, the slavering horde of Horde (and Alliance) fans topped out at 1.1 million people.…

Ion Fury Developer Backtracks, Says It Won’t Remove Gay Joke Because Of ‘Censorship’

Upon its release, Ion Fury seemed like a bullet-proof success. The Duke Nukem and Shadow Warrior-inspired retro shooter launched earlier this month to rave reviews, with many praising its bloody, chunky blend of old and new. But, shortly after, players discovered homophobic content in the game, and some began to circulate screenshots of transphobic and…

Twitch Suspends Popular Leftist Streamer After Controversial 9/11 Comments

During a Twitch stream earlier this week, popular leftist streamer Hasan Piker made a statement that would, by pretty much any measure, be considered incendiary. “America deserved 9/11, dude,” he said. “Fuck it, I’m saying it.” Today, Twitch suspended Piker for one week. Emotions had been running high in the leadup to the statement on…

Riot says it has reached a settlement with two women who filed a gender discrimination lawsuit late last year. At the time, the women, one current and one former employee, accused Riot of gender-based discrimination and a “men-first” environment that impacted their pay and career advancement. Today, however, Riot sent out a press release announcing…

Red Dead Redemption 2 Bird Mod Is Magnificently Chill

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game that can be chill, but eventually, somebody pulls a gun on you, or a coyote attacks, or you wander into a whinnying horse fire hell zone. To achieve true chill, you must rise above it all. Thanks to mods, you can. YouTuber Jedijosh920 (via Polygon) used player model…

Fire Emblem Hacker Makes The Gatekeeper Playable, And His Charm Stat Is Huge

Greetings, professor! Nothing to report! Well, there is one thing. A Fire Emblem: Three Houses hacker has figured out how to recruit the man, the myth, the character whose voice you’re reading this in right now, the Gatekeeper, into his class. This has led to some fascinating discoveries. In the weeks since Three Houses’ release,…

Sorry, You Can’t Spell Out Messages With Skeletons In WoW Classic

In vanilla World of Warcraft, as in life, skeletons were built to last. If you died somewhere and your flesh decayed to bone, your blanched, skinless husk would stick around for so long that you could die again and produce another right next to it. If you’ve spent more than several seconds around those of…

Metro Exodus‘ New Story DLC Feels Like It’s On Fast-Forward

The Metro series, in its best moments, is icky, verging on downright gross. Plenty of shooters try to capture a sense of place, but Metro bathes you in the grime and ichor that seeps from the clogged pores of its wounded world. The first level of Metro Exodus’ first DLC episode, “Two Colonels,” is no…