Nathan Grayson

Cuphead Developers Delay DLC, Cite Desire To Make Games In A Healthier Way

Fans of tough-as-nails animated shoot-’em-up Cuphead have been waiting since 2018 for Delicious Last Course, a DLC expansion with a whiff of finality about it. Unfortunately, they’re going to have to wait a little longer, because it’s been delayed to 2020. The developers offered a commitment to quality and a focus on sustainable development practices…

Twitch’s New Subscriber-Only Streams Might Violate Game Publishers’ Terms Of Service

Last week, Twitch announced a new feature that’s already proven divisive: subscriber-only streams. True to their name, they’re like regular streams, but only people who’ve subscribed (with real money) to a particular streamer are able to watch them. It’s an option that many streamers say they won’t be using, for fear of dividing their audiences.…

Dr Disrespect Apologizes For E3 Bathroom Stream ‘On Behalf Of The Dr Disrespect Brand’

Three weeks ago, Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm live-streamed himself walking into an E3 bathroom and, ultimately, walked out without a Twitch channel or an E3 badge. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, he didn’t seem to be taking his suspension very seriously, despite the fact that he may well have broken the law by…

Valve Index Is Luxurious, But A Hassle

The other day, a talking robot ball was taunting me, saying I couldn’t raise my arms and pump my fists like him. This, he proclaimed, was my ultimate failing, and I would forever marinate in my shame. I raised my own physical hand and slowly unfurled my real-life middle finger. My in-game finger shot up…

Bernie Sanders’ New Twitch Channel Needs Fewer Campaign Ads, More Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders, America’s favorite curmudgeonly socialist grandpa who happens to be running for President, is now on Twitch. Last night, his channel aired its first two streams. Sadly, neither involved Sanders sitting in a chair that looks like it belongs in a race car and playing Fortnite as a means to demonstrate the ills of…

Teamfight Tactics Is Very Popular, And Its Servers Are Not Holding Up

Teamfight Tactics, Riot’s popular League of Legends-flavored spin on auto chess, the auto battler sensation that’s methodically sweeping multiple nations, is now officially out. This, you might figure, would be good for people who want to play it. You would be wrong. Riot has been gradually rolling the game out in various regions, starting yesterday…

Valve Changes Steam Sale After Widespread Complaints From Developers And Players

After a period of stagnation, Valve has gone back to its well of Steam sale meta games—something users have enjoyed in the past, even though they’re ultimately just a means of incentivizing people to spend more money. This time, though, Valve may have taken things too far with a game that’s caused widespread confusion. After…

Longtime Twitch Streamer Is Thrilled To Be Teamfight Tactics‘ Best Player

Rumay “Hafu” Wang’s record is nothing to sneeze at. She’s won multiple major World of Warcraft tournaments, and she’s dominated Hearthstone’s rankings month after month. Still, she feels as though people don’t hold her accomplishments in the same regard as those of some of her male peers. That’s why she was thrilled to close out…

GOG Galaxy 2.0 Might Actually Be Able To Unite Warring PC Storefronts

The year is 2019. Cities lie in rubble. Pollution blots out the sun’s life-giving rays. The PC gaming landscape, once united under Steam’s questionable but convenient near-monopoly, is still mostly that way, but also there are some more launchers. The Epic Games Store. Origin. Uplay. Battle.net. The list goes on. The people cry out: “Who…

Twitch Launches Subscriber-Only Streaming Feature

On Twitch, fans can subscribe to their favorite streamers, typically for $4.99 per month. Usually, that comes with minor perks like subscriber-only emotes, subscriber badges, and access to subscriber-only chat, if streamers decide to enable it. But now, streamers are getting a big addition to their arsenals: subscriber-only streams. Previously, no matter how many subscribers…

Half-Life Fan Remake’s Final Chapter Is Now Partly Playable

The long-awaited Half-Life fan remake Black Mesa first came out back in 2012. Gee, sure has Xen a while since then, huh? And yet, only now is the saga finally nearing its conclusion. The Black Mesa team decided to take Half-Life’s divisive “Xen” chapters back to the drawing board and flesh out the alien fish…

A Guide To Auto Chess, 2019’s Most Popular New Game Genre

Over the weekend, Dota Underlords lured 200,000 concurrent players onto its checkered battlefield of swords, sorcery, and slot machines. Meanwhile, Riot’s Teamfight Tactics continued to duel with Fortnite for the Twitch throne. Also, I played Dota Underlords like it was my dang job. If it feels like these Auto Chess games have taken over the…

Another Popular Twitch Streamer Is Trying To Leave FaZe Clan

Last month, popular Fortnite streamer Turner “Tfue” Tenney sued FaZe Clan, the esports organization whose banner he plays under, over a supposedly restrictive contract. The lawsuit sent shockwaves in all directions, resulting in, among other things, FaZe player H1ghSky1 getting banned from Twitch after it came to light in Tenney’s legal complaint that he was…

Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night, As Told By Steam Reviews

What is a Kickstarter-funded spiritual successor to Castlevania? Either a miserable or non-miserable pile of secrets (and gameplay mechanics), depending on which Steam reviewer you talk to. Whether they love it or feel lukewarm about it, like Kotaku’s Joshua Rivera, nobody’s pretending Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night is something that it’s not. This, pretty much…

Valve’s New Auto Chess Game Is Already Way More Popular Than Artifact Ever Was

The failure of Dota-themed trading card game Artifact might have left Valve with egg on its face, but the company has now scraped off that egg and made an omelette with Dota Underlords. Valve’s take on the obscenely popular Auto Chess genre hit a peak of nearly 180,000 concurrent players today, almost tripling Artifact’s all-time…

Auto Chess Took Over My Life In A Single Afternoon

I had plans, darn it. Grand plans. I was going to go outside, probably. I might have picked a flower. Maybe it would’ve slipped from between my fingers, only for me to bend down and find three stray kittens, who I’d have ultimately adopted and come to love like the furry little couch-ruining aliens they…

Steam Finally Adds Official LGBTQ+ Tag For Games

The process of finding games on Steam has become increasingly driven by a tag system. Mouse over, say, Sekiro on Steam’s front page, and you’ll see descriptor tags like “Souls-like,” “Difficult,” and “Action.” Click on one of those tags, and you’ll be taken to a hub page for that game category. But that’s just the…

League Of Legends‘ Version Of Auto Chess Has Taken Over Twitch

We have a habit, in the gaming industry, of declaring things “The Year Of ___.” 2013 was The Year Of Luigi. 2014 was The Year Of Luigi’s Death Stare. 2019 is The Year Of Gooigi. However, if Gooigi had not transformed into an unassailable, medium-defining phenomenon, we might also be tempted to call this The…

EA: Our Loot Boxes Are Actually ‘Surprise Mechanics’ That Are ‘Quite Ethical’

Given that 2017’s Star Wars Battlefront II is broadly considered the tipping point in an anti-loot-box conversation that has recently led to a loot box bill in the United States senate, you might be forgiven for thinking that Electronics Arts games have loot boxes. Not so, says its VP of legal and government affairs; they…

Slime Rancher, the relaxing game about slimes and also ranching, just received a free DLC expansion. It’s called “Viktor’s Experimental Update,” and it sees you delve into a “virtual re-creation” of Slime Rancher’s setting to root out nefarious glitch slimes. You’re able to make use of a whole host of new gadgets in order to…