Track: Now We Sleep | Artist: Artificial Language (Ft. Michael Lessard of The Contortionist) | Album: Now We Sleep Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.
Starbase is a ludicrously ambitious-sounding space MMO. Developer Frozenbyte (of Trine fame) describes it as “a hybrid voxel/vertex-based space MMO with a fully destructible and infinitely expanding universe,” which basically means ship construction in the vein of Space Engineers married to the scope of Elite Dangerous or Star Citizen. There’s even an in-game programming language. It’s…
There are, as you are probably already aware, not many people playing Artifact, the digital card game that developer Valve recently decided to take back to the drawing board. Just a hundred or so people are playing it at any given moment, as of this writing. There are, however, over 10,000 people watching streamers play…
I’ve met some real characters during my time playing Rage 2. And by characters, I mean glorified quest dispensers. There’s old guy, cool lady, and of course—who could forget?—third main story person. These folks get functional speaking parts, but I honestly can’t remember a word they’ve said. They’re bland potato people in a perfunctory post-apocalyptic…
Earlier this week, Turner “Tfue” Tenney, a 21-year-old Fortnite pro who is one of the most popular streamers on Twitch, sued FaZe, the esports organization to which he is currently signed. The suit says that the contract between Tenney and FaZe is “oppressive” and “illegal,” arguing that FaZe is in violation of California’s Talent Agency…
It’s easy to get caught up in rosy nostalgia when talking about long-lost series from years past, but there’s something to be said for the classics. Remember slamming down snaking neon streets in F-Zero? And who among us (of a highly specific age range) didn’t spend hours of their childhood staring with starry eyes at…
One upside of multiplayer games from smaller developers is that they can take risks bigger games might not. Mordhau fits that bill, eschewing traditional shooter mechanics in favor of finely-honed sword swinging and lute plucking. The downside is that smaller games can end up jankier than their bigger counterparts. Case in point: Mordhau players have…
Late last year, Valve launched the collectible card game Artifact, a spinoff of Dota 2. It flopped so hard that Valve is now revamping it from the ground up. Earlier this year, Dota’s community beat Valve at its own game, creating Dota Auto Chess, a similarly strategic spin-off that, unlike Artifact, has become one of…
Fallout 76 had a rocky launch, but it’s since established a community that’s making do with what they’ve been given. Still, some of those fans don’t see Fallout 76 as a proper Fallout game, which, for one fan, gave rise to an idea: What if Fallout 76‘s setting of Appalachia was in a proper Fallout…
Valve has posted a lengthy rundown of its thinking surrounding “positive” review bombs, ala what happened to Assassin’s Creed Unity in the wake of Ubisoft’s Notre-Dame efforts. In short, Valve isn’t sure how to handle them: “It doesn’t actually seem to be a review bomb in the way we’ve previously defined them, but maybe that’s…
Overwatch’s third anniversary event is live, and it is as Britney Spears once famously said: “The taste of your lips, I’m on a ride. [Roadhog]’s toxic, I’m slipping under.” The new batch of skins runs the gamut from cutesy (albeit infantilizing, when it comes to some fans’ takes on D.Va’s schoolgirl outfit) to literally toxic…
Yesterday evening, while playing Apex Legends, Twitch star Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek got killed by a player who was using an aimbot to cheat. When you spend the majority of your waking hours playing video games, it’s not abnormal to encounter cheaters and stream snipers. This one, though, agreed to stick around and chat with Shroud.…
With over six million followers, Fortnite pro Turner “Tfue” Tenney, 21, is far and away one of the most popular streamers on all of Twitch. Now he’s suing FaZe Clan, the esports organization that signed him, over a contract that he and his attorney feel is “oppressive” and, in some cases, “illegal.” Tenney’s main grievances…
Denuvo is anti-piracy tech that was once seen as uncrackable but is now viewed as more of a nuisance than anything. While tests have proven inconclusive, some believe it has a notable impact on games’ performance. It’s also the de facto DRM software of our time, and nobody, except big business, likes DRM. When Rage…
Skyrim player DarkMaster06 didn’t waste a second pretending that their request on the Skyrim Mods subreddit was anything more than an elaborate “troll” mod. But they asked for it all the same: “This is my request,” they wrote. “Based on the Game of Thrones series, we should add a Starbucks cup to Dragonsreach.” A couple…
Earlier today, Epic once again took a page from Steam’s book and announced a “mega sale” that includes both percentage discounts and an additional $10 off every game priced $14.99 or higher on the Epic Games Store. It seemed to be smooth sailing for the sale, but then two major games suddenly vanished from the…
Metro Exodus is getting two pieces of story-driven DLC in the coming months. Neither focus on series hero Artyom, but instead shift perspective to other familiar faces from the Metro universe. This summer’s The Two Colonels DLC follows Colonel Miller in a “new linear chapter,” while Sam’s Story, coming early 2020, is a more sandboxy…
I know something about you that you probably won’t even admit to yourself, a fundamental human truth as undeniable as breathing: You like popping pimples. Slowly applying pressure until those tiny face volcanoes erupt into a gooey spew is one of life’s small pleasures. It is gross, yes, but so are a great many enjoyable…
Last year, Valve released an official Steam Link mobile app that let people stream Steam games to their phones. Well, their non-Apple phones, anyway. At the time, Valve said that Apple approved and then un-approved the app, citing “business conflicts” that put it at odds with App Store guidelines. Then nothing happened. For a year.…
In Snakeybus, as in life, you are your own greatest enemy. The game, in which you drive a winding, multi-sectioned bus that grows longer every time you drop off passengers, skillfully communicates a busload of resonant platitudes. Don’t look back, lest you collide with your own globe-encircling tail. The only way forward is through—at least,…
Mode
Follow us
