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CultureSplitscreenMass Effect Is Back, But It Seems Like Morality Meters Are Gone For Good
Will you save the orphans or eat them? Will you blow up the planet or give it renewable energy and free healthcare? Will you hug Leonardo Da Vinci or let his outstretched arms wither? For a minute there, it felt like games were characterized by binary choices like these—even if their prevalence might have been…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 28, 2021 -
OpinionYou Still Don’t Need A PlayStation 5
It’s been six months since the PlayStation 5 came out, and yet the Seto Kaiba action figure that can also run high-end video games remains comically hard to come by. For a while, this irked me. I wanted to be part of the new console generation—the zeitgeist. So I obsessively watched a Twitch channel dedicated…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 27, 2021 -
CultureTensions High At IGN After Management Claims Palestine Post Takedown Was Not Corporate Interference
The weekend before last, IGN published and then pulled a post with links to charities in support of Palestinian victims who’d been devastated by Israeli violence. This spurred over 80 IGN staffers to sign and publish an open letter decrying corporate management’s subversion of their editorial autonomy and demanding accountability. At first it seemed like…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 26, 2021 -
CultureCall Of Duty Has Banned Over 350,000 Players For Racism And Toxicity In The Past Year
Call of Duty big. Now Call of Duty ban number big, too. Today as part of an anti-toxicity progress report, “Call of Duty staff”—which could include a large portion of the human population, given how many studios work on the series at this point—announced that they’ve banned over 350,000 accounts in the past year for…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 26, 2021 -
CultureReport: Valve Is Making A Switch-Like Portable Codenamed SteamPal
If the Nintendo Switch has proven anything, it’s that being able to play previously PC-only indies on the go rules. Soon, though, you might not need to wait for Switch ports of your Steam-powered faves: a new report claims Valve is working on its own handheld. The report comes from Ars Technica and cites “multiple”…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 25, 2021 -
CultureTwitchTwitch’s New Hot Tub Category Is Full Of Parodies, Fakes, And Scams
Last week, Twitch finally responded to controversy surrounding the so-called “hot tub meta” by clarifying its rules and creating a new section called Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches. Given that many complaints about hot tub streams stemmed from the idea that they represented a “loophole” in Twitch’s rules, it has certainly been something to watch…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 24, 2021 -
CultureSplitscreenHalf-Life: Alyx Almost Had Enemies Who Reacted When You Flipped Them Off
Hands. You wouldn’t have human civilization without them, meaning you wouldn’t have video games, either. Or, like, houses. But even though hands are front and center in many games, we don’t talk about them all that often. On this week’s episode of Splitscreen, we stop keeping hands at arm’s length. In honor of Resident Evil…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 21, 2021 -
CultureTwitchTwitch Says Being Seen As ‘Sexy’ Isn’t Against The Rules, Creates Dedicated Category For Hot Tub Streamers
After months of controversy stemming from a perceived loophole in Twitch’s attire and sexual conduct rules, the company has created a dedicated section for pools, hot tubs, and beaches. In a new blog post today, Twitch announced that it has created a new category: “Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches.” Previously, hot tub streamers largely used…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 21, 2021 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryTeens Rescued My Pink Gamer Chair After It Fell Out Of A Truck, And I Died Of Embarrassment
Ka-thunk. I knew exactly what the sound meant, though I could barely believe it. I was in the process of moving, and I was driving a small handful of my belongings—including my (and my cat’s) pink gamer chair—to my new place in a U-Haul truck. Except the chair wasn’t in the truck anymore. It was…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 20, 2021 -
CultureTwitchTwitch Takes Away Biggest Hot Tub Streamer’s Ability To Make Money Off Ads [UPDATE]
Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa is one of the most popular female streamers on Twitch. As of now, she can no longer make money off ads on her channel. Siragusa, already one of the more recognizable names on Twitch, has benefited tremendously from the so-called “hot tub meta,” in which swimsuit-clad streamers talk to their chats, play…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 18, 2021 -
CultureTwitchAs Gaza Burns, Twitch Charity Streams For Palestine Remain Few And Far Between
The situation in Gaza is dire. Israeli raids have killed over 200 Palestinians in the past week, at least 42 of them on Sunday alone. They’ve also destroyed more than 500 homes, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians homeless—a stunningly bleak continuation of decades of apartheid and aggression. During tragedies and crises affecting other regions,…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 18, 2021 -
CultureSplitscreenFuck, Marry, Kill: Mass Effect Party Member Edition
It certainly says something about the video game industry that the most anticipated release of the year so far is a remaster of a sci-fi RPG trilogy from a decade ago. Mass Effect has some memorable characters—and a lot of less memorable ones, a fact that many people have fittingly forgotten. On this week’s party…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 14, 2021 -
CultureResident Evil Village, As Told By Steam Reviews
There’s a lot going on in Resident Evil Village: Big lady. Severed hand. Resident Evil 4 parallels. There are other things that happen too, but if you’re a Steam reviewer, those three are very much the main ones. Kotaku’s Ian Walker had a blast with the game despite some misgivings with pacing, describing it as…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 14, 2021 -
CultureSex Game Can’t Get On Steam, Even After $20,000 Worth Of Attempts
The developers of Holodexxx are at a loss. After spending months attempting to get their VR sex game onto Steam, they’ve hit a wall that no amount of self-censorship or mechanical refinement has been able to drill through: Valve’s nebulous definition of “pornography.” Holodexxx is a game in which simulated versions of real adult performers…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 12, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsA Baby’s Head On Chris Redfield Is Somehow Even More Cursed Than Chris Redfield’s Head On A Baby
Yesterday, we introduced you to Baby Chris Redfield, who will decidedly not be rivaling Baby Yoda or any other baby, real or fictional, in popularity polls anytime soon. Perhaps, though, you will find Chris Redfield’s tall, rippling body with the goo-spewing head of an infant more to your liking. Or maybe you won’t. Maybe you…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 11, 2021 -
CultureTwitchTwitch Sure Seems To Hope This Whole ‘Sports’ Thing Blows Up
If you’ve heard of esports, you might also be familiar with “sports,” a spinoff of esports that people somehow play without computers. Twitch, which made its name on esports, has recently become very interested in these un-electronic sports and seems to really hope they’ll catch on. It began in July of last year, when Twitch…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 11, 2021 -
CultureApple Tries Really Hard To Get Epic To Admit There’s Porn On Its Store
Is there porn on the Epic Games Store? Seems like a pretty easy “yes” or “no” question. Today, however, the ongoing, increasingly contentious Epic v. Apple court case showed us that actually it’s possible to have a nearly 10-minute argument about it. It began as part of a series of inquiries in which Apple’s lawyer…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 7, 2021 -
CultureSplitscreenResident Evil Village‘s Lady Dimitrescu Was Worth The Wait
After the internet spent months pining and meme-ing, she’s finally here: Lady Dimitrescu—and also Resident Evil Village, I guess. But was she (and, I suppose, the game) worth all the hype and marketing-driven hoopla? On this week’s village- (and Village-) themed episode of Splitscreen, we find out. To kick off the episode, Ash Parrish, Mike…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 7, 2021 -
CultureUpgraded Yuffie Version Of Final Fantasy VII Remake Exclusive To PS5 For ‘At Least’ Six Months
I still don’t have a PlayStation 5. If you are like the majority of human beings, you also probably do not, even after six months of futile longing. I say this not to rub it in your/my face, but to instead deliver further sobering news: If you played through Final Fantasy VII Remake on PS4…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 7, 2021 -
CultureApple To Epic: What’s A Kotaku?
Today, as part of the ongoing Epic v. Apple court case, Apple counsel Rich Doren, while cross examining Epic engineer Andrew Grant about a Minecraft Earth-related email chain between Epic employees, asked a very important question. “Are you familiar with that website?” Doren asked in reference to a confusingly named website called Kotaku, from which…
By Nathan Grayson Published May 5, 2021
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