Update – 10:30 PM, 1/04/19: Since the publication of this story, new signs have emerged that Ellie may not have been who people thought she was. Earlier today, Aspen, an Overwatch streamer for esports organization Cloud 9, claimed that top-500 player Punisher—her friend—was Ellie after all. “Ellie is not Ellie,” she said during a stream.…
Track: Real Magic | Artist: Anthony Green | Album: Would You Still Be In Love Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.
Bright Memory is a shooter/action game made primarily by solo developer Zeng Xiancheng in his spare time. Despite that, it looks nearly as over-the-top as some triple-A games, marrying shooting and swordplay to movement that’s akin to what would happen if a Kung-Fu flick took place entirely inside a tornado. It’s coming to Steam early…
A new collection called Meditations, which will eventually contain 365 games, will celebrate the value of small games. Spearheaded by Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail, the goal of the project was for “over 350 developers” to create a series of meditative games that are no longer than five minutes. Each game will be available for only one…
Noted Undertale fan and pro wrestler Kenny Omega collaborated with the team behind the game to promote an upcoming event. The resulting video, which centers around a fictional Undertale-esque game called Kenny’s Quest, was going to air at Wrestle Kingdom 13 in Japan on January 4, but got cut due to “circumstances beyond” Omega’s control.
Sometimes, you just need to howl into a void. Say whatever else you will about it, but 2018 provided us with no lack of voids into which to howl our agonized cries. Steam’s review section sure was one of them—and an illuminating one, at that. This year, Steam’s user-powered review engine kept chugging along, but…
Mercy, bless her eternally-giving heart, has seen better days. Recent updates have made her less popular, and some players say her kit lacks excitement compared to other heroes—a complaint that’s followed Mercy for quite a while now. Longtime Mercy mains are ready for an overhaul, but they’re not sure Blizzard is picking up what they’re…
By pretty much every measure that matters, 2018 has been Twitch’s biggest year ever. Already a force in the gaming world, Fortnite helped catapult the streaming platform into the mainstream. There were big moments, bigger numbers, and of course, lots of growing pains. In many ways, Twitch’s appeal in 2018 remained the same as it’s…
Last week, the store wars began, but now they’re really getting spicy. With Epic’s store up, running, and offering an 88 percent cut of earnings to developers (compared to Steam’s industry-standard 70 percent), Discord has fired back with an even more appealing offer: 90 percent. The revenue split will come to Discord’s game store in…
Jetpack Cat is finally in Overwatch… sort of. Players recently discovered that, as part of a Brigitte “toast” emote that came with the new winter event, she raises a mug with the face of a cat and the back of a jetpack cat. This is a reference to both a scrapped Overwatch hero and the fact…
There’s a new PlanetSide game coming, and it has a battle royale mode. The gargantuan persistent shooter is clomping into the genre’s well-trod territory with sci-fi vehicles and weapons, though that’s not the only mode PlanetSide Arena is offering. It’ll also let players compete in 250 vs 250 matches with teams and classes. It’s coming…
Overwatch’s Blizzard World map has never been universally beloved, but shortly after Blizzard decked its halls with holiday cheer yesterday, the map apparently decided to go full Grinch. Teams found themselves beset on all sides by busted spawn rooms and glitched payloads. Now Blizzard World is shut down. In Overwatch, maps have spawn rooms that…
I have a theory: The value of a community is directly proportional to its willingness to rally around and fight nearly to the death for deeply dumb things. Warframe players are doing an excellent job of proving it. In Warframe, a co-op sci-fi shooter with MMO elements, instances only stick around for as long as…
Smalland is a survival game in which you’re mysteriously the size of a pebble. While games like Ark have you contending with dinosaurs, Smalland puts it all in perspective. Ants, squirrels, and even the weather are threats to your ramshackle shelters and tiny, hilariously breakable bones. It’s coming to early access “soon.”
Overwatch’s annual Winter Wonderland event is back, which means snowball fights, festive cheer, and yetis or whatever, but mostly skins. This year, everyone is a furry, except for Mercy, who’s a World of Warcraft elf Here’s everybody in their new holiday duds: Personally, I’m a pretty big fan of Junkrat’s Krampus look, but everything else…
Christmas came early for Counter-Strike players in the form of a new battle royale mode with its own fun (albeit compact) map. Thanks to an Easter egg on that map, Portal fans think their Christmas might be coming, too. To this, Valve responded that no, there is no Santa Claus. One room in a compound…
Epic Games’ new store is not only taking the fight to Steam by giving developers a bigger cut of their games’ earnings—it’s locking down exclusive games, too. So far, six developers have said their games will be exclusive to the Epic store for a while, in some cases up to a year. These include interesting…
The original Doom first came out 25 years ago, on December 10, 1993. To commemorate the cruel, unceasing passage of time, designer John Romero is revisiting his beloved demonspawn baby. Today, Romero announced Sigil, a Doom “megawad” containing nine new single and multiplayer levels. It’s basically a big mod, but from one of the original…
These days, anything goes on Steam, but not anything anything. If games are “illegal, or straight up trolling,” Valve says it’ll send them packing. In the past, that’s meant low-effort games with titles like Big Dick and MILF, achievement spam, and certain sex games Now, according to some developers, Valve is going after games that…
It’s a big day for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Valve’s tactical shooter mainstay has gone free-to-play, and it’s added a battle royale mode called “Danger Zone.” The change to free-to-play is pretty straightforward. The base game is now entirely free, giving players instant access to “all game modes, matchmaking, and a limited set of item drops…
Mode
Follow us
