Nathan Grayson

Fortnite Pro Kills 30 Players, Gets Cocky, Pays For It

It’s not over until it’s over. And even then, it might not actually be over, so you probably shouldn’t bust out your victory dance moves until you’re absolutely 100 percent positive that it’s over. Fortnite streamer Teeqzy recently found this out the hard way. Teeqzy is a professional Fortnite player for French organization Millennium. He…

The First Non-Valve Game On Steam Began With A Bad Kung Fu Movie

In this era of overstuffed digital shelves, it can be hard to imagine a time when Steam wasn’t crawling with a million anthills’ worth of games. A little more than a decade ago, though, it only carried Valve games. Then came Rag Doll Kung Fu. People Make Games’ Chris Bratt (who, full disclosure, is a…

Popular Twitch Streamer Makes An Example Of Her Harassers

Annemunition, a popular Twitch streamer with over 300,000 followers, was just trying to be a decent teammate and call shots in Rainbow Six Siege. Then, over voice chat, came the questions: “Are you a man or a female?” And the accusations: “You stole my fucking content. You’re shit at the game. Get out.” Annemunition, a…

Fortnite Players Blame Stream Snipers For Update That Hides Streamers’ Names

If you’re a streamer, getting trounced by stream snipers is a pain. Some players, though, live for the thrill of coming face-to-face with their favorite streamers in games—and maybe even besting them. A new Fortnite feature that anonymizes streamers’ names, then, could represent something of an impasse. Fortnite is a game with a lot of…

Track: The Dark Sentencer | Artist: Coheed and Cambria | Album: The Dark Sentencer Single Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The next chapter of Elite: Dangerous’ “Beyond” expansion will be out soon. It’ll add new ships like the tanky Alliance Challenger and new Thargoid aliens like Scouts, who can buff other Thargoids. It’ll also expand wing missions and installation interactions. The update will be free for all players on June 28.

Fallout 76 Gives Overwatch Fans Crossover Fever

When Fallout 76 was announced yesterday, half the world immediately thought “Heck yeah, new Fallout.” But the other half—a more insidious and frankly intolerable one that includes noted individuals such as me—started cracking jokes about Soldier 76 from Overwatch. Then came the fan art. Evidently, a whole lot of people want to see Soldier 76…

Atone is a story-driven puzzle game inspired by Norse mythology. As a warrior named Estra, you explore a world brought to life entirely by hand-drawn vector art. You’ll solve puzzles and also beat down people and ice wolves with the power of rhythm. It’ll be out next year on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

The Two Developers Keeping Guild Wars 1 Alive

The original Guild Wars first came out in 2005. By MMO standards, it’s ancient. Two developers have taken it upon themselves to keep the game alive and, in the process, have figured out how to make it better than it’s ever been. Preserving old games is a monumental challenge in endless media avalanche year 2018.…

Valve Removes School Shooting Game From Steam

After a maelstrom of controversy that had mainstream news outlets and an anti-gun violence charity weighing in, Valve has removed mass shooting game Active Shooter from Steam. The unreleased game drew furor last week over its shameless exploitation of tragic subject matter. Valve, meanwhile, took flack from fans and outlets alike for allowing the game…

E3 Bans Backpacks, Adds Bag Checks

Despite a sizable surge in attendance last year after selling tickets to 15,000 members of the general public, E3 2017 had some worrisome security blind spots. This year, the annual trade show-turned-circus is cracking down. The security section of E3’s website is now replete with all sorts of regulations that will hopefully make the show…

Pillars Of Eternity II: The Kotaku Review

Toward the end of my time with pirate RPG Pillars of Eternity II, one of my crew members, foul-mouthed furball Serafen, presented me with a gift. It was a garment meant to be worn by a captain, he said, but after witnessing me pass so many difficult moral tests with flying colors, he’d decided captaining…

School Shooting Game Angers Steam Users, Developer ‘Likely’ Changing It [UPDATE]

Earlier this week, a game called Active Shooter appeared on Steam. It’d be nothing more than another heap of hacked-together pre-purchased assets—or an “asset flip,” as they’re known on Steam—if not for its subject matter. It’s about mass shootings. The unreleased game’s Steam store page describes it as a “dynamic S.W.A.T. simulator” in which you…

Apple Blocks Valve App That Lets You Play Steam Games On Your Phone

Earlier this month, Valve announced an official Steam Link app that lets users play Steam games on their phones. Last week, the app came out on Android, with an iOS version nowhere to be found. Now Valve has explained why. According to a release from Valve sent to Kotaku, Apple had approved the Steam Link…

Game Critic Totalbiscuit Dies At 33

After retiring from games criticism at the start of the month, YouTube personality John “Totalbiscuit” Bain has passed away. Bain’s wife, Genna, posted about his passing on Twitter. “Rest in Peace my Dearest Love,” she wrote. Bain, who was 33, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2014. It went into remission, only to return last…

Steam Developer’s Secret To A Two Percent Refund Rate: Honesty

In the year 2018, Steam can be described in many ways, but “hospitable to developers who make short games” is not one of them. And yet, developer Mike Bithell just released Quarantine Circular, his second non-free, story-based game that can easily be finished before Steam’s refund timer runs out. Quarantine Circular is a brief, choice-driven…

Overwatch‘s New Map Isn’t The Problem, Deathmatch Is

Overwatch characters are like pieces on a chess board. Whether we’re talking about David Bowie reincarnated as a mad scientist or a hulking hook boy who’s probably never heard of David Bowie, everybody’s unique abilities are kept in check by the structure of the game. Now imagine if that structure—the lines on the board—didn’t exist.…

Track: Governor Switch | Artist: Narco Debut | Album: Garden Dreams Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Double Fine is publishing the next game from Playables, the makers of the wonderfully weird Plug & Play. It’s called KIDS, and it’s described as a project about “the psychology of the group” in which you move against crowds. The game will be out this year on PC/mobile alongside a film and a full-blown art…

Overwatch Players Discover Mystery That Spans Multiple Maps

Overwatch’s new deathmatch map, Petra, is full of Pharah-friendly open spaces, jump pads, and a break-away floor, but like any crumbling ruin worth its salt, it’s also got mysteries. Shortly after the map went live earlier today, players started posting screenshots of laptops and data pads they found sprinkled around, with members of the Overwatch…