Nathan Grayson

Overwatch‘s New CTF Map Is A Big Improvement

Last year, Overwatch got a capture-the-flag mode. It was a fun distraction from the usual payload-pushing antics, but the game wasn’t designed with CTF in mind, and it showed. Some heroes were overpowered, levels were stale, and stalemates abounded. As part of this week’s “Year of the Dog” event, Blizzard has revamped the mode, and…

Twitch’s New Policies Are Worrying Some Provocative Streamers

Yesterday, Twitch announced a series of new, more stringent policies around sexual content, harassment, and community behavior. Now streamers who’ve built their brands on pushing boundaries are worried that their channels might be on the chopping block. During a stream yesterday, popular streamer Sebastian “Forsen” Fors, whose community is notoriously rowdy and has had a…

Two Of Twitch’s Biggest Streamers Are Fighting Over A Viewer Record

Earlier this week, Dr Disrespect, the self-proclaimed “face of Twitch,” returned to the streaming platform and pulled in what Twitch says was a record-breaking number of viewers. Days later, however, Dr Disrespect and previous record-holder Tyler1 are still beefing over the number, as are their fans. It all began on Monday, when Dr Disrespect’s concurrent…

With Voice Chat Coming, Heroes Of The Storm Players Brace For Harassment

In the near future, Blizzard is adding built-in voice chat to Heroes of the Storm. Announced at BlizzCon last year, it’s been a long time coming to a game that’s been out since 2015. Some players, however, are worried that voice chat will cause more problems than it’ll solve. For months, HOTS streamer FerociouslySteph has…

Blizzard Bans Overwatch Griefer Who’s Ruined Games For ‘Thousands’ Of Players

“I don’t want to stream the game, because I literally get stream sniped every day,” said popular streamer TimTheTatMan of a particular griefer who kept interfering with his matches. Now Blizzard’s announced that it has banned the griefer, but only after discovering that they were using multiple accounts and “systematically ruining Overwatch games for thousands…

Deepfakes, the subreddit where people were making fake porn using AI tech (some of which involved video game characters) has been shut down. Reddit found it to be in violation of its policy against “involuntary pornography.” Despite rules that prohibit “any person in a state of nudity or engaged in any act of sexual conduct…

Blizzard has announced the details of Overwatch’s “Year of the Dog” event, which kicks off on February 8. It’ll include a new capture-the-flag-specific map set in Thailand, redesigned rules that eliminate draws and make CTF more “action-packed,” and a four-week competitive CTF season. Also, there will be skins, because there will always be skins, until…

Report: Geguri Will Be The First Woman Signed To An Overwatch League Team

Overwatch League has no women players, a fact that’s been glaringly apparent ever since the league’s debut media event, where Korean pro Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon’s name came up multiple times. Now, however, a report from ESPN claims that Geguri’s signing to an OWL team, the Shanghai Dragons. ESPN cites “multiple sources close to the players…

Turns out, Dr Disrespect beat the Twitch record for most concurrent viewers of a single streamer after all (CLARIFICATION – February 8, 11:50AM: … according to Twitch). A Twitch rep told Kotaku that Dr Disrespect, not Tyler1, now holds the record for most concurrent viewers of a single stream with “over 388,000.” The rep did…

Play Every Overwatch Hero

There are those who’ll tell you that Overwatch is at its best when you’re playing your favorite hero, pushing the limits of your skill and reflexes to unseen heights. They are wrong. Play every hero. Play the ones you love. Play the ones you hate. Play the ones who infuriate you every time the enemy…

Overwatch Glitch Spawns Unlimited Bots Into A Single Game

In Overwatch, two teams of six compete to see who’s best at avoiding the payload and yelling at each other. Well, most of the time, anyway. Thanks to a recently discovered glitch that allows you to spawn unlimited bots in custom game modes, players have been creating matches that are, shall we say, somewhat lopsided.…

Dr Disrespect’s Return To Twitch Brings 388,000 Concurrent Viewers And Money [UPDATE]

After nearly two months out of action in the wake of an on-stream confession of infidelity to his wife, popular streamer Dr Disrespect returned to Twitch today. In the process, he pulled in hundreds of thousands of viewers, thousands of dollars in donations, as well as a chat that vomited memes with rabid excitement. He…

Track: Ctrl + Art + Delete | Artist: Blood Command | Album: Cult Drugs Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

EA UFC 3: The Kotaku Review

In MMA, there are fighters who’ve got all the potential in the world, but continually fail to put the pieces together. My heart breaks each time they steal a round from a canny vet, only to be force-fed a diet of dirt and canvas dust in the second. A slip or two on the way…

Overwatch League’s Dallas Fuel, In A Single Play

This Doomfist play, which Dallas Fuel star DPS player Hyeon “Effect” Hwang pulled off against Philadelphia Fusion in an Overwatch League match today, is nuts—the kind of thing regular players will be attempting for weeks to come. In the end, however, it failed spectacularly. At this point, Dallas Fuel’s out-of-the-arena troubles are well documented, but…

It Sure Looks Like The Winner Of This PUBG Charity Match Cheated

Here’s a thought: Don’t cheat. And definitely don’t cheat during a charity stream hosted by a game’s developer. It’s hard to say for sure, but unfortunately it seems like that’s what happened during a portion of the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds official five-day charity marathon for Extra Life. The even-more-unfortunately-named streamer Bustin_the_nuts noticed that something fishy was…

Elite: Dangerous Players Band Together To Save Cancer Patient’s Expedition From Griefers

Since January 12, a group of Elite: Dangerous players has been journeying across the galaxy to reach Dove Enigma station, named for a member of the expedition, Brandon “DoveEnigma13” Keith. Keith is fighting terminal cancer. The trip, a relatively leisurely sightseeing tour and charity drive assembled for the benefit of both Keith and his five…

Track: Condemned To The Gallows | Artist: Between The Buried And Me | Album: Automata I Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

People Are Putting Video Game Faces On Real Porn, The End Is Nigh [UPDATE]

Fake porn has been around since time immemorial, but recent months have seen the practice take an unsettling leap forward thanks to AI-based video technology that allows people to easily map other people’s faces onto bodies that aren’t their own. Now video game characters’ faces are getting stitched onto IRL bodies as well. Warning: the…

Blizzard Nerfs Mercy’s Rez

After weeks on Overwatch’s public test realm, Blizzard’s big Mercy nerf has gone live. The controversial set of changes centers around the effect Mercy’s ult, Valkyrie, had on her resurrect ability. Previously, Valkyrie took away resurrect’s cast time. Now it doesn’t. It also granted a bonus resurrect. It doesn’t do that anymore either. In addition,…