Nathan Grayson

Blizzard Built A ‘Strike Team’ To Put An End To Overwatch Jerks

These days, it’s hard to talk about Overwatch without mentioning its ongoing struggles with sexism, racism, griefing, match throwing, andworse. At BlizzCon, game director Jeff Kaplan told Kotaku that fighting toxicity is now more of a priority than ever, to the point that Blizzard has formed a “strike team” to do so. In recent months,…

Massive World Of Warcraft Diorama At BlizzCon Sets World Record 

On the BlizzCon show floor this weekend was a massive World of Warcraft diorama. There are 10,000 characters in it, but here’s the crazy part: each figure is based on an individual BlizzCon attendee’s actual in-game character. It’s totally wild. Titled the “Battle for Lordaeron,” it’s meant to be a depiction of the battle between…

Meet BlizzCon’s Dancing Reaper

When I arrived at BlizzCon today, I saw a Reaper dancing all by himself. I walked up and asked him why he was dancing. He paused for a moment, shrugged, and then resumed dancing. Here’s a video of him dancing:

A Closer Look At Scrapped Overwatch Hero Jetpack Cat

Here is concept art of legendary scrapped Overwatch hero, Jetpack Cat. During a BlizzCon panel about Overwatch’s formative days, game director Jeff Kaplan and art director Arnold Tsang talked more about his origins, saying that they were trying to figure out how far was too far with regards to character designs. “We tried a robot…

Overwatch‘s New Hero Moira Is A Blast To Play, But Comes With A Learning Curve

In some ways, Overwatch’s new hero, Moira, announced yesterday at BlizzCon, feels like a stronger take on the basic premise underlying sniper grandma Ana: she’s a healer for people who hate playing healers. I’ve gotten to play a few matches as Moira (first name: “Mines Of”) during BlizzCon, and I’ve been having a blast. Two…

Blizzard Adding More Special Skins To Regular Overwatch Loot Boxes

Today during the Overwatch “What’s Next” panel at BlizzCon, Blizzard announced that from now on, it’ll add more event-style skins to regular, non-event loot boxes. For the past year, the majority of new skins have only been available during timed events, after which they went back into a vault inside Jeff Kaplan’s terror palace. During…

World of Warcraft Will Expand Legion’s Leveling System Across The Whole Game

If you try to level a new WoW character, you’re basically asking for mad deja vu. Ahead of the release of a new expansion, Blizzard is gonna let players change things up. A lot. During the World of Warcraft “What’s Next” panel at BlizzCon, game director Ion Hazzikostas announced that level scaling—which was introduced as…

EA Is Making Another UFC Game

After a promising but still too-barebones second installment, EA’s taking a third swing at the UFC. EA Sports UFC 3 is coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 2. Here’s what it looks like: The big new features this time around are an improved animation system, a movement system with an emphasis on…

Explicit Sex Games Keep Getting Onto Steam

If at any given moment you visit the Steam store’s front page, there’s a strong chance you’ll get an eyeful of exposed skin from some lewd adventure or action game’s listing. Steam doesn’t allow pornographic games, but in the Steam Direct era, they keep appearing on Valve’s service anyway—until they’re taken down, that is. Warning:…

Popular Battlegrounds Streamer Pulls Off Miraculous Headshot, Wins $100

“Doc, I’ll give you $100 if you hit this shot,” ex-CSGO pro and popular PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds streamer Shroud said to fellow PUBG streaming superstar and mustache-with-a-soul Dr Disrespect. “Headshot,” Shroud added. “Has to be a headshot.” The shot was preposterous. The person Dr Disrespect was aiming at was so far away that they weren’t even…

The UFC’s Best Fighter Tries To Keep MMA Out Of His Twitch Streams

Many Twitch streamers enjoy sharing details about their personal lives as they game. But even though his username is mightymouseufc125, Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson would rather not chat on stream about his career as the flyweight champion of the UFC. “I think a lot of the fans get mad at me [for not talking about…

Owlboy is coming to the Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on February 13. The retro-inspired adventure platformer was in development for nine years before finally releasing on PC last year. I played it and thought it was worth the wait

It’s October 2017, And Spintires Is Back On Steam’s Best-Sellers

Wolfenstein. Assassin’s Creed. Call of Duty. The biggest names in the video game business are being unleashed upon a highly suspecting populace, and Steam’s sales charts reflect that. With one exception. Right now, here’s what Steam’s top sellers list looks like: All the big names, but then, toward the middle, is humble Spintires: Mudrunner. It’s…

The Most Expensive Things You Can Buy On Steam

Allow me to posit for you a hypothetical scenario: you’ve just come into a large sum of money, perhaps because a wealthy relative passed away, or maybe because there was a great societal upheaval, and you ate a rich person. Regardless, you can afford to splurge a little. Here are some options. The single most…

A Great Match From Korea’s First All-Women Overwatch Tournament

Over the weekend, a Korean company called Inven broadcast the finals of Korea’s first amateur all-women Overwatch tournament. It was a damn good match. The “All For Ladies” tournament actually took place earlier this month, but the finals weren’t broadcast until this weekend. Two teams, Pandora Ladies and 1st.Lady, went toe-to-toe in a best-of-five match,…

A Streaming Marathon Made It Easy To Treat My Body Like Garbage

Of the past 72 hours, I spent nearly 24 of them streaming Wolfenstein games. I am very tired, which makes it slightly ironic when I say that the whole thing was an eye-opening experience for me. Much digital ink has been spilled over the blood, sweat, tears, and (sometimes) drugs that go into lengthy marathon…

Rocket League is coming to the Switch on November 14. Soon you’ll be able to play soccer-but-with-cars inside of a car (that may or may not be playing soccer). It’ll cost you $20.

How The UFC’s Best Fighter Thinks He’d Beat Batman, Thor, And Goku

It’s been a good year for Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. But could he beat Goku? Johnson cemented his claim to the title of best fighter in the world by turning in two flawless defenses of his flyweight title, breaking the record for most consecutive title defenses in the UFC, and pulling off one of the…

Surgeon Simulator Devs Say They’ll Cancel Next Game If It Doesn’t Get Enough Players During Free Week

Surgeon Simulator developer Bossa describes the upcoming free week for its new game, Decksplash, as a “first of its kind” experiment. If 100,000 people play it during that timespan, the studio says it will release the Splatoon-but-with-skateboards competitive game into Early Access. And if not? It gets the axe. One part high-stakes gamble, one part…

Overwatch Adding Features To Make Pro Matches More Watchable

“I tried watching a pro Overwatch tournament, but I couldn’t understand what was going on” is a refrain I’ve heard more times than I can count. I totally understand. Overwatch is a blur of lights, colors, and middle-aged men in cowboy costumes even in its chillest moments. Ahead of Overwatch League’s big kick-off, Blizzard’s finally…