Culture

Twitch’s New ‘Safety Advisory Council’ To Focus On Work-Life Balance, Protecting Marginalized Groups

Today Twitch announced the formation of a “safety advisory council” meant to more formally tackle some of the platform’s most complicated issues, including moderation, work-life balance, and safeguarding the interests of marginalized communities. In a press release, Twitch said the council will advise on “a number of topics” which include “drafting new policies and policy…

Halo Devs Reveal How Much Work Goes Into Fixing One Bug

Halo 2 Anniversary Edition was released on Steam on Tuesday, and within a few hours players were finding some bugs. One bug has rockets, grenades and other projectiles teleporting through the map, killing teammates in the process. While the bug hasn’t been squashed yet, 343 Industries has shed some light on the 24 hours that…

Paradox Interactive has announced today that Crusader Kings III will be released on September 1, 2020. A new story trailer for the game was also released today. The highly anticipated game is the follow up to Crusader Kings II, released in 2012.

Fallout 76’s Content Roadmap Just Changed A Lot

Bethesda laid out its plans for the future of Fallout 76 in a new roadmap today, shifting the game to a seasonal model with new storylines and battle passes coming every few months. They’re also promising the arrival of the military order the Brotherhood of Steel. Bethesda’s new approach will bring an account-wide progression system…

You Can Play A New Dance Dance Revolution In Your Browser Right Now

It’s once again time to become a combo king. Overnight, Konami released an alpha version of its upcoming browser-based Dance Dance Revolution V on PC. The company just…tweeted it out Currently free, the demo includes 15 songs you can play on a range of difficulties, from beginner up to expert. I’m not familiar with any…

How’s It Going?: Even More Books Edition

Good morning! I ate pie for breakfast. Welcome back to our daily open thread. One of my first entries in this series was about books you were reading. I am ashamed to say that, months into the pandemic, my books list has only grown. I’ve found it really hard to concentrate on reading (as well…

Nintendo Reveals Paper Mario: The Origami King, Coming To Switch In July

Nintendo announced a new Paper Mario game coming to Switch July 17 called Paper Mario: The Origami King. It’ll be the sixth game in the series and the first on the new console. Here’s a trailer, complete with a Metroid easter egg at the end: The story looks like it’ll revolve around trying to liberate…

Grand Theft Auto V Is Going To Be Free On PC [Update: Epic Game Store Was Down But It’s Working Again]

If you somehow don’t already own Grand Theft Auto V you’ll soon be able to get it for free on PC through the Epic Games Store. According to a now deleted tweet, GTA V will be the digital storefront’s latest free game, available to download and keep starting sometime soon until May 21. The Epic…

Track: Connection | Artist: Elastica | Album: Elastica 

First Details About Evo’s Online Fighting Game Tournament

As Kotaku previously reported, this year’s in-person Evo in Las Vegas, Nevada has been canceled. In its place, an online version will be held over the course of five weekends. The original, official line-up doesn’t appear to make the jump to the online tournament: both Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 do…

Walking Alone. Drivenik, Croatia. By Eduard Tucaković | Instagram

Hey, Batou

Sergey Samarskiy is an artist and illustrator at Gameloft. You can see more of Sergey’s stuff at his ArtStation page

PUBG Adds Bots On PC, Folks Are Not Happy

The latest update to PUBG on PCintroduces a “ranked mode”, where “players can finally test their skills against the best players in the world”. As part of that same update, though, every mode that’s not ranked is about to get bots taking up spots on the battlefield. That’s a deeply unpopular move. You can tell…

No One Wanted To Grind The Latest Destiny 2 Questline So Bungie Made It Easier

Bungie announced today that it’s changing Destiny 2’s new community quest for the Felwinter’s Lie shotgun to make it less of a chore. “We have made adjustments to ‘The Lie’ Quest and Seraph Tower Difficulty,” the studio wrote on Twitter. “Champions have reduced power level and event progression has been slightly tuned.” In addition, Bungie…

I Despise Joy Con Drift, But I’m Learning To Live With It

Back when this era of social distancing began two months and also an incalculable number of years ago, I was playing Dragon Quest XI on my Switch. I noticed that, every once in a while, my character would take a few steps forward or turn slightly of his own accord. I’d read the horror stories,…

Borderlands 3 Is Making Revives Less Annoying

I don’t know about you, but I die a lot in Borderlands 3, especially in higher difficulty levels. That’s why I’m happy to see that the looter shooter’s next update will include some neat quality-of-life adjustments for the revival mechanic. When an enemy takes you out in Borderlands, there are a couple methods to get…

Forget Murder Hornets, My Animal Crossing Island Is Drowning In Self-Inflicted Flowers

All I wanted was to try growing some of the neat hybrid flowers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Little did I know that my handfuls of seeds would blossom into a garden of madness. Animal Crossing looks cute and simplistic on the surface, only to reveal more complex systems as you continue playing. The best…

Titans Won Destiny 2’s Guardian Games And All They Got Was This Tiny Statue

When I logged onto Destiny 2 yesterday and arrived at the Tower I expected to immediately see some sign of who had won the game’s multi-week Guardian Games. Maybe a giant statue in the middle, where the podium for the contest had previously been. Maybe some new banners hanging from the walls. Nope. Indeed it…

Fortnite Will Be On Xbox Series X and PS5 At Launch

Epic Games confirmed today that its massively popular battle royale Fortnite will be available to play on next-gen consoles as soon as they are out. It won’t be a new version of Fortnite. Instead it will be the one that currently exists, built in Unreal Engine 4, just running on new hardware. “While we can’t…

Epic Unveils A Graphics Demo ‘Running On PS5’

Epic Games gave us our first look at what games running on PS5 could look like during today’s Summer Game Fest livestream with an Unreal Engine demo running on Sony’s next-gen console. Called “Lumen in the Land of Nanite,” the demo isn’t part of any game that’s intended for release according to the Washington Post,…