What It Was Like To Play D&D For The First Time

I recently played Dungeons & Dragons for the first time ever, and it sure was fun. We talk about that and much more on this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen First, Kirk and I talk about cults and audio tricks (clearly it’s Laurel), then get into the news of the week on Boss Key shutting down, a…

Sunday Comics: Don’t Touch That Dial

Hello! It’s time for Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published May 14. Read more of Awkward Zombie Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published May 17. Read more of Corpse Run Double XP by…

Overwatch‘s New Map Is A Brawl In A Hidden City

At halftime in today’s match between the Philadelphia Fusion and Florida Mayhem, the Overwatch developers showed off their new map, called Petra, that will go live in the game on May 22 during the Overwatch Anniversary event. In the short gameplay trailer that we saw between Overwatch League matches, it appears that Petra is part…

It’s the third anniversary of the release of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. The game remains one of the most interesting and engaging games around, and it only got better with the release of two expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. Here’s to more years of appreciating Geralt & Co.

Blighttown Apparently Runs At 60 FPS In Dark Souls Remastered

Digital Foundry have created a comparison video for Dark Souls Remastered that demonstrates that, at least on the PS4 and PS4 Pro, Blighttown runs at a smooth 60 fps. Blighttown is a notorious part of the original Dark Souls experience. It’s a massive swamp reached via rickety scaffolding and weird elevators. There are dozens of…

Concept For Las Vegas Sphere Sure Does Look Like A Blitzball Arena

The Madison Square Garden Company will break ground this summer in Las Vegas, according to officials (via AP), to build a massive sphere with projection and lights that sure does look like a damn blitzball arena from Final Fantasy X. The 170,000-square-foot LED screen that wraps around the interior bowl of the sphere can project…

Ravnica Got Me Into Magic, And Now We’re Going Back

Magic: The Gathering is a card game, but the storytelling and worldbuilding that goes into informing those cards is basically unmatched across the world of games. They announced this week that the game is going back to the world of Ravnica, and it took me down a nostalgia hole. Each plane of Magic (think “world”)…

Turret Will Not Be Denied Its Shot In Pro League of Legends Match

In today’s semifinals between the Flash Wolves and Kingzone, Su “Hanabi” Chia-Hsiang was pushing up to the bottom lane turret when he decided to take his leave for a scrap in the middle area of the map. The turret, scorned but undeterred, shot a parting blast at Hanabi that would eventually be his undoing. Some…

‘Shop Contest: Put It On The Switch, Winners!

The wide world of Switch ports got me excited for new things on the platform, so I asked our excellent community image editors to come up with even better ports. I now need all of these to exist. The Switch is the console with infinite possibilities. Those two little controllers and their big screen friend…

Go1 Summons The Dragon In Dragon Ball FighterZ Match

The titular Dragon Balls don’t see a lot of actual use in competitive Dragon Ball FighterZ, as the conditions to gather them all and summon the wish-granting dragon aren’t always conducive to a player’s game plan. So when the opportunity to bring out Shenron in a match presents itself, you can bet a player like…

The Weekend In Esports: Midseason Finale

The 2018 Midseason Invitational comes to a close this weekend, marking about the halfway point in the competitive League of Legends season. While Korea’s Kingzone takes on China’s Royal Never Give Up, the rest of the weekend will be packed with a variety of events as well. There are a ton of fighting game events,…

This Week In The Business: Fewer, Bigger, Better, Later

QUOTE | “What we see now is we can launch games whenever we are ready and whenever we want, just because there’s a good appetite for new products on the market thanks to the fact that there are less big games coming to the industry. That gives us the possibility to choose when to launch,…

The Xbox Has Quietly Gotten Some Cool Features

This week, Microsoft revealed the Xbox Adaptive Controller, a new peripheral to help make gaming more accessible. It includes two large, programmable buttons and works in conjunction with a mix of joysticks and other devices like the Quadstick, a controller designed specifically for people living with different forms of paralysis. It’s just the latest in…

A Frighteningly Accurate Analysis Of Mario Kart‘s Politics

Wario is a libertarian. Bowser is a fascist. We know this about them, in our hearts, but no one has ever sat down and categorized the political leanings of the Mushroom Kingdom’s best-known residents. Art House Politics has put together a video demarcating the political leanings of each of the characters in Mario Kart 8,…

Valve’s Inconsistent Rules On Sexy Steam Games Continue To Baffle Devs [UPDATE]

Developers of games with sexual content are saying that Steam is threatening to remove their games, and they don’t know why. Update, 5/19, 7:52pm—MangaGamer, Huniepot and Lupiesoft have tweeted that they’ve received emails from Valve saying that their games are being re-reviewed for content and they will be informed if there are any specific concerns,…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for trying to figure out what to do with the kale I bought to make kale smoothies with before learning that kale smoothies are disgusting. Also, video games. I’ve had a looong week, and the only cure for it is some good old Witcher 3. There are still some question marks left…

Racist Twitch Trolls Defeated By Talking Banana

Mike Nichols just wanted to make a talking banana. A self-described inventor of “useless” things, his original goal was to create an interactive robot for his Twitch viewers to play with. Whatever they typed into chat, the banana would say—while dancing! Then the trolls showed up. Content warning: this article contains references to the n-word.…

Smash Players Plead With Each Other To Please, For The Love Of God, Stop Smelling So Bad

At Jason “RustyTrombone” Husisian’s first Super Smash Bros. tournament at a hotel in Easton, Pennsylvania, he was focused on out-maneuvering his opponent when a nearby attendee’s smell filled his nostrils. “I get a whiff and I legit start coughing,” Husisian recalled. “It smelled like he worked in a crematorium.” His voice getting louder, Husisian continued:…

Nobody Is Saying How Many People Call of Duty‘s Battle Royale Will Support

When the makers of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 announced yesterday that the upcoming game will come with its very own battle royale mode, Blackout, they refrained from answering one big question: How many people will it support? The answer, it appears, is that developer Treyarch just doesn’t know yet. Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds…