Majority of Battlegrounds Cheats Are From China, PlayerUnknown Says [UPDATE]

Many PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds players blame the game’s cheating problem on China. They’re not wrong, says the popular battle royale game’s creator Brendan Greene. But there’s more to it than that. “Battleye have already tweeted out that I think around 99 percent of cheats in the game right now are coming out of China,” Greene told…

The World’s Top Tetris Player’s Secret To Success Is Learning To Embrace Chaos

Of the eight Classic Tetris World Championships that have ever been held, Jonas Neubauer has won seven. The 36-year-old Neubauer, a microbrewery manager from Redondo Beach outside LA, bought the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Tetris after seeing it on the front cover of Nintendo Power magazine in November 1990 when he was eight, and…

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp’s Gardening Is Cute, If You Have The Time

Gardening has come to Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp today, and with it more things to spend Leaf Tickets on. I never really got into planting flowers in the console versions of Animal Crossing. I’d always forget where I planted them, not water them, and then they’d wilt and die. Pocket Camp makes gardening easier. Instead…

Illness Cost This Woman A Job. Now She Streams Diablo II From A Farm

“My mom always likes to say that I was hatched,” Diablo 2 streamerAlara Shadelaughed. We were sitting in her streaming headquarters, a totem-filled temple to the 2001 dark fantasy role-playing game. The walls were decked with flaming skulls, glistening black swords and figurines of sub-human beasts. Outside her window, a dozen horses milled about, alongside…

The Year In Ships, 2017

In fandom, the rules of fiction don’t matter, or at least matter a lot less. This is what allows shipping to exist, where fans write fanfiction, draw fanart, and get enthusiastic by a couple that may never happen in the game’s canon. Fandoms for video games this year were enthusiastic and loud, and sometimes cropped…

The Switch Gets An Excellent 2D Zelda Clone Today

Nintendo has not yet released a two-dimensional Zelda game for the Switch, but Blossom Tales is as close as you’re gonna get. If you’re looking for a new action-adventure to scratch that Link to the Past itch, this one’s for you. Blossom Tales, which came out for Steam earlier this year but is now on…

The Biggest Video Game Disappointments Of 2017

This year, some things were unexpectedly good. But a lot of things sucked, too. Let’s put all those sucky things into a big list. As we do every year at Kotaku, it’s time to take a look back on the highs and lows of the last 12 months. Today, we’ll focus on the lows. (See:…

Virtual reality just lost another big exclusive. Ubisoft’s cross-platform starship simulator Star Trek Bridge Crew, one of my favorite games of the year, has been patched to be playable without VR. That’s great news for Star Trek fans without virtual reality headsets, not-so-great news for VR in general.

Eric’s Top 10 Games Of 2017

In 2017, I played a lot of games, but only 10 could make the cut for this blog. Culling the herd to just 10 was heartbreaking and required intense soul-searching. In no particular order, the best games I played in 2017: Battle Chef Brigade It’s exciting enough that a competitive cooking show game got made,…

Five Things That Are Still Broken In Battlegrounds Even After ‘Launch’

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is finally, officially released. After such a rich life in early access—a life haunted by glitches and server outages—I bet you’re wondering how Battlegrounds is holding up after its 1.0 debut. Well, Battlegrounds in 1.0 is still the glitchy, adrenaline-filled, totally random game that has seduced millions. I love this game as much…

Xavier Woods’ Most Successful Tag Team Effort Last Weekend Was At A Windjammers Tournament

Xavier Woods and his WWE tag team may have failed to regain the tag titles in the squared circle at last weekend’s Clash of Champions, but Woods fared much better a few days before in some 2-on-2 Windjammers competition. The superstar jumped into the Northeast Championship fighting game tournament and, with his trademark hype levels,…

Nintendo Power Comes Back In Podcast Form

Nintendo Power magazine ceased publishing at the end of 2012. It was a nostalgic time full of sad goodbyes and fond memories. Its last cover was even a call-back to the first issue, where Mario pounds his fist triumphantly into the air while standing on a mushroom. But today, on the five-year anniversary of its…

Breath Of The Wild iMessage Stickers Make Texting An Adventure

There is nothing you have to say that cannot be said with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s new animated iMessage stickers. Released today on iTunes for $1.99, the official Breath of the Wild sticker set features 24 animations to use in place of ponderous words while texting with your friends or loved…

Apple Says Apps Must Now Disclose Odds For Loot Boxes

Apple announced a sweeping revision to the guidelines for its App Store yesterday, which now includes a provision that loot boxes must be transparent about their odds. “Apps offering ‘loot boxes’ or other mechanisms that provide randomized virtual items for purchase must disclose the odds of receiving each type of item to customers prior to…

The Last Jedi’s Porgs Are Just Puffins, Which The Film Crew Couldn’t Get Rid Of

Everyone thought the Porgs, those cute lil’ animals from The Last Jedi, were basically space penguins. Turns out they’re actually space puffins, because Skellig Michael (aka Luke’s Island) is so covered with the birds that it was easier for the VFX team to just work with them than try and cut them out of the…

Bridge Constructor Portal Is Actually Pretty Good

When I heard that the next game to yank us back into Aperture Science’s bleached-white bowels would be about bridge building, I figured it’d be a skip for me. I just got done playing Bridge Constructor Portal for a few hours, though, and I couldn’t stop smiling. This collaboration between between Bridge Constructor developer ClockStone…

Designing Yennefer of Vengerberg

We’ve featured the work of CDPR’s Bartlomiej Gawel before, both individually and as part of our massive Witcher 3 special, but today we’ve got a more narrow focus: the origins of Yennefer of Vengerberg. Below you’ll see “a very messy, early” round of sketches and photobashingthat were part of the effort to nail down Yenn’s…

Cosplay Wishes You A Very Merry Christmas

The last major cosplay show for the year is Holiday Matsuri, aka Holmat, which takes place every December in Orlando, Florida. This year’s show was held between December 15-17 at Orlando World Center Marriott, and the resort location—coupled with Florida’s warmer weather—means it’s one of the only places in the US you can visit this…