Overwatch Players Want To Queue For Roles, Blizzard Says It’s Complicated

Imagine, for a moment, a world in which Overwatch allowed you to select a role—tank, support, DPS, etc—and hop into a match expressly for the purpose of playing that role. No more squabbling over who does what. Peace. Quiet. Serenity. People have asked, but Blizzard hasn’t delivered. Here’s why. During an interview with Jeff Kaplan…

Studio Ghibli Co-Founder Isao Takahata Dies At 82

Isao Takahata, co-founder of Studio Ghibli and director of such animated films as Grave of the Fireflies, passed away today in a Tokyo hospital at the age of 82, according to various Japanese news sources. Takahata’s distinguished career as a producer, director, and animator began in 1959 when he joined Toei Animation as an assistant.…

Geguri’s Overwatch League Debut Was A Beautiful Moment

When CrackerJess, the wife of my Overwatch buddy CrackerJack*, heard there were no women in the Overwatch League, she was livid. She’d never played a first-person shooter before, preferring Lindy Hop dancing to long computer sessions yelling over a microphone. She had no attachment to the scene, no serious gaming ambitions. What set her off,…

Far Cry Sniper Bullet Punches Through Entire Truck

Today on Highlight Reel we have tons of glitches, devil summoning, fantastic sniper shots, and much more! Watch the video then talk about your favorite highlight in the comments below. Be sure to check out, like, and share the original videos via the links below. Subscribe to Kotaku on YouTube for more! Catch up on…

Farmer Uses Stardew Valley As An Escape

Tim is a farmer in Northern California who spends a lot of time on tractors. Thanks to auto-steering, that means he also has plenty of time to check in on his other farm, the one on his Switch port of Stardew Valley Tim posted the picture of his setup to the Stardew Valley subreddit yesterday…

Mirror Is Equal Parts Match-3, Bizarre Porn Plots, And BDSM

Mirror has been out on Steam since November of last year and, in that time, has amassed over 6,000 reviews with an average of “Overwhelmingly Positive”—which gave me the distinct impression that, unlike many cheaply-made erotic games on Steam or any flavor of console you might prefer, Mirror might actually be good. NSFW Warning: This…

All The Items For Sale At The Overwatch League Gift Shop, Ranked [UPDATE]

Blizzard’s arena in Los Angeles, California is the real deal. And by that, I mean it has a gift shop, the surest marker of any worth-its-salt sporting enterprise. I have investigated the gift shop; here is a definitive ranking of the items for sale in it, from worst to best. [This post originally ran on…

Why I Play

In the first years of my career as a games writer, I got used to a certain reaction from my parents’ friends when they were told about what I was doing for a living. It was usually along the lines of “what a waste”. I imagined them shaking their heads as if they’d just been…

Women Earn Significantly Less Money Than Men At Rockstar North, Among Other Gaming Companies 

A number of gaming companies in the UK employ women in roles which, on average, pay less than the ones their male colleagues are in according to a new UK government database. At Grand Theft Auto makers Rockstar North, the gap is particularly large. At the studio based in Edinburgh, Scotland, the average hourly rate…

The Problems With Illegible Text In Video Games And Some Solutions To Fix Them

Joe Humfrey, art and code director at game development studio Inkle, believes that the primary goal in designing text for video games is “making sure every word is effortless to read.” It turns out that making sure players can read and understand on-screen text is a more complicated task than you might think. You might…

The Shanghai Dragons’ Signings Were Good, But Not Nearly Enough

Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon finally made her debut for the Shanghai Dragons last night, a huge deal—the first game ever for the first woman in America’s most prominent esports league yet. And like every other match they’ve played in the Overwatch League, the Dragons got trounced, this time by the Dallas Fuel. But there were some…

Fortnite‘s Map Is Annoying

After playing PUBG’s genuinely awesome new map earlier this week, I decided to embrace my battle royale fever and play some Fortnite as well. Relearning that game’s particular rhythm and playstyle has been fun but there’s one problem: I hate the in-game map. I consider myself a cautious battle royale player, at least in solos.…

Amazon Leaks Spyro Remastered Trilogy [UPDATE: Official]

A remastered Spyro trilogy is coming this September, we now know thanks to an early Amazon leak. It’s called Spyro: Reignited Trilogy, and publisher Activision will surely give it a proper announcement soon. UPDATE (11am): And now it’s official: September 21 for PS4 and Xbox One. Original article follows: First reported by our friends at…

Overwatch’s next in-game event is called Retribution. It’ll include a four-player PVE mission in which you play as Blackwatch, Overwatch’s rebel maverick squad, in Venice. The hero lineup will be Reaper, McCree, Moira, and Genji, but as with last year’s Uprising event, there’ll be an all-heroes mode as well. Retribution runs from April 10-30.