Overwatch Director Says The Game’s Loot Boxes Are ‘Good,’ Not ‘Evil’

“I think on the big spectrum of loot boxes, between ‘really good’ and ‘really evil,’ I’d like to think we’re more on that ‘really good’ side with what we’re trying to do,” says Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan. As part of an interview at BlizzCon last weekend, I asked Kaplan about his response to the…

Overwatch Star Posts Smug Video About Being Mature, Has His Horny DMs Leaked One Day Later

In the past 48 hours, Brian “Kephrii” St. Pierre has gone from making a smug video about how other Overwatch pros are “rude” and should try being “a better person,” to becoming the center of a truly bonkers scandal in which he admitted to cheating on his wife with multiple female fans. In a statement…

Total War: Rome 2 Dug Up From Its Grave For A New Expansion

Rome 2 was a dull, sprawling mess of a game, easily the weakest release in the Total War series in the past decade. The Warhammer games that followed have improved on it in almost every way imaginable, so Creative Assembly are going back in time (with some lessons learned) to try and get Rome 2…

Wolfenstein‘s DLC Is Off To A Great Start

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus’s first round of downloadable content has unlocked. The Freedom Chronicles: Episode Zero blend pulp sensibilities with strong levels design to create a fun package that shows a lot of promise. The Freedom Chronicles follows three heroes as they fight to restore order in the Nazi-controlled future, framing itself as a…

Soon, There Will Be A Harry Potter Version Of Pokemon Go

There are two major franchises that every ‘90s kid desperately wished were real: Pokemon and Harry Potter. Over a year after publisher Niantic tried to make Pokemon real with the augmented reality mobile game Pokemon Go, they’re continuing their takeover of the nostalgia market with Harry Potter: Wizards Unite Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, co-developed by…

Mario Fans Are Way Too Sensitive About Spoilers

If something is special to you, you want to be able to experience it in the purest way possible, momentarily free from everyday concerns and responsibilities, and most of all from the constant, uninterrupted din of the internet. But there’s getting to experience a game fresh and then there’s what Mario fans have been doing…

The Sims Finally Has Great Curly Hair

I have been waiting with bated breath for The Sims 4’s Cats & Dogs expansion since it was announced in September. I didn’t realize that it would give me something else I’ve been waiting for: curly hair. If I’m making a sim that’s black, I usually have to compromise on their hair. If I’m loading…

Grizzlies Hire Writer To Blog And Also Do Some Opaque Esports Stuff

Lang Whitaker, a fun and good NBA writer, announced yesterday that he is going to work for the Memphis Grizzlies. The announcement post contains more than its fair share of Players’ Tribune-ese: I had the chance to talk with a bunch of the world’s leading content providers […] So I started looking at it as…

Video Game Publishers Have Come Up With Fun New Ways To Say ‘Microtransaction’

What do you call it when a video game is full of items or services that you can buy with real money? Is it “games as a service”? “Recurrent consumer spending opportunities”? Or maybe PRI (Player Recurring Investment)? Yesterday, publishers Ubisoft and Take-Two held quarterly financial earnings calls, which gives us a good opportunity to…

Unreal Tournament’s ‘Facing Worlds’ Is Still The Best Multiplayer Map

Above us, the moon. Beneath us, the Earth. In front of us, a massive, three-story tower. Overlapping bleeps and bloops accentuate the eerie calm. We’re blasting off into orbit, and you might know where we’re headed. Never before, nor since, has Capture the Flag been so much fun. This article was originally published on November…

People Are Creating Nightmares With The Sonic Forces Character Creator

Some of the original characters people are making with Sonic Forces’s character creator are downright adorable. Others are using it to shitpost. Guess which one this post is about. Yesterday, Heather Alexandra and I made a Sonic Forces original character for Kotaku (do not steal). We opted to go the cute route and gave her…

Coming to iOS and Android later this fall, the chibi mobile version of Final Fantasy XV will cost between $20 and $30. The game’s split into 10 episodes. First one’s free, second and third are $.99 and the rest are $3.99 apiece. Or just buy the whole bundle for $19.99.

There Wasn’t Much To Celebrate On This Year’s Mass Effect Day

November 7 marks two important milestones for Mass Effect. It falls in the same month as the first release of Bioware’s sci-fi role-playing game series, which came out on November 20, 2007, giving fans a good excuse to celebrate its anniversary. And, more importantly, it can be contracted as N7, an alphanumeric designation belonging to…

The People Who Cosplay As Star Wars Vehicles

Why only cosplay as Star Wars characters when you can also cosplay with or as Star Wars vehicles? That’s exactly what these folks do. AT-AT Death Star* *Whether or not the Death Star is a vehicle is up for debate! AT-ST Imperial Star Destroyer Millennium Falcon  Sandcrawler Snowspeeder TIE Fighter X-Wing D’aw.

The Most Amazing Train Game To Hit Japanese Arcades This Year

Japan makes amazing train simulators. Densha de Go!, released in Japanese arcades this week, is no exception. The game was announced last year, and it’s packaged in a train-like cabinet. Inside, there are realistic controls, a touch screen and multiple monitors. It’s a simulator, so the point is to conduct the train from one station…

Japan Is Getting Yet Another Cool Starbucks

Does Japan have a monopoly on cool Starbucks? It can seem that way. Later this year, the country is getting yet another neat-looking one. But first, let’s review! Fukuoka already has this cool one. A very nice Starbucks in Hirosaki. And check out this Starbucks in Hiroshima.  And in Kamakura. A Starbucks in a historic…