Slayaway Camp‘s Cute Pixels Hide Brutal Horror

I’ve slaughtered countless camp counselors in Friday the 13th. I ate truly disgusting stew in Resident Evil 7. But the most brutal game I’ve played so far this year is Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut, an isometric puzzle game released for PC and mobile in 2016 and recently released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Players…

Jeff Kaplan’s Favorite Overwatch Ships

It’s said that a new Overwatch fan fiction springs into existence once every 26 seconds. Most of them, unsurprisingly, are about ships like Pharah-Mercy (good) and Genji-Mercy (a travesty). Naturally, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan has opinions about it. During an interview at BlizzCon, I asked Kaplan about his favorite Overwatch ships. Thankfully, he fell on…

Overwatch Team Fires Manager After Woman Says He Sexually Assaulted Her (Update)

A woman said earlier this week that Max Bateman, former manager of the San Francisco Shock of the forthcoming Overwatch League, sexually assaulted her in September after a drink he gave her made her feel dizzy and confused, and later had her “in and out of consciousness.” Fourteen hours after the woman posted about what…

The Biggest Transformers Battle In Titans Return Next Week

The partnership between Hasbro and Machinima that gave us last year’s Transformers: Combiner Wars series bears new fruit next week, when Titans Returns brings some of the largest disguised robots in the toy box out to play. Debuting on November 14 in the U.S on Verizon’s go90 network (and Tumblr nearly everywhere else), Titans Return…

Wolfenstein Knows How To Throw A Party

I wish more video games would let their hair down like Wolfenstein: The New Colossus does. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD Like the first Wolfenstein reboot, New Colossus’ greatest strength isn’t its gunplay but its characters, who we grow to know and love over the course of the game. They make jokes, they act like assholes, they…

After World Of Warcraft Classic‘s Announcement, The People Behind Legacy Servers Cried From Joy

When Vaelanor heard the announcement of World of Warcraft Classic last Friday, he says he broke into tears. The veteran Warcraft player, whose real name we omitted because he helps run an unofficial legacy server, said he was so moved by news of an official vanilla version of Blizzard’s long-running multiplayer game, he couldn’t help…

Why Competitive Games Patch So Much

The Dueling Fates update hit Dota 2 last week after a long waiting period, bringing two new heroes, several new items, map changes, and new abilities and talents; in a week’s time, it’s already been updated, from 7.07 to 7.07b. Patches are nothing new in today’s landscape, but Dota 2 patches are particularly unique. While…

Destiny 2 Players: Maybe Don’t Pledge Dead Orbit Today

If you play Destiny 2, you have a choice in this week’s Faction Rally. You can pledge New Monarchy or Future War Cult. Or, if you really, really want to, you can pledge Dead Orbit. This week is Destiny 2‘s second Faction Rally, and the first one since the game came out on PC. That…

What Is The Plural Of Xbox One X? [Update]

Look, I’m not suggesting that many people are going to buy more than one Xbox One X console. But if you did… how would you say that? The question of how to pluralize “Xbox One X” came up today in Kotaku’s work Slack. I asked Microsoft PR for their official stance, though I haven’t yet…

Bury Me, My Love Tells A Moving Story With Text Messages

I don’t usually fall for interactive fiction or smartphone games, but Bury Me, My Love hooked me. This mobile game charts the journey of a young woman named Nour as she tries to escape the civil war in Syria by fleeing to Europe, told through text messages. Developed by French studio The Pixel Hunt, Bury…

Korean Esports Association Staffers Arrested In Embezzlement Investigation

Three employees of the Korean Esports Association (KeSPA), including a former assistant to chief executive Jun Byung-hun, have been arrested on suspicion of bribe-taking and money-laundering, according to Seoul-Yonhap News. KeSPA, an organization formed by the South Korean government in 2000, oversees the country’s esports industry, which includes some of the world’s best pro gaming…

Sims Will No Longer Weed Chess Tables, And Other Great Sims 4 Patch Notes

In anticipation of Friday’s Cats & Dogs expansion, The Sims 4 got a new patch today. Some of these fixed bugs are hilarious. This patch is a doozy. Not only does it add new Build and Buy options—including new roofs and being able to make objects smaller—it fixes a considerable amount of bugs. Some of…

Don’t Steal Kotaku’s Sonic Forces Original Character

Sonic Forces’s character creator helps bring your DeviantArt creations to life to create wolf dudes, bird gals, and bear pals. Staff writer Gita Jackson and I took this opportunity to create Kotaku’s official fursona. Please don’t steal. Set in a world where Doctor Robotnik (who I refuse to call Eggman) has conquered most of the…

The “complete edition” of Team Ninja’s excellent samurai action game Nioh is out today on PS4 and PC. I haven’t played enough on PC to determine the quality of the port. Seems okay, but not great. Read our PS4 review here, and find tips for playing the game here

Overwatch’s New Character Leads To A Surprising Ship

Overwatch has a new character, Moira O’Deorain, a support who’s a member of the antagonistic Talon organization. While some players wonder how this new character will shake up gameplay, other fans want to know who to ship her with. Moira is basically a mad scientist. A geneticist who discovered how to alter DNA at a…

I Love That Super Mario Odyssey Doesn’t Have A Timer

For the past week, I’ve been falling ever more deeply in love with Super Mario Odyssey. I like a lot of things about this game, but most of all, I like that there’s no timer. Super Mario Odyssey is widely considered the first “proper” 3D Mario game since Super Mario Galaxy 2 hit the Wii…

Fans Unhappy As Some Amazon Xbox One X Pre-Orders Miss Launch Day

Some frustrated Amazon customers are complaining that their Xbox One X pre-orders aren’t scheduled to arrive today, which is the launch day for the spanking new console. Fans rushed to pre-order the “world’s most powerful console” months ago so they’d be able to scale 4K pyramids in Assassin’s Creed Origins moments after getting home from…

In Post-Hurricane Puerto Rico, This Used Game Store Is A Welcome Escape

Returning to his classic video game shop Neo Japan Games in the weeks after Hurricane Maria, Jerry Robles thought business would be quiet. But he opened his doors just south of San Juan to find more customers than usual crowding around to look at old game cartridges and classic consoles. “The day we reopened at…

The follow-up to Defiant Development’s outstanding 2015 hybrid card RPG, Hand of Fate 2 is available today on the PlayStation 4, PC and Steam. The sequel adds enhanced real-time combat, dice rolling, companion characters, character creation and a ton of new and inventive encounters.