Overwatch‘s New CTF Map Is A Big Improvement

Last year, Overwatch got a capture-the-flag mode. It was a fun distraction from the usual payload-pushing antics, but the game wasn’t designed with CTF in mind, and it showed. Some heroes were overpowered, levels were stale, and stalemates abounded. As part of this week’s “Year of the Dog” event, Blizzard has revamped the mode, and…

Fortnite Continues To Crush It

Last weekend, the cartoonish battle royale game Fortnite hit 3.4 million concurrent users across all platforms. Before that, Chance the Rapper was begging Epic Games for a Switch port. And this week alone, we’ve gotten two hefty updates from the development team detailing new tweaks, item/weapon additions, and upcoming changes. All this hype and development…

Twitch’s New Policies Are Worrying Some Provocative Streamers

Yesterday, Twitch announced a series of new, more stringent policies around sexual content, harassment, and community behavior. Now streamers who’ve built their brands on pushing boundaries are worried that their channels might be on the chopping block. During a stream yesterday, popular streamer Sebastian “Forsen” Fors, whose community is notoriously rowdy and has had a…

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Won’t Be On The Capcom Pro Tour

Things just keep getting worse for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. Just days after the game was publicly snubbed by the Evolution Championship Series, Compete has learned that the latest installment of the storied Marvel vs. Capcom franchise won’t receive the same support as its sibling, Street Fighter V Capcom Pro Tour was established by the…

The Video Game Version Of A Haiku

I downloaded and played Indecision on a whim. The unassuming pixel art and straightforward presentation didn’t prepare me for all of the weird little platforming vignettes inside. It only took a few seconds for me to fall completely in love with it. Had I read the game’s Steam page I would have had a better…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for finding a way to watch the Olympics because winter Olympic sports are the best. It’s also for playing video games. It’s been a long week, and I could use some Witcher 3. I’ve also been meaning to check out Fortnite, which mostly turns into watching YouTube videos about how you play…

A Cool Murder Mystery Game With Hitchcock Vibes

A Case of Distrust is a point-and-click adventure game that looks like the title sequence of a Hitchcock movie. Made by developer The Wandering Ben, the game takes place in San Francisco at the height of Prohibition. You play as Detective Phyllis Cadence Malone, ex-cop turned private eye. After a bootlegger hires you to get…

Dragon Quest Builders: The Kotaku Review

Here is how I play Minecraft: Step one: find a tree. Step two: build a house. Step three: walk in one direction for five minutes. Step four: get bored, turn off the game. If only there was something like Minecraft, but with tangible goals. And if only it was also… a JRPG? Dragon Quest Builders,…

New Steam Sci-Fi Game Is A Strugglevania

Planetoid Pioneers is a massive 2D side-view physics playground with vehicles, weapons, crafting, and exploration. The plot is wacky: in the future, humans live pretty much forever, so when a person gets to be about 200 years old they head out to explore the galaxy and build bases on planetoids in space. The game was…

GTA Online Players Use Missile Launcher To Break Physics

The Chernobog is a mobile missile launcher added recently to GTA Online that can destroy helicopters and planes from afar. But this military vehicle has another, more popular purpose: breaking the physics in GTA Online by launching people, cars, and planes sky-high. Almost immediately after it was added into the game, players discovered different ways…

Mobile MOBA Vainglory Upgrades To 5V5 Next Week

Back in 2014, Super Evil Megacorp launched Vainglory, a mobile multiplayer online battle arena game featuring streamlined three-on-three battles on a simple one lane map. On February 13 the game updates to Vainglory 5V5, bringing it closer to both its PC cousins and its main competitor,Tencent’sArena of Valor. Super Evil Megacorp is calling Vainglory 5v5 “no…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: My Boyfriend’s Pregnancy Kink Turns Me Off

Hello all you sexy munchkins of the Intertubes, and welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating advice column to help you critical path your way through Valentine’s Day. This week, it’s all about the sexy times, because few things cause us to freak out more than when we get freaky. How do you find…

Gwent‘s Latest Patch Makes Ciri Less Powerful

A princess who’s also a witcher, Ciri is far and away one of the best characters in The Witcher 3. She’s pretty great in Gwent as well. In fact, she’s recently become so popular that CD Projekt Red has decided to nerf her in the game’s latest update There are currently three different Ciri cards…

The Cloverfield Paradox Is Trash, But We Love It Anyway

On Super Bowl day, I wasn’t all that interested in the outcome of the football game. I was excited for something else—the rumor that a new Cloverfield movie was going to drop that same night. 10 Cloverfield Lane was fantastic, I thought, so maybe this will be too. I’m totally going to stay up and…

How Far Can Rick Fox And The Yankees Take Esports?

Turn your TV dial to the Yankees’ YES network next Wednesday, and instead of finding a documentary about Mickey Mantle or a replay of the 1998 World Series, you might end up watching a match of H1Z1 or League of Legends. It’s not just an offseason thing, either—the New York Yankees, baseball’s most storied franchise,…

Shadow Of The Colossus Players Solve The Remake’s Big Mystery

Since Shadow of the Colossus’ remake released, intrepid treasure hunters have been locating new collectable coins throughout the world. No one knew what the coins did, but a hint within the game’s credits led players to search for a total of 79 well-hidden coins. The final coins were discovered last night, unlocking a hidden area…

The Mission That Proved Titanfall 2 Was Something Special

A few hours into Titanfall 2’s unexpectedly fantastic single-player campaign, there’s a mission where everything pivots. The rules change, the story expands, and the game shifts into high gear. That mission is called “Effects and Cause,” and it is really good. This piece originally appeared on November 9, 2016. “Effects and Cause” is the fifth…

Two weeks after release Dragon Ball FighterZ’ online still isn’t working reliably. Players complain of disconnects, matchmaking issues and problems connecting with friends. Bandai Namco says the devs are focused on improving online play. Thank goodness. I’d hate to think they’d given up and wandered off.