U.S. Senator Asks ESRB To Re-Examine Loot Boxes

Yesterday, Senator Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat, sent an open letter to the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) urging it “to review the completeness of the board’s ratings process and policies as they relate to loot boxes, and to take into account the potential harm these types of micro-transactions may have on children.” This…

Kingdom Come: Deliverance‘s Xbox Patches Are A Mess [UPDATE]

Due to a confusing and opaque updating process, Xbox One players are still trying to figure out how their version of Kingdom Come: Deliverance compares to the one on PS4 and PC. Mixed messages from developer Warhorse Studios don’t seem to be helping. The newly released game made waves earlier this week due to an…

Cosplay From A Con That’s Just For Final Fantasy Fans

Most cons are for all kinds of fans of all kinds of stuff, but not KupoCon: it’s a festival for fans of Final Fantasy, put on by fans of Final Fantasy The idea behind the show is that it travels around the world, both in the US and Canada but also in the UK. The…

Big Layoffs Hit Mafia III Developer Hangar 13

Mafia III developer Hangar 13 laid off a significant number of staff today, in yet another example of the video game industry’s brutal churn. Publisher 2K confirmed the move when reached by Kotaku this afternoon. “2K can confirm that there have been staff reductions at Hangar 13 in order to ensure that the studio’s resources…

Revisiting Dead Space’s Perplexing Final Boss Fight

Dead Space brims with apprehension and panic—its tight spaceship corridors provide little place to run as monsters challenge the player to adapt quickly or get torn to shreds. The game’s final boss, a giant zombie slug, throws all of that out. Dead Space’s final boss fight is a loud, bombastic battle that clashes with the…

Zelda Fan Breaks Down BOTW’s Most Overpowered Move

Ever heard of Breath of the Wild’s “bow spin”? It’s an advanced technique that helps Link terrorize his enemies, perhaps in ways that Nintendo never intended. Here’s how you do it. The bow spin entered the general public consciousness with RinHara5aki’s phenomenal Zelda video “27 obscure combat secrets and tricks,” which he uploaded at the…

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Belongs To The Fighting Game Community Now

Last week, the Evolution Championship Series announced the main lineup for its 2018 event won’t include Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite; I was able to confirm just a few days later that the game will also be left off this year’s Capcom Pro Tour. These developments have left Marvel vs. Capcom on life support and its…

Modder Makes $6,000 A Month Adding Drugs To The Sims 4

In The Sims 4, you can become an astronaut, make friends with ghosts or turn into a vampire. One thing you can’t do is smoke weed, which is why one player has spent months working on a mod to bring that and other drugs to the game. He’s earning thousands of dollars in donations for…

Monument Valley Designer’s New Game Shows What Digital Comics Could Be

Florence, out this week for iOS, bills itself as an “interactive story” about a young woman’s first love. I’ve never played anything like it. Florence is a tale made for the smart phone age. You aren’t just reading the story, you’re swiping to move through the scene, you’re interacting with objects, you’re customizing elements as…

Who ever said video games don’t teach you anything? With Night Shift, Schell Games and Dr. Deepika Mohan are changing the way doctors learn in critical situations.

Man Says Switch Helped Him Find A Tumor In His Hand

Thanks to the Nintendo Switch, a man was able to detect a tumor in his hand. Chris is a 28-year old programmer living in Sydney, Australia. He was planning on getting a Switch as soon as it was announced: He’s owned every Nintendo console since the Wii, and seeing footage of Breath of the Wild…

Paintball Game Brings Out Your Inner Artist

Joy Exhibition is a freeform art game in which the player must communicate with a mute alien race by painting. They are given a blank canvas, a massive arsenal of procedurally generated paint guns, and free rein to create whatever art they can think of. Created by game developer Strangethink, Joy Exhibition is a celebration…

McFarlane Toys is teaming up with Activision to create a series of Call of Duty action figures. Due out this fall, the series features fully-articulated six-inch recreations of some of the series’ most recognizable heroes. Like these two. Ah man, these two. The times we had.

Nintendo’s stingy video restrictions recently kept us from showing you some of the cool things we got to do with their new Labo games, but now you can see what we played—and more—in some nice hype videos. The Robot Kit still seems thin; the Variety Kit looks very fun. Highlight: Motorbike course-maker stuff at 4:15…

The Secret Of Mana Remake Makes A Great Game Worse

When Secret of Mana came out in 1993, it was rightfully praised as one of the Super Nintendo’s best action games thanks to a lovely soundtrack, beautiful spritework, and fun hack-n-slash gameplay. The 2018 remake has ruined all three of these things. I’ve played a couple of hours of the PlayStation 4 version of this…

Nothing Says Phantasy Star Online 2 Like Dry Scalp Shampoo

Phantasy Star Online 2 is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Scalp D is a massively scalp cleansing shampoo. And soon, PS02 players can dress up their characters in Scalp D themed get-ups and have them wash their hair, because nobody wants dry scalp, not even in the virtual world. In Japan, a limited edition…