Overwatch World Cup Comes Down To A Fight Over Meters

The 2017 Overwatch World Cup finals saw reigning champions South Korea take on Canada, the mighty titan versus the underdog. There were cheers, excitement, and one very polite signholder in the crowd. South Korea’s upcoming Overwatch League team is called the Seoul Dynasty for a reason: the region’s dominance in many esports also extends to…

Just Because Nintendo Didn’t Give The Switch A D-Pad Doesn’t Mean Others Aren’t Trying

Nintendo launched the Switch on March 3 of this year. The system was surprisingly well received. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was amazing, plus it was portable, and the Switch has been gaining momentum ever since. There’s just one problem: it doesn’t have a d-pad. The Switch is the first Nintendo console…

Meet BlizzCon’s Dancing Reaper

When I arrived at BlizzCon today, I saw a Reaper dancing all by himself. I walked up and asked him why he was dancing. He paused for a moment, shrugged, and then resumed dancing. Here’s a video of him dancing:

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Trick Or Treat, Winners!

Halloween 2017. It was good times. Except for those people in The Last of Us 2 trailer. With the number of trick-or-treaters who visited my house barely in the double digits, I’ve been forced to slowly eat all the remaining candy myself. It’s a tough life. There are only so many baby Three Musketeers (how…

A Closer Look At Scrapped Overwatch Hero Jetpack Cat

Here is concept art of legendary scrapped Overwatch hero, Jetpack Cat. During a BlizzCon panel about Overwatch’s formative days, game director Jeff Kaplan and art director Arnold Tsang talked more about his origins, saying that they were trying to figure out how far was too far with regards to character designs. “We tried a robot…

Overwatch‘s New Hero Moira Is A Blast To Play, But Comes With A Learning Curve

In some ways, Overwatch’s new hero, Moira, announced yesterday at BlizzCon, feels like a stronger take on the basic premise underlying sniper grandma Ana: she’s a healer for people who hate playing healers. I’ve gotten to play a few matches as Moira (first name: “Mines Of”) during BlizzCon, and I’ve been having a blast. Two…

A Look At Some Of The Upcoming Hearthstone Expansion’s Wilder Cards

Blizzard has revealed some new cards from the upcoming Kobolds and Catacombs expansion at BlizzCon, and they’re already looking pretty silly. While more will certainly trickle out over the coming days and weeks leading up to next month’s release, it’s fun to theorycraft how these could be used, even if they really have no practical…

Heather found a PS3 copy of the magical murder mystery Deadly Premonition and is playing it right now on Twitch. She’ll be streaming most of the day; you’ll come and say hello, right Zach?

Early Impressions Of Hanzo And Alexstrasza’s Heroes Of The Storm Debut

Two new heroes will join the Heroes of the Storm roster: Alexstrasza from World of Warcraft and Hanzo from Overwatch. They’re coming to Heroes of the Storm in the coming weeks, and both characters made their debut on the show floor at Blizzcon 2017. Hanzo didn’t feel hard to pick up and understand, so the…

League of Legends World Finals Had A Freaking Dragon

Last night was the final clash of the 2017 League of Legends World Championships, a climactic rematch between Samsung Galaxy and SKT T1. Before the games started, Riot Games put on a massive opening ceremony including a giant trophy, a live performance of Worlds theme “Legends Never Die,” and a freaking dragon. During the ceremony,…

Wolfenstein 2 Player Finds Creative Way To Beat Impossible Training Course Record

Wolfenstein 2‘s base, the U-boat Eva’s Hammer, features an obstacle course known as the ‘kill house’ where BJ and pals can compete for the top score. The top time for the kill house seems to be permanently held by Set Roth’s cat/monkey hybrid, but one player found a clever way to get first place. Mild…

The Weekend In Esports: BlizzCon, Tekken, And More

The top pros in all of Blizzard’s competitive games will face-off today in a bevy of tournaments. Plus if you’re in the U.S. it’s the end of daylight savings. Yay! Worlds 2017 has come and gone leaving the former champions in second place after Samsung Galaxy proved they wouldn’t settle for a repeat of last…

SteamWorld Dig 2 Borrowed From Classic American Westerns

SteamWorld Dig 2 takes place in a colorful world inspired by Western movies. “Is there such a thing as something too western-y?” Image & Form CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson wondered to me over email. If you look at the game, apparently not. The first SteamWorld Dig was not-so-subtly modeled after some of Clint Eastwood’s classic starring…

Crunchyroll Website Currently Down Following Malware Attacks [Update]

Users who attempted to use the anime streaming service Crunchyroll earlier today were greeted by an attempt by the site to download malware. Everyone is currently encouraged to stay away from the site until the problem is fixed. [Update 1 – 1:30PM] The Crunchyroll website is now back up and running, along with the app,…

This Week In The Business: Packing It Up

QUOTE | “Perfect World as a public company has a profitability goal and they decided to cut parts of the company that were not profitable. In short, Gigantic was not making enough revenue.” – Motiga founder and CEO Chris Chung says the closure of his studio was a corporate decision QUOTE | “It’s bittersweet at…

Blizzard Adding More Special Skins To Regular Overwatch Loot Boxes

Today during the Overwatch “What’s Next” panel at BlizzCon, Blizzard announced that from now on, it’ll add more event-style skins to regular, non-event loot boxes. For the past year, the majority of new skins have only been available during timed events, after which they went back into a vault inside Jeff Kaplan’s terror palace. During…

This Week’s Giza Pyramid Discovery Was Already Built Into Assassin’s Creed Origins

Earlier this week, news broke that scientists had discovered a previously undetected open space in Egypt’s 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza. The new Egypt-set adventure game Assassin’s Creed Origins actually won’t need an update adding the chamber, because as the game’s creators explained to me, they already thought to put one in. In Origins, you…