Two Commentators Fall For Oldest Donation Prank In The Book

Like Moe Szyslak from The Simpsons, two commentators at this weekend’s Smash The Record bit down hard on some wordplay bait from donors. Phil “EE” Visu and Daniel “DC” Coke were on desk duty last night for Smash The Record, a multi-game charity event raising funds for St. Jude Play Live. Much like Games Done…

Street Fighter Pro Goes Looking For An Energy Drink Mid-Match To Keep Corporate Overlords Happy 

Daigo “The Beast” Umehara is a legendary Street Fighter player, but even legends need to eat, which is why the pro dropped everything in the middle of a match to find a can of Red Bull. Red Bull is one of his sponsors. And since those in the fighting game community don’t get rich off…

Battleborn’s Creative Director Says Fall Update Will Be Its Last

Gearbox Software’s Battleborn shifts into the twilight years of its lifespan, as the developer announced today that there is no planned content after the upcoming fall update. Creative director Randy Varnell wrote in a letter today that many folks, himself included, are moving on to a “highly anticipated” unannounced project at Gearbox. Meanwhile, the last…

New Mod Lets Mario Go Shirtless In Smash 4

“Shirtless Mario!” is a skin mod that lets the Italian fighter trade his iconic overalls for swim trunks. Super Smash Bros. on the Wii U already has alternate costumes for some characters along these lines, including Xenoblade’s Shulk, so the shirtless mod would have seemed like a natural fit for the game long before the…

Sunday Comics: Flavor Of The Month 

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics that usually occurs on Sunday except when it doesn’t. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published September 17. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published September 11. Read more…

Looking Back At Some Of The Weirder Limited Edition Consoles 

In 2017 most video game consoles look pretty similar: black boxes of varying size aimed at being as discrete as possible. The brands who manufacture and distribute them also have more clout and prestige of their own. So it’s weird to think that in the late 90s Nintendo thought it was important to use Tommy…

The Iris Cutscene From Mega Man X4 Is Somehow Even Better When It’s Skipping 

Speedrunner Calebhart42 was playing Mega Man X4 at the 2017 Smash The Record event when he got to one of the game’s more infamous cutscenes and it started to skip. Like at Awesome Games Done Quick, Smash The Record runs have donation thresholds that unlock special audience requests when met (the money raised is for…

New Hearthstone Strategy Relies On Running Out The Clock

Not many know this, but Hearthstone matches are programmed to end in a draw after 90 turns, which typically amounts to about two hours of gameplay. Since each player takes increasing “fatigue” damage after running out of cards, no deck has ever had the resources to last that long. As a result, tournament organizers haven’t…

Cha La Head Cha La! We’re taking a break from LA Noire to stream some Dragon Ball Fighterz live on Twitch.

Dragon Ball FighterZ Gets An Original Character Named Android 21

Revealed in the latest issue of the Japanese magazine V-Jump, the new character was designed by series creator Akira Toriyama and will take part in the game’s alternate timeline story based around the gentle Mohawk giant we all know as Android 16. According to Siliconera she’s a scientist with an intellect that rivals Dr. Gero,…

If Something Happens, There Will Probably Be A Review Bomb On Steam

Every week, there’s a new headline about jerks who inundate Steam pages with angry reviews. Sometimes, the protests aren’t even about the game at all, but rather a larger controversy involving a developer or publisher. How did this become the now normal? In the latest episode of Fave This, a new podcast hosted by Gita…

The Weekend In Esports: Counter-Strike Descends on Barclays

In an otherwise quieter weekend, four elite CS:GO teams will be lighting up the Barclays Center for ESL One New York. The big story so far is that both Cloud9 and Team Liquid managed to eek out spots in the semifinals despite the best efforts of European powerhouses Astralis and Na’Vi. That the unlikely triumphs…

We’re finishing our playthrough of L.A. Noire right now on Twitch “Either I finish it or it finishes me,” Staff Reporter Heather Alexandra said.

Battlegrounds Continues To Break Records On Steam

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds continues to dominate Steam, dethroning Valve’s Dota 2 for highest concurrent player count of all-time. It was only a month ago that the game reached over 800,000 active users, placing at the top of the digital platforms chart for what people are currently playing at any given time. Now it’s also displaced Dota…

This Week In The Business: Tackling Toxic Communities

QUOTE | “If you are a bad person doing bad things in Overwatch, we just don’t want you in Overwatch. We don’t want to create areas for you where just the bad people are. We just don’t want those people in Overwatch.” – Blizzard’s Jeff Kaplan says the company has disciplined more than 400,000 Overwatch…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for trying to parcel out a book you’re really enjoying so you don’t finish it too soon and have nothing to read on the subway. Also, video games. I’ll be playing Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, which we started today on Kotaku’s Facebook page. (Spoilers: guys get mad when you jump on…

Origin PC Eon15-S Review: What A Budget Gaming Laptop Looks Like These Days

Somewhere between the fancier notebooks at your local big box store and high-powered desktop replacements is the “budget” gaming laptop, a modestly-priced portable system built to play games well enough. Origin PC’s latest Eon15-S is the perfect example. The Eon15-S is a 15-inch laptop designed by system builder Origin PC to deliver the boutique custom…

Cooking Game Looks Delicious, Feels Stressful

It’s 5:30, and I realize in half an hour I’ll be slammed with customers. Before they all get here I need to unclog the toilets, take out the trash, refill the drink machine, and prep the hot dogs, corndogs and pretzels. Before I get a chance, someone orders some fucking nachos. Cook Serve Delicious 2…

Smash Players Thought They Were Friends With A Reclusive ‘God’ Developer, But Now Suspect She Duped Them

Over the course of three years, an impostor convinced the Smash community—as well as her friends, housemates and girlfriend—that she was a reclusive and revered programmer behind the famous Smash mod, Project M, several sources close to the issue say. The supposed impostor, who goes by many names and who we’ll call Katy for clarity,…