- Esports
The Weekend In Esports: StarCraft 2 IEM XII And The Rocket League World Cup
With some of the summer’s biggest tournaments behind us, things slow down this weekend. But not too much. Blessed with an SC2 tournament and another esports World Cup, as well as a tone of fighting game tournaments, there’s still plenty to watch. Below you’ll find where and when you can catch all the weekend’s biggest…
By Ethan Gach Published July 29, 2017 - Esports
Dota 2 Is Getting More Newbie Friendly
A new update to Dota 2 will try to make sure new players are always matched with nice players. In a blog post, the Dota 2 team discussed two changes to the newcomer experience. First, all new accounts will be limited to a selection of 20 heroes for their first 25 games, curated for new…
By Eric Van Allen Published July 29, 2017 - Culture
This Week In The Business: No Money In Retro?
QUOTE | “Mostly there’s just no money in it anymore, if there ever was… As much as I love those sorts of games and love to keep making those for years, I’m reaching a point where I know I’d be throwing money away if I continued to do that.” – Super Win the Game and…
Brendan Sinclair Published July 29, 2017 - Culture
Dream Daddy Creators Explain Why You Can’t Smooch All The Dads
In most dating sims, you can rest assured that if you pour time and effort into winning a character’s affections, you’ll have the option of ending up with them. In dad-tastic dating sim Dream Daddy, however, that’s not always the case—a fact that’s made some players upset. I recently spoke with creators Leighton Gray and…
By Nathan Grayson Published July 28, 2017 - Culture
Sadly, Most ‘Survival’ Games Aren’t Really About Survival
Looking over reviews of recent Steam sandbox hit Citadel: Forged With Fire, I was struck by a repeated refrain: Finally, reviewers cheered, a game that eschews survival “busywork” like hunger, thirst, and stamina. It’s true that in many so-called survival games, survival is tedious. But survival is about more than just food and shelter, and…
By Nathan Grayson Published July 28, 2017 - Esports
Network Error Exiles Street Fighter V Players To Fictional Island
Street Fighter V players noticed something strange happening during their online matches on the afternoon of July 22. Instead of appearing near their real-world locations on the Capcom Fighters Network map (a platform that ensures competitors match up with opponents in their general vicinity), they were being placed west of Africa, smack dab in the…
By Ian Walker Published July 28, 2017 - Uncategorized
Nioh Just Added A Feature That Should Be In All Loot Games
The excellent PS4 samurai action game Nioh is overloaded with loot, but its developers may have solved one of their game’s few problems with a clever tweak in the game’s new 1.14 patch. Like many things in Nioh, the tweak is initially inscrutable. The patch notes describe it this way: -Added the option “display take”…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 28, 2017 - Culture
The Mother Of Dragons
Alex Negrea is an artist who has done work for companies like Crytek and Volta. We’ve actually featured Alex’s art previously: the Mercy piece here was commissioned by Blizzard,and ran in a best-of we made around the game’s launch You can see more of Alex’s work at his ArtStation page To see the images in…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 28, 2017 -
UncategorizedAn In-Depth Look At Overwatch‘s Eichenwalde Map
Strong multiplayer maps in video games create stories. Their construction and design generate emotional reactions from frustrated defeat to jubilant victory. It is not enough to put players in a space and do battle; strong maps shift and contort in unexpected ways. They are not always fair and they are rarely symmetrical, but they’ll create…
By Heather Alexandra Published July 28, 2017 - Culture
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
The weekend is for going to a new laundromat for the first time. Will it be terrible? Tolerable? Also, video games. So every weekend I decide I’m going to play some Witcher, and then I get busy with other games and I don’t play The Witcher. It cannot stand, readers. The Witcher must be played.…
By Riley MacLeod Published July 28, 2017 - Uncategorized
Collectible Video Game Albums Elbow Into A Crowded Vinyl Industry
The music industry is having a vinyl boom. While vinyl was once relegated to thrift stores and specialty shops, more and more popular musicians are releasing collector’s editions of their albums on vinyl. This boom includes big artists like Taylor Swift, and also video games soundtracks like Contra. While being able to pick up a…
By Gita Jackson Published July 28, 2017 - Uncategorized
I’m Finally Coming Around On Multiplayer Games
I’m a multiplayer game skeptic. The idea of playing against another human both online and in real life usually doesn’t appeal to me at all. Overwatch, Splatoon 2 and Pyre are making me come around on this, kinda. My reactions to these games are all wildly different. I’ve started to categorize it like a game…
By Gita Jackson Published July 28, 2017 - Reviews
Vortex Race 3 Keyboard Review: The 75 Percent Solution
Tenkeyless keyboards lose the number pad on the right side in favor of a more compact footprint. I say, why stop there?Vortexgear’s 75 percent Race 3 features nearly all the functionality of a tenkeyless board in a smaller, sleeker package, and it’s gorgeous to boot. While I’ve been a tenkeyless keyboard fan for ages, it’s…
By Mike Fahey Published July 28, 2017 - Uncategorized
Altspace, which billed itself as “the leading social platform” for VR, is shuttering on August 3rd. Investors like Comcast poured over$15 million into the project, which attracted 35,000 users per month. In a blog post, Altspace’s developers explain that funding fell through and VR market growth has been slow.
By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published July 28, 2017 - Uncategorized
Battlegrounds Player Banned For Allegedly Looking At Another Player’s Stream [UPDATE]
Moderators for the popular shooter Battlegrounds banned a player this week for what they said was “stream sniping,” or watching another player’s stream to identify his location. The banned player denies any wrongdoing, which raises a fascinating question: How do you prove that someone is watching someone else’s stream? Yesterday on Reddit, a user named…
By Jason Schreier Published July 28, 2017 - Esports
Two beloved game modes in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered—Prop Hunt and Slasher—may become permanent additions depending on fan votes. Prop Hunt, in which one team spawns as inanimate objects and the other team hunts them down, is in the lead! Vote for Prop Hunt or for Slasher via Twitter before August 1st.
By Maddy Myers Published July 28, 2017 - Uncategorized
Revisiting The Intro Scene Of Half-Life
Last night, we started a playthrough of Half-Life on Kotaku’s Twitch channel. Punchy shotguns and nasty aliens make for a fantastic shooter experience, but the game begins less dramatically, with a long train ride. It’s one of the most memorable openings in gaming history, but it’s the least Half-Life thing about Half-Life When Half-Life released…
By Heather Alexandra Published July 28, 2017