What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for taking a long nap after E3. Also taking a break from hearing about video games to actually play some. I am so pumped for Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, readers, because The New Order freaking ruled. (I even wrote a bloga while back about BJ [and other dudes] taking a bath.)…

Tekken 7 Player Turns Down Tournament’s T-Mobile Phone Prize, Because He Uses AT&T

Tekken 7 player Bronson Tran lived up to his nickname “the mouth of NorCal” this past Wednesday night when he received and rejected the MVP prize at E3’s Twitch Esports Arena invitational. Fans nominated the MVP via Twitter hashtag, and the winner was supposed to get a T-Mobile phone. Except, as Bronson explained while standing…

E3 2017’s Best Dressed Video Game Characters

We’ve seen all the E3 trailers, announcement and gameplay demos, but one question remains: which game characters were the best dressed? Here’ a few of my favorite looks from the games we saw. A Way Out 70s looks are coming back in a big way, and the two main characters from A Way Out embrace…

How Many Games At E3 2017 Had Guns? A Scientific Investigation 

Clifford “Cliffy B” Bleszinski once described video game guns’ profound appeal with this simple sentiment: “reach out and touch someone . . . with your gun.” Since the early 1990s, guns have pretty much been the telephone of choice for video game characters: they speak to their rivals with bangs, booms, and headshots. Now, however,…

Nintendo Responds To Smash Bros. Pro’s Callout, Wants To Keep Scene Grassroots

One of the world’s top Super Smash Bros. players recently knocked Nintendo for not sufficiently supporting the scene and said he hoped that Nintendo heard him. This week in Los Angeles, they did—after we played a clip of his speech to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma, a top-three-ranked Super Smash Bros.…

The 15-Year-Old Smash Pro Who Finds Confidence In Dancing Like Bayonetta

It’s Tuesday, and Zack “CaptainZack” Lauth is waiting on a plane. His flight’s been delayed twice. At 15 years old, he’s one of the youngest signed players in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, and one of the best Bayonetta players in the world—a character as strong as she is controversial. Lauth, like his other…

The Creator Of Metroid II Fan Game AM2R Isn’t Mad About Nintendo

DoctorM64 spent over ten years remaking Metroid II: Samus Return in his free time, only to have Nintendo send him a DMCA and have to take the project down. Now that Nintendo has announced their own reimagining of the same game, he’s just as pumped as everyone else is. When DoctorM64 was working on Another…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: Is Porn Killing My Sex Life?

Hello all you spaceporn lungfish of the Twitternet, and welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating advice column whose coming was predicted by the sacred mutterings of the oracle of E3. This week, we’re looking at two sides of the same coin. On the one side: what do you do when your girlfriend thinks…

I Squished A Bug Inside My Monitor’s Screen And Now I Want To Die

It all started when I thought I saw a bug crawling across my computer monitor. Huh, I thought, it’s a bug crawling across my computer monitor. I reached out to flick it off, and found that I could not. I stared at it, unsure of what I was seeing. The bug was there, but I…

The Six Biggest Announcements Of E3 2017

E3 is drawing to a close, and the rain of game announcements has abated. EA, Microsoft, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Sony, and Nintendo all did their thing. It’s up to us to sort through the rubble. Among the dozens of hype reels, hardware breakdowns, marketing buzzwords and game announcements, a few things stood out. If you don’t…

Tips For Playing Arms

On the surface, Arms looks like a cute game about the dangers of slinky arms, but it quickly gets challenging. Out today, Nintendo’s new fighting game has players throwing punches with spring-loaded limbs. Programming good impulses takes time and guidance. And although only ten fighters feature in Arms, with so many detachable arms to choose…

Xenoblade Chronicles X‘s Director On Localization Changes: ‘I Didn’t Mind Much At All’ 

In the heated ongoing conversation over “censorship” in localization, we’ve heard a whole lot from fans and even translators, but we haven’t seen much discussion from Japanese developers. Which is why, when speaking to Tetsuya Takahashi this week in Los Angeles, I asked him for his thoughts on the matter. His answers were a little…

Hasbro’s Marvel Knights Figures Look Like TV Stars

Fans of Netflix’s comic book shows can realize the dream of having a tiny plastic Krysten Ritter, Jon Bernthal or Charlie Cox on their desk this fall, when Hasbro releases its Marvel Knights series of six-inch Legends figures. And who doesn’t want to build a Man-Thing? Just like the Marvel Netflix-verse, the Marvel Knights line…

Curious about Koji Igarashi’s successor to the Castlevania series? Heather Alexandra played 10 minutes of new demo at E3 that you can watch right here.

Snatcher Is Cyberpunk Noir At Its Best

Hideo Kojima's 1988 game is a cult classic for good reason

The Makers Of Final Fantasy XIV Are Still Deciding How To Add Blitzball

Blitzball is coming to Final Fantasy XIV, but director Naoki Yoshida doesn’t know how to make it happen. He’s torn between two options, he says, and both of them sound pretty good. Blitzball, which is sort of like underwater soccer except players can poison one another, is both a minigame and significant plot point in…

God Of War Director, On Kratos’ Beard: ‘It Smells Of Pine And Dead Trolls’

The newest God of War hopes to give Kratos some much-needed depth by focusing on character dynamics and new mechanics. Also new: Kratos’ massive, manly beard. I sat down with game director Cory Barlog to ask some hard-hitting questions about Kratos’ new look. Heather Alexandra, Kotaku: Let’s talk initial design : what made you decide to…