Smash Pro Wins Tournament Just In Time To Make His Flight

Yesterday’s single-day Greninja Saga Super Smash Bros. For Wii U tournament ran late, leaving one pro in a predicament after qualifying for the finals. Elliot Bastien “Ally” Carroza-Oyarce was leaving on a jet plane at 11:45 p.m., and the tournament kept going later and later. Ally had scheduled his flight in advance, as any savvy…

Podcast: How Prey‘s Best Characters Came To Life

One of Prey’s biggest strengths is how it realizes the inhabitants of the space station Talos-1, and on today’s Kotaku Splitscreen, we talk to the man responsible for many of them: Chris Avellone. First, Kirk and I talk a bit about Nier: Automata (6:55) and the Nintendo Switch (11:15) before jumping into this week’s news:…

Sunday Comics: Nothing Personal 

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 May 17. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published May 8. Read more…

Jury To Decide Whether Valve Actually Owns Dota 2

It probably does, but that hasn’t stopped a federal court from taking a closer look at the question. Two mobile developers, Lilith Games and uCool, have tried to make clones of Dota 2 for smartphones and been sued by Valve as a result. Their games, Dota Legends and Heroes Charge respectively, are slimmed down MOBAs…

Vienna Game Developers Are Using The City’s Coffeehouse Culture To Create A New Kind Of Arcade 

The rise and fall of arcades have in large part shaped how we think about playing video games together in public places, but in their absence, young designers are finding new ways to bring social gaming out into the open. Austrian for “playing together,” zamSpielen is a small crew of designers and programmers trying to…

The Weekend In Esports: League of Legends‘ Mid-Season Invitational, Greninja Saga, And More

League of Legends’ Mid-Season Invitational look poised to be dominated once again by the unbeatable boys from South Korea while elsewhere in Smash Bros. Wii U players duke it out to unseat their own unbeatable champion. Below you’ll find where and when you can catch all the weekend’s biggest events in competitive gaming. Let us…

FIFA Ultimate Team Championship Decided On 90th-Minute Set Piece

After two days of play in Berlin, the grand finals for the FIFA Ultimate Team Championship came down to the wire between Chevrey “Vitality_Rocky” Corentin and Shaun “xShellzz” Springette. Despite losing the lead on his home turf, a last-minute rally helped Corentin barely scrape by and secure his spot as the 2017 Ultimate Team champion.…

Negative World Of Tanks Video Gets Taken Down After Developer Threatens Copyright Claim

A prominent World of Tanks YouTuber who is a member of a promotional program for the game had to remove a critical video after developer Wargaming threatened a copyright strike against it. On May 18, SirFoch uploaded a video where he criticized the Chrysler K Grand Finals premium tank (a fully-loaded version of which is…

This Week In The Business: Activate The Spin Cycle

QUOTE | “We want to get our hands on Destiny 2 as soon as possible like everybody else, so we offered to share our PC platform with our sister companies for this release.” – Blizzard explains why the PC version of Destiny 2 will be exclusive to Battle.net, conveniently neglecting to mention that doing so…

We Talk About Some Very Weird Ways to Play Overwatch

On the latest episode of our Overwatch show, Cecilia, Heather, and I talk about some very particular ways of playing. First, we dig deeper into Cecilia’s experience of paying women to be her in-game BFFs, then we discuss the plight of that reviled creature, the Hanzo main, and finally we talk about esports and Overwatch…

Lonely Mountains: Downhill is a mountain biking game that looks really chill. It’s just you and your bike. Oh, and some mountains. You’re not constrained to any particular path. You choose how you want to explore. Nature, it turns out, is neat like that. The game’s not done yet, but it’s got a page on…

That Is Not Enough Wheels, Little Car

Eric Cousin is a freelance illustrator and character designer based in Brussels, Belgium. You can see more of Eric’s work at his ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the…

Injustice 2 Might Have A Deadshot Problem, Depending On Whom You Ask 

Injustice 2 has only been available since Tuesday, but players think they’ve already found its strongest–or possibly cheapest–character. Deadshot, a frequent Batman villain whose sole power is that he can shoot well, brings a wide variety of firearms to NetherRealm Studios’ latest DC Comics fighter. Some players are already frustrated with his ability to win…

Every Second Of The New Reservoir Dogs Game Is An Emotional Struggle

The new Reservoir Dogs video game Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days is occasionally fun. But every time I felt myself enjoying it, a little voice would whisper to me, “You could just watch Reservoir Dogs.” Bloody Days’ biggest challenge was convincing me not to exit the game and go watch the 1992 Quentin Tarantino film on…

Our Immediate Reactions To Destiny 2

Did you really think we would let this week go by without a special bonus episode of Destiny fancast Kotaku Splitscreen? Kirk went to theDestiny 2 reveal event in Los Angeles, and I, uh, watched it on the internet, so come listen to us talk about our initial thoughts: An excerpt: Jason: Do you think…

Tips For Playing Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is the newest installment in the popular tactics game series. Whether you’re a fresh faced rookie or a war weary strategist, there’s a few things you should know if you want to conquer the battlefield. Choose Your Difficulty Level Wisely You can pick one of two difficulty levels as…