- Esports
Burnt-Out Smash Pros Are Talking About Unionizing
Earlier this week, Smash 4’s top player admitted he was overwhelmed: “We really need an off season,” Gonzalo “Zero” Barrios wrote on Twitter. “Committed players are traveling the whole year [with] no breaks.” The conversation snowballed. Fans, tournament organizers and fellow players noted that, to organize an off season, the anarchic Smash 4 community would…
By Cecilia D'Anastasio Published May 24, 2017 -
UncategorizedIn Praise Of Games That Make Us Small
Video games can make us feel large and powerful, but they also have the ability to make us very small, granting us a unique perspective on everyday life. Here’s to the games and multiplayer maps that turn us into tiny people in a big, big world. Humanity yearns to explore the dark reaches of space…
By Mike Fahey Published May 24, 2017 - Opinion
An Arcade Shooter That’s Anime As Hell
Meka On is a “run-and-gun-and-sword-and-weeb-and-zoom-boom-fwoosh mecha brawler” available on PC, Mac, and Linux. Players guide a giant robot through endless waves of enemies. It’s a delicious slice of arcade fun, full of explosions and laser swords. Anime as all hell, it’s a perfect Indie Pick. I have a special place in my heart for giant…
By Heather Alexandra Published May 24, 2017 -
UncategorizedLet’s Talk About Lucio’s New Overwatch Skin, Which Is Bad
Lucio’s new legendary skin for the Overwatch one year anniversary is causing me physical pain. Lucio, unfortunately, has a history of questionable skins. If you’re a Lucio player, you have the exciting potential of being a soccer player, a hockey player, a DJ in a frog mask, or a DJ in a golden frog mask.…
By Gita Jackson Published May 24, 2017 -
CultureWatch People Break Classic RPGs
Last week in Utah, a group called RPG Limit Break got together to break a bunch of role-playing games, raising $111,000 in the process. RPG Limit Break, an annual RPG speedrunning marathon that raises money for mental health, is full of entertaining runs of classic games. You can find them all here, or watch a…
By Jason Schreier Published May 24, 2017 -
UncategorizedEveryone Can Now Play Gwent
The open beta for Gwent, CD Projekt Red’s standalone version of The Witcher 3‘s card game, starts today for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. In my time with the closed beta I found the game to move a little too fast sometimes, but overall it’s a richer, deeper take on the minigame my Geralt lost all…
By Riley MacLeod Published May 24, 2017 - Uncategorized
Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s $10 monthly gaming subscription program, will go live on June 1, the company said today. Unlike Sony’s streaming service, PlayStation Now, Xbox Game Pass will let you download its games. It’ll be fascinating to see whether Microsoft can amass a library big enough to create gaming’s version of Netflix.
By Jason Schreier Published May 24, 2017 -
UncategorizedIf You Like Rhythm Games, You Should Play Neon FM
Neon FM is an EDM-packed arcade rhythm game that’s so good Konami made its own version, but finding an arcade to play it in can be kind of tricky. Fortunately it’s now also a free-to-play mobile game for iOS and Android, which sure beats spending $8,000 on an arcade cabinet. In many ways the Neon…
By Mike Fahey Published May 24, 2017 - Culture
Take A Closer Look At The Backgrounds In Star Wars
Nick Hiatt is a concept artist and matte painter who has got to work on some of the biggest and best stuff of the last few years, from Force Awakens to Destiny (and Destiny 2) to Game of Thrones to Doom That’s why there are a lot of screencaps of Star Wars: Episode VII here,…
By Luke Plunkett Published May 24, 2017 - Uncategorized
Hugh Jackman Discovers Real-Life Mario Kart, Gets Really Excited
This is probably the closest we’ll get to a Wolverine appearance in Mario Kart 8 Hugh Jackman didn’t stumble upon some ambitious street performers; he found what appears to be MariKart, a company in Tokyo that allows attendees to recreate their own Wario vs. Wario racing battles. MariKart provides go-karts, costumes, and even accessories to…
By Jason Schreier Published May 24, 2017 - Uncategorized
Double Fine’s Broken Age, the adventure game that launched a million video game Kickstarter campaigns, is getting a physical release next month on PlayStation 4 and Vita, courtesy of Limited Run Games. Both versions go on sale June 9 for $29.99, and will likely sell out very quickly.
By Mike Fahey Published May 24, 2017 -
UncategorizedBlack And White Strategy Battler Aztez Is Finally Coming Out This Summer
The last time we checked in with Team Colorblind’s Aztez was in 2013, and the hybrid strategy board game/beat-em-up was slated for a 2014 release. Three years later the game is set for a summer release. No really, there’s a Steam page and everything What took so long? When I played an early build of…
By Mike Fahey Published May 24, 2017 - Uncategorized
Persona 5 Gets A Small Change To Avoid Further Controversy In South Korea
When PlayStation Korea uploaded the Persona 5 title sequence for the game’s upcoming release in the country, fans noticed something: Ryuji Sakamoto’s shoes. As Record China reports, fans were upset that his shoes depicted a Rising Sun Flag motif. Obviously, due to historical associations Korean people have with that flag, there will certainly be greater…
By Brian Ashcraft Published May 24, 2017 - Kotaku East
Once Again, Overwatch Isn’t Very Good At Picking Kanji Characters
Last year, a short Overwatch animation featured some iffy kanji choices. It seems the latest Hanzo skin does, too. Japanese has a rather complex writing system that features kanji characters from China. There are also native writing systems called hiragana and katakana that are used along with kanji in written Japanese. The latest Hanzo skin…
By Brian Ashcraft Published May 24, 2017
