Bath Scenes, Of All Things, Are Adding Depth To Our Game Heroes

Bathing is a well-used trope in film and TV. The “shower of angst,” for example, is usually a stand-in for an emotional moment happening to our hero. It might make us empathize more with the person lowering their head under a flow of water. A few video game bathing scenes over the years have let…

Someone Already Beat Prey In Less Than 20 Minutes

Yesterday, speedrunner DraQu beat the sci-fi shooting sim Prey in just 45 minutes. Today, he’s knocked it down to 20. This is a game that has been out for three days. You’re safe to watch the first few minutes without spoiling too much, just to see how he pulled it off. The short version: DraQu…

Cube World Hasn’t Been Updated In Years, But Some Fans Still Play Every Day

In 2013, voxel exploration game Cube World blew up, amassing millions of viewson YouTube and video game sites. Despite the hype, Cube World’s creators became infamous for going radio silent, while the paid alpha for the game hasn’t updated since July 2013. Many fans have probably asked themselves, “What happened to Cube World?” And yet,…

The Zelda Escape Room Is A Little Disappointing (And Not Really An Escape Room)

When I first heard that there was a Zelda escape room coming to the United States, I imagined a labyrinth of elaborate puzzles, growing more challenging and complicated with each subsequent chamber. I did not expect to be solving brainteasers at a conference table. But I am pleased to report, dear Kotaku readers, that my…

Overwatch YouTuber Gets Harassed After Redditor Makes False Accusations

Over the past few years, Reddit has become the go-to destination for those who feel they have been mistreated and want to hold powerful figures accountable. But the popular website, which refers to itself as “the front page of the Internet,” is also a breeding ground for mobs that require little evidence before embarking on…

League Revising Rules After Trans Players Rejected From Women’s CSGO Tournament [UPDATE: Hoax]

UPDATE 5/9/17 12:00 PM: This story seems to have been based on a hoax designed to get BuzzFeed and, by extension, other sites to publish an inaccurate news article. Sly Buehl Rigilio is quoted in a new article on Infowars saying that he and his friends posed as trans women to trick BuzzFeed “for the…

Behold, Four Different Systems Running On A Single Monitor

You’ll probably never need to play Prey on PC, Wonder Boy on PlayStation 4, Mario Kart 8 on Switch and Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 on Xbox One all at the same time, but it can be done with Phillips’ 40-inch 4K curved monitor with MultiView. While I am still in the midst of…

Smash 4‘s Competitive Scene Is Thriving, But Can It Take The Next Big Step?

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U often toils in the shadow of its predecessor, the GameCube classic Melee. Yet in the backyard of the live music capitol of the world, surrounded by more established games, DreamHack Austin showcased a $10,000 Smash 4 tournament that was electric to watch. It seemed a premonition of greater things…

Injustice 2‘s Mobile Game Is A Little Rough, But It’ll Do

While Injustice 2 doesn’t come out until May 16, the free-to-play mobile version is available in soft-launch on iTunes in the Philippines. The three-on-three fighter is far from perfect, but more than up to keeping players in the action during bathroom breaks. The mobile version of Injustice 2 is a free-to-play fighter in which teams…

Röki, An Adventure Game About The Deep Dark Woods

Röki is an upcoming adventure game about a girl who heads out into the wild and runs into a lot more than just some deer and snow. It’s the product of Polygon Treehouse, a new studio founded by two former art directors at Guerrilla Cambridge. The game is due out in 2018. While the stills…

Figure Skating Anime Yuri On Ice Is Very Realistic, Says Olympic Skater

It’s not just the skating that the show nails. According to former champ Johnny Weir, the show is filled with little details that shows Yuri On Ice’s creators really know their stuff. While in China late last year, Weir gave a somewhat in depth interview about the anime. He talks about how got into the…

Sounds Like Naruto‘s Creator Just Talked About Killing Off A Character

The Naruto manga is finished. The Naruto anime is finished. He is sticking around in his son Boruto’s spin-off series, but it sounds like creator Masashi Kishimoto wouldn’t mind if a ubiquitous Naruto character was killed off. Kishimoto isn’t doing the Boruto manga or the anime himself, but he certainly has things to say about…

Beating Pokémon Ruby with Magikarp Took Nearly Six Years

Back in 2011, a live-streamer named Leomon began playing with a Shiny of the most useless Pocket Monster. Almost six years later, the trainer has finally become a champion with that fish. After the stream, Leomon posted on Twitter that it didn’t matter if you had a strong or a weak Pokémon, that if you…

Only 90s kids will remember Mega Man’s nightmarish mascot visage. From Blake J Harris’ book Console Wars, via VideoGameArt&Tidbits