Horizon Zero Dawn Looks Unnaturally Good Because Of ‘Hyper-Realism’

Horizon Zero Dawn is a beautiful game. Sometimes, it seems too beautiful. Here’s how the developers achieved such an uncannily gorgeous look. Studio art director Jan-Bart van Beek recently explained to Kotaku that the studio spent many hours watching BBC nature documentaries, which allowed Guerrilla Games to lay out a conceptual framework for Horizon’s visuals.…

Yooka-Laylee Ditches JonTron’s Voice Acting Over His ‘Personal Viewpoints’ [Update]

Recently, popular YouTuber Jon “JonTron” Jafari made some damn extreme comments about race, which set off a chain reaction of, well, reactions across the internet. The latest consequence of Jafari’s ugly remarks: upcoming N64-era platformer revival game Yooka-Laylee is removing his voice acting. “We recently became aware of comments made by voice artist JonTron after…

The New Power Rangers Game Isn’t Half Bad

With a new chapter in the Power Rangers saga unfolding in theaters across the country this weekend, Saban and Lionsgate have teamed with mobile developer nWay to release Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, a real-time mobile fighting game featuring heroes and villains from throughout series history. Legacy Wars is a little bit Marvel: Contest of Champions…

Here’s April’s Xbox Live Games With Gold Lineup

If you haven’t caught up on Season Two of Telltale’s The Walking Dead or missed Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Xbox Live’s Games with Gold has you covered for April. Paying subscribers to Xbox Live can grab these four games for “free”if they have an Xbox Live Gold subscription. April’s Games with Gold are: Xbox One Ryse:…

Competitive Overwatch‘s Inconsistent Rules Are Screwing Over Players

In any competitive game or sport, the rules can change, and competitors have to adjust their strategies. But usually, rules change between seasons – not in the middle of one. Blizzard’s Overwatch changes a lot, even by video game standards. The patches hit every few weeks or so. Sometimes it’s a little balance tweak, sometimes…

Why Millions Of People Play An MMO About Tanks

When I doodled war scenes as a kid, they always featured some elaborate tank. Obviously riding what was essentially a giant gun was the best way to be on the front lines of a battle. Free-to-play MMO World of Tanks captures some of that childhood excitement. I’ve been playing it since 2015, and it’s just…

Mass Effect: Andromeda Players Are Creating Nightmare Characters

The Mass Effect series has traditionally allowed you to customize your main character. Some players take this as an opportunity to create inhuman abominations. Mass Effect: Andromeda has been no different. The new character creator has a lot of fun, futuristic makeup and tattoo options. But it’s very easy to let things get out of…

Podcast: Revisiting The Switch, One Month Later

Kirk and I have each had the Switch for a month now, and really, it’s grown on us quite a bit. Come listen to us discuss Nintendo’s new console on today’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen We go over this week’s news including Telltale’s CEO departing (12:30) and Mass Effect animators getting harassed (20:06) before assessing the…

Leaked Image Gives A First Look At Destiny 2, Out This September

As has become an annual Bungie tradition, a retailer has leaked info on the next big Destiny release. It’s not much, but here’s your first look at the marketing materials for Destiny 2, a video game that we will no doubt come up with all sorts of pithy ways to describe over the next few…

Overwatch Characters As Fantasy Heroes

Overwatch Fantasia is a project by some Korean artists to take Blizzard’s roster of Heroes and make them look like they walked out of something like a Final Fantasy artbook. Because it’s the work of a whole team, there are multiple takes on many of the characters, some bright and bubbly, others looking more like…

Players Looking For Shiny Magikarp Are Getting Trolled By Pokémon Go

Right now, most people playing Pokémon Go are hunting for one thing: a golden shiny Magikarp. Oh, they’re finding shiny Magikarp alright. It’s just not turning out how they’d expect. Last year, Pokémon Go introduced Ditto, a shapeshifting creature who always appears as something else. You might capture a Sentret, for example, only for it…

Hyperkin X91 Retro Controller Review: Past Imperfect

Over the past three decades console game controllers have evolved from utilitarian rectangles to sleek works of ergonomic engineering art. Hyperkin’s retro-styled X91 wired controller for Xbox One and PC is what would have happened if that evolution had taken a less comfortable turn. What It Is The X91 marries the wide, short and shallow…

Defeated League Of Legends Player Rams Head Through Computer Monitor 

Goodness. After losing a match, a League of Legends player in the Chinese city of Lanzhou, one player apparently got angry and slammed his head through the computer screen. According to Ifeng, he was pissed at how poorly his teammates played and took it out on an internet cafe monitor. While other players snapped photos…

Hideaki Anno’s Studio Sets The Record Straight On Godzilla Sequel Talk

Yesterday, a report surfaced that another entry in the Godzilla series was announced at the Shin Godzilla vs. Evangelion Symphony in Tokyo. Today, Anno’s studio, Khara Inc., has cleared up the confusion that ensued.  As Madman points out, the following text appeared on the screen at the event: 「ゴジラ」シリーズの次回作及び「シン・エヴァンゲリオン劇場版:||」にご期待ください。(“Please look forward to the next entry…

Tang Paradise Park. Xi’an, China. By Ronald Delgado. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

The next time you want to skip those animations, World of Final Fantasy players, think of the poor artists.

Overwatch‘s Anti-Abuse System Is Getting An Overhaul

In competitive games, a handful of bad eggs can stink up the whole basket. Even Overwatch, a shooter designed with teamwork and a degree of positivity in mind, can’t dunk them directly into the trash fast enough. Blizzard’s solution? Better tools. During an interview last year, Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan told me that toxicity…

Switch Controller Cosplays As GameCube Pad

Boss Fight Props, normally in the business of making cosplay gear, decided to take his Switch controller and dress it up like a GameCube pad. I would buy this, if only for the colour-coded buttons. I would buy multiples if it was the GameCube’s old “spice” colour scheme While the images look like renders, it’s…