My Five Favorite Kotaku Stories From Last Week

I take a couple of days off last week, and the staff goes and publishes some blockbuster stories. Those two events can’t be connected! My five favorite stories from last week: The Horrible World of Video Game Crunch | “This made me come to the realization that crunch was not some occasional occurrence before you…

Bioware’s Casey Hudson is Microsoft’s New Creative Director

While working at Bioware, Casey Hudson made his name as the director of Mass Effect 3, though he left the studio in August last year. Today, Microsoft announced that he will be joining the company as its new creative director. (This article originally appeared on Kotaku UK.) His main focus is going to be on…

When The Game Industry Thinks You’re Too Old to Make Video Games

David Mullich tells the story. A friend of his: an executive at a major video game company. In talks with another video game company for a similar role. Several interviews; both in-person and over the phone. The job involves relocation. New job, new home, new city. Both the exec and his wife are flown on…

A Beginner’s Guide To The World Of The Witcher

Good news: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a really cool game. Bad news: It’s dense and complicated as hell, and requires you to keep track of a ridiculous number of people, places, and concepts. Don’t worry: I’m here to help. Wild Hunt is likely going to attract a bunch of new people to the…

League Of Legends Will Hide ‘Eye Candy’ For Serious Players

League of Legends players take the game seriously. Super seriously. So seriously that those pesky pretty little things on the Summoner’s Rift map like butterflies and dragonflies start to look like serious eyesores that get in the way of winning. I mean: you can’t even attack them! But Riot can. In a small post on…

Our First, All-Too-Brief Look at the New Doom

Looks like those demons are getting serious upgrades, huh? It’s only a teaser—and may not be gameplay—but this short clip above represents the first glimpse of the next installment in Id’s legendary shooter franchise. Publisher Bethesda will be showing more (be kinda hard to show less) at E3 next month. Contact the author at [email protected]

A new expansion called Rising Tide will be making Civilization: Beyond Earth bigger—and wetter. The add-on will bring oceanic exploration, along with new enemies, factions and Diplomatic Traits to the game when it releases this fall. Contact the author at [email protected]

Square Enix announced it’s releasing Version 2.0 of the Final Fantasy XV demo in early June. It’s expected to address many of the previous version’sissues, but Square Enix says it will provide details about this update, so sit tight.

According to Japanese newspaper Asahi, Sony says Project Morpheus is slated to go on sale before June 2016. It’s unclear if that release window is for Japan or if it’s global.

Smash Bros. Gets Modded with Dragon Ball Z

And, of course, it’s called Super Smash Bros. Brawl Z. Of course! As Smash Boards and Event Hubs point out, Japanese YouTuber InD Mark-2 has been uploading Smash Bros. mods with DBZ characters and move sets. (Though, the original mods are apparently from Brawl Vault Modders. The teen Gohan, for example, was done by CaliKingz01.)…

Remember Project Hon? The cool-looking Korean mecha game has been cancelled. Korean site Money Today (via tipster Sang) reports the game was canned due to market conditions. NCSoft said this was not an easy decision. Bummer.

Track: Kore ga Watashi no Ikiru Michi | Artist: Puffy | Album: Jet-CD Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment