StarCraft Gets An Official Cartoon Makeover

Blizzard is going to release a graphics pack for Starcraft: Remastered that transforms the game, giving it the look of Carbot Animations’ Starcrafts series This isn’t a fan mod that Blizzard simply gave its blessing to; it’s the real deal, which applies to everything from ladder matches to the campaign to mission briefings, a nice…

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite Improves On What Makes Pokémon Go Great

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is the amount of game that I wanted Pokémon Go to be at launch. It’s polished, there’s lots of stuff to do, and it sometimes really makes you feel like you’re a wizard. Having been a Harry Potter fan since I was around 11 years old, I am constantly combating the…

In case you missed me triple front flipping over haters, explaining what a “skrrrt” button is, and dropping some delicious movie references while playing My Friend Pedro earlier, here’s the YouTube archive. Follow us on Twitch for more streams.

Steam Finally Adds Official LGBTQ+ Tag For Games

The process of finding games on Steam has become increasingly driven by a tag system. Mouse over, say, Sekiro on Steam’s front page, and you’ll see descriptor tags like “Souls-like,” “Difficult,” and “Action.” Click on one of those tags, and you’ll be taken to a hub page for that game category. But that’s just the…

‘Xbox Live Is Not A Free Speech Platform’: Xbox Boss Promises New Features To Make Online Gaming Less Hostile

You can learn a lot about a person by the values they express, and possibly something about an entire gaming platform by the blog posts the person running it writes. That’s why I was so eager at E3 last week to ask the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, why he recently wrote a 1200-word essay…

One Of EVE Online‘s Most Challenging Jobs Is Being A Space Trucker

Cocky fighter pilots, brilliant fleet tacticians, devious political overlords, and bloodthirsty pirates are all science fiction tropes associated with the players of EVE Online. While each of these types can be found traveling between the stars, all of them would be crippled without an often forgotten archetype: space truckers. The space truckers of EVE navigate…

Final Fantasy VII Remake, Avengers, And Other Promising (And Confusing) Games We Saw At E3

E3 2019 brought us demos and details about games we can’t wait to play, like Link’s Awakening and the Final Fantasy VII remake, but it also threw us some real head-scratchers, like that upcoming Avengers game. On this week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, we ran down all the coolest and most befuddling games that we…

Wit And Charm Are Powerful Weapons In Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2

While I was playing Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2’s demo at E3 last week, I was feeling pretty smug about bluffing my way through a problem. Then, the developer holding the controller hit the wrong button, and a fight broke out regardless. Bloodlines 2 looks like it has a wonderful breadth of experiences to offer…

New Fan Mode Brings The Silliness Of Prop Hunt To Fortnite

Fortnite’s latest Creative mode, Prop Hunt, pits two teams of players against each other. One team disguises themselves as objects around the level, and the other team has to discover and eliminate them. It’s a little basic, but it’s fun. Originating in the sandbox physics game Garry’s Mod, and having shown up in other games…

Wiki Titles You Can Sing To The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Theme Is Good Twitter

In 2014, webcomic XKCD introduced readers to the joy of Wikipedia article titles that can be sung to the tune of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song. Now there’s a Twitter bot spitting out fresh examples on a regular basis, turning even the most horrible eight-syllable tragedies into delightful singalongs. The “Wiki Titles…

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Developers Say Breaking Series Traditions Made For A Better Game

When I sat down with the makers of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey last week, I had to ask them about Alexios, Kassandra, and the state of the franchise’s playable modern-day sequences. I also had to ask them about the option to ride a flaming horse. The flaming horse is a very small part of the huge…

Someone Turned Mario Into A Battle Royale, And It’s The Best Thing

Battle royale is one of the most dominant gameplay forms of the last few years, and Tetris 99 showed that you could apply the battle royale concept to anything. Mario Royale turns the classic NES game into a 75-person death race that’s some of the most fun I’ve had all year. Mario Royale, which can…

Nintendo’s Mobile Game Dragalia Lost Has Finally Lost Me

From its launch in late September through mid-May, Nintendo’s mobile RPG Dragalia Lost was part of my daily routine. I only missed one daily login during the entire period, and that was because I was recovering from surgery. But, over the past couple of weeks, the game’s pull on me has faded, and my play…

What Happens When Your Kids Develop Their Own Gaming Taste

For a beautiful few years, you have near-complete control over what your child plays. You decide what’s allowed and when, what to play together, which gems from the past to share with an excited five-year-old. Then a little more time passes, and suddenly the situation is completely different. There comes a point where kids are…

Tokyo’s Halloween Crackdown Includes Plans For Banning Public Drinking [Update]

Last year, Halloween in Tokyo’s Shibuya descended into chaos. According to News 24, Shibuya is moving towards regulating the area’s Halloween celebrations by banning public drinking in the roads around the station as well as in public parks. [Update June 20 – 6:00 am: Shibuya has banned drinking on the streets during Halloween and New…

It’s Hard For Japan To Change Its Escalator Manners

One of my first memories of moving to Japan in 2001 was the surprise at seeing how everyone lined up on one side of the escalator, leaving an open path for people in a rush. How courteous, I thought. But now, there are campaigns to change the country’s long-standing escalator manners. The tradition is so…