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The Clever Ways Game Developers Reuse Assets, Like Turning A Tank Into A Destiny Boss

Xavier Nelson Jr. is a writer and game developer, famous for his work on games like Hypnospace Outlaw. He recently asked devs and fans on Twitter to share different ways games have reused assets. The resulting replies are filled with some amazingly creative and ingenious asset recycling. Making games is really hard and takes a…

Some LEGO Star Wars Fans Want More Grunting

At E3 this past week, WB Games and TT Games revealed the latest and possibly biggest entry in the popular LEGO Star Wars franchise. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is coming out next year and will be based on all nine films, including the upcoming Star Wars Rise Of Skywalker. But if you check…

A Wii U Party Game For Kids Included A Story Mode About A Dead Father And His Ghost

Hundreds of crappy party games were developed and published for the Wii and Wii U back in the day. They were usually cheap, not as good as Wii Sports and quickly forgotten. But one of those games, Game Party Champions, included something very strange. A personal story about a child dealing with the loss of…

The Perfect Squad Size Is 3 People

If you were paying attention to this week’s E3 announcements and also care about co-operative games, you might have noticed something: There are a lot of three-player co-op games.Rainbow Six Quarantine, the new Escape mode for Gears 5, even Battletoads. To this I say: It’s about damn time. Three people is the perfect squad size,…

Knife Sisters Explores The Tricky Subject Of Player-Character Consent

What does it mean for a game to let you consent? Does consent mean offering “Yes” and “No” options? Is it enough for the player to consent, or does the player-character also get a say? If so, will it destroy the player’s sense of agency to give the player-character enough agency to disagree with their…

Amazon Lays Off Dozens Of Game Developers During E3

Yesterday, as the video game industry’s attention was focused squarely on the final day of the E3 convention in Los Angeles, Amazon’s video game division quietly laid off dozens of employees. Amazon Game Studios, which is currently developing the online games Crucible and New World, told affected employees on Thursday morning that they would have…

At Long Last, The Canvas Fallout 76 Bags Have Arrived

In November of last year, purchasers of the $200 Fallout 76 collector’s edition were disappointed to discover the fancy canvas bags advertised were replaced with cheap nylon sacks. It tookhalf a year, but Bethesda has finally made things right, as incredibly wrinkled canvas Westtek bags make their way into fans’ eager hands. In the image…

State of Decay 2: Heartland Gives Me What I Wanted And It Still Isn’t Enough

I really wanted to like State of Decay 2, last year’s zombie survival game about fending off the undead and also building a community of survivors. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to connect with it the way I wanted to, and I could never connect with the community I was working so hard to form. I…

Secret Shenmue Punch Hidden In Game Code Found 20 Years Later

It’s been twenty years since Shenmue was first released, and for all the millions of times it’s been played and completed in that time, it’s taken until 2019 for somebody to find that there’s a homage to Street Fighter hidden in the game’s code. Via Shenmue fan site PhantomRiverStone, Japanese gamer nullpo posted the first…

Hori’s Grip Controller Turns The Switch Into An Absolute Unit [Update]

The Nintendo Switch in handheld mode is essentially a game controller cut in half with a display wedged in the middle. Hori’s Daemon X Machina Grip controller, launching in September in Japan, is a more literal interpretation of the concept. Update: And now there’s a North American Amazon listing for it. The Grip controller is…

Hi-yaaah! I’m exploring dungeons and keeping to the beat in Cadence of Hyrule right now on Twitch Come join chat for some musical Zelda action!

The New York Times Has A New Puzzle Game For You To Obsess Over

It’s E3 week, which means it’s time to check in on the latest games from all the hottest game development studios, like the New York Times. That’s not a joke—the New York Times has stepped up its game development efforts in order to support its wildly popular crossword puzzle. Two new games have come from…

Brand-New Hearthstone Legendary Card Is Already One Of The Most Popular In The Game

From time to time, Blizzard gives away free Hearthstone cards. Sometimes, they are good. But sometimes, as with the recently released free Legendary card SN1P-SN4P (pronounced “snip-snap”), they are great. Seriously, if you see this thing pop up while you’re playing a game of Hearthstone, you should be scared. The card is a 3-mana Mech…

A Very Silly Flowchart For Picking Your Next D&D Race

Old habits die hard. That still doesn’t mean you should play a half-elf every single time you play Dungeons & Dragons. It’s times like these that we need people like Redditor Domogrue to expand our horizons. “Stayed up until 3am making my definitive ‘What Race Should I Play’ flowchart,” wrote Domogrue very early this morning.…

League of Legends pro Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok now has his own collectible figure from Super Play. It’s priced at $33 and is one of the first, if not the first, collectible figure for an esports pro. (Thanks, Sang!)

Konami’s Soccer Series Has Had A Very Dumb Name Change

Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer (or just PES) is one of the longest-running and most successful sports games on the planet, so sure, change its name to eFootball PES, what harm could it do. I am serious, this year’s version of the game will be called eFootball PES 2020, as a nod to the game’s supposed…

The State Of California Is Investigating Riot Games For Gender Discrimination [Update: Riot Responds]

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing said today that it is filing an investigation enforcement suit against League of Legends publisher Riot Games, as part of an investigation into gender discrimination at the company. The DFEH is asking the courts to compel Riot to provide employees’ pay information for “an ongoing investigation into…

Nike Is Making Stranger Things Sneakers

Because pop culture tie-ins are an adult sneaker thing now, Nike is releasing a line of shoes based on Netflix’s Stranger Things. Thankfully, they are a lot more tasteful than the announcement itself might have you believe. Rather than just releasing a bunch of sneakers based on characters (which admittedly would be hard for a…

Gears Tactics, One Of E3 2019’s No-Shows, Is Still In Development

At E3 2018, longtime Gears of War producer Rod Fergusson showed off a new PC game called Gears Tactics and announced Gears 5 and Gears Pop as well. This year, Microsoft’s Xbox briefing only mentioned those last two. Never fear, Fergusson told Kotaku today. Tactics remains in development. “Last year we wanted to really talk…

Here at E3, where once sat the PlayStation booth now mostly sits a bar and lounge. Downside: no PlayStation games. Upside: couches.