Uncategorized

The Overzealous Video Game Producer

The following satirical look at game design is an excerpt from Kotaku freelancer Matthew S. Burns’ wonderful new book, Surviving the Game Industry: A Wasteland Guide, which rounds up his satirical columns from Game Developer magazine. You can get the book as part of this story bundle for anywhere between $3-$100 (it’s pay-what-you-want). MEETING REQUEST:…

Trainers Who Evolve Magikarps Are The Real Champions of Pokémon Go

Training a Magikarp has always been a tricky proposition in Pokémon games: with no moves, the giant fish is practically useless in battle. That tradition doesn’t just continue in Pokémon Go, it is taken to the next level. Look at Magikarp’s evolution requirements in Pokémon Go. Just look at them: 400 candies. Most monsters in…

Twitch Tells Counter-Strike Gamblers To Go Away

Twitch is following in Valve’s footsteps, and will shut down streamers using Counter-Strike gambling sites. Those sites may not be long for this world. “Per Twitch’s Terms of Service, broadcasters are not permitted to stream content that breaks the terms of service or user agreements of third-parties,” the company said in a blog post. “As…

Twitch Begins Ditching Its Crappy Flash Video Player Today

Twitch is one of the most popular video services still using Flash, with most everyone else having transitioned to the lighter and faster HTML5. As of today, the website’s paying Turbo users will get access to a new video player. My MacBook Air is pretty capable. Sure, it’s not for hardcore gaming, but it can…

Earth Defense Force, the sci-fi action series known primarily for having big bugs and a terrible frame rate, is coming to the PC via Steam on July 18. The PC version is Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair and features an English dub for the first time. (And presumably a decent frame…

You Can Now Request New Pokestops and Gyms In Pokémon Go [Update]

Live in a place with crappy Pokémon Go landmarks? Don’t have enough Pokestops near you? Have a good idea for something that would make for a great meeting ground for Pokémon Go players? Good news. You can now lobby Niantic with Pokémon Go requests. Requesting new Pokestops and gyms is easy. Just visit the official…

Local multiplayer human-worm wrestling game Push Me Pull You arrives on Steam today for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Hasbro’s Comic-Con Exclusive Soundwave Transforms Into A Tablet

While it would be much more impressive if the Android-looking tablet the San Diego Comic-Con exclusive Soundwave transformed into actually worked, turning something so flat into a robot with such presence is still quite a feat. If he looks familiar, that’s because this tablet version of Soundwave began life as a collaboration between Chinese electronics…

Nintendo Announces The Mini-NES, Will Play 30 Classic Games

Looks like we might be playing Zelda this holiday after all—just not the one we expected. Nintendo today announced the mini-NES, a new $60 machine that will come pre-installed with 30 classic Nintendo games. It’ll also come with an HDMI cable, a power adapter, and what Nintendo is calling an NES Classic Controller, “patterned after…

Pokémon Go has finally been released in the UK, our colleagues at Kotaku UK report. Good news if you’ve been hankering to play and live in the United Kingdom!

The Financial District. Providence, Rhode Island. By Eric Carvalho. 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!

Oh, did somebody find a Squirtle?

Cops Called, Eggs Thrown At Hundreds Of Pokémon Go Players In Sydney

Remember how cool Australia was when Pokémon Go launched? What’s been happening in the Sydney suburb of Rhodes this week has been a little less pleasant. Some background: Rhodes is a suburb with a ton of high-density apartments, all clustered around the waterfront and a big IKEA/shopping mall. When Pokémon Go was released last week,…

Anarcute Is A (Very Cute) Game About Rioting

New Steam release Anarcute is a game about smashing up cities and putting the boot into a dystopian future security force. It is Katamari Damacy vs Jet Set Radio, only with violence, and it’s one of the nicest surprises I’ve played this year. The game is about controlling an ever-growing swarm of rioters, who are…

A Dark Theory On What Happens To Transferred Pokémon

I love Pokémon Go. It’s fun for the whole family. Cute, cute, cute. I hear that Pidgey is popular with the kids. Well, kids, Pidgey is cute, but Pidgeotto is fierce. It’s probably because he subsists off the recycled, ground-up appendages of Pidgeys past. But don’t worry about that! To evolve Pidgey into Pidgeotto, you…

That Time The Original Ghostbusters Reunited For A Video Game

A third Ghostbusters movie arrives in theaters this week, after decades of trying to revive the comedy sci-fi series. But for many fans, including some of the folks who made Ghostbusters, the third movie was a 2009 video game. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis co-wrote the original Ghostbusters film, and though the two hoped to…

Pokémon Go Fans Seek To End Cross-Faction Hostility Via Team Harmony

A lovely bit of design work from DeviantArt’s Seoxys6 is quickly becoming the banner of Pokémon Go fans already tired of the senseless hostility brewing between teams Mystic, Instinct and Asking For It. Can’t we all just get along? No. But it’s a wonderful dream, this Team Harmony. Seoxys6’s depiction of a fourth, all-encompassing Pokémon…

Pokémon Go Can Be Depressing For Fans With Physical Disabilities

Pokémon Go is getting gamers outside, but not all gamers. Tales of trespassing, fence-jumping and brave jaunts through tough terrain to catch Pokémon have bolstered the hit mobile game’s popularity among able-bodied players. Physically handicapped fans of the Pokémon franchise, however, are struggling to love a Pokémon game in which movement is a crucial mechanic.…

The Internet Reacts To Overwatch‘s Badass New Sniper Mom

Overwatch’s new hero, Ana, is a lot of things we don’t typically see in video games. She’s a sniper who heals people, an older woman, and a mother of a lady who lobs rockets at people’s faces for a living. Overwatch fans already adore her. In Overwatch’s lore, Ana is the mother of Pharah “justice…

The Internet Has Fallen In Love With Pokémon Sun and Moon’s Pikachu Imposter

Meet Mimicyu, a ghost type Pokémon that should look pretty damn familiar to you. There’s actually a good reason for that. As Serebii explains, Mimicyu was recently revealed on Japanese magazine CoroCoro. Serebii’s translation of the unveil states that Mimicyu is wearing a cloth costume based on popular Pikachu merchandise. “It wants to be loved…