Nvidia’s come up with new AI-powered tech that swaps out your real eyes for digital ones that will never stop looking at your webcam. It’s very creepy, and one more sign of how unnatural you have to act online to become a popular streamer in 2023.
Source: Kotaku – New AI Tech Gives Twitch Streamers Constant, Creepy Eye Contact
The Metroidvania is by far the most esoterically named genre of video games. A portmanteau of Metroid and Castlevania, it pretty much boils down to: non-linear platform games with ability-gated exploration. Or, you know, you explore until you reach a point that requires a skill you’ve yet to pick up.
Source: Kotaku – The 11 Best Metroidvanias To Get Lost In Right Now
Workers at Proletariat Studio, also known as Blizzard Boston, won’t be unionizing after all. The Communications Workers of America Union announced on Tuesday that it will pull its petition for a union election, and blames Proletariat CEO Seth Sivak for treating workers’ organizing efforts as a personal betrayal and…
Source: Kotaku – Blizzard Boston Devs Blame Boss For Torpedoing Union
It’s right there in the Bible—ask, and it will be given to you. It’s also right there on gaming Twitter, where the small gaming podcast Super Pod Saga posed an innocent question on January 15 and people showed up to respond in droves: “What is the most useless piece of video game knowledge you know?”
Source: Kotaku – Twitter Keeps Sharing ‘Useless’ Video Game Knowledge That’s Actually Amazing
Though HBO’s The Last of Us largely preserves the story and lore of the original game, it rarely seems interested in adapting the actual things most players spend time doing when playing The Last of Us. In prioritizing the game’s narrative over depicting specific gameplay mechanics, there’s a tension told through the…
Source: Kotaku – The Last Of Us Show Might Be Better If It Worked More Like The Game
When you tune into Twitch streamer Perrikaryal’s channel, you might see her playing FromSoftware’s role-playing game epic Elden Ring with fourteen, unfamiliar black sensors stuck to her scalp. It’s her—as she said during an informational stream earlier today—“just for fun” electroencephalogram (EEG) device, something…
Source: Kotaku – Twitch Streamer Plays Elden Ring Using Only Her Brain
On Tuesday, Riot Games announced that the source code for both League of Legends and Team Fight Tactics was stolen, and that it would not be paying the ransom demanded by hackers to get it back. It’s the latest in a spree of data breaches at big game companies, and means both games could be increasingly vulnerable to…
Source: Kotaku – League of Legends Source Code Hacked, Riot Refuses To Pay Blackmail
Holiday Matsuri is one of the coolest cosplay shows on the North American calendar. Taking place in Florida in December, the location means that instead of shivering inside a convention centre somewhere freezing their asses off, attendees are instead free to hit the pool, and the timing means we get to see a bunch of…
Source: Kotaku – Our Favorite Cosplay From Holiday Matsuri
A story ran on Bloomberg earlier today with the headline “Blizzard Manager Departs In Protest of Employee Ranking System”. It sounds very businessy, maybe something that would land on the Linkedin news feed of a HR manager, but the stuff it’s describing is important because it sounds absolutely dystopian.
Source: Kotaku – Blizzard’s ‘Workplace Ranking’ For Employees Sounds Like Hell
When Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden were released on new platforms last week, much was made of the fact that for the first time ever the latter was going to feature French, Italian, German and Spanish subtitles. That was great news for European fans, but the people most responsible for this achievement aren’t…
Source: Kotaku – Persona 3 & 4 Translators Left Out Of Game’s Credits
Genesis 9, a major fighting game tournament, took place over the weekend. There were stellar combos and massive upsets as the supermajor event for Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate concluded on January 22. Unfortunately, while the tournament was underway, one of Canada’s top Kazuya players, Michael “Riddles” Kim,…
Source: Kotaku – Top Smash Ultimate Player Throws Controller At Tournament, Sparks ‘Privilege’ Discourse
I’m sure that indie studio Mojiken’s supernatural slice-of-life A Space for the Unbound is the perfect game to play when it’s raining outside. It’s set in a pixel-y, 1990’s Indonesia, where everything is tinged in an evocative seafoam green, flanked by a low, hot sun and pink clouds. It gives you an attractive, dry…
Source: Kotaku – It’s The Best Time Of Year For This Cozy, Slow Burn Game
The Makima simps of the world are no doubt going through rough post-season withdrawals now that Chainsaw Man Tuesdays are a thing of the past. If you’re in dire need of something to read that’s in the same wheelhouse as Tatsuki Fujimoto’s magnum opus, you’re in luck, because we’ve got a list of bizarre manga for you…
Source: Kotaku – 10 Manga You Should Read If You Loved Chainsaw Man
Popular Disney World ride Splash Mountain—based on animated scenes from the controversial 1960s Disney film, Song of the South—has shut down. A lot of people loved the ride, which dated back to 1992, so it makes sense that yesterday, Disney adults and superfans alike crowded the park all in an effort to ride Splash…
Source: Kotaku – Disney Fans Are Selling Splash Mountain Water After Ride Closes
The Last of Us’ TV adaptation is a rare bird in terms of staying true to its source material—particularly when it comes to video games. But even a show that aims to be as authentic as HBO’s treatment of the hit PlayStation series needs to make a few changes to adapt to a different form of storytelling. After the…
Source: Kotaku – The Big Ways The Last Of Us Show Changes The Game’s Lore
Late last week, Square Enix announced that its beleaguered 2020 live-service game, Marvel’s Avengers, will no longer receive new content or major updates after March 31. And all official support for the game will end on September 30, 2023, with digital sales ending on that date too. While you’ll still be able to play…
Source: Kotaku – Marvel’s Avengers Is Dying, But Spider-Man Remains Trapped On PlayStation
Quordle is one of the more popular and difficult Wordle clones out there. Instead of solving just one linguistic brain teaser a day, you have to solve four puzzles simultaneously. And now it’s owned by Merriam-Webster, a dictionary company that appears to increasingly be pivoting from definitions to online games.
Source: Kotaku – American Dictionary Buys Beloved Wordle Clone Quordle
I’ve spent about a dozen hours playing games with the new DualSense Edge. At first, all the modular PlayStation 5 controller’s new bells and whistles feel extremely superfluous to me. I‘ve been playing video games on standard controllers all my life without issue, and even the settings the controller has doesn’t feel…
Source: Kotaku – The PS5’s Luxe New Controller Might Be A Game Changer (If You Can Afford It)
An original, sealed copy of Pokémon Yellow, reportedly worth nearly $4,000, was ruined by U.S. Customs and Border Protection after its seal was not only cracked but its case broken and the front of the box sliced clean off in a wanton display of aggression against collectibles, the owner claims. That owner, who goes…
Source: Kotaku – Pokémon Fan Says US Customs Destroyed ,000 Classic Game
