Why I Play

In the first years of my career as a games writer, I got used to a certain reaction from my parents’ friends when they were told about what I was doing for a living. It was usually along the lines of “what a waste”. I imagined them shaking their heads as if they’d just been…

Women Earn Significantly Less Money Than Men At Rockstar North, Among Other Gaming Companies 

A number of gaming companies in the UK employ women in roles which, on average, pay less than the ones their male colleagues are in according to a new UK government database. At Grand Theft Auto makers Rockstar North, the gap is particularly large. At the studio based in Edinburgh, Scotland, the average hourly rate…

The Problems With Illegible Text In Video Games And Some Solutions To Fix Them

Joe Humfrey, art and code director at game development studio Inkle, believes that the primary goal in designing text for video games is “making sure every word is effortless to read.” It turns out that making sure players can read and understand on-screen text is a more complicated task than you might think. You might…

The Shanghai Dragons’ Signings Were Good, But Not Nearly Enough

Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon finally made her debut for the Shanghai Dragons last night, a huge deal—the first game ever for the first woman in America’s most prominent esports league yet. And like every other match they’ve played in the Overwatch League, the Dragons got trounced, this time by the Dallas Fuel. But there were some…

Fortnite‘s Map Is Annoying

After playing PUBG’s genuinely awesome new map earlier this week, I decided to embrace my battle royale fever and play some Fortnite as well. Relearning that game’s particular rhythm and playstyle has been fun but there’s one problem: I hate the in-game map. I consider myself a cautious battle royale player, at least in solos.…

Amazon Leaks Spyro Remastered Trilogy [UPDATE: Official]

A remastered Spyro trilogy is coming this September, we now know thanks to an early Amazon leak. It’s called Spyro: Reignited Trilogy, and publisher Activision will surely give it a proper announcement soon. UPDATE (11am): And now it’s official: September 21 for PS4 and Xbox One. Original article follows: First reported by our friends at…

Overwatch’s next in-game event is called Retribution. It’ll include a four-player PVE mission in which you play as Blackwatch, Overwatch’s rebel maverick squad, in Venice. The hero lineup will be Reaper, McCree, Moira, and Genji, but as with last year’s Uprising event, there’ll be an all-heroes mode as well. Retribution runs from April 10-30.

Steam Spy has put together an interesting collection of stats and figures on Steam’s 2017, showing everything from the biggest games to the fate of indie sales

Nintendo Fan Account Flagged On Twitter For Image Of Man Putting On Princess Peach Mask [Update]

The excellent Supper Mario Broth—a blog dedicated to weird and fun tidbits of Nintendo history—has had its Twitter account flagged as “sensitive” after it posted an image of…an actor putting on a giant Princess Peach mask. Here’s the tweet in question: Note that the original image as it was first tweeted was in colour: The…

New Street Fighter Board Game Looks Really Cool

There’s a new, official Street Fighter board gameon the way, and it’s a lot more ambitious than I was expecting given the subject matter. Using big and detailed miniatures, Street Fighter takes place on large, expansive maps, where players can either fight 1v1 or—and this is where it gets interesting—as teams, including a boss fight…

Overwatch League Player Gets Three-Game Suspension And “Streaming Privileges Revoked” For Racist Gesture

The Overwatch League’s leaked code of conduct gives Blizzard and the OWL an incredible amount of control over players, including anything that happens on their own streams, so part of the latest punishment for a heated gaming moment comes as no surprise. After the Philadelphia Fusion’s Josh “Eqo” Corona made a slant-eye gesture and said…

The New Ways Rainbow Six Siege Is Going To Get Rid Of Jerk Players

Toxic interactions have long been a problem in Rainbow Six Siege. As the game has grown in popularity, so has the amount of trolling and harassment. As part of an ongoing effort to try to clean up this aspect of the game, today Ubisoft laid out some new changes coming to the game in year…

Sea Of Thieves Players Can’t Stop “Insta-Brigging” Each Other

Sometimes, you need to get a little rowdy when playing Sea of Thieves. But if you cause too much trouble, your crewmates might end up locking you in the brig. Or they might just lock you up for the hell of it. Many solo players joining crews are finding themselves instantly locked up without any…

Overwatch Star Has Advice For Mercy Players: “Be Selfish”

Overwatch’s Mercy is a “support” hero, which in layman’s terms means she’s mopping up trails of blood left behind after Overwatch battles. Mercy’s job is to heal her weak teammates, assisting them as they lay waste to enemies. It’s an apparently subservient job often painted as easy, and therefore, undervalued—that is, unless you’re Hong “Ark”…

What We Loved About Legion‘s Season Two Premiere

Legion returned with its season two premiere last night. I still can’t get it out of my head. Neither can Kotaku’s Gita Jackson, which is why we decided to sit down and discuss the episode at length. But first a quick recap of where the show’s first eight episodes left us. Last season ended with…