Rocket League Match Ends In Game Of Keepie Uppie

Cloud9 has secured a neat 3-0 at the end of its match yesterday against Out of Style in the Rocket League championship series. Mariano “Squishy” Arruda was not content to let the game end at the zero, however, and caught the ball at just the last second for a game of keepie uppie A game…

Breaking Mario Party 8 Reveals The Importance Of Camera Positioning

The art of game creation is always interesting, but looking behind the curtain of Mario Party 8 is a particularly wonderful experience that shows the power of a highly controlled camera. In the newest episode of Boundary Break, a show dedicated to moving cameras around to find the hidden things in games, we get to…

A Japanese Virtua Fighter Tournament Returned From Hiatus, And It Was Rad

Amid all the pro circuits and premiers for games like Street Fighter and Tekken, you might have forgotten about another classic: Virtua Fighter. Last night in Japan, 510 entrants gathered in Tokyo to play some Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown and y’all, it was pretty rad. To boil it down, Virtua Fighter is a very…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Give Me All The Dogs

We’ve talked a lot about dogs a lot this week. We appreciated them in Divinity: Original Sin 2, praised them in Far Cry 5, and got sad when they were hurt. This week, I want you to put dogs in every game. There are plenty of dogs in video games. The problem is that they…

What If A Video Game Knew People Were Streaming It?

Would you play a video game that reacted to being streamed? One that could be influenced by audience reactions? On Kotaku Splitscreen, we explore the possibility. Last week in San Francisco, we spoke to SOS designer Ian Milham about what it’s like to develop a game that’s heavily integrated with Twitch, and what he wants…

The Best (And Worst) April Fools’ Day Jokes For 2018

It is April 1, the cursed day, when every person and brand decides that they are, in fact, the funniest person or distributed agent on the planet. Here’s a roundup of the best and worst April Fool’s gags from the land of games for 2018. (For a recap of last year, here are 2017’s offerings.)…

Sunday Comics: Working Holodeck

Hello! It’s time for Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published March 26. Read more of Awkward Zombie Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published March 29. Read more of Corpse Run Double XP by…

League of Legends Stream Follows One Pro’s Perspective For Entire Match

Fnatic and Team Vitality clashed in the European League Championship Series spring semifinals today, a match that would end in victory for the former. While the game itself was interesting, it was the manner of broadcast that grabbed my attention. In addition to the regular main stream, Riot Games broadcast a second stream that was…

I Love Ni No Kuni II‘s Simple, Elegant Side Quests

I’ve been dipping back into Ni no Kuni II over the past week in short spurts in order to collect all of the possible citizens for my kingdom of Evermore. It’s because the game excels at making me feel like I did a good job at finishing simple quests. I don’t think think that many…

StarCraft Anniversary Stream Is Part LAN Party, Part Reunion

This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the StarCraft franchise. A lot of folks have a lot of love for this series, and few more than the crew that have gathered in what appears to be a Blizzard backlot studio to host a celebration stream A couch of StarCraft personalities Sean “Day9″ Plott, Nick “Tasteless”…

I Hate Hearing My Dog Buddy Get Hurt In Far Cry 5

Far Cry 5 has given us a wonderful ally named Boomer. He’s a dog, and he’s my friend, but I don’t use him because I hate seeing and hearing him get hurt. I am a big fan of animal companions in games, and Boomer is one of the best that we’ve gotten so far. He’s…

There’s A Comet In Fortnite, And Players Have Wild Theories About What It Means

There’s something strange going on in Fortnite right now. Controllers are rumbling randomly, when nothing is happening. There’s something in the sky that wasn’t there before. Nobody knows what any of it means. Right now, if you look up into Fortnite’s skybox, you might notice a shiny orb with a celestial tail. It looks like…

Counter-Strike Commentator Drops Racial Slur During Birthday Stream

During a celebratory birthday stream last night, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive commentator Matthew “Sadokist” Trivett called members of his stream chat the n-word on stream, as well as telling one member of the CS:GO community to kill themself. Trivett was live and playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds when he drops the slur. “I am literally going 50 percent…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Everyone Loves Boats, Winners!

Well, you did it. You created some of the best ‘shops about putting characters on boats that I have ever seen. This is the kind of boating scenario where everyone wins. Last week I asked you to imagine a seafaring scenario with your favorite game characters. Just like you do every week, you delivered, and…

The Weekend In Esports: Headin’ On Up To NorCal

The fighting game community takes a big pit stop this week in the land of Lady Bird. This weekend’s NorCal Regionals features all the basic fighting game staples you would want, from Street Fighter and Tekken to ARMS. After Infiltration’s win at Final Round with Menat, I really want to see if he can keep…

This Week in the Business: No cursing like sailors on the Sea of Thieves 

STAT | 2 million – Number of Sea of Thieves players in the game’s first week of release. It is Microsoft’s fastest-selling first-party original IP since the Xbox One launched in 2013 QUOTE | “We’ve clarified that use of offensive language and fraudulent activity is prohibited. We’ve also clarified that violation… may result in suspensions…

Vandals is a turn-based graffiti game. You sneak around cities like Tokyo and Paris while avoiding cops, dogs, and other authorities who hate it when walls look cool. The game will include works from over 40 real-life street artists and teach players how they’ve influenced culture. It’ll be out next month.

The Real-Life Atari Secret That Inspired Ready Player One

Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ready Player One, like the source material, is chock full of references to 80s music, movies, and video games. It also throws in a few Master Chiefs, Overwatch characters, and the Iron Giant for good measure. Usually these references are surface level and fleeting, but a few carry more weight—like the…

The Original Arcade Punch-Out Plays Great On Switch

Punch-Out came out on Switch today! No, not Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out. Not the Wii Punch-Out, either. The one that started them all, the granddaddy of Nintendo’s boxing series: the 1984 arcade version of Punch-Out. It’s worth playing if you love the series, but just be aware that it’s pretty rough around the edges by today’s…