StarCraft II‘s Ladder Gets A Massive Revamp

Blizzard made some major changes to StarCraft II’s ladder system this week, adding tiers and new visual cues that will help players determine just how well they’re doing—and why they can’t get out of Silver. The revamped ladder, which went live yesterday, will now display your Matchmaking Rating (MMR) as a number that goes up…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Everything Must Go

With Pokémon Go fever gripping the bits of the globe currently capable of playing, it’s only a matter of time before other major video game franchise get in on the action. Let’s beat them to the punch, shall we? Update 7.13 — Three days down, three days to go. It’s shaping up to be the…

Marines Playing Pokémon Go Help Catch Attempted Murder Suspect

U.S. Marines Seth Ortega and Javier Soch were playing Pokémon Go at a park in Fullerton, California when the game locked up. While waiting for it to unfreeze, they looked up and noticed a man with a plastic red rose approach a woman with three children, KABC-TV Los Angeles reports. The woman and her children…

Japanese Video Game History Is Disappearing

It really is. We better do something about it, because bits of Japanese video game history have already vanished forever. This weekend at BitSummit, game preservation was in my mind as I sat down to talk with Grasshopper Manufacture’s Goichi Suda. He, perhaps, is as good as anyone to discuss Japanese game history with as…

Hideo Kojima Was So Worried About E3 Leaks

Wouldn’t you be, too? Late last year, Hideo Kojima set up shop once again and announced he was working on a new title. Only this past March, he worked on the Death Stranding teaser starring Norman Reedus. But he was worried info would spill out. In the most recent HideoTube on YouTube, Kojima talked about…

DurMan667 did this “quick mock-up” of an idea for a new battery saver mode for Pokémon Go. Rough edges aside I would use something like this 100% of the time.

Go Easy On The Pokémon Go, Texas A&M

The Texas A&M University Police Department has a Twitter feed which dumps little reports on every incident they’ve attended. It will not surprise you to learn that Pokémon Go has been keeping them busy this week. That last one sounds like it could have actually been a little dangerous! Kids, that warning screen when you…

Report: Hollywood Scrambling To Make Live-Action Pokémon Movie

Deadline is reporting that, in the wake of Pokémon Go’s instant and massive success, “all Hollywood has renewed the chase for a deal to turn Pokémon into a feature film.” Seems that attempts to make a live-action Pokémon movie have been humming in the background for a while now, but these have now gone into…

Overwatch‘s New Sniper Hero, Ana, Is So Much Fun To Play

Mother knows best. Overwatch’s new hero, Ana, is currently on the game’s public test servers. I’ve spent the past hour-and-a-half trying her out, and while this should hardly be taken as an in-depth appraisal, she is, so far, damn fun to play. Ana is a support sniper. The basic idea—a sniper who shoots people in…

GTA V Getting LGBT Pride Parade Mod

One of the least politically correct video game franchises is getting its own LGBT Pride parade, the Daily Dot reports. Yesterday, Scandinavian LGBT advocacy group Stockholm Pride released a trailer for their new unofficial “Los Santos Pride” mod for Grand Theft Auto V The trailer features exuberant LGBT folks of all races and genders celebrating…

World Of Warcraft‘s New Penalty Will Silence The Abusive And Obnoxious

Launching with the Legion expansion pre-update later this month, World of Warcraft’s new silence penalty is designed to let players engaging in abusive or inappropriate chat dig their own incredibly quiet, ever-expanding grave. Here’s how it works. A player is reported for abusive or inappropriate chat activity, be it in trade, area, party chat or…