Friday, October 7, 2016

News:: Valve brings monetized, limited-use sprays to Counter-Strike: GO

[Screenshot by Afro Deziak]

Did someone use their monkey's paw to wish for sprays in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive?

As of this week's update, Valve has introduced graffiti to the game. It's a light feature folks have wanted to see make a return for this installment, but the way in which it's being handled is unfortunate (if also rather unsurprising, given the other money-driven hooks attached to Global Offensive).

To acquire graffiti sprays, players will either have to 1) earn them as a weekly drop for ranking up, 2) buy a specific pattern on the Steam Market, or 3) purchase a community-made "Graffiti Box" with proceeds from sales then "shared among the community artists."

Valve brings monetized, limited-use sprays to Counter-Strike: GO screenshot

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News:: BioWare's best console game comes to iOS this week

I don't know if BioWare can ever top its initial PC run. The studio just...nailed it, and crafted some incredible RPG experiences with actual, open role-playing. In its move to consoles (and subsequently, Electronic Arts) it added a little bit more action, then a tad more (the balance was fine with Mass Effect 2), then went overboard in Dragon Age 2.

But before that drastic tonal shift was Jade Empire. It managed to tackle morality with finesse and take us to a place that wasn't a sci-fi or traditional western fantasy wonderland. It's still one of BioWare's most ambitious and unique projects to date, and features an entire cast of characters worth connecting with.

Now you can grab it on iOS for $9.99, which features controller support in addition to touch capabilities.

Jade Empire [iOS]

BioWare's best console game comes to iOS this week screenshot



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News:: Review in progress: Mafia III

Mafia III begins with protagonist Lincoln Clay playing a part in a grand heist. It's not something we haven't seen before in video games, but it still feels kind of unexpected. This game's predecessor, Mafia II, spent far too much time depicting the rote side of mob life. Selling cartons of cigarettes out the back of a truck, loading cargo, driving people to and fro -- it's the Goodfellas Henry Hill school of thought that you put in your time and prove your loyalty. That maybe makes for a good plan to rise through the ranks of a real crime syndicate, but it does not make for an entertaining game.

In that way, Mafia III is kind of Mafia in name alone. This is a title that wastes no time getting to the point. Its documentary-style recounting of events lends itself to a Pulp Fiction-like skipping about in the timeline, leaving developer Hangar 13 free to punctuate the story with important moments whenever the hell it pleases. It's a narrative tool that, in theory, should clear Mafia III's plot of any egregious pacing issues.

I wouldn't know quite yet, though. I'm a few hours in, three or four probably. It's enough time to have seen Clay's rise and fall from grace, and the beginning of his quest for revenge. It's also enough to say with confidence that Mafia III has had no problem keeping my attention -- something that I distinctly remember Mafia II struggling with six years ago.

One of the most striking aspects of Mafia III so far is watching how people in a 1960s southern America setting treat Clay. His mother was black, his father was Italian, probably. As an early bit of exposition astutely points out, that other half doesn't really matter; it was a time and place where if you looked like a black man, you were treated like a black man.

Review in progress: Mafia III screenshot

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News:: Legends unite in the newest Pokemon trailer

We're getting really close to the release for Pokémon Sun and Moon, and the Pokémon Company is releasing trailers regularly. Today's is called the "Legendaries trailer," yet despite that the two Legendary creatures don't get a lot of screen time. They do look fantastic in their segments though, and it's safe to assume that the fully rendered Solgaleo and Lunala will be part of Sun and Moon's opening sequence. There may be some spoilers discussed here, so if you're planning on visiting Alola blind, it might be best to turn back now.

The first part of the trailer shows off some of the different locations you'll be visiting when Sun and Moon release. The cities shown all look very distinct, and the art direction looks great considering the limitations of the hardware. Ridable Pokémon make a big return here, with something called a Ride Pager shown. It looks like you can hang glide on a Charizard's back, sniff out hidden items with a Stoutland, fish from the back of a Lapras, or smash through water obstacles on a Sharpedo. (It doesn't count if you don't sing "I'm a shaaaaaark" as you do this last one.)

Some new creatures are shown off, including a lizard-like Pokémon that looks like it could have a Fire/Dark typing similar to Litten. Marowak gets an Alola Form, and it seems it'll gain the Fire type to spin its bone around in a manner similar to Polynesian fire dancers. We're also introduced to some people that'll be opposing Team Skull, a group calling itself the Aether Foundation. What's more, Professor Oak will apparently have a cameo.

There's a mention of a new type of creature called "Ultra Beasts," and the in-game avatars are shown reacting to one of these like Laura Dern in Jurassic Park. The trailer then moves on to combat, and it seems like each of the powerful new Z-attacks have an accompanying hula move performed by the trainer. Five of these are shown, including a couple we hadn't seen before. Never-Ending Nightmare sounds like a Ghost-type attack, and All-Out Pummeling must be the Fighting-type move. The Fire, Water, and Grass Z-moves are also demonstrated: Inferno Overdrive, Hydro Vortex, and Bloom Doom.

Pokémon Sun and Moon will release November 23, just before Thanksgiving. And while we're on the subject, don't forget to download Hoopa while you can, as the promotion ends on Sunday, October 9.

Legends unite in the newest Pokemon trailer screenshot



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News:: I Have No VR and I Must Scream

[Nostalgia meets horror meets happiness here in this beautiful thought journey from Manchild. Walk through the garden path of his mind.  ~Occams]

The other day I got to launch my way up a girls arsehole like a good ol' fashioned astronaut. No, really. She was a Czech model who had been payed to pose and be filmed in 3D. And with the HTC Vive, I was able to look at her in three whole dimensions in a way I'd never seen a naked girl before. The pose she was in left little to the imagination, and it said to me with subtle suggestion, "Come. Climb inside my rectum." (Why? Why would I do that? Because you can. And you shouldn't.)

I Have No VR and I Must Scream screenshot

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News:: What Are You Playing This Weekend?

Sometimes, when Saturday morning rolls around, I think, “Oh boy—two whole days to do all the work I didn’t get to during the week!” I’m like that, readers. But, since I work at Kotaku, sometimes that work is playing video games!

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News:: What the hell's left to be excited about this year?

[Update: This post originally ran on September 26, 2016. I told you all. I told you. In this post from a couple weeks back talking about the most anticipated games left for 2016, I mentally elided Gravity Rush 2, my most anticipated game for like three years running. I caught it later that day and amended the post. Something in my mind went, "There's no way this pure and blessed game would sully itself, coming out in such a depraved, backwards years." And my -- call it what you will: intuition, omnipotence, handsomeness -- was dead the fuck on. Shortly after, Gravity Rush 2 was delayed until January 20, 2017. I knew it. Death to this trash year, or me, whichever comes first.]

The last couple years, I've noticed my excitement petering out going into the busy holiday video game season. I think I'm just more suited to the new-ish, busy spring season than the latter half of the year where all the Christmas gifts -- Call of Duty et al -- seem to be dropping. This is a simplification and there are plenty of exceptions, of course.

I do remember, though, in 2014, Alien: Isolation (October 7) being the last thing in the year I was particularly jazzed for. Same for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (September 1) last year. Sure, Samurai Gunn came out in December a few years back. And yes, I ended up liking Rise of the Tomb Raider last November. And, hey, December had Just Cause 3. So it might be me arbitrarily imposing my taste on an existing calendar.

But I was recently thinking, with Persona 5 pushed back: what the heck am I stoked for in the last quarter of 2016? Not, which games are probably going to be fine and good, but which am I longing for? Well, thanks to Open Critic's neat major release calendar, I've got answers!

Mostly it's Dishonored 2. I absolutely loved the first, which mixed BioShock-level stylization with much more coherent themes -- Javy Gwaltney wrote a good thing on how it's the best Batman game. Plus I like the stealth and creeping, though the game has surprising combat depth allowing for some wild fucking trick kills that people have put out. 

Beyond that, I am still steadily excited for The Last Guardian, even though it was delayed (again), and I am at least interested in Final Fantasy XV, but possibly not enough to give it a sniff at launch.

What are you super jazzed for as this horrible, rotten, no-good year wanes?

[Update: I'm fucking stupid because my most anticipated game for the last three years running, Gravity Rush 2, is indeed planned for December 2, 2016, and not early 2017, where my brain transposed it. Fuck every other game that is not Gravity Rush 2!!!]

What the hell's left to be excited about this year? screenshot



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News:: New VR Mode Changes Game’s ESRB Rating, Even For Players Who Don't Get The New Mode

Many PlayStation owners received a system notification on Thursday that the frenetic arcade-style shooter Super Stardust Ultra is getting bumped up from an ESRB rating of E to E10+. A video game’s rating doesn’t usually change after it’s been released. In this case, strangely, the rating will change even though, for some people, the game will not.

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News:: A leak shows Halloween-themed content coming to Overwatch soon

Halloween costumes and Overwatch's generally bad-ass skins seem like the perfect match, so of course people have been clamoring for seasonal content. We all know it's coming, it's just a question of when and how. A Reddit poster by the name of ChronosHero spotted what may be a leak on Xbox Live that has some details for us.

Since the text is cut off there, ChronosHero supplied the rest:

Description of the loot box: celebrate halloween with some frightening treats for your heroes during a new event : overwatch halloween terror!

Trick out your collection by picking up halloween loot boxes, availables for a limmited time. Every loot box contains up to four cosmetic items, including at least one halloween skin, highlight intro, emote, victory pose, player icon, voice line , or credits that you can use to unlock other items. more then 100 halloween items are waiting to be unwrapped!

if your halloween loot box contain an item that is already in your collection, you will instead receive coins

*Halloween loot boxes are available to purchase or earn in-game until 11/1/16 at 4pm pt.

Assuming this is real (the two spaces between the words "Halloween" and "Loot" set off my skepticism radar), the event should be happening relatively soon. With only a little more than three weeks to redeem the boxes, I'd expect it sometime in the next few days. I'm curious as to whether there will be a new game mode like Lucioball from the Summer Games event or if it'll just be skins, sprays, lines, and the like.

Mostly I just want to see how they'll make Reaper even more of a 'Weenie.

A leak shows Halloween-themed content coming to Overwatch soon screenshot

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News:: Hearthstone Pro Terrence Miller Hopes To Clean Up Twitch Chat’s Racism Problem

Terrence Miller loves card games. Long before he took second in the Dreamhack Austin Hearthstone tournament earlier this year, he competed in games like Yu-Gi-Oh and the Pokemon TCG. Unfortunately, many people know his name because he got showered with racist Twitch chat abuse during Dreamhack Austin earlier this year. Last weekend, it happened again.

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News:: Watch ads to tip your favorite Twitch streamers

Just when it looked like Twitch was looking to reduce the amount of ads on its site, the live-streaming service has introduced a new way for users to tip their favourite casters that relies heavily on them. It comes as an extension to the "Cheering" emotes announced in June and lets viewers accumulate Bits -- a Twitch currency where emoticons translate into donations -- by simply sitting through a 30-second interactive ad.

Source: Twitch Blog



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News:: Review: Paper Mario: Color Splash

I need to apologize in advance for what you're about to read. I'm about to gush about a game. I'm going to gush hard. I'm going to gush about its graphics, about its music, about its humor and about all the improvements it made over Paper Mario: Sticker Star. I don't like to be the reviewer who just adulates games, but it's hard not to when you have an experience that consistently puts a smile on your face.

Don't worry, I'm going to dig into the stuff I don't care for, but looking at my time with the game as a whole I have to say – to quote Carly Rae Jepsen – I really, really, really, really, really, really, like Paper Mario: Color Splash.

Review: Paper Mario: Color Splash screenshot

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News:: Hot Ryu becomes Samurai Ryu with Street Fighter 5 Halloween costume DLC

It's the moooost spookiest tiiiime of the yeeeear… and you know what that means: costume DLC! Street Fighter 5 is getting all dressed up and scary to celebrate Halloween, with special costumes for Ryu, Necalli, Nash, Vega, Cammy, Juri, and Alex coming October 11

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News:: Oculus Avatars turned me into a creepy VR mannequin

While yesterday's Oculus announcement centered mostly around VR hardware and games, the company also rolled out a few new features that'll let you socialize with the rest of your Rift-owning pals. Central to this concept is the Oculus Avatar, which is essentially a representations of your virtual self. Think of it as a VR version of Xbox Avatars or the Nintendo Mii. I had a chance to create my very own Oculus Avatar at the event and it's unlike any other video game character I've created before.



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News:: Talking about the future with Suda51

With The Silver Case finally being released outside of Japan, I figured it was never to early to look ahead and see what Goichi Suda's thoughts on the future were in a short one-on-one interview with the gaming icon at Tokyo Game Show. Can I say one-on-one if an interpreter was present? I'll say yes.

Japanese people can be more hesitant to make concrete promises than westerners, considering it would tarnish their image to not fulfill what would be seen as promises. So while there aren't any major reveals here, we can get some good hints at what Grasshopper Manufacture does and does not have in mind going forward.

Talking about the future with Suda51 screenshot

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News:: Mob Psycho 100 Season One: The Kotaku Anime Review

This summer’s breakout anime was, undeniably, Mob Psycho 100. From the creator of 2015’s viral anime One-Punch Man, Mob Psycho 100's first season was an absurd, psychedelic feast drawn up by Studio BONES. Its frenzied art style is unmatched by any other contemporary anime, although Masaaki Yuasa-directed titles like Mind Game or Kaiba come close in spirit. Mob Psycho 100’s art reaches expressive heights unexplored by similarly shōnen-tinged titles.

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News:: Star Wars Battlefront will be free on EA Access by the end of the year

Hold your blaster fire if you're thinking about buying Star Wars Battlefront on Xbox One sometime in the next few months

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News:: Four questions with the founder of Fnatic

Sam Mathews founded the European esports organization Fnatic in 2004, after selling his car to send a group of players to a competitive gaming event in Las Vegas. A dozen years ago, esports were barely a blip on the mainstream radar, but Mathews was an early adopter -- and the industry grew quickly. His teams continued to expand and succeed in tournaments for a range of games, including Quake, Counter-Strike, Dota 2 and League of Legends.

Today, Fnatic is one of the world's largest and most popular esports organizations, consistently competing for millions of dollars and selling swag across the globe. As one of the first entrepreneurs to believe in esports, Mathews has a unique perspective on the industry's history and how it will continue to evolve going forward. Professional video game tournaments are already being aired live on television, after all.

Last week, Mathews took a break from the ESL One Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament in New York to answer four questions about esports and the pressures of leading one of its most legendary organizations. We've recorded his thoughts below.



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News:: Civilization VI feels like a new beginning for the series

Sitting down to write this preview was a challenge. That isn’t because I can’t describe Civilization VI or I don’t like the game; it has to do with the nature of turn-based strategy titles. They become so addicting that you almost can’t turn away. Damn that “one more turn” prompt!

While not every change is positive, Civilization VI makes for a marked improvement over V and may even replace IV as my personal favorite of the series.

Civilization VI feels like a new beginning for the series screenshot

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News:: Slayer Shock Is A Stealth Game For Buffy Fans

Do you ever wish you could play a Buffy The Vampire Slayer video game that didn’t feature whichever cast member you like the least (such as all the men Buffy dates because they are terrible models for young people’s relationships)? Slayer Shock might have you covered.

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News:: Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location Is More Than Just Jump Scares

I went into Five Nights At Freddy’s: Sister Location feeling skeptical. The last FNAF game made some changes to the formula, but the whole shtick felt kind of worn. This time, however, developer Scott Cawthon has some new tricks up his sleeve.

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News:: 10 Counter-Strike Bugs Valve Still Hasn’t Fixed

Counter-Strike is a game of skill and precision. In theory, it’s the sort of shooter where, if something goes wrong, you have only yourself (or your teammates) to blame. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

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News:: Another Pokemon Go update is on the way that overhauls gyms

Slowly but surely, Pokemon Go is getting features. They might not be good ones, but they're a start. This one that deals with gyms however, is definitely good.

Niantic has revealed that an upcoming patch will specifically alter the way gyms work in the game, which is a two-fold process. Firstly, you can bring six Pokemon (instead of the weird solo requirement) into a training fight to help boost up your gym level. But the real kicker? The game will employ a level scaling system so that even if you're going into a hardcore 2000+ led gym as a casual player, you can still train with your lesser Pokemon.

There's no timeline for this change (much like anything Go related), but it's another great change that should have been in the original game. I've noticed a lot of casual players have been put off by how hard folks have been gaming the system non-stop, so this should usher some of them back into the fold.

Gym training just got easier [Pokemon Go]

Another Pokemon Go update is on the way that overhauls gyms screenshot



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News:: Doctor Who spin-off Class is almost in session, come watch the teaser

The Doctor isn't the only one who has time-hopping, extradimensional creatures breathing down his neck

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News:: Watch Superman's return in Justice League UK wrap footage

Zack Snyder caused a bit of a stir at the end of Batman v Superman when the kissy-curled Kryptonian died

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News:: Deadspin NFL Memo Blames Plummeting TV Ratings On Presidential Election, Bad Matchups | Jezebel The

Deadspin NFL Memo Blames Plummeting TV Ratings On Presidential Election, Bad Matchups | Jezebel The Evolution of Nate Parker’s Awful Birth of a Nation Press Tour | Gizmodo Peter Thiel’s Lawyer Isn’t Stopping His War on Journalists | The Muse You Are Not Required to Witness The Birth of a Nation’s Violence |

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News:: Destiny: Xur weapons, gear, and location, October 7 - 9. Thunderlord!

Xur, Destiny’s weekend trader, inveterate gin fiend, and wholesale merchant of middling-quality jellied eels (if you want less than 500 jars, don’t waste his time), is back

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News:: Doctor Strange is a “perfect entry point” to the supernatural side of the MCU says producer Kevin Feige

The new Doctor Strange featurette has hit our screens and it’s cemented the fact that we’re seeing a completely new genre of superhero movie

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News:: The 8 things that matter in Overwatch’s new update

Game director Jeff Kaplan’s recent update has given us the low-down on what shiny new things we can expect to see in Overwatch, some features coming sooner than later

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News:: Destiny's Wraith of the Machines Heroic mode coming in November. Git gud etc

It took Destiny's new Rise of Iron Wrath of the Machine raid all of two hours to be beaten

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News:: Frio River.

Frio River. Texas Hill Country, Texas. By Chris Lopez.

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News:: 'Superhot VR' feels like a time bending, action-packed puzzle

Earlier this year, Superhot launched on PC and consoles with a fresh gameplay gimmick: Time only moves when you move. This simple idea turned the fast-paced action of an FPS shooter into an odd, methodical, and tense puzzle game where players could stop in their tracks to think their way around a barrage of incoming bullets. It's incredibly fun on traditional gaming platforms -- but it's even better in virtual reality.



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News:: Track: Days Gone | Artist: Tor | Album: Blue Book

Track: Days Gone | Artist: Tor | Album: Blue Book

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News:: Oculus' prototype headset points to VR's wireless future

Tucked away inside the dark hallways of the San Jose Convention Center is a meeting room with signs that read "No photos" and "No food or drink." I shook the hands of the Oculus spokespeople who were there to greet me and proceeded to try to get in the door. But before I could do that, I was instructed to leave my backpack, my purse and my phone behind. When I was finally allowed in, I was surprised to see that the room was decorated to look like a giant living space, with a large sofa and chaise in one corner and pillows, books and paintings placed throughout. But I wasn't there to judge the interior design. No, I was there to try a prototype of Oculus' newly announced standalone VR headset, Santa Cruz.



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