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June 2019

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Two Weeks After Suspending Dr. Disrespect For Livestreaming In Bathroom, Twitch Restores His Channel

June 26, 2019Kotaku

Last night, Twitch reinstated Guy “Dr. Disrespect” Beahm’s gargantuan Twitch channel. This follows its removal after an incident at E3 involving a camera, a public bathroom and a 14-day channel suspension.Dr. Disrespect, whose whole schtick is bald-faced irreverence, was attending California’s E3 convention when, on the show’s first day, he and his cameraperson live-streamed Dr. Disrespect entering a bathroom. Tens of thousands of viewers watched him walk past bathroom-using attendees and go into a stall—all of which was apparently a violation of Twitch community guidelines. Twitch suspended him as a result and, on top of that, E3 revoked his badge….

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John Wick Hex Is A Portal Into John Wick’s Mind

June 21, 2019Kotaku

At a Keanu Reeves-filled E3 last week, I played a demo of John Wick Hex, a forthcoming action game directed and written by Mike Bithell, the creator of acclaimed indie games Thomas Was Alone and Volume. Playing John Wick Hex was like being transported inside of the titular assassin’s mind via a mashup of the best things about Transistor’s combat and Superhot’s time mechanics.On the top of the screen is a timeline that shows how long not only your actions take, but the actions of the enemies you can see. As soon as you lock in an action, time moves…

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Xbox Boss On Microsoft’s Struggles With Game Quality And Efforts To Improve It

June 21, 2019Kotaku

Whatever the strengths of the Xbox platform, it’s long lagged behind Nintendo and Sony in terms of homegrown, exclusive video games. There have been highlights in its history and even some stellar games of late, such as last year’s Forza Horizon 4, but the Xbox One era has been rough. There have been prominent cancellations, disappointing sequels and games that under-delivered given how long fans were waiting for them.In recent years there have been hints of a coming turnaround. While Nintendo and Sony have turned out Game Of The Year contenders such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the…

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‘Xbox Live Is Not A Free Speech Platform’: Xbox Boss Promises New Features To Make Online Gaming Less Hostile

June 20, 2019Kotaku

You can learn a lot about a person by the values they express, and possibly something about an entire gaming platform by the blog posts the person running it writes. That’s why I was so eager at E3 last week to ask the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, why he recently wrote a 1200-word essay mostly about “building a safe and inclusive gaming environment for everyone.” His answer was illuminating, and hinted at ambitious plans taking shape for Xbox Live that could prove influential for online gaming as a whole.Before getting into what Spencer said and the new initiatives he…

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Phil Spencer On Xbox’s Unusual Strategy, Working With Sony, And More

June 19, 2019Kotaku

Xbox chief Phil Spencer has heard from the skeptics. They think that what he’s doing with Xbox means that Microsoft is giving up on consoles, or even going third party. That’s all wrong, he told me during an extensive interview in Los Angeles last week, where we discussed his vision for Xbox, the recently announced potential gaming deal between Sony and Microsoft, and whether he’d ever want to put Gears of War on the PlayStation 4.(The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.)Stephen Totilo, Kotaku: I want to talk first just on a platform level. I would describe what…

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Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines’s Weird Dancing Is Back For The Sequel

June 19, 2019Kotaku

There’s a lot to love in Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2, but the team brought something special back for the fans: dancing.One of the first locations you become really aware of in Bloodlines 2, which is coming to Xbox One, Playstation 4, and PC in 2020, is the local club, Atrium. It has a lot in common with a goth club I used to visit in Chicago, which was called Neo and apparently used to be a regular hangout for the Wachowskis while they were working on The Matrix. Even though Neo has closed (RIP), I can see the same…

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Final Fantasy XV’s Lead Designer’s New Game Is A Love Letter To Live Music

June 18, 2019Kotaku

No Straight Roads is a rhythm game inspired by the strong visual storytelling of Psychonauts. Playing it feels like rocking out in front of a surreal, vibrant crowd. At E3 last week, I was able to play a short demo that included the first boss fight, and as someone who also loves live music, I was pleased by how much it spoke to my own experiences in clubs and people’s basements across America.This boss fight pits the game’s two punk rock main characters, Mayday and Zuke, against a powerful EDM DJ who goes by DJ Subatomic Super Nova. Controlling Mayday,…

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In Planet Zoo, You Can Only Get Good By Learning Facts About Animals

June 18, 2019Kotaku

Planet Zoo is the latest simulator from Frontier Developments, the creators of Roller Coaster Tycoon and the recent Planet Coaster. In this one, you’re building a zoo and making sure all the animals are well cared for, which comes with unexpected challengers for players used to making theme parks.Modern zoos have a strong focus on conservation, the developers of Planet Zoo told me during a gameplay demo at E3 last week, and Planet Zoo will reflect that. They were showing me a habitat for giraffes while I was asking about the research that Frontier has been doing for the game.“Their…

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Shark Role-Playing Game Maneater Is Like Grand Theft Auto, Of All Things

June 18, 2019Kotaku

“Picture Grand Theft Auto, but as a shark,” game designer Bill Munk said near the end of a demonstration of Maneater at E3 in Los Angeles last week.Well, not quite. There are no cars to jack. There are no radio stations. Although, the designers have considered letting the shark get drunk, if it eats a drunk person. “We don’t have that in the game yet, but I want to,” Munk said.Maneater, currently announced for a PC release some time before E3 2020, does have some GTA stylings. It has a wanted system that replaces cops with shark hunters and it’s…

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