Tag Archives: Third-person shooters

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Assassin’s Creed Devs Grill Boss On Chasing Trends And Layoffs

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Photo: Christian Petersen (Getty Images)

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot faced tough questions from some exhausted and fed-up staff about recent missteps and future plans in a company-wide Q&A session on Wednesday. The meeting comes just a week after the Assassin’s Creed publisher announced new cancellations, delays, and cost-cutting measures, and told employees “the ball is in your court” to help get the $3 billion company back on track.

“The ball is now in our court—for years it has been in your court so why did you mishandle the ball so badly so we, the workers, have to fix it for you?” read one upvoted question on a list submitted in advance through corporate communication channels and viewed by Kotaku. It was a reference to a now infamous email Guillemot sent to staff last week that appeared to shift blame for the publisher’s recent mistakes and hold lower-level employees accountable for fixing the situation.

Guillemot opened the meeting by apologizing. “I heard your feedback and I’m sorry this was perceived that way,” Guillemot said, according to sources present who were not authorized to speak to press. “When saying ‘the ball is in your court’ to deliver our lineup on time and at the expected level of quality, I wanted to convey the idea that more than ever I need your talent and energy to make it happen. This is a collective journey that starts of course with myself and with the leadership team to create the conditions for all of us to succeed together.”

While that clarification resonated with some developers, others who spoke with Kotaku still feel management is out of touch and found little in the meeting to reassure them. The hour-long affair was filled with industry buzzwords and business jargon and light on specifics. Chief financial officer Frederick Duguet said they needed to reduce costs and increase productivity. Chief people officer Anika Grant rejected a recent proposal for four-day work weeks and said requested raises to keep up with inflation were off the table amid the current financial struggles. None of the executives directly addressed the recent call for a strike over working conditions at the company’s Paris studio.

Guillemot remained vague about the potential for layoffs as well. “It’s not about doing more with less, but finding ways to do things differently across the company,” Guillemot said at one point.

The meeting comes after a particularly poor 2022 for the global publisher which included no marquee blockbuster as several projects were delayed, trapped in development hell, or shipped and failed to find an audience. “It appears that management is out of touch with games saying that we need to adapt to an evolving industry,”?” read one of the questions for the meeting that received hundreds of upvotes. “Why are we chasing trends instead of setting them?”

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Those trends could include the company’s 2021 misadventure with NFTs or its partnership with the now-defunct Google Stadia streaming service. It could also describe the publisher’s recent race to ship multiple free-to-play spin-offs of existing franchises and a crowded slate of battle royale and hero-based shooters. Some of these, like Hyper Scape and Roller Champions, have already launched and struggled to find audiences. Others like The Division Heartland were announced a while ago and have yet to actually come out.

Ghost Recon: Frontline is another example. Revealed in 2021, it looked like a rip-off of Call of Duty Warzone but with some new gameplay twists. Internal testing reportedly revealed that it did indeed play like a Call of Duty Warzone rip-off and Ubisoft decided to can it last summer along with three other projects, leaving Ghost Recon fans scratching their heads and developers disillusioned.

In today’s meeting, Guillemot spoke of doubling down on Ubisoft’s core franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and its Tom Clancy games, including Rainbow Six Siege, whose potential the CEO compared to Riot Games’ Valorant. Some see it as a retreat not just from chasing trends but from experimentation as well. “We need to acknowledge that the trends are for mega brands,” said Marie-Sophie de Waubert, senior vice president of studio operations, when asked about why the company didn’t pursue more varied, smaller games like Anno 1800.

One big criticism of Ubisoft in recent years has been the lack of variation between sequels and an over-reliance on an open-world blueprint that bleeds over from franchise to franchise. When pressed about the lack of inventiveness, Guillemot pointed to Far Cry 6 as a “good quality” game that was still considered “not innovative enough.” It remains unclear how Ubisoft will juggle the budget demands and production complexity of its big blockbusters with creative risks going forward.

Kotaku understands that developers on some of the recently canceled projects will pivot to helping ship games like Assassin’s Creed Mirage, a smaller and more traditional entry in the stealth action series. Originally planned as an Assassin’s Creed Valhalla expansion, Mirage grew into a full-fledged game in part out of the need to plug holes in Ubisoft’s release calendar. Instead it slipped into the fiscal year starting in April 2023, along with Skull and Bones and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Guillemot recently called that lineup and what comes beyond it the best in the company’s history, though if its recent past is any indication, it’s unlikely to go exactly as planned.

Ubisoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

             

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PS Plus January Update Has Something For Everyone

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Image: Deck Nine

If you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, you’re in for a pretty sweet time starting on January 17. And if you’re not, the first catalog update for 2023 is tough to say no to. The latest injection of games to Sony’s subscription service features some undead co-op slaying, Super Saiyan shenanigans, a couple of classic games, and much more.

The PlayStation Plus subscription service, much like other gaming subs, regularly updates with new games every month. The service is spread across three tiers, Essential, Extra, Premium, which each cost $10, $15, and $18 a month respectively. Premium gets you the largest catalog (it’s the only tier that nets you access to PSX games) as well as letting you take advantage of Sony’s game streaming service (once known as PS Now). This month’s highlights include Back 4 Blood, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Devil May Cry 5, Just Cause 4, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, and Syphon Filter 3, among others.

In a blog update, Sony laid out the following additions to PS Plus Extra and Premium tiers:

PS Plus Extra and Premium PS4 games

Back 4 Blood
Dragon Ball FighterZ
Jett: The Far Shore
Just Cause 4: Reloaded
Life Is Strange: Before the Storm
Life Is Strange
Sayonara Wild Hearts
Omno
Erica

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PS Plus Extra and Premium PS5 games

Back 4 Blood
Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition
Jett: The Far Shore
Just Cause 4: Reloaded

If you’re on the Premium tier, you’ll also get the following PlayStation One classics:

Syphon Filter 3
Star Wars Demolition
Hot Shots Golf 2

If you haven’t played Devil May Cry 5 yet and you like stylish hack-and-slash action, it should probably be your first download of the lot. Otherwise, I definitely recommend giving Syphon Filter 3 a spin. The stealthy action series never reached critical acclaim quite like Metal Gear Solid did, but it’s definitely a pleasant trip down PlayStation memory lane. Let’s not resurrect the Snake vs. Gabe wars in the comments though, please. (Obviously Snake wins.)

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Gamers Are Suing Microsoft To Thwart Its Merger With Activision

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Photo: Bloomberg (Getty Images)

The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 gives Americans the right to sue companies over anticompetitive behavior, a fact which 10 self-described gamers are using to take Microsoft to court, aiming to halt the company’s acquisition of Activision.

As reported by Bloomberg Law, the complaint, filed today and obtained by Kotaku, states that the plaintiffs, or “video gamers” as they’re described, are concerned that “the [Microsoft and Activision] merger may substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly;” this merger, the complaint states, would specifically be in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, which states that acquisitions that diminish competition are prohibited under U.S. antitrust law. The complaint not only cites the scale and scope of the Activision and Microsoft merger as problematic, but also that this latest proposed union follows numerous other Microsoft acquisitions ranging from its 2014 purchase of Mojang all the way up to its acquisition of Rare in 2022.

Thoroughly laying out console, PC, and AAA gaming, as well as subscription services as “Relevant Product Markets,” the suit calls attention to just how many large franchises will fall under Microsoft’s corporate umbrella should the merger go through. Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Doom, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Halo, and The Elder Scrolls are just some of the cited examples. It maintains that currently Microsoft and Activision compete directly through these titles and services like Battle.net, the Microsoft Store, and Game Pass. The merger would shatter that competitive dynamic.

Should the merger go through, the suit claims, Microsoft would hold “outsized market power and the ability to foreclose key inputs to rivals and further harm competition.” The suit mentions competition both whereas it concerns sales to consumers, as well as the competition in the industry to “hire and retain talent within specialized video game labor,” which would be “lessened” under the merger.

Kotaku has reached out to Microsoft for comment.

The proposed MIcrosoft / Activision merger has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since its initial announcement. Perhaps most worrying for Microsoft is the recently filed lawsuit from the FTC. The feds allege that, should this merger go through, it would pose serious harm to competition in the video game industry, citing past behavior of Microsoft to prioritize Xbox and Windows PCs as platforms for its games. Microsoft has disagreed, stating that the Activision acquisition would “bring Call of Duty to more gamers and more platforms than ever before.”

Speaking of Call of Duty, in response to criticisms of its intended merger with Activision, Microsoft has pledged to continue to deliver Call of Duty to other platforms for at least 10 years. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has categorized Sony’s criticisms of the acquisition as an attempt to “protect its dominant position on console” and that it seeks to grow by “making Xbox smaller.”

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What To Know About Modern Warfare II’s Gun Mods, Tuning

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Screenshot: Activision / Kotaku

If you’ve an appetite for destruction, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is happy to provide a near-infinite supply of guns which you can customize to an absurdly delightful degree. Seriously, this is almost as fun as sorting my nail polish colors.

But it’s not about making all the other soldier guys, gals, and non-binary pals envious of your brutal styles; there are a ton of stats you’ll want to wrap your head around too. For every attachment you slap on a gun, there are clear pros and cons. And once you hit max level with any given firearm, you unlock weapon tuning, allowing you to tweak how guns feel and perform even further.

Read More: Fans Won’t Stop Comparing Modern Warfare II to Modern Warfare 2 (They’re Totally Different Games

Modern Warfare II gives you a lot of room for freedom, style, and min/maxing, so while time will tell what the god-tier meta ends up being, don’t be afraid to jump in and experiment with a setup that helps you climb the scoreboard while looking cool and fitting your style of play.

This guide solely focuses on firearms you point and shoot, meaning your primary and secondary weapons. Let’s dig in.

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Screenshot: Activision / Kotaku

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II Guns 101

As soon as you load into the game you’ll see a set of tabs at the top: Play, Weapons, Operators, Battle Pass, and Store.

Selecting Weapons will take you to where you can sort your Loadouts, Killstreaks, and Vehicle Customization. In Loadouts, you’ll notice you can have up to 10 custom configurations, so don’t worry about needing to commit to a narrow selection. A loadout is made up of six items: You’ve a choice of a Primary and Secondary weapon, as well as your Tactical and Lethal Equipment, your Perks, and a Field Upgrade.

Your loadout is laid out in a horizontal bar on the “Edit Loadouts” screen. Selecting a specific loadout will let you configure each of the six types. Some of your available weapons are dictated by what Perks you have active for that loadout. Primary weapons have the following types:

Primary Weapon Types

  • Assault Rifles
  • Battle Rifles
  • SMGs
  • Shotguns
  • LMGs
  • Marksman Rifles
  • Sniper Rifles
  • Melee

There are only three types of Secondary weapons.

Secondary Weapon Types

Weapons further break down into Platforms, which lay out much like a skill tree in an RPG, indicating attachments you can unlock for any given weapon. When looking at a weapon in either the loadout or weapon menu screen, you can view the Platform progression by pressing V on keyboard (touchpad on PlayStation, view button on Xbox).

The M4 Platform, for example, is a family of weapons that consists of the M4 assault rifle, 556 Icarus LMG, FTAC Recon battle rifle, M16 assault rifle, and the FSS Hurricane SMG.

Read More: Modern Warfare 2 Has A Great Weapon XP Farm, If You Can Pull It Off

You level up each gun by getting out there and scoring kills. Some guns from a specific Platform are locked behind a weapon level. For example, to get the Bryson 890 shotgun, you need to build your Bryson 800 to level 16. You can also level up each individual weapon for even more attachment customization.

Screenshot: Activision / Kotaku

Customizing weapons and attachments with the Gunsmith

When viewing a specific loadout in the menus some guns will have a “Gunsmith” option. Here you can change up how your gun is built.

In Gunsmith’s “Build Weapon” tab you can install numerous different “Modifications” to the weapon’s optics, muzzles, magazines, stocks, and ammunition types. You can select up to five modifications at any time and can also swap out the gun’s receiver—essentially its core that everything else attaches to—for others in the weapon’s Platform family. (Note that not all weapon modifications within the same platform are intercompatible.)

After making Gunsmith changes, you can jump directly into the Firing Range to test out the look and feel of the new modifications. It loads in pretty quick too, so while you can’t directly A/B compare certain mods, you can still get a nice feel for each selection without spending forever trapped behind a loading screen.

Each modification affects stats in unique ways, and there are specific pros and cons to each. The 419MM EXF Barrel, for example, will boost your Damage Range, Hip Fire Accuracy, and Bullet Velocity (Pros), but at the cost of Aim Down Sight Speed and Hip Recoil Control (Cons).

The second tab in the Gunsmith interface is “Customize.” This is where you can apply different weapon charms, skins, stickers, and more such things. Each camo skin will have different requirements, but it’s very similar to unlocking attachments: Just earn weapon XP by scoring kills and completing specific challenges noted under each camo skin. There are also Weapon Mastery challenges for you to complete once you’ve unlocked Gold, Platinum, Polyatomic, and Orion skins.

The higher you level up a specific weapon, the more attachments you’ll gain access to. Once you hit max level with a specific weapon, you can start tuning those attachments to take even greater control over its performance.

Screenshot: Activision / Kotaku

Weapon tuning in Modern Warfare II

Weapon tuning lets you further tweak the pros and cons of each attachment. Remember, you need to hit level 20 with a specific weapon in order to tune the modifications.

You can’t tune every attachment, but ones you can will offer two sets of sliders that let you go all in on a weapon’s strengths, or walk back the cons a bit. Keep in mind that these are all fine-tuning adjustments. If you want to max out your Aim Down Sights Speed, for example, you’re better off going with modifications that prioritize that as opposed to trying to make up for slower ADS speeds via Weapon Tuning. That said, the high TTK rate of Modern Warfare II means that even the finest adjustments can make a difference in the heat of the moment.

The image on the right side uses weapon tuning to compensate for a slower aim-down-sights speed.
Gif: Activision / Kotaku

Weapon tuning is really best taken advantage of once you’ve gotten a good sense of the guns and modifications you like. This stage of weapon customization is more an art than a science, so expect to take your time figuring out what works best for you.

Weapon leveling in Modern Warfare II

Maxing out your weapons is one of the game’s major goals, and you’ll make the most progress on guns you actively use. Keeping a gun holstered or slung over your shoulder won’t cut it; to level up a gun you need to be out there using it to put lead into your enemies.

With so many weapon choices, it’s not a bad idea to stick to a couple of guns, two or three at most, when starting out. Playing with the Overkill Perk equipped (available with the Assault preset package) is a good way to see how it feels to wield two primary guns at once.

Screenshot: Activision / Kotaku

Don’t forget to take advantage of Weapon XP boosts as well. You can select these in the multiplayer matchmaking screen. Be careful though, as your XP boosts count down in real-time outside of matches. That in mind, it’s best to save XP boosts for use in playlists which aren’t as heavy in wait times.

Quick Play and Ground War typically have quicker queues. However, keep in mind that the 32v32 modes such as Ground War might have you engaging in gunfights less frequently as you’ll often spend time moving between objectives. On the other hand, that can be a good opportunity to level up a sniper or marksman rifle as you’ll have more distance to work with. If you’re looking to level up close-range weapons like shotguns, smaller 6v6 games might be your best bet, but your mileage may vary.

One thing I like to do is set aside a loadout specifically for weapon leveling. Label it “Leveling” and just use that to swap in whatever guns you want to progress, leaving your main loadouts untouched and free to select when you wish to change up your playing style in a match.

Read More: The Easiest Way To Unlock One Of Modern Warfare 2‘s Hardest Achievements

If you swap out a gun in a loadout you plan to use regularly, all modifications will reset, which isn’t ideal. A dedicated “Leveling” loadout will let you prioritize your remaining nine loadout selections with the guns, modifications, and tunings you prefer. You may also wish to prioritize certain Perks that can make leveling a bit easier. Overkill, for example, will let you have two Primary weapons on the field, so you can make progress with two at once (though again, you need to be actively using a given gun to earn Weapon XP on it.) I also like to have Fast Hands equipped for a leveling loadout, as it allows for quicker swaps between guns, helpful when you’re trying to give both a workout. Scavenger is another good Perk to have for leveling guns, since you’ll be able to source more ammo during a game.

Modern Warfare II did not disappoint when it comes to delivering a ton of fun weaponry to shoot and blow shit up. Spend a bit of time kitting out your guns, and you’ll likely play better and look cooler while out there on the field. And once you have a feel for the weapons and modifications you prefer, don’t forget to give weapon tuning a shot to further tweak how the game feels for you.

 

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Lady Dimitrescu Will Be Shorter For Resident Evil DLC

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Yeah, she’s shorter but you’ll still need Eren Jaeger’s 3D maneuver gear to give her a smooch.
Image: Capcom

Lady Dimitrescu, otherwise known as Tall Vampire Lady or simply Big Lady if you’re experiencing a loss for words, might have to get a more diminutive nickname that doesn’t reference her towering height come the release of Resident Evil Village’s first major DLC because Capcom will be making her a little bit shorter.

Resident Evil Village’s big upcoming DLC collection, collectively dubbed “Winters’ Expansion”, was first announced back in June during Capcom’s not-E3 broadcast. In it, players will play as protagonist Ethan Winter’s now-teenage daughter, Rose, to tie up loose ends from Village’s story. It will let you play the game’s score attack-style “The Mercenaries” mode as Chris Redfield, Karl Heisenberg, and Lady Dimitrescu. However, players won’t get to live vicariously as Lady D when it comes to her canonical height in Mercenaries mode.

In an interview with Polygon, Kento Kinoshita, the director for the Winters’ expansion, revealed that Capcom had to nerf Lady D’s height in order to give players a smoother gameplay experience. Ready for Lady DummyThicc’s new height reveal? Here we go. Instead of Lady D towering over you at a whopping 9’6″, she’ll be a bit shy of nine feet tall. If you can’t handle her at her shortest, you didn’t deserve her at her tallest.

Capcom

Read More: I Figured Out How Tall The Sexy Resident Evil Lady Is Because Of Course I Did

During the development of RE Village’s Mercenaries mode, Kinoshita told Polygon that Lady Dimitrescu’s height presented a challenge for developers. Despite the difficulties in translating Lady D’s height into Mercenaries, Kinoshita said the overwhelming fan response to that element of Lady Dimitrescu’s “tall stature” was “too important not to” include in the game mode.

“For The Mercenaries, it’s necessary that the player can control their character easily, and to make that possible we did adjust her height to a little under nine feet tall,” Kinoshita told Polygon. “At that height, the player just barely avoids bumping into the ceiling.”

Kinoshita also revealed that Capcom was also able to preserve Lady D’s “calm, dignified side, [and] excitable, deranged side” in The Mercenaries, so do with that information what you will.

All the Winters’ Expansion updates will launch October 28 and be available both separately, and as a bundle with the original game known as Resident Evil Village Gold Edition.

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New Last Of Us Meme Gifs Released By Naughty Dog

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Screenshot: Naughty Dog / Sony

Today, September 26, is the awkwardly titled “The Last Of Us Day.” As part of this annual international day of celebration, developer Naughty Dog has released 10 new animated gifs featuring characters from the game, like Joel and Ellie.

In the universe of The Last Of Us, September 26 is the day when the in-game virus reached a critical mass. What a fun anniversary to celebrate! The Last Of Us Day started back in 2013, and was originally titled Outbreak Day, which is definitely a better, less clunky name. However, this yearly celebration of all things Last of Us had to change its name in 2020 due to the real-world, ongoing, and deadly covid-19 pandemic. And today, in honor of the celebration, Naughty Dog has released 10 new animated gifs featuring characters from the series, inspired by popular online memes. It’s time to get yourself in the The Last Of Us Day day spirit.

Did you ever want to see Joel recreate the famous Robert Redford smiling gif? Well, here you go!

Perhaps you’ve long wanted a Last of Us-themed gif based on the internet classic “Dramatic Hamster?” Good news, your oddly specific dream has been fulfilled.

According to Naughty Dog, with every game release its animators pick some of their favorite memes and recreate them using characters and assets from their own games. Earlier this month, the team released some gifs in honor of The Last Of Us: Part 1’s launch. But the team had even more gifs to share and that’s what’s been released today on Giphy. Such joy.

“The opportunity to laugh, pay homage to some of our favorite TV shows and movies, and collaborate with artists of different disciplines to make these GIFs has truly been a delight,” explained Naughty Dog. “Thank you to everyone who contributed your talent and sense of humor to create these! Our feeds will never be the same again.”

You can find more of Naughty Dog’s meme recreations here on its official Giphy page. For those who like this kind of thing, there’s a treasure trove of content to be found. For others, like me, who find all this stuff terrible and off-putting, well, why are you even reading this…

Also, as part of today’s celebrations, Naughty Dog and HBO released a new trailer for the upcoming live-action show based on the first game. It’s set to release sometime next year.

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10 Splatoon 3 Players Who Are Total Hypebeasts

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I wonder where Splatsville’s runway is…
Image: Nintendo

If you’ve spent any amount of time sauntering around Splatoon 3’s new hub world of Splatsville, then you’ve undoubtedly seen some of the drippiest fashion known in this city of inky chaos. No joke, the fits are so clean—and so bizarre—that I couldn’t help but chronicle the best of the best. From the ubiquity of school uniforms to the preppiest getups, I’ve collected 10 of the freshest digs I’ve seen in my time with the colorful ink ‘em up.

Read More: Everyone Cares About Splatoon 3 More Than You Think

Fashion has always been a prominent component of Splatoon, especially because the gear you dress your squid kid in directly affects your overall stats. Clothing can do things like increase your ink reserves so you can throw more paint or beef up your defenses against ink so you can tank more damage. You can find out the abilities each piece of gear bestows at the shops located within Splatsville where you can buy, upgrade, and trade in apparel using in-game money.

Cash isn’t the only way to unlock garments, though. As was the case with OG Splatoon, the threequel features Amiibo support, which is a nice way of saying that some of the best—or drippiest—clothes in the game are locked behind you owning specific Amiibo. Murch, the hot sea urchin who can order some gear at a pretty high premium, can’t help you out here.

Read More: Splatoon 3‘s Most-Hated Gun Needs To Go, Players Say

Still, the threads on display in Splatsville are incredibly eye-catching. In the slides that follow, you’ll see an eclectic mix of styles, including creepy Chuck-E-Cheese-like mascots and folks who look like Brotherhood of Steel rejects from the Fallout series. Plenty of people are reliving ‘90s-era fashion with some bold colors. And there’s this one pair of dressy shoes everyone’s wearing that you can only cop from the Inkling Girl Amiibo. It’s a bummer, but the outfits folks have put together are dope. So, let’s check out some squid drip:

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Splatoon 3’s Most-Hated Gun Needs To Go, Players Say

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Oh great, here’s this jerk using the gun.
Image: Nintendo / Kotaku

With Splatoon 3 finally out on Nintendo Switch, folks have no doubt tried their hands at a variety of the game’s eclectic weapons. There are plenty to check out, from the classic rapid-firing Splattershot Jr. to newer weapons like the quick-slashing Splatana (which has quickly become a fave of mine). However, while each has its hater, there’s almost always someone complaining about the Clash Blaster, a pencil-sharpener-looking gun that’s frequently called out by players for being annoyingly busted. And I totally agree. The Clash Blaster is cheap.

A colorful ink-painting shooter, Splatoon 3 lets you unlock various pieces of gear—such as hats and shirts, alongside guns—after leveling up either through single- or multiplayer. Each level rewards you with a new weapon to experiment with, though you still have to purchase them with Sheldon Licenses, a type of currency you acquire by playing the game. The infamous Clash Blaster is one of the weapons you can get at level 22. And people hate it so much that there have been rather threatening messages littered throughout the hub world urging folks to stop maining it. Now!

Totally not ominous at all.
Screenshot: Nintendo / Kotaku

What Makes Clash Blaster So OP?

The Clash Blaster is deadly. Originally appearing in Splatoon 2 and built for use in mid-to-short range skirmishes, it can kill an opponent with two good body hits or three-to-four shots around the feet. That makes it a nuisance to deal with. On top of doing solid damage, its blast radius is wide enough to still hit combatants even when shots miss. So, get caught in the Clash Blaster’s range and you’re pretty much dead. There’s no escaping it, really.

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$663 Total Value

Humble Bundle 2K Megahits Game Bundle for Covenant House

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An array of games from 2K have been bundled together. You can pay what you want to support the cause, but if you want access to some of the big hits like Borderlands 3, The Bioshock Collection, XCOM: The Ultimate Collection, and Sid Meier’s Civilizatrion VI, you’ll have to pay at least $16. But hey, that’s hardly anything compared to the $663 value you’re getting from all 18 games combined.

I can attest to this. As a blind gamer with atrocious accuracy due to an eye condition called keratoconus, I still managed to get kills in the double digits with the Clash Blaster. It’s a weapon so OP I didn’t need to have the best aim to use it. As long as I could shoot around the vicinity of the opponent in front of me, they’re definitely getting murked. The same thing happened every time I went against it in PvP. Seriously, it slaps. Or splats, I guess.

Why Do Folks Hate Clash Blaster So Much?

As outlined above, the Clash Blaster is hella powerful. You don’t have to be a top-tier player to ascend the multiplayer charts when using the pencil-sharpener-looking gun. And it’s for that reason many folks can’t stand it. Just type in “Clash Blaster” into Reddit or Twitter, and you’ll see copious complaints about the gun and how it’s an unfair weapon. Some will say it’s “still busted as fuck,” while others ask why, of all the available weaponry to choose from, would anyone main the gun when it’s so OP and capable of ruining the fun and wrecking squid boys and girls alike. The hate for the Clash Blaster goes all the way back to Splatoon 2, for Christ’s sake. Talk about holding a grudge. In gaming, there may not always be a Call of Duty game on PlayStation, but you can bet there’ll always be a Splatoon player complaining about the Clash Blaster.

I mean, even before Splatoon 3 launched on September 9, the game’s official subreddit was home to frequent Cash Blaster callouts. Some begged Nintendo to remove the Clash Blaster from the threequel. And when the company revealed that the gun would make a return, some took the news very, very hard. You can always count on someone posting about how the pencil-sharpener-looking gun spoils the inky fun.

While the Clash Blaster may be an annoying gun, it isn’t the one I’d label the most aggravating to go against. There are other weapons on my shitlist—namely the incredibly swift Inkbrush and Octobrush, as well as the wide-ranging Rollers that effortlessly flatten you. But I won’t deny just how irksome the Clash Blaster can be, especially when in some capable hands.

Splatoon 3 has been a pretty big success for Nintendo despite not being on the market for a full week yet. In fact, the third-person shooter has already sold over three million copies in just three days in Japan, making it way more popular than Breath of the Wild or even Pokémon games. That’s wild.

 



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Five Settings To Change Before You Start

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Screenshot: Naughty Dog

At this rate, we’ll never see the last of The Last of Us. Ahead of a high-profile HBO adaptation, Naughty Dog released a top-to-bottom remake, called The Last of Us Part I, for PlayStation 5.

Make no mistake: The Last of Us Part I is fundamentally the same exact game as its 2013 original (and subsequent 2014 remaster, for PlayStation 4). In my testing, guides that already exist for the original apply here—right down to the combinations for safes and other locked doors. If you’re seeking hyper-specific advice, you’re better off checking out Kirk’s initial tips from [website crumbles into dust].

Still, Part I is the most mechanically superior version of the game, no question about it, and with the enhancements come some changes. Like its immediate predecessor, 2020’s The Last of Us Part II on PlayStation 4, Naughty Dog included an impressive array of settings and accessibility options. You’ll find well over 60 sliders and settings you can tweak. Most are dependent on preference, the sort of thing you’ll want to adjust as you play, but there are a handful that are worth turning on from the jump.

Vibrating Speech

Speech to vibrations, found under the DualSense menu, is one of the few parts of The Last of Us Part I that makes it feel like a legitimate PS5 game (rather than an extremely pretty PS4 one). The setting makes the PS5 controller vibrate when a character is talking, and it does so at the same cadence as their speech. It’s pretty cool! It’s also a little intense by default. For me, I’ve found the speech to vibrations intensity sweet spot at 5—just enough to “hear” characters talk but not so much that it’s distracting.

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Screenshot: Naughty Dog / Kotaku

Custom difficulty

The Last of Us Part I is playable on six difficulty settings, ranging: very light, light, moderate, hard, survivor, and, once you beat the game, grounded. But the challenge isn’t so linear. You can adjust the difficulty for five different aspects of the game:

  • Player: Dictates how much damage you take from attacks, and how frequently or infrequently you clock checkpoints in the middle of a fight.
  • Enemies: Basically dictates how savvy (or not-savvy) your foes are.
  • Allies: Determines how often your allies assist you in combat.
  • Stealth: Controls a number of variables related to sneaking, including how long it takes for enemies to alert their comrades after spotting you.
  • Resources: Regulates how often resources, like food, ammo, and crafting supplies, appear.

So if you’re great at staying out of sight but struggle with the all-out action segments, you can reflect that in a custom difficulty setting. There’s also a perk here for masochists. Though you can’t start a new game from the highest possible difficulty level—even if you’ve played it a thousand times during its prior iterations—you can manually set all five of those to grounded for a de facto hardest-possible run.

Photo Mode Shortcut

The Last of Us Part I is debatably one of the prettiest games on console right now. In other words: You’re gonna wanna take a lot of screenshots. Typically, popping into photo mode requires opening the menu, which slows down the pace of the game—unless you turn on photo mode shortcut, in the controls menu. When activated, you can hop right into photo mode by pressing both thumbsticks in at the same time. Just make sure to get the timing right, else you’ll turn on Joel’s flashlight and ruin your shot!

Hints

Hints, at the very bottom of the HUD menu, are set to sometimes by default. But they’re far more cumbersome than they are helpful. For one thing, they only offer advice as to the critical path. Sometimes you know exactly what to do to proceed in the story but, because it’s a Naughty Dog game (dense levels worth exploring), you want to poke around for a bit, see if you can turn up any collectibles or key resources. And that brings me to the most annoying part of Part I’s hints: Once a tip pops up, it doesn’t go away until you finish the task it tells you to do. Here’s where I remind you that all of the already-written guides for this game are just as effective now as they were a decade ago.

Screenshot: Naughty Dog

Bow Reticle Style

For the most part, yes, The Last of Us Part I is the same game as The Last of Us. One subtle change: There’s a new aiming system for the bow. And it kinda sucks. By default, it comes with just a standard dot as a reticle—not great for gauging distances when aiming with a bow. But if you change the bow reticle style setting, found under the HUD menu, to classic, you’ll be able to see the arrow’s path as intended: with a clear trajectory showing where it’ll land. Not only is this helpful AF, it’s also a reminder that, yeah, some things are better left untouched.

 

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Technology

Nintendo Bans Splatoon 3 Cheaters Before The Game Is Even Out

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Nintendo summoning the almighty ban hammer.
Screenshot: Nintendo / Kotaku

Splatoon 3 fans were treated to a nice surprise this past weekend when Nintendo staged a special Splatfest event before the game’s official release. This gave folks a chance to download and play a demo of the colorful shooter ahead of its September 9 release date. However, players bold enough to “fuck around and find out” certainly found out, as it appears that Nintendo’s anti-cheat system has now begun banning the Switch consoles of Splatfest players who tried to get ahead by modifying the game.

According to noted Nintendo Switch dataminer OatmealDome, the game’s anti-cheat system was indeed active over the weekend. The Splatoon 3: Splatfest World Premier, which ran from August 27-28, offered three teams to choose from—Rock, Paper, or Scissors—as well as an assortment of gear and weapons to experiment with. You’d think this would be enough to tide people over while we all collectively wait for the game’s official launch in a couple of weeks. But some still stepped out of bounds by downloading and using a user-made patch that skipped the tutorial and granted early access to Splatoon 3‘s testing range, the game’s practice lobby of sorts. The patch worked, but players who used it soon started finding their Switches getting banned.

It’s unclear if these bans constitute a total ban from the Nintendo Switch Online service—OatmealDome now suggests that the ban may only prevent affected players from playing more Splatoon 3 on their console—but it certainly doesn’t seem like something you’d want to test.

“When I saw reports on Twitter about people getting banned because of that one patch, I was completely unsurprised,” OatmealDome told Kotaku over Twitter DMs. “Patching the game’s code would [also] get you banned on Splatoon 2.

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“Nintendo is taking cheating seriously this time around,” they said. “[whereas] Splatoon and [Splatoon] 2 were both completely unprotected when they launched.”

However, they note that “a bunch of high-profile incidents” that affected Splatoon 2 caused Nintendo to get more serious. “This led to Splatoon 2 getting a pretty decent anti-cheat solution implemented, and it seems to be rather effective thus far,” they said. “Nintendo wants to continue that into Splatoon 3.”

Kotaku has reached out to Nintendo for comment.

We’ve learned a lot about Splatoon 3 thanks to the 30-minute Direct Nintendo held on August 10. Alongside the return of fan-favorite stages like Hammerhead Bridge, the colorful shooter will let you barrel roll out of the ink, still refuses proper in-game voice chat, and features a ton of new guns I’m pretty stoked for this game. Splatoon 3 hits Nintendo Switch exclusively on September 9.



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