Ethan Gach

The Studio Behind Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture Is ‘Going Dark’

The Chinese Room released the ambient exploration game Dear Esther in 2012. Five years and several games later, co-founder Dan Pinchbeck says the studio will be pausing operations for the time being. Pinchbeck announced the news via a post over at the company’s blog filed earlier today. In it he writes, “There’s an interview coming…

Hellblade‘s Fenrir Encounter Belongs In The Pantheon Of Great Boss Fights

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice has been lauded for mind-bending cinematics and top-notch voice acting, but it’s worth remembering one fight in particular that shows the game operating at the peak of its potential. Ninja Theory’s third-person action game can be frustrating. In some moments that works, but there were plenty of times I got snagged on…

Cosplayer Has A Nintendo Switch For A Head, Plays Arms On It

Gaming on the go like you’ve never seen it before. Shared on Reddit by user Kurobiii who encountered the Switch-headed Mario cosplayer at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, I’m not sure what’s more impressive, the person keeping their head balanced or the K.O. they manage by the end. It’s also a little creepy, like the…

Track: Dear God | Artist: Monsters of Folk | Album: Monsters of Folk Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Code Vein doubles-down on the vampire Dark Souls vibes in its latest trailer from Tokyo Game Show. Revealed in May and aiming for a 2018 release on Xbox One, PS4, and PC, the game features real-time action and medieval gas masks. It also all takes place in an apocalyptic wasteland for safe measure.

Sunday Comics: The New Batch 

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics that usually occurs on Sunday except when it doesn’t. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published September 22. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published September 18. Read more…

Cremating A Dog Is When Death Of The Outsider Gets Special

As a standalone DLC that picks up where Dishonored 2 left off, Death of the Outsider involves a lot of sneaking around and pawning old spools of copper wire for spare money. In the very first mission, it also asks you to cremate a dog. The islands of Dunwall and Karnaca are rife with seedy…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Bad Dudes Revival, Winners!

It was the baddest of times, it was the dudest of times. This past week’s ‘Shop Contest was a tribute to gaming meme that had long been an excuse for some of the not altogether inspired entries from the contests of yesteryear. In keeping with tradition than, this week’s haul was a perfect tribute to…

The Story Behind The Open World Pilotwings That Never Happened 

Pilotwings used to be a dependable B-tier flight-sim series for Nintendo consoles but the last one came out over six years ago. That game was Pilotwings Resort on the 3DS. It was almost something very different, however. Factor 5, the studio that worked on the Rogue Squadron series and also created the tragically flawed Lair,…

Track: Yeoman | Artist: Baths | Album: Romaplasm  Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Finally, A Use For All Of Those Donkey Kong Country Returns Banana Cases 

Your Joy-Con controllers will fit in here. That’s what Reddit user Zefipalu discovered when they decided to try and answer the immortal question, “Hey, would my Nintendo Switch Joy-Con fit in here?” The limited edition banana holder was released around the time of Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii (which was later ported to…

The Weekend In Esports: The 2017 League World Championship Arrives 

The nearly month long, biggest esporting event of the year is upon us. League of Legends teams kicked off the play-in stage earlier today with matches set to continue throughout the rest of the weekend. Elsewhere there’s the SoCal Regionals for tournaments in games from around the fighting games community as well as qualifiers for…

Here’s our first look at Dragon Ball FigherZ’s Android 21 in action and a glimpse of the game’s story mode. We first found out about the new character last weekend with series creator Akira Toriyama talking about how he went about designing her a few days ago.

Surprise, Playdead’s Inside Is Coming To The Switch 

In case you needed any more convincing that the Nintendo Switch is the Field of Dreams of gaming consoles, the Danish studio revealed earlier today that Inside will be coming to the hybrid sometime in the future. The news comes by way of the Japanese publication Famitsu which heard it directly from the studio’s co-founder,…

The Week In Games: Infinite Cross-Over Appeal 

Fall starts later this week. The kids are back at school. And you can once again find Captain America shield-bashing the little tin knight from Ghosts ‘n Goblins I’ll never stop pining for a return to the animated 2D fighters Capcom nailed in the late 90s, but a new Marvel vs. Capcom is better than…

European Counter-Strike Team Dashes North American Hopes In Brutal Three Game Sweep

Fans were excited about the prospect of a Team Liquid upset on home soil after the squad’s triumphant run leading up to the ESL One New York grand finals, but Europe’s FaZe Clan had other plans. For a game dominated so consistently by teams abroad, seeing Team Liquid rally to win the $250,000 prize pool…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Bad Dudes Revival 

The ‘Shop Contest returns this week with a blast from the past as we celebrate a long tradition of really lazy Bad Dudes entries. “You have some pretty bad dudes on the other side,” the President said earlier this week in his latest attempt to “both sides” white nationalism and Nazis. It’s not even the…

Street Fighter Pro Goes Looking For An Energy Drink Mid-Match To Keep Corporate Overlords Happy 

Daigo “The Beast” Umehara is a legendary Street Fighter player, but even legends need to eat, which is why the pro dropped everything in the middle of a match to find a can of Red Bull. Red Bull is one of his sponsors. And since those in the fighting game community don’t get rich off…

New Mod Lets Mario Go Shirtless In Smash 4

“Shirtless Mario!” is a skin mod that lets the Italian fighter trade his iconic overalls for swim trunks. Super Smash Bros. on the Wii U already has alternate costumes for some characters along these lines, including Xenoblade’s Shulk, so the shirtless mod would have seemed like a natural fit for the game long before the…

Sunday Comics: Flavor Of The Month 

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics that usually occurs on Sunday except when it doesn’t. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published September 17. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published September 11. Read more…