Luke Plunkett

Tauriel, from The Hobbit. Photos by Cynthia Veekens, cosplay by Linda v. P.

Blizzard Wants You To Leave The House, Meet Other Real Humans

Blizzard’s latest hit, the card game Hearthstone, can be played online. Just like every other Blizzard game. But for reasons known only to higher powers, the company wants you to leave your home and play Hearthstone with other people. In the flesh. Braving both the elements and direct interaction with another member of your own…

Track: The Naked And The Dead | Album: Triumph And Power | Artist: Grand Magus Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

The Fastest Way To Take Off A T-Shirt

All those years. All those years spent crossing my arms and pulling from the bottom, or yanking the back of the collar over my head, wasted. Imagine how much more time I’d have right now to watch instructional YouTube videos if I’d seen this instructional YouTube video when I was but a lad? With summer…

The Old City, a game we first took a look at a few weeks ago, has a new trailer. It’s looking very, very cool.

Cheer Up Dude, Elder Scrolls Online Is Alright

Alessandro Baldasseroni is lead cinematic artist at Blur, which means he’s contributed to the amazing trailers for games like *deep breath* Mass Effect 2, Batman: Arkham Origins, Halo Wars, The Force Unleashed, Far Cry 3, The Elder Scrolls Online… *another deep breath*…Dead Rising 3, Wildstar, Fable III, Dante’s Inferno, Star Wars: The Old Republic and…

LEGO Top Gun Should Be On The Front Page Of Every Newspaper

Ralph Savelsberg wanted to build a LEGO fighter jet, so he figured he may as well build one of the most iconic out there: not just an F-14 Tomcat, but Maverick’s F-14 Tomcat from 1986’s Top Gun. How LEGO builders conceptualise this stuff, just knowing what pieces will work where, never ceases to amaze me.…

The Top 100 Games On Steam Are (Probably) These Ones

Yesterday, Ars Technica published an exhaustive look at Steam sales figures. A day later and some slight adjustments have had to be made, thanks to some corrections to their data (it’s not a big deal), but something has been added to the report. A list of the top 100 games on Steam. Like the rest…

Boy’s Dying Wish Was For A Star Wars Funeral

Jack Robinson, from Portsmouth, England, was just four years old when he died earlier this month of an inoperable brain tumour. It’s the most tragic of passings, but if there’s any consolation to be had from such sadness, it’s that Jack’s dying wish (well, wishes) were granted. Jack’s parents, Terence and Marie, had helped him…

Halo Theme’s Composer Fired, Says Move Was “Without Cause”

Marty O’Donnell, Bungie’s in-house composer and the man responsible for Halo’s iconic theme song, says he has been “terminated…without cause” by the studio. We’re contacting Bungie for comment, and will update if we hear back. O’Donnell was one of the last employees still working at Bungie from its days prior to Microsoft’s purchase of the…

“Education”, Right

Concept artist and illustrator Kat Nicole Berkley has worked for companies like Irrational, Epic, 38 Studios and Big Huge Games. You can see more of Kat’s work at her personal site To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the…

Steam’s Most Popular (And Unloved) Games

Nobody ever releases digital sales numbers on PC. Least of all Valve. Still, that hasn’t stopped Ars Technica from rolling up their sleeves and getting the data themselves. Trawling through thousands upon thousands of public profiles to gain user data, they’ve compiled a list that, minuscule margins of error aside, gives us our first ever…

This Isn’t What We Meant When We Wanted GTAV On PC…

Give humanity a game that lets them build and explore entire worlds and you can bet they’ll use that power to…recreate pop culture locations. In this case, Michael’s house from Grand Theft Auto V, which has been faithfully restored, Minecraft-style, both inside and out. Minecraft – Michael’s House – Grand Theft Auto 5 [YouTbue, via…

Bravo, Formaldegit. I know Scarecrow is meant to inspire nightmares, but applause will have to do in this case. Photo by le-miracle

You Can Stop The Internet Spoiling Game Of Thrones For You

If you’re one of those people who insists on being offended by Game of Thrones “spoilers” yet refuses to catch up on books that have been out for over a decade, you might want to take some notes. The Daily Dot has rounded up a number of add-ons and filters you can use, both on…

Attack On Titan Star Slows Down Long Enough To Take A Great Photo

Make-up artist Florea Flavia could have transformed herself into any of the heroes of Attack on Titan, but that would have been too easy.

Australia Knows How To Cosplay

The Gold Coast edition of Australia’s Supanova convention was held a couple of weeks ago. ArtificialDogmawas there with a camera to make sure we could all share in the awesome cosplay.

Xbox One Update Makes The Xbox One A Little Better

Microsoft is in the process of rolling out a new Xbox One update that, among some other minor fixes, addresses one glaring oversight. That’s a notification when friends logged on or off Xbox Live. I get why heavy users wouldn’t care for this, since they’d usually have it turned off to stop them going insane,…

A New RTS That’s As Old-School As They Get

It looked too good to be true, but it’s real, and it’s playable: Meridian is now available on Steam (Early Access), and it’s pretty much everything it promised to be. It said it’d be a traditional RTS, and it sure is. This is every bit a StarCraft and Command & Conquer kind of RTS, all…

Ain’t No Party Like A Viking Party

Alex Tornberg is an artist who works mostly in games, movies and advertising. Some of his recent clients include EA, Paradox, Mattel and Random House. You can see more of Alex’s work at his personal site To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them…