Luke Plunkett

Buckle Up, It’s Time For A New Skywind Trailer

For those who have missed it, Skywind is an ambitious mod that’s bringing Morrowind into Skyrim’s engine. We post about Skywind quite a bit here on Kotaku. With good reason. Because if this all pans out it will be the best

South Park Censorship Makes Cute Australian Animals Cry

Remember, it’s not just the European version of the new South Park game that’s been censored. As reported last year, the Australian edition has been too, though the results are similar. If a little sadder Americans reading this, fear not. There is no scene featuring a crying Bald Eagle/Hot Dog/Cowboy, as the US version is…

New Transformers Movie Trailer: Optimus vs Grimlock

Where the first Transformers 4 trailer focused on the absurd, this longer clip is – relative to an expensive Michael Bay movie – more restrained. Restrained in that Optimus Prime is merely fighting a giant robot dinosaur, instead of riding one. I still think this looks ridiculous – and not in a good way –…

Everything Interesting Gabe Newell Said In His Reddit AMA

It’s not often the head of one of the most powerful gaming companies in the world pops over to Reddit to speak with the masses, so today was a bit of a treat. If you weren’t following the AMA featuring Valve boss Gabe Newell (and some other Valve guys like Erik Wolpaw and Greg Coomer),…

The Perils Of Writing Video Games

Rhianna Pratchett is best known around these parts as someone who writes video games, but what does that actually entail? It sure is different to sitting down and writing, say, a screenplay, or novel. In a long postover on The Escapist’s forums, Pratchett has gone into fascinating detail on her past as a games writer,…

15-Year Development On An MMO Comes To An End

Even if you’ve never played it, you’ve probably heard of Asheron’s Call. A pioneering MMORPG, it’s been around for over 15 years now. And while it’ll still be around for a few more to come, AC’s developers have announced that they’re ceasing work on the game. I know, I know. It’s probably news to you…

The Very Sneaky Art Of Thief

So, the new Thief kinda sucks. Shame, but then, this isn’t a feature about AI programming, or level design. It’s about art, and the art for the game was great. A little monotonous, perhaps, since everything is dark and busted, but then this is a Thief game, not Katamari Damacy. All the images you’re seeing…

Thieves Break Into Double Fine HQ, Nobody Likes Them

Most stories coming out of Double Fine are the type to make you smile, but here’s one to make you shake your fist like a cranky old-timer. Last month, thieves broke into the studio, and amongst the stuff they stole were some…duffel bags. It’s resulted in a raft of security improvements, including wooden golf club…

2014’s Best Trailer Is Already Here

And there’s not an expensive cinematic sequence in sight. This is the trailer for Crawl, an indie action/RPG that’s coming to Steam. It has two things going for it. The first is that trailer. It’s just gameplay. Instructions. Vincent Price meets Mike Mignola meets Electric Wizard. It’s fantastic. That narration. Ungh. The second, though, is…

A Reddit AMA with Valve boss Gabe Newell, scheduled for today, never actually went down. It’s instead happening tomorrow at 2pm Pacific Time. Tomorrow is 4/3. Half-Life 4: Episode 3 confirmed.

Age of Mythology? It’s been too long, old friend, too long. An extended edition of the fantastic (and weirdly forgotten) strategy classic is on its way to Steam

Gaming PC Prototype Is Also Its Own Table. Genius.

Why is this not already a thing? And I’m not talking about the brave pioneers who have made their own versions of this. I mean, why isn’t every company making commercial desktop PCs that are also a…desktop? It’d save space, it’d save time, it’d…OK, it wouldn’t save money, but nothing is perfect. And I’d pay…

Ultra Street Fighter IV has a “Select” mode, which lets you choose from any character across any version of the SFIV games. Balance be damned!

Huge PlayStation Fan Makes Real-Life Platinum Trophy

Ronny, aka blackangel887462, is one of the most dedicated PlayStation gamer son the planet, having racked up over 500 platinum trophies. A feat which he decided to have commemorated with a real platinum trophy. He had two companies work with him to produce the replica; one built the actual trophy (in three pieces), while another…

Don’t Expect A Gay Video Game Star Any Time Soon

It’s tough enough getting women and dudes who aren’t white into a starring role in a video game. So imagine how impossible it is to try and get a gay or lesbian character in the spotlight. A seemingly pedestrian interview on Ubisoft’s company bloglast week got interesting when Lucien Soulban, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon’s…

Look Who Was At The Oscars Tonight

Kaz Hirai used to be Mr. PlayStation, but now that he runs everything at Sony (which has its own motion picture studio), dude gets an invite to the Oscars. You can play a little Where’s Kazdo on the pic above using our image annotation. Hint: he’s not one of the giant gold guys. Geoff Keighley…

Video Game Screen Burn-In Is Damage, But Also Art

So, younger readers, certain older displays were way more susceptible than today’s TVs for something called burn-in. That’s when parts of an image would stay on a screen for so long that they’d literally burn into it, creating a permanent “shadow”. Think TV network watermarks, or the margins of a news ticker. You’d normally see…

For Those Times You Need Some Perks In The Real World

Reader Robert Lane is a woodworker, and a Call of Duty fan. He’s combined the two to create this range of amazing replica Perk-a-Cola machines. In addition to the cola dispensers, he’s also done some other Call of Duty-related stuff, like a replica weapons box. If you see something here that you like, keep an…

I Don’t Think Hearthstone Is Actually This “In Your Face”

Tyson Murphy is a character artist at Blizzard, where he’s worked on the Diablo and World of Warcraft series. You can see more of Tyson’s work at his personal site and CGHub gallery To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click…

A Game Where You Don’t Play As Someone. You Play As Everyone.

sonder is a sci-fi third-person action adventure game. So far so expected, but it has a neat twist: you’re not playing as a single character. Instead, while the narrative plays out, you’re free – and encouraged – to switch between characters and play the role of anyone in the game. The idea being that while…