Luke Plunkett

One Awesome Way The Wii U Is Improving: Game Loading

Thank the maker. Realising that the Wii U is a drag to fire up then slog through to get playing, Nintendo is going to streamline the way you get into games and programs on the console. How? Like this. The video up top shows a new, simpler, faster way to get into your games. There’s…

Nintendo Will Release New Platform In 2015-16 (But It’s About Health?)

During a presentation in Tokyo earlier today, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata made a surprising announcement: the company will in 2015-16 be releasing a new platform. For your health. Seems that with its back to the wall, Nintendo is looking out for its next “blue ocean”, the next untapped market. And it thinks it’ll find this…

Nintendo Knows The Wii U Is Struggling, Promises Improvements

The 3DS is doing pretty well! The Wii U, however, is not. You know it, I know it, and you bet Nintendo knows it, because the company just announced a raft of changes and improvements they’re bringing to the system (and the way it’s marketed). Recognising that the console needs to be marketed better, president…

Skeletor’s Voice Actors Play With Skeletor Action Figures

Yup. This is Alan Oppenheimer (80s Skeletor) and Brian Dobson (2000s Skeletor) reprising their roles while…playing with action figures. It’s like the greatest toy commercial that never was. Skeletor Actors Play With Action Figures [YouTube, via Topless Robot]

The LEGO Blowjob Competition Is Cancelled

Last week, porn star Christy Mack announced a competition for the ages: whoever built her “the coolest LEGO creation” to put in her house won a prize. And that prize was a blowjob. Note: Yes, the Twitter feed in question has some NSFW stuff on it. It’s the Twitter feed of a porn star. It…

Track: Moodolude | Album: Qualia | Artist: Evil Needle Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to—and gaming to—at the moment.

Game Artists Will Show You How To Be A Game Artist (For Free!)

If you’re an aspiring games artist, and you see the stuff we post here on Fine Art and think “uunnnhhhhhh I’ll never be able to afford to get that good”, you might be in luck. VERTEX is a book series set up by games artist Ryan Hawkins. Fed up with the limited selection of commercial…

This Is How You Support An “Old” PC Game

If you needed further proof that Crusader Kings II is one of the best-supported, most expansive games of all time, check out this new expansion. Which, you know, only increases the size of the map by 50%, adds 400 new provinces and the entire Indian subcontinent. And it’s doing all this two years after the…

A New Dreamcast Game Was Released This Week

It doesn’t matter that the Dreamcast was killed off over a decade ago. So long as people own Dreamcast consoles, other people will keep making games for it. Redux: Dark Matters is a new schmup by Hucast that features music by Andre Neumann You can buy it here (or a deluxe version with soundtrack here).

One Way To Make Boring Work Meetings Awesome

Ever sketched on a scrap of paper during a boring work meeting? Meeting Drawings is a site cataloguing these kinds of doodles, only they’re from a pair of pro artists. Marvel artists Marko Djurdjevic and Gerald Parel are putting a lot of people’s finished work to shame here, with the kind of nutty scribblings that…

The Adventure Game Of The Future Uses Virtual Reality

Loading Human is an adventure game, but not as you know it. Gone is the traditional 2D interface and reliance on commands. In its place: the Oculus Rift. You play a man suffering from Alzheimer’s, who is dropped into a Total Recall-like virtual reality device not only to preserve his relationship with his wife, but…

Middle Earth Is Being Recreated On A 1:1 Scale

We’ve talked about the Outerra engine a few times here on Kotaku, and every time we do, someone invariably asks “but what is this actually for“? Well, here’s one application: it’s great for making a 1:1 recreation of Middle Earth. The Middle-Earth Project is looking to rebuild all of Middle Earth in the virtual space.…

Taylor Swift Is A Terrible Street Fighter Character

If you were silly enough to be watching the Grammys the other night, you’d have seen Taylor Swift give a bizarre “head-banging” performance. It looked weird, but there may be a perfectly logical explanation behind it, one that went unseen on the original TV broadcast. Taylor Swift Attacked at Grammys [YouTube, via Gamefreaks]

This Deal Is Getting Worse All The Time

Cristi Balanescu is a concept artist who has worked for companies like Ubisoft and Fantasy Flight Games. Love his style. The rough stuff always gets to me more than ultra-clean, shiny works. Always feels more alive You can see more of Cristi’s stuff at his CGHub page To see the larger pics in all their…

Beautiful Video Game Sword Becomes Beautiful Real Sword

This is Sophita’s Omega Sword from Soulcalibur IV. In the flesh. It’s made not from polygons, but resin and styrene. Buily by Harrison Krix, from Volpin Props, it’s incredibly lightweight, and from his build log looks to have been as hard to construct as a real sword. Sophitia’s Omega Sword, Soul Calibur IV [Volpin Props]

Finally, Civilization Gets The Best Playable People On Earth

You British and Americans and Germans and Japanese and Greeks and…Babylonians have had it pretty good when it comes to Civilization games. You get to play as your own people. But what aboutme? Australia has never been in the game. And don’t give me that crap about being a country and not a Civilization. If…

When Game Glitches Become Nightmare Fuel

One minute, you’re talking to a sweet old Italian lady in Mafia II, the next, you’re tripping balls. For reference, this is what happened when EliZissou tried playing the game on a 2013 Macbook Air. Mafia II MacBook Glitch [YouTube, via Reddit]

Titanfall is going to have a beta on both Xbox One and PC. Bet you never saw that coming.

The Academy Awards Of Gifs Should Be A Good Time

The internet used to be a place for learning. Communication. These days, it’s just about who’s got the biggest library of situation-appropriate gifs. So it’s about time those gifs got their dues! The .GIFYs are an award that’s being overseen by the editors of a bunch of websites that, well, post a ton of gifs,…

A Street Fighting Mismatch For The Ages

Rael Lyra is a concept aritst at Playlore who has also done work for companies like Marvel and BOOM! Studios. You can see more of Rael’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 as wallpaper), click on the…