Luke Plunkett

Turns Out a Lot of People Have no Idea What the Hell a Wii U is

Last night, an Australian TV commercial for the Wii U came on. My wife looked at it, then at me, then back at it, then at our Wii, before finally asking “wait, don’t we have a Wii? What’s this?” While a single anecdote, it sums up my biggest concern for Nintendo’s new console, at least…

Are You Hard Enough To Wear Dark Souls On Your Chest?

Not content with releasing just one line of shirts this month, the friends of Kotaku at Meat Bun have released a second, and this one’s all about souls. That means shirts based on Ghosts’n Goblins and… well, a ton based on Dark Souls, like the awesome anatomical cut-away of a Mimic and the awesomer Alvina…

Russian Criminals Use Grand Theft Auto Fan Art In Ads For Bank Robberies

A seedy underground of Russian criminals has gotten so brazen it’s taken to posting advertisements offering the services of its expert “bank robbers”. These crims, who mostly employ “cyberheists and tax fraud” to lift money from US banks, even go into detail about the kind of things they can offer prospective employers, as listed on…

But What Did Internet Morons Think Of Vice City’s New Trailer?

Taking inspiration from a treatment on the latest GTAV trailer, reader Adriaan has wonderfully gone through YouTube comments on the latest Vice City iOS clip, presenting them in isolation for our enjoyment. Some are touching. Some even contain a sliver of truth. Most, though, are hilariously bonkers, just like you hope/expect YouTube comments to be.…

Transforming Minecraft Maps Into Stunning Works of Art

When you play Minecraft, it’s in your face, it’s blocky, and it’s all rather immediate. You rarely get the sense of scale, or even wonder, that an entire world can contain from any single vantage point. The game’s simplistic graphics don’t help things. But, as PC Gamer explains, when you convert a Minecraft world into…

The Battle of Helm’s Deep, Recreated in LEGO, is Blowing My Socks Off

Brotherhood Workshop return with another LEGO Lord of the Rings video, this time about Helm’s Deep. An epic battle deserves an epic recreation in LEGO, and this clip doesn’t disappoint. LEGO The Battle of Helm’s Deep [YouTube]

The Final Nintendo Power Cover is Awesomely Nostalgic

On the left, the cover of the final issue of Nintendo Power magazine, a publication that’s been running since the 80s. It’s great on its own, but when you remember what the first issue of Nintendo Power looked like, on the right, it’s enough to bring a tear to the eye. Nintendo Power’s closure was…

Here are the Spike VGA nominations for 2012 game of the year. Journey is there, Halo 4 and Black Ops II are not.

Another Report Says The Next Xbox Is Launching in November 2013

According to business news site Bloomberg, Microsoft’s next Xbox console will be released in time for the 2013 holiday season. That’s “according to people familiar with the company’s plans.” Those same “people” (so, not machines!) say it’ll be out in time for Thanksgiving sales. They also say Microsoft is still debating internally whether to use…

The SNES is Back, And in Four New Pastel (?) Colour Schemes

Lekki, a French company specialising in the restoration and resale of old electronic devices, has recently turned their eyes towards the PAL version of the Super Nintendo console. Fixing old units, cleaning them up and giving them a new coat of paint, they’re not cheap—around €150—but considering the work that’s gone into it, and the…

DRM Goes Haywire, Drops Skull & Crossbones on Game Sprites

Game Maker is a useful tool for indie developers, allowing them to craft simple games made from 2D sprites. Over the weekend, it got a whole lot less useful, as the program’s digital rights management system went haywire, branding many people’s artwork with a giant skull and crossbones. That’s normally the punishment for when the…

Well, Planetside 2 Looks Like One Enormous Murder Simulator

The whole point of Planetside 2 is that it’s a big shooter. Even by Battlefield or ArmA II standards, it’s enormous. Big maps, even bigger battles. To give you an idea of just how big, take a look at this amazing video. This is apparently 100% “organic”, in that none of the actions were staged…

There’s a Documentary About Crytek, And It’s Surprisingly Good

Being the result of a corporate partnership between Intel, VICE magazine, Kill Screen and whatever studio is being covered, the new Behind The Scenes web series should be the very worst in developer diaries. But it’s not. It’s really well done. I mean, yeah, in parts they’re selling you on Crysis 3, but for the…

I Think This is What Hobbiton Would Look Like in the Distant Future

Jason Stokes is an artist who worked for Guild Wars developers ArenaNet for nearly a decade, contributing to both games in the MMO series. He now owns and teaches at Futurepoly, a digital arts school that specifically targets the video game industry. If you want to see more of Jason’s amazing work, you can check…

Ubisoft Considering Co-op For Assassins Creed III Sequels

A report on website TGL claims to have screengrabs of a survey currently being conducted by Ubisoft, sounding out people’s thoughts on the future of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. The two pertinent questions they’ve posted give an insight into things Ubisoft is obviously thinking about. The first is asking whether people would be into the…

Nintendo’s President is “Very Sorry” About All Those Wii U Updates

When users first got a Wii U home after its launch, it was tough to just plug it in and play. There were firmware updates. Many services then required their own updates. You couldn’t play Wii games without downloading updates. Updates updates updates While it was an understandable inconvenience – come on, it’s a new…

Real-Life Mario Kart Race Ends in Broken Bones

For his school’s annual billy cart derby, 12 year-old Australian William Wong did the awesome thing and dressed as Mario, even building his cart to be a replica, of sorts, of the plumber’s more recent vehicles in the Mario Kart series. What’s more, via The Australian, he won the race! But then he started celebrating.…

Combining war, politics and the economy in a massive Cold War strategy game? Must be a Paradox joint.

Michelle Obama Had No Idea What a Wii U Was (But It’s OK, Some Kid Told Her)

You’d think being the First Lady of the United States would mean you’re on top of things, but not even the most powerful household on Earth is up to speed on everything Take Nintendo’s new Wii U, for example. Because it’s got kinda the same name as its predecessor, it’s understandable some people are a…

Sure, Put Pokémon and The Avengers Together, Nobody is Stopping You

We may never be able to chart the depths of fandom that led us to pictures like this, but scratching our heads at them is only half the fun. The other half is realising the artist is maybe onto something. We’ve seen some messed-up fan fiction in our time, but to be truly bizarre, the…