Culture

No Man’s Sky Creator On New Multiplayer Features, Taming Animals, And More

When No Man’s Sky Beyond was announced in March, Hello Games called it “three major updates rolled into one larger free release.” Out August 14, the first will be a new approach to multiplayer, and the second is VR. Since that blog post, No Man’s Sky players have been waiting to hear what the third…

Track: Digital Love | Artist: Daft Punk | Album: Digital Love 

Quakin’ In His Boots

Emanuel Palalic is a character artist at id, where he’s worked on games like Doom and Quake Champions You can see more of Palalic’s art at his ArtStation page

Walmart Asks Employees To Remove Violent Video Game Signage

For the past couple of days, Walmart employees have been receiving memos instructing them to remove “any signing or displays that contain violent images or aggressive behavior.” Principal among the suggested items are demos and signs promoting violent video games. Vice first reported on the memo’s circulation earlier today. It tells employees to “remove,” “turn…

Cosplay’s “World Championships” Were Just Incredible

Most of the time cosplay is about having fun and hanging out with friends. Sometimes, though, it gets competitive, and there’s no bigger prize for serious devotees than the World Cosplay Summit, held every year in Japan. It’s basically a World Championships of cosplay, and as you can imagine, the entrants are out of this…

The Top Streamers On Twitch Now That Ninja’s Gone

Last week, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, much like his namesake, crept out of the figurative building—flanked on all sides by fanfare, cascading grey-blue mountains of Red Bull, and ill-considered jokes. Soon, he made his presence known under a different roof: Mixer, Microsoft’s competitor to Twitch. Blevins has left behind a void. The question is, who will…

Clever Player Creates First-Person Dungeon-Crawler In Mario Maker 2

The Mario Maker series offers creators an expansive suite of tools with which to build punishing, unique, or thought-provoking levels. A recent level uses these tools to meticulously recreate the first-person adventure style of old-school dungeon-crawlers like Ultima and Might and Magic in Super Mario Maker 2 Uploaded last week by Japanese creator Negitendo, “3D Maze…

Fortnite Is All About The Kids (And The Aesthetics)

The Fortnite World Cup was packed with young faces, both attendees and competitors. Unlike many other esport events, this one had a kid-friendly, earnest vibe that dovetailed well with the chaotic playground atmosphere of Fortnite. Kotaku editor-at-large Riley MacLeod came on Kotaku Splitscreen this week to talk about his coverage of the Fortnite World Cup…

Modern Warfare‘s Lack Of A Mini-Map Will Change How People Play Call Of Duty

Last week, Activision revealed the multiplayer mode for the softly-rebooted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. 2019’s Duty is dropping the iconic mini-map to add more “realism” to multiplayer, and it’s the design decision that’s caused the most consternation in the Call of Duty community so far. Call of Duty’s mini-map has been a feature of the…

Speedrunners Baffled By Mysterious Stranger Sending Silent Hill 2 Puzzle Solutions

One of the challenges of speedrunning Silent Hill 2 is getting past the game’s puzzles. Puzzles are semi-randomly generated and will change on each playthrough. In the past week, a mysterious stranger has been slipping into speedrunners’ Twitch chats and revealing future puzzle solutions to them. It wasn’t clear how this stranger was getting that…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: Is It Selfish To Want More Attention From My Girlfriend?

Hello you terrible skinsacks of the noosphere, and welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the dating advice column that charges into your love problems like 30-50 feral hogs. This week we’re tackling communication problems and how to not create new problems while trying to solve existing ones. How do you help your partner when their depression…

It Is Surprisingly Hard To Create An Incompetent Ass-Clown In Dungeons & Dragons

The great escapist fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons is that you are not a salaryperson shoveling handfuls of gummy bears into your mouth and rolling 20-sided dice. Rather, you are a singularly important hero with a singular capacity to disarm some impending plot bomb. It’s a time-tried formula, one that basically spawned an entire industry…

A new trailer just dropped for No Man’s Sky Beyond, the game’s upcoming expansion, and if you ever wanted to ride the weird alien animals, August 14 will be your lucky day.

Track: Catfish Kate | Artist: Pixies | Album: Beneath the Eyrie Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment. 

Digital Arts Museum. Kyoto, Japan. By Thomas Carney JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

Track: Fear Inoculum | Artist: Tool | Album: Fear Inoculum Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment. 

On The Road

Xi Zhang is an illustrator and concept artist from China. You can see more Zhang’s stuff at their ArtStation page and Instagram

Take-Two Sends Investigators To YouTuber’s House To Crack Down On Borderlands 3 Leaks

After two weeks of no uploads, a notable Borderlands personality on YouTube returned to the platform yesterday with a video explaining his absence. He said that the game’s publisher Take-Two Interactive hit his channel with several copyright strikes and sent investigators to his home in response to months of Borderlands coverage on his channel, which…

Blizzard Creates Tool To Help Old World Of Warcraft Buddies Find Each Other

If you’ve been a lapsed World of Warcraft player for the past 10-plus years, you’ve probably let some relationships fall by the wayside—for example, the entire guild that formed the core of your social life when you were in a suffocatingly small Christian high school in Texas. Maybe you’ve found yourself sipping a beverage in…

Destiny 2 Players Can’t Decide What This Weird Cat Statue Means

Last week, Destiny 2’s Solstice of Heroes event began, bringing with it a new activity set in a new area: the European Aerial Zone. Ever since, players have been scouring it for potential hidden lore or secret areas that could be tucked away somewhere in its many floating rocks and abandoned buildings. So far, all…