Culture

Tekken-Style Health Bars Make Watching Taekwondo So Much Better

Martial arts competitions can be a little confusing to the untrained eye. The scoring systems simply favor landed hits, no matter how slight or imperceptible. During a recent exhibition, the Korea Taekwondo Association demonstrated a brand new piece of technology designed to make the sport more spectator-friendly, essentially turning competition into a real-world fighting game.…

Final Fantasy Tactics ‘Battleground’ Lets You Gamble Fake Money On Fake Matches

FFT Battleground is a Final Fantasy Tactics Twitch stream that lets you place bets on competing teams of randomized characters, all controlled by AI. The bets are based on fake money, which is good, because if they weren’t, there’s a non-zero chance I might have done some real damage to my bank account by now.…

Bloodborne Modders Restore Cut Boss Version Of Fiery Mage

Bloodborne players have faced the Loran Cleric before, but not like this. A beast-like mage who can summon fire at will, the Loran Cleric is an enemy type only found in Bloodborne’s randomly generated Chalice Dungeons. However, modders recently found references to the creature lurking elsewhere in the game’s files, leading them to a more…

Square Enix Delays Final Fantasy VII Remake And Avengers

Final Fantasy VII Remake is delayed from March 3 to April 10 while the upcoming Avengers game is bumped from May to September, publisher Square Enix said this morning. In a statement, Final Fantasy VII Remake producer Yoshinori Kitase said that game’s delay was for “extra polish.” The heads of Avengers development studio Crystal Dynamics…

Might and Magic‘s 100-Player Auto Chess Spin-Off Comes Out Later This Month

Ubisoft has crunched the numbers on all the hottest gaming trends of 2019 and is ready to roll out Might & Magic: Chess Royale, a mash up of battle royale and auto battler, on mobile and PC on January 30. There’s not a ton of information on the publisher’s announcement page about the upcoming game,…

Airport Hotel View. Narita, Japan. By Brian Ashcraft. 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

Locked Out

Lorenzo Lanfranconi is an artist from Italy. You can see more of Lorenzo’s stuff at his ArtStation page

Nintendo’s Theme Park Trailer Is A Trip

We’re only six months (at most!) away from the opening of Nintendo’s big new theme park at Universal Studios, Osaka. That means it’s time to not only get a big hype trailer, but some actual information on the place as well, including a very cool, very Mario feature. It’s a pretty good vid, hinting at…

Modern Warfare‘s Australia-Themed DLC Will Now Benefit Bushfire Relief

After facing community backlash, Activision has rebranded Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s Australia-themed cosmetic bundle and will donate profits to aid relief efforts in the country. When an Australia-themed “Outback” cosmetic pack popped up in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s shop last week at the price of 1800 COD Points, it was, to say the…

Minecraft Player Gets Electrocuted Every Time He Takes Damage

Congratulations, Dream and GeorgeNotFound. You have found the worst way possible to play Minecraft For a while now Dream, a Minecraft YouTuber, and his buddy GeorgeNotFound have been working on a way to attach an electrified dog collar to a human arm, then rig it via an Arduino board so that every time a player…

With PS5 On The Way, Sony Will Skip E3 Again

Sony will skip E3 again this year, a major blow to the annual video game conference in a year that will also see the release of the next PlayStation. Instead, Sony said today, the corporation will attend “hundreds of events” throughout the year to talk about the next-gen PlayStation 5. (It’s safe to say it…

Watching Other People Play Bullet-Hell Shooters Is Hellish

Normally I find watching the runs during Games Done Quick marathons relaxing. There was nothing relaxing about Gusto’s Wednesday playthrough of bullet-hell shooter Mushihimesama Futari on ultra difficulty. I spent the entire run on the edge of my seat, anxious and agitated. Mushihimesama Futari, AKA Mushi Futari, is a 2006 arcade game by Cave. Cave…

The Week In Games: Rock The Dragon!

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is coming out this week. I only know two things about this game: It comes out soon and it is Dragon Ball Z game. I’ve played some great Dragon Ball Z games and some really, really bad games. I hope this one is good! This might be one of the best…

Furries Raise Over $17,000 For Australian Bushfire Relief

Streamers, celebrities, game publishers and studios have all gotten behind fundraising efforts to help everyone recover from the Australian bushfires with a speed and generosity that Australia’s federal government could learn from. Now, the furry community has done their part with a stream raising over $17,000 for the Australian Red Cross. The YouTube stream from…

Old-Timey Spidey

Antonio Stappaerts is a concept artist from Belgium who has worked for a number of design studios in the video game business. You can see more of Antonio’s stuff at his personal site and ArtStation page

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Is Deleting Some Players’ PC Save Files

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne came out on PC last week, and while for many it was a hassle-free experience, some older players logged on to unwittingly delete their old save data. The issue appears to be affecting those who haven’t logged into the game for a while, leading to speculation it could be related to…

A Gamer In Texas Helped Save Her UK Teammate After Hearing Him Have A Seizure Online

While playing and talking with his teammate online, a teen in the UK started to have a seizure. His teammate, a woman in Texas, heard him, and when he stopped responding, she called local police in the UK to help her teammate across the pond. Aidan Jackson is 17 and lives in Widnes, England. As reported…

‘Shop Contest: Patrick Stewart

Patrick Stewart is a cool dude. I think we can all agree on that. He also played my favorite Star Trek captain and still looks damn good at 79 years old. Some recent photos from a Variety story caught my eye. So let’s have some fun with ol’ Stewart. Your challenge this week: Take this…

Sunday Comics: Hard-Boiled Egg!

Hello! It’s time for Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published Jan. 9. Read more of Corpse Run Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published Jan. 6. Read more of Awkward Zombie Clueless Hero by…

‘Shop Contest: National Bird Day, Winners!

Last week was National Bird Day. A lovely holiday that I assume all of you celebrated and enjoyed. In honor of this holiday, I asked you Photoshop artists to create some images featuring famous video game birds. You didn’t disappoint! Our winning image this week comes from Chris MC who makes one small change to…