Culture

What Fallout Might Look Like Set In The Middle East

An essential part of Fallout’s visual identity is that it’s heavily based on Americana, but concept artist Fernanders Sam wanted to explore what other parts of Bethesda’s nuke-blasted world would look like. So he’s done a number of images imagining what Islamic architecture might look like amongst the radioactive wastes. There are similar themes as…

No, PUBG Is Not An ‘Asset Flip’

On Steam, “asset flip” refers to a game that’s haphazardly assembled from pre-purchased environments, objects, and sound effects for the purpose of making a quick buck. Or at least that’s what it’s supposed to refer to. Over time, the definition of “asset flip” seems to have devolved into “anything that ever uses a pre-made asset,”…

Metro Exodus Leaves The Train Tunnels For A Dangerous Open Russia

Our train slowly chugged to a halt. Something was apparently blocking the road up ahead, possibly put there by a rival band of survivors. The captain sent my character out to investigate. Moments later, I was killed by a giant floating orb of static. Post-nuclear Russia is not a place to explore blindly. But explore…

Splatoon 2 Producer Explains Nintendo’s Approach To Deleting Shitposts

Splatoon 2’s face is all inky rainbows and cutesy cephalopods. It would be an adorable, idyllic wonderland, if not for the fact that controlling all of those snuggable urchins are real-life humans, who are often bad. If you’ve tromped around Splatoon 2 for more than a few hours, you might have stumbled upon a few…

At E3, SoulCalibur‘s Objectified Women Felt Like A Relic Of The Past

In SoulCalibur 6, Ivy Valentine will be as she always was: wrapped in stringy cloth, balloon-breasted, mostly naked. She wields a snake sword that extends into a whip, a dominatrix’s weapon that’s helped land her in innumerable knock-off porn videos and pin-up images. As one the Soul series’ most recognizable fighters, Ivy has always looked…

The Director Of Deus Ex And Epic Mickey Has Plenty More Wild Video Game Ideas

After his time producing and directing immersive simulators like System Shock and Deus Ex, legendary designer Warren Spector made waves when he announced Epic Mickey, a game about a certain famous mouse. What other ideas does Spector have rattling around his brain? On Kotaku Splitscreen, we discuss. Last week at E3 in Los Angeles, I sat…

All The Games Ethan Played At E3 2018

I managed to survive E3 2018, my first one in fact, and I can even remember most of the games I saw and played. There’s too many to name them all, but below are the most notable ones I got a chance to check out. I’ve written about some of them already on Kotaku, but…

Ghost Of Tsushima‘s Director On The Risks Of Making Something New

In an room in need of air conditioning in the Los Angeles Convention Center last week, game developer Nate Fox held out his left hand, palm down, paused and then slapped the top of it with his right. “Do you know—[slap]—that?” he asked. He wasn’t sure the name of the playground game he was referencing,…

Why Cyberpunk 2077 Is Taking So Long

Developer CD Projekt Red first teased Cyberpunk 2077 five years ago, but we hadn’t heard another word about the game until this past E3. Why’d it take so long? One of the studio’s top executives joins Kotaku Splitscreento explain. Marcin Iwiński, co-founder and co-CEO of CD Projekt Red, sat down with me in Los Angeles…

The Week In Games: Grab That Racket 

Mario Tennis Aces week is upon us. Like many, I want to see my favorite Mushroom Kingdom friends absolutely annihilate a world tour of tennis players. But it’s not the only great thing coming out. The time after E3 is always strange, and this year is no different. We’re getting some interesting releases like The…

Track: God Help Us All (Demo) | Artist: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds | Album: It’s A Beautiful World Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Track: Sons Of Salem | Artist: Orange Goblin | Album: The Wolf Bites Back Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Never let anyone tell you cosplay isn’t art. arcanekani is Will, hakizzle91 is Jazz. Photo by troysdecoy

Taxi!

I don’t get the chance to feature much low poly or pixel art work here on Fine Art, so let’s take care of both of those things in one feature. This is the work of Brendan Sullivan, an artist and animator from Sydney. You can see more of Brendan’s stuff at his Facebookand ArtStationpages. To…

Track: Just A Cloud (feat. Vilja Larjosto) | Artist: Lusine | Album: Sensorimotor Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Gex Makes For A Weird Speedrun

While we were all screaming about E3, a speedrunner by the name of Mysticore was setting the world record for completing Gex: Enter The Gecko for the Playstation in 48:51. Golly, that game is weird. I’ve always had a fascination with Gex. Despite only ever playing the Game Boy Color version of Enter The Gecko,…

‘Shop Contest: Even More Smash Bros.

The new Smash Bros. game has a lot of characters, but it doesn’t have every character ever created, so our ‘Shop Contest this week is all about cramming more weird stuff into this game. Look, I’ve never been a Smash fan. I think I must be missing something crucial that gets people hollerin’ about Peach…

How Rare Hopes To Keep Up With Demand For New Sea Of Thieves Stuff

At Microsoft’s E3 press conference on Sunday, Sea of Thieves studio Rare showed off some of the latest DLC coming to its piratey Xbox One/PC game. Later at the show, we talked with the game’s executive producer about how the studio plans to keep that pace up over the months to come. As part of…

Sunday Comics: Big Circle

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. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published June 11. Read more of Awkward Zombie Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published June 14. Read more of Corpse Run Double XP by…

Track: Pretty In Pink | Artist: The Psychedelic Furs | Album: Pretty In Pink OST Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.