Culture

The Secret Glitch Players Used To Break Mario Kart 64‘s Chocolate Mountain

Chocolate Mountain doesn’t look like much. The Mario Kart 64 level is sparse compared to others in the game, filled only with varying shades of brown and a dense fog. But the unassuming level is one of the game’s best for astounding speedrunning records, thanks to the evolution of one particular shortcut trick. It all…

The Struggle Over Gamers Who Use Mods To Create Racist Alternate Histories

Last December, a 22-year old modder who calls himself Ted52 purged the Steam forums for his Hearts of Iron IV mod, Millennium Dawn. Steam’s infrastructure made it difficult to remove unsavory threads individually, and he tells me he has more control of things over at his Discord channel, where he can eliminate any racists, idiots,…

Track: Hear My Train a Comin’ | Artist: Jimi Hendrix | Album: Both Sides of the Sky Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The Queen Of WarCraft Cosplay

Nargais one of the best cosplayers on the planet, especially when it comes to Blizzard games. This is her latest shoot, based on WarCraft’s Battle for Lordaeron. Nargais cosplaying here as the Alliance’s Jaina Proudmoore, and made the entire outfit and props herself. All photos by kmitenkova You might remember Narga from last year’s WoW…

The Art Of Detroit: Become Human

Kirk didn’t much care for Detroit in his review of the game, but I still thought the game’s vision of the near future was interesting enough to take a look at in tonight’s Fine Art Below, you’ll find a showcase of pieces that went into Detroit’s development from a range of artists-some of them working…

Games That We Feel Guilty For Not Liking

There are so many games and just never enough time. Sometimes I’ll put a game on ice so I can return to it later, especially if it doesn’t click for me at first. But a certain kind of guilt can bubble up inside me if the urge to pick a certain game back up doesn’t…

A NSFW Cosplay Tribute To Shadow Of The Colossus

ColossalCon—one of the biggest cosplay shows of the year—just wrapped up in Sandusky, Ohio. And what better way to cosplay for a show called ColossalCon than by recreating the boss roster of Shadow of the Colossus Taking a similar approach to the NSFW group Overwatch shoot from last year (this was again organised by cosplay…

A Cool Set Of New Overwatch Character Designs

Korean artist Kirim Son has done what loads of fans have already done, and designed some new Overwatch characters. What’s different about Son’s though is that all three have been specifically designed to represent Overwatch heroes whose powers are drawn from various mobility issues. Jalkikuva Laine (below), for example, became deaf as a child, but…

State Of Decay 2 Survivor Is Clearly Not A Doctor

Today on Highlight Reel we have State of Decay 2 car crashes, Detroit AI glitches, motorcycles, and much more! Watch the video then talk about your favorite highlight in the comments below. Be sure to check out, like, and share the original videos via the links below. Subscribe to Kotaku on YouTube for more! Catch…

The First Non-Valve Game On Steam Began With A Bad Kung Fu Movie

In this era of overstuffed digital shelves, it can be hard to imagine a time when Steam wasn’t crawling with a million anthills’ worth of games. A little more than a decade ago, though, it only carried Valve games. Then came Rag Doll Kung Fu. People Make Games’ Chris Bratt (who, full disclosure, is a…

Every Game I’m Trying To Play Is Patching

Last Saturday, I expected to finally, finally, get through God of War. That was my first mistake. Games aren’t just finite, complete objects anymore. They’re not something I can play whenever I want simply because I can hold them in my hand. Sometimes, developers have other plans. God of War exists on a disc inside…

The E3 2018 Press Conference Schedule

We’re just one week away from E3, the video game industry’s annual tribute to buzzwords, explosions, and shocking reveals of games that will take decades to come out. Are you excited? I’m excited. As always, you can bookmark this article for the full schedule of press events at E3 2018. Via Twitter user Cheesemeister, here’s…

The Week In Games: Summertime Vampires

If you like vampires in the middle of summer, then this week is a real treat for you. I’ve been looking forward to Vampyr for a long time (I’m still a massive fan of Remember Me). That said, I have purposefully kept myself in the dark…with the vampires…about what it is actually about. Hopefully it’s…

Track: Ruby Tuesday | Artist: The Rolling Stones | Album: Between the Buttons (US Ver.) Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Track: Cold Love | Artist: Graveyard | Album: Peace Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The Best Cosplay From Comicpalooza 2018

Comicpalooza was held in Houston last week, with over 40,000 people turning up to meet, buy some stuff, see some panels and yes, partake in some cosplay. The video and all photos below are by Mineralblu

Assassin’s Creed Origins’ Afterlife Is A Series Highlight

Curse of the Pharoahs, the second big expansion for Assassin’s Creed Origins, has been one of 2018’s most pleasant surprises, in big part because it includes some very weird shit. Here’s a look where some of that came from. This is a collection of art that went into the expansion, with particular focus on its…

‘Shop Contest: Assassins Vs Templars Forever

With the leak-then-confirmation of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s ancient Greek setting, I’ve started thinking about where the scheming and murdering factions of the Assassin’s Creed franchise should go next. I’m a big fan of these games. I’ve thought long and hard about them. They’re important to me. And it’s out of that deep respect and thinking…

Why E3 Still Matters

Does E3 still matter? Yes, yes it does. This week on Kotaku Splitscreen, let’s discuss why. First, Kirk and I break down the news of the week on Fallout going online, new Pokémon, and Valve removing a school shooting game from Steam. Then we open up the mailbag for a whole bunch of pre-E3 questions…

Sunday Comics: Sewer Bread

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 May 28. Read more of Awkward Zombie Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published May 31. Read more of Corpse Run Double XP by…