Culture

Inside Livestreamfail, The Controversial Forum That Fuels Twitch Drama

Ice Poseidon. Sweet_Anita. Trainwreckstv. “Twitch thots.” “Boobie streamers.” If any of these names and phrases ring a bell, you may have a subreddit called Livestreamfail to thank—even if you’ve never heard of it. With nearly 400,000 subscribers, Livestreamfail has become one of the biggest external hubs for Twitch content. Maybe even the biggest. Users generally post…

Farming Is A Lot Of Fun When You Aren’t Actually Farming

“I’m the farmer. I work in the fields all day.” The chorus from Barenaked Ladies’ “Straw Hat and Old Dirty Hank” plays on repeat in my head as I sit in front of my computer tending virtual crops in Farming Simulator 19. That’s as close to hard outdoor work as I like to get. I…

Track: Loose Fit (Perfecto Mix) | Artist: Happy Mondays | Album: The Boys Are Back In Town 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! 

Winter Fury

Mauro Belfiore is a concept artist and illustrator from Italy. You can see more of Mauro’s work at his ArtStation page

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey‘s New Approach To Franchise Expansions May Indicate That These Games Are Finally Big Enough

The comically large map of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which players can spend well over 100 hours exploring without doing all of its quests and clearing all of its caves and forts, won’t expand outward with the game’s first expansion. That’s a change from how the series has handled downloadable add-ons in in the past. Freedom…

Spider-Man Cosplay Copies PS4 Gameplay

This is Ronnie Street Stunts, who is not just dressed as Spider-Man, but is specifically recreating some of his animations from the latest PS4 game. The vid below doesn’t just show his stunts, but also compares them directly to gameplay footage to show just how close he gets it!

My Nice Guy Approach To A Red Dead Redemption 2 Train Robbery Went Very Wrong

I’ve been mostly playing as a good guy in Red Dead Redemption 2, or at least as much as the game will let me. This is more of a cowardly choice than a moral one. Bounties and lawmen stress me out. Nevertheless, I recently decided to rob one of the game’s trains. It did not…

Here’s December 2018’s PlayStation Plus Lineup

There are some interesting indie games in this month’s PlayStation Plus lineup, including Soma, Iconoclastsfor Vita and PS4, and Papers, Please. As always, these games are only “free” if you have an active PlayStation Plus subscription. December’s PlayStation Plus games are: PlayStation 4 Soma Onrush PlayStation3 Steredenn Steinsgate PlayStation Vita Iconoclasts (crossbuy with Ps4) Papers, Please

Genesis Classics On Switch Is The Perfect Way To Play Old Games

In another reality, one where companies like Nintendo and Sony actually cared about preserving their old games and ensuring that their entire libraries were playable now and forever, something like Genesis Classics might not be a rarity. But it is, and hey, it’s pretty damn great. Genesis Classics, which is already out for PC, PS4,…

Track: U Make My Sun Shine | Artist: Prince | Album: Anthology: 1995-2010 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: Self Aware (Remix) | Artist: Andrés | Album: Heroes, Villains, And All That Jazz Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Prodeus is a shooter that tries to replicate the look of FPSes of old, but with modern graphical techniques. I’m not sure how I feel about its purposefully pixelated aesthetic, but it’s certainly different. And by different, I mean “like somebody put Dooms 1-4 in a blender.” It’ll be out next year.

We’re Traversing The Uncanny Valley

Hossein Diba is a character artist from Turkey who is also maybe a magician, able to summon polygons and turn them into terrifying likenesses of celebrities and movie characters. He’s worked on stuff like Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s cinematic trailer as well as creating head sculptures for games, animation and toy companies. You can…

The Criminal Minds Game Gets Right To The Grisly Bits

Based on the long-running television show about a crack team of FBI profilers hunting serial killers, the new Criminal Minds mobile game has no qualms about depicting cartoony atrocity by murdering a family of four in the first minute. I got into Criminal Minds while I was hospitalized earlier this year. Forced to watch commercial…

Here’s December 2018’s Xbox Live Games With Gold Lineup

I’ve been encouraging my sister to play Never Alone with her kids since they got an Xbox, so I’m excited to see it in this month’s Games with Gold lineup. As always, these games are only “free” if you have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription. December’s Games with Gold are: Xbox One Q.U.B.E. 2…

Track: Zombie Bastards | Artist: Weezer | Album: The Black Album 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! 

Sun’s Out, Guns Out

Seonhyeok Jeon is an artist from Korea. You can see more of Jeon’s work attheir ArtStation page

This is Friggin Boom Toys, who we last saw getting his head smacked around in the name of science. Now he’s dressed up as Spider-Man Noir and running around an indoor parkour centre to see if the suit holds up.

Players Of The Hex Discover Its Secret Ending—In Another Game

When I tell friends about video game protagonist murder mystery The Hex—the latest game from the creator of the surprisingly demented Pony Island—I always say two things: 1) that they need to play it as soon as they can, and 2) that it’s about something completely different than it claims to be. The Hex is,…

A Sims 4: Get Famous Story

Three generations ago, my grandmother came to Del Sol Valley, trying to make it big as a movie star. I’m the same as she was when she first started now, and from my new home in the desert, it’s hard not to think about what she went through as I embark on my own journey.…