Culture

A Single Image That Helped Lead To Grand Theft Auto

Mike Dailly, of Lemmings and GTA fame, shared something very cool on Twitter over the weekend: an image he made in 1994 that, in a very direct way, led to the creation of the original Grand Theft Auto He also shared an animated version of the image created for an old talk, which you can…

‘Shop Contest: Why So Serious?

The world will get a new Joker film in October. But some folks, including some film critics, have already seen the film and the reviews are surprisingly positive. Maybe this new Joker movie is actually really good?! Or maybe it’s terrible? I don’t know. But regardless, let’s have some fun with this new Clown Prince.…

Sunday Comics: Why Is Everything Burning?

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 Sep. 1. Read more of Awkward Zombie Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published Aug. 29. Read more of Corpse Run Clueless Hero by…

‘Shop Contest: Happy Birthday, Winners!

I’m back after a weekend away. Did you miss me? I had a wonderful birthday and vacation and now I return to judge your creations for our latest contest. I asked you folks to throw me some video game parties and most of you did just that. Our winning image this week comes from sciteach…

Warframe’s Latest Update Adds Playable Guitars

Sometimes space ninjas want to take a break from shooting and killing. Instead, they want to create sweet music. The latest Warframe update gives players that ability, adding a fully playable guitar-like instrument into the game. These new instruments are called Shawzinand they were added in the latest update that just hit PC this weekend.…

Sudowoodo Is Loved By Millions Of Old People

Every Pokemon is interesting and worth talking about. I don’t play a ton of Pokemon, but I do enjoy the universe and I love learning more about the creatures in it. So, Here’s Another Pokemon! It’s Sudowoodo! Sudowoodo Details Type: Rock Average Height: 3‘ 11″ Average Weight: 83.8 lbs. First Added In Generation II Sudowoodo…

Please Don’t Kill My Emoji Family!

Hello! This week we explore The Oldest House, yell about Fortnite, watch a weird wrestling match, listen to Claptrap, call Lovecraft a stupid child and kill our emoji family. Great Kotaku Content From The Past Week Like most weeks, Kotaku was filled with some great stories. Here are a few of my favorites! Control is…

Homeworld 3 Is Coming, Hell Yes

Twenty years after the release of the first game in the series, we got news today that there’s going to be a third mainline Homeworld game. Gearbox announced the title today at PAX West, with development being handled by Blackbird Interactive, the studio behind not just the recent Homeworld Remastered games, but the Homeworld prequel…

Control’s Hidden Puppet Show Is A Horror Masterpiece

Control could be called a horror game. It’s creepy and unsettling,right down to the title cards that pop up in every new location. But Control is also a good action game, withfun, bombastic gunfights. It’s probably best to just call it a thriller—at least, until you find the first episode of Threshold Kids, an inexplicable…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for baking a cake, if I don’t eat all the blueberries I plan to put in the cake first. It’s also for playing video games (possibly while eating cake). At long last, we have returned to the time of Too Many Games. I’m excited to play more Control, and also hop into…

I Keep Quitting Dragon Quest XI Thanks To Its Atrocious Music

Ever since my friend and Kotaku comrade in arms Tim Rogers reviewed Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age last year with glowing praise, I’ve been trying desperately to play it. The combat is snappy, the world is gorgeous, and the prospect of a sweeping story excites me. But every time I play, I…

WoW Classic Players Are Using Illicit Tools To Stay Logged In And Avoid Login Queues

If you watch people play games on Twitch, or you read about them on websites, or you just awoke from a thousand-year slumber and the first thing anybody explained to you was the concept of “video games,” you’re probably aware that everybody’s going bonkers for WoW Classic right now. This has resulted in hours-long queue…

Woman Says Oculus Rift Cofounder Put His Hand Up Her Skirt During VR Demo

Earlier this week, Autumn Taylor, marketing director at the virtual reality game studio Owlchemy Labs, said that Oculus cofounder Michael Antonov groped her during a VR demo in 2016. At first, Taylor described the incident without revealing the person’s identity. “They showed me VR demos, but put their hands up my skirt while they did…

Destiny 2‘s Seasons Will Work Much Differently This Year

Destiny 2 is about to get some big changes with its forthcoming Shadowkeep expansion, out October 1. Changes so big that developer Bungie has chosen to slowly tell us about them piecemeal, in lengthy blog posts from the game’s director, Luke Smith. This week, Smith publisheda postoutlining Destiny’s new approach to its seasonal structure, and…

Here’s September 2019’s Xbox Live Games With Gold Lineup

Hitman’s first season led February’s PlayStation Plus games, but if you’re an Xbox fan, now you can get it too with September’s Games with Gold. Which you should, because it rules. As always, these games are only “free” if you have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription. September’s Games with Gold are: Xbox One Hitman:…

Why King Of Fighters Dominates Latin America’s Fighting Game Scene

What’s the fighting game you remember the most from the arcades of your youth? Street Fighter II? Tekken? Mortal Kombat? If you’re from Latin America, there’s an excellent chance that the first game that jumps to mind wasn’t any of those, and the game that defined your formative arcade experience was actually SNK’s The King…

I May Never Stop Watching YouTube Tutorials And Actually Play This Strategy Game

For the last couple months, I’ve been trying to get into Stellaris in a big way—partly because the game is one of the few 4X games to get an uncompromised console port, and partly because I think space stuff is rad. Since I’m not a PC guy, I’m still pretty new to games in the…

The New Sonic The Hedgehog Monopoly Game Is About Going Fast And Battling Bosses

Debuting in 2017 with a Mario-themed set, Monopoly Gamer combines Hasbro’s classic real estate board game with iconic video game characters and unique game mechanics. Now it’s Sonic’s turn to race around the board, collecting rings, fighting for chaos emeralds, and investing in property, just like he does in his video games. Monopoly Gamer: Sonic…

Wolfenstein: Youngblood just got a little less frustrating. The game’s 1.05 patch—out now for PC and coming soon to consoles—comes with a bevy of tweaks, the biggest ones affecting enemy “bullet sponginess” and adding checkpoints. Still can’t pause in co-op, obviously. (Though you now can offline, thanks to update 1.04.)

Goofy Spider-Man Glitch Turns Everyone Into Walking Piles Of Denim

In the Marvel comic books and films, Spider-Man is a superhero who was bitten by a radioactive spider that granted him the proportionate strength, speed, and agility of an arachnid. In Spider-Man, the PlayStation 4 video game, you play this man in a world gone mad, where everyone was bitten by a pair of radioactive…