Culture

‘Shop Contest: National Mustard Day

Mustard. Love it or hate it, you have to at least admit it’s a fun word to say. And next weekend we celebrate National Mustard Day, a day in which people eat mustard, I assume. Your challenge this week: Give video game characters bottles of mustard. For most of my life, I was anti-mustard. Hated…

Sunday Comics: RAY OF DEATH

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 July 22. Read more of Awkward Zombie Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published July 22. Read more of Corpse Run Clueless Hero by…

‘Shop Contest: OH GOD, CATS, Winners!

Last week the world was given the nightmare creation that is the trailer for the Cats movie. I asked you wonderful readers of Kotaku to take these scary creatures from the trailer and place them anywhere you wanted. Make everything terrible! And you folks did just that! Thanks. I guess? Our winning image this week…

Fallout 76 Is Getting A New Battle Royale Map And Cooperative Vault Raid

At QuakeCon 2019, Bethesda announced some new content coming to Fallout 76 later this year, including a new map for the Nuclear Winter mode and new raids. They also released a new updated roadmap for summer 2019. Nuclear Winter, Fallout 76‘s 52-player battle royale mode, is getting a new map. It is based on the…

Klefki Will Steal Your Keys And Never Give Them Back

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 Klefki! Klefki Details Type: Steel/ Fairy Average Height: 0‘ 08″ Average Weight: 6.6 lbs. First Added In Generation VI…

Controversial Voice Actor Chris Niosi Will Be Replaced In Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Nintendo plans to remove voice actor Chris Niosi from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, following accusations of abuse by former friends and girlfriends. He was previously replaced in the credits of mobile spin-off game Fire Emblem Heroes. In a statement, Nintendo confirmed that it will rerecord Niosi’s voiceovers and add the new voices in a future…

Don’t Destroy My Anime Figurine, Please

Hello! This week we figure out a secret way to get more Spider-Men, discover a weird trick Sindel can do, take photos of strangers in the Old West, learn how to become John Wick and destroy some anime figurines. Great Kotaku Content From The Past Week Like most weeks, Kotaku was filled with some great…

1993’s Doom Requires A Bethesda Account To Play On Switch, Quickly Becomes An Internet Joke [Updated]

Today, Bethesda announced the first three Doom games were all be coming to modern consoles including the Nintendo Switch. What Bethesda didn’t mention was that you’d first need to create a Bethesda.net account in order to play them. ResetEra’s Nibel pointed out the requirement on Twitter earlier this afternoon. While Doom I and II only…

Total War Community Manager Calls YouTuber A ‘Dickhead’ On Final Livestream

In his final public act as community manager for Creative Assembly, makers of the Total War strategy game series, Michael “Wheels” Whelan said this at the end of a livestream earlier this week: “Arch Warhammer is a dickhead. Goodbye.” Arch Warhammer, a gaming YouTuber who focuses mainly on Warhammer lore, has also been vocal in…

Steam Economy In Chaos After Team Fortress 2 Glitch Guarantees Players Rare Items

Hats. It’s always been hats. Ever since Team Fortress 2 first added cosmetics back in 2009, which was (oh no) a decade ago, they’ve been equal parts a cornerstone of Valve’s oft-forgotten multiplayer shooter and a meme at the hat-obsessed game’s expense. Now, however, TF2‘s maddest hatters are laughing all the way to the bank.…

Young Women Are Reclaiming The Slur ‘Egirl’

Jayden “YourPrincess” Diaz is haunted by the term “egirl.” A League of Legends streamer competing among the top two percent of players, Diaz hasn’t been able to escape it for years—every day in Twitch chat, in League of Legends games and across social media. “I let it really hurt me,” Diaz, 20, told Kotaku of…

When Your Frustration At A Game Makes You Even Worse

Video games can be frustrating. Sometimes, that frustration can overpower your ability to play them well. There’s a term for that: In those moments, you’re “tilted.” On this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen, we had Kotaku’s newest staff writer Joshua Rivera join us to discuss the ways that games have tilted us and how we deal with…

Kingdom Hearts III, Six Months Later

Kingdom Hearts III had plenty of drama before launch thanks to a massive leak of physical copies that led director Tetsuya Nomura to ask fans not to share spoilers. Square Enix also delayed the game’s epilogue until after the game’s release. When release day finally came, Sora and his pals mostly ended up okay, save…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for going to the Fortnite World Cup, which means watching a lot of people play video games and not getting to play very many of them myself. If I can find the time, though, I’m really excited to dive into Wolfenstein: Youngblood. I’m a bit bummed not to have BJ Blazkowicz’s Thin…

I Finally Understand The Appeal Of Escaping Into A Video Game To Cope With Stress

For most of my life, I never quite understood escapism. I knew how powerful video games could be, how seductive and wonderful their worlds were, but I never quite understood the idea of wanting to melt through the screen and leave the real world behind. After I’ve had string of rotten luck and high stress,…

Looks Like The Original Doom Games Are Coming To Switch As Soon As Today [Update]

Earlier this morning listings for the original Doom, Doom II, and Doom III briefly appeared on the Nintendo eShop, suggesting the trilogy is set to come to Switch, potentially as early today. Spotted by Nintendo Life, the listings for the iconic first-person shooters appeared on the Nintendo UK Switch website. While none of the games…

Comic History: Why The First EarthBound Wasn’t Released Outside Japan

When Nintendo released it as Earthbound Beginnings on the Wii U, the innovative, beloved role-playing game Mother finally made it to the West. But back in the early 1990s, Nintendo had every intention of launching it for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System in America. It just didn’t work out. Nintendo of America planned to give…

Track: Once | Artist: Liam Gallagher | Album: Why Me? Why Not Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment. 

JPEGMAFIA. Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago, IL. By Roberto Campos. 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!

If Horizon Zero Dawn’s Aloy Was In Overwatch

Ladislas Gueros is an artist based in Canada, and this is his idea on how Horizon Zero Dawn’s Aloy would look as a guest-starring Overwatch character. Like Hanzo, basically, only less annoying. You can see more of Gueros’ stuff at his ArtStation page