Culture

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for being torn between wanting to go outside to experience whatever the hell the weather is doing and never wanting to leave the house again. Also, video games. It’s the one year anniversary of the Switch, which has reminded me how badly I fell off my Zelda playing. This seems like the…

Kingdom Come Owes Its Popularity To ‘Realism’ And Conservative Politics

Kingdom Come: Deliverance has sold more than one million copies in less than a month. Its all-time concurrent player peak is higher than The Witcher 3‘s. So why is a janky role-playing game set in the Holy Roman Empire so popular? Because, on the surface, it rejects tired fantasy RPG tropes, but underneath it all,…

Track: Sheila Take A Bow | Artist: The Smiths | Album: Louder Than Bombs Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The Tokyo Olympics Character We All Deserve 

Forget the Pokémon style mascots. The one the Tokyo Olympics needs and wants is a pistol-slinging, fencing foil-wielding centaur. Now that the 2018 Winter Olympics are over, the focus can shift to the upcoming 2020 games and the odd commercials they will spawn. This one, from instant noodle maker Nissin, celebrates the modern pentathlon with…

A Brighter Tomorrow

Boell Oyino is a character designer and illustrator based in France who has worked in both video games and animation. You can see more of Boell’s work at his ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the…

Track: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence | Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto | Album: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence Soundtrack Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Uh Guys Let’s Go

Nick Foreman is an artist at Sumo Digital, known for games like the console versions of Sega’s Outrun reboot and the starfighter sequences of the new Battlefront games. You can see more of Nick’s work at his ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left…

The Internet Reacts To Brigitte, Overwatch’s New Hero

Overwatch fans have totally fallen for Brigitte Lindholme, the game’s latest hero. Fans have known about the character for a while. She was last seen in the November 2017 Overwatch short, “Honor and Glory,” and were hoping she’d end up as the next hero. They’re already making fanart, jokes, and realizing they’ve been pronouncing her…

What We Loved About Annihilation, An Ecological Horror Story

Annihilation is the latest movie from Alex Garland, director of Ex Machina and screenwriter of Never Let Me Go, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Dredd. It’s surreal, terrifying, and definitely worth a watch. I sat down with Cameron Kunzelman to try to make sense of it all. Gita Jackson: Hi Cameron! Last weekend we both…

‘Titty Streamer’ Kaceytron Is Nourished By Bitter Gamer Tears

It had been two months since self-described “titty streamer” Kaceytron finally covered up. Chunky sweaters and strings of pearls replaced her daily streaming uniform of tank tops and push-up bras. Her nearly 500,000 Twitch followers were at a loss: Some wondered whether Kaceytron had contracted a brain injury, forever altering her personality. Others recognized a…

Sixteen Steam Features You Probably Don’t Know About

Like the thousands upon thousands of games it hosts, Steam has secrets. [This post originally ran on March 30, 2015. Update 9/18/15: Added more features. Update 2 2/28/2018: Added EVEN MORE features.] Steam is more feature-rich than just about any other gaming platform on the planet. However, as it’s expanded over the years, it’s become…

Track: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo & L’estasi dell’oro (Live) | Artist: The Danish National Symphony Orchestra | Album: N/A Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Noodle Time, Major

Elena Bespalova is an artist at Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends You can see more of Elena’s work at her ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing…

As Mario Odyssey Patches Change The Game, Speedrunners Scramble To Keep Up

Super Mario Odyssey speedrunners often use glitches to grab tricky power moons or skip through major portions of the game. A new patch implemented alongside the new Luigi’s Balloon World mode last week blocked some of those crucial tricks, slowing any runner who upgraded their game. Now, the community is trying to figure out what…

Track: The Same Star | Artist: Belle & Sebastian | Album: How To Solve Our Human Problems Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

YouTuber Potato Chips Go On Sale In Japan

Potato chips featuring the images of popular Japanese YouTubers, such as Hikakin (pictured), are going on sale later this month. In Japanese, the bag reads “Yuuchuubaa Chippusu” (ユーチューバーチップス). The chips are “lightly salted flavored.” The chips come with collectible YouTuber cards, and there are already inevitable YouTube clips. Of course, there are. Kotaku East is…

Track: Make Me Feel | Artist: Janelle Monáe | Album: Dirty Computer Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Be Gone, Evil Spirits

Borislav Kechashki is a senior character artist at Ubisoft’s Sofia studio, where he’s worked on games like Assassin’s Creed Origins. You can see more of Borislav’s work at his ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the…

Squidward Can Finally Kick Vegeta’s Ass

Today on Highlight Reel we have Bikini Bottom vs. Universe 7, tiny colossi, sad horse moments, 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 Week In Games: Out Of The Frying Pan And Into The Breach

The long awaited follow-up to FTL: Faster Than Light arrives this week and the timing couldn’t be better. Perfectly situated in the middle of an otherwise mostly quiet release week, Subset Games’ Into the Breach comes five and a half years after the studio’s first strategy outing. There are mechs, time travel and gigantic creatures…