Culture

Inside The Brothels Of Final Fantasy XIV

The madam Queen Tepe met me near a bustling harbor in Final Fantasy XIV. “Will you be coming to the mansion?” she asked me. “I’d appreciate an escort,” I responded. Moments later, I’d meet five of them. Tepe runs a seaside brothel on the FFXIV server Hyperion. These 18+ love dens exist across FFXIV’S worlds,…

Track: Raspberry Beret | Artist: Prince | Album: Around the World in a Day Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Final Fantasy Cosplay Hits The Road

If there’s one place you could get a black car, hit the highway and have it look just like Final Fantasy XV, it’s Arizona. That’s where this crew (the same from a camping trip we featured a while back) headed, renting a Camaro and driving around the state for the weekend, visiting lava tubes in…

Track: Old & Creepy | Artist: Petyr | Album: Petyr Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Lookin’ Good, League Of Legends

Alex Flores is a senior artist at Riot Games, where he gets to work on League 0f Legends every day. Below you’ll find a collection of the splash art images he’s done for characters in the game. You can see more of Alex’s work at his ArtStation page To see the images in their native…

Track: Autumn Leaves | Artist: Nat King Cole | Album: N/A (The Nat King Cole Show)  Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

D.Va Cosplay Is Here To Destroy

Here’s JS Cosplay with an absolutely incredible take on D.Va’s Deathwing the Destroyer skin. It’s not just the costume here that nails it, it’s the photography (by CineCosu), lighting (by @justinelement), make-up work (@anhakinskywalker) and assitance (epictoastphotos) that’s on-point as well.

Keep Your Cool, Man

Alexander Trufanov is a concept artist who has worked for companies like Ubisoft and Game Insight. You can see more of Alexander’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 work of video game…

Floating Fortnite Player Hit From Across The Map

Today on Highlight Reel we have super soldiers, auditory hallucinations, nice shots, 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 up on all the…

What You Do On Steam Can Now Influence Who You Play Against In Counter-Strike

Have you ever been a jerk or cheated in Counter-Strike? No? What about in other Steam games? Now, that might come back to bite you, thanks to CSGO’s “Trust Factor” matchmaking system. The Trust Factor system arrived late yesterday as part of a game update. Valve’s goal here is simple: to match you with people…

Track: The Robots | Artist: Kraftwerk | Album: The Man-Machine Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

When Overwatch Goes Punk

Like they did with underwear, and then formal evening wear, Overwatch cosplayers have once again taken their favourite characters and put a little spin on their outfits. This time, the theme is punk. These costumes were all on show at this year’s BlizzCon, with most of the shots below taken by Mineralblu

Ready For Anything

Won Bin Lee is an artist from South Korea. You can see more of Lee’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 work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their…

Streamers Reacting To Speedruns Of A Game They Just Rage-Quit Is 😙👌

Last week, I wrote about popular streamers rage-quitting Getting Over It, a game about climbing a junk mountain that represents digital content and probably also Hell. Now for the flipside of that coin: people being extremely good at the game… being watched by people who are extremely bad at it. Getting Over It’s speedrunning scene…

This Week In Games: It’s Star Wars Season 

Pew pew. We’re about a month out from The Last Jedi, which Disney is apparently so thrilled about they’ve decided to give director Rian Johnson his very own Star Wars trilogy to do what he will with. Until then there’s Star Wars Battlefront 2, the first game since Disney purchased the license to feature a…

Track: Rock Me Amadeus | Artist: Falco | Album: Adventureland Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Overwatch Cosplay Actually Glows In The Dark

Hime Shinra, a cosplayer from Indonesia, has done something real different for this Sombra shoot: to nail the character’s purple neon effects, she used both UV lights and special powders so that she’d actually glow in the dark. The images were taken at BlueMoon Studios, who also helped put everything together. Here are some of…

The Best Cosplay From BlizzCon 2017

Last year’s BlizzCon was one of the higlights of the cosplay calendar. BlizzCon 2017 was no different. While official cosplay was there and stealing the show, there were plenty of fans around as well, including some of the world’s best cosplayers, there to pay their respects to series like Overwatch, WarCraft and StarCraft Below you’ll…

The Xbox One X Is A Tough Sell

The Xbox One X does exactly what it’s meant to do, but who is it for? Is it worth buying the most powerful game console ever? Let’s discuss on today’s Kotaku Splitscreen First Kirk and I talk about World of Warcraft Classic, the end of Miiverse, and whether the video game industry is really unsustainable.…

Sunday Comics: Nesting With Sin 

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics that usually occurs on Sunday except when it doesn’t. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published November 10. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published November 6. Read more…