Culture

Track: You Don’t Miss Your Water | Artist: Brian Eno & John Cale | Album: Married To The Mob OST Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Amiibo Gold Rush

Solaire is an amiibo now, so it’s open season for beautiful crossovers and tie-ins for maximal corporate brand-sharing initiatives. If Dark Souls can make it to the Switch, and thus get an amiibo, then anything is possible. What about television shows? Radio serials? Podcasts? Video games that already have an amiibo and just need ten…

The ‘Magic Formula’ Behind Horizon: Zero Dawn‘s Success

SURPRISE! It’s a bonus episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, featuring Guerrilla Games’ boss Hermen Hulst, who shares some insight as to how Horizon: Zero Dawn turned out so special. In this 20-minute interview, Hulst and I talked about how Guerrilla went from the dark gritty landscapes of Killzone to the vibrant world of Horizon, how they…

Sunday Comics: Defenseless Ghosts

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 March 5th. Read more of Awkward Zombie Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. From the archive, originally published August 2011. Read more of Corpse…

This Week In The Business: Violence, Shame

QUOTE | “Every shot is in colossally bad taste and everyone associated with those games should be ashamed of themselves. They hurt us.” – Deus Ex and System Shock developer Warren Spector was upset by the White House’s video game violence montage produced for a meeting with industry leaders and critics. QUOTE | “We appreciate…

Track: Yellow Eyes | Artist: Between The Buried And Me | Album: Automata I Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for bribing yourself to do laundry by promising yourself cookies. Also, video games. Snowy battle royale game The Darwin Project is in early access now, which means I can play it whenever I want! I’m pretty excited to lose terribly but hilariously. To my great shame, I have yet to play Gwent’s…

Track: Block Rockin’ Beats | Artist: The Chemical Brothers | Album: Dig Your Own Hole Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The Internet Reacts To Smash Bros. For Switch

Super Smash Bros. is finally coming to the Switch and the announcement is blowing minds. We all knew it was inevitable, but still: Smash Bros.! On the Switch! The race to comb through footage for some clue about who will be in the game has begun. Nintendo Directs these days always elicit lots of reactions,…

Nightmare Man, You Take The Right Flank

Today on Highlight Reel we have Rainbow Six nightmares, touch of death combos, stab trains, 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…

Zarya Cosplay Flexes Some Muscles

On the left is Zarya, hero of the Overwatch universe. On the right, regular human Mina Petrovic with one of the best pieces of Zarya cosplay we’ve ever seen. The suit is amazing! The hair is also very well done, with a lot more work being done that just wearing a wig or dying her…

The Loot Box Madness May End On Its Own

Is Donald Trump going to take away our video games? Are loot boxes going to go away? Today on Kotaku Splitscreen, let’s discuss. First, Kirk and I talk about Trump, loot boxes, and Diablo for Switch (6:27). Then we dig into some of the games we’ve been playing (41:14), like Dishonored: Death of the Outsider,…

Track: Lovers In Japan | Artist: Coldplay | Album: Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Rough Landing

Daniel Rizea is a concept artist who has worked on everything from Independence Day 2 to White House Down to Crysis 3 to Ryse You can see more of Daniel’s work at his personal site To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine Art is…

Behold, Japan’s Antique Gaming Chairs

Today, the term “gaming chairs” is synonymous with those gaudy padded monstrosities you see in the background of a Twitch video. But in the late 80s/early 90s, a Japanese company had a much simpler idea. These are Iron Craft’s efforts, which consisted of taking a rather uncomfortable-looking stool and sticking a controller at the front…

All The Witcher’s Witches

This mass cosplay shoot was put together by the very talented Milligan Vick, and features ten members of The Lodge of Sorceresses. You could argue it’s not quite everyone, since Yenn isn’t there, but a) it’s not like she was a willing participant and b) I think we’ve had enough amazing Yenn cosplay already, thanks,…

Track: Meant To Be | Artist: Marmozets | Album: Knowing What You Know Now  Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Modders Are Trying To Salvage Chrono Trigger On PC

I’m not sure it’s possible to make Chrono Trigger, one of the greatest RPGs of all time, actively bad, but Square Enix’s surprise PC port is definitive proof that you can make it tough to look at. Modders—bless their noble, Frog-like souls—are trying to fix it. There are a number of mod projects in the…

Oh, The Elder Scrolls Are Real Now

Volpin Props were commissioned by Bethesda late last year to build two replicas of the Elder Scrolls for a competition. The end result was something so nice you could base an entire fantasy role-playing series around them. The build quality is insane; it uses goatskin leather on the handles, has epoxy and amethyst gemstones and…

Destiny 2, Six Months Later

Destiny 2 launched exactly six months ago today, though at times it feels more like six years. A bunch has changed since September, and the game has gone through some dramatic highs and lows. (Mostly lows.) Destiny 2’s long, slow crawl toward its possible (hopeful?) redemption is underway. Let’s step back and go over the…