Culture

Track: Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground | Artist: The White Stripes | Album: White Blood Cells Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Nicolas Cage, The Japanese Snack Food [Update]

If you were a Japanese snack food maker and could put anyone on your tasty treats, who would it be? Nicolas Cage, of course! To promote Army of One’s Japanese release, the actor’s face is being plastered on the popular puffed corn snack Umaibou (or “delicious stick”). Update October 13 – 6:00am: Nicolas Cage did…

Rough Day At The Range

Elijah McNeal is an artist who has worked for companies like Gearbox, Epic and 20th Century Fox. You can see more of Elijah’s art at his ArtStation page (and the last time we featured him, in 2014). To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine…

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Today on Highlight Reel we have spartan lasers, Battlegrounds bonding, orcs ending it, 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…

Kerbal Space Program Review Bombed Over Controversial Chinese Gender Translation

For the past few days, Kerbal Space Program has been bombarded by negative reviews on Steam, so much so that the big thumbs-down parade has triggered Valve’s new anti-review bomb countermeasures. The reason? A small phrasing change in the game’s Chinese version. Originally, a space shuttle on the game’s main menu had the phrase “不到mun非好汉”…

What Counter-Strike Mapmakers Think Of The New Dust2

Valve has once again tampered with the holy grail of Counter-Strike maps, Dust2. Long considered a gold standard not just for CSGO, but for multiplayer maps in general, it’s very difficult to tangibly improve without accidentally knocking the overall synergy of the map out of balance. Has Valve succeeded this time? I asked a handful…

People Are Speedrunning The Super Mario Odyssey Store Demos

Super Mario Odyssey comes out in two weeks. Some players are so eager to race through the game that they’ve started recording ‘speedruns’ at demo kiosks in department stores. Demo speedruns are mostly a chance to experiment with the game’s movement mechanics. Mario has some pretty great jumps in Odyssey and the ability to possess…

Tiny Cardboard Arcade Is An Awesome Kids’ Meal Toy

An ill-fated trip through the local Wendy’s drive through yesterday resulted in room temperature fries, the wrong size drink and confirmation of my children’s suspicions that not all chicken nuggets are created equal. But hey, check out this awesome little arcade building set that came in their kid’s meal. Wendy’s is pretty good if you…

Track: Holy Mountain | Artist: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds | Album: Who Built The Moon? Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Track: Two Thousand And Seventeen | Artist: Four Tet | Album: New Energy Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Hanzo Cosplay Is Very Beautiful

Cherry blossoms fall / Look at his beautiful face / Do not main Hanzo. This is Stylouz Cosplay. Photos by FlaavTV. For more Overwatch haiku, please consult this collection

Blade Runner Inspired Two Very Different Video Games

While it's inspired many games, there have only been two Blade Runner games made

Track: Pills | Artist: St. Vincent | Album: Masseduction Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

1994 Nintendo Documentary Gives Us A Look At Miyamoto’s Desk

In 1994, Jean-Jacques Beineix made a documentary called Otaku. It features a nine-minute tour of Nintendo’s offices, and it is wonderful to watch. The original recording is in French (and has circulated online for a while), but ComputerTales recently uploaded a version featuring machine translation into English, which while jarring still at least lets you…

Rude Pass Forza Guy

Today on Highlight Reel we have close finishes, aquatic landings, FIFA invisibility cloaks 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…

Cosplayer Transforms Into Wonder Woman

Alyson Tabbitha, a regular around here for her astounding make-up and costume work, returns with this temporary diversion where she ceases to be a human cosplayer and becomes an Amazonian ass-kicker. Note that as amazing as this outfit is, it’s not yet done: the shot began as a simple test, because she still hadn’t done…

The Internet Reacts To Overwatch‘s Symmetra Halloween Skin

Overwatch’s Halloween event has been announced, along with new spooky skins. While there are a lot of great new skins on offer, the fandom has already been freaking out over Symmetra’s Halloween skin that depicts her as a Dragon. The fandom has been freaking out over Symmetra’s Dragon skin, which leaked over the weekend. There’s…

Track: Jump | Artist: Van Halen | Album: 1984 Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Counter-Strike’s signature map, Dust2, is getting an official rework from Valve. The “updated, refined” version will be playable in beta form “soon.” For now, enjoy one whole screenshot

Shadow Of War‘s PC Download Is Nearly 100 GB

Hoping to play noted orc dating/shaming simulator Shadow of War on PC when it launches early tomorrow? You’ll probably want to start pre-loading it asap. By default, the Steam download of Shadow of War weighs in at a whopping 97.7 GB, making it one of the largest game downloads on the platform in recent memory.…