Culture

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for having knocked a window curtain down this morning and, while trying to put it back up, realizing it’s ridiculous you still use the last tenant’s curtains and determining to go buy new curtains. Also, video games. This week I learned there’s a ghost ship that appears only once a day in…

My New, Healthier Mobile Game Obsession Is Fidel: Dungeon Rescue

Some mobile games play psychological tricks with you to get you to keep playing. Others hook you the much better way, simply by being great. So it is with the new iOS port of the stellar Fidel: Dungeon Rescue, which is billed as “the roguelike where you can rewind.” My colleague Heather highlighted the game…

Track: A Fistful of Dynamite | Artist: Ennio Morricone | Album: A Fistful of Dynamite OST Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Accounting+, a VR collaboration between makers of Rick and Morty and The Stanley Parable, is out. I got to play it last weekend at Indiecade in LA, and it’s the funniest VR game I’ve tried. If you want to get a feel for its sense of humor, watch this trailer, and make sure to stick…

Zelda Really Needed A Frog Village

Ziggy Zhu is a concept artist from China who, as a tribute to Breath of the Wild, decided to design his own village for the game. It’s beautiful. And very froggy. The village hook is simple: it’s built in a swamp, and everyone is a frog, and they all love sumo. And I love Frog…

Gwent‘s New Solo Campaign Includes Some Great Battles

I’ve been playing the same fight in Thronebreaker, Gwent’s standalone story, for a few hours now. I still haven’t beaten it. In most games, that would make me frustrated with myself or furious at the designers. But thanks to Thronebreaker’s unique mechanics, I’m itching to keep trying. Thronebreaker is the single-player standalone accompaniment to CD…

Track: Yah Yah Yah | Artist: Chage and Aska | Album: Red Hill Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The Hex Mashes Up Game Genres, Then Gets Really Weird

I’m just gonna cut to the chase: The Hex is this year’s Frog Fractions, Undertale, or—perhaps most aptly, given that it’s from the same creator—Pony Island. It’s a game that makes confetti of genre conventions and reassembles the scraps into a surprising story about how we interact with games. To delve too far into the…

Not Here To Win Hearts Or Minds

Rafael Amarante is a freelance concept artist and designer from Brazil who has worked on games like Halo 2: Anniversary You can see more of Rafael’s stuff at his personal site

New Breath Of The Wild Glitch Turns Head Stomp Into High Speed Takeoff

Breath of the Wild players have always taken advantage of the game’s wonky physics, either in speedruns or for fun. It’s one thing to ride on stasis-launched trees, but it’s way more fun to shoot across Hyrule Field with a good head stomp. A new glitch allows just that, letting players gain tremendous speeds and…

Track: She’s Electric | Artist: Oasis | Album: What’s the Story Morning Glory Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Mojo Jojo Cosplay!

If Netflix ever wanted to branch out from live-action anime adaptations into live-action Powerpuff Girls adaptations, they could do worse than look to cosplayer jedibugs for inspiration. This realistic take on Mojo Jojo is as impressive as hell, looking at once like a terrifying real-life version of the villain, but also like the most fabulous…

Track: Utsurunai | Artist: Never Young Beach | Album: Utsurunai (Single) Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The Week In Games: Villains Reign

We’ve got a week of melee battles, Lego villains, and resonant fates ahead of us. This week offers a small amount of respite in the face of the relentless pace of autumnal releases. We’ve got a new Lego game in Lego DC Villains, which promises to have a similar amount of charm as the other…

Track: Kowashite (Live) | Artist: Drop’s | Album: (Studio Session) Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Beachhead

Tahir Tanis is an artist at DICE, where he’s worked on series like Battlefront and Battlefield. Indeed we’ve featured some of his work in roundups of those games, but tonight is just a personal showcase. You can see more of Tahir’s stuff at his ArtStation page

Our Favorite Cosplay From The 2018 New York Comic-Con

Around 200,000 people went through the doors of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center earlier this month, making the New York Comic-Con one of the biggest nerd shows on the planet. A big part of the con was of course cosplay, and below you’ll find photos and video (taken by Mineralblu) showcasing some of the…

Track: The Killing Moon | Artist: Echo and the Bunnymen | Album: Ocean Rain Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

I Am Bread World Record Speedrun Is A Master Class In Bread Manipulation

Speedrunner “PootLoops” has defeated the bread simulator I Am Bread in a blistering six minutes and twelve seconds while pontificating about ABBA songs. As someone who doesn’t pay a lot of attention to I Am Bread speedruns, I was legitimately flabbergasted by this run. Apparently you can just flip a piece of bread through the…

‘Shop Contest: Expanded Ops

We’re now living in the world of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and I just think that the magical battle royale experience could be a bit more expansive. That’s where you come in. This week’s ‘Shop Contest is all about taking a game that is fundamentally concerned with zombies, hardcore PVP, and battle royale…