Culture

Track: Animal Nitrate | Artist: Suede | Album: Suede Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Nice Wheels, Batman

Michael Broussard is a concept artist and illustrator who has worked at companies like Telltale and Rocksteady. You can see more of Michael’s work at his ArtStationand personalsites. 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…

Steam’s Irresponsible Hands-Off Policy Is Proof That Valve Still Hasn’t Learned Its Lesson

Yesterday, Valve announced a sweeping new policy for Steam: From now on, the platform will allow “everything” except for games Valve decides are “illegal, or straight up trolling.” In light of controversies like the recently removed school shooter game Active Shooter, the announcement came as a surprise to those who were expecting Valve to offer…

Symmetra Turret Launched From Space

Today on Highlight Reel we have Reworked Symmetra strategies, Vampyr glitches, bike flips, 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…

Whoops, I Started Playing Bloodborne Again

You know how you tell yourself you’re gonna finally try some new restaurants, then a week later you’re back at the same pizza place you always go to? I’ve been doing that same thing, except with Bloodborne Over the last two days, I’ve spent a good dozen hours replaying FromSoftware’s 2015 PlayStation 4 monster-slicer. I…

Track: Fast Slow Disco (Live) | Artist: St. Vincent | Album: NA (Later… with Jools Holland) Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Track: The Beigeness | Artist: Kate Tempest | Album: The Beigeness Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Survival Games Are At Their Best When You’re Alone

I lost my raft. Not the best way to start a game called Raft, but I soldiered on, desperately doggy-paddling through an endless sea in hopes of finding dry land before I starved to death or got eaten by a shark. As the in-game sun set, I accepted my fate: I would die cold, afraid,…

Valve Says It Will Now Allow ‘Everything’ On Steam, Unless It’s Illegal Or ‘Straight Up Trolling’

In recent times, Valve has struggled to draw a line in terms of what’s allowed on Steam. Controversy has raged over the removal of games with explicit sexual content as well as objectionable themes like the glorification of school shooters. In response to all of this, Valve has decided to open the floodgates even wider.…

The Secret Glitch Players Used To Break Mario Kart 64‘s Chocolate Mountain

Chocolate Mountain doesn’t look like much. The Mario Kart 64 level is sparse compared to others in the game, filled only with varying shades of brown and a dense fog. But the unassuming level is one of the game’s best for astounding speedrunning records, thanks to the evolution of one particular shortcut trick. It all…

The Struggle Over Gamers Who Use Mods To Create Racist Alternate Histories

Last December, a 22-year old modder who calls himself Ted52 purged the Steam forums for his Hearts of Iron IV mod, Millennium Dawn. Steam’s infrastructure made it difficult to remove unsavory threads individually, and he tells me he has more control of things over at his Discord channel, where he can eliminate any racists, idiots,…

Track: Hear My Train a Comin’ | Artist: Jimi Hendrix | Album: Both Sides of the Sky Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The Queen Of WarCraft Cosplay

Nargais one of the best cosplayers on the planet, especially when it comes to Blizzard games. This is her latest shoot, based on WarCraft’s Battle for Lordaeron. Nargais cosplaying here as the Alliance’s Jaina Proudmoore, and made the entire outfit and props herself. All photos by kmitenkova You might remember Narga from last year’s WoW…

The Art Of Detroit: Become Human

Kirk didn’t much care for Detroit in his review of the game, but I still thought the game’s vision of the near future was interesting enough to take a look at in tonight’s Fine Art Below, you’ll find a showcase of pieces that went into Detroit’s development from a range of artists-some of them working…

Games That We Feel Guilty For Not Liking

There are so many games and just never enough time. Sometimes I’ll put a game on ice so I can return to it later, especially if it doesn’t click for me at first. But a certain kind of guilt can bubble up inside me if the urge to pick a certain game back up doesn’t…

A NSFW Cosplay Tribute To Shadow Of The Colossus

ColossalCon—one of the biggest cosplay shows of the year—just wrapped up in Sandusky, Ohio. And what better way to cosplay for a show called ColossalCon than by recreating the boss roster of Shadow of the Colossus Taking a similar approach to the NSFW group Overwatch shoot from last year (this was again organised by cosplay…

A Cool Set Of New Overwatch Character Designs

Korean artist Kirim Son has done what loads of fans have already done, and designed some new Overwatch characters. What’s different about Son’s though is that all three have been specifically designed to represent Overwatch heroes whose powers are drawn from various mobility issues. Jalkikuva Laine (below), for example, became deaf as a child, but…

State Of Decay 2 Survivor Is Clearly Not A Doctor

Today on Highlight Reel we have State of Decay 2 car crashes, Detroit AI glitches, motorcycles, 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 First Non-Valve Game On Steam Began With A Bad Kung Fu Movie

In this era of overstuffed digital shelves, it can be hard to imagine a time when Steam wasn’t crawling with a million anthills’ worth of games. A little more than a decade ago, though, it only carried Valve games. Then came Rag Doll Kung Fu. People Make Games’ Chris Bratt (who, full disclosure, is a…

Every Game I’m Trying To Play Is Patching

Last Saturday, I expected to finally, finally, get through God of War. That was my first mistake. Games aren’t just finite, complete objects anymore. They’re not something I can play whenever I want simply because I can hold them in my hand. Sometimes, developers have other plans. God of War exists on a disc inside…