Culture

This Week in the Business: Loot boxes, clones, and the industry’s problem with women

QUOTE | “Simply being aware that they are available for purchase reduces the immersion in the world and takes away from the challenge of building your personal army and your fortresses.” – Monolith Productions acknowledges that the impact loot boxes had on Shadow of War in a blog post announcing their removal from the game…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for finally doing your taxes, partially because you’re running out of time and partially for the smug satisfaction of saying you did them “early” because you didn’t wait until the absolute last minute. It’s also for video games. I finally cleared out an area of Far Cry 5 and am determined to…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: My Friends Say I Should Just ‘Date An Ugly Girl’

Hello all you beautiful urchins of impending doom, and welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the dating advice column with the skill of gymnastics and the kill of karate. This week, it’s all about the setbacks and disappointments. When you’re dealing with a dating slump, is it ok to do whatever it takes to break out…

Overwatch Brigitte Cosplay Is Pretty Much Perfect

Henchmen Studios have once again performed wonders with a new Overwatch character, building a suit for cosplayer Moosefixthat looks like it jumped straight out of the game and straight into PAX East. Here’s a group shot, and these guys aren’t too shabby either: Remember: in addition to Moira’s reveal, Henchmen also made a terrifyingly accurate…

The Best Cosplay From Anime Matsuri 2018

Anime Matsuri was held last weekend in Houston for the 12th year running, with over 30,000 people coming along for anime, games, art and, yeah, cosplay. Below is a gallery (and an incredible video) including some of the best of it, all shot by Mineralblu (whose work you can see more of at his Facebook…

The Art Of Star Wars: Battlefront II

Say what you will of its loot box struggles, Battlefront II was a good-looking game whose designs felt very Star Wars. So I thought today we’d take a look at a bunch of art that went into building those incredible worlds (and ships, and uniforms, and space stations…). The art you’re seeing below isn’t everything,…

Track: Bloodmeat | Artist: Protest The Hero | Album: Fortress Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Far Cry Sniper Bullet Punches Through Entire Truck

Today on Highlight Reel we have tons of glitches, devil summoning, fantastic sniper 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…

Hey Britain, Nice Cosplay

CosXPo is a nerd con that was held in Reading, England at the end of March, and unlike most other shows, cosplay wasn’t just something on the menu: it was the entire point of the convention. “The convention scene has expanded significantly over the past few years, and established conventions are now seeing in hundreds…

What We Loved About Legion‘s Season Two Premiere

Legion returned with its season two premiere last night. I still can’t get it out of my head. Neither can Kotaku’s Gita Jackson, which is why we decided to sit down and discuss the episode at length. But first a quick recap of where the show’s first eight episodes left us. Last season ended with…

A Spoiler-Filled Chat About Far Cry 5’s Ending

Okay, okay, it’s time to talk about how Far Cry 5 ends. Before we get started, here’s a quick run through of each of the game’s three possible endings. The Joke Ending First there’s the “joke” one you can get just a few minutes into playing where you decide not to arrest Joseph Seed in…

Track: Hasu no Hana | Artist: Sakanaction | Album: Sayonara wa Emotion/Hasu no Hana Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Cammy Will See You Now

Olivier Couston is a character artist at EA, but he’s also worked in film and TV. You can see more of Olivier’s stuff at his personal site and 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…

The Best Cosplay From Sakura-Con 2018

Haviong only just finished up the Emerald City Comic Con, Seattle got its second big nerd show in a month over Easter, with Sakura-Con being held at the Washington State Convention Center. It’s one of the biggest anime cons in North America, which means there was a ton of fantastic cosplay on show, much of…

This is a series called Cosplayers Getting Coffee, where cosplayers who are neither Jerry Seinfeld or are driving cars hang out, drink coffee and talk about their craft.

Princess Peach Is Ready For The Apocalypse

This cosplay by Oh My Sophii is called “Apocalypse Princess Peach”, but there’s definitely some Borderlands influence here as well. The end result is something of a team project; while Sophii did most of the suit itself, it’s based on artwork by Charles Holbert, with prop and applique help by Brent M Watkins and Red…

Geek? is a documentary by Chris Berry that not only explores the scene in general, but gives us a good look at things from a UK perspective as well.

More Art From Persona 5 To Steal Your Heart

Persona 5 has a very nice art book, and we’ve featured images from its development on the site already, but there’s now also a range of prints available for anyone wanting to get serious about their shrines to Makoto. Art house Cook & Becker are releasing a range of Persona 5 prints, most of them…

You Just Got Far Cry’d

Today on Highlight Reel we have a huge influx of Far Cry clips, mandatory ahoy quotas, magic tricks, 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…

I Try To Play Super Mario Bros. 2 Once A Year

I try to play Super Mario Bros. 2 every spring. The game’s bright colors, whimsical level design, and obsession with weeding make it feel right at home around the time of the the vernal equinox, and it’s also one of the easiest to pick up and play. It’s not as challenging as the original Super…