Culture

Track: Hourglass | Artist: S U R V I V E | Album: S U R V I V E Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

RimWorld Steam Key Deal Spoiled By Fraudsters

The developer of RimWorld, Steam’s new hotness (and a Dwarf-Fortress-ish game with dashes of Firefly that I’m really digging; full impressions soon), was running a pretty cool deal for the game’s Early Access launch. Then fraudsters decided to get involved. When RimWorld first released on Steam last week, developer Tynan Sylvester made a request: “If…

The Slow Disappearance Of The Video Game Manual

Collector F. M. da Costa has an amazing Flickr page where he opens up his games, showing everything that came in the box. It’s very pretty just to look at, but it’s also a timelapse, showing the slow and steady decline in the number of pieces of paper that shipped alongside a video game. This…

Kick Ass, Take Names, Lose An Arm

Richard Lyons is a concept artist at Naughty Dog, developers of The Last Of Us and the Uncharted series. We actually featured some of Lyons’ work on UC4 in our big round-up of the game’s concept art, but you can see more of his stuff below and at his ArtStation page To see the images…

Toy Time Transforms MakeToys’ Pandinus, $400 Worth Of Third-Party Scorponok

In 1987 Hasbro released a stocky green and purple robot that transformed into a mechanical scorpion and a Decepticon Fortress. Nearly 30 years later, third-party Transformers crafters MakeToys releases a much cooler take on Scorponok. First off I must thank my friends over at Toy Dojo for lending me their production sample of MakeToys CityBot…

Track: Birthday | Artist: The Sugarcubes | Album: Life’s Too Good Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

All These Witcher 3 Monsters Are By The Same Cosplayer

Elena Samko, specialist in gross creature cosplay (who we’ve featured a few times before), has done a ton of Witcher 3 stuff recently, dressing up as all kinds of monsters and enemies from the game. Look at all this stuff! Spoon-collecting Wights, Noonwraiths, a Botchling, Skellige Succubi, the Dark Souls-y Caretaker from Heart of Stone,…

Here Comes The Pokémon Go Cosplay

Pokémon Go’s roster of pocket monsters is old. Its trainer outfits, however, are brand new, and cosplayers have started bringing them (especially, their own trainer’s choices) to life. Here are two of the better efforts we’ve seen so far, from Ginny D and Lyz Brickley. The girls get such better outfits. Meanwhile, my trainer is…

The Week In Games: We Are Setsuna

Inspired by the predecessor of classic Japanese role-playing game Chrono Cross, I Am Setsuna arrives on PlayStation 4 and PC this week. There’s some other stuff too. Yes yes, I know. I was surprised to find out there was a game before Chrono Cross myself. But apparently there was, and some folks really liked it.…

Podcast: Final Fantasy XIV Is The Best Final Fantasy In Years

Kirk’s off this week, so today on Kotaku Splitscreen I’m joined by Mike Fahey to talk Final Fantasy XIV, 7th Dragon III Code VFD, and fanservice games. Also: the story of why he wasn’t allowed to go to the Tokyo Game Show. Originally posted on 7/14/2016. Seriously, guys, if you’re into JRPGs and have the…

Sunday Comics: Here Comes Pokémon Go

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published July 15. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published July 11. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and…

This Week In The Business: Too Sexual

QUOTE | “What’s too gay for them, what’s too sexual for them?” – Developer Robert Yang talking about his sexual-themed games and how he’s “now the third-most-banned game developer from Twitch.” Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week… QUOTE | “I expect a good old slamming from the industry press because of the limitations.”…

Track: Mr. Invisible | Artist: Thank You Scientist | Album: Stranger Heads Prevail Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

How Free DLC Helped Turn A Small Steam Game Into A Hit

Keeping DLC mostly free has worked well for big developers like CD Projekt with The Witcher 3, who can garner reams of publicity from players used to being nickled-and-dimed to death by other big-budget releases. What happens, though, when a Steam indie takes a similar approach? Thea: The Awakening is a turn-based 4x strategic survival…

Overwatch As Fine Art

Miguel Mercado is an artist from The Philippines whose Overwatch images aren’t made for memes. They’re made for framing and display. Most of these were made as a fan (indeed, we featured one of them a while back), but his latest Ana portrait was a request from Blizzard. You can see more of Miguel’s work…

Track: Madame George | Artist: Van Morrison | Album: Astral Weeks Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

WipeOut Was One Of The Coolest Games Ever Made

It’s almost impossible to understate the impact WipeOut had on the maturation of video games

Columnae is an adventure game in which your choices determine the order of its chapters. Your decisions influence the future and the past. It takes place in a world devastated by environmental catastrophe. Also I guess some kind of calamity turned everybody into silhouettes? The game is currently on Kickstarter

Zenyatta Gotta Go Fast

Today on Highlight Reel we have fast Zenyattas, beyblades of death, World War 1 physics 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! Battlefield 1…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: Why Can’t I Get Over My Crush?

Hello, you shimmery, shiny pheromone factories of the Internet and welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating column that turns LFGs to LTRs. This week we’ve got readers with colossal problems stemming from minuscule issues ranging from insecure exes to mighty crushes to disappointing discoveries. Let’s dive in, shall we? Hey Doc, I’ve got…