Culture

Podcast: Kirk’s Only Friends Are Fire Emblem Characters

“It’s not sad if it’s anime,” Kirk says on this week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, explaining his love for Fire Emblem characters. OK, Kirk. On today’s show, we take a deep dive into Fire Emblem Fates and all of the waifus it has to offer. We also talk about Final Fantasy XIV, Destiny 2, and…

The Rarest World of Warcraft Items

In an MMO like World of Warcraft, which is basically about collecting items and gear, the rarest, still obtainable ones are in legendary status. And they’re not just rare: they’re rare for various interesting reasons. It’s worth noting that there are quite a few items that are no longer available. Some were removed due to…

Track: Take On Me | Artist: Ninja Sex Party & Tupper Ware Remix Party | Album: Under the Covers Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

The Steam Controller has rumble functionality now… kinda. A new beta update adds “experimental rumble emulation,” which reproduces the feel of rumble despite the fact that Steam Controller’s haptic tech is “a very different technology than rumble motors.”

Wait, That’s Not How I Remember The Battle Of Hoth…

Stepan Alekseev is an artist working in the video game business who we last saw killing it in the Star Wars: Reimagined contest You can see more of Stepan’s work at his ArtStation page To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper),…

A Survival Game Based On Actual Survival Techniques

The Flame in the Flood is a survival game that just launched on Steam. It’s not about building, or zombies, or pranking your friends. Just surviving and seeking civilization. That makes sense, given its background. The Flame in the Flood may not strike you as the most realistic-looking game around, but it started from a…

Cerys! You’re Real!

As I’ve made clear, I am very fond of Cerys, the takes-no-shit Queen (in my game) of Skellige. Thus, I am also quite fond of any cosplay paying tribute to this badass. This is Niamash, not only with a perfect costume but an actual horse just to top things off. Photos by Catherine Badulina

Dishonored’s Seedier Side Brought To Life Through Cosplay

We’ve seen some top-shelf Dishonored cosplay on this site before, but it—and most other cosplay like it—tends to focus on the game’s main characters. People with expensive uniforms and high collars. Nobody ever spares a thought for the game’s less upstanding denizens. Ophidia and her friend Rin have, though, putting together this fantastic shoot with…

Popular Driving Game OutDrive Just Isn’t Very Good

OutDrive has spent the past couple days near the top of Steam’s popular new releases section, and it only costs a few dollars. What could possibly go wrong? OutDrive is a neon-drenched—or drowned, really—endless driver. Billed as an “aesthetic experiment” with a focus on experiencing music, it looks very nice and sounds even nicer. Unfortunately,…

Track: Astroboy feat. Honey-B & W-Trouble | Artist: FEMM | Album: PoW! / L.C.S. ＋Femm-Isation Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

An Hour With The Solus Project, A Survival Game With An Actual Story

A lot of survival games claim to Not Be Like The Other Survival Games. The Solus Project is actually not like other survival games. While ostensibly sharing at least part of a genre with the likes of Ark: Survival Evolved, DayZ, Rust, and the like, The Solus Project also has a lot in common with…

Um, That’s Not Anne Hathaway

Per Haagensen is an artist at DICE who has also done stuff for DC, Warner Bros and Blizzard. As you’re about to see, these promo shots for Dark Knight Rises aren’t photos. They’re not even heavily-photoshopped photos. They’re 100% 3D models. You can see more of Per’s work at his ArtStation page To see the…

From now on, all Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major tournaments will offer $1 million prize pools Valve says the massive bump (previously majors topped out at $250,000) is representative of CSGO’s growth into one of the world’s most popular eSports.

A Musical Tribute To Counter-Strike‘s Most Frustrating Moments

Counter-Strike is an amazing, brilliantly tactical game. It can also be total bullshit sometimes. Dragonu Ro put together a song/video tribute to his love-hate relationship with Valve’s perennially popular shooter. [UPDATE: Turns out, he didn’t! He took the video from Stagged, its real creator. Apologies for the error.] From constant container disappointments, to shitty teammates,…

Track: The Private Psychedelic Reel (Live) | Artist: The Chemical Brothers | Album: Dig Your Own Hole Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Shadow Of The Colossal Robot

Kait Kybar is an Estonian artist based in Sweden who works at Starbreeze. We actually featured a piece of Kait’s back in 2014, as part of the Into The Pixel showcase (when he worked on Killzone: Shadow Fall), so it’s about time we gave him his own feature. You can see more of Kait’s work…

XCOM 2, Now With 100% More Bob Ross

XCOM 2 can be stressful as fuck. Thank goodness for Bob Ross and his soothing tones. Also his terrifying talent with a plasma rifle. With the help of an expansive voice pack and some in-game character tinkering, you can have renowned snake charmer of the demons of the human soul (also painter/Twitch star) Bob Ross…

Venture Bros. Cosplay Is Too Real

Sometimes, you see a group cosplay effort that looks like it took a lot of design and planning, and looks pretty good for a bunch of humans in costume. Other times, like here, you see a group cosplay effort that looks like three characters walked straight off a TV set and into the real world.…

Palpatine Will Dab On Those Fools

Today on Highlight Reel we have a dabbing Palpatine, bad rocket aim, Rainbow 6 breaching failures, tasers, and much much more. Watch the video above or on our Youtube page, 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.…

The Best Cosplay From MAGFest 2016

The 2016 edition of MAGFest, a big music games festival, went down in DC over the weekend, and there was a ton of cool cosplay on show. Photographer Devon Rowland was there, and she took these shots of the cosplayers in attendance. You can see more of Devon’s cosplay photography here If you recognise (or…