Culture

It’s A Brave New World

BUTTS: The VR Experience is a thing. Sure, you’ve experienced butts, but VR butts? This is the beginning of a new era. Warning: trailer might be NSFW. Mostly, though, it’s just very, very odd. You’re reading Steamed, Kotaku’s page dedicated to all things in and around Valve’s wildly popular PC gaming service. Games, culture, community…

Podcast: Hey, The Division Has A Lot Of Potential

After playing the beta for The Division, some of us are cautiously optimistic! We’re also super hooked on The Witness. All that and more on today’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen Joining us for today’s show is Kotaku boss Stephen Totilo, who has all sorts of stories about A) what it’s been like to run this…

Star Wars: Reimagined Gives The Galaxy Some Fresh New Looks

A group of artists over on CG+, many of them professionals working in video games, have for the past few months been submitting some incredible entries in a competition called Star Wars: Reimagined. The brief was simple: to “to re-imagine your favorite character, creature or vehicle from the Star Wars universe.” Entries are now closed,…

The Best Cosplay From PAX South

It may not be the biggest PAX show on Earth for video games, but PAX South is one hell of a cosplay convention. As you can see in these shots from the show, which were all taken by Mineralblu (you can see his full gallery here). By Atelier Heidi By Shinka Studios & Atelier Heidi…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: My Friend’s Beautiful Wife Just Made A Move On Me

Hello, Internet! Welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the first dating advice column to survive the Battles of Yavin, Hoth and Endor. This week, we’re talking about doing the right thing, even when every cell in your body is telling you to do something else. Whether it’s recognizing a deal-breaker when it’s presented to you or…

Finally, a game about the fall of communism… and jalopies. Jalopy is a Steam hopeful about exploring the former Eastern bloc in a motor vehicle that falls apart piece by piece. You’ll have to deal with everything from flat tires to busted carburetors in a procedurally generated world. Also weather. It looks great.

A Crime Scene Cup Of Joe

James Choe is a freelance artist from Sydney who has done some work in the games business. You can see more of James’ work at his personal site To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button in…

Seven Stories Of Injuries And Other VR Hazards

HTC and Valve’s Vive VR headset lets you physically move around in virtual reality. You can walk, run, jump, flail your arms, and all that good stuff. You can also be a shambling disaster zone. During last week’s Valve VR demo event, I decided to ask a bunch of developers working on VR games for…

Fan’s Counter-Strike Map Imagines A Far More Deadly Oregon Militia Standoff

I would wager that not even the remaining Oregon militia members want to be part of the Oregon militia standoff these days, but now you can join in on the dismal venture. In a video game, I mean. Nipper’s cs_wildrefuge map was actually made shortly before the whole fiasco took a turn for the uglier-than-it-already-was,…

Track: Where? | Artist: Yoru no Honki Dance | Album: Dance Time Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

How Do Cosplayers Make Money?

Most don’t, and do it for the love. A very lucky few, however, can make a bit of cash, whether on the internet or in real life, and in this clip Stella Chuu explains how.

My Little Pony Cosplay Is Ready For War

My Little Pony cosplay isn’t just for furries. It’s also for adults who want to pretend that said ponies are actually the the Gods of Ancient Battle. (video by Beat Down Boogie) These photos were all taken by Mineralblu. The cosplayers are all in the pic above, and from L-R are *deep breath*: Lua Suicide…

A Nordic Version Of Harry Potter

A few days ago, JK Rowling announced a whole new range of magic schools that exist in the Harry Potter universe. Which is good timing, because Blizzard artist Even Amundsen—whose work we’ve featured here before—has for a while now had an idea for a new school of his own. It’s called Vølurheim, and it’s a…

The Division Players Can’t Stop Doing Jumping Jacks

Today on Highlight Reel we have physics guns, jumping jacks, lightheaded Fallout companions, hammers, and 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. Battlefront – Luke gives…

Counter-Strike Player Says Their Fake Hacks Got Thousands Of Cheaters Banned

Counter-Strike has a cheating problem. One player decided to do something about it. Something, shall we say, creative. In a post on Reddit, AndroidL explained that they released a handful of fake “multihacks” that promised everything from wallhacking, to aimbotting, to bunnyhopping, to crazy lean angles. If you can name it, AndroidL’s dirty hack pack…

The Steam Controller, Reimagined To Be More Mouse-Like

Ever since its release late last year, the Steam controller has received mixed reviews. Plenty of people have suggested nips, tucks, and layout changes that might improve it. Hardware hacker Ben Heck decided to just make his own. On the most recent episode of his show, Heck dissected the Steam controller and then proposed his…

He doesn’t have the power of Gandalf nor the snappy fashion sense of Saruman, but Radagast is a wizard with his own charms, which Canvas Cosplay has absolutely nailed here Photos by Kirby Hartline

That’s Knightmageas Kratos. And no, he didn’t travel to Greece for the shoot; that’s just the President McKinley Memorial in Niles, Ohio, which we now know can double for a mythical Greek temple in a pinch.

Lighting: Gaming’s Unsung Hero

Most Fine Art posts onKotaku tend to show stuff like environment art and character design because they’re the best fit for a website. Sadly, this often ignores a lot of the great work done in other areas of games development that are just as important in determining how pretty a video game looks. I’ve done…

Absolutely Perfect Force Awakens Cosplay

There’s just so much to love here. The cosplay for starters, of course, but also the dedication: while the lightsabers have (duh) had some photoshop work done, that hellish weather was the real deal. Rey is Nixie Sweet, Kylo Ren is FenixEmber. All photos by Jason LaBoy