Culture

Spintires‘ Steam Clusterfuck, Explained

Spintires is a popular Steam driving game. Recently, it stopped working under mysterious circumstances. People came to believe the game’s own programmer, Pavel Zagrebelnyy, sabotaged it because he wasn’t getting paid. That’s (probably) not true. Yesterday, reports emerged that Spintires had more or less become unplayable. Upon digging through its code, players reportedly found tens…

“Life-Size” WarCraft Cosplay Could Crush Actual Humans

Steven K Smith is one of the best props builders around. This enormous, full-scale WarCraft suit is just one of the reasons why. You don’t see this very often! Normally when someone cosplays as a WarCraft Orc, they paint their skin green, maybe wear a mask and be done with it. Smith, though, wanted to…

Steam Users Think Valve’s New Trading Restrictions Go Too Far

Wanna use Steam’s market or trading features? Don’t have a compatible mobile phone for security purposes? Then prepare to wait weeks before anything happens. Valve recently announced big changes to Steam’s trade (directly between individual users) and community market (where you can post listings for virtual items to buy/sell) features. If you’re not using the…

Track: Heima Trailer (Hoppipolla version) | Artist: Sigur Rós | Album: N/A (Heima Film) Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Meet The Gordons

Oliver Ödmark is an artist at Rocksteady, where he’s worked on the Batman series. You can see more of Oliver’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), click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner.…

Nice One, Stardew Valley

As somebody who obsessively roots around in video game trash cans, I’m pretty happy with what Stardew Valley gave me for my troubles. Take that, AOL of the year 1996.

BalanCity Is SimCity Meets Jenga

Managing a city is hard. Managing a city that could topple off a teetering platform and into the hungry sea below at any moment is harder. I don’t really know why BalanCity exists, but I’m glad it does. I mean, look at this. It’s goofy as hell: You try to keep your population happy and…

Track: Counter Action | Artist: Go! Go! Vanillas | Album: Counter Action (single) Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Enormous Muscles Sure Help with Cosplay 

If you have big muscles and like video games and anime, perhaps you can cosplay. Drefan does, and he’s terrific at it. After injuries sidelined Drefan in his early twenties from competitive sports, he continued to follow his love of video games (and anime), eventually taking up cosplay. He’s quick to point out that he’s…

Soon? Cosplay Ads.

CospLA, a group dedicated to bridging the worlds of cosplay and cinema, have been working with a Japanese ad agency, hoping to use cosplay videos to help sell stuff. This is their pitch video, and it’s great. Cosplay credits: Joe Inoue |Yuks General Movie credits: Producer: Lily Ann Gwan Production Manager: Jullian Mordeno Costumes: Yuks…

Can We Swap? My Feet Hurt.

Sean Sevestre is an artist based in the UK who has done work for Wizards of the Coast and Games Workshop. You can see more of Sean’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), click on…

Steam’s Latest Hit Is A Game About Farming And Relationships

I could feel it setting in: the rhythm, comforting as the twang of a slightly out-of-tune guitar. Wake up, clear my field, water my plants, fish for a bit, talk to folks, give gifts to pretty folks, go to bed. Starting Stardew Valley was like a homecoming for me. The home in question? Harvest Moon…

Geralt Slides Outta Her DMs

Today on Highlight Reel we have sliding witchers, SuperHot plays, surprise alligators 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 Far Cry Primal –balloon man…

Would You Like The Stench Of Fry Grease With Your VR?

Nightmare children of the future, courtesy of McDonald’s Happy Goggles, a Happy Meal box that transforms into a cardboard VR headset for your phone. Currently being tested in Sweden, where everything folds into something else.

Haunted Counter-Strike Map Is Full Of Ghosts And Dragons

Counter-Strike is a game about terrorists and counter-terrorists locked in an eternal dance of strife and headshots, as viewed by an audience of chickens. Except when it’s not. CTX (⚆‿‿⚆)‘s newly released coop_mission_haunted is one of the most popular maps on Counter-Strike’s Steam Workshop right now, and it’s not tough to see why. The cooperative…

Meet The Latest Big-Headed Pokémon Figure And His Powerful Friend

Back in December 2014 I took a look at the first melding of two of my favorite toy properties, Pokemon and Good Smile Company’s big-headed Nendoroid line. Today we get to play with the latest addition to the line, the N Nendoroid, which is not easy to say at all. The misguided but well-meaning leader…

Track: Napal Baji | Artist: PSY | Album: Chiljip Psy-da Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Some Very Fancy Legend Of Zelda Cosplay

This is…well, let’s say it’s a bit more dedicated than your average Zelda cosplay. This Link shoot went all out, from the horse to the props to the location. Even the song was made just for this occasion, a remix of the Zelda theme by Aurelia XO and Rekcahdam Cosplay by Tanya Istel and Cosnavi

The Practicality Of Video Game Outfits, Reviewed By Cosplayers

Earlier in February we asked asked five fashion writers to evaluate the fashion sense of various video game characters — this time we’re looking at the practicality of some video outfits, as judged by the people who make and wear these clothes themselves — cosplayers. Have you ever looked at a video game character’s dress…

Bring Me The Head Of Yennefer of Vengerberg

Paweł Mielniczuk is character art director at CD Projekt Red, developers of The Witcher series. In these images, you’ll see some of the design process behind one of The Witcher 3’s main characters, Yennefer. Note that Yennefer’s face was originally supposed to be based on that of Polish model Klaudia Wróbel, who you can see…