Culture

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

Whether you’re catching up on stuff from last year or playing the newest thing, there are a lot of good options for games at the moment. This weekend I’ll be playing through a bunch of stuff: I’m clearing out Batman: Arkham Knight on PC, and continue to like all the extra DLC missions and challenges…

12 Steam VR Games That Look Cool, Even If I Didn’t

Valve and HTC’s virtual reality headset, the Vive, is almost here. It’s the one that tracks you while you move around, and it’s pretty damn cool. During a recent event, I got to play 12 of the games that it’ll launch with. Here is what they look like and what I looked like while playing…

Counter-Strike Players Think Valve’s Strict New Mod Rules Go Too Far [Updated]

Valve recently brought the hammer down on custom Counter-Strike servers that don’t fall within a set of very specific guidelines. It’s a big change to the game’s ecosystem, and many players don’t think it’s for the better. In a post on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s official site, Valve announced the following rules: We’re aware that some…

The Art Of Life Is Strange

Life is Strange is, in its own way, one of the prettiest video games of the past few years. It shouldn’t surprise any of you, then, that the art behind the game is also very easy on the eye. Edouard Caplain works at developers DONTNOD, and the first images below are some of the stuff…

Sorry About Your Vanishing Boat, GTA Dude

Today on Highlight Reel we have vanishing boats, tomb heaven, hostage rescue strategies, musical tributes, 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. Halo 5 –…

Heroes of the Storm Cosplay May Smash A Flail In Your Face

This is Glamazonian Rage, with one badass take on Diablo’s badass Johanna. For anyone wondering about the colour scheme, this is Johanna’s Heroes of the Storm look (note she even got the side-shave!). Photos by Photosnxs

Steam Could Learn A Thing Or Two From GOG’s New Early Access Program

DRM-free gaming service GOG is introducing its own take on Early Access. Thanks to things like strict curation, a version rollback feature, and generous refunds, I’m super into it. I hope Valve is taking notes. The three pillars of GOG’s Early Access program (functionally but not-so-creatively titled “Games In Development”) sound like a brilliant way…

Team Fortress 2‘s long-awaited competitive mode is officially a thing. Valve’s created a Steam group for competitive matchmaking’s beta, and you can join for a chance to be part of it. Prepare for bitter, drama-packed rivalries! And probably also more hats.

Podcast: Big Predictions For 2016

Will Nintendo’s NX be out this year? Is The Division going to be an adequate Destiny replacement? Will Oculus Rift lead to class action lawsuits? It’s prediction time on this week’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, in which Kirk and I put on our soothsayer hats and each lay out 12 wild guesses about what will…

You Look Rough, Darth

Riyahd Cassiem is a freelance artist from South Africa who has worked in both film and video games. Below you’ll see a collection of his killer digital sculpts. You can see more of Riyadh’s work at his personal site and ArtStation page To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big…

Track: Solar Chamber| Artist: Lycus | Album: Chasms Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Darkest Dungeon: The Kotaku Review

Progress isn’t permanent. Darkest Dungeon is a tremendously popular Steam game that just emerged from Early Access. It’s a Lovecraft-inspired dungeon-crawling RPG with a few twists: 1) you have an entire persistent town to upgrade, 2) if any of your characters die, they’re gone for good, and 3) as a result of adventuring-related trauma, your…

Recreating Horror Manga In The Flesh

Mamakiteruhas one solid, dependable shtick: she takes characters from Japanese horror manga, and she cosplays the hell out of them. Not the entire character, though; she takes a single panel and re-enacts the frame itself, from the line work to the pose, sometimes even taking on multiple characters. (via 前方高能 非戰鬥人員迅速撤離)

Go Get Your Own Loyal Stormtrooper Spinny Stun Baton

Of all the people out there currently working on cosplay outfits for a First Order Stormtrooper, 98% of them are going for this guy in particular. Thing is, without his spinny stick thing, it’s just not the same. So it’s cool seeing efforts like this, from 3D printing store Blu-Bin, which not only get the…

The New Pikachu Is Freaking People Out, Man

Today, The Pokémon Company gave us our first look at an upcoming Pokémon spin-off, Great Detective Pikachu: The Birth of a New Duo. It stars Pikachu….but not the Pikachu you’re used to. The trailer, in case you haven’t seen it: What stands out about this footage is that Pikachu is speaking actual words. Not only…

Samurai Vader And Ronin Boba Fett Realize Star Wars’ Japanese Influence Beautifully

Would the original Star Wars trilogy have been better if George Lucas had steered closer to its samurai movie inspiration? It certainly would have looked cooler, as demonstrated by Bandai’s Tamashii Nations Meisho Movie Realization Boba Fett and Darth Vader figures. We’ve been drooling over the sculpture work of Japan’s Takayuki Takeya for ages. He’s…

Rainbow 6 Grenade Toss Does Not Go As Planned

Today on Highlight Reel we have parachutes, 1 player comebacks, rocket vespas, game physics gone wrong, 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. Battlefield 4…

Players Uncover New Secrets Buried In Undertale‘s First Big Patch [Updated]

Undertale just got its first big update, and at first glance it doesn’t seem like much. Players, however, have begun picking it apart like hungry vultures, and they’ve already found some interesting stuff. This post originally ran on 1/20/16. It’s been updated with more secrets. For a while now, Undertale creator Toby Fox has been…

For Years, A Few Steam Games Seem To Have Been Hiding A Larger Secret

Throw your detective hat into a pile of rotting fish after that whole Steam winter sale sorta-kinda-not-really alternate reality game? Well, snatch it out. Intrepid sleuths have uncovered evidence of something much larger: a series of symbols and puzzle pieces that span multiple seemingly unrelated games. People are only just now beginning to piece together…

The Art Of Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak

I liked a lot of things about Homeworld: Deserts Of Kharak, but the thing I liked most was just how awesome the game’s unit design (and overall aesthetic) was. It shouldn’t be that big a surprise that everything looked so amazing—original Homeworld artists Rob Cunningham and Aaron Kambeitz both work at Deserts of Kharak developers…