Culture

Steam Customer Service Is Still Terrible

This is getting ridiculous. In March of this year, I spoke with Valve business development authority Erik Johnson about Steam’s dubious reputation for customer support. He did not disagree with general sentiment: Valve badly needs to step up their game. Among other things, Johnson said: “We think customers are right. When they say our support’s…

Else Heartbreak Is One Of The Most Interesting Steam Games I’ve Played In Ages

Else Heartbreak is an ambitious game about hacking, parties, and blowing it with cute girls. It also refuses to hold your hand. Else Heartbreak is a new Steam hacker adventure about a young man named Sebastian making his way in a surprisingly hip backwater town. Its first five hours had me hearkening back to the…

She Sees Everything

Ayran Oberto is a freelance concept artist and illustrator from Venezuela. You can see more of Oberto’s work at his personal site and 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.…

Superfans Recreate Massive Lord Of The Rings Battle

Last month, an event called Bitva o Fort went down. That’s Battle of the Fort in English, and it saw hordes of Lord of the Rings fans converge on the village of Radíkov in the Czech Republic to recreate an epic battle between the forces of men, elves and some very well-dressed orcs. Via this…

What Are You Playing This October?

It’s October, that magical month when the trees start to turn, the big-name video games continue to drop, and a certain Kotaku features editor celebrates another year of being alive. Libras, unite. September offered a richer than usual bounty of new games to play, and I’m guessing a lot of you are still dealing with…

Tony Hawk Gets Some Serious Air

Today on Highlight Reel we have some impressive jumps, impossible tricks, cop escapes, clumsy dogs, good Rainbow Six bomb timing, and much more! Watch the video above or over at YouTube, then link any of your favorite highlights in the comments, and be sure to check out, like and subscribe the original videos via the…

Track: A Cruel Angel’s Thesis (English) | From: Understanding Evangelion” at Otakuthon 2011 | Artist: Geeky McGeekstein Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

From Concept Art To Cosplay

Littleblondegoth Cosplay with a nice homage to some original Destiny concept art

Korra, Your Tauntaun Will Freeze Before You Reach The First Marker!

Jenn Tran is an artist who has worked at places like Hi-Rez and Harebrained. I actually featured a little bit of her latest stuff—for Battletech—yesterday, but thought the rest of her work was so cool it was worth a showcase. You can see more of Jenn’s work at her personal site and Tumblr To see…

Dev Offers Free Games For Steam User Reviews, Gets Nuked By Valve

Valuable life lesson: probably don’t do this. RosePortal Games, the developer of an RPG called Epic Quest of the 4 Crystals recently got caught offering compensation—in the form of free Steam keys—in exchange for Steam reviews. When Valve found out, they weren’t pleased. They wrote in a post on the game’s forums: “It’s come to…

New Horror Game Tries To Stop You From Playing It

If you ask me, the scariest things are the ones that feel a little too real Calendula is an upcoming horror game (currently on Steam Greenlight) that wants to be scary before you start “the game” proper. It might sound silly on paper, but even the main menu is eeeeeeeeeevil: So basically, the battle to…

Hey, Battletech Is Back!

BattleTech, home of classic tabletop action and some excellent video games, is making a digital comeback. This time for the PC. Note before we go any further that we’re talking about BattleTech itself, not its spinoff series MechWarrior Sticking close to its roots, the new game—currently up on Kickstarter—has been designed as “a single-player, turn-based,…

Track: Man And Machine | Artist: Moondragon |Album: Man And Machine Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Fantastic Dishonored Cosplay Does The Game Justice

One of the most enduring things about Dishonored is Viktor Antonov’s art direction, leaving us with a game that’s somewhere between a grim Victorian painting and a 21st-century cartoon. It’s tough getting that across in cosplay, but hoo boy, these guys have nailed it. Cosplayers Ryazik, Vikand Mikamiare in the suits here, while the photos…

Captain America Cosplayer Proposes…In Front Of Captain America

Cosplayer Kelsey Jenkins and her boyfriend were at Salt Lake Comic Con on the weekend—dressed as Black Widow and Captain America respectively—when they got the chance to meet Marvel stars Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter). Which is about as good a time/place as any to pop the question. Just in case that photo…

The New Ark: Survival Evolved Update Messed Up Some Players’ Bases

Ark: Survival Evolved just got a big new update that added snow and swamp biomes. It’s awesome. Except for, well… one pretty big thing. Players who had already settled down to live out the white picket fence/dodo army in the yard Arkmerican Dream are discovering that their bases are now, um, different. The new biomes…

Counter-Strike Player Wins Match By Throwing Grenade At Rifle

That’s some serious teamwork. In the video below, Galore S00K and a friend manage a trick shot so absurd that I (and a handful of others, evidently) can’t help but wonder if it was a fix. Observe: Yep. He tosses a grenade, drops his AWP just so, and lets gravity (or the defiance thereof) do…

Glitch Gives Birth To An Impossible Dunk

Today on Highlight Reel we have impossible dunks, sliding deaths, floating naps, Charlie Brown, and much more. Watch the video above or over at YouTube, then link any of your favorite highlights in the comments, and be sure to check out, like and subscribe the original videos via the links below. NBA 2k15 – WTF…

Art From The Avengers, Transformers, Spider-Man (And More)

Josh Nizzi is an artist who has worked on some of the biggest movie franchises of the past decade, from The Avengers to Transformers In between all those superheroes he also found time to work on Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (and also this random little game). You can see more of Josh’s work at his…

That’s not Skyrim. It’s Ark: Survival Evolved. The megalodon of Steam survival games is getting two new biomes today: snow and swamp. There are new creatures populating each, including dire wolves and giant devil frogs. More details here. You’re reading Steamed, Kotaku’s page dedicated to all things in and around Valve’s stupidly popular PC gaming…