Culture

Someone Is Speedrunning Breath Of The Wild Before It’s Even Out

An accomplished speedrunner has been working hard all week to get to the end of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild before the game is released. So far, he’s managed to reach the final boss in 50 minutes, but not beat it yet. This isn’t quite a shock. This new Zelda game, which…

The Art Of Horizon: Zero Dawn

Horizon: Zero Dawn isn’t just a very good game, it’s a very pretty game, and that goes all the way back to the game’s genesis with Guerilla’s art team. Below you’ll see a collection of images from throughout Horizon’s development, including work done by both Guerrilla’s in-house artists as well as those at design studio…

Track: White Wizard | Artist: Year of the Cobra | Album: …In The Shadows Below Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Podcast: People Who Write (And Program) Video Games

We’re back for another Kotaku Splitscreen special from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Today we’re joined by storied RPG writer Chris Avellone, Double Fine senior gameplay programmer Anna Kipnis, and 80 Days writer Meg Jayanth. Jason and I talk with each guest about the games they’ve worked on, with conversation focusing on Alpha…

Chinese Mei Cosplay Has Plenty Of Chill

It’s a cruel fate for our eyeballs that Mei, who is the worst, often has some of the best Overwatch cosplay. In this case, it’s home-grown (for Mei), with Chinese cosplayer Husky Surely doing a damn fine job here. Is there too much photoshop going on in the background? You bet. Does it detract from…

Nintendo Switch Cartridges Taste So Bad [Update]

The Switch is almost upon us, and while there’s still a lot to discover about Nintendo’s latest console, one pressing question has been answered. “How do the cartridges taste?” So bad. Oh god, so bad. Update—Nintendo tells us what we’re tasting. The subject of the taste of Nintendo Switch cartridges was first raised by game…

Screenshots That Look Like Photos

Rense de Boer is a former DICE artist who is now doing his own thing in the name of “video game graphics that you’d think were photos if we hadn’t told you they were video game graphics”. We’ve featured some of his stuff previously on Kotaku, but he’s recently shared a collection of his 2016…

Cheering Up Twitter, One Cheap Cosplay At A Time

Thought Thailand had the market cornered on amazingly inexpensive and creatively odd cosplay? Nope! Japan has a contender of its own. Meet Takaya In the past few months, his low cost cosplays have started get traction on Twitter, sometimes getting thousands of retweets. Here are some of Takaya’s best costumes—many of which seem to result…

Podcast: We’re At The Game Developers Conference

This week on Kotaku Splitscreen, we’re doing a series of episodes form the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Today Jason and I are joined by some familiar voices—frequent guest Matthew Burns comes on to talk about what GDC is all about, former-Kotaku editor Tina Amini drops in to talk about leaving the world of…

 Ghost Recon Player Believes He Can Fly

Today on Highlight Reel we have Titanfall plays, Battlefield 1 streaks, For Honor ladder plays, and much more! Watch the video 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. Subscribe to Kotaku on YouTube for more! Overwatch –…

Oh, Drats

Gareth Davies is a concept artist based in the UK. You can see more of Davies’ work at his personal site and ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the…

Cherry Blossom McFlurry Coming To McDonalds Japan

Nothing quite says spring in Japan like…a McFlurry. During this season, many products, from yogurt to Starbucks, get limited edition sakura (cherry blossom) versions in Japan, which is probably why McDonald’s is rolling out a special spring McFlurry.  According to Entabe, this frozen treat comes with sakura-colored waffle cone bits accented with pickled cherry blossom…

Track: Reine | Artist: il:lo | Album: Places Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The Mario Bros. Music Has Official Lyrics

You’ve been hearing the ditty for decades, both in games and on the internet, but did you know that the original Mario Bros. theme—from the games, not the TV show’s intro—has official lyrics to go with it? Anyone who has heardthe excellent Mario & Zelda Big Band Live recording from 2003 (or, if you haven’t,…

The State Of Toys In 2017

The New York Toy Fair is a showcase for the latest and greatest playthings hitting store shelves in the coming year, but it’s also a good indicator of where the toy market is heading. In 2017, that’s directly to the inexpensive collectibles aisle. Much of my Toy Fair coverage centered on the basics. Action figures,…

The Best Cosplay From Katsucon

Sean Spicer wasn’t there this year, mercifully, but there were still a lot more conventional things of note to be found at this year’s Katsucon. Namely, a ton of A++++ cosplay from folks from not only across the United States, but around the world While we’ve already seen a bit of Katsucon, there are around…

Track: Mechanica | Artist: Koloto | Album: Mechanica Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The Week In Games: Breath Of The Horizon

Who will wear the fighting lizard-like, arthropodic creatures better: Link or Aloy? It’s hard to remember what life was like back before we had big, beautiful fields in which to fight giant monsters and loot their corpses for crafting materials. There was a time when it was enough simply to move a few blocks into…

NSFW Overwatch Cosplay Was The Star Of The Show

Katsucon, the first big cosplay show of 2017, was held last week, and amongst all the other cool stuff on display was a collection of Overwatch cosplayers wearing, well, not very much at all. They were part of a group effort known as Underwatch, which was the brainchild of cosplay superstar Stella Chuu. Inspired by…

After Three Years Speedrunner Finally Beats All 714 NES Games

Piotr Delgado “The Mexican Runner” Kusielczuk has been trying to beat every NES game ever since 2014, and earlier today he finally succeeded His journey ended after completing the final world of Super Mario Bros. 3, three years since he originally took up the challenge after a friend jokingly suggested he try it. To celebrate…