Culture

This Week In The Business: Rest In Peace

QUOTE | “I think the old publishing model has died, where it’s just a bunch of suits and they’re doing marketing. It’s changed dramatically.” – Stardock CEO Brad Wardell, explaining why developers need a full partner to help bring games to market Elsewhere in the business of video games this week… QUOTE | “eSports is…

Neon Struct Is The Stealth Game I’ve Been Waiting For

Should I care about Neon Struct? Absolutely. What it lacks in complexity, it makes up for with pure stealthy satisfaction. It’s the original Deus Ex meets the original Thief. I’ve been wanting to play another stealth game like this for years. What’s it about? The short version? Open-ended sneaking. You can’t really fight, but you…

Track: Cone of Shame | Artist: Faith No More | Album: Sol Invictus Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Deus Ex Meets Street Fighter

It’s not the likeliest of crossovers, but it’s definitely one of the most interesting. Street Fighters with augments, hands that turn into guns, kitchens full of cereal… These (and the other images below) were done by Anthony Jones, an artist we featured here (and who has worked at Blizzard, Sony and Hasbro) back in 2012…

Ludicrous Violence: The Steam Stream Plays Carmageddon Reincarnation

Back in the day, the original Carmageddon garnered quite a bit of controversy for its gory brand of pedestrian slaughter. Years later, it’s back. But is it good? Watch me play it below. In addition to Carmageddon: Reincarnation, today’s stream will also include fantastic-looking Deus-Ex-inspired stealth game NEON STRUCT (aka “quietgame LOUDTITLE”), and gorgeous anti-war…

Valve Finally Addresses Counter-Strike‘s Biggest Problem

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the best multiplayer shooters in existence—by all accounts an incredible game. Well, except for this one thing. The hitbox, aka the part of a video game character where your bullets will actually harm them. Counter-Strike’s are considered to be maddeningly janky, giving rise to occasional moments where it sure…

What’s Your Worst Rage Quitting Story?

Sometimes that boss just WON’T go down. Or there’s some really annoying kid on your team who won’t stop killing you for some reason? Maybe it was a glitch that did it. Whatever your story is, you rage quit. And you rage quit hard. Rage quitting isn’t just putting the controller down and deciding to…

Getting Real Close To Dragon Age’s Dragons

Patrik Karlsson is a veteran character artist who has worked on games like Syndicate, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Darkness and Riddick. Here, though, we’re looking at his work on Dragon Age: Inquisition. I love blank 3D models for the same reason I love black & white sketches; colour is nice, but with a…

Fan Creates Team Fortress 2 Story Mode

Given all the videos and comics they put out, it’s kinda shocking that Valve never did this themselves. Modder DrLilRobot recently put out a prototype of their Team Fortress 2 story mode. It’s a little rough around the edges, but given that TF2 is meant to be a multiplayer class-based shooter, they’ve contorted it in…

Cosplay Superstars Team Up, Eyeballs Are In Danger

Darshelle Stevens is one of the best cosplay photographers around. Lyz Brickley is one of the best cosplayers around. Good things happen when the two work together. This gallery showcases some of their best work from over the past few years, where they’ve covered everything from Neon Genesis to Final Fantasy to League of Legends…

Six Years Later, Bad Rats Is Still Known As Steam’s Shittiest Game

There are shitty games, and then there are legends. And then there’s Bad Rats Bad Rats: The Rats’ Revenge, a not very good physics puzzle game, is all of those things. It’s definitely bad, but it’s somehow evolved into an integral part of Steam culture—a curiosity, a joke, a sly nod shared between conspirators in…

That’s Not How Walking Works

On today’s Highlight Reel we have silly walks, knife streaks, home run beheadings, bacon and much more! Watch the video above, 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. Destiny – Fallen ships falls through floor –…

No foam or cardboard here. JaroKrieg’s Jaster Mereel suit is made from aluminium plates! Photo by DarthInvidia

Bastion’s Hammer, Made Real

Supergiant Games, the developers of Bastion, needed someone to build them an actual replica of the Cael Hammer from the game. So they turned to Harrison Krix. Krix, who we’ve featured on Kotaku before, certainly delivered. With a bigger, more detailed 3D model of the hammer to work from than that used for the actual…

Giant Witcher 3 Sculpture Is As Handsome As Geralt

Tomek Radziewicz is a concept artist, but he’s also a sculptor, and he’s recently done some work on The Witcher III that’s a little more tangible than a lot of the stuff we normally post here on Fine Art. This amazing sculpture was designed and built by Radziewicz (with help from Arthur Wochniak), and now…

One DOTA Player’s Choice: Be A Pro Gamer, Or A Biomedical Engineer

Brian “BananaSlamJamma” Canavan has two options: master DOTA 2 and follow his dream, or finish out his degree in biomedical engineering and help the world. He can’t do both. Canavan, despite already having the best nickname in the sport, is only just getting started as a pro DOTA 2 player. He’s still in college, but…

Trevor’s On Top Of The World

Video game photo wizard Berdu used Grand Theft Auto V’s PC version to create this stunning shot of Trevor standing atop, well, everything. To quote you, everyone you know, and The President right now: “Daaaaaaaaaaaamn.” Here’s the full thing at a higher resolution: Check out more of Berdu’s work on his website The Steam Community…

DOTA 2 Community Mourns The Passing Of Beloved Player

FiercE was the sort of person the DOTA community needs more of: someone who wanted to help others learn how to have fun with the game. Once upon a time FiercE was a bigtime DOTA 1 pro, but more recently he became known for both his educational DOTA 2 videos—which many players cite as essential…

I Left Clicker Heroes Running All Night, And Here’s What Happened

What you’re witnessing is monsters dying as fast as they’re spawning. I couldn’t even click them. For the uninitiated, Clicker Heroes is a massively popular Steam game that nearly plays itself. Monsters appear on screen, and then you click them until they die. Or they die on their own, more quickly depending on your total…