Culture

When You Go To War, Be Sure To Drive A Couch

Today on Highlight Reel we have Battlefield: Hardline couches, indestructible NPCs, juvenile bugs in H1Z1, heist teamwork in GTA V and 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. Battlefield: Hardline –…

Valve Is Not Psyched They Got An ‘F’ In Customer Service

Not too long ago, I stumbled across a curious fact: Valve, maker of the world’s biggest PC gaming service, was given an F by the Better Business Bureau. Other major gaming companies largely have A’s. The culprit? Poor customer service. According to the BBB’s page on Valve, people have filed 717 complaints about Valve and…

Not All Great Cosplay Comes From Characters You Know

One of the most talentedartists I’ve ever featured in my Fine Art series on Kotaku is Dan LuVisi. What does that have to do with cosplay? Let me explain. LuVisi has a graphic novel series called Last Man Standing. There’s a ton of potential in its sci-fi world, and some fantastic art (not to mention…

Valve VR Demo Is Like A Hyper Detailed Myst

Fantasy games have become known for their vast, usually green expanses, ripe for exploration. Valve’s virtual reality setup, however, only lets you walk around areas the size of a small room. The solution? A very interesting take on fantasy influenced by Myst, among others. This demo of Cloudhead Games’ The Gallery: Six Elements is all…

The Struggle To Release “Indie” Games Inside Ubisoft

Yoan Fanise spent 14 years working at Ubisoft, and during that time—some of which was spent working on the blockbuster series the company is famous for—he was also somehow able to release one of the smallest, bravest games we’ve ever seen from a major publisher. That game, Valiant Hearts, is both a war game and…

First-Person Mod Lets You Walk Cities: Skylines‘ Streets

First-person? In a city builder? It might sound strange, but there’s nothing quite like getting your city humming along to a perfect, efficient rhythm and then having a leisurely look around. Now you can see all of Cities: Skylines‘ smallest details. The mod, along with thousands of others (already!), popped up today, one day after…

A Moment Of Appreciation For EVE Online’s Starship Design

It’s widely known to the outside world for its politics, but EVE Online is also a rather pretty video game, especially when it comes to the unique and varied design of its spaceships. Capitalising on this — and, you know, the huge amount of people actually playing the game — Dark Horse are releasing a…

The Steam Controller Is Actually Decent Now

When Valve unveiled the first prong of their living room invasion, the Steam controller, it was unique, but also hella wonky. Since then, it’s been through multiple revisions and overhauls. The result? Something not quite as good as a mouse-and-keyboard, but close. Back when I first tried the Steam controller, it was all haptic feedback…

The Worst Place To Build A Dam

Today on Highlight Reel we have bumbling CounterSpy enemies, poor civic planning in Cities: Skylines, sad cats in GTA V and 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. Counterspy – Johnny…

Food for thought.

Tell Us Your PAX Love Stories

Walk around a PAX convention and you’ll see more than just video games: you’ll see tons of bonding. Cosplayers gather together for pictures, developers visit each other’s booths, and, sometimes, even new love blooms. There are plenty of opportunities—both orchestrated and serendipitous—to meet new friends and new loves. Did you meet any new romantic interests…

Track: “Everybody’s Secret” (‘Elemental Sanctuary’ Remix)| Album: STORY MODE | Artist: Jaken ft.Marcosis Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment. Contact the author at [email protected]

Oh, So We’re Gambling With Guns Now, OK

Jamie-lee Lloyd is a character artist at Rockstar North, the developers of the Grand Theft Auto series. As is customary with most Rockstar artists, you won’t be seeing any GTA work here, but what you will be seeing is some A+ work on some very detailed ladies and gentlemen (and some stuff he did pre-Rockstar…

The GLaDOS Principle

A Portal/Talos Principle world collision of puzzlers was bound to happen, and this one is absolutely brilliant. Bravo, The Man Who Hears Colors The Steam Community Showcase is a regular look at the cream of the Steam community’s boundless crop. Art, videos, guides—whatever. Each installment highlights a specific piece or person. If you find anything…

The Future Of Steam Greenlight

Steam Greenlight is a mess. It’s a system for bringing lesser-known games onto Valve’s store that doesn’t really help people who play games or make them. Two years ago, Valve said the plan was to kill it and replace it with something less broken. And yet, here it remains. So, what’s next? First, the good…

Just A Typical Bike Ride In GTA

Today on Highlight Reel we have clumsy enemies in Counterspy, bad lumberjacks, GTA V karma, golf hell and 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. Counterspy – CounterSpy™_20150305152314 – Pikemeister World…

What If We Could Control The Aliens?

Artist Marek Okon recently had an idea: what if instead of trying to shoot the Aliens, we could control them instead? It’s a premise that’s actually been explored in the universe’s fiction before, but that certainly didn’t look as cool as this concept does. You could also file this under: Genuinely Useful/Massively Dangerous Applications For…

Yes, Valve Knows They’re Terrible At Talking To Fans

Valve does a lot of things right, but they also have a reputation for leaving fans in the dark. What’s going on with Counter-Strike updates or Steam Greenlight’s brokenness or Half-Life 3? We rarely find out until release day. This leads to fans who are confused at best, pissed at worst. Valve knows, and they…

Awesome Fighting Game Let You Cut Other Player’s Heads Off

You can keep Street Fighter, Tekken, King of Fighters and Dead or Alive. My favourite fighting game pre-dates every single one of them, starred large men in furry underpants, and rather than lasting minutes could, if you knew your moves, be over in seconds. Because you weren’t using fists. You were using giant swords. Sure,…

Oh, Hey Gwen, Didn’t See You There

Julio Cesar is an artist and illustrator working out of Fortaleza, Brazil. You can see more of Julio’s work at his personal site, DeviantArtand ArtStationgalleries. 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.…