Culture

Having Way Too Much Fun With Disney’s PlayMation

There is a good chance I am having more fun pretending to be Iron Man with Disney’s PlayMation toys than any child ever could. One of the hottest toys going heading into the holiday season, Disney’s Marvel-themed PlayMation gear and toys is an interactive electronic way to run about the house or yard pretending you’re…

Sunday Comics: Unfounded Rumors

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your pretty much weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published October 23. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published October 19. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry…

This Week in the Business: Everybody’s Drinking The Kool-Aid

QUOTE | “Ultimately, everybody to some degree is sipping from the Kool-Aid because you don’t want to be the one that rains on the parade.” – Superdata CEO Joost van Dreunen explaining why all the market research around developing fields like eSports and VR tends to be relentlessly optimistic Elsewhere in the business of gaming…

The Steam mobile app just got a major update. Primarily, it adds new Steam Guard functionality and the ability to take care of Steam market transactions while on the go. It is, however, still kinda clunky in places. Oh well, progress! Can we get in-home streaming to our phones next?

Rebel Punches AT-AT To Death

Today on Highlight Reel we have a strong right hook at the Battle of Hoth, lucky and skillful headshots, skeletons, decoys 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. FIFA…

Hello…Kitty

Reno Levi is an artist who works at Call of Duty developers Infinity Ward. He’s also worked on games like Halo Aniversary and Hawken You can see more of Reno’s work at his ArtStation page To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as…

Kingdom Strips Strategy Games To The Bone

Strategy games sometimes get dinged for being too complicated. Kingdom strives to be minimal. Kingdom is a sidescrolling strategy/management game that just launched on Steam, where it’s been in and out of the top ten best-sellers for the past day. It’s not hard to see why: true to its regal nature, the game’s got luxurious…

Niche Witcher 3 Cosplay Is Excellent

The Witcher 3 is the best. Witcher 3 cosplay is the best. Like, Priscilla cosplay? Priscilla cosplay! Who would think/bother to cosplay as such a relatively minor character? Corneline would, because she knows there’s no such thing as a minor character in The Witcher 3

Proof That Counter-Strike‘s Guns Are Surprisingly Unreliable

Sometimes Counter-Strike’s guns will just miss, even if you’re aiming perfectly. Guns that some people believe are solid at all ranges—like the AK-47—suffer the most. Basically, even if you’re aiming like you’ve got the eyes of an eagle and the steady hand of a stone statue (of someone who’s really great at aiming), there’s a…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: Can I Turn A Fling Into A Relationship?

Hello, Internet! Welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating column that’s the galaxy’s last, best hope for peace. This week, we’re getting into the differences between real life and what’s in our heads. One reader had an amazing holiday fling, but is having trouble bringing that back into his real life. Meanwhile, another reader…

Hey, Making Video Games Is Really Friggin’ Hard

This week, we learned the whole messy story of what really happened to Destiny. But how often does that sort of thing happen in the games industry? Let’s discuss. Today on Kotaku Splitscreen, we’re joined by Amazon Game Studios’ Kim Swift, best known as the lead designer of games like Portal and Quantum Conundrum. Kirk…

The Steam Stream Plays Murder, A Gorgeous Cyberpunk Adventure [Update: Finished]

Murder is a cyberpunk adventure with a great look and an interesting concept. Watch me play it right now. After a few months of hiatus (I moved, I didn’t have reliable Internet for a while, it was A Whole Thing), The Steam Stream is back! Today I’m gonna play Murder—probably all the way through, because…

Fan Creates Sequel To Undertale… In A Wrestling Game

Some games have fans. Undertale, the RPG in which you don’t have to hurt anyone, has a bonafide fandom. They make some weird, wonderful stuff. Case in point: Alfredo Dizon, prolific re-creator of other video games in WWE video games, made an entire Undertale saga in WWE 2K14. This isn’t just, like, “Oh hey, I…

The Taken King’s Art, Like Destiny’s, Is Killer

Yes, there’s a Destiny concept art mega-post, but this new Taken King stuff is so good I think it deserved its own feature. It’s by Ryan DeMita (via concept art world), and Destiny players will recognise some of it from the expansion’s cinematics, others as concepts for the Taken, the amazing black & white sketches…

Steam’s Latest Hit Is Basically Firefly: The Video Game

Spaceships? Weird characters? Endless amounts of cheesy cowboy music? Alright, Rebel Galaxy, let’s do this. Rebel Galaxy is Steam’s latest surprise top seller, and its start screen might be the most bluntly apt summation of a game I’ve encountered all year: “COWBOY MUSIC. SPACESHIPS. LASERS. FUCK YOU, YOU’RE GOING TO PLAY NOW BECAUSE THERE IS…

Destiny Players, Did You Buy Any Emotes?

A week ago, Bungie made it possible for Destiny players to buy in-game emotes for their character. The emotes are the first cosmetic microtransactions to be added to the game. I’m curious how successful the whole thing has been so far. I put together a couple of polls. I’m very interested to see the numbers…

Fantastic Metal Gear Solid V Cosplay Has A Real Diamond Dog

Look, I’m not trying to take anything away from Maul Cosplay and Maja Felicitas’ incredible work as Snake and Quiet respectively, but having actual live wolves in the shoot steals the show. We never actually find out what breed of hound the game’s D-Dog is, but when grown up he looks pretty wolfish, so these…

Fiora from Xenoblade Chronicles. Cosplay by Dusk Till Dawn

Darksiders Is Gone, But Not Forgotten

WAR and DEATH, in the flesh, taken at the Dutch Comic Con. Cosplay by Smurrie and Deathstrike. Photo by Arian_fotografie

He’s Just A Poor Boy, From A Poor Family

Words elude me. What was already perfect is made moreso by the game on the badge. Photo by York in a Box. If you know the cosplayer, let me know!