Culture

Thousands Of Cheaters Reportedly Banned From Counter-Strike

Valve just dropped the hammer on Counter-Strike cheaters. Big time. For the past 24 hours, reports have been coming in from all over the Counter-Strike-o-sphere that a new ban wave hit cheaters hard. Data-mining site SteamDB puts the number at 11,435 (and counting) bans administered by the VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) system today. That’s a significant…

Snacktaku Cooks And Eats Hostess Deep Fried Twinkies

For decades state fairs across the country have reeked of things that aren’t generally deep fried—Twinkies, candy bars, drifters—receiving the hot oil treatment. Hostess has decided it’s time to capitalize on one of those. Let’s cook us up some Hostess Deep Fried Drifter. By Deep Fried Drifter I mean Deep Fried Twinkies, and by cook…

Valve Makes Big Changes To Steam Reviews, Angers Developers

Valve has spent this year slowly revamping Steam reviews, and the latest change is a biggie: by default, reviews written by people who obtained a game with a key (or anything else not directly within Steam) don’t factor. Valve explained that they made the change to counter fraudulent reviews and other attempts at score-boosting: “An…

Battlefield 1 Horse Laughs At Your Puny Explosion

Today on Highlight Reel we have powerful war horses, Deus Ex malfunctions, buff ghosts 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! Deus Ex: Mankind…

The Week In Games: Num Num Num 

According to the thermometer I totally keep by the window in my office, it’s 91 degrees outside and definitely still summer. According to the list below, however, fall is definitely upon us. I mean, not just one, but TWO Vita games are coming out this week? Then again, according to the 3DS, and the remake…

Sunday Comics: Cartoon Villainy By A Wide Margin

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published September 10. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published September 5. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and…

This Week In The Business: It’s Not Looking Good For The Xbox One

QUOTE | “Really this could be a final nail in the coffin for Xbox One now that Microsoft has told consumers to wait until 2017 [for Scorpio]. Sony will have the powerful system with VR now and a well-executed plan that leaves consumers no reason to wait.” – DFC Intelligence’s David Cole says PlayStation 4…

Steam’s Latest Hit Is A Great Mix Of FTL And XCOM

Halcyon 6 is a sumptuous video game stew. It’s got hints of XCOM, FTL, 4X space games, and JRPGs, plus gobs of humor and personality. I’ve taken to calling it 4XCOM for short. I’ve only played for a couple hours, but this feels like the sort of game that will keep me hooked for weeks.…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: Should I Date My Best Friend?

Hello, you electric pheromone beasties. Welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the first dating advice column to achieve an N7 rank in the Alliance. This week, we’re going to be talking about two sides of the same issue: desire. How important is simple, sexual attraction in a relationship and what can it affect in the long…

Track: Walk Away Renée | Artist: The Left Banke | Album: Walk Away Renée/Pretty Ballerina Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Battlefield 1 Player Misses Shot, Then Doesn’t

Today on Highlight Reel we have tons of Battlefield clips, lethal non-leathal take downs, flaming zombies, 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! Rainbow…

Podcast: Our Gut Reactions To The PS4 Pro

Did Kirk and I think the PS4 Pro was impressive or underwhelming? Find out on today’s Kotaku Splitscreen. Or right here. Underwhelming. The answer is underwhelming. On this week’s show we talk about our gut reactions to Sony’s low-energy reveal event. We also talk about yesterday’s biggest news drop: Nintendo making a Mario game for…

The One Star Trek Game Every Star Trek Fan Should Play

On September 8, Star Trek turned 45 years old. Happy Birthday, Star Trek! Even though I hate you and your cheap-ass sets and lame vision of the future and hammy plots and silly aliens and… Originally published 9/9/2011. Ahem. Anyway. THAT SAID, even I can find room to love a Star Trek game. Not like…

Track: Day of Light | Artist: Brian Eno | Album: LUX Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

The Internet Reacts To The PS4 Pro

Today, Sony finally pulled the veil—basically translucent at this point—off the Neo, officially known as the PlayStation 4 Pro. It’s a more powerful PlayStation 4 that will support 4K and HDR. Impressions so far are… mixed. The PS4 Pro’s beefier hardware specs do present some intriguing possibilities, largely involving improved framerates for VR and games…

It is the year 2016, and three of the items on Steam’s top ten best-sellers list are Spore. A midweek madness sale of Spore and its expansions is to blame, but still: strange times. Also interesting: despite being broadly declared a letdown, Spore’s 8,373 Steam reviews are 87% positive, or “very positive” by Steam’s measure.…

A Bad Way To Exit A Plane In Battlefield 1

Today on Highlight Reel we have tons of Battlefield 1 clips, turret balls, unexpected reversals, 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! No Man’s…

Ark: Survival Evolved developer Wildcard has responded to players’ concerns about releasing a paid expansion to an Early Access game They say they needed to test tech for moving between Arks, so they decided to release Scorched Earth before launch. You can read their full response here or in my updated report

In Space, No One Can Hear You Relax

Wangjie Li is an artist based in California who has worked in the video game business. You can see more of Li’s 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…

Track: D’You Know What I Mean? (2016 HD Remaster) | Artist: Oasis | Album: Be Here Now Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.