Culture

The Week In Games: Go Outside And Play

Is the summer really almost over? No? We’re right in the middle of it? I knew I should have paid more attention to things outside my apartment. This would be a good week to catch up on that. Your apartment, mind you. Or your home. Whatever. Just not mine, because that would be all awkward.…

Sunday Comics: A Sundering We Will Go

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 July 19. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published July 14. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and…

This Week In The Business: Battlefield Market Research

QUOTE | “You could market research any product to death if you’re not careful.” – DICE GM Karl Magnus Troedsson, talking about how DICE has to filter fan feedback to help make the best game Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “We devote so much energy to the…

Highlight Reel: Any Landing You Can Walk (Or Swim) Away From

Today’s gaming highlights: Casually landing a plane on a boat in a warzone, jumping over buildings like Superman, an incredible sniper shot, and more! War Thunder Reptile almost gets shot down, and has nowhere to go… until he spots a landing boat on its way to shore. Titanfall Thomas Hall is playing a round of…

Askfor more Fire Emblem cosplay and ye shall receive. Cosplay by Clara Chau, photo by The Will Box

Ashen Is A Very Pretty Video Game

Ashenis an indie survivial RPG that we first showedoff a few weeks ago. It’s got some interesting ideas on stuff like passive multiplayer, but what really struck me was how striking the game’s visuals were. So I got in touch with the devs so I could share more of the game’s art. There are two…

Track: Electric Blue| Album: Man of Colours | Artist: Icehouse Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Art For A Very Good Cause

Kevin Kanai Griffith is an artist who has worked at Blizzard on games like Diablo III. He is also suffering from a rare form of cancer known as Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma (ASPS) To help raise funds for Kevin’s battle against the cancer, a ton of his fellow games artists have got together to create…

Let this be a reminder to you all: there is not enough Fire Emblem cosplay in this world. Nowhere near enough. So here is some from the future, to give you hope. Cosplayer is eriotiku, photo by Ray Lum

Highlight Reel: Don’t Mess With Grunts

Today’s gaming highlights: The longest professional League of Legends game ever, some lucky knife throws, and a Counter-Strike terrorist who just can’t be bothered to watch the bomb. League of Legends This week, during the League Championship Series, Complexity faced off against Curse in what resulted in the longest match of professional League of Legends…

​Solid Dating Advice For The Modern Geek

Love ain’t easy. We all want to meet that special someone, the person who sweeps us off our feet and agrees with us about Majora’s Mask. But how best to find him or her? And once we do, how do we make it work? Our resident dating columnist, Harris “Dr. Nerdlove” O’Malley, is here to…

Lay’s ‘Do Us A Flavor’ Potato Chip Finalists Announced, Seem Delicious

After painstakingly combing through more than 14 million submissions in this year’s contest, Lay’s brand has whittled down this year’s consumer designed chip flavors to four — Wavy Mango Salsa, Kettle Cooked Wasbai Ginger, Cheddar Bacon Mac & Cheese and… Cappuccino? Hrm. Following last year’s Cheesy Garlic Bread upset, I am expecting much better from…

Making Wolfenstein Move

Markus Hammarstedt worked as a senior animator on Wolfenstein: The New Order. So if you were ever wondering “gee, who actually animated those kinda gross bits where you stab a guy in the neck”, Markus is your guy. That’s his showreel for his work on the game. Below, you’ll find another clip, this time showcasing…

If you thought Anime Expo 2014, held the other day in LA, was just for nerd stuff and cosplay, think again. It was, very secretly, also the filming location for an action movie trailer. Cosplay Los Angeles made this neat clip, filming various cosplayers over the weekend doing all kinds of TENSE and HEROIC things…

Smash Bros. In Space? Would Play.

Andrew Domachowski is an artist who has worked at places like Disney and Microsoft. He also has some ideas about Smash Bros. You can see more of Andrew’s work at his personal site To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click…

The Internet Reacts To Smash Bros.‘ Fire Emblem Party

This morning, Nintendo dropped three Smash Bros. bombshells named Lucina, Robin, and Captain Falcon. The Internet was quick to react. For starters, you must check out this new art by Kozaki Yusuke (via TinyCartridge): Of course Twitter was quick to respond to the big reveals with jokes: There’s some concern that Lucina is just a…

Highlight Reel: This Weekend’s Must-See Gaming Moments

Today’s gaming highlights: Some of the best moments from the biggest fighting game tournament of the year, plus incredible world records in both Spelunky and World of Warcraft! EVO 2014 In the Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 semifinals, Justin Wong almost got knocked out in a neck-and-neck match against FilipinoChamp, but he pulled off an…

Someone Already Beat Zelda: Link Between Worlds In An Hour And A Half

It’s been eight months since The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds came out for 3DS, and already, speedrunners have pretty much hacked it apart. Here’s a new World Record run, set by speedrunner Anwonu. He beats the game in an hour and 31 minutes—and that’s with a few mistakes that could’ve shaved off…

​New Spelunky World Record Destroys the Two-Minute Barrier

You’d scream, too, if you did something better and faster than anyone else in the world. Like completing the notoriously hard video game Spelunky. So, yeah, let the guy holler. A combination of luck and gear helped German speedrunner Pibonacci post a completion time of 1:55.353 in an Olmec run last night. The previous record…

Female Assassin’s Creed Cosplay Is Not Difficult To Render

Female assassins may be too hard to animate, but they are not too hard to cosplay.