Culture

Haunted Counter-Strike Map Is Full Of Ghosts And Dragons

Counter-Strike is a game about terrorists and counter-terrorists locked in an eternal dance of strife and headshots, as viewed by an audience of chickens. Except when it’s not. CTX (⚆‿‿⚆)‘s newly released coop_mission_haunted is one of the most popular maps on Counter-Strike’s Steam Workshop right now, and it’s not tough to see why. The cooperative…

Meet The Latest Big-Headed Pokémon Figure And His Powerful Friend

Back in December 2014 I took a look at the first melding of two of my favorite toy properties, Pokemon and Good Smile Company’s big-headed Nendoroid line. Today we get to play with the latest addition to the line, the N Nendoroid, which is not easy to say at all. The misguided but well-meaning leader…

Track: Napal Baji | Artist: PSY | Album: Chiljip Psy-da Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Some Very Fancy Legend Of Zelda Cosplay

This is…well, let’s say it’s a bit more dedicated than your average Zelda cosplay. This Link shoot went all out, from the horse to the props to the location. Even the song was made just for this occasion, a remix of the Zelda theme by Aurelia XO and Rekcahdam Cosplay by Tanya Istel and Cosnavi

The Practicality Of Video Game Outfits, Reviewed By Cosplayers

Earlier in February we asked asked five fashion writers to evaluate the fashion sense of various video game characters — this time we’re looking at the practicality of some video outfits, as judged by the people who make and wear these clothes themselves — cosplayers. Have you ever looked at a video game character’s dress…

Bring Me The Head Of Yennefer of Vengerberg

Paweł Mielniczuk is character art director at CD Projekt Red, developers of The Witcher series. In these images, you’ll see some of the design process behind one of The Witcher 3’s main characters, Yennefer. Note that Yennefer’s face was originally supposed to be based on that of Polish model Klaudia Wróbel, who you can see…

Dog Cosplay, Immortalized 

I like dog cosplay. You like dog cosplay. Reader Eric Ho, an artist out of NYC, also likes cosplaying dogs, so much so that he’s made a ton of little 3D models of them. You’ll see some familiar faces/outfits here amongst his range of models, like Thorgiand Corgi Link, though it looks like there’s some…

The Week In Games: Twilight Sparkle

In case you weren’t excited enough about The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess the first time around, now’s your chance to make up for lost enthusiasm. I’m plenty excited here, as the Wii version of the game didn’t do much for me other than make me regret the decision to trade in my Gamecube towards…

Sunday Comics: A Tawdry History

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 February 27. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published February 21. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and…

This Week In The Business: Going Nowhere

QUOTE | “I can’t believe I’m about to say this — I’ll never work in this industry again — but in the mainstream space I really haven’t seen a whole lot of progress. It seems like we’re getting more finely-tuned, prettier versions of games we’ve been playing for years.” – Warren Spector, explaining why he…

Steam’s Popular Portal Knights Channels Minecraft And Zelda, Comes Up Short

If you want, you can tunnel all the way to the center of Portal Knights’ floating island world. There’s just one problem: it’s hollow. Portal Knights hit Steam Early Access yesterday, and it’s been in the top ten best sellers ever since. If you find yourself thinking, “Gee, that sure reminds me of Minecraft, Terraria,…

‘James Is An Ass’: Gabe Newell Explains Why Valve Fired Dota 2 Commentator [Update]

This week’s $3 million DOTA 2 Shanghai major has been a bit of a disaster. Streams dropping, cameras getting stuck, awkward or non-existent commentary, dead air—it’s been a comedy of errors. On the back of it all, Valve let go of one commentator, James Harding, to a storm of backlash Harding has a reputation for…

Obliteracers Manages 16-Player Local Kart Racing

Obliteracers is an over-the-top kart racer (think Mario Kart meets Twisted Metal) that lets you play against 16 people. In the same room. It’s a recipe for unbridled havoc, and Obliteracers’ developers know it. If you want to, you can control the game with gamepads, laptops, keyboards, and even smart phones. Whatever you need to…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

As we begin the march into March, it’s time to take a couple days off and play some games. What will you be playing this weekend? I’ll go first: I finished Superhot but still want to make more progress in the various challenge modes, so I’ll probably play some more of that. Mostly, however, I’m…

Track: The Glade | Artist: Alexander Brandon & HyperDuck SoundWorks | Album: Dust: An Elysian Tail – Original Soundtrack Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Heya Fran, Been A While

James Strehle is an artist currently working at VOLTA, a studio whose members we’ve showcased here on Fine Art a bunch of times You can see more of James’ work at his personal site and ArtStation page, while you can check out his Patreon page here To see the larger pics in all their glory…

Remember Punch Club, the game about managing a starving kickboxer? It’s getting a free expansion. It’ll be about three hours long. The plot sounds great. “New storyline where you find a suitcase that pinpoints crimes in the city. Only logical thing to do is put on a mask and start fighting crime.” Truth.

Giant Cat Eats Caveman Dick

Today on Highlight Reel we have savage prehistoric cats, close street fighter calls, quiet meetings between muscular men, killer streaks, and much more! Watch the video above or on our Youtube page, then talk about your favorite highlight in the comments below. Be sure to check out, like, and share the original videos via the…

Modder Is Trying To Make XCOM 2‘s Snake Ladies Sexier

I suppose this was inevitable. Somewhat notoriously, XCOM 2 has snake lady enemies called Vipers. They’re alien snake monsters with boobs, which of course flies in the face of hella biology, but whatever. Aliens. They don’t play by our silly, boob-less rules, apparently. Maybe they store venom in there. Or maybe Firaxis didn’t take time…

Valve Is Making Counter-Strike Look Better

After a lengthy update drought, Valve is suddenly lobbing Counter-Strike news like a first-time player haphazardly tossing grenades. First there was the new Nuke (Newke) and Operation, then $1 million CSGO majors, and now new graphical effects. Valve has introduced a whole host of new lighting and shader effects to CSGO (the nitty gritty elements…