Culture

What Did Black Friday Make You Buy?

It’s okay. No one is blaming you. It was the day—that damnable day. Relax. We’re all friends here. Just tell us what the bad shopping deals made you buy. No one is going to be upset if you traded your old original PlayStation Vita for the GameStop exclusive Aqua Blue slim. And what’s that? You…

This Week In The Business: The Only Answer To Star Wars

QUOTE | “Star Wars is a thing that shaped my whole life. You get invited to join the team? There’s only one answer, ‘Yes.’” – EA Visceral creative lead Amy Hennig talks about the allure of Star Wars bringing her to work at EA. Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week… QUOTE | “Nintendo…

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto

Eduard Pronin is a concept artist who works at Game Insight. You can see more of Eduard’s work at hispersonal site and ArtStation page 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. Fine…

Track: Furthest Thing | Artist: Drake | Album: Nothing Was The Same Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

The Concept Art Behind Rise Of The Tomb Raider

Tombs, snowy mountains, sunken ships, bad dudes with guns, Lara looking ready to kick some ass…yup, this is Tomb Raider (which Evan thought was pretty good) On Friday, Titan will be relasing a Rise of the Tomb Raider art book, which is hardcover and runs around 190 pages. You can get it here In the…

Track: Got a Woman | Artist: Eagles of Death Metal | Album: Zipper Down Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Fantastic Star Wars Cosplay Hasn’t Forgotten KOTOR

Is Knights of the Old Republic even canon anymore? Ah, who cares, this terrific cosplay is now Star Wars cosplay canon. Saphirais Satele Shan, Blood Spider is Darth Revan. Photos by So Say We All And just so you know, no, they’re not real lightsabers.

The Steam Controller Just Got A Great New Feature

If you’re a fan of action-RPGs, strategy games, or MOBAs, the Steam controller just became a much more viable option. Currently an opt-in beta feature, the Steam controller’s new Mouse Region functionality works like this: “This lets a touchpad be mapped to a configurable, fixed region of the game window, such that touching the pad…

Steam’s autumn sale is in full swing. As I wrote previously, it’s a little different from previous sales. There aren’t daily deals or flash sales. Still, 50 percent off on new games like Shadowrun: Hong Kong? 50-75 percent off series like Fallout and Tom Clancy? It’s a Steam sale alright.

Track: Stutter | Artist: Elastica | Album: Elastica Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

How A Cool StarCraft Cosplay Photo Was Made

Some cosplay photographers like to go nuts in photoshop, moving beyond simple image correction and into the realms of stuff like fake fireballs and lens flare. Me, I like things the old-fashioned way. That’s what’s so cool about this behind-the-scenes video detailing a recent shoot that cosplayer Lyz Brickley had with photographer Beethy(with help from…

The Art Of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is, as Assassin’s Creed games usually are, very pretty. Which is the result of a massive team of artists from all over the world working on the game. Below you’ll find a selection of some of the best of it, in a gallery comprising of over 60 images. It’s not reflecting the…

How Counter-Strike‘s Bullets Actually Work

Counter-Strike is a game that’s defined by tiny details. So let’s talk bullets. You fire your gun, they make people ever-so-slightly more Swiss cheese-like in appearance, and that’s pretty much that. Headshots good, non-headshots less good. You’ve played video games before. You know this stuff. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive plays by those basic rules, but when…

Snacktaku Versus The Hostess Holiday Mint Snack Cakes

In a holiday season awash with pumpkin-flavoring spice, gingerbread and caramel apple, Hostess foregoes the dominant fall flavors in favor of a pair of special edition snack cakes colored and flavored like toothpaste. Mmmm, minty. Based on recent Twitter activity in which I discusslosing a small child’s worth of weight since October, many of our…

“It’s 2002, that shit will never work.” A character in story game Emily Is Away—which takes place in a fake version of AOL Instant Messenger—finds out about Steam. They are (probably) not wrong. Emily Is Away is now free on Steam, if you’re interested.

Track: The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough | Artist: Cyndi Lauper | Album: The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough (Single) Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Gimme Dat Bebbie

The Elder Scrolls Online might not have taken the world by storm, but it has its fans. It also has some rather nice concept art. There’s a new book out called The Elder Scrolls Online: Tales of Tamriel – Vol. II: The Lore, which sounds like a giant Tolkien-esque tome, but like the first volume…

Watch Me Play A Game That Looks Like Hotline Miami With Cowboys [Update: Finished]

12 Is Better Than 6 is a top-down shooter in the same vein as Hotline Miami. Oh, but it has cowboys. And cool hand-drawn graphics. Watch me find out if it’s as good as it looks right now. As ever, feel free to click over to Twitch and join the chat. It’ll be more fun…

Hard West Is A Wild West Strategy Game, And It’s Great

Taken at face value, Hard West looks like what would happen if you took XCOM and replaced aliens with cowboys. And it is that… sorta. But it’s also a lot more (and a little less). Let’s get this out of the way upfront: the world we live in—Earth C.117358, Dimensional Subsection IX, the sole dimension…

Dragon Age Cosplay Gets Wild

The Merrill cosplay is A+, but things always get ridiculous when large, live animals are involved. Cosplay by LuckyStrike, photo by AnnetVoronaya