Culture

Fallout 3 Beaten In Under 24 Minutes, A New World Record

Watch as speedrunner BubblesDelFuego jets across the capital wasteland, all in the name of speed. Bubbles manages to beat the game in an astounding 23:55, beating the previous record of 24:20. The previous record for an “any percentage” run was also held by BubblesDelFuego, by the way. He beat his personal best, though you can…

Track: Greyish Tapering Ash| Album: Rivers Arms | Artist: Balmorhea Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Giving Bayonetta A New Haircut, Outfit

“Bayonetta’s not the kind of girl who’d show up with the same hairstyle for her sequel”, writes artist Mari Shimazaki. “A girl can be known to change her hairstyle depending on her mood, so I guess Bayonetta was in the mood for something short.” Shimazaki, who designed Bayonetta in the first place (and has also…

Sunday Comics: Gogeta Versus Quesarito

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 June 28. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published June 23. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and…

Time For A Final Fantasy VI Speedrun

This is it: Summer Games Done Quick is nearly complete. It’s time for the final (and hopefully most exciting) run: Final Fantasy VI I’m gonna (try to) stay up all night watching—join me, will you? I’ll be chatting in the comments below, and you can watch the stream live right here: (And check out the…

Track: Flood II | Album: Floodland | Artist: The Sisters Of Mercy Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to—and gaming to—at the moment.

If You’re Going To Be A Cannibal, You’ve Got To Count Calories

Here at Snacktaku we’re all about portion control, so when science tells us a fully-cooked human cadaver would contain roughly 81,500 calories, we reach for the freezer bags. In an article for Popular Science magazine, which continues to try to get us to call it PopSci so it sounds cool (you are cool, Popular Science),…

Summer Games Done Quick: Watch It All Right Here

If you’re not spending this entire week watching people play video games really fast, what are you even doing with your life? Summer Games Done Quick, the annual speedrunning marathon that raises money for charity, started yesterday, and the streaming continues all week, finishing off with a late-night Final Fantasy VI speedrun that will end…

This Week In The Business: Putting The ‘F’ In Free-To-Play

QUOTE | “I was so fed up of people telling us we should do free-to-fucking-play, in-app-fucking purchases, whatever the fuck that is, and that consoles were dead. So fuck all of those people and their fucking shitty stance.” – Graeme Struthers of Devolver, talking about why he’s happy to see next-gen consoles doing well Elsewhere…

Track: Brief Encounter | Album: Still Life | Artist: Dawn Golden Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to—and gaming to—at the moment.

Highlight Reel: June 27, 2014

Today’s gaming highlights: New world record speedruns, defusing bombs right under terrorist noses, and more! Speedruns BananasaurusRex gets a new world record in 1001 Spikes, coming in at 17:31.91 Yesterday we posted about this Super Mario Bros speedrun. It tops the old world record time by about a second with help from a Bullet Bill…

Track: Big Beast Artist: Killer Mike, T.I., Bun B, Trouble Album: R.A.P. Music Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

That’s one hell of a Dhalsim. Cosplay by Michael Vincent, photo by WJS

It’s Kinda…Hellboy Meets Jet Set Radio Meets Tank Girl…

Adrian Meribault is a freelance artist who teaches through Cultura, and has worked in both video games and tabletop gaming. You can see more of Adrian’s work at his personal 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),…

There Are Few Things As Impressive As Mega Man Speedruns

I’ve been watching Summer Games Done Quick all week, and though there have been a whole lot of great moments—Zelda: Oracle of Seasons was awesome!—my favorite runs so far are the Mega Mans. Between the crazy strategies and the tight little tricks that help these guys shave a few seconds off their final times, all…

Super Mario Bros. Beaten In Under Five Minutes, A New World Record

You’ve gotta watch this impressive Super Mario Bros. playthrough by speedrunner “Blubbler.” Blubbler beats the game in a bewildering 4:57.69. Previously, the world record for an “any percentage” completion run was held by andrewg, according to the SMB Leaderboards Wiki. The time? 4:58:09. A second can make all the difference in a speedrun! Here, the…

​Ask Dr. Nerdlove: Do Women Have It Easier In Dating?

Hello, Internet! Welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating advice column that can calculate the exact Twinkie value of the psychokinetic energy of romantically frustrated geeks. And that’s one big Twinkie. Today’s column takes on one of the most frequently recurring issues I hear about from my readers: The eternal question of “Who has…

The Internet Reacts To World of Warcraft’s New Dudes

World of Warcraft is getting a facelift—and yesterday, Blizzard unveiled the new models for human males. The update was met with a lot of playful snark, as folks dissected the goofier elements of the new models. You’ll notice that most reactions around the web focus on three things: the nipples (see the model on the…

Cute Mech, You Look So Cute Bouncin’ Around Like That

Kelly Smith is an artist and animator at Capybara Games, the developers of games like Super Time Force. So yeah, this gonna get colourful, and it’s gonna get awesome. You can see more of Kelly’s work at her personal site To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so…

Highlight Reel: June 25, 2014

Today’s gaming highlights: A Saving Private Ryan-style helicopter kill, a League of Legends pentakill, a tragic shot to the toe, and more! Battlefield 4 First up, TheMooclear was trying to take down a helicopter with his last stinger missile. When that didn’t work, he turned to his pistol: Next in “how to take down vehicles…