Culture

Steam Game Pits Gamers Against Developers, Nobody Wins

If you’ve followed video games for more than five minutes, you’ve seen players and creators clash. The constant tug-of-war over what devs think is best and what players want, the tremendous aid an active fan community can provide versus the volcanic damage that can come from miscommunication (or something worse), the floss-thin tightrope dangling over…

Girl Gets Back At Bullies With Pokémon Battle

Narrow wins, level-one teams, besting cheaters, Shiny Pokémon captures…Kotaku readers shared some of their most impressive and memorable victories playing the Pokémon series. Here are 20 of the best of those stories. Fuck Bullies (via LumiNinja) I actually have two Pokémon stories that are hands-down the greatest victories I’ve ever had since I started to…

Nice Hat. Nice Gun.

Elena Kotelevets is a concept artist from the Ukraine, who has worked for companies like Super Sila. You can see more of Elena’s work at her 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), click on the…

Destiny Cosplay Destroys Comic-Con

Paola Alejandra’s Destiny outfit for Comic-Con is doing the source material justice. And seeing as the source material involves ethereal space wizards wielding magic space weapons and wearing crazy magic space outfits, that’s quite the compliment. For those who aren’t familiar with the grind, the outfit is the Robe Of The Exile, the gun is…

Horror Game Dares To Be Colorful

These days, most horror games have a certain “look” about them. Shadows everywhere, sickly colors, grit and grime on everything. Not Brighter Day, though. Brighter Day’s aesthetic is best described as “fucking weird as shit.” I mean, look at this: It’s colorful and cartoony, yet minimal to the point of feeling sterile—a juxtaposition that makes…

The Batmobile’s Pretty Good At Backflips 

On today’s episode of Highlight Reel we have stylish car entrances, unconventional baseball plays, double headshots and much more! Watch the video above, then link any of your favorite highlights in the comments, and be sure to check out, like and subscribe the original videos via the links below. MLB 15: The Show –Uhhh.. Double,…

Sure, there were loads of “better” outfits on show at this year’s Comic-Con, but this is still my favourite. If anyone knows who it is, let us know!

The Week In Games: Deception

I have absolutely no idea what’s going on in the screenshot above, but whatever is happening in Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess, I was to be a part of it. I think. It’s been quite a while since I’ve gotten to play a Deception title, and somehow I don’t remember any of this from what…

Sunday Comics: What New Metroid Game?

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 11. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published July 6. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and…

This Week In The Business: It’s The Little Things

QUOTE | “We can’t just be a company that’s only about gigantic big things.” – EA’s Patrick Soderlund, EVP of EA Studios, explaining why the company is working on games like Unravel Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week… QUOTE | “Starting your own business is a lot of fighting yourself.” – Nick Doerr,…

Counter-Strike Map Based On One Piece Actually Kinda Works

This is certainly one of the more… imaginative Counter-Strike maps I’ve seen in recent times. The map is based on the Thousand Sunny, the ship captained by the main characters of anime titan One Piece. No super-powered pirate antics here, though—just terrorists. Though I suppose you could pretend that they’re pirates in the very real…

Thinking about picking up Codemasters’ latest racing game, F1 2015? Probably wait. The PC version is suffering from numerous issues, from frame rate drops and crashes to busted menus and controller problems. Codemasters acknowledged the issues and released a patch, but there’s still more work to be done.

Someone Made A Team Fortress 2 Dating Sim

Rule 34: if it exists, there’s porn of it. Rule 35: if it exists, there’s probably also a dating sim of it on the way. The Team Fortress 2 dating sim is coming to us by way of Schiphys, who describes themself as, “a damn scientist who makes things on the computer for science.” The…

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

AJ de Ocampo was at the Japan Expo in Paris the other day, and put together these great videos showcasing some of the best cosplay on the continent.

A Different Take On “Medieval” Africa

Sebastian Gromann is a concept artist who works at Karakter, a German studio whose Game of Thrones stuff we’ve featured here before The African images you see below are from his personal project called Big Five, which imagines a world where medieval Portugese settlers land in Ghana and change the course of history. You can…

Screw You, Jester

Jester, my constant companion in Steam soccer-with-cars smash hit Rocket League, thinks he’s funny. He is not, and he can go fuck himself. OK so, I recently moved to a new apartment and don’t have a reliable Internet connection yet (I’ve been working out of a Starbucks every day; it’s great fun if you enjoy…

This is like the Platinum Trophy of Instagram cosplay…

Fan Uncovers Elaborate Team Fortress 2 Easter Egg

Reason number 437 I wish Valve would release more games: they’re good at packing them with smart little things. (Warning: this post gets kinda NSFW. I know, I’m surprised too.) It all begins with Miss Pauling. Miss Pauling, for those who don’t know, plays assistant to The Administrator, aka the in-game announcer, aka one of…