Culture

Umbrella soldier cosplay by TonySpawn. Photo by Lumal

Meet The Guy Who Says He Buried The E.T. Cartridges

Last month, thousands of copies of ET (along with other Atari games) were found buried beneath the New Mexico desert. James Heller was the man responsible for that. In an interview with KBOI2, the former Atari employee says that the rumours about the dumping being some secretive, midnight affair are untrue. With 750,000 unwanted game…

The Week In Games: Stories Of The Shinsengumi

It’s the perfect week to curl up in an air conditioned room with a pair of remastered visual novels for your PlayStation 3. It’s a week filled with remasters and re-releases. We’ve got Borderlands 2 for the PlayStation Vita, but only if you buy a system bundle — otherwise you’ll have to wait a week.…

A Hack That Gets You The Most Taco Bell Food For Your Money

It’s late at night, you’ve got a pocketful of crumpled bills and coins, and your hunger exceeds your self-esteem. Thanks to a clever hack, now all you have to do is send your budget to a special email address to generate a maximum calorie Taco Bell menu. The Taco Bell Disrupt, created during the hackathon…

Sunday Comics: An Amazing Honor

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 May 2. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published April 28. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and…

This Week In The Business: Not For All The Xbox Ones In China

QUOTE | “[You] can’t sell sand at the beach.” – American McGee, head of Spicy Horse, talking about Microsoft’s plan to sell Xbox Ones in China, which he believes will fail for multiple reasons Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “VR is an incredible experience, the technology is…

The Internet Reacts To The New Call of Duty

Surprise! There is a new Call of Duty this year. Usually, Call of Duty reveals are met with a lot of cynicism and snark about how stagnant the franchise had supposedly become. But this year? This year things are a little different. It’s future warfare, for one. FUTURE. Also, the game stars Kevin Spacey and…

Track: She’s My Baby | Album: Change Of Heart | Artist: Kingswood Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Yeah, That Cancelled Star Wars Game Looked Pretty Cool

Brazilian artist Bruno Werneck works at Filmpaint studio, where he’s been able to contribute to some of the world’s biggest video game and movie projects. I’m not kidding around when I say biggest, either. In games, he’s worked on Titanfall and the Mass Effect series, while in Hollywood his stuff has been used in Star…

Wow, Guys, Check Out That Floating City

West Studio is a company that provides concept art services for all kinds of clients, from EA to Activision, Ubisoft to Warner Bros., and even advertisers and Hollywood film studios. Founded by Tyler West, they’ve recently worked on series like BioShock, Command & Conquer and Dead Space, while also helping out on commercials for companies…

Where Does He Get All This Wonderful Batman Cosplay?

Smile-X Villain Co., based in Los Angeles, is a crew of cosplayers dedicated to bringing Batman (and his villains) to life. There’s around a dozen members, cosplaying as everyone from the Dark Knight himself to Two Face, The Riddler, Robin and even Black Mask. There’s so much fantastic work going on here I don’t even…

Classic Manga Looks More Modern In The Flesh

It’s not every day you get to see cosplay from classic manga series Magic Knight Rayearth. So let’s enjoy today for being the special snowflake that it is. Reader Devon and her friends Shannon & Audra went to Sakuracon as Umi, Hikaru and Fu from the 90s series. Photos by Indiglue

Super Mario Bros. 3, Beaten In Under Three Minutes

If you immediately thought “must use a glitch,” you’d be right: this run of Super Mario Bros. 3 posted by TASVideosChannel makes use of a bizarre pipe glitch which allows Mario to tunnel down to princess Peach in world 7-1. The run was performed by Lord Tom and Tompa, and they describe how they did…

Of Race Relations, Doctor Who And Cosplay

There’s a general assumption that, when it comes to matters of race, parts of the cosplay community can sometimes be a little weird. Someone who’s black, for instance, might run into problems cosplaying as a white character. It’s not a widespread issue, nor is anyone trying to say that all cosplayers can be racist assholes,…

Oh Hi, Creepy/Awesome Pan’s Labyrinth Cosplay

Melanie Colley channels the surreal with this Faun outfit from Pan’s Labyrinth. If it looks complex and involved, that’s because it was, as you can see from these progress shots. You can see more shots of the costume on Melanie’s cosplay.com page

The Cities (And Buildings) Of The Future Look Beautiful

Jean-Marc Emy is an artist who has won awards for his architectural illustration. He’s also worked in video games, books and magazines. What’s interesting here is that few of these illustrations are actually from games. But they all look like they could/should be. So many game artists are fantastic at the little things, like characters…

The Worst Movie, The Best Cosplay

Plan 9 From Outer Space cosplay! That’s awesome just for the subject matter, but the execution is even better. Cosplay by John Robert Price and Brandy Mason, photo by Jarod Kearney

Assassin’s Creed’s Aveline, by Sunymao. Photo by Byza

Monster Fights Are The Best Fights

Ben Erdt is an artist at Guerilla Games, the developers of the Killzone games. Though, for once, you won’t be seeing much Killzone here. What you will be seeing as monsters. Wet, spiky, hungry-looking monsters. You can see more of Ben’s art at his personal site and ArtStation page To see the larger pics in…

No Wonder Infamous: Second Son Makes Me So Hungry

Seattle is a great city for foodies, even if those foodies are super-powered fugitives from corrupt justice. The fake food-obsessed Paul Yan of Enjoy the Bits captured scenes of Infamous: Second Son at its tastiest. Not only has Paul wandered the streets of digital Seattle snapping picture of food, he’s also cataloged the game’s restaurants,…