Culture

Tauriel, from The Hobbit. Photos by Cynthia Veekens, cosplay by Linda v. P.

The World’s Fastest Ocarina of Time Player Set Another New Record

Last month, speedrunner Cosmo Wright beat The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 18 minutes and 56 seconds. Over the weekend, he hit 18:40. That’s with glitches, but without tools or cheats. He plays on a Chinese version of the game that loads text faster than the others It’s not quite as fun to…

The Week In Games: Dark Souls II: The Second Coming

Game releases have slowed to a trickle here at the end of April, but it’s not about quantity. With Dark Souls II hitting PC, LEGO: The Hobbit coming to Wii U and a little PlayStation Vita dungeon crawling, owners of at least three platforms will have plenty to do this week. Feeling despondent? Just scroll…

Sunday Comics: Into The Baby Box

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 April 19. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published April 14. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and…

Track: Leave It | Album: 90125 | Artist: Yes Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

This Week In The Business: The Power Of The PlayStation Vita

QUOTE | “People who rag on the Vita don’t understand… the purchasing power of Vita owners.” – Guacamelee developer Chris McQuinn on why they think the PS Vita is a great target for game development Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “When shareholders are more important than the…

Space Invaders And Other Classic Games As Renaissance Paintings

You know what would have made sitting through lectures on early modern European history a lot more bearable? Giant space lasers, and plenty of ’em. Unfortunately, the renaissance painter Fra Angelico would have had to live another 500 years or so in order to get a chance to draw inspiration from the modern-day muse that…

Track: The Naked And The Dead | Album: Triumph And Power | Artist: Grand Magus Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Cheer Up Dude, Elder Scrolls Online Is Alright

Alessandro Baldasseroni is lead cinematic artist at Blur, which means he’s contributed to the amazing trailers for games like *deep breath* Mass Effect 2, Batman: Arkham Origins, Halo Wars, The Force Unleashed, Far Cry 3, The Elder Scrolls Online… *another deep breath*…Dead Rising 3, Wildstar, Fable III, Dante’s Inferno, Star Wars: The Old Republic and…

Here’s What Happens When You Throw A Marshmallow Peep Out An Airlock

Ever wondered what would happen if a marshmallow Peep was exposed to the cold, uncaring, probably Easter-hating vacuum of space? Of course you have. Slate brings us this landmark moment in science straight from Texas A&M’s Physics and Engineering Festival. Experimenter Phil Plait noted that Peeps—with their puffy little bodies, dead eyes, and very nearly…

​Solid Dating Advice For The Modern Geek

Online dating, romance at cons, asking out the girl at the GameStop—it’s a wild world out there for the geek who seeks love. Our resident dating columnist Harris “Dr. Nerdlove” O’Malley is here to help. Since January, we’ve been running a bi-weekly letters column by O’Malley, and we hope that his advice has helped some…

How Islamic Art Can Influence Game Design

Islamic­ influenced art and imagery has cropped up in games from Journey to Prince of Persia, but now a couple of game developers are out to prove that despite its conspicuous rarity in the medium, Islamic art lends itself brilliantly to game design. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK Islamic art can be subject…

“Education”, Right

Concept artist and illustrator Kat Nicole Berkley has worked for companies like Irrational, Epic, 38 Studios and Big Huge Games. You can see more of Kat’s work at her personal site 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…

Bravo, Formaldegit. I know Scarecrow is meant to inspire nightmares, but applause will have to do in this case. Photo by le-miracle

Attack On Titan Star Slows Down Long Enough To Take A Great Photo

Make-up artist Florea Flavia could have transformed herself into any of the heroes of Attack on Titan, but that would have been too easy.

Why Fanboys Act Like Jerks

Despite the amount of annoyance that console fanboys have caused me over the years as a person writing about video games on the Internet, despite the endless comments threads they have derailed with their arguments, I still have a small reserve of affection for these people. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK There’s a…

Japanese Commercial Sells Curry Rice with Complete Chaos

It really, really is chaos. Good chaos. Go on, have a look. The ad is for a type of instant curry rice* (カレーメシ or karee meshi). And as with most things, the commercial better if you understand Japanese. However, even if you do not, the ad is amusing. At the beginning the kid says he’s…

Australia Knows How To Cosplay

The Gold Coast edition of Australia’s Supanova convention was held a couple of weeks ago. ArtificialDogmawas there with a camera to make sure we could all share in the awesome cosplay.

Ain’t No Party Like A Viking Party

Alex Tornberg is an artist who works mostly in games, movies and advertising. Some of his recent clients include EA, Paradox, Mattel and Random House. You can see more of Alex’s work at his personal site To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them…

Half-Life Speedrun Breaks World Record at Just Over 20 Minutes

After months of theorycrafting and planning, speedrunner quadrazid and his friends were able to run through Half-Life—a game that’s anything but short—in 20 minutes. And the fact that it’s almost 10 minutes faster than the previous world record shows how perfectly executed their run was. You can see the entire speedrun above, it’s just amazing.…