Elder Scrolls: Blades Is Impressive, But Don’t Expect Skyrim

I have a feeling that the Elder Scrolls name is going to be a bit of an albatross for The Elder Scrolls: Blades, a free-to-play RPG for mobile that Bethesda announced at E3 From the demo at the show, it’s clear that the fundamentals of the series are there: You trudge through abandoned Elven hallways…

Ubisoft’s Starlink Is Surprisingly Cool, With Or Without Star Fox

Starlink: Battle For Atlas isn’t a Star Fox game. Nintendo’s furry pilot and his famous Arwing fighter are in the Switch version and—I hope you’re sitting down—not in the Xbox One and PS4 versions. It’s not even fully a toys game, a la Skylanders or Disney Infinity, because it turns out you don’t even need…

Overcooked 2 Lets You Crash A Restaurant Into Another Restaurant

The co-op cooking game Overcooked 2 was one of the featured third-party announcements during Nintendo’s E3 presentation this year. After playing it, I understand why. While others on the Kotaku team have been praising the first Overcooked for a while, I hadn’t had the time (or, sniff, the friends) to play it. At E3, after…

Mega Man 11 Is Exactly What I Hoped It Would Be

It’s been eight years since the last Mega Man game, and after the disappointing spiritual successor Mighty No. 9, it’s fair for us all to wonder: Is Mega Man 11 actually going to be any good? The answer, from what I’ve played so far, is yes. I played two full stages of Mega Man 11…

Man And His Anime Hug Pillow Graduate From College

Graduating from school is a big moment in any student’s or hug pillow’s life. While this is making the rounds on Japanese websites, it was originally spotted by Twitter user Amanojaku Respecter, who was watching the Cal Poly Pomona commencement: Let’s see how this all went down. The two make their entrance. Both are congratulated…

Huge Chewbacca-Themed Statue In Japan

Is this the biggest Chewbacca-themed statue in the world? Today in Nagoya, a tall Chewie was unveiled. This is for Solo’s Japanese release The statue, however, is always up, but not decked out like Chewbacca. Called Nana-chan ningyou (“Nana-chan doll”), this is a huge mannequin located in front of Nagoya’s Meitetsu Department Store Since 1973,…

When Anime And Photoshop Meet The Real World

There’s something oddly haunting about putting anime characters in real-world environments. A few years back, a 4chan thread featured a slew of Photoshops showing anime characters added into real-world locations. The images ended up on numerous Japanese websites. However, most of the photos were made by the MS Insanity collective on VK.com, which is akin…

Four Arrested In Japan For Running Illicit Video Game Bars [Update]

The proprietors of four video game bars have been arrested for allegedly violating Japanese copyright law. According to Yomiuri Shimbun, these arrests are being called the first of their kind in Japan. Update June 13 – 7:30am: An earlier version of this story said there had only been one arrest. There have been four, and…

Two Paths. Tokyo, Japan. By Fahnon | Instagram JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line! 

Bury Me In Yakuza Games

Two Yakuza games came out in 2017,we’ve already had one in 2018, and now another is coming. Here’s the E3 trailer for Yakuza Kiwami 2, the remake of the second game in the series, which was originally released in 2006. It’s the only Yakuza game I haven’t played, so I am very down for this.…

PS4 Fortnite Accounts Are Blocked On The Nintendo Switch

Fortnite players who had an Epic account on PS4 and have tried to play the new Nintendo Switch version of the game are reporting that they’ve run into a problem: they’re not allowed to use the same account. That’s right, if you have played the game on PlayStation 4—even just once—that’s enough to have got…

Remember, The Witcher’s Ciri Has Probably Been To Cyberpunk 2077

Anyone who has played the Witcher 3 will know that there’s a passage in the game where… …characters visit other worlds. While Geralt had to tread around an alien desert, Ciri got to go somewhere much cooler. Itwas basically accepted as fact by fans (including Kotaku.com’s Kirk Hamilton) back in 2015 (remember, Cyberpunk was first…

Bungie Says You Won’t Have To Leave Year-One Destiny 2 Weapons Behind

Sure, everyone’s worried about Cayde. But what Destiny 2 players have really been worried about lately is that, come September’s Forsaken expansion, we’re going to have to say goodbye to all our hard-earned gear. Fortunately, today the expansion’s director told PC Gamer that won’t be the case. In Destiny 2, you spend a lot of…

We Talked To The Last Of Us Part II‘s Director About The Game’s Violence (And More Treacherous Stealth)

LOS ANGELES—Neil Druckmann, creative director on the The Last of Us Part II, was nervous going into E3. “When you’re in it, when you’re working on something for so long you lost the forest from the trees,” he told me as we chatted at Sony’s PlayStation booth here at the LA Convention Center. He’d played…

To help get cosplayers started on their Assassin’s Creed Odyssey outfits—of which there will be many, because those two star characters are just to die for—Ubisoft have released a guide, showing the finer details on their costumes and the correct colours for each component

Soundtracks Are Very Important For E3 Trailers

What an age we live in, where the humble Farming Simulator series gets a lavish E3 cinematic trailer. Big approval for the soundtrack choice, everyone involved.

Nike’s PlayStation Sneakers Are Back [Update]

Nike’s original and super-limited 2006 release of some PlayStation-branded AF1s became something of a cult classic, so this week they’re bringing them back. Update June 12 – Added official images from Nike. I always thought they looked like clown shoes myself, and they’re not a patch on Nike’s other PlayStation effort for 2018, the light-up…