World Cup Fever Update: A Soccer Game That Used To Be A Half-Life Mod

Around 15 years ago, there was a Half-Life mod released called International Online Soccer, which turned Valve’s classic shooter into a football game. Now, just in time for the 2018 World Cup, it’s back. Ten years since its last update, the project is now a standalone (and almost entirely re-written for Valve’s Source Engine) entity…

Magic Commentator Opens A Black Lotus During Broadcast (Sort Of)

Rich Hagon, the shining light of the Magic: The Gathering coverage desk, pulled a black Lotus out of a bag on-air at Grand Prix Las Vegas this weekend. It was not the $5,000+ card; it was a Hot Wheels car. There’s nothing I love more than a good goofy gag, and everyone here plays their…

There Are Some Obscure Mechanics In Dark Souls

Dark Souls is a game that’s celebrated for its oblique narrative and skillful combat, but it also has some complicated and obscure mechanics that don’t make much sense. Now someone is finally explaining them all in a useful video format. The first two episodes of “Dark Souls Dissected” are an investigation into the more subtle…

Gex Makes For A Weird Speedrun

While we were all screaming about E3, a speedrunner by the name of Mysticore was setting the world record for completing Gex: Enter The Gecko for the Playstation in 48:51. Golly, that game is weird. I’ve always had a fascination with Gex. Despite only ever playing the Game Boy Color version of Enter The Gecko,…

‘Shop Contest: Even More Smash Bros.

The new Smash Bros. game has a lot of characters, but it doesn’t have every character ever created, so our ‘Shop Contest this week is all about cramming more weird stuff into this game. Look, I’ve never been a Smash fan. I think I must be missing something crucial that gets people hollerin’ about Peach…

How Rare Hopes To Keep Up With Demand For New Sea Of Thieves Stuff

At Microsoft’s E3 press conference on Sunday, Sea of Thieves studio Rare showed off some of the latest DLC coming to its piratey Xbox One/PC game. Later at the show, we talked with the game’s executive producer about how the studio plans to keep that pace up over the months to come. As part of…

Sunday Comics: Big Circle

Hello! It’s time for Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published June 11. Read more of Awkward Zombie Corpse Run by Alex Di Stasi. Published June 14. Read more of Corpse Run Double XP by…

I Love This Disaster Film Made With Cities: Skylines

An intrepid filmmaker going by the name of TDB Games has created a rousing 24-minute movie called “Yoko” about the destruction of a small city. It’s very good. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of a good Cities: Skylines cinematic flythrough, but it’s rare that I see a creator attempt to do something…

The Creator Of Assassin’s Creed Thinks The Film’s Version Of The Animus Is Cool

The 2016 Assassin’s Creed film is not good. However, it does have a really cool take on the series’s memory-reliving technology called the Animus. Even Patrice Désilets, the creative lead on the first three Assassin’s Creed games before leaving Ubisoft in 2010, liked it. In an interview conducted by YouTuber Loomer, Désilets reveals that he…

Bloodborne Modders Discover Cut Boss Rush Mode

Bloodborne’s Chalice Dungeons are a lot to dig through, and people have discovered some strange things in their game files. Now data digger Lance McDonald has found several boss rush arenas that never made it into the final game. Chalice Dungeons are wholly optional dungeon dives in Bloodborne, and they can be accessed by using…

‘Shop Contest: Your E3 Hopes And Dreams, Winners!

E3 was this week, and we saw many different things appear onstage. Last week I asked you to create some images of the things that you wanted to see at the show, and golly did you deliver. The Electronic Entertainment Expo is the place where we learn about new games, get excited about upcoming ones,…

This Week In The Business: Fortnite Has E3’s Number 

STAT | 125 million – Total number of Fortnite players since the game’s original launch less than a year ago. STAT | 2 million – The number of Switch users who downloaded Fortnite in its first 24 hours of availability.  STAT | 0 – The number of Fortnite accounts that had been attached to PlayStation…

The Surge 2 Doubles Down On Limb Severing 

I’ve never been a Dark Souls fanatic, but I appreciate the vibrant new mini-genre of Souls-likes it’s helped inspire. The Surge is one of those, and from what I saw at E3 2018, The Surge 2 looks like it’ll be a big improvement with some new ideas of its own. The Surge’s developer, Deck 13,…

We’ve been running special E3 episodes of Kotaku Splitscreen all week. Some have gotten their own Kotaku articles, and some haven’t yet. You can listen to them all on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or directly on our feed. We’ll be back to regular programming next week. Thanks for listening!