- Culture
A World You Can Hold In The Palm Of Your Hand
Li-Yu Lin, originally from Taiwan but currently living in Denmark, is an artist and designer at LEGO. As a side project she builds these tiny little dioramas, which at first look like polygonal 3D models, but which are actually handmade papercraft, cut and folded with absolute precision. The pieces are for sale on her personal…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 16, 2018 - Uncategorized
The Commandos Games Are Coming Back
Commandos, the classic PC stealth series, has been missing in action for years. No more: strategy publisher Kalypso (Tropico) has bought the rights to the games, with plans to bring them back. This includes the obvious thing—re-releasing the existing games—but also more ambitious plans as well, with Kalypso’s Simon Hellwig saying they’re looking at “the…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 16, 2018 - Uncategorized
New Sega Book (For Adults) Has Pop-Ups
Specialist publisher Read-Only Memory, the team behind A+ books like the Sega Genesis Collected Works, are trying something different. Instead of releasing another coffee table book about video games, they’re releasing a coffee table book about video games that also has cardboard pop-ups of old Sega arcade cabinets. The book is called SEGA Arcade: Pop-Up…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 16, 2018 - Uncategorized
Why I’m Not Streaming On Twitch Today
Today is Prime Day, the Amazon-invented international shopping holiday that involves offering extensive deals on the digital storefront’s products. Amazon workers across facilities in Europe are celebrating this artificial holiday with a multi-day strike, and I’ve decided to join them in my own way. I stream video games on Kotaku’s Twitch channel multiple times a…
By Heather Alexandra Published July 16, 2018 -
CultureFortnite Cart Does Sick Flip
Today on Highlight Reel we have big ships, skinless giants in Fortnite, cart tricks, and much more! Watch the video then talk about your favorite highlight in the comments below. Be sure to check out, like, and share the original videos via the links below. Subscribe to Kotaku on YouTube for more! Catch up on…
By Chris Person Published July 16, 2018 - Uncategorized
Amazon Temporarily Sells Pirated Copies Of Popular PC Games
Over the weekend, people shopping on Amazon thought they’d hit the jackpot: popular recent PC games like Frostpunk and Surviving Mars for the price of a cup of coffee. Problem: these copies were pirated. Word of the dubious deals first got out in a Reddit thread on Saturday. “I think this is a screw up…
By Nathan Grayson Published July 16, 2018 -
EsportsThe Best Call Of Duty Zombies Players Throw Down Next Month
The Zombies World Championship is returning on Sunday, August 5, and the future looks positive for competitive Call of Duty Zombies. Highly-skilled finalists will compete for an increased prize pool in a tournament that promises to be more polished than last year’s inaugural event. The Call of Duty Zombies community loves a good challenge, whether…
By S.E. Doster Published July 16, 2018 - CultureSplitscreen
Nathan Fillion Tells Us How That Great Uncharted Fan Film Happened
How did Nathan Fillion wind up playing Nathan Drake in an Uncharted fan-film? And who really voiced Cayde-6 during that E3 trailer? On a bonus episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, we discuss. Speaking on Splitscreen this afternoon to promote the excellent Uncharted fan film he put out this morning, Fillion explained that he’d met the director,…
By Jason Schreier Published July 16, 2018 - Uncategorized
An update on our colleague Mike Fahey: Mike is now home and acclimating to a future of having to use a wheelchair. He’s exploring options for a van he could ride in or even drive with hand controls. They’re expensive, so we’re inviting people to contribute to his family’s GoFundMe to help get him back…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 16, 2018 - Uncategorized
Darling In The Franxx Doesn’t Make Good On Its Promises
Darling in the Franxx is a show about children fighting monsters in giant robots, but through its 24 episodes, it undergoes a metamorphosis from teen melodrama with mecha to a galactic-scale conflict. This transition isn’t very smooth, however, and by the finale, Darling feels like a beautifully animated series that never quite sticks the landing.…
By Eric Van Allen Published July 16, 2018 -
UncategorizedContest Winners Use Labo To Turn Switch Into A Zelda Piano
The standard Nintendo Labo kits include designs like robot arms, mini pianos, and fishing rods, but some players have been able to use the raw materials to create other stuff, like this steering wheel for a motorized wheelchair. Over the weekend, Nintendo encouraged people to get even more creative with a contest for the most…
By Ethan Gach Published July 16, 2018 -
CultureGlitched Half-Life Speedrun Teleports Through The Game In Under Seven Minutes
A team of speedrunners have annihilated Half-Life, crafting a speedrun that uses a strange teleportation glitch to finish the game in a little over six minutes. The run was performed by members of the SourceRuns community, which is dedicated to hosting speedruns for games that use the GoldSrc (called “Gold Source”) or Source engine. It…
By Heather Alexandra Published July 16, 2018 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryThe PS1 Strategy Game That Nails Robotic Destruction
In Front Mission 3’s 18th battle, I’m on a naval base facing down two giant walking artillery cannons, four Gundam-like mechs, and an apache helicopter. It isn’t the most challenging tactical role-playing game from the PS1 era, but like lots of games from that era it’s prone to the occasional difficulty spike. Unlike many other…
By Ethan Gach Published July 16, 2018 -
UncategorizedNathan Fillion Made An Uncharted Fan-Film, And It’s Excellent
The official Uncharted movie may be stuck in development hell forever, but actor Nathan Fillion and his crew have made their own 15-minute cinematic tribute to the iconic action-adventure franchise. It is wonderful. This short fan-film—which I sure hope Sony doesn’t try to take down—is just about everything you’d want from an Uncharted movie: witty…
By Jason Schreier Published July 16, 2018 - Culture
The Week In Games: Sonic And Chicken Assassins
It feels like we’re right in the middle of summer, but lucky for you there are a lot of games to sink your teeth and time into coming out this week. If you’re the kind of person who likes a retro romp, you might enjoy the revamped stylings of Sonic Mania Plus, an even-more-stuff edition…
By Cameron Kunzelman Published July 16, 2018 - Uncategorized
Magic: The Gathering Is An Unfortunate Victim of U.S.-Canada Trade War
The CBC reports that Magic: The Gathering cards are part of the $12.6 billion in goods from the United States that are now subject to a 10% tariff by Canada. Won’t they think of the Canadian planeswalkers? The United States has been embroiled in a trade dispute with Canada since May 31st, at which point…
By Cameron Kunzelman Published July 15, 2018 -
UncategorizedWorld Cup Player Celebrates Goal With Rude Fortnite Emote
In the World Cup final between France and Croatia, player Antoine Griezmann celebrated in the rudest way possible: with an emote dance from Fortnite “Take the L” is an emote in Fortnite that truly, brutally taunts other players. As you can see in the video below, the character puts their hand up to their face…
By Cameron Kunzelman Published July 15, 2018 - Uncategorized
Heat Maps Of Battlefield V Are Beautiful
Earlier this week the Battlefield V development team released a blog post chock full of information about what they learned from the game’s recent closed alpha. It also contained a couple beautiful heat maps. Heat maps are ways of visualizing certain kinds of data that are distributed across space. In the screenshot from Battlefield V…
By Cameron Kunzelman Published July 15, 2018
