Final Fantasy XIV: A Snow Sculpture Reborn 

At this year’s Sapporo Snow Festival, the centerpiece is an enormous Final Fantasy XIV snow sculpture. FFXIV producer Naoki Yoshida appeared on stage, giving a speech during the festival’s opening ceremony. The sculpture is lit up with projection mapping during the evening. This isn’t a first for Final Fantasy. Last year, Final Fantasy VII was…

After Gaming For 20 Hours, Man Could Not Walk

A man in Zhejiang Province, China had to be carried out of a net cafe after losing feeling in his legs following a marathon gaming session. According to QQ (via Newsweek), the man didn’t take a break during a reported twenty-hour gaming session. When he tried to get up to go the restroom, he discovered…

An Amazing Dumpling Shop. Tainan City, Taiwan. By Ross Goodwin. 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! 

Under The Sea (Under The Sea)

Pat Presley was part of the small team of artists who worked on Subnautica, an underwater game that’s very good Below you’ll find some of the art Pat contributed to the project. You can see more of his stuff at his personal site and ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click…

A New Sherlock Holmes-Inspired Anime Is In Production

Steve Ahn, director of the new Voltron series and an asst. director on The Legend Of Korra, has a new animated series in development about two young detectives who solve crimes by their smell and can teleport using selfies. The series is called Blossom Detective Holmes, and is kind of a take on Sherlock Holmes,…

Here’s The First Han Solo Movie Teaser Trailer

The first teaser trailer for the Han Solo movie—out very soon!—was just shown as part of the Super Bowl festivities. Lookin’ sharp, Lando.

Fan Creates Smash Bros. Board Game

Libertalia is a good board game about duelling pirates. It can also, with a bit of fiddling, be turned into a recreation of Super Smash Bros This is Super Smash Brothers: TableTop, by jowhee13, where players assemble teams of Nintendo characters then go at it, hurling items and dealing damage while trying to avoid having…

The Week In Games: Colossi Get A Makeover 

It’s a credit to how far video games have come that there are now so many of them worth remaking and updating. I’ve been skeptical of the Shadow of the Colossus remake since it was announced. Having replayed the original recently, I can say it still holds up, even if the controls are a mess.…

Lydia Is Sworn To Carry Your Skyrim Cosplay Burdens

This is Aussie cosplayer Danielle Debs at RTX in Sydney over the weekend. We see a lot of Dragonborn cosplay around when it comes to Skyrim love, but not nearly enough of the unsung Lydia.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Shadow Of The Tingle 

The world’s a different place than it was back in 2005. Maybe it’s time we had some new colossus to fight as a result. In celebration of Shadow of the Colossus’s stellar remake coming out this week, I thought it was time for us to think about what new, towering monsters we’d like to see…

Rogue One Actor Says Sleeping Dogs Movie Is Still Happening 

Donnie Yen of Ip Man and Rogue One fame said the Sleeping Dogs movie no one’s heard anything about for some time is still in motion on social media yesterday. “Sometimes great things take a bit of time,” the actor and martial artists said in an Instagram post. “Sleeping Dog is motion, you guys ready…

Top League of Legends Team Is Having A Rough Start To The Season

Last night’s League Champions Korea matches were punctuated by another loss for SKT T1. A team known for multiple world championship titles tacked another game into the loss column, and this one was particularly humbling. SKT’s opponent, the Afreeca Freecs, have historically upset SKT across several seasons. For some reason, the Freecs have SKT’s number.…

The Most Important Part Of Writing A Video Game Is The Tools

Today on Kotaku Splitscreen we’re talking Monster Hunter, Nolan Bushnell, and what it’s like to write video games. First we tackle news (16:44) on the Nolan Bushnell controversy, a revoked Dragster world record, and Paragon shutting down because Fortnite was just too popular. After that, writer Leigh Alexander joins the show (34:27) to talk about…

Super Metroid‘s Elevators Are No Joke 

Speedrunning is often best known of the amazing records it produces. The practice that goes into producing those moments can be grueling though, like when you’re trying to set a new personal record in Super Metroid only to get stuck on an elevator. UNHchabo had that exact thing happen while working on a new personal…

Dota Pro Falls For The Bait

In last night’s StarLadder i-League Dota Invitational, reigning TI7 champs Team Liquid fell for an early ruse that led to first blood and more for their opponent, Mineski. Mineski picked a lineup of heroes like Ursa and Shadow Fiend, meaning it was theoretically possible they could kill Roshan before the horn sounded. Killing Roshan is…

Football: The Kotaku Review

If Football—that is, the American National Football League football—used the same naming scheme as “Dungeons & Dragons,” we’d call it “Beer Commercials & Cheerleaders.” Like dungeons and dragons, beer commercials and cheerleaders are two things that not everyone likes. They are also, however, not The Point of their respective games: they are simply nouns which…

Sunday Comics: I Am Goku

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics that usually occurs on Sunday except when it doesn’t. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published February 3. Read more of Nerf NOW!!  Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published January 29. Read more…

Dragon Ball FighterZ Does Some Weird Stuff Behind The Camera

Dragon Ball FighterZ is a polished fighting game with tight controls and a combat system that’s fast-paced but still approachable. It also looks amazing, which is why people have been sharing all of its scripted animations for weeks leading up to the release. It turns out there’s some really weird stuff happening during them though.…