Japan Is Getting A Hello Kitty Bullet Train 

In the wake of the Evangelion bullet train, Japan is getting a new special high-speed train featuring the country’s favorite feline friend This summer, a Hello Kitty-themed bullet train will begin service in Western Japan. Currently, there is only concept art. It’s pink and cute! Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing…

The Game Franchises That Will Exist 100 Years Into The Future

Video games are still a relatively young medium. Many of the most iconic characters weren’t created that long ago. But what about a century from now? Which ones will remain? A thread on 2ch, Japan’s most popular bulletin board, covered those same questions. The answers probably won’t be a surprise, but here are some, but…

Japan’s Talented And Creative Twitter Users

In Japan, there is a Twitter hashtag that creative types are using in hopes of getting more exposure for the amazing things they’ve made. The hashtag is #私の作品もっと沢山の人に広がれ祭り which basically means “A Festival To Get My Work Out To Many People.” There are some amazing pieces. Like these, for example. Kotaku East is your slice…

Banned Twitch Streamer Can’t Even Show His Face On Roommates’ Streams [Update]

Twitch streamer Hyphonix admits that he’s made some “mistakes.” A lot of mistakes, in fact. Enough to get himself suspended from Twitch on nine different occasions. Because of that, his current suspension is 30 days long. Problem: he lives in a house with two other full-time streamers, and if he shows up on their streams,…

The Battle Witch

Eissa Nasser is a concept artist and illustrator based in the UAE. You can see more of Nasser’s work at his ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best…

Introducing… Jetpack Cat. Jetpack Cat isn’t an official Overwatch hero (yet), but this faux-hero-introduction video from To Binge does a great job of illustrating why the scrapped idea turned incessant in-joke would be perfect for the job. Please Blizzard, let us have this. Let us have this or you will never hear the end of…

Iron Harvest, the upcoming RTS based on Jakub Rozalski’s art (that’s also seen in Scythe, a very good board game), is now up on Kickstarter. It looks like Company of Heroes, only with diesel-powered mechs.

Here’s Red Dead Redemption Kinda Running On A PC

The last time we checked in on RPCS3, the preeminent PS3 emulator for the PC, it was running Uncharted, Dark Souls and Persona 5. It’s now making progress on much more important matters. Work on the emulator continues, and the team’s latest video showcasing improvements focuses on (among other things) Skate 3, Yakuza 4 and…

Someone’s Making Maps Out Of Player Deaths In Dark Souls

2011’s Dark Souls still has thousands of players on PC every month. Some are playing for the first time, while others speedrun it like practiced masters. The soapstone messages and bloodstains they leave behind won’t last forever, though, which is why one data miner has started memorializing them in interesting infographics. Atlas shut down 2009’s…

Nine Games We’ll Never Uninstall

In a world where each passing day seems to bring some new revelation about how rickety the support structures underlying our lives are, I’m not certain of much anymore. I can, however, say one thing with absolute conviction: I’ll die before I delete Undertale from my PC. In this age of Steam accounts and cloud…

Grand Theft Photo: Why These GTA Shots Look So Damn Good

Karma Ingram wanted to transform Los Santos into something totally new and alien. So, he spent hours abusing a glitch to merge in-game props and lights. The process made his PS4 sound like a jet engine, as if it was struggling to keep up with this interstellar travel. Luckily, the PS4 didn’t overheat even as…

Killer7 Doesn’t Explain A Damn Thing And That’s Fine

Last night, I continued my playthrough of Suda51’s cult classic Killer7 on Kotaku’s Twitch channel. The game has a reputation for being weird, and as I keep playing I’m discovering that its unflinching dedication to not explaining a damn thing is one of its most compelling quirks. Released in 2005 on the Nintendo GameCube, Killer7…

‘Fallout 3 In Fallout 4‘ Mod Canceled After Team Talks To A Lawyer

The team behind The Capital Wasteland Project, a mod to recreate Fallout 3 inside Fallout 4, has canceled the project after consulting with both Bethesda and outside legal counsel. “This was honestly one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make,” the project’s lead programmer, NafNaf_95, tweeted yesterday In a statement circulating on Twitter, NafNaf_95,…

The Most Irritating Character In Dragon Age: Inquisition

When I first met Sera it was hate at first sight. She’s a member of the enigmatic Red Jennies, a group of subversive agents trying to undermine abusive nobles. She leaves you letters in various places around Val Royeaux and instructs you to meet her late at night for a rendevouz. There, you run into…

New Overwatch Fan Animation Shows Dva As An Irredeemable Jerk

Overwatch is a game that demands respect, or at least, a little reverence. That’s why Dopatwo’s profane and ungodly Overwatch parodies are so righteously funny. No hero escapes with their dignity. Dopatwo is a YouTube channel featuring animations about games like Dota 2 and Overwatch. Many of the shorts satirize particular Overwatch heroes.Yesterday’s cartoon, “Enemy…

Final Fantasy XIV‘s New Eureka Area Is A Tedious Grind

The 4.25 patch for Final Fantasy XIV dropped today, adding theFFIII-inspired Forbidden Land of Eureka area to the game. It’s a magical island where players can group together and kill large numbers of creatures for very little reward until they fall asleep at the keyboard. Announced back in 2016 with the Stormblood expansion and delayed…