My All-Bard Dungeons & Dragons Session Went Up In Glorious Flames

Yesterday one of the regular members of my Dungeons & Dragons group had to cancel, so the rest of us decided to roll some new characters for a one-off campaign. Shortly before our gathering, one of them texted to ask if it was alright if we all played as bards. “We’ll be like a traveling…

A Free Game That Captures Shin Megami Tensei’s Unsettling Atmosphere 

Persona games are known for their incredible art direction, but the main series, SMT, is equally if not more striking. Where Persona games are optimistic and bubbly, the main SMT games often depict apocalypses that are stark, surreal, and contemplative. Until now, I’d never played another game that came close to capturing such a specific…

The Shadow of the Colossus Remake Isn’t Quite The Same

The Shadow of the Colossus remake brings the PS2 classic to a new group of players, boosting up the graphics and changing the controls to make things a little less clumsy. For some, those changes will improve the experience but even small changes can have unexpected consequences. Transcript: The original Shadow of the Colossus released in…

The Most Difficult Game To Play As A Parent

In my first year as a parent, I’ve shunned VR games, sat out Destiny 2 and surprised myself by playing through Nioh. Despite all that, no game has been as tough to play in my new parenting life as Dishonored 2. I did not expect this. Your available gaming time plummets when you have kids.…

Call of Duty Player Hits Max Rank Without Firing A Shot

Here’s a Call of Duty player who just loves bringing knives to a gunfight. Grinding levels is a pretty common objective in Call of Duty multiplayer, but one YouTuber has become the first player to reach the ultimate “Master Prestige” rank in WWII without firing a single bullet. Achieving Master Prestige is no easy task.…

Square Enix’s New Arcade Game Looks So Damn Cool

Leave it to Square Enix to make one of the neatest-looking arcade games shown at this year’s Japan Amusement Expo. It’s called Starwing Paradox, and features a movable pilot seat. Now, have a look at it in action. See? So cool. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking…

How To Do Monster Hunter: World 4-Player Local Multiplayer 

In Japan, one of the things that made Monster Hunter so popular on the PSP was its local play. People would get together with their PSPs and play. It’s a bit trickier with PS4 game Monster Hunter: World, but not impossible. Just get four televisions and four PS4s, and then put them together like Twitter…

Dotonbori. Osaka, Japan. By Pavel Buga. 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!   

Always Bet On Red

Patrycja Wójcik is a 2D artist from Poland working in the mobile games business. You can see more of Patrycja’s stuff at her 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…

A Modern Gaming PC Inside An Old 386 Case

The outside of this PC screams 1991. The inside, however, is very much from 2018. A self-confessed “beige-aholic”, Tylinol wanted to try something different with his latest PC build, and so did what anyone with fond memories of Wolfenstein 3D would do: put a relatively modern gaming PC inside the yellowing old case. There’s actually…

Look At This $260 Black Panther Action Figure

This is not a photo of Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman. It’s a close-up of a 1:6 scale action figure by Hot Toys. Standing just over 12″ tall, it comes with a bunch of interchangeable hands, a spear, mask and suit that lights up under certain LED lighting conditions (the figure comes with a display…

The Week In Games: Back To The Dynasty Wars

Everyone’s favorite button-mashing historical figures are back. The release of another Dynasty Warriors game might seem like an ordinary event. After all, there have been eight so far, and this upcoming one is only the ninth installment if you don’t count all of the offshoots, spin-offs, and re-issues. It is, however, the first Dynasty Warriors…

Borderlands 2‘s Opening Area Was Beautifully Sparse 

Borderlands 2 opens on a car full of post-apocalyptic freaks that gets run over by a train. Even people who didn’t play the game remember this scene and the song that went with it. After that it pivots to the game’s heroes and their bombastic attempts to escape death aboard a locomotive which ultimately self…

Players Are Still Doing Amazing Stuff In Dark Souls III

Released just shy of two years ago, people have committed no shortage of amazing feats in Dark Souls III. Recently though, two players have hit new heights showing just how far top-tier Souls play has come. First there was Squillakilla’s zero damage, all bosses plus DLC run he accomplished this weekend. The streamer has been…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Shadow Of The Tingle, Winners! 

The first ‘Shop Contest in many months gave us a ton of good entries, but unfortunately they couldn’t all be Bill Gibbons of ZZ Top. Thanks to everyone who made this week’s call to ‘shopping arms a success, but especially TheRetroGamer whose winning entry was a masterpiece in both conception and execution. I would not…

Making A New Game For The Original Sega Genesis Isn’t Easy

Matt Phillips has been working on Tanglewood, a new game for the Sega Genesis, for a few years now. Set to release sometime this year, the project has been a challenging endeavor but one which hasn’t dissuaded its creator from doing the same thing for his next game. Tanglewood is a retro platformer that Big…