The Joker Wishes You All A Very Scary Christmas

One Bad Day, probably the best Joker cosplayer on the planet, would like you all to have a wonderful Christmas this year. And to make sure of it, here he is wearing a bad sweater and drinking eggnog. There’s something about the colour scheme and antique glassware that is legitimately terrifying me. You can see…

Mingjue Helen Chen is a Disney artist who has worked on movies like Wreck-It-Ralph and Big Hero 6. Here, though, is her shot at Final Fantasy XIII, part of a show on now at the Nucleus Gallery in LA

PS3 Emulation Makes Huge Strides, Can Now Play Uncharted

The team behind RPCS3, an emulator designed to let you play PS3 games on a PC, have made a ton of progress since we last checked in on the project, with the program now able to run—if not perfectly play—some of the biggest and best games on the PS3. The reasons why are of course…

2K & 4K Texture Packs Have Mass Effect Looking Sharp

For as long as we’ve had Mass Effect, we’ve had fans working to improve the PC versions of the series. That effort has hit a new high recently with a compilation of 4K textures for Mass Effects 2 & 3 that have them looking a bit more 2017. The Mass Effect 2 packs can be…

It Might Be Time To Rethink Difficulty Menus

This is the difficulty menu for Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus. In a callback to the original games which also showed up in The New Order, the menu’s telling you only babies play the game on easy. It’s funny on the surface, but also an insidious kind of peer pressure. Don’t listen to it. At…

Pro Gears Of War Players Put On A Taunting Clinic

A top-level Gears Of War player should exhibit certain attributes: accuracy, dexterity, quick thinking, and communication. At this weekend’s Dallas Open, several teams showed it’s also beneficial to be skilled at trash talk. Sure, it’s a pro gamer stereotype to launch into a flurry of taunts after sufficiently owning your opponent, but to be honest,…

The Xbox One X Points Toward The Future Of Backwards Compatibility 

Mirror’s Edge took people by surprise when it released back in 2008. The first-person parkour game was transportive, making you feel the air rush past you as you bolted across rooftops. It’s also one of the games that you can upscale to 4K on the Xbox One X. Almost a decade later, not only play…

Team Secret Is In The Driver’s Seat Of The Dota Pro Circuit

The Dota 2 pro circuit is starting to shake out, and over the course of the year thus far, one team has stood out in particular. With a huge win in Sweden today, Team Secret is cementing its place as the team to beat going into 2018. It isn’t just the points tally that sets…

How Video Games’ Biggest Award Show Comes Together

Veteran game journalist Geoff Keighley joins Kotaku Splitscreen this week to talk about what it’s like to produce The Game Awards, how he decides which trailer to debut, and the hilarious request he got from the people who make Doritos. First we talk about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (12:52), Skyrim’s composer’s disappearing Kickstarter, andthe Destiny…

Speedrunner Loses His Shit After Finally Breaking Legendary GoldenEye Record

Dam is the first mission in GoldenEye. For fifteen years the fastest anyone was able to complete it as 53 seconds. Bryan Bosshardt set the original record back in 2002 and people have only managed to tie it ever since. Yesterday, Karl Jobst made history by finishing the level in 52 seconds “Fuck! Fuck! Oh…

Sunday Comics: Rough Week 

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 December 2. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published November 27. Read more…

Watch The Creator Of Little King’s Story Discuss His Love Of Arcades 

In the latest installment of the toco toco TV, the beautiful and melancholy documentary series about Japanese game makers, Yoshiro Kimura talks about the experiences that have led to his small oeuvre of lovely, idiosyncratic games including the PS2’s Chulip, Little King’s Story for the Wii, and most recently Million Onion Hotel In the beginning…

Torment: Tides Of Numenera‘s Opening Accomplishes So Much With Just Words 

I’ve never been so enthralled by the opening of a game that focused almost entirely on a blank screen. Most games like to begin with a quick cutscene. It’s usually a simple and straightforward way too pull players in. High production values, beautiful looking cinematics, and a quick glimpse of the the characters, setting, or…

Zelda’s Story In Breath of the Wild Is Powerful, But Also A Bummer

Breath of the Wild makes you care about Zelda by making her pain palpable. By that measure, Zelda’s journey is a good story that accomplishes what it sets out to do. At the same time, the tale at the heart of the game compounds an ongoing frustration felt by some fans: Zelda isn’t allowed to…

Drama Around Milwaukee’s Pokémon Go Ordinance Ends In $83,000 Settlement 

A lawsuit against Milwaukee County for its ordinance requiring the creators of augmented reality games like Pokémon Go to get permits to operate in its parks will conclude with an $83,000 settlement against the municipality. This all started after Pokémon Go players trashed Lake Park last year. In response the county got Niantic to remove…