Come See Kotaku At PAX West 2017

On September 1, the PAX West convention will blossom like a great big fandom flower in the heart of downtown Seattle. Kotaku, of course, will be there. Here’s a rundown of panels that’ll feature Kotaku writers: At 2PM on Friday, September 1, Kotaku features editor Chris Kohler will be on a Boss Fight Books panel discussing…

Sonic Mania‘s Clever Boss Fight Twists

Sonic Mania’s a lot of funbut one of its most exciting features is a dangerous string of bosses. Reshuffling and changing what Sonic can do adds a lot of danger to each encounter. We take a look at the boss design in this critical video. Transcript: Sonic Mania recreates the excitement of earlier Sonic games…

Speedrunners Organize Two-Day Marathon For Hurricane Harvey Relief

Games Done Quick, the folks behind the popular semi-annual week-long charity speedrunning marathons, are holding an impromptu two-day event to raise money to help those affected by Hurricane Harvey. Running from from 8PM Eastern today through 8PM Sunday, Harvey Relief Done Quick is a speedrunning marathon raising money for the Houston Food Bank, an organization…

Every Big Game Coming Out In Summer 2017

We already have more awesome games than we can possibly play, so why not add a bunch more? Here’s all the big games coming out this summer. We’ll update this list as new release dates are announced. June 23 Ever Oasis | Action-adventure | 3DS June 26 Secret World Legends | MMO | PC June…

You know a console is doing well when SanDisk starts rolling out licensed SD cards. A partnership between Nintendo and the memory maker will bring branded Switch 64 and 128GB microSDXC cards to stores in October.

Making CG Japanese Schoolgirls Is Difficult

This is Saya. According to her co-creator, Yuka Ishikiawa, bringing her to life was not easy. The hurdle, Ishikawa explained via Twitter, is “quite high.” The CG schoolgirl model needs to contain a certain softness as well as the purity of her age. In short, it needs to look like a real person. Mission accomplished,…

Nintendo Switch Vs. PlayStation 4: In Japan, The Switch Keeps Dominating 

Of course the Nintendo Switch is doing better than the PS4 in Japan, you might say. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Rather, in each console’s first 26 weeks on sale in Japan, the Nintendo Switch posted significantly better sales numbers than the PS4 did. Previously, Kotaku has reported how the Nintendo Switch was…

Evangelion Creator Now Selling Hondas 

How often do you see an anime creator in a car commercial? Even in Japan, not often! Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno is featured in a new Honda ad, even doing some of the narration. Besides Evangelion, Anno makes live-action films and most recently, he directed Godzilla Resurgence. He also does voice acting, such as in…

Hurricane Harvey. Houston, Texas. By Lance Bradford. You can donate to the Red Cross to help those impacted by the hurricane right here

League Of Legends: The Cosplay Movie

Not only is this some of the best League of Legends cosplay I’ve ever seen, it’s also one of the most professional cosplay videos I’ve ever seen. It’s by a team of Chinese cosplayers, and if you like your cosplay showcases to be completely over-the-top with corny-ass soundtracks, then boy is this the vid for…

Zelda vs Overwatch

You can’t get Overwatch on the Switch, but if you could, I bet it’d be full of cameos like this. This is by 3D artist Aaron Walker. If it looks familiar, that’s because it’s a big fancy render of some fan art that we posted last year by French artist Jeremy Vitry The rig and…

Fans Remaking Tomb Raider 2 In Unreal Engine 4

The new Tomb Raider games are great, but sometimes you just want to go back and play the classics. And sometimes you want to go back and play the classics but with very modern visuals. That’s why Tomb Raider fan Nicobass is leading development on The Dagger of Xian, a complete remake of the second…

If you’re not100% burned out on hearing Sabotage in a trailer by now, Destiny 2’s live-action clip is pretty good.

Blizzard Fixes “Culturally Insensitive” (Not Really) Overwatch Sign

Blizzard “upset” (not really, but bear with me) many Australians recently with a “culturally insensitive” sign in the new Junkertown map on Overwatch. That sign has now been fixed, and we are all free to get on with our lives. As first detailed in this Kotaku Australia story, the map—which is set in a desolate…

Quake‘s Creators Can’t Agree On Who Invented Multiplayer-Only Maps

These days, we take the distinction between single-player and multiplayer first-person shooter maps for granted, but it wasn’t always so. Back in the ancient ‘90s, somebody invented multiplayer-only maps. Today, in the soon-to-be ancient year of 2017, the question is who. During last weekend’s QuakeCon show in Dallas, id Software creative director Tim Willits told…

Angry Birds collapses upon itself. One of the most creative games spawned from the mobile gaming boom begets a match-three game featuring characters from the animated film. Angry Birds Match is out today for Android and iOS devices.

Music Makes Magic In This Rollicking Rhythm RPG

The Metronomicon: Slay the Dance Floor is what happens when a dance party breaks out in the middle of a turn-based role-playing game. In Puuba’s The Metronomicon, released last year on Steam and this week on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, a party of newly-graduated students of the “rhythmic combat arts” sets off in search of…