Why Some Video Game Fonts Are Better Than Others

What makes video game fonts look good? And why does Final Fantasy VI’s Steam and iOS text feel so amateurish? Today on Kotaku Splitscreen, we’ve got an expert typographer to give us the answers. First, Kirk and I talk Mario + Rabbids before jumping into news like L.A. Noire Switch(19:54), Apple announcements (25:38), and Pewdiepie’s…

Half-Life 2 Is Being Demade In Half-Life 1’s Engine

While most modders are intent on making 2004’s Half-Life 2 look better, the guys behind Half-Life 2: Classic are doing the opposite: they want to make it look worse The small team of five have released a small playable demo showcasing their work, which transplants the areas and action of Half-Life 2 and rebuilds it…

The Week In Games: Infinite Cross-Over Appeal 

Fall starts later this week. The kids are back at school. And you can once again find Captain America shield-bashing the little tin knight from Ghosts ‘n Goblins I’ll never stop pining for a return to the animated 2D fighters Capcom nailed in the late 90s, but a new Marvel vs. Capcom is better than…

Pickle Rick vs Fallout 4

Here is an incredibly elaborate tribute to Rick & Morty’s Pickle Rick episode (and the third season in general), put together in Fallout 4 by UpIsNotJump, the world’s foremost expert in this kind of business. There is a lot of editing here, but it’s the good kind.

European Counter-Strike Team Dashes North American Hopes In Brutal Three Game Sweep

Fans were excited about the prospect of a Team Liquid upset on home soil after the squad’s triumphant run leading up to the ESL One New York grand finals, but Europe’s FaZe Clan had other plans. For a game dominated so consistently by teams abroad, seeing Team Liquid rally to win the $250,000 prize pool…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Bad Dudes Revival 

The ‘Shop Contest returns this week with a blast from the past as we celebrate a long tradition of really lazy Bad Dudes entries. “You have some pretty bad dudes on the other side,” the President said earlier this week in his latest attempt to “both sides” white nationalism and Nazis. It’s not even the…

Two Commentators Fall For Oldest Donation Prank In The Book

Like Moe Szyslak from The Simpsons, two commentators at this weekend’s Smash The Record bit down hard on some wordplay bait from donors. Phil “EE” Visu and Daniel “DC” Coke were on desk duty last night for Smash The Record, a multi-game charity event raising funds for St. Jude Play Live. Much like Games Done…

Street Fighter Pro Goes Looking For An Energy Drink Mid-Match To Keep Corporate Overlords Happy 

Daigo “The Beast” Umehara is a legendary Street Fighter player, but even legends need to eat, which is why the pro dropped everything in the middle of a match to find a can of Red Bull. Red Bull is one of his sponsors. And since those in the fighting game community don’t get rich off…

Battleborn’s Creative Director Says Fall Update Will Be Its Last

Gearbox Software’s Battleborn shifts into the twilight years of its lifespan, as the developer announced today that there is no planned content after the upcoming fall update. Creative director Randy Varnell wrote in a letter today that many folks, himself included, are moving on to a “highly anticipated” unannounced project at Gearbox. Meanwhile, the last…

New Mod Lets Mario Go Shirtless In Smash 4

“Shirtless Mario!” is a skin mod that lets the Italian fighter trade his iconic overalls for swim trunks. Super Smash Bros. on the Wii U already has alternate costumes for some characters along these lines, including Xenoblade’s Shulk, so the shirtless mod would have seemed like a natural fit for the game long before the…

Sunday Comics: Flavor Of The Month 

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 September 17. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published September 11. Read more…

Looking Back At Some Of The Weirder Limited Edition Consoles 

In 2017 most video game consoles look pretty similar: black boxes of varying size aimed at being as discrete as possible. The brands who manufacture and distribute them also have more clout and prestige of their own. So it’s weird to think that in the late 90s Nintendo thought it was important to use Tommy…

The Iris Cutscene From Mega Man X4 Is Somehow Even Better When It’s Skipping 

Speedrunner Calebhart42 was playing Mega Man X4 at the 2017 Smash The Record event when he got to one of the game’s more infamous cutscenes and it started to skip. Like at Awesome Games Done Quick, Smash The Record runs have donation thresholds that unlock special audience requests when met (the money raised is for…

New Hearthstone Strategy Relies On Running Out The Clock

Not many know this, but Hearthstone matches are programmed to end in a draw after 90 turns, which typically amounts to about two hours of gameplay. Since each player takes increasing “fatigue” damage after running out of cards, no deck has ever had the resources to last that long. As a result, tournament organizers haven’t…

Cha La Head Cha La! We’re taking a break from LA Noire to stream some Dragon Ball Fighterz live on Twitch.

Dragon Ball FighterZ Gets An Original Character Named Android 21

Revealed in the latest issue of the Japanese magazine V-Jump, the new character was designed by series creator Akira Toriyama and will take part in the game’s alternate timeline story based around the gentle Mohawk giant we all know as Android 16. According to Siliconera she’s a scientist with an intellect that rivals Dr. Gero,…

If Something Happens, There Will Probably Be A Review Bomb On Steam

Every week, there’s a new headline about jerks who inundate Steam pages with angry reviews. Sometimes, the protests aren’t even about the game at all, but rather a larger controversy involving a developer or publisher. How did this become the now normal? In the latest episode of Fave This, a new podcast hosted by Gita…

The Weekend In Esports: Counter-Strike Descends on Barclays

In an otherwise quieter weekend, four elite CS:GO teams will be lighting up the Barclays Center for ESL One New York. The big story so far is that both Cloud9 and Team Liquid managed to eek out spots in the semifinals despite the best efforts of European powerhouses Astralis and Na’Vi. That the unlikely triumphs…

We’re finishing our playthrough of L.A. Noire right now on Twitch “Either I finish it or it finishes me,” Staff Reporter Heather Alexandra said.