- Culture
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
It’s been a super relaxing Friday, huh? Doubtless this weekend and next week will be chill, too. What better time to kick back with some video games? So, right, just kidding, everything is crazy all the time and E3 is about to happen. Still time to play some games, though. For my part, I’m planning…
By Kirk Hamilton Published June 10, 2016 -
UncategorizedOverwatch Fan Dreams Up A Better Play Of The Game System
As we’ve pointed out on a couple occasions, Overwatch’s Play Of The Game feature, while excellent in concept, is kinda borked. It tends to focus on multi-kills or the occasional ult denial, as opposed to strong team play, vital supports, or truly tide-turning moments. One fan took a crack at making something better. Inspired by…
By Nathan Grayson Published June 10, 2016 - Uncategorized
A Note To Readers
The news is out that Gawker Media, our parent company, is up for sale as part of a filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This was due to an unprecedented legal assault financed in secret by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel. What does that mean for Kotaku? Thankfully, not much. We aren’t going anywhere. For…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 10, 2016 -
UncategorizedThe Real Stories Behind E3’s Glossy Game Demos
You only get one chance to make a first impression, and for many games, that happens at E3. The annual mega show is nearly upon us, and developers are spending days and nights putting together flashy demos to convince us to open our wallets. What’s real? What’s fake? Maybe both? I asked some developers to…
By Patrick Klepek Published June 10, 2016 - Culture
Dear Batman…
Andy Timm is a concept artist working at Hi-Rez studios, the developers behind Smite and the newer Tribes games. You can see more of Andy’s work at his ArtStation page To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand”…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 10, 2016 - Uncategorized
Halo Wars 2 Getting An Open Beta Next Week
We should know a whole lot more about Halo Wars 2 soon, according to a series of leaks today. One, there will be an open beta for Halo Wars 2 during E3 week, from June 30 to June 20. You’ll need an Xbox Live Gold subscription to join up. This was discovered after people noticed…
By Patrick Klepek Published June 10, 2016 -
UncategorizedFAR Lets You Explore An Ocean Without Water
This is FAR. Or, as I’m going to call it, The Little Snowpiercer That Could Due for Xbox and PC, it looks like a beautiful little mix of exploration and survival, as you both look after your ship…train…thing, as well as react to situations in the world around you. It’s still early days in terms…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 10, 2016 - Uncategorized
Dark Souls Players Are Flooding Back To The Original Game Right Now
It’s been almost five years since the release of Dark Souls, and most people have moved onto other games. But a group of hardcore fans aren’t letting the game die without a fight, resulting in today’s Global Restart Day. The idea began on the Dark Souls subreddit, which recently passed a 100,000 subscribers milestone. Global…
By Patrick Klepek Published June 10, 2016 - Uncategorized
Blizzard Talks World of Warcraft Legacy Servers And More
Will World of Warcraft legacy servers ever happen? Are content updates going to drop more frequently? And when are we getting that ship expansion? During a recent Blizzard event in Irvine, California, I had the chance to sit down with some of the team behind World of Warcraft’s next expansion, Legion, which comes out on…
By Jason Schreier Published June 10, 2016 - Esports
Report: Manchester United Want To Sign An Overwatch Esports Team
There’s a rumour going around that Manchester United, a name even our dear American readers will recognise, are interested in signing an Overwatch esports team. Do not let this news surprise you. Esports News UK report that United are among the bidders (along with Fnatic and another third party, rumoured to be German football club…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 10, 2016 - Reviews
The Warcraft Movie Is Not Good
Some people had hoped, after months of hype and the pedigree of director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code), that Warcraft might break the long and storied Curse Of Bad Video Game Movies. I have some sad news for those people. Maybe video game adaptations were just never meant to be. This post originally appeared May…
By Jason Schreier Published June 10, 2016 - Uncategorized
Sony Confirms PlayStation 4.5, Says More Powerful Console Won’t Be At E3
Sony has finally acknowledged that it is indeed building a more powerful version of the PlayStation 4, as Kotaku first reported in March. PlayStation chief Andrew House told the Financial Times that the codenamed Neo is “intended to sit alongside and complement the standard PS4″ and that “”We will be selling both [versions] through the…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 10, 2016 -
Kotaku EastSushi Chef Makes Star Wars Vegetable Sculptures
Meet Okitsugu Kado. For the past ten years, this sushi chef has been honing skills as the best Star Wars vegetable carver around. Kado uses veggies like carrots, cucumbers and sweet potatoes to create an array of Star Wars characters. To date, he’s carved over 90 different Star Wars characters. Kado even appeared at last…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 10, 2016 - Kotaku East
Overwatch Devs Show Up At A Korean Gaming Cafe
This is cool. Members of the Overwatch team appeared at a Korean PC bang (net cafe) in Seoul, challenging other players to defeat them. The visit was supposed to be secret. However, before the visit, someone posted on an Inven forum (warning: NSFW images) that the Overwatch devs were coming to a Korean PC bang…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 10, 2016 - Uncategorized
Blizzard is making a series of World of Warcraft: Legion animated shorts called Harbingers. Website Blizzard Watch reports that they center around Illidan Stormrage. Footage isn’t currently online, but PCGamesN, however, was told the clips will be available on YouTube in the near future.
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 10, 2016 -
UncategorizedCammy Can Pull Packages Out Of Her Butt
Uh. Well. Okay, then. Note: This article might contain spoilers as well as content some readers find objectionable. Previously, Kotaku reported what you could expect with the game’s upcoming story mode. Now, ten minutes of footage seems to have popped up online. The footage shown below looks totally bonkers. The first minute is, well, especially…
By Brian Ashcraft Published June 10, 2016 - Kotaku East
Richard Says Goodbye From Japan
For over four years, I have spent every free moment either writing or thinking about video games and anime for the crazy world that is Kotaku. And frankly, moving on is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I came to Japan back in 2005 with only the roughest grasp of the language. Soon Kotaku became…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published June 10, 2016