What A Video Game Producer Actually Does

Say you want to have a party. You want it to be the most incredible party on the planet, one that all of your friends will remember forever. You’re putting a lot of money into it, so you can’t afford to fail. It’s gotta be perfect. To pull off an event like this, you’ll need…

This Is What Happens When I Don’t Play A Game For A While

Poor Lara Croft. She didn’t deserve this. Last night I decided to finish Rise of the Tomb Raider on PC. I’m not really sure why: maybe because we’d been discussing finally adding it to our list of the best Xbox One games? Mostly because it was sitting in my Steam library and I was bored…

The Beautiful Art Of The Banner Saga 2

The Banner Saga 2 is an excellent strategy game, but the one thing fans (or even casual observers) tend to associate most with the series its its absolutely gorgeous 2D art. From epic backgrounds to hand-drawn animation, it’s one of the most beautiful video game series on the planet, so it’s an absolute pleasure today…

Latest Walking Dead Comic Shines A Light On A Small, Important Mystery

For more than a decade now, creator Robert Kirkman has been the primary creator of the Walking Dead, partnering with a select few artists to build out the bleak, incredibly successful comics series. Now, two more comics superstars have entered the zombie apocalypse with a beautiful side story that you can read from almost no…

Rust‘s Controversial Random Gender Update Has Led To More Players

A couple weeks ago, survival hit Rust added playable women. This is, however, Rust we’re talking about, so players don’t get to choose whether they’re a dude or a lady. Controversy ensued. People threatened to stop playing. Some said Rust had dug its own grave. Turns out, the game’s player count has actually gone up.…

Watch This Speedrunner Crush Dark Souls 3 In Just Over An Hour

It took me almost 40 hours to beat every boss in Dark Souls 3. It’s taking speedrunner Distortion2 just over an hour, and he’s cutting off minutes every single day. There are few things more enjoyable than watching another person blast through a Souls game after you’ve endured its tortures. Granted, any Souls game is…

That Time Prince Inspired a Mortal Kombat Character

Mortal Kombat’s got ninjas of all different colors. Yellow-clad Scorpion is hot like fire and green-skinned Reptile spits acid at fools. Sub-Zero may wield cryokinetic power but he’s not the coolest martial artist in the fighting game series. That title goes to Rain, because he was created as an homage to Prince. Rain was originally…

Star Fox Zero: The Kotaku Review

Even if you can get used to the awkward controls, Star Fox Zero is merely mediocre. It’s as disappointing a major Nintendo console release as there’s been in some time. You’re Fox McCloud himself, once again the pilot of your very own Arwing fighter, flying or, on rare occasions, driving a tank, through missions in…

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Will Be Shown In A Theater This Weekend

On Sunday, for the first time since 2006 (as far as I can tell), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children will be screened in a theater—an actual theater. The polarizing film, which continued the story of Cloud and his angsty buddies after they defeated Sephiroth way back in the 90s, will be shown at the Newport…

Twitch Is Giving Out Deodorant At PAX East

If you’ve ever been to a convention, you know what a problem body odor can be. But judging from pictures coming out of PAX East this morning, Twitch is doing its part to help with the smelly crisis. Genius! Another picture, courtesy of @therealcliffyb: The stunt is not surprising, given that Old Spice is listed…

Half-Life‘s Black Mesa Test Chamber, In LEGO Form

One of the most memorable scenes of Half-Life was right at the beginning, when Gordon Freeman woke up in a severely damaged test chamber, realizing that getting out of the facility will be a bit problematic. LEGO builder Dorian Glacet created a superb diorama, called Resonance Cascade, showing the events that led to this very…

The Game of Thrones Opening Credits Recreated with Paper 

Just time in for the upcoming season 6 premiere, here’s Moleskin doing a stop-motion version of the opening credits with paper cutouts. According to DesignBoom, this took 7,600 paper cutouts to complete. As far as online notebook ads go, this is pretty good. The making-of is also interesting to watch.

The Return of Japan’s Strangest English Textbook

Many Japanese think English is a difficult language. So why not make that linguistic grind enjoyable? That’s exactly what this odd little book does. A few years ago, Kotaku introduced English Words That Don’t Appear on Tests (here and here). It’s a wonderful English book filled with silly drawings and words and sentences that probably…

Fushimi Inari Shrine. Kyoto, Japan. By Christian Astorga. 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!