A Video Game Art Book That Also Helps People

Last year, we toldyou about an art book that was raising funds to help pay for Blizzard artist Kevin Kanai Griffith’s battle against cancer. Sadly, in October 2014 Kevin passed away, but the book hasstillgone ahead, albeit with a different focus. “After he passed we spent a great deal of time deciding how the project…

Looks Like We’re Getting A Gold Mario Amiibo 

Oh, hey, were you already too stressed out about the availabilityand value of Nintendo’s Amiibos? Maybe don’t look at this image then. It’s reportedly a photo of a banner ad for Walmart, and shows not only a Golden Mario Amiibo itself, but also says that something (it’s unclear whether it’s the Amiibo or just a…

Track: Heart Attack | Artist: Flight Facilities | Album: Down To Earth Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Not Even Gabe Newell Death Threats Can Keep This Game Off Steam

You might remember that roguelike FPS Paranautical Activity was yanked—with a large cane of plus 12 unceremoniousness—from Steam after its developer threatened to kill Valve head Gabe Newell. Now, amazingly, it’s back. I imagine it helps that the dev in question is no longer involved. It all went down after Valve accidentally mis-classified the finished…

Hacker Builds Machine To Trade Pokémon With Himself

Trading Pokémon typically requires another person to swap monsters with you. But, sometimes trading with someone else is a hassle. And that’s why one guy decided to make the whole trading process easier for himself. Check out Pepijn de Vos‘s Arduino creation, which acts as a pseudo Game Boy that can hold Pokémon. He can…

A Card-Based Role-Playing Game Like No Other

Take one part deck-building card game, add one part Choose Your Own Adventure novel, and shuffle with a little light action combat—that’s the deck composition of Hand of Fate, a unique twist on card-based role-playing now available on Steam, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. That Defiant Development’s2013 Kickstarter for Hand of Fate barely squeaked past…

The edutainment classic and staple of many childhoods Zoombinis could get a modern rework, if this Kickstarter has anything to do with it. Help make learning (by solving pizza-based puzzles) fun again!

Horde Of H1Z1 Players Drops Weapons In Protest Against Violence

The scene: a battle royale (that is, last man standing) match in zombie survival MMO H1Z1. The goal: to convince a teeming crowd of bloodthirsty players to drop their weapons and survive encroaching toxic clouds together, hand-in-hand. The result: improbable success! Well, mostly. In this video, streamer and YouTuber CDNThe3rd rallies an entire (or most…

Studio Behind Phantom Dust Reboot Shuts Down

Independent development studio Darkside Games, which was working on the planned reboot of the cult classic Phantom Dust, shut down this afternoon in the wake of news that Microsoft had cancelled their version of the game, Kotaku has learned. Around 50 people lost their jobs, according to sources at the studio. Microsoft, however, says they’re…

Heads up: The Sims 4 is now out for Mac. If you own the PC game, you can get the new version for free. If you’re just starting out, make sure to check out our tips for how to improve your Sims experience. Or how to kill your Sims once you start to get bored.…

YouTube Leak Derails Launch Of Big PS4 Exclusive

On February 14, a YouTube account called PlayMeThrough uploaded a series of videos titled “The Order: 1886 Gameplay Walkthrough.” The title was rather literal—the videos, which were separated into 16 parts, walked viewers through the entirety of The Order: 1886, from prologue to final boss. Given that The Order: 1886, a highly-anticipated PS4 game, doesn’t…

One Of League Of Legends’ Best Players Gets Benched

When the North American League of Legends pro team Team Curse picked up Korean player Chae “Piglet” Gwang-jin last year, they thought they’d signed one of the best players in the world. Now just four months later, Piglet’s coach announced that he’s been replaced by a relative rookie in the starting line-up. The sudden change…

Holy Shit, A Destiny Player Soloed Crota’s End On Hard

Watch as someone takes on Destiny’s toughest challenge, without any teammates. It’s incredible, and possibly the most impressive thing a single person has done in Destiny so far. You might know the YouTube account “The Legend Himself” as the people behind the first ever solo Crota run on normal, so it’s only fitting that they…

Torrents are suddenly allowed in Steam chat again. No disappearing messages, no block pages. At worst, you’ll get a warning that you’re venturing beyond Steam’s gilded grayblue cage. Valve has not explained why they made this sudden about-face after their recent spat of arbitrary blocks. Welp. As you were, then.