Think Before Getting Your Valentine Cheap-Ass Chocolate

If you buy the current love of your life sweets for Valentine’s Day that can be purchased in a drug store, you’re doing it wrong. See how a real chocolatier feels about the heart-shaped boxes that’ll be 75 percent off on February 15. BuzzFeed tapped Jonathan Grahm ofCompartes chocolates in Los Angeles to try out…

Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku‘s reader-run community: A Life Worth Watching: Why I Love The Slice of Life Genre • Your Lie in April Resonates with Me on Multiple Levels • Indie HYPE: Black Ice • Michonne! in Speed Painting Form! • The Worst/Best Extremes in Japanese Fiction I’ve Seen So Far: Part 2…

For the first time ever, Bethesda will be holding its own E3 press conference this year. Fallout 4? Dishonored 2? Doom 17? Skyrim 360? Let the speculation begin.

Cyberpunk LEGO Is, Sadly, Not Official

Computers and displays hanging on the walls, chaos that is somehow organized, rusty post-indusrial techno-junk lying everywhere. Tim Schwalf‘s massive LEGO cyber slums fan-build has it all, just like a proper dystopian town. It’s easy to imagine this as part of an official cyberpunk set with mechs and hardboiled detectives. Here are some close-up shots—head…

The Ten Coolest Unknown NPCs In World of Warcraft

Azeroth is full of great characters everyone’s familiar with, like Thrall, Jaina, or returning NPCs like Brann Bronzebeard or Nat Pagle. But some of the best storylines are hidden deep in Azeroth, and if you’re not exploring everything with both factions, reading every quest along the way, it’s easy to miss out. Nixxiom collected ten…

The Japanese Military Is Great at Snow Sculptures

Remember that enormous Star Wars snow sculpture? Wonder who helped make it? The Japanese military, that’s who. The Japanese Self Defense Force Northern Army 11th Brigade was instrumental in completing the large works, including the Vader piece and the snow version of Shinto shrine Kasuga-taisha Here, you can see how the Japanese military drew up…

Rage of Bahamut: Genesis has Demons, Angels, and Adventure Galore

A looming war between demons and angels. A draconic beast poised to destroy the world. A plucky hero and his companions on the path to saving it. What more could you ask for in an epic fantasy tale? Not much. In the magical world of Mistarcia, angels and demons had warred for eons. Then a…

The Future of DLC Is an Expensive Place

You’ve probably seen that famous Mona Lisa Photoshop that shows how downloadable content has evolved in games over the years. The image has gotten yet another update to show our grim DLC future. While not brand new, the image continues to float around internet bulletin boards like 4chan and 2ch. In case you missed it,…

Doom Mod Replaces Every Sound with a Guy’s Voice

It’s the perfect way to turn an otherwise grim, brutal game about slaughtering demons goofy as hell. Submitted by user mallo to Doomworld last week, the “Greatest sound wad ever” replaces each in-game sound effect with mallo’s, well, own sound effects. Here’s some in-game footage, recorded by Rock Paper Shotgun, to show you what it’s…

Xenoblade Chronicles X‘s Stupid-Looking Characters Are A-Okay

I know it’s only February. But this year, these are going to be hard to top. Congrats, Xenoblade Chronicles X, for some of the dumbest-looking characters of 2015! Before we start, realize I don’t think characters with stupid faces are problematic. Not in the least! Rather, I’m charmed by their unapologetic ugliness (no need to…

Kirby’s Claymation Looks Real Enough to Touch

Kirby: Rainbow Curse has an art style not exactly common in games: one of clay. Everything in the game is made of it and it is animated as if it were claymation. And let me tell you, when you get a good look at the game up close, you’ll wonder if it really is CG…

Some fantastic range on display from Argentsouled, who goes from Persona 3 to Final Fantasy VII without breaking a sweat. You can see more of her work here

We’ve writtenabout Oakland’s awesome Hoodslam indie wrestling events before (they’re often full of video game tributes), but Al Jazeera have gone and filmed a mini-documentary about them. It’s great.

Track: Jasmine | Artist: Jai Paul | Album: N/A Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Civilization Pick-Up Lines Will Not Get You Laid

Warning: do not actually try these. Actually, warning: do nottry pick-up lines, ever. Feel free, however, to try them out on your fellow Civ fanatics, who you might actually get a chuckle out of. Or me, if you want to see a grown man get weak in the knees at the mention of Mehal sefari,…

Cities XXL Is A Ripoff

Cities XXL is a city builder (think SimCity) that’s currently sitting pretty on Steam’s “popular new releases” chart. It’s also basically the same game as its predecessor, Cities XL Platinum, in most ways except one: a much larger price tag. Cities XL was not, by any means, a horrible game, but it was a pretty…