Skylanders: Trap Team Introduces Two New Elements: Light And Dark

There has been an awakening. Have you felt it? The dark side… and the light… of Skylanders. Having teased players since the game’s October release, Activision finally reveals the two new elements being added to the Skylanders universe starting December 21. Since October 2 players have been banging their heads against the unknown element gates…

DayZ Celebrates First Birthday, Updates Plans for 2015

While DayZ itself will be turning three years old in about a month (the ARMA 2 mod came out in January 2012), its standalone release celebrated its first birthday just yesterday. To honor the anniversary, the dev team released a retrospective video and updated DayZ’s development roadmap for 2015. The clip clocks in at four…

How One Company Spent Millions on a Gaming Mouse

There’s a room on Logitech’s bright, modern-looking campus in Lausanne, Switzerland full of contraptions specifically designed to torture PC hardware. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK Pneumatically-powered metal rods insistently click on mouse buttons and clack on mechanical keyboards, faster than any human hand. One machine hammers keyboard keys 6 times a second, endlessly,…

Hatred, Yanked From Steam Just Yesterday, Is Already Back

Hatred, a controversial and violent game that only yesterdaywas pulled off Steam’s Greenlight service, is back. That was fast. Valve said yesterday of their decision to remove the game: “Based on what we’ve seen on Greenlight we would not publish Hatred on Steam. As such we’ll be taking it down.” We’ve contacted Valve for comment…

The Most Ridiculous PC Monitor I Have Ever Used

I got not one, but two monitors from LG for review last week. One was a specialised gaming monitor. The other was a lot more fun. The gaming monitor, the LG 24GM77 (catchy!), made a lot of boasts, and included a lot of “gaming” features like promises to reduce response time, but I’ll be honest,…

Well, This Is Certainly Hinting At Something…

This is the last screen you see after completing the story in Shadow of Mordor’s new DLC, Lord of the Hunt. Think this is referring to the long-awaited fight with Sauron? Probably.

Hey, Elite: Dangerous Is Actually Out Today

After months of early-access alphas and betas and gammas(?), Elite: Dangerous is officially out today. I’ve been playing various incarnations of Frontier’s space-sim off and on for a while now, and I dig it. I started back in August, when I went deep into my VR immersion tank and played a bunch of the game…

Some Of The Best Counter-Strike Moments Of 2014

It’s been one hell of a year for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive This video by Peter Vallsten highlights ten of the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro plays of the year. There is, needless to say, some crazy stuff in there. It’s a great watch even if you’re not into Counter-Strike, simply because these players pull of…

Indie Game Has One Hell Of An Intro

Lumino City is a gorgeous thing that anyone who enjoys pretty video games needs to play immediately. But while we’ve covered its exquisite hand-made backgrounds before, now that the game is out, we get to see something else that’s neat: the game’s intro sequence, which is one of the coolest I’ve ever seen. You can…

Track: Polynasia | Artist: Takkyu Ishino | Album: Berlin Trax Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

One Of The Most Powerful Weapons In Games Is… A Map

Swords, crossbows, and BFG9000s are cool and all, but they may as well be twigs and pebbles for all the good they do you when you’re lost. Enter the modern video game map—a perfect GPS, radar, and to-do list fusion born of mankind’s wildest organizational fever dreams. It’s one of the mightiest items in games.…

Megatron Can’t Stand Your Selfies

Millennials get a lot of criticism for their overt shallowness and constant need to interact, but it’s extra scathing when it’s coming from a guy in a Megatron costume. In a great example of doing your job very well, this costumed Megatron (apparently at Universal Studios) gives a great monologue about the need to live…

Subnautica, that cool-looking underwater exploration game by the folks behind Natural Selection 2, is now out on Steam Early access. Check out its trailer here—that’s a cool art style, no?

Uncharted 4 Could Look Better, Says Photographer

Most people probably looked at the first footage of Nathan Drake’s next adventure and were impressed by how Uncharted 4 looked. Not photographer Adam Myhill. He thinks the lighting in A Thief’s End could be improved. And went ahead and showed how it could happen. Myhill’s a guy who’s worked as a lighter, photographer and…

The Gross New Monsters In Shadow Of Mordor’s DLC

Shadow of Mordor got its first major DLC installment today, Lord of the Hunt. As the name suggests, the expansion is all about monsters—ones you can kill or bend to your will in various ways. Let’s take a closer look at some of these gnarly new beasts. Before I go into further detail about the…

Dev On Steam Warns: ‘Do NOT Buy This Game As A Christmas Gift’

Frontiers looks really neat. The just-released-on-Early-Access fantasy RPG contains shades of The Elder Scrolls, especially Morrowind and Skyrim, but with an emphasis on exploration over combat. The game’s creator, however, doesn’t want you to give it to friends as a Christmas gift. He was adamant about that. Many developers have been upfront about the fact…