- Kotaku East
Cartoon Dog Cafe Will Rot Your Teeth with Sweetness
This is cute. Really, really cute. Is too much? Probably! But golly, Japanese cafes don’t get much more adorable than this. You are looking at the Pom Pom Purin Cafe, which opened its doors this week in Tokyo’s Harajuku. This is the first of its kind in the country. If you are not familiar with…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 24, 2014 - Uncategorized
Five Fallacies You Should Learn If You’ve Ever Used the Internet
PBS Idea Channel is easily among the greatest YouTube channels around. And given how much drama’s been hitting the internet recently, they’ve produced a short series of six videos that discuss some of the most common mistakes people make when arguing online. They cover the Ad Hominem, the Black and White Thinking fallacy, the “No…
By Dan Starkey Published October 24, 2014 - Uncategorized
DigiPen is a school famous for feeding fresh meat into the grinder that is the games industry. In this terrific story on Motherboard, Jagger Gravning takes a look at what the school’s massive gender gap (it’s 80% dudes) means for the student’s social lives.
By Luke Plunkett Published October 23, 2014 -
UncategorizedHack, Love, Relax, Drink Coffee, Whatever
Else Heartbreak is an upcoming adventure game for the PC Else Heartbreak is an adventure game set in the peculiar city of Dorisburg, a place where bits have replaced atoms. Follow the daily lives of its citizens, fall madly in love, and learn how to modify reality through programming. Those delicious visuals? Programming? Adventure gaming?…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 23, 2014 -
CultureYou Probably Don’t Know Him, But You’ve Seen Maxx’s Art Everywhere
Maxx Burman is a matte painter and visual effects supervisor based out of Los Angeles, California. He works across pretty much every field, from movies to games to TV to commercials, and in just the past year has contributed to Destiny, Godzilla, The Walking Dead, Dark Souls 2 and Iron Man 3. What you’re seeing…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 23, 2014 -
ReviewsThe Legend Of Korra: The Kotaku Review
The Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra universe is tailor-made for a good video game. It boggles my mind that the much-loved series still hasn’t gotten one. The Avatar series, for those not in the know, is about a world in which many people can manipulate the elements—earth, water, air, or fire—through (beautifully choreographed) martial…
By Nathan Grayson Published October 23, 2014 - Uncategorized
And YOU Thought It Was Hard To Get To Blizzcon
Getting tickets to Blizzard’s annual fan convention is hard enough when you’re an American who lives relatively nearby. So spare a thought for Andrey “Trolden” Nolden, one of the biggest Hearthstone personalities on YouTube, who can’t even get into the country, let alone the show. Nolden, who is Russian and applied for a visa to…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 23, 2014 - Uncategorized
Why Destiny Needs A Screenshot Tool
Among the many tweaks and changes we think would make Destiny a better game, a HUD-free screenshot tool features prominently. Destiny is a gorgeous game, but it’s very difficult to show that off without a huge gun or some HUD-clutter getting in the way. Case in point: These fantastic screenshots captured by redditor TwilightGap, who…
By Kirk Hamilton Published October 23, 2014 -
UncategorizedYou Can Play Dark Souls II In First-Person, If You Want
Someone did it for the first Dark Souls on PC, so of course it was going to happen for Dark Souls II. What you’re seeing here is a hack that “tells the game’s camera to permanently stay zoomed in, giving you a first person perspective”. Technically, aside from a few little glitches, it works just…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 23, 2014 -
Uncategorized53 Things We Just Learned About Super Smash Bros. Wii U
So Nintendo held a big Nintendo Direct tonight for Super Smash Bros. Wii U, and it basically laid out what we all suspected: this is going to be the definitive version. In fact, the video spends a lot of time crapping all over the 3DS version—which was pretty good!—in favor of the upcoming HD Smash,…
By Jason Schreier Published October 23, 2014 -
Uncategorized
Here’s To You, Shadow of Mordor Orc With A Silly Name
By now, the internet’s (somewhat immature) love of any Shadow of Mordor orc named “Dush” is well-known. But few people actually go through the trouble of making a full-on emotional tribute to Dush orcs, like hoodwinkedfool does. I even got a little sad at the end of this video, too. Aww, Dush. You had an…
By Patricia Hernandez Published October 23, 2014 - Uncategorized
Mewtwo Returns To The New Smash Bros. As A Downloadable Character
The most menacing Pokémon of all is back. EDIT: to quote Nintendo on this, so there’s no confusion. “This series veteran fighter will be made available as free downloadable content in spring of 2015 for anyone who buys both versions of the game.” Apparently they’re not done building him yet! Here is an in-progress GIF:…
By Patricia Hernandez Published October 23, 2014 -
UncategorizedRidley Is In Smash Bros. Wii U… But Not Playable
Yes, Ridley is in the Wii U version of Smash. No, he’s not playable. But! You can get him to fight for you during a match, which I suppose is an OK compromise. Ridley even has a special form… So much for being too big! Here’s the reveal in full, if you’d like more details:
By Patricia Hernandez Published October 23, 2014 - Uncategorized
Wow, Super Smash Bros. Wii U Will Have Eight-Player Battles
If you and your seven friends have always wished you could play Smash on the same television, NOW IS YOUR CHANCE. The Wii U version of Super Smash Bros. will let groups of up to eight people play together, Nintendo just announced during their live event. You can have five-player battles, six-player battles, and—crazily—eight-player battles…
By Jason Schreier Published October 23, 2014 -
Uncategorized
Watch The Smash Bros. Wii U Event Live, Right Here [UPDATE: Over]
What’s Nintendo got in store for Smash Bros. on Wii U? New features? DLC? Ridley? We’ll find out at least some of what will be different in the home-console version of Nintendo’s mascot fighter tonight at 6pm Eastern, in a special Nintendo Direct that the folks behind Smash say will reveal 50 new things about…
By Jason Schreier Published October 23, 2014 -
UncategorizedCounter-Strike‘s Zombie Chicken, In Action
Fact: Halloween is the best holiday. As outlined in this video from Otoris, massively popular multiplayer shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is celebrating Halloween. Now, this shouldn’t be confused withCounter-Strike Nexon: Zombies, which is sort of a) always celebrating Halloween and b) terrible. Foremost among the additions from yesterday’s the Mask-erade update were, you know, masks…
By Nathan Grayson Published October 23, 2014 - Reviews
Civilization: Beyond Earth: The Kotaku Review
Whatever you do, no matter how tempted you are by the sci-fi setting and purple landscape, don’t think of this as a brand new video game. As novel as Civilization: Beyond Earth sounds, as fresh as it looks, and in spite of some pretty big changes it makes in a few key areas, you’re much…
By Luke Plunkett Published October 23, 2014 - Uncategorized
Making Batman Poorer Might Actually Be a Pretty Good Idea
The long-running joke about Batman was that—where guys like Superman have multiple superhuman abilities—his only real superpower is money. Now, he’s apparently going to have less of it. And it might be one of the more interesting things to happen to the Dark Knight in years. There’s a status quo shift happening in DC Comics’…
By Evan Narcisse Published October 23, 2014 - Uncategorized
Your PC Must Be Très Magnifique For Assassin’s Creed Unity
The next big Assassin’s Creed game, Unity, looks like it’s going to be very pretty and very French. Both are good things in my book—though given that I can’t actually speak French and my last name is “LeJacq,” I might be a tad biased. There’s one thing we can all agree on, however: its PC…
By Yannick LeJacq Published October 23, 2014 - Uncategorized
Better Version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Hits Xbox 360 Next Week
A graphically improved version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be hitting Xbox Live on October 26, just in time for the game’s 10th anniversary. But there’s a bit of a catch. The updated version will run at 720p and will have Achievement support, with 11 hidden achievements. Full list in the image below:…
By Evan Narcisse Published October 23, 2014