China’s “Cabinet Tribe” Lives in Shipping Containers

For around $30 a month, you too can live in a Chinese shipping container. The monthly 180 yuan ($29.68) rent gets Pan Wei (below) a box… and not much else. There’s no toilet and no bathtub; however, he was able to get electricity. Winters are cold, and summers get hot. The containers are small (18…

Rust Bans Over 4,000 Cheaters [UPDATE: Developer Addresses Concerns]

Over the weekend, the developers of open-world ex-zombie survival game Rust have deployed their newly-created anti-cheat software on the official game servers. The result? 4,621 banned players. The software, called CheatPunch, is similar to Valve’s VAC system in that its bans are permanent and incontestable—if you’re banned, you’re banned. Period. No second chances. As studio…

Strider’s 25-Year History In Just Five Minutes

In 1989, marking the start of the blue-clad ninja’s two-and-a-half decade career, the first Strider game was released in arcades throughout Japan and North America. From then on, it was a road filled with cameos, curious localization decisions, and slashed-up baddies. To celebrate the upcoming reboot of the platformer series, Capcom lovingly crafted a short…

Well, Here’s Disgusting Looking Valentine’s Day Sweets

That might look like a grub. That might look like dirt. But all of it is handmade Valentine’s Day sweets for a very important person. Twitter user Shun_Lock created the dirt by smashing Oreos (sans cream) and chocolate bars with a hammer. Which resulted in realistic, yet delicious dirt. The stag beetle larva was made…

16-bit gaming lives: Here’s the latest trailer for Chasm, the Diablolike Metroidlike Castlevanialike Zeldalike retro-ish indie platformer for PC. It shows off the Catacombs level and is basically thirty seconds of pure awesome. Go watch it. And maybe check out the new website for more info.

Track: Blaze | Album: As The World Burns | Artist: Arsonists Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to—and gaming to—at the moment.

Toys Are Dying, And It’s All Video Games’ Fault

That’s the gist of a great piece in The New Yorker, which looks at falling profits at both Mattel and Hasbro and knows exactly where to point the finger. Rather than angling this as some kind of terrible omen, however, writer Ted Trautman takes the sensible approach, outlining just why kids are leaving dolls and…

Official Game Of Thrones Action Figures…Could Have Been Worse

It’s taken years, but we’ve finally got a range of bonafide Game of Thrones action figures. And while they’re not the world’s greatest figures, given the size of the license they also could have been much worse. They’re $20, have decent detail, and the likeness on some of the faces – the Hound and Tyrion…

Descent Is Now On Steam. Go, Go, Go.

In 1995, a video game was released that was unlike anything else that had ever come before it. And really, anything released since. That game was Descent, which took the vehicle and controls of a space shooter/flight sim and dropped them into the level design of a first-person shooter. But where most first-person shooters only…

Underground Farm Is Ready For Apocalyptic Salads

There’s a company in London that, deep underground in old abandoned tunnels, is growing fresh food. Imagine Metro 2033, then, only with fresh lettuce. Fast Company saythat the company, Zero Carbon Food, has 2.5 acres of space 100 feet underneath the Underground’s Northern Line, where they grow pea shoots, rocket, broccoli, mustard leaf and basil.…

Ever wonder why the people wearing those awesome cosplay outfits do it in the first place? Or how they put their get-ups together? A new documentary series called Cosplay Boom wants to tell the stories of the people who dress up as beloved characters and make fan gatherings so much fun. If the filmmakers hit…

Now Here’s A Titanfall-Themed Xbox One That I’d Buy

Sleek, classy, and minimalist: it’s hard for me not to like this Titanfall-themed Xbox One. If nothing else, it’s definitely better than the mock-up that was floating around in a rumor dump recently. Here are a few more shots—you can expand the picture, if you’d like: Nice, right? The Xbox above belongs to Reddit user…