Podcast: Let’s Spoil Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Join us, won’t you, for a Kotaku Splitscreen spoilercast of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a video game about a mute young man who obsessively collects seeds. First, Kirk and I talk this week’s news including the rocky future of Mass Effect (5:20), an eleven-year-old getting GTA V and finding a bag…

Sunday Comics: Forced Fusion Tutorial

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics that usually occurs on Sunday except when it doesn’t. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published May 12. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published May 12. Read more…

Street Fighter Pro Brings Down The Champ At Compete Event

In the last block of the night at our “Can You Beat An Esports Champion?” event, Du “NuckleDu” Dang was the first pro to drop all day. Kevin “Die3mini0n” Landon, a professional Street Fighter player himself, took down NuckleDu in a tense mirror match-up. Both players were on Guile, exchanging blows and projectiles in a…

Here’s To That Guy Creeping Around The Witcher 3 Card Game Tournament 

Meet Gaunter O’Dimm. Or at least some dude dressed as Gaunter O’Dimm, a mischievous, devil-like bloke from The Witcher 3 and competitive gaming’s own Vanna White. His job is to walk players to their seats and stare at the camera like that theater undergrad who is all about getting into character and strolling around the…

Watch Street Fighter Pros V. Jamokes At Our NYC Event

Starting now and going into the night, Street Fighter V pros Bryant “Smug” Huggins, Justin Wong and Du “NuckleDu” Dang will take on a crowd of challengers live from our New York offices. Throughout the day, visitors can stop by to play the pros, and after they fail (or succeed), they can stop by the…

Apparently Barcelona’s Soccer Team Loves To Play Mario Kart 8 On The Switch

Four out of seven Barca players give it a thumbs up. What better way for some of the best soccer players in the world to mentally prepare themselves for Sunday’s match against Las Palmas than a little battle mode? The Catalan team’s captain, center-mid veteran Andrés Iniesta, tweeted the below while en route to the…

The Weekend In Esports: League Of Legends, Madden 17, And The Gwent Challenger Finals

The weekend’s competitive gaming starts with a card game inspired by a Polish fantasy series and ends with two people calling last-minute plays in a virtual recreation of NFL football. Aren’t esports great? Below you’ll find where and when you can catch all the weekend’s biggest events in competitive gaming. Let us know what you’ll…

The Binding Of Isaac Dev Releases Second Mod Pack And Teases New Project

It turns out that Edmund McMillen will not in fact spend the rest of his life making expansions for 2011’s macabre roguelike, The Binding of Isaac. In a post describing the latest fan mods to be added to the official version, McMillen said he and programmer Tyler Glaiel have spent three months in crunch time…

This Week In The Business: VR’s Virtual Diversity

QUOTE | “Part of my job involves funding content and my heart sinks when someone brings me something that’s a shooter, because a shooter is almost the lowest common denominator at this point.” – Oculus’ Callum Underwood says it’s time for VR devs to move on and consider new styles of gameplay. QUOTE | “I…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for packing because you’re going on a solo vacation to Iceland next week, which is exciting and a little scary! But planning is stressful, so probably video games. I’m finally done with my review of Prey, but I’m really excited to play it again a lot slower so I can check out all…

Guy Gets His Dad To Reenact Overwatch Emotes

It’s Friday. Finally! Obviously, it’s time to unwind the same way you do every Friday: by watching a video of somebody’s dad. Nick Luciano got his dad to reenact a bunch of emotes from Overwatch. His dedication to accuracy is surpassed only by the sheer will he’s forced to conjure to stifle his laughter. The…

World War Z (the book): A meticulous, global history of the zombie apocalypse.  What it is: Max Brooks’ 2006 novel stitching together dozens of fictional accounts of a zombie uprising that almost killed off humanity. Adapted in 2013 into a film that threw out book’s entire concept and kept only the name. What I’ve read:…

Hearthstone Playoffs Will Be Held In Buffalo Wild Wings, Which Presents Some Problems

Think you’ve got what it takes to qualify for the Hearthstone Spring Championships? Okay, but can you do it in a Buffalo Wild Wings? If you’re looking to compete in this year’s Hearthstone Spring Playoffs, you might have to throw down in a loud room that smells like honey barbecue sauce. Blizzard Entertainment announced this…

What You Need To Know About Eurovision, Humanity’s Greatest Achievement

The Eurovision Song Contest began in 1956, when seven European countries competed in Switzerland to find the best original song composition. Positioned as a light entertainment event, Eurovision has since morphed into a nightmare techno bloodbath juggernaut. Tomorrow, 26 of the 43 participating countries will perform their original songs to be judged by every European…

What We Liked (And Didn’t Like) About Breath Of The Wild’s Final Boss

On this week’s Kotaku Splitscreen, Jason and I were joined by our boss Stephen Totilo to talk about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with full spoilers. We started with the final boss fight. You can listen to our discussion starting at 22:56, and the full Zelda conversation actually goes on quite a…

The Hitman Series Has A Long History Of Excellence

Yesterday, Square-Enix announced that it was parting ways with Hitman developers IO Interactive. So why don’t we take some time to appreciate one of the best crafted stealth series around? Hitman is an action-stealth series that forged a unique identity in the early days of the genre. While games like Metal Gear Solid (1998) focused…

The Five Highest Rated Games On Steam Probably Aren’t What You Expect

Of the 100 billion games on Steam, one for every star in the sky, which are the absolute cream of the crop? Which have users rated the highest? To borrow a cliche from The Bad Internet, the answer may surprise yo—[vomits profusely]. Seriously, though, you’re probably expecting a bunch of Valve games and maybe, like,…

The Five Best Anime Moms

Three cheers for moms. Single moms, cookie-baking moms, strict moms, workaholic moms, martial arts master moms, bike gang moms, wolf child moms and actually-giant-mecha moms—we appreciate you, in life and in anime. And there are some very, very good moms in anime. In celebration of Mother’s Day, we’re honoring our five favorite anime moms. Here…

The official musical tribute to Magikarp’s uselessness has now been translated to English. Enjoy!