The Magicians Book One: A cynical fantasy that gets better toward the end.  What it is: The first of Lev Grossman’s Magicians trilogy, probably best described as “Harry Potter, except with assholes.” Now also a Syfy TV series that I will probably never watch. Well, at least not until I finish the books. What I’ve read:…

Star Wars Battlefront II Is Written By Spec Ops: The Line‘s Writer And An Ex-IGN Reporter

Star Wars Battlefront II, which was officially announced last weekend, will give fans what they’ve wanted for two years now: Mitch Dyer. Also, a single-player campaign. To write this next Battlefront (not to be confused with the other Star Wars Battlefront II), EA hired Walt Williams, best known for his work writing the critically lauded…

Oceanic League of Legends Teams Still Allegedly Screwing Over Players

Riot’s Oceania Division continues to be engulfed in controversy, with League of Legends teams Tainted Minds and Regicide both being accused of shady behavior. In February, the majority of Tainted Minds, including the coach, left their team house, alleging conditions that were both unsafe—mold, sanitation issues—and made for a poor work environment—no computers and a…

24 Years Later, The Sonic The Hedgehog Cartoon Is Still Charming

Between a catalog of killer games on the Genesis and the Archie Comic series, Sonic the Hedgehog was a fixture of my childhood. At the height of Sonic mania, there was a handful of cartoon shows. My favorite was based on the comics and is now affectionately called Sonic SatAM. But is it as good…

Quiz: Which Inscrutable Nintendo Business Decision Are You?

Last week, Nintendo discontinued the NES Classic, for some reason. This is far from the first questionable business decision they’ve made and it definitely won’t be the last. Find out which one of these decisions you are in this quiz.

Horizon Zero Dawn Uses All Sorts Of Clever Tricks To Look So Good

Every time you move the camera in Horizon Zero Dawn, the game is doing all sorts of under-the-hood calculations, loading and unloading chunks of world to ensure that it all runs properly. And that’s not even counting the robot dinosaurs. In a new 45-minute documentary produced by the Dutch organization VPRO, the developers at Guerrilla…

Here Is Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Dressed Up As Pikachu

Yesterday, on Easter, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson chased his daughter around the house wearing a Pikachu costume. And how did you celebrate? Eggs? The 6’5″, 260-pound wrestler was playing his daughter’s favorite game, “I run away and you chase me Pikachu,” according to The Rock’s Instagram. Adorably, his daughter pronounces “Pikachu” like “Peekyu.” “The Rock”…

Robert Yang Wants To Make VR ‘Obscenely Gay’

Robert Yang’s games have been seen by millions of people, but sometimes he’d rather they hadn’t. Yang is well known in indie game development circles as a creator of games that explore the wide world of gay sex and its consequences with an unflinching artistic vision. Hurt Me Plenty is about consensual spanking and power…

Snacktaku Drinks Starbucks’ Unicorn Frappuccino

Launching this week at Starbucks locations across the country, the Unicorn Frappuccino is a unique blend of oddly-purple mango and all the sour in the entire world. Nothing screams “unicorn” like those two things. Except maybe a man being murdered by a unicorn. Before we begin, in the interest of full disclosure I must point…

Fight Square Enix’s CEO In Nier: Automata’s DLC

And not only does Nier: Automata’s upcoming DLC let you battle Square Enix exec Yosuke Matsuda, but also Platinum Games honcho Kenichi Sato. The downloadable content, dubbed “3C3C1D119440927,” comes with three different costumes as well as arena battles with rewards to the winners. According to Square Enix, those rewards include: Costumes from the previous Japanese…

Shady Potato Chip Resellers Appear In Japan

With select brands of popular Japanese potato chips vanishing from store shelves, folks are hoping to cash in. As Kotaku reported last week, panic buying began at some stores after snack makers said they were either suspending or ending potato chip production due to domestic spud shortages. This isn’t happening at every store (some are…

The Idolmaster Is Now A Live-Action Korean TV Show 

Namco Bandai is turning its idol simulator franchise The Idolmaster into a South Korean TV drama. Makes sense! The country is famous for idols. Here’s a behind the scenes look, with the show’s stars speaking Japanese and Korean. As ANN points out, The Idolmaster.KR Dream will begin airing weekly in South Korea on April 28…

Dragon Ball Meets Gundam In Custom Models

The best part? Both Dragon Ball and Gundam go together very well. At least in these custom works, they do. Justin Gundam Custom brings iconic Dragon Ball characters like Frieza, Vegeta, and Goku to life with Gundam. Fantastic. Here are some making-of shots: You can see more of Justin’s work on his Facebook page.  Kotaku…

Sakura. Nakameguro, Tokyo, Japan. By Aaron Baggett. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

The ‘Fairy Trick’ In Wind Waker HD Shows The Brutal Role RNG Can Play In Speedrunning

Last Tuesday, the Any% speedrunning world record for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD was about three hours. Now, less than a week later, it’s been cut in half, thanks in part to one super lucky fairy. The records for running Wind Waker HD first began collapsing thanks to the Barrier Skip, an…

Wild Melee Match Decided By 1/60 Of A Second

Two giants of Melee met in the loser’s finals at today’s CEO Dreamland, and the match came down to the wire. Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman and Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma were tied at 2-2, each with only a single life left, vying for a spot in the grand finals when a single frame decided the outcome. Zimmerman,…