Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku‘s reader-run community: Great Controls Are Like Great Food: Simple and Satisfying • The Company They Keep: How Log Horizon Ruined Sword Art Online II • Smash Preorder Woes! • How Bioware turned Dragon Age from a ‘Dark European Fantasy’ into a High Fantasy Wonderland TAY Classic—TAY Open Forum—Beginner’s Guide…

Bowser Would Easily Win LEGO Mario Kart

Or would it be Wario? It’s hard to pick, since every character and vehicle looks fantastic in this collaborative LEGO Mario Kart diorama by 74louloute, 7kyubi7 and fujiia Luigi’s death stare is still there, just a bit different. Take a closer look: LEGO Mario Kart by 74louloute, 7kyubi7 and fujiia [Flickr] To contact the author…

Of Course, Warlords of Draenor Has A Dragon Ball Easter Egg

We knew WoW devs liked Dragon Ball, but Talador, one of Warlords of Draenor’s new zones, is home to an entire scene from Dragon Ball Z. Near Shattrath City you can find two really strange orcs. Once of them is Goh’kuu and the other is Napp’agosh, who must be Vegeta’s sidekick Nappa. And the orcish…

The Xbox One’s Getting an Infinity Blade Game… In China

The popular iPhone graphics benchmark, Infinity Blade, is now reportedly being ported to the recently launched Chinese Xbox One. A9VG.com, a Chinese gaming news website and forum, among many others, are reporting that Tencent is bringing Infinity Blade onto the Chinese Xbox One. Tencent has even put up a teaser site that promises to reveal…

Gravestone Gundam Can Watch Over Your Tomb

If you are looking for a way to check out in style, look no further. Here is a stone Gundam spotted at a gravestone carver in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Writer Tomoki Yoshimura snapped the photo in the city of Yasu and uploaded it to Twitter. According to Yoshimura, this was located at a hakaishiten (墓石店),…

Assassin’s Creed Toys Intended to Introduce the Brand to Kids

A Ubisoft brand manager has made some eyebrow-raising comments about Assassin’s Creed’s Mega Bloks range at a conference in Toronto, GamesIndustry reports. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK “For big IPs, smart brands are the best partners,” said Splinter Cell international brand manager Yannick Spagna said on a panel. “[Assassin’s Creed] do a line…

The Xbox One and PS4 Aren’t Really Rivals in China

It’s official folks: in China, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will be operated by the same conglomerate, Shanghai Media Group. How’s that for friendly rivals? Chinese media sites such as Sina Games and People’s Dailyare reporting that the proposed merger is going along as planned. Bloomberg Business reported today that shares of BesTV and…

Smash Bros. Characters Sure Suck at Swimming

Good at fighting? Yes. Good at swimming? Nope. Not at all. Via YouTuber Master0fHyrule, this compilation shows swimming—and drowning—animations for the characters in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Obviously, the reason why the characters die so quickly is so the game doesn’t grind to a halt. This isn’t water sports! Watching the clip, it…

Track: New Beat | Artist: Mariachi El Bronx | Album: Mariachi El Bronx (III) Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

In Space, Nobody Can Hear You Say “This Is Beautiful”

Space Engine is a free download that lets you fly around the universe, without any aliens or trade federations getting in the way. It was a pretty thing the last timewe looked at it, in 2011, but this new video is just gorgeous I said it then and I’ll say it now: as attractive as…

Excellent PC Strategy Game Also Wants To Be An RPG

And here I was, only just sayinghow good Crusader Kings II – nominally a strategy game – was at depicting inter-personal relationships. Guess I’m not the only one who digs that aspect of the game, because developers Paradox are now going to double down on it, announcing an expansion that’s all about role-playing. Crusader Kings…