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Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Bring Back The Beard: Winners!

Last week I lost my beard in a tragic shaving on-purpose, and some of our readers were quite upset. So I had them put the beard back, which they did—just not the way they found it. Damien Fate’s mash-up of my face with the famousYukon Cornelious has been haunting me all week. I see it…

Everything Is Easter

LEGO artist Chris McVeigh’s Double-Decker Basket, “So everyone can collect eggs together and be bunnies.” Check out Chris’ website for more amazing things, while I go try to find my Arctic Batman and grab a Classic White Spaceman off eBay.

Palmer Luckey Braves Alaskan Cold To Deliver First Oculus Rift

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey traveled to Anchorage, Alaska today to personally deliver a signed package the first preorder customer and freeze his ass off.Watch his warm breath crystallize in the frigid air in the video below. Anchorage’s Ross Martin was the first person to preorder the consumer Rift, so while everyone else has to wait…

EA is passing out Star Wars: Battlefront credits to anyone who logs into the game this weekend on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 or PC, in case the Outer Rim downloadable content wasn’t enough motivation. I plan on logging in later. I will forget. I will not get 5,000 credits.

An Unhappy 15th Birthday For Black & White

Lionhead Studios’ debut game went on sale on March 26, 2001. Fifteen years later the studio is closing. That’s one sad anniversary, but take heart little animal-based god game—you’re the most requested game on GOG.com this week, so the love is real.

Blizzard Patches Masturbation Gag Out Of Overwatch

In major multiplayer games like Overwatch, what comes after a big patch is almost more interesting than what it’s in it. This is certainly a, um, standout instance of that. As part of the latest big Overwatch beta patch, Blizzard added a new escort level, Route 66. The level is home to the notorious Deadlock…

Dick Pic Game Gets Excellent Update

Cobra Club, the game all about taking pictures of dongs, just got the best (and most NSFW) update of 2016 so far. Straight from the developer himself, Robert Yang: That’s a lot of polygons. Here it is in action, if you’re curious: The update will debut on the “Now Play This” festival in London, which…

The People Who Upload Torrents

On a popular torrent site, Fallout 4 has been downloaded nearly 140,000 times. Nearly 200 people are downloading right now, as I write this. AAA or indie, Fallout 4 or Super Meat Boy, it doesn’t matter. Piracy is inevitable. But a torrent doesn’t appear out of thin air. There’s a person at the start of…

How Visual Novels And Romance Apps Are Changing Dating

Worth Reading, our weekly roundup of the best games writing, has been off the clock for a few weeks. But just as the weather’s starting to warm up, it’s back. Hey, You Should Read These “Why Women Are Choosing Virtual Boyfriends Over Real Ones” by Pip Usher Dating sucks. It’s one of the reasons I’m…

Fallout 4’s Robot DLC Is Worth Playing Just To Meet The Mechanist

The world of Fallout is brimming with amazing characters, and Fallout 4’s first DLC has now added one more great character to the list. Automatron is a curious beast. The bulk of what you’ll play is standard Fallout 4—there are two ‘dungeons,’ both of which are rather straightforward, if not a little boring in their…

Two Smart Ideas In The Bravely Second Demo Make JRPG Grinding Less Tedious

Always searching for JRPGs that respect my time, I’ve made some happy discoveries in the demo for the upcoming 3DS game Bravely Second I shouldn’t have been too surprised that the demo has some player-friendly features. The game’s 2014 predecessor, Bravely Default, already let players lower (or raise) the frequency of random encounters on the…

Not Every Developer Is Convinced Let’s Play Videos Are A Good Thing

The popularity of Let’s Play videos is undeniable, and they’ve quickly woven themselves into the fabric of of video games. That doesn’t mean everyone is comfortable with them, and that got the developers of That Dragon, Cancer into hot water with some players. Until recently, players could upload any video on YouTube related to That…

Those Rumored NX Controller Photos Are Both Fake

A reddit user claims they were behind the original “leaked” photo of an NX controller, and released a video showing his Photoshop work. But what about those other photos?! Well, those are fake, too. Sorry, #TeamReal. Update 10:23 am, 3/25/16: Disregard everything you think is real; both “leaks” are now confirmed fakes. Not long after…

GTA V Player Completes Insane Parkour Map In Record Time

Nearly impossible, custom-made parkour maps are a popular part of GTA Online, with their very own community. They test the limits of the game’s engine, which sometimes results in some truly spectacular runs. This is Albert using an Enduro bike (which is great for wall rides) on a really evil map made by Retro maniA,…

LEGO StarCraft Terran Base Is Ready To Expand

Everything’s in its proper place in LEGO builder Cecile Fritzvol’s StarCraft II map. The factory and the barracks pump out new units while siege tanks and marines defend the ramp and the high ground, and SCVs near the command center collect all the precious minerals. Fritzvol’s miniature Terran base is actually a part of a…

The People Who Have Spent 17 Years Perfecting Co-op Half-Life

These days we’re spoiled for cooperative games. From Halo to Left4Dead and most recently The Division, the modern player’s choices for playing together with friends are abundant. Wind the clock back a decade and a half, however, and the situation was very different. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK on March 22, 2016 The…

Pacific Rim Is The Best 1980s Anime You’ve Never Seen

If this was on television when I was an eight year-old kid, I’m certain it would be my favorite thing ever. Created by Los Angeles-based animator Jeremie Carreon, this does a terrific job of capturing the sights and sounds of a bygone animation style.

Bowser at His Most Precious

This digital painting, created by veteran artist TsaoShin, will be used to demonstrate art techniques at today’s Anime Boston 2016 convention. It’s also amazingly cute. Once you’re done obsessing over Bowser’s widdle pink bandaid or his pet baby Chain Chomp, you may want to check out TsaoShin’s DeviantArt gallery for some more great fanart. Here’s…

Big Overwatch Update Makes The Game Better In A Lot Of Small Ways

Overwatch got a new update this week, and it’s a big one. It’s also a good one, for the most part. In addition to the usual balance tweaks, the ramifications of which will likely become more clear with time, the update added five main things: a new escort map called Route 66, a new Hearthstone-inspired…

Bandai Namco has publicly acknowledged some Dark Souls 3 players have bought the international version of the game, but they don’t seem thrilled about it. The company says it’s “incomplete” because multiplayer is not turned on, and a day one patch will “deliver further optimization of the game.”