Culture

A Boy And His Sword

Valentina Remenar is an artist from Croatia who works in video games, books and digital illustration. You can see more of Valentina’s work at her personal site and ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work…

Nintendo’s “Boob Shaped Controller” Was, Sadly, A Failure

One of Nintendo’s most important innovations in video games has been the invention of the d-pad, which is still used prominently on controllers today. To get there, though, they had to go through some less successful prototypes. Some with stupid names. While working on Game & Watch designs in the early 80s, Nintendo legend Gunpei…

Game Of Thrones Recap Podcast: Dragons Are The Napalm Of Westeros

Well, that sure was an episode of Game of Thrones We’re back with another bonus episode of Kotaku Splitscreen in which Jason Schreier and I talk about the latest developments on the hit HBO series Dragons vs. Crossbows. Today we discuss the fourth episode of season seven, “The Spoils of War.” We spoil the episode…

Track: Blue Rondo à la Turk (live) | Artist: Dave Brubeck Quartet | Album: Time Out Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

China Wins This Year’s World Cosplay Summit, Japan Comes In Third 

Team China won its first World Cosplay Summit championship with an impressive Blood: The Last Vampire performance. Cospalyer Tian Tian was Blood’s Saya, while Xue Yan Xue was a chiropteran monster. This was China’s first World Cosplay Summit grand prix win. Congrats! Below you can watch Team China’s performance: Mexico, which took the top slot…

Vancouver Put On A Cosplay Show

Anime Revolution, aka Anirevo, was held over the weekend in Vancouver, and photographer The Will Box was kind enough to share some of the shots he took of the cosplayers in action.

The Art Of Valerian

Like Ghost in the Shell, I’m willing to take temporary breaks on Fine Art to celebrate the work that went into good-looking movies, instead of just good-looking games. And so here we are, with the art of Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets First up is Ben Mauro, an artist we’ve…

The Week In Games: The Master Detective Returns

It’s time to go back to Gotham. Who else is going to solve all those Riddler boxes and quick time events? There’s a lot of other small stuff coming out this week, including ports of indie games. Miss Graceful Explosion Machine on the Switch? Well now you can play it on PS4! Miss Elminage Original…

Players Hone In On The Perfect Playthrough Of Marble Madness

What started as something of a gamified tribute to M. C. Escher has been reduced, in recent years, to dazzling, minutes long dance thanks to modern speedrunning. Marble Madness was in many ways a forerunner to the art, and this summer the players who know the game best are closing in on its limits. “I…

Track: Californication | Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers | Album: Californication Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

Sunday Comics: Suspend Your Disbelief 

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 August 6. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published July 31. Read more…

This Week In The Business: Bungie Vs. Crunch

QUOTE | “The Halo 2 crunch almost killed Bungie as a company. It is the most I’ve ever seen humans work in a year and a half. It was brutal. It almost killed us, and those of us that were left basically vowed, ‘never again.’ Never again can we put ourselves through that.” – Bungie…

I Ate My Parents In A ‘Scientifically Accurate’ Dinosaur Survival Game

I opened my “eyes.” I was a baby dakotaraptor striding behind my parents with my siblings, like a flock of ducks. My parents would hunt and provide for me, I thought. Nurture me until I was strong enough to fend for myself. Maybe even love me, in their own simplistic dinosaur way. About a minute…

Battlegrounds Skirt Going For Nearly $500 On The Steam Marketplace

In the year 2017, games either die in obscurity, or they live long enough to see players spending $486.93 on a purple mini-skirt. This week, the wildly popular online shooter PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds added a handful of paid cosmetic items as a “test” of a key and crate system that’ll be added to the game when…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for a second try at meal prep, since your first try last week wasn’t so hot. Also, video games. I finished the first episode of The Long Dark’s story mode last night, so this weekend I’m on to the second episode and to check out more of the changes to the sandbox…

Stick A Jet Engine In A Train, What Could Go Wrong

Miloš Belanec is a 3D artist from Slovakia. You can see more of Miloš’ work at his ArtStation page To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional…

Dream Daddy’s Mini Games Are Awful

Dream Daddy is a cute game about cute dads that’s marred by some really uncute mini games. Gita Jackson: I’m here with Chloe Spencer, Kotaku’s summer intern, to talk about Dream Daddy—more specifically, the horrible, awful, no good mini games. Chloe, you’re a big fan of the game, right? Chloe Spencer: Big fan, yeah! Damien…

Track: One | Artist: Mary J. Blige, U2 | Album: The Breakthrough Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to at the moment.

You don’t see much Darksiders cosplay these days, so here’s Uriel by Eylerwain. Photo by aKami777.

Battlegrounds Trolls Are Using Car Horns To Annoy Popular Streamers

“There’s nothing worse than getting stream sniped,” streamers said a mere week ago. Oh, how naive they were. The latest major update for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds added, among many other things, car horns. Suddenly, as though exposed to a moon stone, stream sniping—the practice of watching somebody’s stream of a game and using it to gain…