Culture

Slain Looks Like Heavy Metal Castlevania

Sometimes we play games because we want stories, or otherworldly out-of-body experiences, or to drive a Euro Truck. Other times, we just want to kill some shit. Slain happily obliges. Slain is a new sidescroller coming to Steam today, and it looks excruciatingly solid. It combines chunky pixels with gothic Castlevania-style environments, an elemental combo…

Podcast: The Future Of Gaming Hardware

By this time next year, we could be playing PS4.5 at home and NX on the go, with VR goggles strapped to our heads the whole time. Who’s ready for the future? On today’s episode of our podcast, Kotaku Splitscreen, Kirk and I take a deep dive into virtual reality, the Nintendo NX, and the…

Track: The Fleets Arrive | Artist: Sam Hulick | Album: Mass Effect 3 Original Soundtrack In-game video (ME3 spoilers): Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Jako, The Angry Little Mako

Timothy Rodriguez is a freelance artist from France who has done work for companies like Bethesda, Warner Bros. and Applibot. You can see more of Timothy’s work at his personal site and ArtStation page To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper),…

Darkest Dungeon‘s Harrowing Journey Through Steam Early Access

When Darkest Dungeon first launched on Steam Early Access in February 2015, it was almost universally beloved. A unique, polished, fleshed-out experience on Early Access? It was practically unheard of. So it was all happily ever after from there, right? Hardly. For a few months, things went according to plan. The punishingly difficult dungeon-crawler RPG/trauma…

Amazing Nathan Drake Cosplay Enters…Uncharted Waters

I mean, sure, you could just dress up as Uncharted’s Nathan Drake. Or you could become him, and spend a day running around waterfalls, climbing trees and abseiling with an AK-47 and flares. Italian cosplay superstar Leon Chiro opted for the latter, and ended up with these incredible shots taken by Alessio “Fotomania” Buzi

Geralt & Ciri Say Goodbye

There will come a day when I stop posting amazing Witcher 3 cosplay. But it is not this day. Ciri is Miranda Hedman, Geralt is Tim Filin

Track: Jazz (We’ve Got) | Artist: A Tribe Called Quest | Album: The Low End Theory

Track: Pork Ginger | Artist: Tricot | Album: N/A Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Chris Le designed a Counter-Strike weapon skin in Vive VR. Le, a BFF of Danny Trejo, used a Google 3D painting program called Tilt Brush to do it. In it, you walk around and draw on thin air. It’s one of the more interesting Vive apps I’ve tried, and watching someone use it to make…

Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley, Reporting For Duty

It’s weird, for all its influence in both games and film, not that many people cosplay as characters from the Alien series. So it’s awesome seeing this ver1sa, not just because it’s OG 1979 Ripley, but because it’s so good. I like the make-up work to increase the likeness, but I love the uniform. There’s…

Skull Helmets? Are We The Baddies?

Division48 is a small Polish studio that has worked on games like The Witcher 3, Hard West and Dying Light You can see more of Division48’s work at their studio siteand at artist Grzegorz Przybyś’ page To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them…

Toy Time With Marvel Legends’ Red Skull Build-A-Figure Series

In all my years of toy collecting I’ve never managed to fully assemble one of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends Build-A-Figure sets. I’ve also never recorded a Toy Time video without a beard. First time for everything, I suppose. The six inch Marvel Legends line (the smaller Marvel Universe line has recently been rebranded under Legends as…

Snacktaku Presents Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Breakfast

While the ultimate showdown between DC Comics’ iconic heroes doesn’t hit theaters until Friday, the battle begins now, in your mouth. Originally published 1/30/16, brought back to prepare you for what’s to come. Or in my mouth, unless you want to run out to your local purveyor of fine breakfast grains and pick up a…

That Lightsaber’s Not For You, Rey

We’ve highlighted some Rey cosplay here before, but none as specific as this, which recreates an outfit she wears for only minute or two at the very end of the film. Cosplay by AlyCat

The Beautiful Sketches Behind The Witcher 3’s Ending

I know, we’ve already done a big showcase on the art of The Witcher 3, but these sketches from Marcin Karolewski are so good that they deserve their own feature. Karolewski did the work for Division 48, a studio based in Poland If you haven’t finished The Witcher 3, BE WARNED. Those who have will…

Creator Of DOTA 2‘s First Paid Custom Game Apologizes For Stolen Content

Slowly but surely, Valve is wading back into the murky waters of letting people charge for mods. Unfortunately, it seems that in some ways, history is repeating itself. Last week Valve launched DOTA 2‘s new Custom Game Pass functionality. Instead of allowing mod makers to charge for the whole of their creations—potentially roping them off…

Battlefield Glitch Or Thumb-Twiddling Gone Wrong? You Decide

Today on the 200th episode of Highlight Reel we have reader questions, horrifying thumb twiddling, bad traps, impressive UFC knock outs and much more! Watch the video above or on our Youtube Page, then talk about your favorite highlight in the comments below. Be sure to check out, like, and share the original videos via…

A Party Isn’t A Party Without The Witcher 3’s Shani

Just when you thought a major character of the Witcher 3 saga had gone uncosplayed, along comes Lyumos to bring the wonderful Shani to life

Persona 3’s Elizabeth, by Riddle