Culture

The Week In Games: Spinning A Yarny

If anyone needs me this week I’ll be hanging around with my little Yarn doll. Or fighting against, with or as ninja. Possibly transforming into a dragon that I’ve been many times before. I might even watch some fires. But mainly it’s just yarndoll and chill. Tuesday, February 9 Arslan: The Warriors of Legend —…

Sunday Comics: Essential Death Lessons

Welcome to Kotaku’s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published February 4. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published February 1. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and…

This Week In The Business: Money For Nothing

STAT | $794 million – The staggering size of Magic Leap’s latest investment round. The augmented reality company has yet to even announce a commercial product, but is already valued at $4.5 billion. Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week… QUOTE | “These outstanding results were driven by robust sales of Grand Theft Auto…

Shadowrun: Hong Kong just got a free six-hour expansion. Shadowrun: Hong Kong – Extended Edition augments the cyberpunk tactical RPG with a bonus campaign, dev commentary, and numerous tiny improvements. If you already own Shadowrun: Hong Kong, it’s completely free. Nice one, Harebrained Schemes.

Ark: Survival Evolved Gets Grappling Hooks

Grappling hooks and dinosaurs, a match made in video game heaven. My inner 12 year-old, once deceased from overexposure to the dual radiations of responsibility and YouTube comments, lives once more. The latest update to the PC version of Ark, which should be arriving any moment now, adds grappling hooks, a kindly old dinosaur called…

Bro Fist Simulator Reveals The True Pain Of Being A Bro

This is Bro Fist Simulator, a game about the subtle art of the bro fist. Just remember: always close your fingers on contact. Bro Fist Simulator is a Steam Greenlight game that was developed as part of last weekend’s Global Game Jam. It’s pretty straightforward: “Bro Fist Simulator is here! You have one button for…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

Another week on the books! Another weekend looms! Let’s play some video games. Holy cow man, the games are piling up. Remember when the January/February window was considered a slow period for new games? Yeah, me neither. Between the stuff that recently came out and the stuff that’s about to, I’m absolutely drowning in games…

Thought there wasn’t gonna be another big Steam sale for a bit? Think again. The Steam Lunar New Year sale just kicked off, and it runs until Feb 12th. You can discover new games through a cute themed text adventure. Or you can buy nothing at all if your wallet—like mine—is still tired from the…

Track: Stupid Lullabies | Artist: Swingin Utters | Album: Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX Original Soundtrack Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

The Men, Women & Killer Robots Of Black Ops III

Karakter, a design studio we’ve featured here before on Fine Art, were asked by Activision to do some promo work for Black Ops III. I like their posters here better than I liked the actual game. These images, done while the game was still in development, had to “anticipate the final look of each character,…

Drunk-Ass Fallout Pilots Can’t Stop Crashing

Today on Highlight Reel we have drunk pilots, flying nuns, corpse stunting, emotes, 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 the links below. The Last of Us –Ellie’s…

It’s A Brave New World

BUTTS: The VR Experience is a thing. Sure, you’ve experienced butts, but VR butts? This is the beginning of a new era. Warning: trailer might be NSFW. Mostly, though, it’s just very, very odd. You’re reading Steamed, Kotaku’s page dedicated to all things in and around Valve’s wildly popular PC gaming service. Games, culture, community…

Podcast: Hey, The Division Has A Lot Of Potential

After playing the beta for The Division, some of us are cautiously optimistic! We’re also super hooked on The Witness. All that and more on today’s episode of Kotaku Splitscreen Joining us for today’s show is Kotaku boss Stephen Totilo, who has all sorts of stories about A) what it’s been like to run this…

Star Wars: Reimagined Gives The Galaxy Some Fresh New Looks

A group of artists over on CG+, many of them professionals working in video games, have for the past few months been submitting some incredible entries in a competition called Star Wars: Reimagined. The brief was simple: to “to re-imagine your favorite character, creature or vehicle from the Star Wars universe.” Entries are now closed,…

The Best Cosplay From PAX South

It may not be the biggest PAX show on Earth for video games, but PAX South is one hell of a cosplay convention. As you can see in these shots from the show, which were all taken by Mineralblu (you can see his full gallery here). By Atelier Heidi By Shinka Studios & Atelier Heidi…

Ask Dr. NerdLove: My Friend’s Beautiful Wife Just Made A Move On Me

Hello, Internet! Welcome to Ask Dr. NerdLove, the first dating advice column to survive the Battles of Yavin, Hoth and Endor. This week, we’re talking about doing the right thing, even when every cell in your body is telling you to do something else. Whether it’s recognizing a deal-breaker when it’s presented to you or…

Finally, a game about the fall of communism… and jalopies. Jalopy is a Steam hopeful about exploring the former Eastern bloc in a motor vehicle that falls apart piece by piece. You’ll have to deal with everything from flat tires to busted carburetors in a procedurally generated world. Also weather. It looks great.

A Crime Scene Cup Of Joe

James Choe is a freelance artist from Sydney who has done some work in the games business. You can see more of James’ work at his personal site To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button in…

Seven Stories Of Injuries And Other VR Hazards

HTC and Valve’s Vive VR headset lets you physically move around in virtual reality. You can walk, run, jump, flail your arms, and all that good stuff. You can also be a shambling disaster zone. During last week’s Valve VR demo event, I decided to ask a bunch of developers working on VR games for…

Fan’s Counter-Strike Map Imagines A Far More Deadly Oregon Militia Standoff

I would wager that not even the remaining Oregon militia members want to be part of the Oregon militia standoff these days, but now you can join in on the dismal venture. In a video game, I mean. Nipper’s cs_wildrefuge map was actually made shortly before the whole fiasco took a turn for the uglier-than-it-already-was,…