Culture

​Solid Dating Advice For The Modern Geek

Online dating, romance at cons, asking out the girl at the GameStop—it’s a wild world out there for the geek who seeks love. Our resident dating columnist Harris “Dr. Nerdlove” O’Malley is here to help. Since January, we’ve been running a bi-weekly letters column by O’Malley, and we hope that his advice has helped some…

How Islamic Art Can Influence Game Design

Islamic­ influenced art and imagery has cropped up in games from Journey to Prince of Persia, but now a couple of game developers are out to prove that despite its conspicuous rarity in the medium, Islamic art lends itself brilliantly to game design. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK Islamic art can be subject…

“Education”, Right

Concept artist and illustrator Kat Nicole Berkley has worked for companies like Irrational, Epic, 38 Studios and Big Huge Games. You can see more of Kat’s work at her 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…

Bravo, Formaldegit. I know Scarecrow is meant to inspire nightmares, but applause will have to do in this case. Photo by le-miracle

Attack On Titan Star Slows Down Long Enough To Take A Great Photo

Make-up artist Florea Flavia could have transformed herself into any of the heroes of Attack on Titan, but that would have been too easy.

Why Fanboys Act Like Jerks

Despite the amount of annoyance that console fanboys have caused me over the years as a person writing about video games on the Internet, despite the endless comments threads they have derailed with their arguments, I still have a small reserve of affection for these people. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK There’s a…

Japanese Commercial Sells Curry Rice with Complete Chaos

It really, really is chaos. Good chaos. Go on, have a look. The ad is for a type of instant curry rice* (カレーメシ or karee meshi). And as with most things, the commercial better if you understand Japanese. However, even if you do not, the ad is amusing. At the beginning the kid says he’s…

Australia Knows How To Cosplay

The Gold Coast edition of Australia’s Supanova convention was held a couple of weeks ago. ArtificialDogmawas there with a camera to make sure we could all share in the awesome cosplay.

Ain’t No Party Like A Viking Party

Alex Tornberg is an artist who works mostly in games, movies and advertising. Some of his recent clients include EA, Paradox, Mattel and Random House. You can see more of Alex’s 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…

Half-Life Speedrun Breaks World Record at Just Over 20 Minutes

After months of theorycrafting and planning, speedrunner quadrazid and his friends were able to run through Half-Life—a game that’s anything but short—in 20 minutes. And the fact that it’s almost 10 minutes faster than the previous world record shows how perfectly executed their run was. You can see the entire speedrun above, it’s just amazing.…

On The Hunt For Skyrim In The Real World

Folkenstal builds weapons and armour, mostly from Skyrim. She is very, very good at what she does. Cataloguing her builds on both Facebookand her personal site, there’s everything from intricate daggers to entire suits of armour. If you like what you see here, know that she does commissions

Track: Uno [NSFW] | Album: Pinata | Artist: Freddie Gibbs x Madlib Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

These Are Two Of The Best Game Of Thrones Cosplayers. It Is Known.

When René Koiter and Rebecca Watts want to dress as power couple Khal Drogo and Daenerys, they don’t do it half-assed. Instead, they make sure literally a dozen people are involved to get these images, from set coordinators to fitness trainers to a hairstylist. I don’t know what’s most impressive. Rebecca for her ability to…

The Week In Games: Let’s Make Hero Babies

You can have your Trials Fusion and your Final Fantasy XIV for the PlayStation 4. This week I’m making babies in Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars. It’s part Japanese role-playing game, part dating sim, set in a society where teenagers branded by god visit church to sire children. It’s not nearly as suggestive…

This Week In The Business: The Navy SEALs Of Game Development

QUOTE | “We’re looking at it as kind of the Navy SEALs of game development training.” – Veteran game designer and director Warren Spector, talking about the new academic program he’s creating at the University of Texas in Austin Elsewhere in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “It’s a good…

Let the age of Bravely Default cosplay commence. Great costume, even if Linda Le has got her characters all wrong (Agnes as a vampire? My Agnes was a performer!)

The Future Of War’s So Bright, You Gotta Wear Shades

Dmitriy Rabochiy is a character artist currently doing some work with Blur. Over the last few years, he’s mainly done stuff for games, mobile and film. You can see more of Dmitriy’s work at his personal site To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save…

A Game That Brings 80s Action Movies To Life

And some from the 90s as well, I guess, so long as they love FREEDOM

TV News Steals Cosplay Footage, Thinks Thai People Are Japanese

Using cosplay images without crediting the photographer is not cool. It’s a lot worse, though, when a European news program steals some cosplay footage, edits it then falls into the ol’ “all Asians look the same” trap. This story ran recently on Spain’s Telecinco 5. It’s about Tokyo’s fashion culture, and seems to be little…

Ask Dr. Nerdlove: Why Did She Choose Him Over Me?

What’s up, everyone? Welcome to the latest installment of Ask Dr. NerdLove, the only dating advice column that understands the difference between Tsundere and Yandere and why you should run like hell from both of them. This week, we’re running the relationship spectrum from a young man who thinks he’s been Friend Zoned and another…