What Made L.A. Noire So Great

I gazed into the future, saw L.A. Noire’s Switch release and other remasters coming and did an entire playthrough of the game on Kotaku’s Twitch channel. Here’s a collection of writings inspired by that playthrough. First, I looked at the early missions and noted how the game, while offering an intriguing and gorgeous world, has…

The nominees for 2017’s edition of The Game Awards are out, and you can check out a full list here. Will Mario and Zelda split the Nintendo vote for Game of the Year? Staff from our competitive gaming site Compete were on the jury for the esports categories of the awards. Alas, our fighting game…

Report: Nintendo Making Animated Mario Movie With Studio Behind Minions

Nintendo is in talks to bring Mario back to Hollywood, according to a report today by the Wall Street Journal The paper reports that Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures are close to reaching a deal with Nintendo for an animated Super Mario Bros. movie. Illumination is the company behind Despicable Me—which foisted Minions on the…

Someone’s Making A Spiritual Successor To Theme Hospital

On the back of the recent revival of management sim games, a new studio out of Prague has decided to tackle healthcare with an upcoming game called Project Hospital As the name suggests, the game revolves around building and maintaining a hospital. Players will focus on identifying diseases, researching cures, and treating as many patients…

This War of Mine: Stories—Father’s Promise is out today on PC. It’s the first of a planned ‘season’ of story-oriented DLC for This War of Mine.

Sabotage And Stealth Make For Call Of Duty: WWII‘s Best Mission

Call of Duty: WWII mostly focuses on large battles and explosive confrontations, but the game’s best mission is quiet, intimate, and subtle. Call of Duty: WWII’s narrative focuses on the US Army’s 1st Infantry Division, centering on major battles like the Invasion of Normandy and The Battle of the Bulge. These levels feel as loud…

GameStop ‘Temporarily Pauses’ Unlimited Used Games Program

GameStop has suspended its PowerPass program, which offers customers six months of unlimited access to used games. The retail chain told employees yesterday to pull down all signage involving the program and store it in their backrooms, according to two GameStop staff. It’s not clear why GameStop is freezing the program, but employees have speculated…

Godzilla Head Appears In Tokyo For The New Anime

Anime feature film Godzilla: Kaiju Wakusei (Godzilla: Monster Planet) opens this month in Japan. This week, a huge Godzilla head went up in Tokyo over a Shinjuku train station entrance. It’s kind of unsettling, no? Like the head has been lopped off or something. But when it gets dark, those eyes are freaky. Kotaku East…

Forget Noctis, Here Are Other Ideas For Tekken 7 Characters

In a surprising announcement, Final Fantasy XV’s Noctis is joining Tekken 7. But fans have their own ideas regarding which characters they’d like to see in the King of Iron Fist Tournament. Namely, Kazuma Kiryu. The one character many fans keep saying they’d like to see in Tekken 7 is the Yakuza protagonist. For a…

Beijing Alley. Beijing, China. By Ronald Delgado. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!   

Ready For Anything

Won Bin Lee is an artist from South Korea. You can see more of Lee’s 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…

Pokémon Fans Are Losing Their Minds At The End Of The New Movie

There is a weird thing about the new Pokémon movie that is kind of a spoiler, so if you’re sensitive to that stuff, look away. If you’re not, here is a room full of adults losing their shit over what happens at the end of the newest movie in the series, I Choose You! WARNING:…

Streamers Reacting To Speedruns Of A Game They Just Rage-Quit Is 😙👌

Last week, I wrote about popular streamers rage-quitting Getting Over It, a game about climbing a junk mountain that represents digital content and probably also Hell. Now for the flipside of that coin: people being extremely good at the game… being watched by people who are extremely bad at it. Getting Over It’s speedrunning scene…

The Challenge Of Designing Two Of Persona 5’s Best Characters

Persona 5’s art book, now available in English, has some…interesting things to say about the design of a couple of the game’s best characters, Takemi and Kawakami. The book—which is incredible, by the way—is full of developer commentary, explaining the design process behind everything from the Phantom Thieves to the game’s boss battles. A lot…

The ‘Free’ CS:GO Skin Industry Is Booming, Following Gambling Crackdown

Gambling for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skins is so 2016. Now, there’s a burgeoning new industry giving them out to players for free. Well: “free.” For years, CS:GO players have bought and sold virtual weapon skins in Steam’s marketplace. They’re cosmetic finishes players can paste on top of guns. As time went on, rarer skins’ market…