A Thousand Escaped Crocodiles Aren’t Terrorizing China. Apparently!

You might have heard how a million cockroaches escaped from a roach nursery in China? Did you hear the one about the crocodiles? Flooding in South China’s Guangdong province damaged the enclosure at a crocodile farm in the city of Shantou, Chinese state media China Daily reports. The 11-hectare nursery held approximately 11,000 crocodiles to…

Europa Universalis IV: The Kotaku Review

At the height of its powers in the early 18th century, the British Empire spanned all corners of the globe, from Brazil to Alaska, Austria to Manchuria, and…wait, what? OK, so in actual history, it did no such thing, but in my history, the history of a nation I led through 400 years of expansion,…

NBC Accused Of Using Cosplay Photos Without Photographer’s Consent

SyFy’s TV series Heroes of Cosplay has been accused by cosplay photographers of “using images for promotion…on the weekly episodes without written permission from the authors and copyright owners of the images”. Writing on his studio’s blog, BGZ Photography’s Darrell Ardita says that “numerous” photographers, including one of his business associates, have seen their images…

An MMO That Promises The World. Let’s See If It Actually Delivers.

Black Desert is an upcoming MMO from Korean developers Pearl Abyss. It sounds almost too good to be true. A preview of the game on MMOCast says it’s a “sandbox MMORPG”. Specifically, it’s promising stuff like resource-gathering, action combat, open-world player vs player battles, castle sieges (with plans for 400 v 400 assaults) and non-instanced…

True Horror Is The Craigslist Personal Ads Of The Zombie Apocalypse

Left 4 Dead’s Nick may be up to his eyeballs in the undead, but he’s still got time to peruse the casual encounters section of Craigslist. Being the casual encounters section of Craigslist, this is totally Not Suitable For Work, but if you’re not at work, well. This is late-night machinima, folks. Classifieds [John Doe,…

Building A Space Colony Looks More Fun Than Blowing One Up

I wrote about indie space colony building sim thing Maia last year, but in the months since it’s come along so nicely it’s worth a second look today. This latest clip, from the latest build of the game, lets creator Simon Roth go into great detail about how the whole thing works. Don’t worry. It’s…

A 2013 Cosplay Comeback

I’ve been on vacation for three weeks, which explains the recent lack of a weekly cosplay roundup. But hey, I’m back now, and so is Fancy Pants. It’s a good week to come back, too! Not just for awesome guy cosplay, a rarity in such volume, but it’s also a great week for fans of…

The Wonderful Robot Art Of Elysium

I sometimes take a break from video games here on Fine Art to show the very best in concept art from the movie business. Today is one of the days, because Elysium’s art is worth the detour. The images you’ll see below are the work of Ben Mauro, an artist we’ve featured previously here on…

That “Wind Waker For iOS” Game? Still Looking Awesome

Call it a rip-off if you want, enough people have already. But whatever. I think Oceanhorn, for iOS, looks fantastic, and its list of inspirations runs a lot deeper than Link’s first cel-shaded adventure. This new trailer is to commemmorate the game’s impending release. Can’t wait.

Early Final Fantasy XIV Launch Goes (Surprise!) Badly

For a game that’s had so many problems it’s needing a second launch, you’d think Square Enix would be right on top of Final Fantasy XIV, but nope. The game had an early access release over the weekend, and it was a mess. Those who had pre-ordered the game were let into an early access…

Portal on the DS: Aperture Science, the homebrewed version of Portal for the DS shown off back in February, now has a “mostly playable” version. You’ll need a flash cart to play it, but the file can be found here.

They Studied Madden in College, and Now Play It For a Living

Zach Farley didn’t know much about the others in his residence hall when he moved back in at Westfield State University as a sophomore about seven years ago. He did know one suite had a PlayStation 2 and a copy of Madden, the communal fire of a dorm for most of its 25-year existence. Farley…

This Game Sold 144 Copies and Was Pirated 50,000 Times

Gentlemen! is, in the words of its creator “a 2-player head-to-head Victorian dueling game for tablets.” There is no singleplayer mode and its multiplayer is local only. This wouldn’t figure to be an attractive piracy target, but the game’s features don’t seem to matter. In its first three weeks Gentlemen! was downloaded more than 50,000…

The Week in Games: Pigskin Picks

Lots of heavy hitters in the lineup this week, as Madden NFL 25 is joined by Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and Lost Planet 3 on Tuesday. New Super Luigi U already is out today on Wii U and the Mac version of SimCity arrives Thursday. There’s more on the jump. Today • New…

Who Are the ‘Whales’ Driving Free-to-Play Gaming? You’d Be Surprised

Few words in the video games industry are as cynical as “whale,” taken from a Las Vegas term for a high stakes gambler. The difference is, a Vegas high roller may actually win something with his money, and at minimum is comped for everything during his stay. In free-to-play games, a whale is nothing but…

StarCraft World Championships: The final of the StarCraft II World Championship Series played today in Cologne, Germany. The winner is on the jump. Bomber, playing as Terrans, swept Jaedong, playing Zerg, 4-0. Bomber is third in the WCS points standings, whose top 16 will play in the Grand Final at Blizzcon in November.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Unhappy Family

Another week, another chance for me to thwart sciteach by taking one of his pre-emptive strikes for the ‘Shop Contest splash image and declaring it ineligible from further competition. Y’all demanded Psyduck Kid last Sunday, and you wanted him followed by bickering Sims family. Well, you got it. I don’t know what the hell is…

Sunday Comics: Planned Obsolescence

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics, chosen by our readership. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner. Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira. Published Aug. 20. Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published Aug.…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Psyduck Kid: The Winners

Last week a torches-and-pitchforks mob came to my door to demand Psyduck Kid and so I relented, sacrificing him to a horrible fate in order to preserve peace, or whatever passes for it, in our quiet community here. Of course, there will only be more victims, but today, we should celebrate the winners, beginning with…

Sony Acknowledges Grand Theft Auto V Leak, Says It’s Sorry

Sony has acknowledged—and apologized for—a leak of Grand Theft Auto V files yesterday that revealed the game’s main theme and its soundtrack, among other details., potentially. “We sincerely apologize to Rockstar and GTA fans across the world who were exposed to the spoiler content,” Sony said on the official PlayStation blog. Yesterday, a digital file…