Sansai Books, the Japanese publisher known for mags Game Lab and Radio Life, is in hot water. Last December, Sansai released a publication called Totally Easy to Understand DVD Copying 2012, which included a detailed how-to and ripping software. That didn’t go over well with Japan’s cyber police. At all. This week, authorities arrested four…
Kotaku East runs from 4am to 8am Eastern. For more info about Kotaku East click here
Weird question, I know, but it’s one you now have an answer for regardless, as 3D artist Mariah Combs has used 3D Max to render a bunch of characters and weapons from Valve’s Team Fortress 2 as though they were…exquisite pieces of glasswork. Like I said, weird, but hey, it’s late, let’s just roll with…
We’ve seen some of Roberto Flores’ art on Kotaku before. He’s the guy who did those amazing Game of Thrones fighting game illustrations. We’re not looking at (many of) those tonight, though. Tonight, we’re looking at his other awesome pics, video game-related or otherwise. In addition to a bonus Game of Thrones image, he’s also…
In designing one of Borderlands 2’s characters, Ellie, Gearbox wanted to build “an independent female character who looked the exact opposite of how most females tend to be represented in games”. Why? Because they didn’t want players to “cast her in a light where the player is encouraged to pity, laugh at, or mock her…
For the surprisingly generous price of just $8 a pop, you can order one of these cool-as-hell custom fridge magnets, designed to look like the dialogue boxes from Final Fantasy III on the SNES. Those who care deeply about authenticity should know that “The dialog box shape and border match the source measurements perfectly”, and…
It’s a common, and entirely justified complaint that most modern shooters look too drab. They’re too brown, too grey, too dreary. You could counter that, well, since wars are fought in the dirt and ruins that’s how they’re supposed to look, but it’s too nice a day for arguments. Let’s instead just enjoy this concept…
This video is, supposedly, a demo of PC raytracing tech running on an i7 and Radeon 5870, in DirectX 11. In other words, it’s amazing visuals running on a PC that you might actually already own. It was created by PC modder Hayssam Keilany, who does work on tweaks for games like Skyrim and GTAIV.…
If you were at the San Diego Comic-Con, you may have already seen this clip! Since you probably weren’t, though, here’s your first look at the unveiling of killer droid HK-51 in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Note this is HK-51, and not everybody’s favourite meatbag killer HK-47, from classic RPG Knights of the Old…
What did you do over the weekend? See some friends, go out to dinner, play some games? Me, I sat in front of a monitor, then a printer, and went through this spontaneous collection of old video game maps. Younger readers, accustomed to things like waypoint markers and mini-maps, may not be aware just how…
Here’s a rare and fascinating thing: a collection of ten year’s worth of internal Atari Games correspondence from between 1982 and 1992, all stored, public and ready for your voyeuristic consumption. What you’ll find isn’t just boring business talk. There’s all kinds of stuff in here, from high-level corporate discussions to guys making dinner reservations…
We spend a lot of time with our video game devices, so it’s easy to start to think of them as family members. Sometimes they are friends, sometimes they fight. Sometimes they’re happy, sometimes they’re sad. Sometimes they talk to us. It’s not weird! It’s normal! NORMAL I SAY. This terrific illustration by DeviantARTist Ry-Spirit…
I grew up with Encyclopedia Brown. He was my kind of hero, a kid who beat the bad guys not with brawn or physical skill, but with his mind. When I was around ten years old (I’m approximating), I used to devour every story of Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown, his partner Sally, his nemesis Bugs Meany…
Because the world always needs more Sexy Mario, the big man in the overalls is back, this time with some super hawt Tennis shots. I’m not sure this quite outdoes the “mouthing of the tiny question mark cube,” but the one with the balls and racquet is… erm, appealing. I guess. Sexy Mario [Facebook, thanks…
An alarming attack on a home in New Jersey, in which several pipe bombs were thrown through windows, has ended with the targeted family blaming the incident on involvement in a “video game community”. Two pipe bombs were thrown into the house in Monroe, NJ, both of which exploded, with a third being tossed inside…
I’ve sometimes wondered what video game characters would smell like—I’m not the only one, as regular Kotaku roustabout Tim Rogers explored the question in depth with hideous results Over at Polygon, Brian Crecente has written a fun story about the act of converting video game characters themselves into smells. Sound weird? It is. Crecente spoke…
Oh, little orange kitty with the triangle on your chest, thank you for following me around my house. Your companionship and high-pitched meows are ever brightening my days. One fine morn, I skipped merrily to the Millennial Fair and won the beanbag throw in an attempt to bring you home a cat friend, but now,…
When an industry is made-up of almost equal parts society-changing brilliance and playboy man-child syndrome, it’s bound to generate some exceptionally stupid ideas. Case in point: Most of the stupidity flies under the radar and only enrages mothers and religious people for a few days before they move on to an even ridiculous-er topic that…
Valve’s been openly talking about developing on Linux for a while now, but a new blog post on the company’s site today has for the first time given us our first official information on the company’s plan to bring Steam to the platfom. They say they’ll be bringing Steam to Ubuntu, and while Left 4…
It’s funny to think that the genre of a video game could change based on point of view. From the Prince’s point-of-view in Katamari, everything is peachy, he’s got a job to do, and everything in his path is nothing more than sweet, sweet points. However, from literally anyone else’s POV in that world, the…
Mode
Follow us
