News
Kojima Hid a Secret Message in the E3 ‘Death Stranding’ Trailer
Call it typical Kojima.
You know that weird-ass E3 trailer for Death Stranding that you’ve probably watched dozens of times? Well, some fans watched it more than that, and have uncovered something that only makes the unexplainable trailer even more bizarre. Here we go.
Starting things off is the necklace Lindsay Wagner’s character is wearing. The necklace bears a resemblance to Quipu, which according to Wikipedia, “were recording devices historically used in a number of cultures and particularly in the region of Andean South America”. A Russian Twitter user decoded the message, which revealed the name of a song, Low Roar’s “Give Me An Answer”. Kojima himself tweeted about Quipu last year while he visited an exhibition about the ancient civilization of the Andes.
The ties go deeper, as Kojima had used a song by Low Roar in the 2016 Game Awards trailer, as well as another Low Roar song in the E3 2016 trailer.
And the music video for “Give Me An Answer”? The video itself depicts three people at a motel, who after drawing straws, enter the bathroom one at a time to find a strange device. Two of the people enter the shower where they promptly get covered in black goo. The goo covering sounds similar to what happened to Norman Reedus’ character on the beach in the first trailer. To top it off? Director Marko Bell was quoted as saying that “it would be fun to create a world where certain fans could physically enter the game Death Stranding before it came out.”
No word on if the events in the video are directly related to the game’s content, or if the game acted solely as the music video’s inspiration.
So yeah, typical Kojima. Makes you wonder if all of those dinner pics he’s posted mean anything.
News
Legendary Grimdark ‘Warhammer 40,000’ Artist John Blanche Has Passed Away at 78
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.

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