Kotaku

NFL 2K5 Says New England Wins a Super Bowl Shootout [Video]

Owen Good — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:30:00 EST

Earlier this week, the official Madden NFL 12 simulation of Super Bowl XLVI took both the underdog and the under for the first time in the past nine years, calling the New York Giants as 27-24 winners over the New England Patriots. A simulation run on dearly departed Madden nemesis NFL 2K5 returned the opposite result. More »

The Week in Unbelievably Gorgeous Screenshots: Fuel and Shogun 2: Total War [Dead End Thrills]

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:00:00 EST

Since we ran a feature on Duncan Harris, the groovy "video game photographer" behind the website DeadEndThrills, I've been sharing some of his work each week here. More »

What Are You Playing This Weekend? [Gameplan]

Owen Good — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:30:00 EST

I got sucked back into Skyrim this week. My first playthrough didn't get very far; I was tromping around as a Nord warrior, and it didn't really connect me to my choices, and my choices to the story, as much as I would have preferred. More »

Hear Five Minutes of the Latest Halo Novel, Narrated by Guilty Spark [Video]

Owen Good — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:00:00 EST

Halo: Primordium, by Greg Bear, released just after the new year, and if you're curious what the book's all about, Macmillan has provided Kotaku with this five minute clip from the novel's audiobook version. More »

The Worst Facebook Game Title Ever [Chortle]

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:30:00 EST

These days, it can seem as though every Facebook game-title ends in -ville. So thank God for Telaxo, whose game Ball Separation stands out from the sack... I mean pack. More »

That Old College Try [Note]

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST

That Old College Try | All-Americans LaMichael James, Justin Blackmon and Robert Griffin III celebrate a fumble return and touchdown late in the fourth quarter of Madden Bowl XVIII. But next year's NFL rookies left too much time on the clock, and fell to the team of Drew Brees, Tim Tebow and Jimmy Graham. (EA Sports)

BioWare to "Patch" Error-Laden Mass Effect Novel in Response to Fan Uproar [Mass Effect]

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:30:00 EST

Mass Effect fans recently tore into the many errors and inaccuracies in William C. Dietz's new spin-off novel Mass Effect: Deception, putting together a thoroughly damning document cataloging scores of lore-errors and mistakes in the book. More »

This Week in the Business: 'Xbox 720, PS4 Must Show a Dramatic Leap in Quality' [Industry Gamers]

Steve Peterson — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST

What's happened in the business of video games this past week ... More »

A Nintendo Game Worth... Watching [Video]

Stephen Totilo — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST

Here's something small that could mean something big. More »

You Might Catch Some Secrets in This Final Fantasy XIII-2 Monster Video [Video]

Mike Fahey — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST

Join me as I take a trip through my favorite new feature of Final Fantasy XIII-2, monster recruitment, snag a couple of rare creatures, and witness the beginning of a legend that will never die. More »

Check Out This Explosive Live-Action Battlefield 3 Fan-Film [Video]

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:30:00 EST

The guys at ApertureVFX have put together this more-than-somewhat-awesome live-action take on the chaotic, visually disorienting gameplay of Battlefield 3. More »

A Defense of Video Game Cloning [Game Cloning]

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST

There have been a lot of stories about game-cloning flying around lately, from Zynga's cloning of Nimblebit's popular iOS game Tiny Tower to Spry Fox's lawsuit against 6waves for cloning Triple Town. More »

These Are Not the Same-Sex Relationships The Old Republic Players Were Looking For [Video]

Mike Fahey — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:30:00 EST

Riffing on the Family Research Council's outrage over same-sex NPC relationships in Star Wars: The Old Republic, talk show host Conan O'Brien and team cobble together some footage of the science fantasy franchise's most famous gay couples. More »

Deus Ex Lead Designer Honored With Game Developer Lifetime Achievement Award [Deus Ex]

Mike Fahey — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST

With nearly 30 years in game development and a career spent crafting unique gaming experiences like Deus Ex and Epic Mickey, Warren Spector has been chosen to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards. More »

Mass Effect Producer Suggests Keeping Your Mass Effect 3 Save Games [Mass Effect]

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:30:00 EST

While speaking with Gamerzines, Mass Effect producer Mike Gamble suggested that "it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep your ME3 saves." More »

Check Out This Ex-Game Developer's Terrific Photos of Cops [Photography]

Stephen Totilo — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:15:00 EST

Antonio Bolfo was an animator at Harmonix, working on video games such as Guitar Hero. Then, with the legacy of September 11 on his mind, he joined the New York Police Department. He started bringing a camera along and snapped photos of the police at work. And then he left the force and made photography his main gig. More »

The Witcher 2 Dev Diary Might Answer Your Questions About the Xbox Version [Video]

Mike Fahey — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST

In case Kirk Hamilton's preview of The Witcher 2 on the Xbox left you with unanswered questions about the 360 remake, here's CD Projekt with a professionally produced video filled with colorful lights, sounds, and people talking about making the game. More »

Tebow Works Another Fourth Quarter Miracle—in Madden Bowl [Madden]

Owen Good — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:30:00 EST

His season may be over, but Tebow Time has not run out. And if last night's news about the Madden NFL 13 cover is any indication, get ready to see a lot more of the Denver quarterback during the off-season. More »

1.4 Million Unsold Video Games Won't Be Buried in the Desert [Udraw]

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST

Yesterday, we learned that the video game publisher THQ is sitting on 1.4 million unsold copies of uDraw, a hugely unsuccessful game designed around a tablet peripheral. uDraw was such a disastrous investment—it cost the publisher around $100 Million on production and lost revenue—that it is almost singlehandedly responsible for their dire financial straits. More »

Minecraft Captures the Non-Stop Action of Rock'em Sock'em Robots [Video]

Mike Fahey — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:30:00 EST

Two robots enter, both robots stay, only one has a slightly elevated head. Minecraft craftsman Sethbling has recreated the 1964 sensation that swept an easily-amused nation, Rock'em Sock'em Robots. More »

Good Luck Finding Our Newest Xbox Live Indie Favorites [Recommendations]

Nick Vannucci — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST

Every few weeks we here at Kotaku make a selection of some of the best Indie games that Xbox Live has to offer. These are our latest favorites. More »

Battlefield 3 Is Much More Interesting When Giants Join the Fight [Video]

Stephen Totilo — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:30:00 EST

YouTube user LiquidMyPhone found a very large soldier on the battlefield of Battlefield 3. We have no idea how to replicate this, but we would if we could. More »

Sweet Naiveté Triumphs Over "Normal" Mass Effect PC Controls [Speak Up On Kotaku]

Mike Fahey — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:00:00 EST

Just because we've conditioned ourselves to play PC games a certain way doesn't mean everybody else has to follow suit. In today's charming Speak Up on Kotaku commenter Confirm4Crit tells the inspiring story of what happened when he handed his non-gamer girlfriend his laptop running a copy of the original Mass Effect. More »

Is More Than 200 Hours of Kingdoms of Amalur Too Much Reckoning? [Kingdoms Of Amalur]

Mike Fahey — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:40:00 EST

Perhaps proving that you can have too much of a good thing, a recent total completion playthrough of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning clocked in at more than 200 hours, which has the lead designer wondering if maybe they might have overdone it a little. More »

Talk Amongst Yourselves [Official Kotaku Forum]

Mike Fahey — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:20:00 EST

Come along, boys and girls. It's time to let yourselves out of your shells and spend some time discussing video games in Kotaku's official forum, Talk Amongst Yourselves. More »

These 3DS Girls Are Freaky [3ds]

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST

The Nintendo 3DS is not a new platform. It does have a bunch of games, but even then, I can safely say this is the most screwed up character design the handheld has seen. More »

With a Wink, One Epic Game Shrewdly Delivers Less Than It Promises [Gaming App Of The Day]

Owen Good — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:30:00 EST

Having reviewed the likes of Matt Hazzard: Blood, Bath and Beyond, I was prepared to dislike One Epic Game, a platformer set in, let's see here, yes, "an alien invasion right in the middle of a zombie outbreak in a fantasy kingdom somewhere in a post-apocalyptic wasteland." That's from a cutscene. "With World War II also involved somehow." More »

Gamer Dies in Taipei Internet Cafe, Nine Hours Later Someone Notices [Death]

Mike Fahey — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST

Chen Rong-yu of Taiwan checked into an internet cafe in the city of New Taipei on Tuesday evening to play popular multiplayer PC game League of Legends. Wednesday evening a waitress found the 23-year-old sitting rigidly in his chair, hands outstretched towards the computer. More »

How to get Lightsabers in Skyrim [Video]

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:30:00 EST

There's a lot of talking here at the beginning. A lot of boring crafting stuff. Stick with it. Eventually, you'll see that you really can get lightsabers in Skyrim. And canon be damned, they are awesome. More »

Ultraman Is a Fancy Dresser [Note]

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST

Ultra Cool | TOKYO, JAPAN: Ultraman (men?) pose in 2006 at the opening of an Ultraman movie. (Photo: Shizuo Kambayashi | AP)

Man Lights Fireworks. Man Blows Up Manhole. [China]

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:40:00 EST

A man in a blue jacket crouched, lighting a firecracker on a manhole. The children stuck their fingers in their ears. More »

Perverts Running Amok with NSFW SoulCalibur V Character Creation! [Soulcalibur]

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:30:00 EST

If you allow people the freedom to create things, you can count on this: sex. Just look at all the dick faces people made with Nintendo Miis. Nintendo Miis! They're the most innocuous things imaginable, and bam, cocks. More »

Let This Gothic Lolita Shoot Up Your Shelves [Deathsmiles]

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:00:00 EST

DeathSmiles is a horizontal shmup from bullet hell developer Cave. It's not my favorite Cave title by any stretch, but it does have a sizeable following due to its Christmas-in-Hell asethetic. Plus, the game stars Gothic Lolitas, like batgirl Casper. People seem to like those. More »

Leave It to this Italian To Bring a South Korean MMORPG to Life [Cosplay]

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:30:00 EST

Way before cosplay was mainstream, Italy's Giorgia was doing her thing, dressing up as game and anime characters. She's been cosplaying since 1997, which, in internet time, must be a century. More »

Japan's PlayStation Store Is Buggy and Needs A-Fixin' [Blip]

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:00:00 EST

According to Sony, the PlayStation Store's search function is buggy and not working. The Tokyo-based electronics company is investigating and working on a fix. Sit tight. [PlayStation Japan] More »

Marvel at Sony's Amazing Gravity Rush Whiteboard Drawings [Gravity Rush]

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:30:00 EST

Sony invited a group of Japanese press to its offices to check out upcoming PS Vita game Gravity Rush. These types of tours can start to blur into each other, with game developers giving the press the hard sell. But this tour had something I'd never seen before: whiteboard drawings! More »

The Horror of Plastic Figures [Love Plus]

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:00:00 EST

You might think this statue of Nene Anegasaki from Konami's love sim Love Plus looks pretty nice. You might think it's well sculpted and well put together. But wait until you see it in pieces. More »

Hello Dentist. Tokyo Gets the Pinkest and Cutest Clinic on Earth. [Culture Smash]

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:00:00 EST

Hello Kitty is an icon. You don't only find the cat in video games, on toilet paper, and even an infamous vibrator. And now, Hello Kitty has a dentist office. More »

In the Grim Future There Might not be a Warhammer 40K MMO [Thq]

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:00:00 EST

A few weeks back, the future of THQ's Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium MMO was very much up in the air. Comments early yesterday had seemed to ease fears over the project, but comments later yesterday brought the fears right back. More »