Mike Fahey

There’s A Trick To Playing R.U.S.E. With Kinect

You won’t be able to play Ubisoft’s strategy game R.U.S.E. using Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect anytime soon, but the PC version is another matter entirely. Here we see multitouch and gesture computing company Evoluce boss Wolfgang Herfurtner navigating the opening battle from Eugen System’s R.U.S.E. using a combination of his company’s software and Microsoft’s motion-sensing…

In Search Of Serious Science Fiction Gaming Epics

In the first installment of the daily Speak-Up on Kotaku for the year 2011, commenter Murkurial wonders why game developers aren’t spending more time exploring the deeply detailed worlds created by science fiction’s greatest authors. What has anyone heard (or what are your thoughts) about a company like Bethesda making a game in the mold…

The Most Disgusting Version Of Doom You’ll Ever See

This stop-motion video starts off innocently enough, but soon the cute Street Fighter homage and sneaker-based racing give way to a version of id Software’s classic Doom made entirely out of raw meat. Warning: Not safe for stomach. I just saved a whole lot of money on lunch by watching this video. It’s the creation…

What If Fallout 3 Was A Japanese RPG From 1987?

Bethesda beats any potential fan-made Fallout 3demakes to the punch by creating its own for the Japanese Fallout website. It’s all in Japanese, but old school role-playing is the universal language. Or not. I can’t understand a thing that’s going on over at the Japanese game site. I can make out a couple of yes…

Minecraft And Amnesia Vie For Top Honors At The 2011 IGF Awards

The Independent Games Festival has released its list of finalists for its 2011 awards, with Mojang’s world-building Minecraft and Frictional’s Amnesia: The Dark Descent duking it out with three other competitors for the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize. It’s a testament to the growing power and prestige of the independent development scene that this year’s…

The Nintendo Download: Colorful Puzzles And Indie Cred

It’s the first Monday of 2011 and Nintendo is ready to take on the new year with five new downloadable games, including Chillingo’s colorful Sneezies for WiiWare and a little indie cred on the DSi. The brightest on WiiWare this week looks to be Sneezies, a Chillingo title that sees players dropping sneezing powder on…

Nintendo Download Gallery

Sneezies Publisher: Chillingo Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 500 Wii Points Description: Sneezies is an overload of cuteness! Grab a cup of coffee, sit back in your favorite plush chair and enjoy soothing, relaxed game play featuring fantastic graphics and sweet melodies. Use your Wii Remote™ controller to drop a burst of sneezing…

2010: The Year In Gaming

What would the new year be without a massive graphical detailing of the highs and lows of the year previous? Let’s take a look back at 2010, giant infographic style. This graphic is a labor of love created by myself to mark the passage of one hell of a year in gaming. How much a…

Making Movie Magic In Star Wars: The Old Republic

If I were other massively multiplayer online role-playing games, my New Year’s resolution would be to come up with dialogue and quests half as dynamic as those of BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic. Making The Old Republic’s missions as dynamic and cinematic as possible is the job of the cinematic designer. In a blog…

It’s Not Easy Being Deaf In World Of Warcraft

Earlier this year World of Warcraft player Unwelcome suffered an accident that permanently robbed him of his hearing. Feeling alienated and shunned by his real life friends, he returned to World of Warcraft for some online alienation and shunning. The loss of one’s hearing is a tragic and traumatic event, but it doesn’t necessarily mean…

This Is The Best Doritos-Themed Xbox Live Arcade Game Of 2010

The voting is over and Doritos Crash Course comes out ahead of Harm’s Way as the winner of the 2010 Doritos Unlock Xbox Challenge, earning Jill Robertson of Raleigh, North Carolina $50,000. Earlier this month the two finalists of the 2010 Doritos Unlock Xbox Challenge had their designs brought to life and uploaded to the…

Do Cheap Tactics Ruin Online Multiplayer?

In the final daily Speak-Up on Kotaku of 2010, commenter RascalkingTK wonders if cheap bastards tarnish other people’s online multiplayer experience as much as they do his. One of my favorite things about this generation of consoles is the multiplayer experiences. I own both an Xbox 360 and a PlayStation 3 and play them on…

You Will Believe That Cthulhu Can Save The World

Cthulhu Saves the World is an old school turn-based roleplaying game starring the high priest to the Great Old Ones, now available on Xbox Live Indie Games from Zeboyd Games. Such glory must be chronicled in song. The music is “Hey There Cthulhu” from The Eben Brooks Band, a lovely little parody of that song…

Review: The World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm MMO Mouse Caters Shamelessly

While millions of World of Warcraft players do just fine with your standard two-button mouse, SteelSeries reckons they could do better with the extra twelve provided by the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm MMO Gaming Mouse. Are they right? Specs Price: US$99.99 Platform: Mac, PC What’s in the box: Mouse, Instructions (Driver software is downloaded via…

Cataclysm Mouse Gallery

The Tester 2’s Grand Prize Winner Embraces Obscurity

Most reality show contestants are vying for a chance at fame and fortune. As the winner of the second season of Sony’s The Tester, Matthew “Gaymer” Brown sees his new game testing job as a chance to escape the spotlight. The Tester is a reality show produced by Sony for the PlayStation Network in which…

Two Million Xbox 360 Gamers Have Played Castle Crashers

Independent developer The Behemoth got a rather lovely present on Christmas Day, when the Xbox Live Arcade version of Castle Crashers surpassed two million players. How will they celebrate? With an Xbox made of gold. Castle Crashers was a big hit when it was released in August of 2008, and sales haven’t slowed down much…

Kinect Gives Life To This Humanoid Robot

Using Microsoft’s Kinect to control a modified Roomba is impressive. Using it to get a kit-built humanoid robot to mimic your actions is pretty damn amazing. Once again hobbyists beat Microsoft at their own gaming peripheral, utilizing Kinect’s impressive technology in ways that go so far beyond gaming. Here we see software engineer Taylor Veltrop…

Angry Psychology Professor Explains Angry Birds’ Success

Why is Angry Birds such an addictive game? According to University of San Francisco psychology professor Mel Joseph Ciena, it’s a combination of repetition and a “false impression you’re competitive and achieving something.” Oh come on, we’re saving eggs! Joe Eskenazi of SF Weekly queried two experts for their opinion on why Rovio’s physics-based bird-flinging…

This Is Your Brain On Video Games

What happens to our attention when we play video games? The New York Times’ technology reporter Matt Richtel played a video game while stuffed inside a $3 million M.R.I. scanning tube to find out. Richtel has spent the better part of the past year exploring questions about the role attention plays in our daily lives,…