Crazy Russian Jumps 98 Feet Off Building. While On Fire.

So, you know how in Assassin’s Creed, the hero can jump off massive buildings, do a little flip in the air and somehow land alive? Turns out you can do that in real life, too. Even if you’re on fire. Of course, there are a few conditions you need to satisfy in order to pull…

The Week In Games: Evolve Or Play Something Else

I was going to say “Evolve or die” but that seemed a bit harsh, especially for a week with a new 3DS and an old Zelda game coming out. Between Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and Evolve, odds are I’ll be hunting something this week. Still on the fence about Majora’s Mask—I didn’t like it much…

Learn About Capitalism With Super Mario Bros. 2

I’ve not come across a finer means of illustrating the origins of our Western work ethic than this video featuring a recycled Japanese game. Why did’t we have 8-Bit Philosophy back when I was in college? In a way it’s ironic. Here I am watching a video about how Calvinism and Capitalism came together to…

Six Days To LEGO Left Shark? Not Bad. 

It’s easy to crank out a next-day t-shirt for a major Super Bowl happening, but assembling bricks in the form of the only part of Katy Perry’s halftime show that matters takes time and patience. Our friends over at The Brothers Bricktook a different route with their Left Shark coverage this year, so LEGO builderConradoPLG…

Wwwwwhen A Twitch Stream Donation Goes Horribly Wwwwwrong

Pokemon streamer SherwoodLIVE (via Reddit) finds out the hard way why having a simulated voice announce donations is a bad idea. Dubwee dubwee dubwee dubwee.

With Censorship This Inane, Criminal Girls Should Have Stayed In Japan

Somewhere beyond this eerily silent, pink-mist clogged screenshot is the “motivation” mini-game from the unabashedly risque Japanese game Criminal Girls. Stripping the sound and obscuring the action made it okay for Western release—only no it didn’t. It’s kind of amazing the 2010 PSP game from developer Imageepoch made it to North America in any form,…

How Mortal Kombat X Brings Players Together While Tearing Them Apart

While the fighting is always nice, my favorite elements of modern Mortal Kombat games are the extra bits—challenges, unlockables, and side activities outside of the core one-on-one battles. That’s why I’m excited about Mortal Kombat X‘s Faction War meta game. When players begin their journey in Mortal Kombat X this coming April, they’ll choose from…

This Week In The Business: You Do Not Talk About Fail Club

QUOTE | “We’re trying, as an industry, we’re trying so fucking hard to just be fine. We talk about our successes and our achievements, but we shun mentioning our failures.” – Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail, talking about what’s right and wrong with the game industry in a recent blog post Elsewhere in the business of video…

A Steam Curator Who Only Reviews Games With Anime Girls

For better or worse, Valve wants Steam’s community to take care of game curation and recommendation on the increasingly overstuffed service. I do not, however, think they expected this. No one expected this. Waifu Hunter is a Steam curator who rates games based exclusively on whether or not they have anime girls in them. The…

Valve To Counter-Strike Pros: Never Bet On Matches

Recently there have been accusations (some proven) of match-fixing and illicit betting in professional Counter-Strike matches. Valve announced their verdict against the trend, bringing their ban-gavel down on multiple bigtime North American players. Now, they’ve added some stern advice: pros should stop betting altogether. In a recent post on the Counter-Strike blog, Valve explained: “Professional…

Heroes of Might and Magic III HD came out last week, but I wouldn’t recommend it. While HOMM III is still a wonderful game, Ubisoft’s new HD version doesn’t add much (redrawn sprites) yet leaves out the two expansion packs. It’s nice on iPad—some touchscreen wonk aside—but for PC players I recommend snagging the Complete…

Track: Left, Right | Artist: YG, DJ Mustard | Album: My Krazy Life Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.