‘Realistic’ Smash Bros. Clapping Video Is The Dumbest Way To End Friday

You made it to the end of another week. Congratulations! Your mother and I are proud of you. And so are all of these Super Smash Bros. characters, who will now clap “realistically” at you for five minutes. Just watch (with sound on). It’s as great as it is dumb. GrumpOut created this video that…

Blizzard Testing Diablo III Microtransactions, But (Phew) Only In Asia

Diablo III has changed a lot over the years, dropping a much-loathed auction house and gaining all sorts of balance overhauls, enemies, and entire new areas. Now, however, it could be looking at a change of a very different sort: real money microtransactions and a new in-game currency to support them. Patch 2.2.0, which will…

Kirby And The Rainbow Curse: The Kotaku Review

Tip: you might want to scroll down…. way down. Keep scrolling down…!

Worth Reading: Real-Life Hadoukens, Questioning Game Length, And More

Two scoops of Worth Reading in one week? Gosh, we’re lucky. What better way to celebrate than an in-depth investigation into how fighting games have infiltrated real-life fighting, a considered take on the value of game length, and lots more? You’re just one click away, buddy. There used to be a time when I had…

Indie Dev Cancels PAX East Booth Over Security Concerns

Giant Spacekat, developers of space adventure game Revolution 60, announced this weekthey cancelled PAX East booth space due to safety concerns. The studio has since spoken with PAX organizers and responded to criticism over the fact that its head of development, Brianna Wu, still deciding to attend PAX East and appear on several panels. In…

Twitch just announced TwitchCon will be happening in San Francisco on September 25 and 26. It’s co-produced by Twitch and ReedPOP, the folks who put on PAX events all year round. More details, including how to buy tickets, will be announced in due time.

Invader Zim is Coming Back in a New Comic-Book Series

He was only with us for such a short time, that snarky green alien who posed as a human being. But the love for Zim never stopped and in fact only grew stronger. Now fans everywhere will be getting their wish: more Invader Zim is coming this July from comics publisher Oni Press. The new…

People Are Already Making Bizarre Mods For Dragon Ball Xenoverse

Dragon Ball Xenoverse isn’t even out yet in America. That, however, hasn’t stopped people from tearing the Japanese version to pieces and reassembling it into, well… whatever this is. The main culprit behind these faster-than-a-speeding-Goku mods is Melpontro. Speaking of Goku, I imagine these ridiculous giganto-pants—what I imagine would happen if MC Hammer learned the…

“I think this is a great opportunity to reiterate […] the importance of not trusting anyone online, even if you think they are your friends.” Game Informer spoke to the mother of a young Destiny player whose progress was deleted after he shared his account with a fellow player. Remember to be careful, gamers.

Why People Believed A Top Hearthstone Player Was Tricking Everyone

Throughout the last week, an obsession overtook some of the Hearthstone community. Allegation after allegation started populating Reddit threads, and YouTube videos—all about a top Hearthstone player called MagicAmy. The claim? That she wasn’t who she claimed to be. That the player with the handle “MagicAmy” wasn’t being played by a woman, as it appeared,…

Watch Close To A Full Hour Of Final Fantasy XV Gameplay

Today, Square Enix gave us our longest look yet at Final Fantasy XV, a game that I now believe actually exists and will come out within the next two years. You undoubtedly know the long, storied history behind the game once called Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and if you’ve been following along with news on…

Gift Cards for PlayStation and Xbox, Humble Co-Op Bundle, More Deals

We’ve got some great gift card deals for PlayStation AND Xbox owners today. $50 Sony Playstation Network Card ($40) | eBay | Buy 2 and spend them by the 24th to get an additional $15 back from Sony Xbox LIVE 13 Month Gold Membership Card ($40) | Walmart Humble’s latest Weekly Bundle features seven Co-Op…

The Latest Counter-Strike Anti-Cheat Measure? Inspecting Players’ Homes

“Knock-knock.” “Who’s there?” “Counter-Strike police. Open your door. We’re here to inspect your computer for cheats.” Pro Counter-Strike has a cheating problem. Dishonesty and illegal tools have cast a dark cloud over a bright, growing spectator sport. This, though, might be the most intense solution proposed yet: random testing ala physical sports, but for video…

$200,000 Gun Controller Kickstarter Goes Dark, Then Asks For More Money

The Delta Six is an unusual controller shaped like a gun. Kotkin Enterprises raised nearly $200,000 on Kickstarter, double the asking price. More than a year after the promised shipping date, the Delta Six is shipping, but there’s a catch: backers have to fork over more money to get what they already paid for. Here…

How ‘Reading’ Works In Smash Bros.

“Reading” isn’t just the provenance of drag queens. Not anymore, at least. The partly-psychological, partly-social practice of “reading” another person is an essential piece of playing fighting games like Super Smash Bros. effectively. So how does it work? An excellent new tutorial by Rush Hour Smash spells it out. Narrator Corey “False” Shin defines reading…

Sounds like there are a bunch of interesting changes incoming for League of Legends. In the past few days, developers at Riot have mentioned buffing “a number of tanks in the jungle,” completely reworking the nerfed-to-hell trashcan that is Urgot, and adding a mysterious new champion. Hmmmmm….

Should Sony Make Another Handheld?

On Sunday, the Vita will officially turn three in North America. Happy birthday, Vita! Sony’s ambitious PSP successor, which was originally envisioned as a way for people to play console-level PlayStation games on the go, was a commercial flop from the beginning thanks to terrible AAA software support, overpriced memory cards, and all sorts of…