Good Job, Cosplayers. The Hobbit Effects Creators Are Impressed.

Most cosplayers do their costume-making several degrees of separation away from the professional designers who create the big-budget looks they emulate. So they don’t get the chance to hear what the concept artists and visual effects maestros think of fan-made work. But, some of the folks who’ve worked on the Hobbit movies recently got to…

The Truth Behind Civilization V‘s Worker Units

In the Civilization games, when barbarians capture our exposed worker units and convert them to their faction, they always tend to run away when we try to recapture them, like they never wanted to be part of our empire in the first place. White Lightning HQ’s video has an explanation for this strange behaviour. They…

LEGO Pokémon Center Has All The Goodies A Trainer Needs

Builder Savath_Bunny shared superb-looking Pokémon center on LEGO Ideas and filled it with the main characters, Pokémon starters and all the gadgets you can find in the games. It’s a relatively compact and reasonable build, so I could totally see an official box set similar to this sitting on the shelves of stores (and the…

Steins;Gate is coming to North American and European PlayStation 3s and Vitas in 2015 via publisher PQube. Considered by many to be one of the finest visual novels ever made, the time-traveling science adventure came to North American PC earlier this year via JAST USA. Check out our full review of the PC release.

Co-op Titan Hunting Is Surprisingly Fun

Attack on Titan: The Last Wings of Mankind was released in Japan just over a year ago. When I looked at it, the biggest problem was that the majority of the game was designed for local co-op—and I lacked three friends interested in playing it. Luckily, in this year’s updated release, the co-op is now…

With its latest update, Kerbal Space Program has entered beta, inching ever closer to a full release. 0.90.0 augments progression by including a level-up system for both Kerbals and buildings, and adds some new content like extra biomes and spaceship parts. You can watch a walkthrough of 0.90.0’s contents above.

It’s Great When Cosplay Goes Off The Beaten Path

You expect Final Fantasy cosplay. Ditto for Zelda, Assassin’s Creed and Halo. But Evil Within cosplay? That’s unexpected. And awesome. Kirito is Sebastian Castellanos, while Kasane is Leslie Withers. Photo by Higuchi. [The Evil Within]

I Don’t Understand Amiibos

A couple of weeks ago Nintendo sent me an Amiibo to check out. Here’s where that Amiibo is right now: roughly a couple of feet from the child seat in my car. Before that it was lodged in my two year old’s mouth, being chewed upon, drooled on, thrown at the patio glass door with…

Well, Sonic & Mario Can Agree On One Thing

Gonzalo Ordoñez Arias, aka Genzoman, is one of the best artists on the planet. Here is his take on Smash Bros., and what would happen if the game’s roster got a most unexpected cameo. Th weird thing is, he’d actually be a decent fit for the game. As would Gex, Cool Spot and James Pond,…

When A Great Puzzle Game Comes Out Of Nowhere

Every time I’ve fired up Steam this week, I’ve been greeted by ads for a game called The Talos Principle. I’d never heard of it, but it had a picture of a robot holding a cat, so I installed it. I’m pretty glad I did. TTP is a first-person puzzle game with a heaping of…

The Game That Goes Forever (By Eating Your Screen)

“You can’t win the game. It only exists to destroy your mind.” Made by Tom 7 as part of the Ludum Dare 31 game jam—whose theme was “entire game on one screen”—Entire Screen of One Game is a simple platformer (more of an interactive novelty, really) where you play as a little block… that turns…

Controversial Shooting Game Pulled From Steam Greenlight

Earlier today unsettlingly violent shooter Hatred appeared on Steam Greenlight. Not long after, it was yanked from the massive PC gaming service. And while Valve was—like Aus Target andGTA V—within their rights, I think they could’ve handled it better. Meanwhile Hatred continues to manufacture controversy, and that’s not OK. This is not the first time…

Here’s a 30-minute look at Cosmic Star Heroine, an indie RPG by Zeboyd Games (Penny Arcade Adventures Episodes 3-4) that’s sorta like a cross between Lunar and Phantasy Star, with dashes of Suikoden. It’s out next year for Steam and PSN.

My Favorite Credits Sequence Of The Year

This past weekend I was streamingJuju, a family-friendly platformer from the folks who rebooted Shadow Warrior. I picked the wrong menu option, and something delightful happened. This is the credits song. If you’re planning on picking upFlying Wild Hog’s shamanic panda platformer for PC, Xbox 360 or PS3, you might want to hold off on…

You Don’t Need Water to Swim in Far Cry 4

Today’s Highlight Reel shines the spotlight on enemies who show up out of nowhere, bad guys with invincible leg anatomy and a weirder-than-normal GTA V car-jacking. I shat my pants – DayZ – Emil Bergman Ankles of steel – JollyFellow93 Dat Payback – Brekk1e He wouldn’t let me pass like a gentleman – Mork Games…