John Madden Is A Maniac

John Madden is a professional american-football-man, broadcastist and screen scribbler, he’s also a complete maniac. You see, John doesn’t just love a good game of football, no. He Loves Smashing Through Stuff John is at his happiest while smashing through chalkboards. A lesser man would die from his injuries – but no, not John, he…

Everything Dark Souls II Gets Wrong

Despite its shortcomings, I like Dark Souls II a lot. Not everyone agrees. In the video above, the very smart critic Matt Lees gives his comprehensive take on where he felt that Dark Souls II failed and succeeded. On a lot of points, I’m totally there with him. The texturing and lighting belies a game…

The Mario Kart hacks continue to be awesome

I know this gets into dicey territory quickly, but MrBean and Chadderz keep making videos that seem like they’d make for very fun alternate versions of Mario Kart 8 tracks:

Here’s hoping the actual concerts are Street Fighter themed in some way, too.

What Happens When Dota 2 Heroes Do Drugs

What sorts of “medicine” does the Witch Doctor carry around, you think? Surely, it can’t all be for healing purposes, right? At least, in this short by DoubleClickDota2, the Witch Doctor is packing something more than just tangos—so he decides to share his stash. And that’s when things get out of hand. Dota 2 Shorts…

Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas is live! You can download the new Hearthstone add-on on PC and iOS today. The first wing will be free for the next month, so get it now.

Four great indie games will be at the heart of Sony’s annual PLAY summer sale when it starts next week. Hohokum and CounterSpy will be PlayStation exclusives, while the others—Rogue Legacy and The Swapper—are making their debuts on Sony’s game systems. Learn more on the official PlayStation Blog

Attention League of Legends fans: Riot Games just released a fun video based on its popular online game that’s full of explosions, cat ears, and mild gore. You can watch the whole thing above. And if you like what you see, you can also check out a short making of film that Riot put out…

How Much Game Makers Get Paid

Making video games sure looks like a fun gig from the outside, doesn’t it? Pouring your talents into a creation that can get played by thousands or even millions of people worldwide is not something many people can say that they do. But bragging rights and cool points don’t pay bills. Just how much did…

Deals: Red Vs. Blue, Dark Souls II Season Pass, PS4/One, Halloween

Hard to believe Red vs. Blue began way back in 2003. Today, the RVBX Ten Year Blu-ray Box Set is down to its lowest price ever of $54. As one of the first big items I ever put on Moneysaver Kotaku Deals, it’s got some personal sentiment for me as well. [RVBX] Dark Souls II’s…

The Story Of Areal, One Of Kickstarter’s Weirdest New Games [UPDATE]

UPDATE (12:45 pm): Shortly after we published this story, Areal’s Kickstarter campaign was suspended. A representative from Kickstarter wouldn’t go into detail about the project or its suspension, and referred Kotaku to this relevant section of its FAQ Original story follows: STALKER was the kind of gloomy and artful first-person shooter that left gamers wanting…

TheWorse mod, which pumps up Watch Dog’s graphics to more closely resemble the visuals shown during E3 2012, has now released its final update. You can see the mod in action here, and download the final release here.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution‘s Starting Area, Recreated In CryEngine

Not that Deus Ex: Human Revolution didn’t already look great. It did. But the game’s unique environment, and the room we start in, Megan Reed’s office, recreated in CryEngine 3 by fan artist Jovcem, just look super. Check out his site for more cool close-ups. It really makes me want a new Deus Ex game.…

Here’s Halo‘s newest character. Played by actor Mike Colter, Agent Locke will be showing up in the live-action Halo: Nightfall series being produced by Ridley Scott. The character will then appear in next year’s Halo 5: Guardians. Variety has more details.

Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku‘s reader-run community: Rockmandash Reviews: Kanon [Visual Novel & Anime] • 10 Things The International 4 Has Taught me About DOTA 2 • Back in the TAY Review: Ultraman – Towards the Future • In Defense of Sword Art Online TAY Classic—TAY Open Forum—Beginner’s Guide To TAY Follow them here.

High Level Starcraft II Play Starts Here

StarCraft II might be off the radar nowadays, but that doesn’t mean the pros stopped getting better and better at the game. One highlight was a recent matchbetween two Koreans, Parting and Byul, where the Protoss veteran basically destroyed the Zerg with perfect control of only a few units. Here’s the full match below. After…

Nvidia’s New Tablet Tries Damn Hard to Earn Real Video Game Respect

What would a tablet have to do to be seriously considered as the best place for you to play games? Native Twitch streaming? Good-as-console versions of popular games? Play-from-your-couch capability? Nvidia’s new gaming tablet can do all of that. And some extra stuff besides. You can use a controller with it, too. It’s been about…