​A Brief Refresher On Xenogears

I have never played Xenogears (I know!) and so I never actually knew what the games were all about. Now, thanks to Lore, I do. A hamster on a cross, eh? Okay…

Those YouTube Promo Plans Are A Lot More Common Than You Might Think

“This happens every day on YouTube.” Boogie, a popular gamer and personality on YouTube, is right. He’s talking about the Xbox One promotional contract that YouTubers were recently offered to sign in exchange for extra cash. But in the world of making YouTube videos, these kind of promos are actually a lot more of a…

Capcom Trying To Make Amends For One Of The Worst PC Ports Ever

If you never had the misfortune to play it, know that the PC port of Resident Evil 4 was one of Capcom’s (and Ubisoft’s) darkest moments. So shoddy was the coding that it turned one of the greatest games of all time into a poorly-optimised, bug-riddled joke. Now, so as to squeeze a few more…

At Least Call Of Duty’s Commercials Are Still Fun

Say what you will about Call of Duty’s diminishing returns as games, but even those unmoved by perks and tangos can usually enjoy the ridiculously OTT trailers Activision puts together to sell the series. Take this new one today. It’s for some DLC. A few maps, that sort of stuff. But they went out and…

Flying A Jet Fighter Looks Like The Best Job On Earth

Sure beats sitting behind a desk. It’s a shame, then, that video games never seem to do it properly. I’ve got a very long-running issue with flight in video games. Very rarely – Far Cry 3’s wingsuit is a notable exception – do games ever nail the sensation of flight Modern flight is a fast,…

It Doesn’t Get More Dark Souls Than This

This little extract is from the Dark Souls art book, and has been doing the rounds on Twitter today. It is the most Dark Souls thing you will ever read.

It Takes Three Hours To Watch Every NES ‘Start’ Screen

I hope you have some time set aside and have made yourself comfortable, because if you wanna watch every single NES ‘start’ screen, you’re gonna need a few hours. If you’re looking for a particular game, note that the games featured in video above by NicksplosionFX are in alphabetical order. Got any particular favorite ones?…

Four Easy Ways To Prank Your Friends

Not all pranks are created equal; some pranks require a ton of setup and expensive props. Surely there are also easy ways to prank your friends? Turns out yup, there are. This helpful video from Buzzfeed Video explains four easy and cost-effective ways to make your friends hate you. That first one, though… I guess…

Dragon Ball Z Is Best When It Doesn’t Take Itself Seriously

A live action Dragon Ball Z sounds silly, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s why this depiction of Dragon Ball Z, which is completely absurd and ridiculous, works so well. It embraces the inherent silliness of a Dragon Ball Z that involves modern day people. Heck, there’s even a crack about hashtags in this parody of Dragon…

A Childhood Spent With Computers: Writer/Kotaku contributor Leigh Alexander has published an ebook titled Breathing Machine: A Memoir of Computers. It’s all about growing up alongside the computers of the 1980s and 90s, and it’s good! You can get it at Amazon or a bunch of other places, and read an excerpt here

​Violin And Cosplay Bring A Classic Zelda Tune To Life

I’d be hard-pressed to name my favorite piece of Zelda music, but “Gerudo Valley” from Ocarina of Time would certainly be near the top of any list I’d make. In the above music video, violinist Taylor Davis brings the beloved anthem to life in an exuberantly geeky way. We’ve featured Davis’ work on two of…

I Don’t Remember Text Adventures Being This Hard

A few game developers decided that for some reason, Unity, the 3D game engine, is the perfect medium for a text adventure. Amazingly, it turns out that they were right. I’m not going to explain why, you should either play the game yourself (It took me about 7 minutes) or watch the four minute videoversion…

Part of What Makes DayZ Great Is That It Isn’t Finished

Usually, nothing is worse than playing a game that comes out into the world with random bugs, rough-hewn ideas and a lack of polish. But those same things have arguably made DayZ a chart-topping success story—more than a million copies sold in a month— ever since its standalone alpha version hit Steam a month ago.…

Sketchy Xbox One YouTube Promo Plan Now Requires Full Disclosure [UPDATE]

Yesterday, video network Machinima took a whole lot of heat for a cash-for-coverage plan that allowed their members to make extra money in exchange for making videos about the Xbox One. YouTubers picked to participate in the promotion could make an extra $3 per 1,000 views on every video covering Microsoft’s newest console. A few…

Six Types of Board Gamers You’ve Probably Had To Deal With

Just like video games have types of gamers we’re likely to come across, board games totally have certain archetypes and characters we all encounter while playing. Some of these folks are pleasant and harmless to play with. And some of these people are kind of terrifying to play with. All of these types of people…

The Hearthstone open beta is live. If you’d like to take Blizzard’s new card game out for a spin, now’s your chance—download the free open beta here, and find more info here