6th Grade Teacher Asks His Students Why They Want The New Call of Duty

No matter how you—likely an avid gamer—feel about the Call of Duty franchise, it seems like there will always be a market for the famous (infamous?) shooter series. So how do a bunch of eleven to twelve-year-olds feel about the game? And why? Kotaku reader and TAY poster GiantBoyDetective asked his students to find out.…

The Problem With Review Scores, Part V

Review scores: they’re not just arbitrary and meaningless, they’re toxic to discussion, too. Grand Theft Auto V reviews came out today, and with them came a whole host of poisonous Internet comments not about the content of those reviews, but about the numbers attached to them. Arguments raged hard: is this game worth a 10?…

Pokemon Brings Back “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” With A Bad Music Video

“Gotta Catch ‘Em All” never truly left our hearts, but it did leave official Pokemon channels for a bit. The Pokemon Company is bringing it back, and they’ve recruited renowned electronica artist Pogo to produce this bit of nonsense. That’s right kids, this was the big tease. The song is called “Catchatronic”, and it’s a…

Moneysaver: GTAV, Logitech Gold Box, Saints Row IV, Rogue Legacy

Between it being your last chance to pre-order GTAV, and the great Gold Box Amazon has on Logitech products, you’ve got your deals cut out for you. Don’t miss out on deals on Rogue Legacy, the Amazon bundle of Square-Enix games, Bioshock Infinite, and lots of classic Disney cartoons on DVD. Well when you price…

Speeding Coast To Coast Through GTA V Takes About Six Minutes

Grand Theft Auto V is very large. But after the game’s map leaked last week, I noticed some people speculating that, no, it’s not that big. How about if we hop in a car and drive from end to end? Up top, you can see a drive from the southern tip of the game’s massive…

Well This Celebration Certainly Just Got Awkward

Beating the world’s best StarCraft II player at this weekends Dreamhack tournament? No problem! Doing a proper traditional champagne celebration after the finals? Nope! It presented some difficulties and awkward moments for Korean terran player Liquid Taeja and Dreamhack boss Robert Ohlén—who came to help out—to open the giant champagne. It’s not an easy task!…

Podcast: GTA V, Wii U, Next-Gen Consoles

Is Grand Theft Auto V the best game ever or just the best game ever? Can Nintendo save the Wii U? What does “next-gen” actually mean? A few months ago, right after E3, Kirk and I put together an impromptu podcast. Kotaku readers seemed to like it, so we’re bringing it back. Starting today, we’re…

Here’s what’s going on Talk Among Yourselves, our reader-written blog: It’s a SnackTAYku Interbational smackdown! Zarnyx and Supergeek each offer up takes on dim sum houses in their native Trinidad and Netherlands. Readers also get GiantBoyDetective’s review of PS3 platformer Puppeteer And you can always go join the voices talking about video games and life…

The First Great Mobile Japanese Action RPG Is Getting A Sequel

Released in early 2010, EXE-Create’s Japanese action role-playing game Across Age was a turning point in my mobile gaming career — the moment I realized that the types of games I really loved would soon be in my pocket. Across Age II is coming this winter, and I’m positively giddy. The only real issue I…

28 Minutes Of GTA V‘s Stolen Planes, Tanks And Selfies

The original plan was simple. Drive to the airfield and take the plane Trevor uses to run drugs and show off flying in GTAV. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had landed that plane in the middle of the highway and abandoned it. Plan B: Go to the airport and steal a private jet. What could…

Grand Theft Auto V: The Kotaku Review

Rockstar Games has scaled a mountain with Grand Theft Auto V, creating the best-looking, best-sounding and, most importantly, best-playing version of gaming’s most notorious franchise. Scaling one peak, however, reveals another—their cloud-piercing ambition to create a great ensemble video game drama, an epic of intersecting, interactive lives. Rockstar doesn’t summit that new peak as impressively…

Grand Theft Auto V’s iPhone App Is Like a Gangsta Nintendogs

It’s all the rage for AAA console games to have smartphone apps that hook into the main console game. So, yeah, GTA V has one, too. But, at least Rockstar Games isn’t taking theirs too seriously. Here’s how iFruit is described on the Apple App Store: “How would we survive without apps? Apps can transform…

If Any Game Needs A Remake, It’s Mutant League Football

For a game that spawned a cartoon spin-off, a comic book and an action figure line, there’s been no activity at all on the Mutant League Football front since the game was released on the Sega Genesis back in 1993. Do you want to bring it back? That’s what game creator Michael Mendheim would like…

Can you name all the League of Legends champions above? Turned into 8-bit characters by digital artist Reversesquats, this roster-demake rather resembles Mega Man or Final Fantasy characters from the NES-era than a current-day MOBA. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest,funniest game-related screenshots and art that we…

NetEase’s New League of Legends Clone Is Disappointingly Uninspired

A Three Kingdoms-based multiplayer online battle arena has long been over due. However, NetEase’s attempt at creating a Three Kingdoms MOBA with Heroes of Kingdoms leaves much to be desired. Ever since I started playing China’s various League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients clones, I’ve been expecting a Three Kingdoms-skinned version of it.…

The Lighter Side Of China’s Compulsory Military Training

It’s September again, and that means the start of a brand new school year. In China, the new school year for college freshmen means more than just moving out of house and partying; it means compulsory military training. But it seems there is some fun to be had despite the training’s harsh nature. Attending university…

Looks Like We’re Getting A Sweet New Documentary About Retro Gaming

Above is the five-minute official trailer for Man vs Snake, which tells the story of Tim McVey, the first person ever to reach more than one billion points in an arcade game—on a single quarter, of course. The film’s creators launched a Kickstarter campaign last month which, fortunately, managed to reach its goal, meaning that…

Naked Man Meditates in Busy Chinese Street

Yesterday, a Russian student at a university in Hainan, China began meditating in the middle of a busy thoroughfare. Chinese people and other foreigners stopped to see if the man was alright. He wasn’t. The man continued to remove articles of clothing while he was meditating, until he ended up completely naked. The man apparently…

CGI Makes Ninja Dancing Better

I didn’t know ninja dancing was a thing, let alone ninja dancing CGI. This is Enra, a Tokyo-based dance troupe that mixes dance rhythms, martial-arts influenced acrobatics, and computer graphics. The group is spearheaded by Nobuyuki Hanabusa, who made a career of creating computer graphics for Japanese television shows and commercials. The performers have impressive…

The Story of How Grand Theft Auto Almost Didn’t Happen

Early, discarded concepts and unplayable builds line the arduous history of the first top-down GTA game. This video, from The Guardian, invites us to take a break from waiting for GTA V, grab a cup of tea, and listen to the story of how this legendary series got started. Have a look at the clip…