Those who have Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 might want to jump in at some point this weekend to take advantage of the double XP boost in online matches, and the free trial of the game’s Uprising DLC, which offers four maps, plus the “Mob of the Dead” mode.

NBA Live Dribbles Out a First Look at Actual Gameplay

NBA Live 14 announced its launch date earlier this week—Nov. 19, which is curious, as that is four days after the PlayStation 4 launches and still there’s a PS4/NBA Live 14 launch bundle (currently sold out) due to drop on Nov. 15. OK, well, while we get that sorted out, here’s the first look at…

The Legend of Zelda’s abysmal CD-i adaptation from 20 years ago—Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon—were KGB’d out of Hyrule Historia, the series’ canonical volume. MTV Multiplayer asked series director Eiji Aonuma why, and got a rare comment from Nintendo about one of the worst games of all time.

Yep. Madden‘s Eyebrow-Shaving Bet Was B.S. After All

We said we’d keep any eye on this nutball wager between Madden endorsers Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson, who met last week. Looks like no one lost anything, thanks to the magic of digital editing. Check out the comments on that YouTube video. Some folks are seriously hacked off that Kaepernick didn’t do the deed…

Why I Created the ‘Washington Whiteskins’ in a Football Video Game

A few months ago a guy reached out to me over Twitter with a common question, but for an unusual purpose. He asked if gamers can create or rename teams in Madden NFL. No, I replied, that hasn’t been a feature for several years. His reason for asking is probably why: the guy wanted to…

Capcom’s PS4-Exclusive Deep Down Will Be Free-to-Play

Deep Down, Capcom’s strange, beautiful, displaced-time online RPG, is going to be free-to-play, and its beta will appear “near the launch of the PlayStation 4 in Japan,” Sony’s president of worldwide studios said via Twitter after the news was announced at Tokyo Game Show earlier today. As was revealed earlier this week, PlayStation 4 will…

Why the PS4 is Waiting Until February to Launch in Japan

A dearth of Japan-focused titles is why Sony is slowing the roll of the PlayStation 4 there until Feb. 22. In fact, western appetite for a next-generation console well outpaces that in Sony’s home country, said company executives to Eurogamer “Perhaps you could say that a few western developers have been more aggresive in readying…

Vote on Your New Sunday Comics Lineup!

OK, first a mea culpa. It was dumb of me to open a call for nominations for new strips in our Sunday Comics feature and then go on vacation. I promise I did not forget about this. In fact, we’ve got a good list of nine new candidates, and right now you get to vote…

One of Metal Gear Solid‘s Most Iconic Tropes Was Almost Axed

Looking at its gameplay, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and its prologue, Ground Zeroes capture the spirit of the Metal Gear series despite worries arising from director Hideo Kojima’s announcement that the game would be open world. However, a staple of the series—the exclamation point—was almost not included in Metal Gear Solid 5…

This Week in the Business: ‘The Most Overtly Sexist Environment Ever’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “When I first started playing in 1999, it was the most overtly sexist environment ever.”—Linda Carlson, SOE director of global community relations, on EverQuest and how online communities are changing QUOTE | “You don’t force anything, you don’t drive anything, you…

PS4 or Xbox One? We Poll The Tokyo Game Show

Thirty-two responses later, we had one very clear answer. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am. To contact the author of this post, write to [email protected] or find him on Twitter @BiggestinJapan

Lock Your New iPhone with Nipples (Apparently!)

Apple’s new scanning security tech is pretty clever. It’s not only smart enough to identify different fingers, but supposedly also clever to i.d. different nipples. Welcome to the future! According to Japanese site Rocket News, the new iPhones can recognize your nipples (um, okay!), keeping it locked for different nipples. In the above video, you…

The Best of Kotaku, The Week of September 16

Morning, Kotaku. How are you doing? Still playing GTA V? Since last night? Haven’t slept or ate at all? Oh, ok, glad we’re on the same page then. When you’re taking breaks in between, how about browsing some of our best content from over the week, collected over at Kotaku Selects? Our guys in Asia…

The New Theatrhythm is More of the Same

Undoubtedly one of the best features of the Final Fantasy series is its amazing soundtrack—hence the creation of last year’s music game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. Of course, even with over 70 songs in the game, that was just the tip of the iceberg: hence the creation of its upcoming sequel, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call…

So Far, Titanfall Is Getting Thumbs Up from Japan

Japan knows a good giant mecha when it sees one. And from the sound of it, the country’s gamers are more than pleased with what they are seeing with Titanfall Today is the first public day of the Tokyo Game Show and the first time that Respawn Entertainment has shown its mecha-filled FPS Titanfall in…

BatDad Is The Best Dad. Also Maybe The Worst.

Can you imagine being a kid and having your dad sometimes sport a Batman mask as he waits for opportunities to parent you in that iconic gritty Batman voice? That’s exactly what Vine user BatDad does, and it’s amazing. Well, for us, the viewers. His family seems to go between amused, nonplussed and annoyed based…

Try Not to Punch the TV When Playing D4

Dark Dreams Don’t Die, or D4, is an Xbox One exclusive episodic game that tells the story of a time-traveling detective trying to solve and prevent the murder of his wife. Japanese game designer Hidetaka Suehiro, or Swery, is developing this game. The cel-shaded game is centered around the Kinect—you will be interacting with an…

Seeing Game of Thrones Actors In Sesame Street Is A Little Weird

Peter Dinklage and Lena Heady have a life outside of butting heads as the Lannister siblings in Game of Thrones. I know that. It’s still kind of strange (if not amusing!) to see them both on a show like Sesame Street, though. I mean, it’s so wholesome! They’re not plotting any schemes! What is this?…

A Lovecraft-Inspired Game That’s Sillier, Smarter Than It Is Scary

With both Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Outlast released so recently, it might seem as though there wouldn’t be room for another horror game. But the free browser horror game Catachresis fits neatly in between them. Developed by Cameron Kunzelman, Catachresis is a sort of linear story-game-non-game thing that combines the verbose, too-big-and-awful-to-actually-contain monsters…

Guy Re-Scores All Of Ni no Kuni‘s Music

This is pretty incredible: 23-year-old musician Sam Joseph Delves put together an orchestra and re-scored the RPG Ni no Kuni in its entirety. “With the help of BBC documentary composer Howard Davidson I was able to take the music to the studio with a purpose built video game orchestra in an attempt to film and…