The Bureau: XCOM Declassified: The Kotaku Review

In an early mission of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, a deer clattered across the pavement of a wrecked college town’s main drag as I took my orders. It paused and looked at me, and I at it. Even before this invasion, that deer’s world was under constant threat from death-dealing technology beyond its comprehension. What…

Lords of the Fallen Introduces Us To Gaming’s Latest Badass

Meet Harkyn, a man who has just trudged across the world carrying an incredibly heavy-looking hammer, just to give a god’s fingers the finger. Harkyn is the main character of CI Games’ Lords of the Fallen, a new third-person action role-playing game that started as a stunning piece of concept art and then escalated to…

Killer Instinct Characters Are $5 A Pop, But Wait — There’s More

How much would you pay for classic characters like Sabrewulf, Glacius and the newly-announced Thunder in the upcoming free-to-download Xbox One exclusive Killer Instinct? Microsoft has slapped a $4.99 price tag on each character’s head, but why buy piecemeal when you can get the whole shebang for $20? In case you missed it at E3,…

Korean McDonald’s Employee Taunted a Customer with Spit

Ask those who work or who have worked in fast food, and many will tell you that, yes, spit burgers sadly exist. But rarely have they existed in such a bizarre way. Earlier this month, Chosun.com (via Hachima) recounted the story of a McDonald’s customer who ordered home delivery. The customer, a graduate student surnamed…

These Courtroom Battles Put Ace Attorney to Shame

I spent a lot of last week watching anime in an attempt to find the five anime you should be watching this summer. One of these is based on the popular Japanese PSP title, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. And as it felt like the anime was just spoiling the game, I decided I had to…

This Simple Animated Film Might Make You Cry

Tekken, the Japanese comedian who named himself after the Namco fighting game, is back again with another animated short. It might make you all weepy. Maybe not! Previously, Tekken released an anime short called “Furiko” (or “Pendulum”), which featured a Muse track and even led to the comedian working with British rockers on a music…

How to Identify Popular Japanese Character Types

In Japanese games and anime, there are often character archetypes you will see again and again the more you watch. And when it comes to characters, there are no more commonly used archetypes than those known as the “deres”: tsundere, kuudere, dandere, and yandere. To start with, the term “dere” itself comes from the Japanese…

Here Are the Xbox One’s Launch Games

Microsoft confirmed the the Xbox One’s launch line-up. It’s over twenty games strong. If you were wondering what games you can pick up at launch, read on. Courtesy of Xbox.com and barring any last minute delays or surprises, this is the list of what they call “launch day” games: Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag (Ubisoft,…

Fighter Within Lets You Punch People in the Face

Ubisoft’s upcoming Kinect game Fighter Within for Xbox One puts you in a fighting game. Literally. It’s out this holiday. Check out the trailer above. The game is an Xbox exclusive, it seems. First the game is headed to Xbox One, and then Xbox 360. Fighter Within – Gamescom Trailer [PlayTheGame] To contact the author…

Now that’s dedication. Call of Duty Ghosts will have dedicated servers for Xbox One, Microsoft revealed. To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft

Europeans Get FIFA 14 For Free if They Pre-Order Xbox One

Today, Microsoft announced that FIFA 14 would be bundled with the Xbox One at launch in Europe. For free! But wait, there’s a catch: You gotta pre-order. The game will hit the Xbox 360 this September and the Xbox One at a later date. European gamers who pre-order the Xbox One will get FIFA 14…

Like Peggle? Well Peggle 2 is an Xbox One launch title. And Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare is hitting the console next year. Both are coming to Xbox One first.

Cobalt is headed to Xbox One, Microsoft announced today. Cobalt is a platformer developed by Oxeye Game Studio in collaboration with Mojang of Minecraft fame. The game is currently in alpha and can be downloaded for PC and Mac. via @Graeme Selvan [Twitter] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find…

The Next Fable Is Called Fable Legends

There’s a new Fable! Lionhead Studios is working on an exclusive new entry in its action role-playing series. Called Fable Legends, the game is headed to Xbox One as an exclusive. You can play with up to three friends via co-op or alone with three A.I. companions. The game also lets you play as the…

Xbox One’s Indie Games Program Revealed At Last

After months of offering little more than variations of “don’t worry, we’ll have one,” Microsoft is using their kick-off of the big Gamescom event in Germany this week to detail something called ID@Xbox. That is their indie games program. It’ll roll out in stages. “When we talk to developers, what we hear is they want…

Japanese Banana Art Is So Damn Appealing

Darth Vader. A Xenomorph from Aliens. Attack on Titan. That’s not mentioning the various other characters as well as animals, too. They’ve all been brought to life in amazing banana sculptures. This is the work of Keisuke Yamada, a banana artist Kotaku first profiled in 2011. To make these sculptures, Yamada, an electrician by trade,…

Watch Mike Tyson Play Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out! for The First Time

Glass Joe is the first character you face in Punch-Out. He is, without a doubt, the easiest opponent. Anyone can beat him. But can Mike Tyson? The famed champ had apparently never played the 1987 Nintendo boxing game he made famous. Until recently, that is. Tyson finally played it on Fox Sports and was even…

Bunny Island Is Cute, Furry, and Depressing

Earlier this summer, photos of “Bunny Island” popped up on English language sites. The island, officially named Okunoshima, has been internet fodder in Japan for years. But usually, people only focus on the cute rabbits—and not, you know, the disheartening history bit. Recently on 2ch, Japan’s largest web forum, commenters uploaded photos of Bunny Island…

WildStar Is A Subscription-Based MMO? How Brave.

The second-most exciting upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game announced plans today to require users pay an ongoing monthly fee to access its contents. Thankfully, there’s still a way to play WildStar for free. In an age where all but the most successful MMO games have succumbed to the allure of the free-to-play, microtransaction-based business…

Sweet flaming Pokémons! A cappella master Smooth McGroove‘s latest musical masterpiece is an absolutely burning cover of the Mt. Pyre Peak musicfrom Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald