First-Person Firefighting Looks Intense

For the past few days, some of the worst bushfires in Australian history have been burning across the state of New South Wales. Hundreds of homes have been lost, and the fires are so big that my hometown of Canberra, 300km away, was blanketed in smoke for much of the weekend. This is what it…

Studio Accused Of Blocking YouTube Vid Over Criticism [UPDATE]

TotalBiscuit, a YouTube gaming critic, is one of the most popular “personalities” on the service. When he says a game is rubbish, people notice. And when the company behind that game tries to get his criticism taken offline, more people notice. Earlier this month, he posted a look at a game called Day One: Garry’s…

Oh hi, PlayStation Vita version of Fez.

Search Engine Update Turns Your iPad into a Pokédex

Yes, there’s a Pokedex app for iOS—two actually, one official, another (better) one fan made. But you don’t need to download either to turn an iPhone or an iPad into a Pokédex. Just ask Siri. That’s because, as VentureBeat points out, the Wolfram Alpha database just added data for all Pokémon through their first five…

Bungie will post beta codes for Destiny this week on the game’s Facebook page, if you’re trying to get into it but haven’t preordered. The studio says the codes will be given out randomly each day. The beta should begin in early 2014. [via StrategyInformer]

Creepy Suspect Blamed for Electronics Going Haywire

Crime is a constant feature of video games writing. Somewhere, someone is doing something illicit with them—sometimes comically stupid, sometimes tragic. Kotaku‘s Police Blotter is here to round up the latest in games crime. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. leads Slender in suspicious Man sighting MASON, Mich.—Cops responding…

The Week in Games: The Heroes We Need

Batman: Arkham Origins launches globally on one day—Friday. There must be a ton of spoilers in it that Warner Bros. doesn’t want to go on the Internet in the three days between then and Tuesday, the typical US drop day. If you can’t wait to the end of the week for your superhero fix, LEGO:…

Space Invaders‘ Creator Says He Would Have Made It ‘Far Easier’

At 69, Tomohiro Nishikado readily admits he’s bad at video games. That’s not unusual for a man his age, but he was bad at them when he was making them, specifically Space Invaders. “Had it been left up to me, Space Invaders would have been a far easier game,” he told The New Yorker Nishikado…

Magic: The Gathering—Tactics will be taken offline on March 28, says Sony Online Entertainment. Card packs for the game, which launched in 2011, will no longer be available after Nov. 18. There’s more about the shutdown in this FAQ.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: BatDad: Arkham Origins

Didn’t really spy anything super-useful this week so we’ll have to go with a bit of a wild card. Everyone’s familiar with BatDad, right? Well, Arkham Origins releasing on Friday provides the opportunity for a timely and ridiculous mash-up. To the ‘Shop-poles! For those not in the know, BatDad is Blake Wilson of Atlanta, well…

Sunday Comics: Kids These Days

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published Oct. 16. Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published Oct. 14. Read more of Awkward Zombie Brawl In The…

The studio behind Dark Matter, criticized by many as an incomplete game released on Steam earlier this week, has given a statement on the matter. While “it is simply not true that the game is unfinished,” InterWave Studios acknowledged its ending “may cause confusion and is not satisfactory.” They’re working on a fix.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Re-Records His Most Famous Lines for Fans

Yesterday in a Reddit AMA, Col. Matrix took requests to repeat his most iconic lines of the past three decades. Among them: Predator (above), Conan the Barbarian (but not the prayer to Crom) Kindergarten Cop and, of course, The Terminator. How in the hell did nothing from Commando make it? Here are all the videos.…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: I Thee Choose: The Winners

Last week’s challenge was to do something tasteful with a proposal at the gala launch event for Pokémon X and Y. Many of you were able to pull that off. (Many others were not.) Most of the finalists were … subtle, so look closely, but overall No. 1 halfbeast definitely hits you like an axe.…

Politician Out to Scare Parents Makes a Great Pitch for GTA Instead

I don’t know where to begin with this, but it’s hilarious. The state’s attorney for a southern Chicago suburb on Thursday gathered middle school parents to urge an “economic boycott” of Grand Theft Auto, which has already made, like, a billion dollars. It sounds like a scared-straight lecture straight out of 1958. The assembly took…

Indie Studio Says Failed Kickstarter is Why Its Game Looks Incomplete [Update]

A jolting conclusion awaits anyone who bought Dark Matter, an indie game released two days ago on Steam. About four hours in, gamers were abruptly slapped with a wall of text signifying the end of the game. The game’s maker says the hard stop is because the studio’s Kickstarter failed and they ran out of…

Xbox Live Survey: Three Percent of Users Don’t Approve of Free Games?

When it was announced back at E3, the free-games-for-paid-subscribers deal called Games With Gold was supposed to last only until the Xbox One’s launch. Well, now it is officially continued as an “ongoing benefit.” That’s not what caught my eye about the announcement, however. “According to recent surveys, 97 percent of participating members have given…

Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Super Smash Bros., just posted this image to the game’s Miiverse feed; it was then published to its official page. Those antlers belong to Xerneas, The 16-point Pokébuck who debuted in Pokémon X (and on its cover) last week, so look for him to appear in the game in some…

Grading NBA Live‘s Trailer, in the Shadow of NBA 2K14‘s

Maybe people aren’t cooing over it the way they are the NBA 2K14 hype reel released Thursday, but NBA Live 14‘s gameplay trailer does have its virtues. To reiterate, no video game genre more than sports suffers from the over-promises of a next console generation and the point of diminishing returns we’re reaching in recreating…