I Can’t Believe Valve Messed With The Chickens In Counter-Strike

What an outrage. Forget Half-Life 3. Truly, Valve spit in the face of their fans yesterday when they introduced changes to the most important part of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: the chickens. The horrendous changes, asdetailed by the patch notes: [GAMEPLAY] – Chicken changes based on pro feedback: — Reduced chicken sounds dBs and volume. —…

In These Colors, The 2DS Actually Looks Pretty Sexy

Looking at these mock-ups of the 2DSby MYE, I can’t help but wonder if the reaction to the handheld would have been different had these actually been the colors that Nintendo unveiled the 2DS with. I mean, I can’t be the only one that looks at these and thinks they actually make the 2DS look…

Hello, PAX Prime. You’re Looking Swell So Far.

Today’s the first day of Seattle’s version of the Penny Arcade Expo, the tri-annual fan festival that celebrates video games, toys, board gaming and other geeky pursuits. As soon as the doors opened, long queues began to spool out at both Sony and Microsoft’s booths as people lined up for their chances to try out…

If you’re a fan of sports video games and you aren’t listening to the Press Row Podcast, what are you waiting for? The latest edition is out now, and I discuss the review of Madden NFL 25 with a panel of the leading writers on sports games. Hear it at Operation Sports or subscribe on…

The first trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate for the 3DS and Vita is rather snazzy, showing off comic book-style cutscenes and some interesting 2.5D interpretation of the console game’s moves. What’s with the big guy at the end, though? Wasn’t Batman’s first encounter with him during Arkham City, some six years down the line?

Tim Schafer’s Great Video Game Experiment

Tim Schafer had a lot to talk to me about, a lot to clarify, when we met in his offices in San Francisco. It’s been a wild couple of months for Schafer and Double Fine productions. Back in July, Schafer sent an update to backers of his record-breakingly successful Kickstarter adventure game Broken Age, telling…

Baldur’s Gate 2: Enhanced Edition Out November 15

One of the best role-playing games ever made is coming back on November 15. Like the enhanced edition of Baldur’s Gate before it, BG2 is getting a total overhaul: four new party members, a widescreen version, and so forth. It’s out for PC and Mac in November for $25. Android and iPad versions to come.…

Moneysaver: Final Fantasy VII, Android Apps, Dell Monitor, NVIDIA Deal

If you write it, they will save. Check out our coverage of Amazon’s great End of Summer sale if you haven’t already, or check it out again. Deal Leaderboard Madden 25 + NFL Sunday Ticket [PS3/360] ($100) | Amazon | Coverage here Check out our coverage of Amazon’s great End of Summer sale ThinkGeek 20%…

When The AI Flips Out Like This In A Game, It’s Hilarious

It’s almost like the AI in this clip of ArmA III by APPAMANIAC has a hive mind—and the hive mind decided that instead of getting to safety or something, they should all just…pile up around the dead body. Like they’re trying to protect it or something! It’s silly, but amusing. Best AI Ever! (Arma 3)…

Watch An Hour’s Worth of Xbox One Interviews, Live, Right Now [It’s over]

Much of the Kotaku crew is in PAX right now, and so are the good folks over at Twitch, who are doing interviews from the event live, right now, starting with Xbox One titles. For the next hour (10am to 11am Pacific time) Twitch will be streaming three interviews Xbox One titles — Dead Rising…

‘The video game industry has become the whipping boy for laziness…’

Recently, a clip of a pro baseball coach imparting some life lessons to a young boy went viral online. One of those lessons: “Do you play video games? Don’t do that either, or you’ll be dumb like the rest of these idiots. That’s all they do is play video games. You come home from school…

A Rare, Fascinating Look Behind The Scenes Of The Next Final Fantasy

Square Enix, in an effort to both educate and entertain fans, has released the first episode of what is going to be a web documentary series chronicling the making of Lightning Returns, the upcoming sequel to Final Fantasy XIII-2 Narrated by Lightning’s voice actress, Ali Hillis, the introductory episode of “Inside the Square” focuses on…

Spotted in Oregon: Real Five-Acre Plants Vs. Zombies Corn Maze

A Plants Vs. Zombies public relations man tells me his company did not pay for this impressive five-acre corn maze in Oregon. He just sent some images and video… that has a zombie dancing in the middle of it. PR stunt or not, this maze is pretty awesome. UPDATE: Here’s a bigger pic for you…

Assassin’s Creed IV‘s Blackbeard Is Scarier In Real Life

If you thought Blackbeard intimidating in the trailers for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, wait until you see actor Mark Bonnar doing his voice. I peed a little. I spied Bonnar once before in a two-part episode of Doctor Who (2011’s “The Almost People” and “The Rebel Flesh”), and he didn’t strike me as particularly…

Here’s what’s going on Talk Among Yourselves, our reader-written blog: General McFist gives ustips on cooking bacon the manly way, Patrick Allen and friends take a look at Dishonored in Game Club,and Stormborn’s Pokemon: One a Day arts series tackles Charmander, the greatest starter of all time. And you can always go join the voices…

Nintendo of America Chief on Xbox One and PS4: Being New Isn’t Enough

Nintendo has to compete with two more machines this fall, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, both launching in November. It’s part of Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime’s job description to be unfazed by that. Here’s his take on the pending competition: “I don’t think consumers buy hardware just because it’s sexy and new,”…

Hey, remember that Kingdom Hearts compilation for the PS3? The HD 1.5 Remix? It’s still on track for this fall—September 10, specifically. Recently, Square Enix put out a new trailer to show off what the English version plays like. Have a look above, and make sure to check out our review of the Japanese version

A Love Letter To One Of The Most Beautiful Game Worlds

In case you’ve forgotten just how gorgeous Just Cause 2’s Panau Islands look, YouTuber ultrabrilliant is back with an amazing clip in which he revisits all the memorable locations of this amazing open world. The sunset in Panau’s Capital City and the arctic mountain regions still look fantastic. Other Places: Panau (Just Cause 2) [YouTube]…

The Official Xbox One Doritos And Mountain Dew Are Here

A new flavor of Mountain Dew Game Fuel, a shiny bag of Doritos and a card explaining what these things have to do with the Xbox One arrived on my doorstep bright and early this morning, so I made a video and drank some soda. For you. As mentioned in the vid, there’s a party…

As you can see, JoJo’s All Star Battle is not a typical fighting game, even by Japanese standards. Iggy is a DLC character, and he has some quite unusual techniques. And believe me, there’s a reason I chose not to post the GIF version. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some…