The new multi-player FPS from Counter-Strike’s creator has entered open beta. As promised, Tactical Intervention is now available on Steam as a free-to-play game. You can take a look at it here

Game Developer Says His Son Has Been Kidnapped

The last time game programmer Kris Morness says he saw his 5 year-old son, Maximus, was on July 25 this year. It was a Thursday, and they talked on Skype. Everything seemed normal, but normal can be deceiving. That was the last time Morness has seen—or heard from—his son. Now, he’s doing everything to get…

Devour Your Way to Victory in this Hack n’ Slash RPG

The Witch and The Hundred Knight is a throw-back to the times when top-down action-adventure games ruled the world with fast and frantic hack n’ slash battles. In it, you play as the titular Hundred Knight—who, despite the implied plural, takes the form of a single, small, cute magical creature—and venture into the world of…

How to Get Software Developers Out of Bed

Mornings suck! At one Japanese company, the software developers kept coming in after noon. But now, there looks to be a solution: Food and aerobics. At Tokyo-based Dwango, software developers, who work on its tech platform and who make Wii U and PS Vita apps roll in after noon, were chronically coming in late to…

An Anime That Will Make Even the Most Jaded Heart Weep

The thing I love about many new anime films is that they often serve to introduce me to excellent series I missed out on during the years when I didn’t watch any anime. One of these is Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day—a beautiful, heartbreaking story about loss. And as the theatrical film of…

I Can’t Get Over How Pretty This Zombie Game Looks

These five new screenshots for Dying Light, Dead Island developer Techland’s upcoming free-running zombie survival game, were released by Warner Bros. accompanying an announcement about the game’s competitive “Be The Zombie” mode. This multi-player game mode, which will only be available to pre-order customers at release, will feature Night Hunters—extremely strong and agile zombies who…

Producer Avi Arad On Mass Effect, Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid Movies

Avi Arad, the man who helped put many comic book heroes on the big screen, including Spider-Man, Blade, and Iron Man, is at it again. This time, he’s set his sights on turning video game adaptations into Hollywood blockbusters, just the way comic book movies have become. During a recent interview in Beijing, Arad spoke…

I Am in Love With This Bewitching Game Soundtrack

The Witch and The Hundred Knight presents a world filled with monsters, knights, ghosts, animal people, and, of course, witches. What’s amazing is that you’d probably be able to guess that just by listening to a few bars of the soundtrack. This is because several of the songs in this soundtrack are reminiscent of Danny…

A Somber, but Beautiful Trailer About Tanks, Planes, Gunships and War

Gaijin’s military combat MMO War Thunder is here to talk to us about the horrors of war—though the all-caps “Ready for Next Gen?” message at the end kinda breaks the mood a bit. Still, whether you care for the game or not, this is a damn great trailer and it deserves at least one look.…

In Japan, There Are Fake Noses for You To Pick

Remember, you can pick your friends. You can pick your nose. But you can’t pick your friend’s nose. So pick this phoney nose! From the folks at Bandai, here’s a line of synthetic rubber noses called “Hojirerun desu” (ほじれるんです), which means they are “pickable.” These are capsule toys and starting next month, they’ll be sold…

Someone Wants $10 Million for This Yu-Gi-Oh Card

This isn’t just any Yu-Gi-Oh card. It is apparently a one of a kind Yu-Gi-Oh card. And it’s one that has an astronomical price tag: a cool ten million bucks! Printed on stainless steel, this unique Black Luster Soldier card was given to the winner of the first nationwide Yu-Gi-Oh tournament in Japan in 1999.…

No More New PlayStation Home Content for Japan

Today, Sony announced that PlayStation Home will no longer be updated with new content in Japan. In an official release, Sony stated that starting this September, new PlayStation Home content will end in Japan. It will end in other Asian regions in March 2014. New PlayStation Home content will continue to be released in North…

Grumpy Cat, Meet Disappointed Cat

Aw, how adorable! But what’s troubling you, Disappointed Cat? Is it us? We are sorry! This is Foo-chan, a 3 year-old Chinchilla Golden with his own Twitter account and Tumblr. The feline’s owner uploads regular pics of Foo-chan to share the cute pet with the internet. But Foo-chan’s heavy brow makes him look… worried. Like,…

PSP Games Are Helping Unborn Children Grow Up Happy

Bright colours, cute characters, a nature theme, Sony’s LocoRoco has made the perfect baby room for reader Scott and his in-development, soon-to-be-released next project. If you think those are just vinyl decals, nope. They got some specialists in to hand-paint the whole thing, which has turned out just great

Your Favourite Movie & TV Stars Have Come To Life

Artist and toy wizard Scott Petterson makes custom action figures. Big ones, with real clothes, and faces that look just like some of your favourite TV and movie stars, from stuff like Bladerunner, The Walking Dead and Dirty Harry. Oh, and Johnny Cash There are two things that make Petterson’s work stand out. The first…

A Man Who Makes Video Games Move

No disrespect to concept artists, but it’s always great when I get to run a Fine Art on something other than traditional 2D work, if only because that’s what we end up running most of the time. Today’s a great day, then, because we’re looking at one of the animators who has brought series like…

A 38-Hit Combo. Using A Horse

Need further proof of just how crazy the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fighting game is? Watch this. Yup. That’s a horse. Amazing. Jojo’s All Star Battle Gyro Combos [YouTube, via @Richmond_Lee]

The Internet Reacts Like Idiots To The “Official” GTAV Trailer

Another Grand Theft Auto V trailer, another round of people commenting on YouTube, saying the worst/best things you could possibly say about the trailer to a video game. It’s almost as if some super-smart guys were in there making these up, but there’s a perfect mixture of ignorance and brutality that I think might just…

Accused Kickstarter Scammers: “We Are Not Scamming Anybody”

Earlier in the week, the developers of upcoming Ouya exclusive Gridiron Thunder faced allegations that their Kickstarter was a scam, something they tell Kotaku is simply not true. Looking to discuss accusations that their game was little more than a ruse geared towards securing funding from Ouya under a new exclusivity funding scheme, I spoke…

Xbox One Voice Commands Won’t Work At Launch For Everyone

One of the key draws of making the new Kinect mandatory for the Xbox One is that it allows you to do stuff like turn the console on just by talking to it. For Americans, you’ll be able to do that at launch, but if you’re from Australia or Austria, you won’t. Some very, very…