The Swapper: The Kotaku Review

The puzzle genre is the last place I expected to find a game that makes me feel guilty about killing. I’ve murdered myself a hundred times over in The Swapper, and it never gets any easier. “They aren’t really me,” I tell myself. “They aren’t alive.” Technically it’s true. The meat of Facepalm Games’ award-winning…

Consider #lessonsfromz Free Advice on How Not To Run a Gaming Company

Scott Jon Siegel knows Zynga from the inside out. The game designer was at the casual game company as they grew to becoming a buzzed-about company, working on titles like Café World and Scramble. He left a while back and is now at PopCap Games. Like lots of other game creators, he looked on with…

There Might Be Big Final Fantasy News Coming At E3

The mailman just dropped this off in our inbox. It’s an invitation to a Square Enix event next week, a Q&A with Final Fantasy brand director Shinji Hashimoto. Could be fluffy wish-wash. Or, given the timing, it could be a chance for us to find out just what the hell happened to Final Fantasy Versus…

Game of Thrones‘ Most Horrifying Scene, Now Safe For Kids!

Game of Thrones is a lot of things—fantasy drama, water-cooler provocateur, softcore porno—but it is most certainly not a kid’s show. Someone should really invent a filter, like those gore-filters they have in video games. And hey, what do you know, someone did! (Spoilers after the break!) SPOILERS FOR THIS WEEK’S GAME OF THRONES FOLLOW…

No Wonder Thor Is Ripped. He Prancercises.

Mjölnir is heavy. Like, way heavy. Know why Thor can lift it? Because he got hella swole off prancersizing. Here’s proof. And this is that EveryDayThor seems a tad stiff when it comes to his form. Alas, not everyone can match the lady in the original video—but that’s okay because who knows how ripped he…

40 Persistent (And Lucky) Fans Will Get To Go To Sony’s E3 Conference

You know how Nintendo is inviting fans to go to Best Buy and try out their E3 games? Well Sony’s all, “Eff that, how about you guys just come to our actual E3 press conference?” In a new post at the PlayStation Blog, Sony has invited fans to come to the LA Memorial Sports Arena…

Oh, If Only This Mother-Themed 3DS Were Real

Alas, it’s just a Mother-themed mock-up created by a poster named Mazza on the Nintendo Blast forums (via Tiny Cartridge). I would buy the crap out of this. Nintendo, c’mon.

Sony Online Entertainment is bringing both PlanetSide 2 and the already-on-PS3 DC Universe Online to the PlayStation 4 later this year. That’s two downloadable free-to-play MMOs right out of the starting gate.

The Last Sports Stars of Video Games’ Cartridge Era [Corrected]

Monday, Jason Kidd gave the NBA his retirement notice. He and Grant Hill were the only active players this year that appeared in NBA Jam: Tournament Edition from 1994. Like veterans of a long-ago war, day by day we are losing the athletes of video gaming’s cartridge era. These are the last of them. In…

by Peeking Boo

This Is Why Remember Me Is a Great Piece of Science Fiction

Maybe you’re on the fence about Remember Me, the cyberpunk action/platformer hybrid that came out this week. Critical reaction to the Capcom published has been all over the map but Kotaku video editor Chris Person and I found a lot to like about it. In the video above, we talk about Remember Me as an…

How Wet Does Tegra 4 Make Dead Trigger 2? So Wet.

Madfinger Games’ ambitious follow-up to zombie shooter Dead Trigger is one of the poster games for Nvidia’s new Tegra 4 chip, the power behind the upcoming Shield handheld. Today the developer has released a video demonstrating how much moister the game will look on the powerful new tech. There are other effects in there as…

If Only 3D Animation Was Really This Easy

I’ve always wanted to be be an animator, but it’s always seemed like a complicated, arduous process. If only there was a simpler way… Now there is! Well, not really. Check out the video above by animator Giovanni Braggio, as he shows you just how easy (fictional) CGI animation is. [Vimeo Staff Pick via Chevy…

He Made That Sweet Assassin’s Creed III Hoodie, And This Is His Story

Enzo Volante had been designing characters and costumes since he was in the second grade, but it wasn’t until he graduated college that he learned how to design patterns and make clothes. It was a necessity: he had no job and he needed something to wear. Just because it was a necessity didn’t mean he…

Nintendo’s Clarification About The 8GB Wii U Doesn’t Clarify Much

Nintendo is pushing back a tad against the notion, reported by Kotaku yesterday, that 8GB Wii U Basic’s demise is imminent. Yesterday we reported that GameStop has issued a “recall” of the $300 white version of the Wii U. Today, Nintendo says that they are simply doing a “rebalance” of the supply of white 8GB…

Do you still fantasize that Apple will make a game console? Read this in-depth feature on The Gameological Society about the Pippin and the last time that the iPhone makers tried cracking the home video game market.

Holy Hell, This Guy Re-Created All Of Baldur’s Gate In 3D

It took him seven years, but yesterday, game designer Drew Rechner finally released Baldur’s Gate: Reloaded, a ridiculous mod that puts the entirety of BioWare’s classic RPG—including the expansion, Tales of the Sword Coast—into Neverwinter Nights 2 To play the mod, you’ll need a copy of Neverwinter Nights 2 and its expansions Mask of the…

Brian Eno, Of All People, Explains The True Beauty Of Retro Games

The appeal of 8-bit music, retro graphics and other art forms defined by their limits, beautifully explained by prolific musical artist and producer Brian Eno in his 1996 diary “A Year With Swollen Appendices.” Originally posted on volume xii, via Business Insider

The Moneysaver: Mass Effect Trilogy $20, Battlefield 4, Arkham Origins

Ladies and gentlemen, there will be deals. And we’re off. Pre-order discounts available on Arkham Origins and Battlefield 4, while Mass Effect Trilogy is down to $20 on PC. Console owners can get Mass Effect 3 for $8 as well. Don’t miss our first deal on the Haswell i7-4770K, or the sweet price on the…

Their $5 Gaming Chair Turned Out To Be A $150,000 Antique

A Colorado couple found out that the chair that they’d been gaming on was a vintage Eames chair. According to Fox Philadelphia the chair, an antique Eames LCW manufactured by Herman Miller and designed by Charles and Ray Eames, is estimated to be worth 150,000 dollars. The couple had bought it for five bucks, used…