Slavery Gives Me a Weird Personal Connection to Assassin’s Creed IV

I wouldn’t exist if not for the ugly historical fact of slavery. Somewhere along my family tree, ancestors of mine were traded into bondage, most likely from somewhere in West Africa. And then other forebears wound up on the island of Ayiti—known today as Haiti—where slaves fought for their freedom in the 18th Century. I…

Now that Dota 2 is officially out in the wild, check out our report from last year’s Dota 2 International, where people gathered from around the world to compete over $1.6 million.

A Hoarder of Trees

There’s seriously not an inch of my friend’s town that doesn’t look like this. I’m not sure how I even managed to walk through it.

Here’s what’s going on Talk Among Yourselves, our reader-written blog: Ellen Miller digs up her memories about Sega Master System. Sir Trey’s been imagining what would go into a video game Criterion Collection and considers whether the first Deus Ex belongs in there. And PyramidHeadcrab wants to know what the best game you’ve gotten in…

Madden NFL 25 Pimps GMC’s Rides

After the Super Bowl, the MVP is usually presented with some car and if he’s a pitchman for another auto maker, it can be kind of awkwardly funny. But in Madden NFL 25, your quarterback will go up there and graciously accept that GMC truck, dammit. GMC is the official vehicle of the NFL, and…

Look! Yuna came to visit me!

I love love love love Final Fantasy X. Like, seriously love it. So this is pretty much perfect and I need it.

The Epic Dishonored Saga Comes To A Close August 13

It all comes to a head August 13, when the final downloadable content for Dishonored hits the PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360. Picking up where The Knife of Dunwall DLC left off, Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches continues the adventure of legendary assassin Daud, as he hunts down a coven of powerful witches and finally…

Why Didn’t Think I of This?

The villagers in Animal Crossing have the most random and amazing suggestions to give you. I hope you guys will add your favorite quotes to the comments, but here are some of mine:

Dress Up as the Most Evil Spider-Man This August in Marvel Heroes

Sure, there are already lots of alt-outfits for Spider-Man in Gazillion Entertainment’s click-battle MMO. But this one is Superior. All those wall-crawling suits in Marvel Heroes are basically Peter Parker get-ups. (Ok, yes, Spider-clone Ben Reilly is represented, too.) But, if you like your web-slinger a bit more malevolent and haughty than the original model,…

Guys, Police Quest Is (Basically) Back

It may not have the official name (that’s lost somewhere in Activision’s archives), but upcoming PC adventure game Precinct is, from the designer down to the fundamentals, trying to be something fans of the classic Sierra series will be very interested in. Police Quest founder and designer Jim Walls is leading development on the project,…

DualShock 4 vs. DualShock 3

Just how similar is the new PlayStation 4 controller to the one that PlayStation 3 gamers have been using for nearly seven years? At a PlayStation event in New York City yesterday, we were able to put a model of the DualShock 4 up against a DualShock 3. The biggest difference between the controllers is…

League of Legends As A Pokémon Game Is One Big Headache

xChinnNin takes the gameplay mechanics of Pokémon and blends them with some intense MOBA action to form what looks to be a nerve-wracking nightmare. Interesting concept though, since both League of Legends and Pokémon are about summoning creatures to fight against others — just in a slightly different way. If League of Legends was a…

There’s no rule against using ladders as weapons in wrestling, but that’s not how you do it! Climbing it might also be problematic, even if it’s just WWE ’13 and not reality. Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs every morning, showcasing some of the prettiest,funniest game-related screenshots and art that we can find. Send…

Flowers of Evil is a Boring, Unengaging Anime

Heading into Flowers of Evil, I was excited. I had heard good things about it through the grapevine, and the fact that it was using rotoscope animation was already getting the series a lot of buzz. But by the time the season hit its halfway point, I had no problem putting it on the list…

Goichi Suda’s side-scrolling shooter Sine Mora is out on iOS. The game will also be available for Android “before the end of the month.” Here’s a few screenshots.

NASA Mission Has Anime Mascots (Anime Mascots?)

NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are launching a satellite for next-gen rain and snow observation for the entire globe. This is an important mission and will help us better understand our planet’s water cycles. And it needs an important mascot. NASA decided to hold a contest to select a mission mascot. Since…

Responding to Polygon, SCEA senior producer Tsubasa Inaba said that there’s a chance The Playroom, Sony’s tech-demo-slash-sandbox which was used to demonstrate the new PlayStation Camera at E3, would be available on the console at launch. “We hope to have a more definitive answer in the next month or two,” he added.

Let’s Spend Some Hands-On Time With Pikmin 3

It’s been nine years since the release of the last Pikmin game. And while it’s still weeks away from a Western release, Pikmin 3 was released in Japan this past Saturday. But what exactly is Pikmin 3 like hands-on? You can count on Kotaku East to give you a sneak peek. Check out the video…

Bethesda, publisher of The Evil Within, Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami’s new horror game, recently posted this new piece of concept art on the game’s official Twitter. The caption read: “Sitting in the back of the car, she’s thinking.” Thinking about what? Who could she be?

In This Game, You Date 8-Bit RPG Stereotypes

Last week, we took a look at a boy-love game that had you date slabs of meat. But this new game has you date something else amazing: 8-bit RPG characters. The game is a visual novel called Dot Boyfriend: We’re 8bit Lovers! (ドットカレシWe’re 8bit Lovers!). In it, you play as a girl surrounded by a…