Final Fantasy VII is out on Steam, so I thought this might be a good opportunity to point readers to “The Final Fantasy VII Letters,” a series Leigh Alexander and I wrote back in 2011. She was a FFVII veteran and I’d never played, and together we went on a journey that changed us forever.…

Pokemon Aren’t The Only Ones That Evolve. So Do The Fans.

A Pokemon fan has many stages as they grow older. Evolutions, if you will—which Dorkly illustrates with a funny comic about the different types of Pokemon fans that exist. Mind, these aren’t all the possible Pokemon fans out there. But surely you’ve met some of these, yeah? Which would you say you are, if any?…

Hideo Kojima Reviews Pacific Rim In Eight Tweets

It’s no surprise that Hideo Kojima, maker of games about people, giant robots and war would like a new summer blockbuster about people, giant robots and monsters. (Hey, two out of three…) It is nevertheless refreshing to see how gleeful the Metal Gear mastermind is about next week’s Guillermo Del Toro action flick, Pacific Rim.…

Zombies, Women & Citizen Kane: Last of Us Makers Defend Their Game

The Last of Us is one of the most critically acclaimed big-budget games of the last year. All the same, it’s gotten its fair share of criticism. Is it too difficult? Too much like a movie? Are female characters relegated to the sidelines? And why the heck aren’t they just called zombies? I took these…

Indian gamers are waging a Twitter campaign against EA with the hashtag #EAPCIndia. Their beef? EA has jacked up the price of PC games this year. Last year’s Battlefield 3 had cost roughly the equivalent of $20 in India. Battlefield 4 will be close to $60, or 3,499 rupees. IndianVideoGamer.com has the story and the…

How You’d Cook A Clicker From The Last of Us. Y’know, If You Could.

You gotta think, someone, somewhere in The Last of Us’ universe has tried to cook Clicker meat. Not like, the once-human part of the Clicker—they’d probably cook the stuff growing off the Clicker’s face. Gross, I know, but…someone has tried it, surely. Right? Well, if you’re curious as to how they’d probably go about cooking…

13 Minutes Of Gameplay From Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

No Random Encounters today—sorry!—but here, have 13 minutes of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII gameplay from the Japan Expo in France this week. For more on Lightning Returns, check out my hands-on impressions from E3 last month.

The Moneysaver: All 3 Bioshocks for $40, Humble Weekly, Mad Max

I chose the impossibly cheap. Happy Friday dear readers, hope everyone ate themselves into a coma yesterday. The Amazon Summer Sale limped a bit out of the gate but things are in full swing now. With deals like all three Bioshocks for $40, this is Amazon Mayhem all over again. There’s a dirt cheap 2560×1440…

The New Age Of Star Wars Tabletop Role-Playing Begins Today

West End and Wizards of the Coast had their go. Now it’s Fantasy Flight Games’ turn at tackling Star Wars tabletop role-playing, and they’re off to a gruff and gritty start with Edge of the Empire. Who wants to be a bounty hunter? Rather than attempting to represent the length and breadth of the Star…

NCAA Football 14: The Kotaku Review

The meanest thing I ever did in high school I did to a senior on the football team. His teammates were in my computer class, snickering about his hope of playing big time ACC football. I was a scrawny sophomore trying to be popular. I helped them forge some Clemson letterhead, and signed it “Head…

The Return of Campy Batman Is My Favorite Comics Panel This Week

Batman ’66 #1: It’s that most miserable of times in the mainline Batman continuity, the period after someone close to Batman dies. So, of course, Bruce Wayne’s busy alienating everyone who cares for or works with him. Who knows how long this bout of Dark Knight grumpiness will continue? That’s why it’s great that Batman…

Ultimate Ninja Storm 3: Full Burst Brings Naruto Battles To PC

Announced yesterday during the Japan Expo in Paris, Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 is getting an upgrade this winter, with fresh missions, enhanced visuals, a new playable character and — most importantly — a PC version. Namco Bandai is calling this enhanced version of the last installment of CyberConnect2’s long-running franchise Naruto Shippuden Ultimate…

Hollywood’s Long History of Mostly Failing to Make Video Games

As mainstream video games strived to be more cinematic and as gaming emerged as a major source of entertainment revenues, it was only a matter of time until the talent from the film industry would attempt to get in on the action. Such a thing has indeed happened numerous times. For whatever reason, it typically…

DARK Seems Nice, For A Vampire Game With A Dance Soundtrack

Okay, it doesn’t really have a dance soundtrack But for some reason, developer Realmforge Studios thought it appropriate to go with a somewhat nightclubby mood for their stealth-action game’s release trailer DARK is, obviously, a vampire game. It stars Eric Bane, a fledgling vampire who’s trying to hunt down his sire (ie. the vampire who…

Here’s what’s going on Talk Among Yourselves, our reader-written blog: GiantBoyDetective declares that Japan, not the U.S., made the most American game ever. NotGoodForYou theorizes why Killing Floor: Calamity could wind up being great. And, FrogFro wants to know what you’re listening to. And you can always go join the voices talking about video games…

Microtransactions? In World of Warcraft? It Could Happen.

In-game purchases? In World of Warcraft? Could happen, says a Blizzard community manager. Earlier this week, World of Warcraft players on the game’s public test server discovered an item called the Enduring Elixir of Wisdom. The item description: “Experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 100%.” In other words, it makes grinding…

The Latest New Pokemon Is A Cold, Dead Thing

In the interest of appeasing those who would rather keep all of the new Pokemon coming in X and Y later this year a surprise, we’ve employed a time-tested technique of obscuring the latest reveal. It’s a Ghost type. It’s also a Steel type. And it’d be right-at-home in the hands of a DC Comics…

Japanese Gamers and Retailers on the Next-Gen Consoles’ Pricing

This year’s E3 turned out to be one of the more interesting and exciting conventions in recent memory. Unfortunately for yours truly, I was stuck across that pesky barrier, commonly referred to in geography classes as the Pacific Ocean. But that didn’t keep me and other interested peoples here in Japan from checking in on…

Day Z, the horror mod for Arma, is frightening enough as it is, and then horrific glitches like this pop up. This thing would make the zombies run for their lives (deaths?). 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.…

How One Korean Actress Conquered Facebook with Cosplay

Yuri Seo is a voice actress for League of Legends. She’s also a cast member of Saturday Night Live Korea. And recently, she conquered Facebook. When the fourth season of SNL Korea was getting underway, all the cast members were told to promote SNL Korea on Facebook—well, except her. Seo wrote on Facebook (via tipster…