The Gamer Who Raised Me

There are many factors that have made me into the person I am today, as is the case with any person on this planet. My personality has been partially formed by that chemical factor called ‘depression’ that I have discussed here many times but, as any good psychologist would tell me, there are also plenty…

This Week in the Business: When a Game Ships, the Axe Falls

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “The hire-and-fire cycle is simply an aspect of our industry. When a game ships, sometimes the guillotine has to drop.”—David Valjalo, game consultant, talking about an unfortunate reality of making AAA games today QUOTE | “It’s not the decline of consoles,…

If Dr. Seuss Wrote The Last of Us and Resident Evil…

Then the covers would look a little like…this! Here are the latest and greatest Dr. Seuss themed covers and rhymes from DrFaustusAU, who graced us with other similar covers in the past. This time we’ve got The Last of Us, Resident Evil, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and BioShock Infinite—all from the last couple of months.…

The Best Of Kotaku, The Week Of June 24th

It kinda feels like it’s been a slow week, but looking back it really wasn’t. Deadpool released, so did Company of Heroes 2, we’re still catching up with all our E3 previews of games we saw in LA, and everyone is slowly coming together to discuss The Last of Us as they complete it. Check…

Total War: Rome II Is Gonna Wage War On Your Hard Drive

It’s likely that the amount of content will justify it (at least, that immense screenshot they shared helps give that impression), but man alive is Total War: Rome II going to take up a lot of hard drive space. 35 gigabytes, to be precise, according to the recommended specs released today by Creative Assembly. Time…

Even More Game of Thrones Characters As Bad 90s Stereotypes

Mike Wrobelis at it again: here’s a collection of even more Game of Throne characters asbad 80s/90s stereotypes. This time around, we’ve got Khal Drogo, Cersei Lannister, Tyrion Lannister, Bronn, Theon Greyjoy and Margaery Tyrell. When the cast of the show is so huge, there’s no shortage of people to pick from, eh? Cersei in…

These Dudes Know How To Break It Down To Final Fantasy Music

Typically, when someone does an ode to Final Fantasy, they’ll do stuff like fan art or fan fiction. Mikeosonghas a more novel idea: choreography to go along with some of his favorite Final Fantasy themes—it’s so good, you’d think it was something out of a boy band (my mind goes to K-Pop, but only because…

Developer Arrested For Child Porn, ‘No Longer Affiliated’ With His Studio

Kenneth McCulloch, a developer at Precursor Games—the developers who want to createa sequel to Eternal Darkness—is now facing child pornography charges according to Bullet News Niagaraand the Niagara Regional Police Service. McCulloch is being charged with “one count each of possession of child pornography, making child pornography available and accessing child pornography,” to be specific.…

It’s not really clear whether being gay in Rogue Legacy, the roguelike-like in which characters have randomly-generated traits, actually does anything. (Players and reviewers say it doesn’t.) Either way, this GameFAQs screengrab (via Mike Henry) is too good not to share.

The Next Mario & Luigi RPG Looks Absolutely Delightful

Man. It’s hard to watch this trailer and not want to get my hands on Mario & Luigi: Dream Team right now. Well, my hands were actually on Dream Team on Monday, during a meeting at Nintendo’s offices in Manhattan. I played about 30 minutes of the upcoming RPG, which is out for 3DS on…

The Week In Gaming Apps As You’ve Never Seen It! No, Not Naked.

Are you ready for another all-new, all-different Week in Gaming Apps? Well tough, it’s happening. After a couple of years’ worth of putting together a lengthy list packed with images and prices and lengths, we’re going to harness the power of Kinja to make things a little more organized. I’ll drop the links, images and…

This Referee Has To Chill Out, And Other Popular GIFs This Week

The animated awesomeness never stops. Whether it’s a new game, a funny video or a talented artists’ work, there’s always something that looks better as a GIF. Let’s gather some popular ones that surfaced and made the rounds this week. It’s good to see that after all those years, HelixSnake is still making his awesome,…

‘I Need A Drink’: Seth Rogen Plays The Last of Us

The fine folks at IGN invited writer/actor Seth Rogen and his partner in crime, Evan Goldberg, to play the opening to The Last of Us. It’s fun to watch. And yes, Seth Rogen games with inverted controls, because of course he does. (Warning: this video contains spoilers for the first 30 minutes of the game.)

Aliens Invade the White House in This 10-Minute Saints Row IV Preview

Technically, the mansion where America’s chief executive lives is called the White Crib in Volition’s latest open-world action game. But, given that it gets blown up about two minutes into this preview of Saints Row IV, the new name doesn’t seem like that big a deal. In the clip above, which originally debuted at E3,…

What’s Your Favorite Animal Crossing: New Leaf Song?

We’ve gone over how to compose a great town theme for Animal Crossing: New Leaf But one of the best things about the game is the actual soundtrack, reliably changing tunes every hour as you make your way through a 24-hour cycle. In AC:NL, some players will hear certain songs more than others, depending on…

Street Fighter As A Black-and-White Disney Cartoon

Red Little House, the developers behind adventure game Fleish & Cherry in Crazy Hotel, have created a series of cool illustrations that mash up Fleish characters with other video games. It kind of makes me wish we had more video games in the style of classic cartoons, because it looks rad. The one above features…

The Remarkable Short Stories Of Lost Odyssey

Lost Odyssey is unique in a lot of ways. It’s the rare traditional JRPG on high-definition consoles, for one—most role-playing games made in Japan today are more experimental, or designed for less costly handheld platforms. Lost Odyssey is also one of the only Japanese games exclusive to the Xbox 360, which never really took off…

I’m Feeling Pretty Bad About Shooting All These Russian People

“Defeat the monstrous mutants and barbaric brutes of Moscow’s underground” begins the description of the game I’ve been playing where I shoot vagrants and bag ladies in the face. Why am I killing all of these people? “Veiled terrors have transformed the inhabitants of Moscow into horrific demons,” the description of Moscow Dash explains. Well,…

How The PS4 Came To Be

Ever wonder how the heads at Sony came up with the PlayStation 4? Watch Mark Cerny, lead architect behind the console and director of upcoming PS4 exclusive Knack, give an in-depth lecture at Gamelab 2013 where he discusses the two decades’ worth of history in console-making that influenced the path they’d take to creating Sony’s…

The Moneysaver: Metro: Last Light, 360 Bundle, Humble, Target Money

If you’ve got financial troubles I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but full price ain’t one. Click me. No need to beat around the bush, yesterday’s deal on the insane Borderlands bundle at Amazon is also today’s best deal. Don’t worry though, there’s a whole lot of new stuff to choose…