Report: Chinese Gamers Think Chinese Games Pretty Much Suck

We as Westerners complain about the quality of video games all day long. At least we are not subjected to state-run tracts like I Carry Shit Up the Side of the Hill for the Commune Simulator 2013 or whatever it is that China’s propaganda ministry is cooking up these days. Even Chinese gamers hate it,…

Hey, I Just Hacked You, and That Sounds Crazy, but RockBand.com is Offline, So Change Your Passwords Maybe

Hackers appear to have struck RockBand.com and DanceCentral.com right as the games’ maker, Harmonix ended a 281-week run of offering new songs to both rhythm games. While that may seem late to the party to some, to others, closing down a service might be a great time to harvest user names and passwords and try…

The Rock will be featured on the cover of WWE 2K14, the first edition of the series to be published by 2K Sports. The game releases in November.

Which One of These Things is Not Like the Other?

Fuse is developed by Insomniac Games. Fuse is a third-person co-operative shooter. Fuse will release May 28. Fuse will not have an Online Pass. And Fuse will not have any microtransactions. But Fuse will be published by Electronic Arts. Hey, maybe everyone was wrong about all that Worst Company in America stuff after all? Fuse…

Xbox 360 Used as a Weapon in Strange Florida Murder

In five years of writing about weird crime here, I’ve heard of gaming consoles being involved in violent crime in just about every way possible—except as a weapon itself. That’s one of the many bizarre features of a murder in Florida last Sunday. The Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale reported this week that cops in Broward…

This Week in the Business: GameStop is Sold on the Next Xbox

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “[Next Xbox] will be a very hot, compelling device … I think the world is going to stand up and take notice.”—GameStop CEO J. Paul Raines, talking about the as-yet-unofficial new console from Microsoft rumored to be coming out this year…

PSP action RPG Black Rock Shooter is coming to the PlayStation Network on April 23 in the U.S. and April 24 in select European countries. Sorry, Canada and Mexico, licensing issues mean no release for you. We’ll let you look over our shoulders.

Dear Lord, These Fake Human Skin Sculptures Are Disgusting

This tiny furniture isn’t made from real human body parts, not that you can immediately tell. According to Laughing Squid, the artist— Jessica Harrison—created the sculptures using casts of her own hands. Here are a couple of images from her collection, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. …yeah, that’s enough of that. But if…

The first Dragon Fantasy, a wonderful old-school JRPG-style game, is coming to PS3 and Vita. No release date quite yet.

Demon Fusion In Shin Megami Tensei IV Looks Pretty High Tech (And Cool)

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers isn’t out yet, but already I’m looking out to the horizon—and over to Shin Megami Tensei IV, which was recently confirmed for North America. Here we have a clip from Siliconera showcasing what Demon Fusion will look like. There are lots of numbers and wireframes, which makes fusion…

You’re trapped in the dark, and a monster is hunting you. Good thing you’ve got such great ears, and these cute little monsters are helping you! Check out this demo video for Pulse, which was on hand at the IGF booth at GDC last week. Team Pixel Pi are currently running a Kickstarter to try…

All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Playing LucasArts Games

I played a whole lot of LucasArts games growing up. Like, a lot. I used to look forward to getting the company catalogue, The Adventurer, in the mail. I knew all the sword-fighting insults by heart. Sam and Max taught me to love words. Hell, I even got made fun of by crappy playground bullies…

Grantland writes an interesting analysis of the old Super Mario Bros. movie. “Super Mario Bros. created a much more insidious template, one that’s never been as prevalent as it is now: the simultaneous money-grub brand exploitation and fan-base slap in the face.”

The Violence in This Week in Gaming Apps is Simply Enthralling. Appalling. I Meant Appalling.

Our weekly roundup of the new mobile games we’ve played over the past five day period is usually filled with physics puzzles and endless runners. Those things are indeed present this week, but tempered with some good old-fashion shooting people in the head. Oh don’t worry, they’re mostly stick people. I’ve been passing up the…

Farming Simulator. On Consoles. In September. Yes.

The once ironically-beloved Farming Simulator series has blossomed into a damn fine alternative to watching cartoon people pretend to plow on Facebook. The latest version is a smash hit on PC, so here comes the console version, bigger and better than ever. Coming in early September to the Xbox 360 and PC (what, no Wii…

The most noteworthy thing during the Game Developers Conference last week had to be the #lostlevels unconference. It was about inclusivity: anyone could come, and anyone could give a talk. Talks ranged from “The Game Industry Must Be Destroyed” to how to make games more erotic. Watch this video to see what it was about,…

Happy One-Month Anniversary, SimCity. How’s It Going?

One month ago today, EA and Maxis released SimCity into the wild. The game’s launch was… troubled, to say the least. In fact, you could very easily call it a disaster. Server woes, a debilitating online requirement, AI shortcomings, lost cities, and slow customer-service left many gamers angry. In the case of SimCity, a month…

Microsoft Apologizes for Employee’s Always-Online Tweets, Avoids Saying If Next-Gen Xbox Will Require Online

Microsoft is sorry about yesterday’s Twitter drama surrounding Adam Orth, a creative director at the company’s Xbox division, though they’re not ready to speak freely about the part of that drama that could actually affect your gaming future. “We apologize for the inappropriate comments made by an employee on Twitter yesterday,” the company said in…

“It turns out that there isn’t enough helium in the world to make Columbia fly. The math puts it at around 330 million cubic meters of helium.” —An expert explains the difficulty of keeping flying cities—like the one in BioShock Infinite—aloft. Read more at io9

If Dr. Seuss Wrote BioShock and Silent Hill…

The covers would look a little like this. The artist, DrFaustusAU, was featured on Kotaku before. This time, he’s back with two covers: one for BioShock, and one for Silent Hill. Check em out, they come with accompanying rhymes (which are from the original DeviantArt pages): She is just a small girl, but has no…