Mario Comes To Life In This Dramatic Speed-Painting

This dramatic piece of Mario art starts as a sketch, but winds up displaying the plumber at his most badass Posted by 8-Bit Ego, this speed-painting is the work of artist Josh Summana, who is doing a new “Heroes” series to accompany his “Bosses” set from last year. Nice. (Thanks, Jehrome and Adel.)

They Want $65,000 To Make An Old-School Point-And-Click Adventure

Some people say that the only real purpose of Kickstarter is to rejuvenate old genres. I have no problem with this. Especially if it leads to cool projects like Mage’s Initiation Mage’s Initiation, a new Kickstarter project designed in the vein of old Sierra point-and-click adventures like Quest for Glory and King’s Quest, looks really…

Gamefront has a good guide for tweaking Crysis 3‘s PC settings through the in-game developer console.

Reviewers Say Addictive Combat Is What Makes Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

It seems that Raiden’s new, high-speed romp through the world of Metal Gear has taken hold of everyone. Even the most critical ones found something to like about the adrenaline-pumping limb-slashing gameplay. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance gets praised for a lot of things. Some are utterly enamored with the swordplay. Others are delighted by the…

In an interesting feature, Gamasutra‘s Mike Rose uses SimCity to re-create and diagnose his hometown’s traffic problems.

There are Plenty of Ways to Pay in the Free-to-Play Real Racing 3

Firemonkeys’ eagerly-anticipated Real Racing 3 is the first free-to-play entry in the popular mobile racing franchise. How far you can get without paying real money depends entirely on how much patience you possess—do you mind waiting 10 minutes for tire repair? Car damage and wear is not an imaginary thing, so it certainly falls within…

Source: The PS4 Will Be Out This November, And You’ll Be Able To Control It With Your Phone

A reliable Kotaku source has informed us that the PlayStation 4, codenamed Orbis, will be out this November in the United States. Our source—the same reliable source who back in early 2012 told us the codename for Sony’s next console and the codename for Microsoft’s next console—tells us that there are two models planned for…

Yes, I am an Anti-Aquaman Bigot

It is axiomatic that any statement prefaced with “I don’t have a prejudiced bone in my body,” is said by someone with a completely prejudiced skeleton, plus teeth. So I won’t hide from it. I’m prejudiced as fuck against Aquaman. I can’t even say some of my best friends are Atlantean. Because I don’t have…

Some Tips For Playing Metal Gear Rising, Since It Does A Terrible Job Of Explaining Anything To You

There’s a part early on in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance where you’re going to want to give up. Please don’t. It’s not your fault that you might be stuck; It’s Platinum’s. And don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Myself and Kotaku colleagues Kirk Hamilton and Chris Person all hit the same ridiculously hard moment…

Activision Lays off About 30 People, Saying There Will Be Fewer Licensed Games This Year

Even the massive money-making game publisher Activision lays off people from time to time, as the company confirmed today that they’ve cut about 30 jobs from their global work force. Kotaku first heard that the cuts were affecting Treyarch, the studio behind Call of Duty: Black Ops II, but a spokesperson for Activision said that…

Sony Registered Domains For Something Called ‘PlayStation Cloud’

On Friday, Sony registered domains for URLs based on something called “PlayStation Cloud,” as discovered by Kotaku sleuth Superannuation today. The domains include playstation-cloud.com and playstation-org, among others. The domains were registered by someone from Gaikai, the cloud gaming service that Sony bought last year. Gaikai allows people to play games via cloud-based Internet streaming.…

A Batty Seven-Minute Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Trailer Cut By Hideo Kojima

While Hideo Kojima didn’t direct Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, he did direct this trailer, and it shows. For one, it’s seven minutes long. Seven minutes long! It’s also batshit crazy and somewhat spoilery (stay away if you don’t want to see anything that happens in the first few chapters of the game). Revengeance came out…

Disney Interactive taps Buzz Lightyear to tease a new mobile game based on the Toy Story franchise. Looks smashing.

These Long-Lost GamePro TV Episodes Are Like A 90s Acid Flashback

Remember the 90s? What am I talking about, of course you do. But if you want to really remember them, like, vividly, watch these episodes of the 1996 edition of GamePro TV, which have been uploaded by the Oakland-based Museum of Art & Digital Entertainment These aren’t to be confused with the 1991 GamePro show—these…

Embracing Piracy Is One Of The Best Decisions These Developers Have Made

Ever wonder how much a developer benefits from promoting a game on The Pirate Bay? The folks behind the Zelda-like Anodyne revealed the specifics behind their recent promotion, and get this: TPB drove way more sales and awareness than reviews and videos alone did. To be specific, the promotion involved spending $7 to have a…

FarmVille 2 More Turkish Delights Kitchen Recipes: Everything You Need to Know

As with almost every theme in FarmVille 2, the second set of Turkish Delights items is here alongside a series of new Crafting Kitchen recipes. Of course, only one of the recipes is technically “free” to create, as the other two require ingredients earned via premium trees. Still, there’s quite a bit of coins to…

Let’s Look At What Sony’s Past Console Reveals Could Say About Tomorrow’s PS4 Reveal

As you might have heard, Sony’s (most likely) officially announcing the next PlayStation tomorrow. This isn’t the first console reveal Sony has done, though. Let’s think back to those times. What information was Sony willing to part with during their very first reveals for their other big consoles? It might give us some insight into…

The PBS NewsHour looks at violent video games tonight, in a segment that includes your Kotaku EiC. Livestream at 6pm ET

Assassin’s Creed 3’s Hero Looks Different—and Cooler—in Its New Alternate Reality DLC

After a really long wait, the Tyranny of George Washington DLC for Assassin’s Creed III drops today, bringing with it an evil version of the United States’ first president. This trailer shows Connor’s alternate, first-nations look in action as well as new abilities for him to wield. The Infamy, part 1 of the three-chapter expansion,…

My New Girlfriend is a Space Pirate

I think what I love most about Sela the Space Pirate is her unwavering courage in the face of overwhelming odds. She masks it as madness—she’s so good at masking it’s scary—but when your life is nothing but maneuvering your finger-guided, auto-firing starship through level-after-level of evil(-ish) aliens and the accompanying bullets, you just gotta…