A Love of Learning is the Guide to Life—and Video Games

Video games are not a complete and total waste of time. Assassin’s Creed teaches you world history. Metal Gear Solid teaches politics and philosophy. And Cooking Mama teaches you, well, cooking. Those are some of the nuggets of wisdom at “Real Things Video Games Teach You,” a tumblr that in two days has compiled nearly…

Diablo III’s real-money auction house, taken down for most of the week by an exploit that allowed players to duplicate their gold, is back online, says Blizzard.

Top Warcraft Guild Disbands, Blaming the Raiding Community

These past few weeks haven’t seen a lot of good news thrown World of Warcraft‘s way. The MMO shed more than a million users over the past year, a development Activision’s CEO called “troubling.” Before that, some of the game’s hardest-core players called it quits, too. Exodus, on April 26, said it was disbanding as…

Moneysaver One-Shot: Rockstar Weekend

Hey now, you’re a Rockstar, get on Amazon, go save. Looking for the current Moneysaver roundup? Click here You don’t have to go bowling ad nauseum with annoying NPC’s to enjoy these deals. Amazon’s gone and discounted quite a few Rockstar games for the weekend, so if these must-plays haven’t made their way into your…

EA Sports’ Boss Sells All of His EA Stock, but Isn’t Going Anywhere

Andrew Wilson, the man in charge of EA Sports and newly in command of Electronic Arts’ Origin digital distribution service, sold all of his shares in the company on Thursday, cashing out for about $687,000. It’s a curious move but it wouldn’t appear that Wilson is going anywhere, and indeed a statement from an EA…

This Week in the Business: A Second Chance to Make a Bad Impression

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “‘We realize that those negative impressions exist.”—Precursor Games CEO Paul Caporicci, explaining that the company, composed mostly of ex-Silicon Knights employees, will make better games than the critical and commercial dud X-Men: Destiny QUOTE | “The disappointing launch of the Wii…

The Best Of Kotaku, The Week of May 6th

Good morning, Kotaku! How’re you all this weekend? I’m fabulous because I’m in Austin visiting my brothers, and that is a very, very good thing. We had some previews this week, Zac Gorman returned with a funny comic, Evan checked out NYU’s No Quarter event where he talked to the creator of QWOP about his…

More Video Games With References To The Wire, Please

I’m tired of Aliens and Star Wars references in video games. But references to HBO’s great drama The Wire? I’ll take more. Above, a scene from the interesting upcoming game Watch Dogs, which enables you to hack into—and see through—security cameras in a modern Chicago. Below, the presumed inspiration: When I asked the game’s senior…

You might think that a good-looking game like BioShock Infinite would be perfect for a screenshot gallery at Dead End Thrills… and you’d be right! Duncan Harris has posted a bunch of great new high-res shots over at his site. Go check ’em out.

Your Weekend Is Going To Be Horrible. Bring Some Gaming Apps.

Look, I am really sorry you are heading into the worst weekend of your life. I’d try to warn you, tell you what sorts of people, places and things to avoid, but fate doesn’t work that way. You’ll either ignore me completely, thinking I’m some sort of psycho, or you’ll adjust your plans and fate…

Video Games With The Most Memorable Pre-Rendered Backgrounds

Pre-rendered graphics weren’t only used in complex cinematic cutscenes back in the day when a game’s own 3D engine couldn’t do the job. Developers also used them as in-game backgrounds to bypass graphical limitations. And some of the games had really well-made, atmospheric pre-rendered backgrounds. Squaresoft and Capcom preferred these a lot in their PS1…

What’s Up With This ‘Xbox Infinity’ Stuff?

Maybe you’ve seen the name “Xbox Infinity” floating around on the Internet this week. Maybe you’ve been wondering just what people are talking about. Don’t worry: we’re here to help. Let’s address some Frequently Asked Questions. Is that the real logo for the next Xbox? Nope. It’s a Photoshop by a Redditor named C-Ron So…

GameStop’s Latest ‘Exclusive’ Is A Game That Isn’t Exclusive

Another handy Power Up Rewards e-mail from GameStop arrived in my inbox today. A game that you can download to your 3DS without going into a store is “exclusively at GameStop.” GameStop isn’t even selling it for an exclusive price. Does anyone in gaming use the word exclusive correctly?

Two Interpretations of Soul Sacrifice, a Game That Might Need a Hug

Soul Sacrifice is cranky. Soul Sacrifice is surly poetry, like what you’d find in an angsty high-schooler’s Moleskine. Soul Sacrifice doesn’t trust you. Y’know, man, do what you want… but Soul Sacrifice really wishes you cared more. These are the things that blew through my mind while coming to grips with the new game for…

Defiance The Show Gets A Season Two. That’s Not Good For Me.

SyFy and Trion World’s crossmedia experiment seems to be a hit in both intereactive and non-interactive form, with more than a million active accounts in than a million registered accounts for the MMO and nearly four million viewers tuning in for the television series premier. Today Syfy has announced that it’s renewed the TV series…

Maybe Adventure Time Can Redeem Monopoly

Monopoly kind of sucks as a board game, let’s be real. And yet I’m tempted to have another go at it, if only because there’s an Adventure Time themed Monopoly set—and it looks excellent. Chance and Community Chest? What are those? I think you mean “Algebraic” and “What the lump” cards. Houses and hotels? Actually,…

A Game That’s Part Tony Hawk, Part Spider-Man

Jamie Fristron has worked on a lot of games during his time in the video game industry, but he says that his most well-known creation was the web-slinging system in Spider-Man 2. Now, he’s making a new game called Energy Hook that combines Spidy-style rope-slinging with jetpacks and extreme sports. Okay then! The key to…

Introducing: Ask Kotaku, Where I’ll Give Advice On Anything You Need

Hello Kotaku! My name is Tina. Have we met? I’m here to answer your questions with savvy advice. What questions? Any questions! Be they game-related or life-related, I want to hear you out. And I want to offer an ear and perhaps a shoulder and a few wise words. Or funny ones! Sometimes laughter beats…

How To Break Final Fantasy IV

Have you ever wanted to make Rydia beat herself up? No? Well you might enjoy this anyway. Last year on Random Encounters, we learned how to break Final Fantasy VI. Today, I’m going to show you how to take apart one of its Super Nintendo predecessors, Final Fantasy IV (the one with Cecil and Golbez).…

This Amazing Video Game Art Will Make You Wish You Were in Canada

Maybe you live in Toronto. Maybe you’ll be at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival this weekend. But if you won’t be in the upper part of the North American continent over the next few days, you won’t be able to see some incredible video game art. But we can show some of it right here.…