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.…

If you didn’t already buy it on GoG.com, now you can also get the classic PC game System Shock 2 on Steam. It’s even on sale for $6.99.

The Moneysaver: Bundles and Bit.Trip and Biodegradable Bullets

Bit.Trip.SAVE For your buying pleasure today, we’re bringing some seriously discounted bundles on big EA titles courtesy of Gamefly. Apply code GFDMAY15 to all of these. Bon appetite. • Crysis 1+2 Maximum Edition+Wars+Warhead [Origin] ($12.74) • Dead Space 1+2 [Securom and Origin] (8.50) • Kingdoms of Amalur Complete [Origin] ($6.79) • Bulletstorm + Syndicate [Origin]…

Stab Up Close And Personal With Dishonored On Oculus Rift

And so the onslaught of Oculus Rift game videos continues with another game that I’d love to play with the thing: Arkane’s excellent first-person stealth game Dishonored Here’s Vaecon walking through the first fifteen minutes of the game, all in ultra-immersive first-person. I sort of wish he’d moved it along to a more action-packed part…

It’s Superman vs. He-Man in This New Comics Crossover

I have to admit that—of all the “who’d win” nerd arguments over the strength of pop-cultural metahumans— the Man of Steel vs. The Hero of Eternia is one I never really thought about. Superman and He-Man? Science vs. magic is always a good clash but so much about the characters’ respective universes was just so…

This Company’s Formula For Rip-Offs Is Minecraft Plus Anything Else

Infocom Games (edit: no, not this Infocom games) seems to have a serious problem with creativity—but they’ve found a way around it. Here’s their secret. Take Minecraft. Combine it with some other popular or good property. Possibly profit? REPEAT. Ace Combat: Block Sniper? It’s Assassin’s Creed plus Minecraft (plus…shooting? Can’t say it’s completely unoriginal, then.…

Watch This Guy Try Really Hard To Sell You…Mark Paynopolis

Mark Paynopolis? Mark Paynopolis. You heard right. I’ll admit, the gameplay for Mark Paynopolis seems a little…boring? Maybe? But the game still retains that quintessential bullet time motion and, well, this guy tries really hard to sell it to you. Enough that I might fork over the cash just because of that. And, hey, at…

StarCraft‘s Most Controversial Player Got Kicked Off His Team

Greg “IdrA” Fields, a professional StarCraft player well-known in the community for getting way too angry when he loses games, was booted from his team Evil Geniuses yesterday. Evil Geniuses, one of the biggest and most successful groups in the world of competitive video gaming, gave IdrA the boot for a comment he made on…

I’d Rather Be Playing This ‘Meditative Space Strategy’ Game Right Now

Some games nearly make me miss my subway stop. Some games tempt me to keep on playing them while I’m walking down the street. This is one of them. It’s Rymdkapsel, and it’s the minimalist real-time-strategy game with a Tetris twist. It’s downloadable and out for PlayStation Mobile platforms now. It’s brought my PlayStation Vita…

Moneysaver One-Shot: Razer Naga Special Edition MMO Gaming Mouse

A deal so hot it’s molten. Looking for the current Moneysaver roundup? Click here 5600dpi, 17 MMO-optimized buttons, crazy backlighting, and a whole lot of good reviews combine to make the Razer Naga Special Edition MMO Gaming Mouse – Molten an easy recommendation. It’s hovering right around its lowest price ever today, so the time…