Stardock: PC Gaming Is About To Break Free of ‘Poisonous’ Decade-Old Standards

Every year, the people at PC developer Stardock (Sins of a Solar Empire) release a report to tell their customers and fans how they’re doing. Here’s the 2013 edition [PDF]. But before you hop over there, check this out: The report usually includes some interesting analysis about the state of PC gaming. A standout chunk…

Not Sure How to Feel About That Flashback Re-Make? Listen to The Developers Talk About It.

Here’s how much I loved Flashback: The Quest for Identity: when a clearly unsanctioned version of the classic sci-fi platformer surfaced on Apple’s App Store a few years ago, I knew better than to buy it. But I did anyway. I think the janky code successfully ran only once. It wasn’t enough to rekindle my…

Guacamelee! : The Kotaku Review

On its own, nostalgia isn’t worth a whole lot — It takes a truly special game like Guacamelee! to make you realize why you became nostalgic to begin with. In the video review above, I talk about the experience of playing the artsy retro-throwback Guacamelee!; What it does right and why you should play it.

Massive Layoffs Hit EA Mobile Montreal

In the name of “sharpening its focus to provide games for new platforms and mobile,” EA instituted another round of layoffs today, with sources reporting that nearly the entire staff of EA Mobile Montreal have lost their jobs. While EA has confirmed that layoffs have occurred the company has not shared specific information on the…

Call of Duty Too Realistic For You? Well, They’re Now Pitting Hollywood Mobsters Vs. Zombies

If Far Cry 3 can have its insane Blood Dragon DLC, then Call of Duty: Black Ops II can get Mob of the Dead, one piece of the new Uprising downloadable expansion to Activision’s blockbuster first-person shooter. The mobsters here are controlled by you and three other friends in the game’s co-op zombies mode. They’re…

Far Cry 3 + Neon Skin + Awesome Soundtrack + Stupidity = Blood Dragon

Before the press could sit down and play Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Dean Evans, creative director on the project, wanted to make one thing clear: the script is terrible, the characters are one dimensional, and make no mistake, “the game is stupid.” He said this proudly; the approach was a bullet point. Not every…

This Guy Wrote A Program That Teaches Itself To Play NES Games

This is amazing. Tom Murphy created a computer program that actually learns how to play classic NES games on its own, with a little instruction from Tom. You can see the computer’s progress (which begins near 6:10, after Tom’s explanation of the program) in learning how to play Super Mario Bros. (and other games) in…

This silent teaser trailer from Sega sure looks like it’s heralding some sort of return of Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. New ratings info for the classic Genesis game was recently spotted. If the speculation’s accurate, DuckTales won’t be the only game getting shiny coat of HD paint.

What Can You Glean From This Dark Souls II Fact Sheet?

You saw a bit of Dark Souls II yesterday, thanks to IGN’s stream of a 12-minute demo. I saw that same demo a few weeks ago, and was given some screenshots and a trailer (below) to show to you today. But the screenshots are all what you’ve seen in video form already. I was also,…

Dungeon Hunter 4 Takes In-App Purchases to a Diabolical New Low

In the latest installment of Gameloft’s Dungeon Hunter series of Diablo clones, the most effective means of healing your character mid-battle is paying for it. Screw that. The Dungeon Hunter series starter off as one of the best dungeon crawling action role-playing franchises available on mobile platforms. The first game changed my idea of what…

Prince of Persia is Back (Yay!) It’s a Re-make (Oh.)

Coming to smartphones and tablets, a remake of 1993’s Prince of Persia: The Shadow and The Flame. The awkward thing here is that, well, the graphics of the 20-year-old game look cooler than the remake’s—at least to me. That can’t be right, can it? For comparison, here’s the ’93 version. Soooooo. Who likes the 2013…

Here’s what’s going on Talk Amongst Yourselves, our reader-written blog: a round-up of promising Steam Greenlight games, personal lists of great anime series and a thoughtful meditiation on why a middle class of games is so important. Good stuff, huh? And you can always go join the voices talking about video games and life in…

Dishonored’s Knife of Dunwall DLC—due out next week—puts you in the boots of the hit game’s stealthy bad guy. See how Daud differs from Corvo in the video above.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers will be showing up for download on the 3DS, along with an old-school Kirby game and a sequel to Dillon’s Rolling Western. There’s also a new update for the stereoscopic handheld. Check out all the coming week’s digital Nintendo offerings right here

The newest trailer for Disney Infinity shows how you’ll be able to mash up characters and setting from The Incredibles, Monsters, Pirates of the Caribbean and more in the collectible figure game’s Toy Box mode.

A Rare Look at the Blazing-Fast Hands of a StarCraft II Champion

Korean players excel at StarCraft, putting enormous effort into improving their game. We see the results of those efforts in game replays, but rarely do we get to peek over the shoulder of one of the world’s top players as their supernatural hands do horrible things to their opposition. This is Korean pro gamer StarTale_Sound,…

Here’s Why Mass Effect‘s Villains Were So Excellent

Sometimes it got difficult to remember what evil looks like in the Mass Effect games. With all the soap opera of loyalty missions, interplanetary politics and romance plotlines in the three Mass Effect games, it sure was easy to forget what you had to save the universe from. Sure, the threat loomed large but doing…

My Little Age of Empires II: World Domination is Magic

With the release of Age of Empires II HD, Ensemble Studios’ classic strategy game is re-capturing the hearts of PC gamers everywhere. Turns out some of those hearts have gotten a tad bit more colorful since 1999. Youtuber Yudhaikeledai has taken the game’s distinctive intro and ponified it. Yudahaikeledai takes pony parodies a step further,…

Soul Sacrifice Looks A Lot Different In Book Form

Soul Sacrifice, the game where you battle deformed creatures, and make the choice to either save or sacrifice them is getting a Japanese book adaptation. Scheduled for release on the 25th of this month, according to Play Community on the official Japanese PlayStation website, apparently the book will be an original story set in the…

Japanese blog はちま起稿 says that a release date of July 25 popped up on Capcom’s official page for Ace Attorney 5, only to be removed shortly after. We’re asking Capcom to confirm the date, and will update this post should they respond.