BattleBlock Theater: The Kotaku Review

BattleBlock Theater is what I want to do on a Friday night. The first time I played it was in the middle of the work week. I stayed up until 2am playing. I don’t stay up until 2am when I have to wake up at 7am for work, not normally. The second time I played…

Hockey Goons Muscle Up with Fight Night Technology in NHL 14

A fighting system backed by technology from Fight Night, plus off-the-ice role playing encounters in the Be a Pro career mode, are among the new features coming to NHL 14, EA Sports said today in offering the first look at the game. To beef up fighting—yes, to those who don’t play, it is in the…

No One Can Stop Mr. Crab

Sometimes I buy a game in iTunes simply because it shows up in the new and recommended section of the store. Other times I purchase a game because it looks like it might be incredibly stupid. I bought Mr. Crab for both of these reasons, and after a weekend spent in crustacean circles I’m feeling…

Skyrim Will Get No More DLC

The folks behind Skyrim say they’re off to the next adventure, which could very well mean there’s no more content planned for Bethesda’s massive role-playing game. In a blog post today, Bethesda’s Skyrim team writes that they’re moving on: “For the last year and a half we’ve been working on new content for Skyrim; from…

Here’s what’s going on at Talk Amongst Yourselves, our reader-written blog: contributor AzureGuy writes about playing Resident Evil 1 for the first time and GiantBoyDetective lists the upcoming games he’s most looking forward to. He wants to know what yours are, so jump in and talk about the titles that you can’t wait to come…

New Nintendo Direct coming Wednesday at 10am Eastern. “Focused on the latest information on 3DS,” Nintendo says.

Dear Psy, Please Be My Candy Crush Saga Friend

While the rest of the world spent the weekend studying South Korean superstar Park Jae-sang’s latest video in preparation for their upcoming parody/tribute/stupid thing, Kotaku‘s mobile editor (hi) was inspired to play Candy Crush Saga forever. It’s nice to know I’m not alone in my obsession. It’s right there at :35 of the music video for…

Sick of grizzled face-down, eye-up heroes? Want to play as a small, cute animal protecting smaller, cuter animals from the dangers of the world? Say hello to Shelter, an in-development game where you play as a mother badger protecting her litter. It’s coming soon from the makers of last year’s very pretty release Pid

DayZ Creator Takes Two Months Off To Climb Mount Everest

The lead designer of DayZ is going off to climb mountains. In a post today on the blog for the zombie survival game, which was originally built as a mod for the first-person shooter Arma 2, DayZ designer Dean “Rocket” Hall writes that he’s taking a two-month sabbatical to go climb Mount Everest in Nepal.…

We Need Better Video Game Publishers

Over the past eight or so years, we’ve all seen a worrying increase in the number of Western game development studios going bankrupt. We’re told this is due to the economic climate and that modern games cost more to make. Much of that is misdirection and plain old-fashioned bullshit. I should know. I’ve been in…

Stunning Minecraft Video Shows All The Castles of Westeros

The creative minds behind the Westeroscraft community —the same guys who made this insane replica of King’s Landing— made their next move to recreate the whole world of Westeros from Game of Thrones in Minecraft After putting up galleries and videos of the main cities, they have released this timelapse video showing every single fort…

Chinese Cosplayer’s Image Stolen To Sell Companion Services

Last week we reported that Chinese gamers could pay female companions to play online games with them. This type of behavior has created an online industry dedicated to selling companion gaming services. However, it seems this industry is a bit shadier than originally reported. Over the weekend, Chinese cosplayer Zhao Mengyue (赵梦玥) came out against…

EA has announced that three of their Facebook games, The Sims Social, SimCity Social and Pet Society, will be going offline on June 14

Take A Look At What Chinese Bureaucrats Play While At Work

Bureaucracy is a funny thing. It’s supposed to make our lives easier by compartmentalizing things and preventing redundancies, but in China (and most places in the world) it just gives bureaucrats more free time at work. Looking to see where Chinese tax payer money is going the city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, did a study…

PSY’s Latest Video As a Horror Film Trailer

PSY’s video for “Gentleman” is tearing up the internet, racking up over 20 million views in only its first 24 hours on YouTube. But if you think those numbers are scary, then you haven’t seen anything yet. Gentleman M/V: Horror Movie Trailer Edition [David Elmaleh at YouTube] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet…

games.on.net has spotted a few-days-old entry for The Elder Scrolls: Arena in the Australian Classification Database. Arena, of course, being the name of the very first game in the series.

Chinese Gamer Sells Drugs To Buy Virtual Gear

A 19 year-old man in China’s Zhejiang province was arrested earlier this month after being caught dealing drugs. The reason he told police was to purchase better in-game gear to compete in player versus player matches. First reported by China Ningbo Online, the 19 year-old suspect surnamed Wang, was an Internet café attendant. Wang dropped…

Guns and Close Combat Explained with Simple Drawings

A few months back, a thread appeared online in Japan with a simple question: How do you get out of a situation like this? The ensuing answers proved one thing: Don’t ask people whose only experience is based on video games, comic books, and movies. The somewhat simple drawing showed a figure with two guns…

Nintendo of Korea Entangled in Twitter Controversy [Update]

Today, Nintendo’s South Korean branch is finding itself embroiled in controversy after a highly unprofessional comment, allegedly made via Twitter. As mentioned on Korean news site Naver (via tipster Sang), someone using Nintendo of Korea’s Twitter account commented on a photo of celebrity Eun Ji Park (above). Once a weather caster, Park is now a…

Looks like Microsoft is planning to break into the touch-enabled watch business