I Came Precariously Close to Hating This Magnificent Mobile Adventure

With a slew of positive iTunes reviews and a couple of pre-release awards under its belt, I was expecting Frogmind’s Badland to be a transcendent mobile gaming experience. I was greatly disappointed, at least for the first 20 minutes. If you had asked me for an honest assessment of Badland during those early moments, I…

What Else Would You Like Us To Cover?

We cover video games here at Kotaku, but, in case you hadn’t noticed, we cover some other stuff, too—and we certainly don’t cover every video game. We’d like to hear from you. What games and non-games stuff would you like to see more coverage of on this site? Currently, we aim to cover gaming from…

Hints of a Next-Gen Xbox TV Strategy, A Multiplayer Quantic Dream, And More Gaming Secrets

Editor’s note: The mysterious figure known as Superannuation likes to go digging on the Internet. What Superannuation finds is all available to the public. Every two weeks, Superannuation shares his findings. Are these true gaming secrets? Or are they gaming red herrings planted to throw Superannuation off? Read on… On LinkedIn, a Microsoft engineer says…

A fourth hacker behind attacks on Sony and Nintendo in 2011 (but not the one that brought down PSN for more than a month) pleaded guilty in London yesterday. All four of them will be sentenced on May 14.

Hey, you want to talk about stuff, right? Go join the voices talking about video games and life in Talk Amongst Yourselves, our reader-written blog.

IGDA to Set Standards for ‘Networking Events’ in Response to Flap Over GDC Party

“Parties” are out and “networking events” are in, under new guidance from the International Game Developers Association’s executive director, responding to the blowup over a party at Game Developers Conference 2013 that featured scantily-dressed dancers. “The IGDA will offer ‘networking events’ as its primary focus, not ‘parties,'” Kate Edwards wrote in a bullet-point memo published…

“I think it had the first deaths by diarrhea or farts ever in video games.” Go to The Gameological Society and read this piece by Ryan Smith on Tattoo Assassins, the incredibly tasteless, Mortal Kombat rip-off that never got released.

Oh Great, Skylanders Happy Meals. Just What I Needed.

You know you’ve made it as a children’s entertainment property when Mike Fahey’s car is filled with empty McDonald’s Happy Meal boxes. Peek inside my 96 Nissan Pathfinder between April 12 and May 2 and that’s exactly what you’ll find, as I spend a month trying to gather all nine of the Skylanders Happy Meal…

It Was The Sidekicks, Not The Hero, That Made Me Love Mass Effect

Tali was the one who made me realize that my world had changed. Tali—never even my favorite—who had become suddenly beloved and made me stop and think hard about what mattered to me most. And it all began when I got her killed. [Spoilers for all three Mass Effect games follow.] Two days before Mass…

Watch Assassin’s Creed: Revelations Recut Into a Really Long Feature Film

Andy Gilleandnears completion of his planto recut every main Assassin’s Creed gameas a full-length movie. Now he works his magic with Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, weaving together cutscenes and gameplay into a three hour epic that someone with no Assassin’s Creed experience could understand. That just leaves Assassin’s Creed III, at least until Black Flag comes…

Ubisoft has confirmed that the upcoming stealth-em-up Splinter Cell: Blacklist is coming to the Wii U. This version will have special Wii U Gamepad-exclusive features, which allow players to “operate innovative gadgets, take out enemies and move through the environment, and intuitively switch between weapons.” The Wii U version will be released at the same…

The Darkest Cyberpunk Worlds In Japanese Video Games

Cyberpunk was a big deal in the 80s and in the 90s. Writers like Philip K. Dick and William Gibson, movies like Blade Runner, and anime such as Akira heavily influenced video games. The result was games with a dark, dystopian future, high technology and low life. We’ve gathered Japanese games from this era to…

Well, This Anime Looks Different. Thank Goodness.

For what seems like forever now, googly-eyed saccharine cute characters have dominated Japanese anime. In the past few years, there seems to be a sea change. This is a good thing. Granted, I don’t hate the cutesy moé style. I just like a little variety! And new anime The Flowers of Evil offers just that.…

League of Legends Server Problems Are Pissing Off Korean Gamers

In South Korea, League of Legends is popular—perhaps the most popular game at the country’s net cafes. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. What makes being popular a bad thing? For starters, the League of Legends server always seems to be under maintenance. Last night, for example, LoL underwent emergency maintenance until…

Harebrained Schemes has announced that Shadowrun Returns, the 2D cyberpunk turn-based RPG funded a year ago through Kickstarter, will be coming out in June

Controversy Over a Cool Visual Technique Being Ripped Off [Update]

There’s a first time for everything. And once something is pioneered, others move in and make it theirs. But is that a rip off? One band seems to say so. Above, you can see a music video from the Australian group Clubfeet. The name of the song is “Everything You Wanted”, and it hit earlier…

This Fake Dark Souls Anime Is Brutal

While totally not a real anime per se, this hand-drawn fan-made clip mashes Dark Souls with Neon Genesis Evangelion. The title is “Dark Souls Neon NEET-gelion”. Originally from the UK, the term “NEET” means a young person who is not in education, employment, or training. As one would expect, this faux anime looks totally unforgiving.…

Call Her Tali’Zorah vas…Cosplay

Tali’Zorah is one of Mass Effect‘s most memorable characters. Of course, much of that is due to Tali herself, but the character’s superbly designed outfit and gear don’t hurt, either. No wonder so many cosplayers love bringing the character to life. Previously, Kotaku took at look at how cosplayers did up Commander Shepard (DudeShep and…

Maybe Nintendo Would Sell More Wii Us If They Had Giant Zombies On Them

Console painter Ozcan continues to do what he does best, turning rather plain video game consoles into electronic works or art. His latest work is this Wii U, emblazoned with the cover star of Ubisoft launch title ZombiU. The reanimated Queen’s Guard might be a bit much for faint-hearted, but that black-and-red colour scheme on…

Get Your First, Basic Look At Obsidian’s New RPG, Project Eternity

Project Eternity, the upcoming RPG from Obsidianthat raised nearly $4 million on Kickstarter, is still a while away, but this clip gives us our first look at the game – or at least its environment and characters – in action.