Holy Crap, This Entire Game Is Drawn In Ballpoint Pen

Ballpoint pens: bad for math class, good for having a gorgeous visual aesthetic in a game. Case in point: Ballpoint Universe, an indie sidescrolling shooter drawn entirely with ballpoint pen. You play as a doodle called…Doodle. Check out the trailer. If this looks good to you, you can try out the demo here and vote…

Gamer Accused of Faking Disability to Attract Donations on Twitch

Most people online knew Angel Hamilton as zilianOP, a disabled man in a wheelchair who loved to stream games live on the Internet. Like many Twitch users, zilianOP allowed viewers to donate money,and some people did. Then on April 5, viewers watched in shock as Hamilton stood up from his wheelchair mid-stream. Footage of the…

Woah we broke 100,000 followers on our Tumblr today! Thanks, guys. We

“The spirits… are dying.” Check out this new US trailer for Tales of Xillia, which comes out for PS3 on August 6. (August 9 in Europe.) Looks good!

The Corporate Side Of Mass Effect

Corporations play a huge part in the Mass Effect series. Some of them take on more passive roles, like creating weapons and armor. Others, however, like stirring up trouble with their shady little schemes—or simply get in trouble often. Here’s a look at the corporations which had the most profound effect on our adventures. Note:…

Toy Darth Vader Gets His Ass Kicked By Indiana Jones And Albert Einstein

Who would win, Indiana Jones or Darth Vader? Filmmaker Patrick Boivin thinks he knows how it’d go down. The above clip is one of a just-released trilogy called Don’t Use The Force, which also includes the dark-helmeted one getting whupped by Jack Torrance from The Shining: As well as by Albert Einstein himself: I didn’t…

Hawkeye Misses His Target in My Favorite Panel From This Week’s Comics. What’s Yours?

So far, Matt Fraction’s writing on Hawkeye has been shot through with a rough-and-tumble, devil-may-cay energy, where Clint Barton plows through overwhelming circumstances with little forethought. It’s been a fun read, filled with great banter and amazing minimalist art from David Aja and other contributors. But this week’s issue #9 takes an unexpected turn into…

What You Missed in the Mass Effect Comic Books

Everything is better with comic books. This is a universal truth, and it’s doubly universally true for the Mass Effect trilogy. Between digital comics and Dark Horse’s series, Mass Effect series scribe Mac Walters and some excellent artists and writers have added magificent layers of depth to the series you’ll never see unless you read.…

Take a Look at How Sonic and Mega Man Level Up in Their Archie Comics Crossover

Worlds Collide—the long-brewing mash-up between Sega’s Hedgehog and Capcom’s Blue Bomber—finally kicks off this week. The two video game icons and their assorted allies, sidekicks and enemies will be meeting up and throwing down for the next few months. But, be honest: what you really want to know is if the blue brawlers will get…

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…