Happy Birthday, Commander Shepard

Do you know what today is? Why, it’s Commander Shepard’s birthday! I can’t believe some of you forgot. And if you didn’t forget, why aren’t we celebrating? According to the Mass Effect Wiki: Shepard was born on April 11, 2154[1], is a graduate of the Systems Alliance N7 special forces program (service no. 5923-AC-2826), and…

How Sweet, This Husband Gave His Wife A Handmade Fallout Monopoly Set

We’ve written about Fallout monopoly sets before, but this one right here, by Reddit user XsimonbelmontX, is special. He made it by hand for his wife’s birthday. His wife is a huge Fallout fan you see, which makes this an amazing and fitting gift. “I spent about 8 months making this. It is a birthday…

‘Now Is The Best Time’: A Critique Of BioShock Infinite

I always found Metal Gear Solid 4 to be not a brilliant game, but a fascinating one. A mad ideologue glutted with tech retreads, again and again, the narrative he’s always dreamed of, and has never been able to get quite right. The metanarrative eats itself, strains the game until through its seams you can…

Mass Effect‘s Awkward Land Rover Was Goofy, But It Made The Game Better

The following is an excerpt from a newly announced book about Mass Effect “What is the point of the Mako?” It’s impossible to examine Mass Effect 1 in any kind of complete fashion without grappling with this question. In fact, there are times when I think that it might be the question that most needs…

Hello Kitty Sakura is Justification For Every Frivilous Piece of DLC Ever

There’s a new $2.99 costume pack available for Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 today on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but that’s not important right now. What’s important is the follow-up outfit for the pink-haired Sakura coming later this month. It’s everything I ever wanted. Perhaps that’s a bit of an overstatement. No, it…

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…