The Moneysaver: Walking in a Winter Download-land

Digital downloads lead the list of offers this week, particularly as Steam’s always-popular holiday bonanza is closing down gets an encore lasting through Monday. Green Man Gaming has discounts on 10 preorders between now and April, and a coupon code currently on offer will stack on that, so give it a look if what you…

The Best Of Kotaku, This Week

Welcome to the Best of Kotaku, where I round up all of this week’s best content. You see that up there? That up there is what we call wishful thinking, also known as a potentially awesome video game realization of one of the best comics there is: Calvin & Hobbes. Unfortunately it’s currently just a…

I Don’t Understand Why These Skyrim Mudcrabs Are So Funny

Help, I think I’m suffering from a mild case of idiocy. What is it about this video by YouTube user NormalDifficulty that I find so amusing? Is it because the mudcrabs are so posh, wearing tophats, monocles and whatnot? Is it that they sound so accusatory? How they gang up on the adventurer? Maybe the…

Forget Wikipedia. Let Urban Dictionary Tell You About The Biggest Games.

Urban Dictionary is so weird. Once, it was used mostly to define slang. But now? You can search for just about anything and it’ll have a number of amusing user-defined entries. It’s like Wikipedia, only more unruly. Here are how Urban Dictionary users are describing the biggest gaming franchises. It’s as silly as you might…

Why XCOM: Enemy Unknown Should Be Game of the Year

April 16, 2015 Location: Sapporo, Japan Operation: Extraterrestrial Terrorism Response Codename: Lost Spark Mission Parameters: Failure will result in the immediate loss of resources and support from Japan. This would deal a devastating blow to the XCOM project. Project Goal: Save the Earth, and all who call it home. This mission, which comes from a…

This Winnie The Pooh Game Is Way Too Difficult For Kids

I hope you don’t have any fond memories of the Hundred Acre Wood, because they’re all about to be replaced with white knuckled frustration when you play Winnie The Pooh Home Run Derby. It’s the Disney-produced children’s flash game that’s so difficult, you just might smash your monitor. Taking up residence on Yahoo Japan’s “Disney…

Miiverse Moments: Pro Bass Pizza Wisdom

The Miiverse on the Wii U can be a terrifying & wonderful place. We here at Kotaku feel like it deserves a little more attention. So in that vein, we’re starting a series called Miiverse Moments, where we shine a spotlight on the good, the bad and the weird of Nintendo’s social media platform. Today’s…

Patricia’s Top Ten Games of 2012

Last year was likely the weirdest year I’ve had, gaming wise. Sure, I played my share of big-budget titles, and some of these were surprisingly good. But I also started playing most of my games on PC—and because of that, I became privy to a world of amazing, sometimes absurd, sometimes very personal indie games.…

The First Week in Gaming Apps of 2013, Brought to You By a Terrible Stomach Virus

Welcome to 2013, the year that shall go down in history as the one that started with every being in my household violently expelling substances out of every orifice imaginable. That’s my fancy way of saying the this one’s going to be a short one. My wife, two 18-month-old boys and I were given the…

Evan’s Top Ten Games of 2012

Like my colleagues, I had to come to grips with a lot of games this year. Some of them made me feel like video games as a medium did a significant amount of evolving in the last twelve months. But this list—in no particular order—assembles the games that captivated me while playing them and that…

This Snake Is Really Not All That Solid

Because he is made out of balloons, by Bruce Carr. And he looks like he is begging you to kill him. Metal Gear Solid [via Dorkly]

Microsoft Cracks Down On Unauthorized Halo-Branded Bullets

Any serious gamer who was watching the Discovery Channel’s “Dual Survival” show earlier this week may have recognized the logo that appeared on a box of bullets that were briefly featured in the episode. The box had the words “Halo-Point” on it, written in the font used for Halo, the phenomenally popular M-rated Xbox and…

Don’t Let the Limecat Fool You, This is One Kick-Ass Free-to-Play First-Person Shooter

Do you miss the early days of first-person shooters, when everyone was pretty much equal and the little guy had a chance of coming out on top? I just played a Free for All match of Offensive Combat, dropped in after the round had already started and still managed to win by one kill—and I…

Maybe What Far Cry 3’s Story Needs Is Something Crazy Like Mass Effect’s Indoctrination Theory

Oh, how we try to fix Far Cry 3. Despite noble intentions, everything about the actual story and writing is terrible and shallow. Kirk had an idea about how to fix it: make it so that Jason Brody turns out to be Vaas! But maybe that idea ain’t crazy enough. We need even more insanity.…

Are you a fan of Machinarium? Now you can pre-order this plush Robot Josef straight from the game’s designers

Why Boss Battles Matter

So I’m fighting this giant eyeball. I don’t know why it’s an eyeball—I guess it’s a demon or something, but I don’t know why it takes the shape of a giant eyeball—or why it’s surrounded by colored tiles, or why it keeps emitting clouds of fog. All I know is that it’s in front of…

17 Vatican Virtual Farmers and Other Entertaining FarmVille 2 Stats

They might have lost Kirk Hamilton and Stephen Totilo, but every day eight million other people still hop online to water their virtual crops in Zynga’s social farming sequel, FarmVille 2. According to the first FarmVille 2 Almanac infographic, 17 of those players are playing from the Vatican. I suspect something more sinister afoot. Are…

Phil Hassey made the super-fun Dynamite Jack. Go help him Kickstart a sequel to his great mobile strategy game Galcon

The Donkey Kong Rap, As Performed By Left 4 Dead Zombies

Some people might tell you that Donkey Kong 64 is an awful game. According to 10 year old me (my age the last time I played that game), they’d be wrong. But, hopefully everyone can agree that the Donkey Kong rap is fantastic? Now, take that catchy tune, and add the Left 4 Dead zombies.…

The Steam Holiday Sale Is Getting An Encore This Weekend

Miss any big deals during the Steam holiday sale that’s been going on for the past couple of weeks? No worries. Valve’s got you covered. This weekend, you’ll get a second shot at some of the bigger deals that have gone down this December/January. Here’s Valve: Gamers will have a final opportunity to get their…