Brian Reynolds, designer of Civilization II, has left Zynga, where he’d headed up development on FrontierVille

The Characters From The Cave, Now Available In Charming Toy Form

The characters are the highlight of Double Fine’s new adventure game The Cave. Seven wanderers, each with his or her own selfish journey to undertake (and lesson to learn), each drawn in the game’s groovy art style If you’re a fan of the game (like Tina came to be when she reviewed it), you might…

The Endless Possibilities Of The Best World-Map Music

No doubt about it: we all love video game world-maps. That moment when you first set foot into a game’s wide blue yonder and see just how far the horizon goes… it’s magic. While video game world-maps are often plenty beautiful-looking, it’s also important how beautiful they sound. We’ll often spend hours and hours exploring…

This Insane Torchlight II Mod Adds A New Class, New Regions, And More

Months after players have eked the last drop of content out of the vanilla version of Torchlight II, modders are still going strong, twisting, re-vamping, and moulding the game into whatever they please. But while there are many fine mods out there (more than I could hope to keep track of, really), the Synergies Mod…

He Made An Honest Game About His Work, And It Cost Him His Job

Last year, we told you about I Get This Call Every Day— a depressing indie game about working in a call center. It’s a good, humanizing title about working a soulless day job. Unfortunately, the game put the developer, David S. Gallant, in hot water. Earlier today a post on The Star appeared online, claiming…

84-Year-Old Man Plays Video Games, Has Cutest Reactions Possible

Here’s the 84-year-old grandpa of YouTube user GrandpaPlaysGames reacting to shooters like Halo 4 and Black Ops II It is totally adorable. He should hook up with this woman. Can we start a petition to make that happen? Our 84 year old Grandpa plays Videogames! [YouTube]

Hope you weren’t expecting any Prince of Persia games soon, because Ubisoft tells IGN the series is “paused”.

Junction Point creator Warren Spector wrote a heartfelt note about his studio’s closure today.

Hey Look, It’s A Shooter That Lets You Dance Gangnam Style

Yesterday, I wrote about taunts—why they’re awesome and why people do them. Reader r3dr0x pointed me toward Blacklight: Retribution, a futuristic, free-to-play shooter. Most people know it as the game that lets you see through walls. It’s also a game that lets you dance PSY’s ultra-popular Gangnam Style. Check out the video above by YouTube…

A neat article at The Atlantic looks how the brilliant iOS game Hundreds is its own sort of haute couture cool.

The Alien Vs. Predator Battle Gets Mobilized with AVP: Evolution

With the console and PC release of Aliens: Colonial Marines right around the corner, Fox Digital Entertainment taps Angry Mob Entertainment (Predators, Muffin Knight) to give iOS and Android gamers something to do while everyone else is playing the Gearbox game. That something is Alien Vs. Predator: Evolution, a single-player third-person action-adventure game that’s really…

Homeland’s RPG Cuts Back On The Tension (And The Running Time)

College Humor’s series of JRPG adaptations of TV shows and movies continues today with Homeland, re-cast as something you’d have found on the Super Nintendo. CollegeHumor’s Favorite Funny Videos

If Mario Starred In Grand Theft Auto

We’ve posted one of Amirul Hafiz‘s Mario X GTA creations before, but he’s recently created a few more. I couldn’t help but share them with you all, especially because that Bowser one is genius. Potential new phone background? Definitely a contender. And here’s a bonus Sonic conversion to GTA. Mario Mugshot [deviantART via CyberWolf]

One Simple Ni no Kuni Tip To Help You Catch ‘Em All

I’m a sucker for sidequests in Ni no Kuni. I blame the stamps. In the game, each time you do a sidequest, you get a number of “merit stamps” on your stamp-card, and if you fill out a card, you can trade it in for power-ups. The tougher the sidequest, the more stamps you get.…

This group of fully-grown businessmen has been engaged in the same epic game of “Tag” for 23 years. Sounds fun.

Five Comics Where Humans Help Each Other This Week

If you’re here in the Panel Discussion programming block, you might be a lapsed comics reader, trying to find a way back to the JLA Satellite. Or you might someone killing time until you pick up your weekly Wednesday pull list. Or maybe you’ve said goodbye to dozens of longboxes to embrace the promise of…

The First Playable Villain in Avengers Alliance Isn’t All Bad

Dear Playdom, when you announce a playable “villain” for the wildly popular Facebook role-playing game Avengers Alliance, I expect a real villain, not Mr. Flippity-Floppity Magnet Man. Readers that have been following X-Men continuity since the early days are familiar with Max “Erik Lehnsherr” Eisenhardt’s propensity for switching sides at the drop of a hat.…

The Injustice Comic Prequel Explains Why Superman and Batman Are Fighting (Again)

It’s become a recurring trope that the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight beat each other up when things go terribly wrong in the DC Universe. The big difference in each of these brawls is the catalyst for the conflicts. As shown in a comic-book prequel releasing tomorrow, the reason for the World’s Finest…

This New Super Street Fighter Graphic Novel from Udon Delivers a Greasy Battle Royale

If you’ve seen an incredibly cool piece of Street Fighter art, chances are it originated from one of the talents at Udon Entertainment. The Canadian artist collective cranks out illustrated works for some of nerddom’s most beloved characters and has been making sharp, stylized interpretations of Capcom’s premier fighting franchise for more than a decade…

A Detailed Look At Character Progression In Fire Emblem: Awakening

Nintendo is really pushing Fire Emblem: Awakening, the strategy-RPG that comes out for 3DS next Tuesday. This new Awakening trailer—one of quite a few on Nintendo’s feed—shows off some of the class advancements, skills, weapons, and other aspects of character progression you can find in the game. Expect more on Fire Emblem—including Kotaku‘s full review—later…