They’re Giving Away the Coolest Giant Skylander in New York Next Week

Of all the new figures Toys for Bob introduced in Skylanders Giants, there is one I desire above all others. She’s a ninja. She’s a djinn. She’s Ninjini, and Activision is giving her away free at the Times Square Toys’R’Us on Tuesday, the jerks. Celebrating Toy Fair 2013 and the overwhelming success of the Skylanders…

Here’s a God of War: Ascension live-action trailer. Yeah.

Video Game Island Renamed After Developers Arrested, Charged With Espionage

In September 2012, a pair of developers from Bohemia Interactive—the team behind the ArmA series and the upcoming DayZ standalone game—were arrested on a Greek island and accused of espionage The island, Lemnos, was the same one being recreated for the studio’s in-development military combat simulator ArmA 3. As a result of the case against…

Report: The Next PlayStation Will Record Gameplay And Let You Share It Online

In the wake of news that Sony will announce the next PlayStation on February 20, rumors and reports are starting to circulate as journalists report everything they’ve learned about the PlayStation 4, code-named Orbis. Here’s an interesting report from Edge, who say they’ve learned the PS4 will be out later this year for the U.S.…

Skyrim DLC is coming to PS3: Dragonborn on February 12, Hearthfire on February 19, and Dawnguard on February 26.

Don’t Forget the Domo

I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind the reading public that Domo: The Journey is now available on iTunes. It’s an old-school 2D platformer in which Domo must rescue his kidnapped girlfriend. Domo can double jump. I knew he could.

Should a Lapsed World of Warcraft Gamer Return to Azeroth?

A reader named Ryan writes: “I’ve got a question that I hoped could be posed to the readers of Kotaku. I’m curious if World of Warcraft is a series to even bother getting back involved with, after I’d spent some time on it (this is prior to the Lich King and Cataclysm releases/updates/mandatory you-must-buy releases).…

Cyberpunk 2077 Will Run On A Shiny New Engine, Just In Time For The Next Generation

Less than a day after Sony teases a reveal of the PS4, CD Projekt Red—makers of the popular Witcher series—have unveiled the engine that will be powering their next-generation games. The timing of the announcement is probably a coincidence, but maybe not! Called RedEngine 3, the tech will be powering the company’s upcoming Cyberpunk 2077.…

Ni no Kuni: The Kotaku Review

It would be easy, while reviewing Ni no Kuni, to sit at my desk and fling adjectives on the page like a fantasy novelist. I’d call the game whimsical, charming, beautiful, fascinating, smart, pleasant, challenging, slow-paced, grand, surreal, and aggressively colorful. And yes, those are all fitting words for the new RPG, which came out…

This Week’s iPad Charts: Little Inferno Sets the Charts (and Everything Else) on Fire

The game that single-handedly justified the $350 I spent on Nintendo’s Wii U console back in November came to iPad this week, spreading joy and laughter to Apple tablet gamers everywhere. And flames — can’t forget the flames. Little Inferno is a magical experience. One moment you’re gleefully dropping items into your Little Inferno Entertainment…

Iron Fett? Boba Man? Yeah, Boba Man.

So special effects wizard Stan Winston has a school named after him, aimed at instructing whole new generations in the art of practical movie magic. This image was posted on their Facebook page yesterday. As loathe as I am to entertain the prospect of fanfiction, a sexy drunk playboy bounty hunter is something that could…

Indie strategy title Frozen Synapse is heading to PS Vita and PS3 via the PSN store in 2013, as Frozen Synapse: Tactics

Japanese Superheroes Getting Really, Really Effeminate

Whether it’s the Power Rangers, Ultraman, or Kamen Rider, male Japanese superheroes have one thing in common: they are tough and masculine. These poses aren’t. Blogger BakAnki snapped pictures of the superhero figurines doing poses that are, as he explained, “girly” or “photomodel-ish”. “In all seriousness,” explained BakAnki on Figure.Fm, “it’s actually harder to do…

You Got Your Castlevania in my Katawa Shoujo!

Last January saw the release of Katawa Shoujo, a fan-made visual novel based around the idea of dating girls with physical disabilities. When I first heard the concept of the game and then heard it was being made by a group who met on 4chan, I was sure it would be a horribly insensitive, offensive…

When Cosplay Makes You Want To Diet

Ajo is a regular at Taiwanese game events, decked in dangerously skimpy garb. She’s one of Taiwan’s most famous cosplayers. For Ajo, cosplay has been more than a hobby, but a way to strive to drop 40 pounds and look like the idealized characters she adores. On her Facebook page (via Rocket News), Ajo recently…

Joysound Dive Turns Your PS3 into a 90,000 Song Karaoke Machine

There are more than a few Karaoke video games out there, from Karaoke Revolution to SingStar to Lips. Each of these games come with dozens of songs per disk—and some allow for more songs to be purchased as DLC. But Joysound Dive goes a step beyond these and quite literally takes the Japanese Karaoke experience…

I Was Not Expecting the Third Ace Attorney Musical to be a Time Travel Story

Ace Attorney 3: Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth is the third official Ace Attorney musical performed by the all female Takarazuka Revue. When I reviewed the first musical last year, I said it was a better telling of the story than the source material. When I reviewed the second musical, I lauded it for being a darker…

Fumito Ueda Surfaces, But Not for The Last Guardian

Wondering what Fumito Ueda is up to these days? Even after leaving Sony, Ueda has apparently continued to work on the eagerly awaited The Last Guardian, which is years in development. Sony promised the game still lives. Promised! Ueda recently surfaced in an official Sony video. But he isn’t talking about The Last Guardian. Oh,…

Space Pirate Captain Harlock Looks Fantastic in Movie Trailer Form

Wowzers! Space Pirate Captain Harlock is getting a movie, and hot dog, it looks great The sci-fi space pirate series debuted first as a manga in 1977. According to Oricon, the upcoming CG flick is due out this fall. Space Pirate Captain Harlock [MarkBartle@YouTube] You can contact Brian Ashcraft, the author of this post, at…

Report: Sony Will Indeed Announce The Next PlayStation On February 20

Mere hours ago, Sony took the hype train straight out of the station with their tease of a big announcement coming on February 20. It seemed likely that the event, which will be live-streamed, would be a reveal of the next PlayStation console, code-named Orbis. The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that “people familiar…