Digital Storm Bolt – Titan Edition: The Kotaku Review

This week Nvidia released its latest high-tech graphics card, the GeForce GTX Titan. The announcement was accompanied by the usual flurry of press releases from boutique PC makers, eager to get their name associated with the next big thing. Normally these me-too systems don’t garner more than a passing mention, but Digital Storm’s offering is…

DayZ Dev Shows Us What A Convincing Zombie Moves Like

Boy does motion capture—the process involved in animating digital characters—looked darned goofy sometimes. This is especially true when you’re pretending to eat a human, apparently. Here’s the latest DayZ standalone video blog, which features the mind behind DayZ, Dean Hall, along with other members of Bohemia Interactive. Dean is suited up in a mocap suit,…

PC Tomb Raider Will Be So Much Better Than Console, If Your Rig Is Up to It

Rejoice, computer gaming Tomb Raider fans—when Lara returns to her home turf this March she’ll be bringing along a treasure trove of PC-centric bells and whistles that’ll make the console versions look downright sad in comparison. Let’s see if your system has the juice to run them. Tomb Raider started on the PC, and Crystal…

A Mysterious Next-Gen Project Sponsored By Bill Gates, And Other Gaming Secrets

In his LinkedIn profile, a Seattle engineer who joined Activision as vice president of research and development this month states that he is “looking for graphics and systems software developers in the Greater Seattle area,” seemingly suggesting that the publisher is establishing an office in Washington. (Presumably this is unrelated to Bungie and Destiny, as…

What Sonic Might Play Like, If Sonic Were Invented in 2013

Magnets, man. They make you go fast. Major Magnet looks like Sonic a little, even though Sonic is a hedgehog and Magnet’s protagonist is a pudgy, big-nosed hero. Major Magnet kind of sounds like Sonic at times, too. As far as I can tell, these similarities are intentional—but, unlike Sonic, Major Magnet is an iOS…

A retro adventure game based on the worst movie of all-time, Manos: The Hands of Fate is now available on Android

If PS4 Games Only Cost $60, They’re Actually Cheaper Than PS3 Games

On CNBC last night, Sony CEO Jack Tretton implied that games for the company’s newly-announced PlayStation 4 won’t retail for more than $60. “We’re gonna welcome free-to-play models, games from 99 cents up to those 60 dollar games,” he said. Later, he added: “We’ll justify that $60 price point.” That might come as welcome news…

In Fear I Trust Is a Game I Don’t Want to Know About

What I know about In Fear I Trust: It’s developed by Turn Me Up Games in conjunction with Black Wing Foundation. It’s built on Unreal Engine 3, and looks wonderfully creepy. It’s an episodic psychological thriller set in 1979, and the first three of ten episodes are due out this spring for iOS. It’s got…

Why Your Board Game Collection Needs Some German-Style Games

Board games are big business now! I’ve been screaming this for so long that my lungs resemble two teabags flapping in a breeze. Excitingly, this means every week I get a tweet, email or text from someone who’s started their board game collection. I’m hoping that includes you, my favourite reader (I have other readers…

This Week’s iPad Charts: What Happens When You Set the Zombies Free

Last week it was Infinity Blade, this week it’s Plants Vs. Zombies. It’s really not fair to the real free games when you temporarily give away wildly popular paid iPad games you guys. Poor Temple Run 2. It was on top of the free iPad app world at one point. Now it’s got Monsters, Inc.…

Hungry for more Dreamfall? The devs are streaming the 2006 game and commenting live on TwitchTV, starting at 12PM EST.

In Japan, People Do Not LOL. They wwww.

You see it on Japanese forums. Strings of “w’s”. I often quote individuals as writing “lol”, “LOL”, or even, “lulz”. But let’s get something straight. People in Japan do not laugh out loud. Oh, no. They wwww. Using “w” is not new. Online in Japan, people have been using them for over a decade, which…

Serving Cooked Penis in Tokyo Won’t Get You in Prison

In May 2012, a Japanese illustrator named Mao Sugiyama oversaw an event during which his post-op genitals were served up for dinner. Five people paid money to eat them! And that they did. The event gained international attention. Japanese police began investigating the event, hoping to pin Sugiyama and the event’s organizers for breaking food…

Sony told a Japanese journalist that the PS4 won’t support CDs or Super Audio CDs, like the PS3 did.

Why I Gave Monster Hunter a Second Chance

Monster Hunter: it has sold millions of copies in Japan. I have personally seen it played in parks, on trains, and in countless fast food restaurants in the Tokyo area by everyone from kids to adults. Simply put, it is one of the most prevalent and popular gaming franchises in Japan. The same cannot be…

A Badass Samurai Helmet Fit for Mickey Mouse. Yours for $2,600!

Every spring in Japan, families with sons display miniature samurai armor. The armor, called yoroi (鎧), or samurai helmet, called “kabuto” (兜), are for Children’s Day. Families want their sons to grow up strong and healthy. It’s a Japanese tradition. Starting March 1, Disney, never one to shy from merchandising, is offering a “Disney Pure…

A New Disgaea, The Guided Fate Paradox, and Time and Eternity Are Coming to American Shores

Last night at their press event in San Francisco, NIS America announced they would be releasing three new Japanese titles this year. The first of these, Disgaea Dimension 2: A Brighter Darkness, is the newest PS3 title in the long-running strategy RPG series, Disgaea. It is a direct sequel to the first game in the…

Deciphering Pokémon‘s Mysterious Language

The Pocket Monsters anime originally used Japanese writing for on-screen text and signs. A pain in the ass if you need to localize the cartoon into other languages. So the Pokémon folks came up with a solution: a made-up language. A Pokélingo, if you will. Starting with anime series Pocket Monster Best Wishes!, the anime…

I Used to Dislike Monster Hunter. Then, I Played This Game.

To start with, a fair bit of warning: I am not what you would call a Monster Hunter fan. The first (and last) game of the series I played was Monster Hunter Freedom 2 and that experience left me feeling that Monster Hunter just wasn’t the series for me. But then I saw Monster Hunter…

Dance Around, Take Off Your Clothes, Make Out Naruto Style

Naruto might be the namesake of manga and anime juggernaut Naruto, but the star of this mesmerizing animated GIF is a dancing Itachi Uchiha and his co-star Kisame Hoshigaki This image originally appeared on a Japanese internet thread called “I also made my own animated GIF lol.” Look at how he snaps off that shirt…