Here’s How Disney Infinity Is Different from Skylanders

The folks behind Disney’s next big move in the gaming space know what you’re thinking. They know that you’re already comparing Disney Infinity to the Skylanders games. After all, their upcoming title is a video game/collectible toy hybrid where figurines of Disney movie characters come to life and romp around in a video game, just…

Soldiers Used Games To Escape From The Hell That Was Afghanistan

“Every soldier needed an escape.” Steven Beynon, a cavalry scout in the Army, said that starkly to me in an interview—but many of us know exactly what he’s talking about. It’s the relief that comes when we kick off our shoes after a long day, grab a controller, and then forget about the world. Just…

Dead Space Started Off As Horror, But Now It’s So Much More

I beat Dead Space 1 I nearly beat Dead Space 2, but I got so frustrated with one section near the end in which I was trapped in a room with regenerating Necromorphs that I shelved it. (This was after the amazing “needle/eye” bit.) I come from a long history of loving sci fi, in…

Careful downloading things listed as free on the PlayStation store, Plus members. There’s a charging glitch right now.

Because you knew it was going to happen: The Harlem Shake has invaded Skyrim

Aliens: Colonial Marines stinks. Is it that hard to make a decent Aliens game? This 2012 essay explores the question

GameStop Says 60% Of Surveyed Gamers Wouldn’t Buy A Console If It Blocks Used Games

Hard times could be getting harder for GameStop, the massive store chain that buys and sells video games all across North America. Already challenged by gaming’s increasingly digital future, GameStop now has to face the prospect of a new Xbox that will block used games, if recent reports are true. But what about us? According…

They’re Making Mountain Dew for Breakfast, and It’s All Your Fault

As a man that at one point in his life consumed no less than four liters of vaguely citrus soda a day, I find it hard to believe that there was really a large demand for a mildly juice-infused Mountain Dew breakfast drink, yet here we are. Coming February 25 to retail locations across North…

Mass Effect Edition of Risk Arrives This Fall

Yep, I’m as surprised as you. This showed up on the official Mass Effect Facebook page yesterday, and obviously coincides with Toy Fair in New York this week. But Hasbro has said nothing about the “Galaxy at War” edition of Risk. BioWare says the game is on shelves in the fall.

Man Arrested For Trying To Walk Out Of Kmart With 19 Video Games In His Pants

I don’t know how you fit 19 video games in your pants, but at least one guy does. (Allegedly.) Police have charged 34-year-old William Gooden with a felony for trying to walk out of a Kmart without paying for the 19 games that were stuffed in his pants, according to a report by St. Louis’s…

What People Used To Say About The First Xbox

We don’t know every last thing about the new Xbox. Some leaked details, for the most part, sprinkled with a liberal helping of rumors. While we wait for new bits and pieces to be revealed, why not reminisce a bit? Let’s have a look at how the very first Xbox, turning 12 years old this…

New Consoles ‘Most Likely’ Won’t Be Backwards Compatible, EA Exec Says

The next generation of consoles are unlikely to accommodate older games with backwards compatibility, Electronic Arts’ chief financial officer told an audience of investors in San Francisco today. Blake Jorgensen, addressing how EA will manage when new consoles arrive later this year, as is widely expected, pointed to the company’s sports catalog and particularly their…

Neon Alley, VIZ Media’s 24-hour anime channel, now gives Xbox 360 owners all the Naruto they can eat for $6.99 a month.

Six Comics That Channel Some Sort of Love 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…

Why Deadpool is the Best Character in Avengers Alliance

I’ve been playing far too much of Marvel’s Avengers Alliance on Facebook lately, or maybe I’ve been playing the right amount, as I had just enough command points to recruit the fourth wall-breaking Merc with a Mouth into my party. Now it’s really a party. Deadpool, previously a PVP unlock in the turn-based superhero role-playing…

The Joker is Broken. Young Avengers Aren’t. Let Panel Discussion Tell You Why.

These might be the most important words in comics: “Hey, have you read that?” The medium’s lifeblood has always been the word-of-mouth that passes from one reader to another. The only query that might surpass the above is “So, what’d you think?” Hence, this recurring feature in Kotaku‘s slice of comics programming, where comics critics,…

The Secret Ingredient Needed to Make Anything a ‘Real Game’

There’s been some heated discussion as to whether Proteus—Ed Key and David Tanaga’s award-winning lo-fi ambient exploration game—can be called a game. All the back-and-forth boils down to just so much fooferaw. But, if you want to nail Proteus down to a more restrictive, AAA-centric definition of what a game is, then cartoonist Zac Gorman…

If Sin City Was Set In Sim City

Worth watching: this UGO-created trailer that shows what it would be like if the Robert Rodriguez-directed action movie Sin City was actually Sim City. It’s pretty funny. Definitely not fake. Definitely. Sim City: A Game to Kill For – NOT FAKE TRAILER [HD] [YouTube]

Bungie promises the official reveal of its next game, Destiny, will come Feb. 17.

Would Breaking Bad make for a good video game? Maybe not, argues video-game writer Susan O’Connor.