Luke McMillan has played over 3500 shmups. His genre history is good reading

A Gaming Room For Which The Word “Room” Doesn’t Really Do It Justice

Reddit user ScienceBrah has a personal trainer, and that personal trainer’s name is James. I tell you this only because James has one of the most kick-ass gaming rooms I’ve ever seen. There are so many games—organised properly, thank the Maker—down there he could hand out plastic cards and call it a game library my…

For $25,000, You Can have Your Own Giant RoboCop Killing Machine

This is, as close as we can get in 2013 anyway, a real version of RoboCop’s famous ED-209. It’s reportedly an actual Hollywood prop, built for RoboCop 2, and stands ten-feet tall It won’t move or shoot executives in the face, but then, it’s “only” $25,000, available via an eBay auction. A real executive face-shooter…

RAGE’s Mod Tools Are Daunting, But Might Result In Awesome “New” Games

Having been promised for an age, id Software finally made good last week on a pledge to release a modding tool kit for its ambitious, if slightly wonky 2011 shooter RAGE And what a set of tools it is. If you were hoping for a friendly system full of handy tips and giant buttons, sorry.…

An Almost Perfect Week Of Video Game Cosplay

It’s easy to cosplay as Mario. Put on a fake moustache and some overalls. It’s hard, very hard, to cosplay as Mario and do it well. Today, though, we’re seeing the best damn Mario cosplay I’ve ever seen. And one of the best Lara Croft cosplays I’ve ever seen. Which would have been enough for…

Blonde Twins Playing Walking Dead Music On Harps While Standing Outside An Empty House

At first, I was all, “Why do they keep moving their heads like that? It looks stupid”. Then I realised, they’re so into this they’re looking for walkers. Can’t play more than a few strums without checking their surrounds for trouble. That’s how you stay alive, people. Stay alive and find the time to play…

I Never Thought I’d See An N64 Controller As Beautiful As This One

Funny-looking and with a propensity for their joysticks to break just by looking at them, I think the N64 controller is—and I realise this is a relative award—Nintendo’s worst ever controller. Oh. Except this one, by Zoki64. This one’s wonderful. Painted in a retro style and with a fabulous glossy finish, it looks so hot…

God of War: Ascension got a live-action close-up during the Super Bowl. If you’re curious, here’s how it was made.

Journey‘s soundtrack was up for a Grammy tonight, but it didn’t win. All other nominees in its category were films.

The Legend of Zelda is a New York Times Bestseller. No, Really.

Barely a week into its western release, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia is a New York Times No. 1 bestseller. Shouldn’t that designation come with an exclamation point or two? Fine! Here!! See for yourself here, it’s topping the “Hardcover Advice & Misc.” category, though that doesn’t mean it’s a strategy guide or a…

For Madden‘s Director, an Eye for the Game Comes from an NFL Sideline

“Everybody assumes I go to the Super Bowl every year,” Mike Young says, but he didn’t this year. Friends figure it’s just a perk of his job. Young is the creative director for Madden NFL, and has worked on the franchise for six years now, and the past 10 at EA Sports. As the Super…

Halo 2‘s PC multiplayer is shutting down on Friday so, yeah, there’s an Internet petition to stop that.

The Week in Games: Keep Our Honor Clean

PC, PS3 and 360 gamers are proud to wear the title Aliens: Colonial Marines this week. The turn-based gangster strategy game Omerta also looks to carry out its own Valentine’s Day Massacre on PC and Xbox 360. Today • Brain Age: Concentration Training (3DS) Tuesday • Aliens: Colonial Marines (PC, PS3, 360) • Omerta: City…

If you’re a Mac gamer a) EA’s Origin is now available for Mac OS and b) you’re a Mac gamer? Really?

Three Months After It Launched, the Wii U is Irrelevant to Sports Gaming

For sports gaming, the Wii U wasn’t looking much better than its predecessor even a month after release, and there are no signs the console is going to be a full partner anytime soon. The signals sent by sports’ dominant publisher indicate it just has no interest in building for the console. It’s not just…

The casualties in this gamer’s breakup would make one reconsider whether it really is better to have loved and lost.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Let Me Google Iwata For You

Yep. This promotional shot for the new Google Wii Street U is exploitable gold for the Kotaku ‘Shop Contest. After the image of Nintendo honcho Satoru Iwata wearing a Google Street cam popped up on Wednesday, so did the ‘shops, especially one of him wearing a FLUDD. We can do a lot better than that,…

The Reaction to a Console Rumor Explains Why Some Gamers Aren’t Buying

The rumor going around earlier this week wasn’t really anything new. The console that locks out used games is an anticonsumer bogeyman going back years and though the technology to do it exists, it’s yet to come true, for whatever reason. Still, a report this week repeated the same year old rumor about the next…

Sunday Comics: No Respect

Welcome to your Sunday read of the week’s best in web comics. Make sure to click on the expand button in the bottom right to enlarge each comic. Brawl In The Family by Matthew Taranto. Published Feb. 8. Read more of Brawl In The Family Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published Feb.…

Two Foot Tall Metroplex Makes My Transformers Dreams Come True This Fall

When I first discovered the titanic Autobot Metroplex would be making an appearance in Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, I experienced a brief rush of excitement—maybe Hasbro would make a new proper Metroplex toy! They’d reused the name for a silly giant from the Transformers: Cybertron line, why not? Eventually I convinced myself this would never…