What’s Wrong With League of Legends?

League of Legends is a beast. An unassailable success that every other games developer or publisher is trying to figure out. Based on hours of play, it’s the most played video game in the world, notching upwards of 1 billion hours logged every month. Millions of people jump online every day to battle it out…

At Least Black Ops II Doesn’t Lecture Me Every Time I Die

“The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.” It was General Douglas MacArthur who said that, and his words are as true now as they were in his time. The reason I know MacArthur said that is because…

We Didn’t Ask For This: Sinister Director To Helm Deus Ex: Human Revolution Movie

The movie based on the third Deus Ex game, announced this summer, now has a director: Deadline reports that it’ll be Scott Derrickson, the guy who directed… the supernatural horror movie Sinister (62% on RottenTomatoes). And… the supernatural horror movie The Exorcism Of Emily Rose (44% on RottenTomatoes). I guess someone must have asked for…

FarmVille 2 Thanksgiving Crafting Recipes: Everything You Need to Know

With any new tree or crop release in FarmVille 2, players can expect a set of crafting recipes to be released as well. With the Thanksgiving item release, that tradition continues as farmers can now plant Parsnips or limited edition trees to earn ingredients for three new recipes within the Crafting Kitchen. Since Thanksgiving items…

Tiger Woods Will Serve You Arnold Palmer Next Year

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 revealed its cover today, pairing Woods with a younger Arnold Palmer, as he appeared during his heyday of the early 1960s. Palmer returns to the game as a playable character, too, having last appeared in the game in 2006. While EA Sports is giving out no additional details yet, Palmer’s…

This Game Doesn’t Need Guns Or Explosions To Make You Care. Just A House.

If you’ve played a game, you’ve probably encountered some form of environmental storytelling. In Left 4 Dead, safe rooms have notes scrawled on the wall from past apocalypse survivors, frantic missives to whomever comes along. In Fallout 3, a long-abandoned gas station reveals that its past occupant liked to play dominoes. And, perhaps most famously,…

There’s an Official Pokemon Pokedex in the Japanese iTunes App Store

The North American iTunes store is chock full of amateur Pocket Monster catalogs, assembling data from the popular Nintendo creature collecting series. They might soon be obsolete, should the official Pokedex for iOS released today in Japan make its way stateside. From what I can gather from the app’s official page, the iOS Pokedex is…

The Next Borderlands 2 DLC Is Called Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage [UPDATE: Now with a picture!]

Gearbox, or rather Borderlands 2‘s DLC character Gaige, today announced the next chunk of campaign DLC. Gaige’s Twitter account teased the news this afternoon, under the guise of a hacker named Torgue taking over her account. Here’s a picture of Torgue. This is the second campaign DLC to release, following Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s…

Nintendo Land: The Kotaku Review

Nintendo Land is no Wii Sports and it is no Super Mario 64. That’s the bad news for people who hope Nintendo has once again made a day-one masterpiece for its newest console. The good news is that Nintendo Land is a fun collection of surprisingly well-made smaller games. It’s a museum of beloved Nintendo…

New Super Mario Bros. U: The Kotaku Review

New Super Mario Bros. U is an extraordinarily important game. It’s the flagship title for a new piece of gaming hardware. It’s the first-ever high-definition Mario. And it’s the Wii U’s first system-seller, one of the big games that Nintendo hopes will convince people to buy their innovative, unusual new console. It’s also just another…

New Super Mario Bros. U and Nintendo Land: The Kotaku Reviews

Things are picking up pace here at Kotaku now that we have a Wii U in the office. Our own Stephen Totilo and Jason Schreier have been playing the heck out of the thing, and bring you two reviews today. Nintendo Land: The Kotaku Review Nintendo Land is no Wii Sports and it is no…

This Striking Motion-Controlled iOS Boxing Game is Completely Unreal

Powered by Unreal Engine 3, Vivid Games’ Real Boxing is not just another pretty face waiting to be beaten into submission. It also uses your iPad, iPhone or iPad Touch’s camera to deliver surprisingly responsive motion-controlled boxing. If you don’t want to look completely silly throwing punches at your iDevice, Real Boxing is still an…

The Walking Dead‘s Episode Four Stats Lead Up To Final Episode, Coming Next Week for All Platforms

If you, like me, are an episode or two behind in Telltale’s remarkable Walking Dead series, don’t watch this video. If you, unlike me, have caught up on episodes three and four of the five-part series, then by all means, go to town. In addition to releasing the player stats video for episode four, Telltale…

Watch The First Few Minutes Of Hitman: Absolution While Conan Makes Fun Of It

Oh, Conan. You surely are the clueless gamer, but you manage to make some of the best commentary regardless. Clueless Gamer: Conan Reviews “Hitman: Absolution” – CONAN on TBS [YouTube]

Stan Lee’s Latest Superhero Creation Has the Power to Fall From the Sky. Hey, Me Too!

Stan Lee has created (or “co-created”) countless superheroes over his long and illustrious career in the comics industry. Some of them have been fallen heroes. Pretty sure Verticus is his first falling hero. The evil alien Obliterators (so very Stan Lee) have breached the Earth’s core and planted a bomb that threatens the existence of…

The first two (free) DLC characters for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Kat and Emmett, will be arriving in 2013

Zynga Brings Ruby Blast to iPhone Today, Bubble Safari Coming Soon

I guess today is the day for popular Facebook games to come to iOS. First King.com’s Candy Crush Saga, and now Zynga’s increasingly popular gem tapper Ruby Blast arrives, tied-into but lacking the more recent features of its Facebook counterpart. Ruby Blast on Facebook is enjoying a period of increased popularity due to the recent…

Xbox Live Turns Ten Today. Let’s Look Back At Its Best And Worst Moments.

Today, Xbox Live turns 10 years old, meaning it’s finally as old as the majority of people who use it. Joking aside, Xbox Live has had its peaks and valleys, with both good and bad memories. Let’s take a moment to reflect back on those. You’re probably familiar with the bad ones. People who shoot…

Of Course There’s a Dubstep Scene in Black Ops II.

How will future historians be sure that Call of Duty: Black Ops II was released in 2012 or thereabouts? Because its campaign had a shootout set to dubstep. It’s short. It’s a little silly. It’s also the perfect time capsule moment.

Skyrim’s Dragonborn DLC Will Bring Players Back to Morrowind, Sort Of

Thanks to last week’s trailer, we already know that the next DLC for Bethesda’s hit action/RPG will be pitting players against the first humanoid to wield dragon powers. And now we know where Dragonborn‘s battles will be happening. New screenshots and details from the publisher reveal that your Dovahkiin will indeed be making a rumored…