I’m going to get this shirt for my cat.

This Is How Lucasfilm Convinced J.J. Abrams To Direct Star Wars

After the J.J. Abrams news broke out, a lot of folks were in shock—wait, he’s going to direct both Star Trek and Star Wars? And, more importantly, didn’t J.J. say he wasn’t going to do Star Wars, anyway? What happened; how was he convinced? In a profile about Kathleen Kennedy, The Hollywood Reporter reveals that…

There Is A Gorgeous Warcraft Mod In The Works For Starcraft II

We probably won’t see Warcraft IV soon, but with Starcraft II‘s map editor and with enough time anyone can create something similar. Members of the New Dawn team are in the middle of it, and this developer video shows a really atmospheric preview. Orcs, murlocks and zeppelins fight each other amidst only a few remaining…

How Gaming Helps Me Get Over My Fear Of Flying

My Apple iPad 2. Crisp display with a density of 132 ppi. Reacts to multi-touch gestures. Contains accelerometer, gyroscope. Reacts to involuntary shakes in hands. Enough battery life to last the majority of a cross country flight. Reacts poorly to excessive, clammy sweating. Does not register uncontrolled clenching of fists/jaw. Eight-megapixel front-facing camera accurately captures…

This Dirty Bomb trailer looks at how the FPS has changed thanks to player input in closed alpha. It’s by the Brink devs.

Video Games Are ‘A Bigger Problem Than Guns,’ Says Actual U.S. Senator

On MSNBC today, U.S. senator Lamar Alexander (a Tennessee Republican) set a new benchmark for insanity by claiming that games are worse than guns. “I think video games is a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect people,” he told host Chuck Todd. Once again, this is an actual U.S. senator. An actual senator…

FarmVille 2 Animal Mastery: Everything You Need to Know

Crop mastery has long been a staple of FarmVille 2. But farmers have never had that same “master them all” incentive to continue tending to animals if they no longer need their resources. That all changes with this week’s addition of animal mastery to the game. Your hard work and dedication will be rewarded with…

Let the launch trailer for psychedelic first-person adventure Antichamber mess with your mind.

This Starcraft II Song Will Teach You A Lesson In Valuing Esports

Temp0, well-known in the Starcraft II community as the guy who remixes hip-hop and pop songs while adding his own lyrics and voice, put up a new video yesterday. This time he reminds us with this catchy remix that Starcraft II as an eSport is still alive, even if other games like League Of Legends…

Splinter Cell: Blacklist: A Pleasing, If Somewhat Hollow, Return To Form

The more venerable and successful a video-game series, the trickier it must be to make sequels. Fans who have been around since the beginning likely start feeling a bit put-out about changes made over the years, changes that welcomed the very newcomers who might balk at an old-school return to form. That conundrum certainly seems…

Arranger Is Like A Musical Zelda Meets Psychonauts

If you’ve been paying attention to our burgeoning mobile coverage, you can’t have missed talk of Arranger, an iOS game by musician Arman Bohn from a few months ago that recently got an updated iPad version. (That’s the one I’ve been playing: it works really well on iPad.) Arranger is a retro-themed musical RPG. I’ve…

Say Hello To Kotaku‘s Most Far-Flung Editors (And Team NYC)

Last month we had Kirk, Owen and Fahey visit us at headquarters from their respective US cities. This month Luke and Ash visited from Australia and Japan, respectively, and of course I made sure to get our group picture in after our team dinner last night. We had kangaroo. Sorry Luke. Oh, and, Kirk’s ghost…

Superman and Wonder Woman Take Over the World in Injustice: Gods Among Us

The Injustice comic series, hitting shops and digital stores today spells out why Superman is fighting Batman (as they do from time to time) in Injustice: Gods Among Us, the fighting video game. But if you’re not picking that up, or just need the cliff notes, this trailer above fills you in on a very…

California Senator (Sorta) Sorry For Telling Gamers To ‘Quiet Down’

“Gamers have just got to quiet down. Gamers have no credibility in this argument.” The guy who said those words has eaten them, via Twitter. Leland Yee, author of the California anti-video game bill that the Supreme Court struck down in 2011, apologized yesterday to video gamers for remarks he made in a San Francisco…

Let’s Rank the Pokémon Games, Best to Worst

We did it with Halo, Grand Theft Auto, and Final Fantasy, and now we’re back at it again to rank the Pokémon series. The Pokémon world is an enormous one, one that spans over 20 core titles (mostly with slight variations) and countless other side stories (30 by my count), but for newcomers into the…

The Words with Friends Craze Justified By One Perfect Piece of Clothing

No matter how you feel about the popular social/mobile game Words with Friends, you have to appreciate a property that spawns a piece of art in which Cobra Commander shoots Captain Planet through the chest as Shredder, Boba Fett, Skeletor, the Terminator and a Dalek look on. Fantastic work from The Atomic Rocket, available today…

In-game broadcasting from Call of Duty: Black Ops II comes to Twitch today

This leaked trailer could be for a Chinese New Year-themed Sleeping Dogs DLC.

This Week’s Android Charts: A Temple Run Triple Play

It’s all Temple Run, all the time in this week’s Android charts, as the launch of the smash-hit sequel brings all three games in the franchise into the spotlight. I wonder if Imangi Studios’ other games ever get jealous. They make other games, you know. Remember Max Adventure, the dual-stick shooter about a kid saving…

A $350 Representation Of Nathan Drake’s Half-Tuck

First revealed earlier this month, here’s a better look at Sideshow’s giant, expensive Nathan Drake statue, which will sell for $350. NATHAN DRAKE PREMIUM FORMAT FIGURE PHOTOS, PRE-ORDER INFO, AND MORE! [Sideshow]