Forget Final Fantasy for a Minute, These Vegetable Fairies Are Magical

Yoshitaka Amano has an impressive resume that’s a lot more than just Final Fantasy. Before joining Square Enix, he designed characters for a slew of classic anime, such as Gatchaman. And since stepping down as lead character creator after Final Fantasy VI, Amano has teamed up with a variety of folks, including Neil Gaiman. But…

Super-Slim PS3 Is Coming in Blue and in Red

Later this month in Japan, the 250GB super slim PS3 will be available in Azurite Blue and Garnet Red. Each is priced at ¥24,980 (US$279). If you haven’t seen it, check out how the super-slim PS3 looks compared to other modern consoles. 「プレイステーション ３」（CECH-4000Bシリーズ） [PlayStation]

Finding Porn While Searching for Pokémon X? Maybe You’re Doing It Wrong.

The new Pokémon games are titled Pokémon X and Pokémon Y. Have you ever searched either of those games on Google? If you are stumbling upon pornography, it might not be Pokémon, it could be you. Kotaku has been getting tips that point out entering “Pokemon X Videos” on Google turns up X-rated porn. Forums,…

Damn It, Owlboy, Why Aren’t You Out Yet

It’s been a long time coming. A long, long time, and still no release date in sight. But indie adventure/platformer Owlboy looks worth the wait. This video, released over the weekend, showcases both the music of composer Jonathan Geer and the game’s charming art style, which for want of something more descriptive reminds me of…

Pokémon Comes To Life In The Most Electrifying Way

Canadian street artist (and animator, and character designer) Aiden Glynn likes to take everyday objects on the street and bring a little life to them, turning them into characters from video games and cartoons. So a power box becomes Diglett, and an old barrel out the front of a restaurant becomes a prop from Donkey…

The US branch of Atari is filing for bankruptcy, says the LA Times. It’s not really Atari, but still, sad times.

Giant 20-Inch Gordon Freeman Statue Keeps Headcrabs Off Your Bookshelf

Gaming Heads, a company that’s been making Valve-related merchandise for a few years now, will later this year be brining out this impressive (and huge) Gordon Freeman statue. Standing 20″ tall and available in Q3, the regular edition will sell for $320, while a collector’s edition (that comes with an extra weapons, the SMG) will…

Real Man Becomes Walking Horror Inside Skyrim’s Daedric Armour

Sometimes, if the outfit deserves it, I skip the usual “best of the last week” roundup stuff and just concentrate on a single costume. I’m doing that this week, because this Skyrim piece definitely deserves it. The last time I honoured a Skyrim outfit like this was in November 2012, but that gallery was helped…

Westerado, You’ve Made Me Come To My Senses

Continuing their fine tradition of releasing awesome games for absolutely nothing, Adult Swim has put out Westerado, a game that’s a little bit RPG, a little bit action and a whole lot of Western revenge tale. Other designers, please take note. Not just of the game’s fantastic art style, but of the way the use…

A Moving Tribute To The Fallen Heroes Of World Of Warcraft

FlameofWesternesse has made this terrific short film, which catalogues some of the memorials placed throughout Azeroth in honour of World of Warcraft players who have passed away during the game’s tenure. Maybe you’ve seen them and wondered what they were for, maybe like me you’ve barely played the game and had no idea it could…

The Xbox Team Just Hired A Very Classy Designer

Andrew Kim turned a lot of heads last year with a bold redesign of Microsoft’s corporate branding, a vision and set of logos far braver (and classier) than what Microsoft eventually came up with for products like Windows 8 and Surface. It was all unofficial “fan” work, of course, but things just got a little…

Crazy Russians Show Mirror’s Edge Is A Terrifying Thing In Real Life

All that first-person climbing and running and rolling is awesome in Mirror’s Edge, but Mirror’s Edge is a video game. Seeing grown men do much the same thing on a skyscraper in Russia is as amazing as it is gut-wrenching. This is the first episode of Show Yourself, a series “about street underground culture, travels,…

More League of Legends Players Banned For “Toxic Behaviour”

Continuing a recent crackdown on the kind of behaviour that gives the game a bad rap (at least amongst those who don’t play it religiously), League of Legends developers Riot have permanently banned two prominent eSports players for their “toxic behavior in-game”. Ilyas Hartsema, aka enVision, whose “peak harassment score placed the account among the…

Cheap Glory and a Fake Girlfriend, This Video Game Let You Be Manti Te’o Eight Years Ago

As I’ve said before, whenever news happens in sports, my first thoughts turn to how I can recreate it in a video game. It was no different when, like millions, I read that Manti Te’o’s dead girlfriend, whose tragedy underlined his world-beating performances in Notre Dame’s undefeated regular season this past year, was proven to…

The Week in Games: Ni No Kuni Comes West

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch has the entire week to itself, as far as console releases are concerned. In fact, it’s the only console release of note on the horizon. DmC: Devil May Cry also comes to the PC. Monday • Murder, She Wrote 2: Return to Cabot Cove (PC download) Tuesday…

Blizzard Boss Defends Former Diablo III Director: ‘I was Ultimately Responsible for the Game’

Earlier this week, Jay Wilson, the director of Diablo III, said he was leaving the title while still remaining at its publisher, Blizzard. There was a lot of cheering in the game’s official forums, because video games are not that different from sports, where fans openly root for people to lose their jobs after a…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Torso Distortion

Well, we had our swing at it, now it’s time for you to step up to the plate. Yep, it pretty much was a lead-pipe lock that when Deep Silver excreted this bad idea earlier in the week, it was going to get the ‘Shop Contest treatment. You don’t have to create severed torsos of…

Super Hexagon, one of our Game of the Year nominees, now is available on Android. It’s a buck (for a limited time.)

EA Exec Says Blaming Sexism is a ‘Cop Out,’ and Doesn’t Explain Why Women Aren’t in More Gaming Jobs

Gabrielle Toledano, Electronic Arts’ chief talent officer, says sexism isn’t what keeps women out of the games industry. “The video game industry is being painted as more sexist than other male-dominated workforces,” she writes in a guest editorial on Forbes.com, “but the issue isn’t just in video games. And it’s not what’s holding us back.”…

Sunday Comics: Prime Service

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. Brentalfloss the Comic by Brent Black, Andrew Dobson and Dan Roth. Published Jan. 15. Read more of Brentalfloss the Comic Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike…