What Do the Ten Top Grossing iPhone Games of 2012 Have in Common? They’re All Free.

For every overpriced Final Fantasy re-release on iTunes there are dozens of free-to-play social games, refugees from a slowly fading Facebook love affair with microtransaction-driven casual titles finding new sources of revenue in the fertile mobile market. In this year’s list of the top grossing iOS games and apps (available within iTunes), the free-to-play game…

It Took A Complete Stranger To Make Me Fall In Love With Journey

Spoilers for Journey follow. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. I’d heard about Journey‘s innovative multiplayer feature, of course; it was impossible to follow video game news in 2012 without reading about how your Journey journey can be peppered with silent, anonymous companions who are pursuing the same quest as you.…

Misunderstood Bro Culture And Their Obnoxious First Person Shooter YouTube Videos

You press play. A homemade logo or two pop up—maybe a clan, or a made-up studio. You notice the name of the player—tons of X’s, maybe a 420 reference, and the rest seems incomprehensible. That’s when the top 40 song begins. Then, it happens: a man dies. Cause of death? Headshot, intentionally timed to connect…

A “Violent Games Exchange” outside Newtown, Conn. says it doesn’t blame games for the tragedy, but will still burn them.

The Elite: Dangerous Kickstarter has surpassed its $2 million goal with just over 2 days left.

Watch All Of FreddieW’s Videos From 2012 Mashed Into One Funky Video/Song Remix

YouTube superstar Freddie Wong has a knack for making fun, special-affected videos based on games, tropes in games, and whatever else about games. Now that we’re sitting firmly in 2013, the first year since 1987 to not repeat a digit, Freddie’s got one more video to commemorate 2012: every video he’s made in that year,…

This Fan-Made Robotech Movie Trailer Will Give You Chills

Just this past week, I was talking about Robotech—the adaptation of the Japanese Macross series that was one of the first crossover anime hits from Japan in the 1980s—with a friend of mine, saying how it was essentially a military soap opera for adolescent boys where the drama was acted out with giant robots. And…

Science, Finally (Kind Of) Proving That Yes, Gamers Can Have Friends. Good Work, Science.

Earlier in the year we asked if gamers could do their thing without being a total shut-in. It’s an important conversation, especially given the stereotypes surrounding gaming and the type of person who games. It’s important enough in fact, that scientists decided to research the answer according to The Atlantic. “They found their participants waiting…

CityVille Eternal Spring Greenhouse: Everything You Need to Know

While there might already be a few ways to create or otherwise “earn” Premium Goods in CityVille, wouldn’t it be easier to simply grow crops that produced these Goods when harvested? Apparently Zynga thinks so, as it has released the new Eternal Spring Greenhouse to our game. We’re here with a guide to this new…

Hold On To Your Butts, It’s A Jurassic Park Game Made In The Half-Life Engine

Boom. Boom. What’s that sound? The coffee on my desk is shaking. Boom. Boom. Oh god, look at that. At the window. It’s a super ambitious Jurassic Park game made using Valve’s source engine. Stay perfectly still, and it won’t be able to see us. The game/mod, called Jurassic Life, is a collaboration between a…

Why The Walking Dead Should Be Game Of The Year

The Walking Dead is lovely in the most horrifying ways. Some people have asked me why anyone would want to subject themselves to something that outwardly seems so depleting. It’s depressing. Haunting. This isn’t one of those games where you face a harrowing plot, but end the story on a happy note by conquering the…

Here Are The Worst Games Of 2012, According To Metacritic

The cynical among us might say that all the games we played this year were ‘awful.’ Fewer titles reached a score of at least 90 or higher in 2012 than in 2011, after all. “We have never encountered such a low total number of great games in a single year,” Metacritic stated on a post…

“Hater Used Hate”: This Hip-Hop RPG Video Is Super Effective at Making You Laugh

At first, the vibe of SG Grey Days’ retro-RPG-styled video didn’t grab me. An overworld that looked like something out of a Genesis-era game? Yawn. But when the random encounter battle with a Wild Hater got underway, I couldn’t stop laughing. The clip is for the Frames of Invincibility EP by rap duo SG Grey…

From Casual to Hardcore Gamer in 10 Easy Steps (or 40 Years)

While the folks at the iTunes gaming division might have trouble rooting out copycat games, what they excel at is making lists. In creating a list of ten games that can take a mobile gamer from casual to hardcore, those Apple list-builders have created a mini history of gaming in portable form. The Apple list…

Congrats to FIFA 13 for being AbleGamers‘ 2012 Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year! Noble work, rightly recognized.

Why Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward Should Be Game Of The Year

To describe why Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward was my favorite game of 2012 is to describe why I fell in love with games in the first place. I fell in love with games not when I first played the Nintendo Entertainment System, on which I mastered Super Mario Bros. 3 and Bionic Commando and…

The Sequel To The Best Reverse-Tower-Defense Game Is Superb, If Barely a Sequel

Not that you can trust user reviews on iTunes, but one player of Anomaly: Korea recently praised the reverse-tower-defense game as being “one of a kind.” That’s false. Anomaly Korea is actually very, very much like 2011’s Anomaly: Warzone Earth, the reverse tower-defense game. You still command a slow-rolling column of tanks and transports through…

What’s Your Game of the Year? Vote in the Second Annual Speakys

Speak Up on Kotaku may be no more, but its legacy lives on in The 2012 Speakys, organized by and voted on by our readers. Longtime commenter GiantBoyDetective is administering the voting once again. (He also made the logo.) Votes are being tallied for best games on all platforms, with write-in options if your favorite…

Congratulations to Journey for being Journey developer Jenova Chen’s Game of the Year! (According to an Edge round-up.)

Why Far Cry 3 Should Be Game of the Year

Far Cry 3 should not be my nomination for 2012 game of the year. I’m not a huge fan of first-person shooters. While I appreciate the technical accomplishment of the first two games in the series I’ve not felt compelled to complete either. I felt absolutely no excitement leading up to the third installment’s late…