This Rap Battle Between Gollum and Smeagol Is Both Gross And Awesome

Gollum/Smeagol are both actually quite clever. If the [minor The Hobbit spoilers] riddle scene in The Hobbit tells us anything, it’s certainly at least that much. So it stands to reason that the split-personality hobbit could also string a few clever rap verses together. And just wait until Smeagol starts dropping the bass. But I’m…

The Best Conversations We Had In 2012

Playing video games is a lot of fun. Kind of goes without saying, right? But talking about games is just as much fun, if not even more so. Here at Kotaku, we writers don’t get enough opportunities to publish the arguments conversations we have amongst ourselves. But very so often, we’ll pull together a good…

Call of Duty‘s Biggest Problem? Penis Swastikas.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II, like the last few Call of Duty games, allows players to create and personalize emblems—little icons that appear on their weapons and next to their names when they’re online. Naturally, being mature and respectable members of society, Call of Duty players are using these emblems to draw swastikas made…

The Creepiest Game You’ve Never Heard Of

Back in the mid 1990s, some unique stuff happened in gaming, but few things are weirder than the bizarre PC adventure game The Dark Eye: A puppet adventure game based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe and starring one of the 20th century’s most influential authors, William S. Burroughs. In the video above, I…

Before You Start: One Tip For Playing Journey The Best Way

Here at Kotaku, we like to put together lists of tips for getting the most out of some games. Skyrim, Far Cry 3, Arkham City, games like that. Journey isn’t really a game like those other ones. There isn’t actually a “best” way to play it. But there’s one tip that I wanted to share,…

Good news: puzzle-platformer Fez is coming to other platforms beside the Xbox 360. No specifics beyond that as of yet.

The Latest Sexy Skyrim Mod Makes Your Character…Perpetually Sweaty

Some people make mods to make a game more realistic. Others, to add content. Some choose to expand the game in marvelous ways. And then there are those who make mods that enable your character to be perpetually sweaty in Skyrim. Because sweaty is sexy. Obvo. Let the creator, Skyrim Nexus Mods user Xs2reality, describe…

This Game Captures What It’s Like To Be Drunk At A Club

I love games like this—games that are more about capturing an experience. Proteus was one such game—the point was to create an idyllic sensation. Slave of God by increpare games, meanwhile, tries to capture what it’s like to be drunk at a rave (allowing you to drink, to dance, to… pee, amongst other things)—and it…

Why a Free iPad Game is Better Than Every Blockbuster Game Released in 2012

Many people who went to film school will tell you that film school made them hate watching films. In a similar fashion, as someone who has worked on triple-A video games in the past, the only thing that impresses me about triple-A video games is the amount of work that goes into constructing them. Project…

Here Are Some Halo 4 Multiplayer Tricks You Might Not Have Known About

A new episode of Halo 4 Mythbusters by defendthehouse brings with it a bunch of new tricks you can use on unsuspecting players. You might’ve stumbled on some of these yourself through frequent play and experimentation. That’s the beauty of multiplayer games. But the video above should still add to your arsenal of killing techniques.

If Your Xbox Cloud Saving Had Issues Last Week, You Get A Free Month Of Gold Membership

Maybe you were playing a game on Xbox Live last week and you tried to save online. Maybe it didn’t work. Maybe you are cursing at the skies, wondering why you ever relied on this newfangled “cloud” technology when back in your day all you needed was a pen, paper, and a string of meaningless…

Take a Groovy, Animated Trip through One Man’s Favorite Games of 2012

Zac Gorman’s been doing video game-centric comics for Kotaku for the better part of a year now. He’s riffed on everything from Dishonored‘s stealth to what makes people jealous in Journey. So, it’s only fitting that he lets everybody know what his favorite playable experiences from the last twelve months were. It’s an eclectic—and damn…

Your Last Injection Of Great Cosplay For 2012

Sorry about the lack of quantity this week. Like the rest of us, cosplayers are on holiday too! Luckily, those that have been sticking with it and uploading new images have been knocking it out of the park. As seen on LexiStrife As seen on DeadlyNinja As seen on Sweet-Empathy As seen on naokunn As…

There’s a Big Piece Of Skyrim In This Guy’s House

Comic artist Tyler Kirkham took website CBR behind the scenes of his home/workplace the other day. There were pencils, couches, posters, bookshelves and… oh, yeah, an enormous customised Skyrim-themed dungeon. You’ll have to scroll a fair way down in this gallery to hit the basement, but once you do, you’ll know it. Just look for…

What If The Year’s Biggest Games Were Clunky Old Text Adventures?

That’s a question PC Gamer asked themselves over the course of the last week, re-imagining 2012 blockbusters like Mass Effect 3, Far Cry 3 and Assassin’s Creed III as primitive text-based adventure games. The results are sometimes funny, sometimes cutting, and quite often both. You can read through four of them below. The Text Adventures…

The 3DS Is Being Hacked, And Why This Is Good News

Over the past week, hackers have made substantial progress in their efforts to hack Nintendo’s 3DS handheld. While, yes, this will have negative consequences for things like piracy, I’d like to think you, dear reader, can see the more practical benefits of getting under the system’s skin. Like getting around the 3DS’ region locks for…

13 Years Later, Age of Empires II Gets An (Unofficial) Expansion

Still regarded as one of the finest strategy games ever made, Ensemble’s 1999 classic Age of Kings has long been dead as far as publisher Microsoft is concerned. As far as fans are concerned, though, it’s all stations go, as a new expansion called Forgotten Empires has just been released, which introduces new campaigns, maps,…

The Best Video Game Concept Art Of 2012*

Seeing as I post a Fine Art feature almost every day, it’s only right that we take a minute to honour some of the best concept, production and promotional art the world got a chance to see in 2012. Due to the nature of the field—one in which art can be locked away for years—and…

You’ll Want These Portal Action Figures Next Christmas

They’re from ThreeA, so your loved ones will need the time to save up, but look at them. They’ll be worth it. We’ve seen these before in their unpainted prototype state, but these painted models are just to die for Still no word on a release date or price. ThreeA x VALVe Portal [ThreeA]

Nintendo Is To Thank, And Blame, For The Dead Metroid Movie

There was, once upon a time, a serious plan to bring a Metroid movie to the silver screen. With John Woo directing. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but various things conspired to sink the project, chief among them Nintendo itself. As former producer Brad Foxhoven tells IGN, while Nintendo at first surprisingly…