Two Companies Are Fighting Like Mutant Dogs Over The STALKER Franchise

What a mess. Ever since former developers GSC Game World began dying a slow and agonising death, the future of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series has been up in the air, with former GSC staffers moving onto a spiritual successor after a rights dispute. Well, that dispute has now escalated to farcical proportions, with two companies claiming…

Gorgeous Games of 2012: Papo & Yo

We’ve gotten to this point where graphical fidelity can only take you so far: To make a visually memorable game, you have to have an imagination as well. The Magical Realist favelas of Papo & Yo had that in spades. Continuing in our series of cinemagraphs of some of 2012’s most gorgeous games is Papo…

GLaDOS Stars in Del Toro’s New Blockbuster Movie Trailer (No, Really)

As we told you back at New York Comic-Con, Ellen McLain, the voice actor behind Portal’s GLaDOS, has a role in Guillermo Del Toro’s upcoming Pacific Rim. Playing an AI. As you can see in this new trailer, what this means is that, basically, she’s playing GLaDOS in all but name. Well, all but name…

Midweek Moneysaver: Combo Maker

This Wednesday edition of Kotaku’s The Moneysaver catches all the offers, promotions and bargains that can’t wait until the weekend. The Midweek Moneysaver is brought to you by Dealzon. Software • Best Buy offers “Buy 2 Video Games, Get a $40 Gift Card” on a selection of 35 games for Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii.…

A Simple Way To Fix Far Cry 3‘s Dumb Story

Far Cry 3 does a lot of things right. It’s fun to play, the island setting is beautiful, sneaking around is a lot of fun, gunplay is solid, and everything works well. But the story… well, the story has some issues. As I pointed out in my review, the unevenness and general kinda dumbness of…

You Can Knock Back Beers In This Bar That Looks Just Like The Hobbit Pub In The Lord of the Rings

Well, if you live in or visit New Zealand, that is. The Green Dragon pub located in the tourist town of Hobbiton is now open for hairy bare-footed business. Just in time for the release of The Hobbit. It’s modeled to look like The Green Dragon Inn that Frodo and his small-statured friends frequent in…

It Doesn’t Look Like It, but I Think This Ridiculous Red Bull Ice Skating Game is Getting Me In Shape

Wednesday morning last week I woke up feeling like I had been dragged behind that truck from Raiders of the Lost Ark. It felt like I had actually, like, worked out, which is stupid. I let my month-to-month gym membership expire once review season began. Then I remembered: I played that goddamn Red Bull ice…

The Most WTF Review Scores of the Year

Some games are great. Some games stink. Some game reviews are great. Some of the scores of them stink, too. As 2012 draws to a close, let’s take a pause from all the holiday cheer to officially gnash our teeth over the worst reviews—no, the worst review scores—of the year. These aren’t the games that…

With iPad and iCade Combined, a Classic Game Console is Reborn

Rantmedia games and ION have given me back a substantial portion of my childhood — the early days when I could be found sitting in front of an odd black box playing simple vector-based games with a controller connected via coiled telephone cord. So the controller isn’t corded this time around. Between the Vectrex Regeneration…

The Cast And Crew Of G4’s X-Play Say Goodbye

Via Blair Herter, here’s the cast and crew of G4’s X-Play saying goodbye as they shoot their last episode. G4 cancelled X-Play, along with their other gaming-related shows, as part of a network-wide rebranding that will see G4 turning into an Esquire channel

The Xbox 360 and Surface Tablet Fight Each Other, Thanks to Skulls of the Shogun

The next big game from Microsoft will let you earn Achievement points on your phone. And your Xbox 360. And even your Microsoft Surface. And it’s not a shooter. After all, gamers nowadays are drowning in a sea of shooters. Fans who like that sort of thing have an embarrassment of riches but strategy fans…

PSA: Hawken—the mech-based first-person shooter—is in open beta as of [later] today.

Zynga Elite Slots is One Part Slot Machine, One Part Massively Multiplayer Boss Raid

The problem with most slot machine video games is a failure to capture the thrill of winning big in the middle of a crowded casino. Launching soon on Facebook, Zynga Elite Slots communicates that feeling by placing you in a room with up to 149 fellow gamblers and challenging the group to take down a…

The Smartest & Dumbest Things Nintendo Did in 2012

Well, someone had to go first. As far as history will be concerned, Nintendo did one thing and one thing only in 2012: they released a brand new console, putting the first of three nails into the coffin of a seven year old generation. That sounded weird. Whether they have Leeroy Jenkins-ed their way into…

You Can Now Buy And Sell In-Game Items In Team Fortress 2, More Games Coming Soon

Steam now has its own auction house. Valve is launching what’s called the Steam Community Market, a new platform that will allow you to buy and sell items for Steam Wallet cash within various games on the giant digital network. The service is launching in Team Fortress 2, with more games to come later. For…

No Longer a Rookie, Bryce Harper Wants to Welcome You to The Show

He was the first teenager to make an All-Star Team in nearly 30 years and the first ever to do it as a position player. His team made the postseason, and he was the National League’s rookie of the year. Bryce Harper had a pleasant introduction to The Show this year. Sony hopes you’ll have…

The Dark and Gritty Criminal Case Could Use a Little More Energy

Criminal Case, a new police procedural from Pretty Simple, threatens to be one of the most engrossing hidden object games on Facebook. Now if only I could play for more than five minutes at a time. Criminal Case places the player in the shoes of a police detective tasked with solving a series of crimes…

We Found The Ecto-1 and a Halo Warthog in L.A. Plus: Sam Jackson Snapped At Jason.

I went to the Spike Video Game Awards last Friday and… found the Ecto 1? Yes, the car from Ghostbusters was parked in the lot of Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, next to the Green Hornet’s Black Beauty. I don’t know why. UPDATE: Why.. I do know why they had a Halo Warthog. Because…

Ubisoft brags: Assassin’s Creed III has sold (through) 7,000,000 copies; players made over 3,000,000,000 assassinations!

FarmVille 2 Prized Animal Improvements: Everything You Need to Know

While many FarmVille 2 players love collecting animals, there was always the dread of running out of useful adult animals when they become “Prized.” At the beginning of the game’s life cycle, Prized animals were arguably worthless, rewarding players with just a few coins and XP when tended. Finally, they’ve been completely overhauled to reward…