A Kickstarter project advising other Kickstarter projects how to get funding on Kickstarter ended in a blaze of failure

The Headphones That Didn’t Screw Up a Second Chance to Succeed the First Time

Say this for Performance Designed Products, makers of the Afterglow Wireless Headset, a slick, luminous gaming accessory which promises universal functionality and evokes the costume design of Tron. They are very confident this will work, right out of the box, the very first time. Yet that has never been my experience in reviewing about half…

Curt Schilling’s Video Game Studio Won’t Face Federal Charges

In the aftermath of 38 Studios’ collapse, a slew of government investigators said they were probing the maker of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning for its attempts to secure loans using tax credits that never were issued. Tax credits are the biggest reason the studio, founded by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, became such…

PSA: Don’t Take This Guy’s Van in Battlefield 3. He is Chasing a Helicopter.

Audio is NSFW. Reader Mike C. works in a veterinarian’s office. It’s nice helping small animals, but the job does have its sad days. Video gaming is necessary to his decompression routine after work. Playing Battlefield 3 yesterday, Mike (GamerTag Kiaza, he’s asked us to include it) happened upon another lonely soul who appeared to…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Power-Ups in Real Life

I’ve been holding on to this idea for a week when we couldn’t get the rights to something, and lo that time has come. The thought occurred to me that, in games like Final Fight and Streets of Rage, why does eating a giant ham hock out of the bottom of a trash can improve…

ChrisWarcraft’s Weekly NFL Quest, Level Four: Retrieve the Pelt of a Blue Lion

Football is a role-playing game. That’s how Chris Kluwe, the Minnesota Vikings punter and noted World of Warcraft and RPG fan, is approaching it. Each week in the NFL, ChrisWarcraft characterizes his upcoming game in terms of an MMO quest. We’re going to chart his progress and see how fast he levels up. Now that…

Sunday Comics: Teacher’s Pet

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. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Sept. 24.—Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Sept. 27.—Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Brief Boxes: The Winners

A couple Tokyo Game Show cosplayers devoted to the Sega Saturn provided the grist for this week’s ‘Shop Contest, which we’re certain has already gotten a song stuck in your head. Step one, make her open the ‘Shops. Step two, then you look at the ‘Shops. We’ve got this week’s best inside, plus overall winner…

Is It Possible to be Addicted to Games and Yet Not Play Them?

Reader Josh H., a college sophomore, says he’s been gaming and making videos for years, so he sent us this one. It’s alright—I’m not sure it says anything we didn’t know already, as the Pile of Shame is a commonly understood concept for most any serious video gamer. What struck a nerve with me, though,…

University Researchers Discover Cure for FarmVille Bots

If you are a company who rakes in millions making social games for Facebook, I have good news for you. Researchers at N.C. State University have developed the means of more accurately detecting bot accounts without alerting their owners, so the game’s developers can shut them down and kick those freeloading sons of bots out…

Eleven Years Later, at Long Last, Cortex Command has Launched

Cortex Command began life as the project of a Swedish high school student. That high schooler has now turned 30, gotten married, moved to the United States and become a citizen. And, at long last, he’s launched his game. Everything about Cortex Command, by Data Realms, shrieks of a labor of love, from the fact…

Xbox Live Wants You to Be a Better Citizen So It’s Giving You an Avatar Costume if You Watch the Presidential Debates

As someone who gets hit all the time with the “HEY I COME HERE FOR GAMES NOT POLITICS SO KEEP THAT TO YOURSELF,” comments, I’m going to straight-up be a hypocrite and say to Xbox Live that, hey, I come here for games and not politics and so keep all this presidential election coverage off…

Don’t Blame Us for the Boobies, Dead or Alive Director Says, We’re Just Doing What Fans Want

Despite feedback from Tecmo’s overseas offices to “tone down the sexuality” of Dead or Alive 5‘s female fighters, the game’s developers bravely pressed ahead in the name of fan service. “We actually got a lot of feedback from people who were playing it, saying, ‘We want bigger breasts. Make the characters more like that.'” director…

Xbox Live Now Offering Rewards Worth 25 Cents

Are you an Xbox Live Gold subscriber with a Gamerscore of more than 3,000 but not more than 10,000? Well, good news for you! You’ll now get a “Special Gift*” during your birthday month! * Actual value of gift is not more than 25 cents. If you have a Gamerscore over 10,000, you get a…

Kobe and LeBron’s Olympic Squad Lose to 1992’s Dream Team, Says NBA 2K13

If you got in on this summer’s bar argument over which U.S. Olympic basketball team was better, and were convinced that the Dream Team could beat anything that walked the earth, including a team of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, then NBA 2K13 has good news for you. The United States’ 1992 Olympic basketball team…

This Week in the Business: ‘Steam Ate Microsoft’s Lunch.’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “Steam ate Microsoft’s lunch.”—Tony Goodman, founder of now defunct Ensemble Studios, talking about how publishers are going to have to change, and he reflects on how Bungie saw Halo Wars as “whoring out the franchise.” QUOTE | “Sony’s strategy … is…

Midweek Moneysaver: Getting Close to a New Creed

For those with their eyes on Assassin’s Creed 3—well, its console release anyway—NewEgg has a discount on its preorder. Otherwise we are fully in the fall release window and few publishers are offering discounts on new titles, although savings can be found on Guild Wars 2, Mists of Pandaria, and Sleeping Dogs. These values plus…

The Best of Kotaku, This Week

Welcome to the Best of Kotaku, where I round up all of this week’s best content. This week’s best image is the work of 25th Pixel, found by Corey Moving on to our Best Of content this week, we kick things off as usual with a comment from the community. The Best Comment From The…

Yes, This Really Is The Worst Movie Death Scene Ever

When I saw this video flying around the internet yesterday, I thought, “Can it really be the worst movie death scene ever?” And then I watched it, and lo, it is indeed the worst movie death scene ever. The only scene I can think of that comes close is this now legendary scene from Troll…

One Pokémon Was Almost Named Piploop, But It Sounded Too Much Like Poop

Piploop became Piplup because Piploop sounds too much like poop. Another Pokémon was almost called Doncrowleone, but… well that one’s pretty obvious. Siliconera’s got a great interview with Seth McMahill, an assistant project manager at Nintendo and one of the people who helps translates games like Pokémon from Japanese to English for release on U.S.…