Apps Plus Toys: HeroClix TabApp Marvel Super Heroes

In the third (and possibly final) installment of this week’s look at gaming apps that use physical toys to enhance and amuse it’s time for everyone’s favorite twisty-based collectible figure game to take a shot. Uncanny Avengers assemble on my iPad! Retailing for $14.99 wherever things like this are sold, the HeroClix TabApp sets combine…

Borderlands 2‘s Mechromancer Mutilates Her Arm For Science

Yes, I know some of those words, Gaige. The third ECHO recording released by Gearbox—erm, Gaige—today reveals new improvements in the DT project. Until, that is, Gaige interrupts her monologue with news that her school/science project rival seems to be ripping off her mech designs. The result is the humorous rant you can listen to…

This Dog Is a Cooler Video Game Hero Than Master Chief

What makes a game character cool? Is it their arsenal? Is it how people treat them? Or is it something totally different? Can a Pomeranian puppy be a cooler game character than even a go-to gaming badass like Master Chief? In the video above, I talk about the fantastic PSN title Tokyo Jungle, the definition…

Canadians are Playing a New Skylanders Mobile Game Right Now

While non-Canadian fans of plastic toys that come to life eagerly await this month’s release of Skylanders Giants, they that battle the giant ice spiders can download a free-to-play game called Skylanders Lost Islands right now. Spotted by the folks at Pocket Gamer, Skylanders Lost Islands sounds like standard free-to-play social fare. Players build and…

This Guy’s Football RPG Sounds Insane. And Awesome.

A few weeks ago, after I published a column about how football is basically a role-playing game, I got an e-mail from a guy named Nathan Lazur. He wanted to pitch me the game he’s working on. A “football RPG beat’em’up,” he called it. It’s called Football Heroes, and like many indie developers, he took…

Indie old-school role-playing game Avernum VI is now available on the iPad, which seems like a perfect place for it.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Review

It’s been over six months since Nvidia launched its Kepler architecture and we’ve finally seen the GTX 600 series enter more affordable price brackets, delivering a greater value every step of the way. In August, the company shipped its GK104-based GeForce GTX 660 Ti for $300, which was about 13% slower than the $400 GTX…

Unlike Its Cinematic Namesake, This Case Mod Inspired By A Classic Sci-Fi Movie Will Probably Not Try To Kill Anyone

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the science-fiction prophets of the age got the future of computers half-right. Our digital contraptions do get ever more powerful, and the world is now, in many ways, entirely run by a powerful, invisible network. But the part that science fiction got wrong was that our computers have gotten…

Here’s an Extended Cut of That Dazzling Squadron 42 Trailer

Chris Roberts want his next game universe to be big. You get a better sense of the scale that the Wing Commander creator is going for in the longer version of the trailer that ran this morning. This edit shows off a bit more of the ships and dogfights in the Squadron 42 slice of…

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Log Two: Goodbye Pandas, Hello Cataclysm

Things are just not going well for me in Azeroth, I’m afraid. When my little rogue pandaren, she of the fierce daggers and the even more fierce blue streak in her hair, left the Wandering Isle, she joined the Alliance. After punching King Varian in the face and knocking him flat on his posterior—at his…

Sony Sure Picked A Bad Time To Release This Quirky Shark Game

It’s unfortunate that Sony chose to release Derrick the Deathfin smack in the middle of what I’m unofficially calling VIDEO GAME WEEK ’12. (I’ve got t-shirts.) So here’s a little shout-out for the little guy: if you can wrest yourself away from Dishonored, XCOM, or any of the other awesome games that are out this…

He-Man the Most Powerful Game Trailer in the Universe

Hot on the heels of the most powerful screenshots in the universe, it’s the official trailer for He-Man: The Most Powerful Game in the Universe. Prince Adam is just so interesting, isn’t he? Nice to see GlitchSoft and Chillingo having so much fun with our favorite Eternian. Not only are we going to play as…

My Neighbor Backed a Game on Kickstarter, and He Loves It.

Scott lives two floors above me. He says he doesn’t really identify as a gamer. But, there he was, throwing cash at an indie game studio on Kickstarter a few months ago. Sure, he could’ve saved his money but this project… this one was special. It was White Whale Games that managed to pry Scott’s…

Wandering Through The ‘Burning Man’ Of Video Games

“Indiecade is like the burning man of video game events.” I can’t remember who said that to me, but that’s how the young conference celebrating independent games —which started off as a part of E3 before it went off and did its own thing—was introduced to me. I have no real conception of Burning Man,…

The Mobile Version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted Looks Pretty Spectacular

I was a little worried my new mobile gig here at Kotaku would preclude me from enjoying Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Looks like EA Mobile and the racing experts at Firemonkeys have me covered. This is gorgeous. EA Mobile tapped the folks behind the lovely Real Racing 3 to create the mobile version of…

Dishonored Designer: ‘No One Ever Pressured Us’ To Add Multiplayer

Dishonored has no multiplayer. At all. That’s right: it’s both an original IP and a single-player-only experience. It’s the unicorn of the gaming industry. In a world where multiplayer is viewed as the only way to make serious money off video games (and prevent people from trading them into GameStop), Dishonored seems a strange exception.…

This Game Reveals the Cold, Calculating and Utterly Evil Nature of Cats

“Oh Mike, don’t be mad. The cat doesn’t realize it just used your comic book storage carton as a litter box”. Lies. In Dingo Games’ free-to-play Clumsy Cat, due out October 18 on iOS, we get a glimpse at the true motivation behind the actions of the common house cat—the complete and utter destruction of…

A Simple Change To a Star Wars Video Game Helped Me Fight Depression

I am a very flawed individual. I am physically flawed, sure, but mostly when I say I am flawed I am referring to my mental state. In the past 17 months, I have had frequent visits with both a psychiatrist and a therapist, and we have been taking aim at those flaws. We have made…

The Void Between Worlds Still Looks Like a Scary Place in Dead Space 3

Isaac Clarke’s return to consoles may have co-op missions waiting for players when Dead Space 3 comes out next year. But EA still wants us to think that the third entry in their sci-fi horror franchise is going to be a frightening experience. Hence, these screens. I don’t know if shivers are running down your…

Everything You Need To Know About Far Cry 3‘s Vast, Exhilarating Open World

Between XCOM and Dishonored, most gamers are probably unable to even think about anything on the horizon—the present is just fine, thanks! The horizon can wait! Last week, I headed over to Ubisoft and spent about four hours visiting that horizon, playing a big chunk of Far Cry 3‘s single-player campaign. I’ve had my doubts…