The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Gamers of the Year

Kotaku, in its look back on 2012, will ultimately laud the best games of the year, the qualities that made them great, and those who made them great. But we also want to step back and recognize those who make video gaming, as a whole, great. The people dedicated to the ideals of this culture…

Donkey Kong Country 3 Gets A Mondo Remix Album, Years in The Making

The giant video game musical collective Overclocked Remix has turned their attention to Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble! and released a massive, 77-song remix album. It’s their 36th remix album, and it features over 69 artists, including musical performances by DKC3 composer David Wise. (Who, incidentally, is still working, making the music…

This video about trying to understand music (and how you maybe don’t have to understand it) is pretty fantastic.

Show Us Your Picks For Best Video Game Music Of 2012

Last year, I had a ton of fun running the Best Game Music Of 2011 series. Over the course of a dozen or so posts, we looked back at all the best video game music of the year, from Portal 2 to Sworcery. This year, I’d like to do something a bit different. Since I’ve…

The New Best Way To Play Far Cry 3: HUD-Free And Loving It

Far Cry 3 is a very good game. So good that, even after beating the main story, all of the radio towers and a good percentage of the outposts, I’ve started a new game and am still playing. All these hours later, one thing still grates: No matter what you do, you can’t turn off…

Former Battlefield Dev Plans to Change the Way Mobile Shooters Play with The Drowning

As the former creative director of DICE Sweden, Ben Cousins knows console shooters. His team at Scattered (formerly Ngmoco Sweden) has collectively worked on five Battlefield games, the first three Halo titles, two Far Cry and Crysis games and the upcoming Tom Cruise film All You Need is Kill. If any development team can create…

Dance Central’s Dancers Were Saved From Looking Stupid

The Creators Project video series continues, this time looking at Harmonix and how Dance Central uses the Kinect (amongst other things.) The most interesting thing to me, though, is how during development, the team found that certain choreography looked funny. This was puzzling. At first, they thought it might be because of gender—and that this…

A Big Name Barely Makes the Cover of His Own Video Game

Tiger Woods isn’t on the cover of the “Historic Edition” of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14, the fifth such box—special or main edition—in which the game’s titular star has not appeared alone, or at all, in the past four years. Bobby Jones, who designed Augusta National Golf Course, and Bubba Watson, who won the Masters…

Turns out we liked our Tumblr so much we couldn’t bear to part with it. So we kept it around

PS3 Owners Might Still Be Getting Skyrim’s Dawnguard and Hearthfire DLC

PlayStation gamers, Bethesda swears it’s not ignoring you. Owners of Sony’s game console have been angered at how their platform hasn’t gotten any of the add-ons for Bethesda’s hit action RPG yet. The outcry has been that the publisher doesn’t care about the PS3 portion of the Skyrim player base. An announcement that the just-released…

Ash Ketchum Hasn’t Owned Very Many Pokémon, Has He?

Maybe I’m being unfair, but compared to the whole Pokedex—which has over 600 Pokémon, at this point—the number of Pokémon Ash has owned over the years seems laughable. Here’s an image that breaks down what Pokémon Ash has caught and when in the show, along with who his (human) companions were at the time. Click…

This Is One Way To Go About Making A Game Where You Slap Butts

Slight warning, this post contains talk of butt-slapping (just in case that wasn’t clear.) Earlier this year, we told you about a Kickstarter project for Makey Makey, an invention kit that allows you to turn nearly anything you want into an input device. The kit has been out in the wild for a while now,…

The Friend Game Asks: How Well Do You Really Know Your Facebook Friends?

Do you think I’m a bigger tipper than you are? Do you think I remember the name of my kindergarten teacher? Imagine that we’re friends and that a video game is asking you these questions. Imagine that it asks you to answer questions about yourself, too. For example, if you were the first person on…

Somebody Take Magical Ride Away From Me, Please.

Wandering through the Facebook App Center can be a dangerous thing. I’ve been playing Pretty Simple’s endless broom rider, Magical Ride, for an hour now. The only reason I am not playing it right now, is because I have two minutes before I get another life. One minute. Actually, be right back. Magical Ride would…

Some of This Year’s Best Indie Games Will Come to Steam Next Year. We Just Don’t Know Which Ones Yet.

For the last few years, titles nominated for the Independent Games Festival’s various awards have been amongst the best digitally playable experiences in the preceding 12 months. But, as good as some of these games are, they haven’t all been as lucky as, say, Fez, which was able to make it to a wide release.…

The Importance of Being A Bro

Few games understand the true meaning of being a bro. Being a bro is more than being a burly man in a group of burly men who shoot at anything that moves. The concept of “bro” reaches beyond polo-wearing frat boys double fisting red plastic cups. Bro is a mindset. It’s not even constrained to…

Like All Things, 2K Play’s Latest Game Gets Better When the Sheep Show Up

Despite the fact that 2K Play sent me a plush cow stuffed with a whoopie cushion to promote it, I wasn’t finding Herd Herd Herd nearly as charming as I thought I would. Then the sheep showed up. First demoed at E3 2012, Herd Herd Herd transforms your finger into a sheep dog. Nowhere in…

League of Legends‘ Massive Pre-Season-3 Patch Released

Riot has released a whopping pre-season-3 patch for League of Legends, which will doubtless make a ton of diehard players very happy. Since everyone loves massive patches that change tons of things about their favorite video games. In the video above, Riot’s Joshua “Jatt” Leesman and Ryan “Morello” Scott walk viewers through the many changes…

Far Cry 3 PC Performance Test: Graphics & CPU

Designed exclusively for PC, the original Far Cry sold 730,000 copies in the first four months following its March 2004 release and was hailed as one of the best shooters, combining an adventurous plot that followed ex-Army operative Jack Carver’s heroic exploits on a mysterious Micronesian archipelago with engaging sandbox combat and some of the…

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is Go on Mobile, and It’s Glorious

I shouldn’t have to tell any self—respecting gamer to go drop $4.99 on the tenth anniversary edition of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on iOS or Android (once it’s live). For those that lack self-respect, go drop $4.99 on the tenth anniversary edition of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It’s better than ever. Along with…