City of Heroes Takes Its Case to City Hall [Update]

The City of Heroes community has called for a massive demonstration at 5 p.m. EDT in Atlas Park to protest the MMO’s shutdown. [Update] But apparently it’s already begun. That image [h/t mrKetch] shows hundreds now jamming city hall, and reports say the gathering already is large enough to bring down servers. [Second Update] With…

Yeah, So, About That ‘Easy Mode’ for Dark Souls …

The biggest thing Dark Souls (and spiritual ancestor Demon’s Souls) has going for it is that it’s hard as shit. Suffering through countless deaths to the end is a serious badge of honor. So when the series’ director said earlier this week “I am thinking about whether I should prepare another difficulty that everyone can…

Madden NFL outsells NFL 2K5 for the eighth straight year.

This Week in the Business: ‘No Sex Please, We’re Gamers.’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “No sex please, we’re gamers.”—GamesIndustry.biz’s Matt Handrahan talks to Miriam Bellard of No Reply games, who explains why she thinks their erotic game Seduce Me was removed by Steam Greenlight QUOTE | “For all we know, social games are a fad.”—Chris…

Spammers and Gold Farmers are Trying to Hack Into Guild Wars 2 Accounts, Says ArenaNet

Hackers armed with email addresses and passwords stolen from other sources are probing Guild Wars 2 accounts to see if they can break in and use the accounts for botting or spamming gold sales, ArenaNet confirmed earlier today. The statement came after many users were notified of attempted logins to their account from locations in…

Borderlands 2‘s site has posted skill trees for all classes, so you can spec out yours before the game’s 9/18 release.

NFLer Snubbed by Wrong Photo in Madden Now Gets One Slightly Less Recognizable

Ten days ago, Marcus Thomas decided he’d had enough of being identified by some other Marcus Thomas’ mugshot in Madden NFL and took to Twitter to complain about it. Two days later, he was released by the New York Giants. Well, not only is he looking for work, he’s looking for a face, too. Madden…

The Moneysaver: Major Release Mayhem

As the major-release machine spins up for its September-to-November finishing kick, NewEgg is guaranteeing $12 off preorders with a coupon good through Sunday, and Toys ‘R’ Us is trying to clear shelf space with a twofer sale on console titles. Borderlands 2, the most pre-ordered game in 2K Games history, is $48, 10 days before…

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 a print inspired by Skyrim that you can buy for $65. Or you can get the original for a cool $1,000. Thanks to XombieDIRGE for the find. Moving on to our Best Of content…

Treyarch—the studio making Call of Duty: Black Ops II—is only advising on story, not gameplay, for the Vita tie-in

They Don’t Make Music Videos Like They Used To. They Make Them Way Longer, And Artier

Remember when music videos were just sort of five minutes of a band standing in a warehouse lip-synching to their own song intercut with footage of a hot girl making out with the lead singer? Good times. This “video” is really more of a short film. I’m not complaining because I guess it’s pretty cool—it’s…

I Just Bought My First Wii Game in More Than a Year. Then Tragedy Struck.

I didn’t play The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. To a role-playing game player like myself, that seems particularly wrong, but I just didn’t feel like digging out all my Wii stuff and going through the motions. My Wii has been hooked up for years now, even managing to survive the theft of nearly everything…

WoW & Old Republic, United At Last

When Old Republic launched, World of Warcraft was its main competition. Now that Guild Wars 2 has come in and kicked a whole lotta doors down, the two “big” RPGs face the same up-and-coming threat. They’ll never actually stand together, of course, but still, the idea makes for some lovely fan art. This piece originally…

The World’s Most Infamous Piracy Website Wants You to Buy This Video Game

It’s not unusual to see the latest, hottest PC games available for download at The Pirate Bay, the Swedish file-sharing website that’s one of the planet’s primary sources for pirated entertainment — just not normally on the very front page. Mikolaj ‘Sos’ Kaminski’s indie adventure game McPixel is available this weekend as a free torrent…

Just Cause 2 PC Players Can Get a Taste of That Sweet Fan-Made Multiplayer This Weekend

So, you’ve read all about the ambitious multiplayer add-on that that a group of modders has been working on for the PC release of Avalanche’s hit sandbox action game. You’ve seen the insane stuntsand unscripted chaos, and said to yourself, “Man, I want me some of that.” Well, you’re in luck. Over on the the…

Take A Close Look At All Of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm‘s New Units

Not in the StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm beta? Wish you were? We can’t help you there. But we can give you a peek at what’s in store for StarCraft II‘s next expansion pack. Here’s a close look at every new unit in the multi-player mode of Blizzard’s upcoming RTS, created by Kotaku video…

What Kind Of Gamers Are We?

Earlier this week when he was talking about Skyrim‘s new house-building downloadable content Hearthfire, Jason brought up Richard Bartle’s “Four types of video game players.” The Explorer, the Socializer, the Killer, and the Achiever. The names are rather self-explanatory: the Explorer loves to wander; the Socializer loves to chat; the Killer loves to compete; and…

Sony Says That They’ve Been “Working Closely” With Bethesda to Get Skyrim DLC Working on the PS3

People who bought Skyrim for the PS3 are pissed. And you can’t necessarily blame them. First, they get a version of Bethesda’s hit action/RPG release that became increasingly unplayable. Then, PS3 owners had to endure news that they may not even get the Dawnguard DLC that Xbox 360 users got back at the end of…

The Vita Hasn’t Been Completely Cracked Yet, But One Guy Is Getting Awfully Close

Sony wanted to make sure the Vita was difficult to crack. Earlier this year, some folks at wololo found exploitable in the Vita and were able to run custom (homebrew) software. Sony pulled some games in order to remove the code, and not too much about hacking the Vita has been heard since. Recently, however,…

What Video Game Music Goes Good With a Wedding Celebration?

Today’s Speak Up on Kotaku is incredibly short and even more sweet, as commenter batman4million ask for suggestions of video game music that won’t aggro his guests at his wedding after party. I need a good play list of game music for my wedding reception. I want good background music. any suggestions? About Speak Up…