Madden NFL 13: The Kotaku Review

The question is asked every year and yet it seems irrelevant for a franchise with no competition: “Is this the best Madden ever?” It’s a high and a low bar at the same time. Of course it should be the best Madden ever. They had a year to update and improve the last one, after…

Sleeping Dogs Recognizes A Good Photographer When It Sees One

I mean, just look at that. The angle, the lighting, the composition. Beautiful. Someone hire this man as a full-time photographer. Bonus is he can beat the shit out of anyone you ask him to. Yes I am [Reddit]

Check Out These Clips From The Robot Chicken Guys’ New, Lucas-Approved Star Wars Parody

File this one under: “What the hell do I even do with this information?” The guys behind Robot Chicken (including Joker himself, Seth Green) are making a new animated show called Star Wars Detours that will mercilessly, if lovingly, mock Star Wars. George Lucas has even given them his stamp of approval. Is this terrible?…

We Have Giant Screens. Make Games With Giant Fonts.

In this, the final episode of Speak Up on Kotaku before we move over to TAY, commenter Nevest wants developers to know they can use bigger fonts already, dammit. OK, I’ve gotta ask…what the hell is up with developers still using the tiniest text possible in their games? Even with an HDTV, connected through an…

Check Out This Week in Gaming Apps Before the Flesh-Hungry Moles Devour Us All

One of our writers has been deathly afraid of moles all of his life. He says one of this week’s Gaming Apps ‘o the Day cured him of that fear. I say no so fast. One does not simply brush aside a fear for Earth’s diamond-clawed tunnel rats. He can find brief solace in Hello…

Researchers Make a Video Game for Fish, Because Serious Science Can Be Very Silly Sometimes

Somehow it just seems inevitable, really. There have been virtual worlds for mice and iPad games for cats So sure, why not: science has now taken video games to sleep with the fishies. The BBC reports that a team of researchers from Princeton University designed a video game to use to research behavior patterns in…

So, Tell Me About Yourself, Video Game

Video games need more “Call Me Ishmael.” That quote is one of the most famous opening lines in all of literature. Sure, its popularity is owed largely to being the first sentence in Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick. But that introduction is also memorable because you’re learning about an important character from the very…

EA Sports Gets to Work Putting Assassin’s Creed Canoeing Into Madden

Best Buy got a little too enthusiastic with its promotional copy for Madden NFL 13, promising features such as “slow-motion chain kills,” pickpocketing unsuspecting victims, and a new pursuit system involving a canoe. Truly, this is how you innovate in the sports genre. Yes, obviously, some Best Buy web manager accidentally copypasted a bullet point…

Ode To The Final Fantasy Games That Weren’t Really Final Fantasy Games

Let’s go back in time. It’s 1990. The Company Then Known As Squaresoft is living large, riding the waves of success earned by 1987’s surprise hit Final Fantasy. Piles of money. Mountains of cocaine. You know the deal. Fueled by glory and riches, Square decides to localize a bunch of their Game Boy RPGs and…

A Nefarious Plot To Repackage And Sell A Free Open-Source Game

Imagine if a bunch of flight-sim enthusiasts got together and spent years assembling a free, open-source, constantly updated flight simulator. Wait actually, you don’t have to imagine that: It’s a real thing, and it’s called FlightGear. The open-source simulator has been around for years. Now imagine some nefarious do-badders have co-opted the free game and…

This Could Be Redemption for the Teddy Bear Murder Simulator That Broke My Heart

In June of 2010, 505 Games and developer Behaviour broke my tiny plush heart. Naughty Bear was to be everything I’d ever wanted in fluff-soaked teddy bear gore. Instead, it was simplistic, unattractive and unsatisfying. I wanted Dexter. They gave me Texas Chain Saw Massacre Lite. Can the downloadable Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise give…

A Better Look At How The Wii U Controller Works In ZombiU

One of the hardest things to communicate about ZombiU is the way the Wii U’s new controller is integrated into the game. In the first part of this “making of” documentary from Ubisoft, executive producer Guillaume Brunier walks us through the basic setup of the game (roguelike-like-meets-Demon’s Souls) and show how the touch-screen is used.…

Now You Can Play With Left 4 Dead And Gears of Wars Characters In Minecraft for Xbox

Skin Pack #2 is out for the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft today. It’ll run you 160 Microsoft Points and come with the following skins, via Microsoft: 1. Enderman Man – Minecraft 2. Pig Man – Minecraft 3. Sheep Man – Minecraft 4. Naked Sheep Man – Minecraft 5. Spider Man – Minecraft 6. General…

The Subscription MMO Is Dead

The era of the subscription-based online game has well and truly ended in 2012. It had a good run, really. Fifteen years is quite a long time for anything to stay static in the land of gaming. Ultima Online introduced the idea back in 1997, when those of us who had internet access were mostly…

Here’s the Trailer for Mass Effect 3‘s Leviathan DLC

The long-awaited single-player add-on for BioWare’s sci-fi threequel gets an underwater preview in this teaser. Our own Kirk Hamilton enjoyed his hands-on time with the DLC. Everyone else gets to play Leviathan when it becomes available next week.

Peter Molyneux’s new game gets a name change, but not, sadly, to Cube of Duty. It’s Curiosity: What’s Inside the Cube

Here’s How Activision Justifies Charging More For Angry Birds On Console

Pretend (?) you run a gaming company. If you could bring the biggest mobile game there is purchasable in stores, would you do it? If you’re the largest game publisher in the world, then it’s not such a tough question. Surprise surprise, Activision is publishing Rovio’s Angry Birds for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and…

Look At This Sneaky Bastard In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

First things first: headphone users beware. [Video spoilers] Granted, this guy probably should have known to check that nifty little camp spot. And nobody likes campers anyway. But it’s still pretty hilarious that he got caught with his pants down, so to speak. How to shit your pants in CS:GO [YouTube via Reddit]

1313 Will Take You Down to Star Wars Hell

It’s always pretty clean and well-lit in Star Wars movies, isn’t it? Even a place as wretched as the Mos Eisley cantina seems like it wouldn’t have a problem passing a health code inspection. So, where does all the dirt go in the Skywalker-verse? Apparently, it’s all going into Star Wars 1313 The video above…

Only A Truly Devious Villain Would Make You Solve Riddles To Destroy Him

I was the sort of child who always had a bunch of brain-teaser and riddle books lying around in her room, and I grew into the sort of adult who enjoys Professor Layton games. The Curse, for me, is a natural extension of that impulse to solve everything. In fact, The Curse could be considered…