Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Makes Major Changes to the Series’ Formula, Ends Trilogy

Final Fantasy XIII heroine Lightning will be back in a new game, Square-Enix announced today. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. This one is going to be a very different Final Fantasy Series director Motomu Toriyama began a presentation in Tokyo by showing an image of a rose, saying roses have many meanings. He then said…

Double Your Final Fantasy XIII Pleasure with This Limited Edition Pack

Over in Hong Kong, PlayStation’s Asia branch just announced a limited edition Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2 pack. The bundle includes both games (with English and traditional Chinese subtitles and the original Japanese voices) as well as eight eight post cards. It’ll be out September 13 in Hong Kong for HK$558 or US$72.…

A Closer Look At Borderlands 2‘s Spritely Robot-Summoner, The Mechromancer

At PAX 2012, attendees who braved the massive line at the Borderlands 2 booth were treated to a first look at the fifth character class for the game, the Mechromancer, which will now be given free to everyone who pre-orders the game. The character is a trendy, pixie-looking girl in metal armor who summons a…

The Cosplay Of PAX: Day One

The Seattle Convention Center was covered in video game characters today for the first day of the Penny Arcade Expo. We saw all manner of costumes—the elaborate, the humble, the humorous, the bizarre. Tina, Jason and I captured as many as we could for our first gallery. Up top, three ladies re-create three famous Zelda…

Surprise Ending of The World Ends With You Remake Teases Sequel

Looks like we might be getting a sequel to The World Ends With You after all. A new teaser image at the end of the iOS version, sent in by Kotaku reader Michael, hints that the franchise could continue soon, and translator Brian Gray confirmed its legitimacy on his Twitter account today The past few…

Backhanded Box Quotes: Cursing Madden

Welcome back to “Backhanded Box Quotes,” a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic, Amazon and elsewhere. This week’s Backhanded Box Quotes concern a game that needs no introduction: Madden NFL 13, which has somehow managed to sell a zillion copies the past eight years despite not having anything good said…

You’ll Get Final Fantasy Versus XIII, When It’s Good and Ready

Square Enix is being tight lipped about Final Fantasy Versus. And from the sound of it, that game could still be a while off. According to Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada, who recently spoke at a Final Fantasy anniversary event in Tokyo, said that Square Enix was “diligently making Final Fantasy Versus XIII“, but added,…

Customer Service Sucks For Those Inside the Gaming Industry, Too

Console failures don’t just happen to the little people. No, they happen to gaming industry professionals, too, and we’re happy to report they don’t get a customer service batphone and valet replacement service just because they happen to work for a major publisher, as “Frank” does here. He gets to suffer through the same tale…

You Can Close Your Eyes In This Game. It’s Profound.

You know what I hate? Audible character heartbeats in games. I can’t deal with that. It’s too stressful. I start breathing harder and I start to feel my own blood rushing as I start pondering the possibility that somehow—despite all logic—I’m about to suffer a heart attack. I mean, listen to my heart (which is…

Guild Wars 2 Bear Loves to Photobomb

There the player was, getting the camera right, the lighting right, the character’s pose just right for that perfect screenshot and…oh, hi bear. Photobombed in Guild Wars 2 [Reddit]

Minecraft Helped Inspire Skyrim‘s Newest DLC

When the rumors started circulating about a new DLC called Hearthfire for Skyrim, people started excitedly speculating as to what new powers you’d go on in the expansion. Dawnguard brought vampire abilities to Bethesda’s hit RPG so Hearthfire would bring what? Magma-flinging? Dovahkiin sidequests involving arson? No one was really expecting house-building and adoption In…

The “World’s First True Gaming Laptop” is Now More Powerful, Less Pricey

First revealed a year ago, the Razer Blade was a fascinating machine. Dubbed “The World’s First True Gaming Laptop” by its makers, the $2,800 17-inch machine, weighing less than seven pounds, was a bold experiment that traded power for portability, and portability for price. The experiment was an overwhelming success. Earlier this year the Blade…

The Thousands of New Animations in NBA 2K13 Include This Insane Dunk

NBA 2K13 will include, for the first time, NBA All-Star Week competitions such as the Three-Point Shootout and the dunk contest. Bet your ass you’ll see this crazy dunk (at 1:15 in the video) in the latter. The 2K Sports motion capture team brought in a duo called the Team Flight Brothers to put on…

It’s Not Easy Being a Pinball Junkie in a Digital World

In today’s nostalgic episode of the TAY-powered Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter JonathanPonikvar laments the sad plight of the modern-day pinball fiend, forced to go digital to get his fix. I’m a complete pinball junkie who is forced to go without a fix. Local arcades in my area have completely vanished, except for one —…

Five Gaming Apps to Help You Survive the Long Labor Day Weekend

It’s Labor Day weekend in the U.S., a time for sitting around reflecting on all things labor-related and the contributions workers have made to our country. Contributions like sitting on the can at work playing some gaming apps instead of working. Games like this week’s five Gaming Apps of the Day! I realize it’s hard…

The Joy of Jumping: Why ArenaNet Lets You Hop In Guild Wars 2

If you’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 at all, then you’ve probably seen people talking about jumping. Dancing is cool too, and actually, standing in one place is pretty neat as well, but the thing people love to do most is jump. That’s partly because jumping was impossible in Guild Wars 1. I visited Guild…

Here Are a Bunch of New Top Screens for Castlevania 3DS. No Bottom Screens.

How are we feeling about the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate these days? The game played well when I tried it last spring. I think a side-scrolling Castlevania on the 3DS XL with the 3D slider pushing the backgrounds beyond the system, should be good. . . . . . UPDATE: And here…

Don’t Ruin Bastion by Letting it Play Through the iPad’s Crappy Speaker

Supergiant Games’ award winning action role-playing game Bastion is now available on the iPad, and it’s one of the best experiences you can have with the Apple tablet. Just don’t ruin it by playing without headphones. The gorgeous hand-painted graphics and the shooting and smashing gameplay make the trip to the iPad intact, but those…

Plants vs. Zombies Comes to Zen’s Pinball Suites Next Week

At PAX today, Zen Studios said the next table in its acclaimed pinball lineup will be Plants vs. Zombies, licensed from PopCap, makers of the tower-defense hit. Plants vs. Zombies releases with Zen Pinball 2 on PlayStation 3 and Vita (it’s a cross buy title) on Tuesday in North America, and on Wednesday in Europe.…

There will be a PAX Australia, the founders of the con said at PAX’s kick-off today. And PAX 2013 will last four days.