Looks Like Assassin’s Creed III’s Multiplayer Is Getting Some Cool Upgrades

Man, Ubisoft’s marketing teams sure aren’t afraid of running up some purple language in this new multiplayer trailer for Assassin’s Creed III. “Masterwork of Carnage.” “Blood-stained cotton fields.” That kind of thing. Nevertheless, the competitive online options appear to be getting some much-needed refinements in this month’s AC threequel. And the new Anvil engine makes…

Truly ‘Adult’ Video Games

A funny thing happened at a showcase for new PlayStation games last week. A rep for Sony was showing me the PS3’s slick new online store, flicked through some of the new classifications for games on the store, each of which has a number next to them indicating how many games fit that category and……

Ask a Photographer About Shooting in a Back-Alley Arcade

Some folks go to San Francisco for the food or the fog. Photographer Ryan Russell went for the gaming. As part of Gizmodo’s Intel-Inspired Ultrabook™ Shooting Challenge, Ryan dropped by Frisco’s legendary Southtown Arcade, where he used his lens and his ultra-responsive Ultrabook™ to immortalize a remarkably cordial and totally legal underground fight club. Anyway,…

Beneath Max McMann’s Stupid Grin is an Incredibly Intelligent Courtroom Comedy

Last week I argued that Devil’s Attorney, a courtroom battler for iOS and Android, could never be more entertaining than its over-the-top inspirational 80’s theme song. Chalk up another win for Max McMann. I made an assumption. I assumed that any mobile game that went to such great lengths to play up its wacky 80’s…

This Week’s iPhone Charts: Bad Piggies Gangnam Style

We used to track the iPhone charts, back in the day. Each week we’d gather the pertinent data, update figures, calculate gains and losses—it got to be a tremendous hassle. Now we’re bringing the charts back bigger, better and more of a hassle than ever before. I am a glutton for punishment, so today marks…

Watch Me Try to Do What Lara Croft Does in Tomb Raider

Everyone who’s played a Tomb Raider game knows that Lara Croft’s pistols are her most iconic and trusty weapons. Always filled with ammo, always ready to mow down the rabid wolves, Yeti and human thugs who get in her way. But the new Tomb Raider reboot doesn’t start players off with guns. Instead, your first…

New Skyrim Patch Suggests That DLC Will Bring The Game Back To Morrowind

Skyrim‘s next DLC could be taking us back to the world of Morrowind, the third game in Bethesda’s popular RPG series. Eagle-eyed Elder Scrolls fans have dug through the files for patch 1.8, which Bethesda released yesterday for PC, and found all sorts of clues that could hint at future content for the game. One…

Some Unconventional Uses For The Awesome Vehicle In Borderlands 2‘s New DLC

Borderlands 2‘s first campaign add-on—Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty—releases today. It’s good But maybe the best thing about the DLC is the new vehicle it comes with: the hovering sand skiff. Randy Pitchford teased some sort of Star Wars references in the upcoming DLCs during our live Q&A. Once you see the sand skiff,…

Terrific Mass Effect Cosplay May or May Not Survive This Fight

It helps that the model, Matt Smith, looks pretty Shepard-ish to begin with. But let’s be real, it’s the costume, gun and make-up that really helps sell this. Mass Effect 3 [Zonbi, via Cosplay Blog]

Borderlands 2: Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty: The Kotaku Review

There’s a hidden oasis in Pandora that you never knew about, with palm trees and crystal clear water that I want to die in (which, incidentally, probably happened a few times). Captain Scarlett and her Pirate’s Booty is the first in a series of planned campaign add-ons for Borderlands 2. It introduces funny new characters,…

Tokitowa is Like Playing an Anime

Tokitowa is a new JRPG filled with time travel, multiple personality disorder, talking dragons, ghost towns, assassins, comedy, and cake—lots and lots of cake. Its creators have called it an “Anime RPG” as it uses 2D sprites for all the characters and enemies which are then superimposed on a 3D world. In battle, Tokitowa plays…

Atlus Won’t Talk Much about the Next Persona…Yet

For a while now, it’s been common knowledge that Atlus is making Persona 5. In a recent interview on Famitsu.com, Atlus game designer Katsura Hashino briefly (and I mean briefly) mentioned the next, numbered Persona. When asked about the latest in the Persona series, Hashino replied, “We’re making progress on developing the next numbered Persona.”…

If Ronald McDonald Was an Anime Girl, Eating Fries and Ordering Nuggets

I guess he’d look something like this? Here’s Hong Kong cosplayer LenLENko swinging by a local McDonald’s in her Hatsune Miku inspired Ronald McDonald get-up. Outfits like this that rework or reimagine established characters are among my favorite. LenLENko pulls this one off brilliantly. Extra points for actually going to McDonalds and getting a meal…

Japan Makes Awesome Time Travel Games

Over the past few months I’ve been anxiously awaiting the new PS3 title Tokitowa. While some are looking forward to the love story aspect or to its attempt to make a playable anime, the core of my anticipation is something altogether different: I’ve been dying to play another Japanese time travel story. For me, time…

This fall, Hyperdimension Neptunia is getting a card-based smartphone app. It’s free with microtransactions.

Hello Kitty Meat Buns Don’t Look So Cute When Sliced in Half

After seeing cute Dragon Quest Slime and Hatsune Miku meat buns, it was only a matter of time before Hello Kitty hit Japanese convenience stores. For a limited time only, convenience store chain Sunkus is selling Kitty-chan meat buns for ¥150 ($1.90) a pop. Japanese site Gigazine ordered a few and took photos for the…

Magic Modoka: Eternal Has a Trailer For the Third Movie, But Nothing Else New

Last weekend, Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part 1: Beginnings, an abridged and enhanced version of the first eight episodes of the Modoka Magica anime was released in theaters across Japan. Now, exactly a week after the release of the first movie comes the second, Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part 2: Eternal.…

How YouTube Just Screwed “Gangnam Style” [Update]

“Gangnam Style” has been nothing short of an internet phenomenon. But a new YouTube tweak might help bring that phenomenon to a swift end, regulating PSY’s “Horse Dance” to something that’s so September 2012. As Korean pop culture site Omona They Didn’t points out, YouTube has changed how it ranks videos. Starting this week, YouTube…

Manga Loving Student Stabs Teacher with a Ball-Point Pen

On October 1, a teacher in Aichi Prefecture, Japan warned a 14 year-old student several times about reading manga in class. When he wouldn’t stop, she took the manga away. That then angered the junior high school student. According to ANN News, the 14 year-old allegedly grabbed a pen off the teacher’s desk and then…

Covering a PlayStation Controller in Stickers Isn’t Very Gangster

To mark the release of crime saga Yakuza 5, Sony is putting out a special (tacky—sorry!) PS3 bundle, complete with a gold colored PS3 controller. The controller is just gold—kinda ho hum. Know what can jazz it up? Stickers. Today, Sega showed off the Yakuza 5 controller, which now comes with customized stickers. Stickers that…