My Neighbor Backed a Game on Kickstarter, and He Loves It.

Scott lives two floors above me. He says he doesn’t really identify as a gamer. But, there he was, throwing cash at an indie game studio on Kickstarter a few months ago. Sure, he could’ve saved his money but this project… this one was special. It was White Whale Games that managed to pry Scott’s…

Wandering Through The ‘Burning Man’ Of Video Games

“Indiecade is like the burning man of video game events.” I can’t remember who said that to me, but that’s how the young conference celebrating independent games —which started off as a part of E3 before it went off and did its own thing—was introduced to me. I have no real conception of Burning Man,…

The Mobile Version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted Looks Pretty Spectacular

I was a little worried my new mobile gig here at Kotaku would preclude me from enjoying Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Looks like EA Mobile and the racing experts at Firemonkeys have me covered. This is gorgeous. EA Mobile tapped the folks behind the lovely Real Racing 3 to create the mobile version of…

Dishonored Designer: ‘No One Ever Pressured Us’ To Add Multiplayer

Dishonored has no multiplayer. At all. That’s right: it’s both an original IP and a single-player-only experience. It’s the unicorn of the gaming industry. In a world where multiplayer is viewed as the only way to make serious money off video games (and prevent people from trading them into GameStop), Dishonored seems a strange exception.…

This Game Reveals the Cold, Calculating and Utterly Evil Nature of Cats

“Oh Mike, don’t be mad. The cat doesn’t realize it just used your comic book storage carton as a litter box”. Lies. In Dingo Games’ free-to-play Clumsy Cat, due out October 18 on iOS, we get a glimpse at the true motivation behind the actions of the common house cat—the complete and utter destruction of…

A Simple Change To a Star Wars Video Game Helped Me Fight Depression

I am a very flawed individual. I am physically flawed, sure, but mostly when I say I am flawed I am referring to my mental state. In the past 17 months, I have had frequent visits with both a psychiatrist and a therapist, and we have been taking aim at those flaws. We have made…

The Void Between Worlds Still Looks Like a Scary Place in Dead Space 3

Isaac Clarke’s return to consoles may have co-op missions waiting for players when Dead Space 3 comes out next year. But EA still wants us to think that the third entry in their sci-fi horror franchise is going to be a frightening experience. Hence, these screens. I don’t know if shivers are running down your…

Everything You Need To Know About Far Cry 3‘s Vast, Exhilarating Open World

Between XCOM and Dishonored, most gamers are probably unable to even think about anything on the horizon—the present is just fine, thanks! The horizon can wait! Last week, I headed over to Ubisoft and spent about four hours visiting that horizon, playing a big chunk of Far Cry 3‘s single-player campaign. I’ve had my doubts…

Inside San Francisco’s Last True Hardcore Arcade

San Francisco has its share of landmarks: The Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street, wherever Rice-A-Roni came from. But for white-knuckle competitive gamers, the city has just one true destination: Southtown Arcade — a tiny storefront by the Stockton Tunnel that houses Frisco’s last outpost for hardcore gamers. So when game-loving photographer Ryan Russell landed out…

Don’t Lose Your Mind In This Creepy, Welcomely Old-Fashioned iPhone Adventure Game

Minutes after booting up Forever Lost, I felt like I’d gone back in time. Here my protagonist was, waking up in what appeared to be a mental asylum, with no memory of who he (or she) was or how he (or she) got there. Single screens. A camera. Sliding-tile puzzles. Weird writing on the wall.…

Pokémon Super-Fan To PETA: ‘You Guys Are Just Sick And Wrong’

Chris loves Pokémon games. He’s been playing them since he was 10 or 11. And he thinks the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are unethically treating his favorite gaming franchises. In the video here, he defends Pokémon and attempts to obliterate PETA’s argument that Nintendo’s popular franchises celebrates the subjugation of animals. PETA…

Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon confirmed reports that the Joker and Green Lantern will be in Injustice: Gods Among Us

Collectors Can Explode, Sandstorms Are Creepy, and Other Things I Learned The Hard Way In Mass Effect 3: Retaliation

When BioWare added all sorts of new challenges, modes, and enemies to Mass Effect 3‘s multiplayer mode yesterday, they also added a new stat-tracking page that tells you, among other things, how many hours of your life you have spent shooting down enemy waves. It is a number that I kind of wish I hadn’t…

BioShock Infinite‘s Facebook page is teasing a new trailer that should go live October 21

NBA 2K13 Misspells Oklahoma City’s New Uniform [Update]

Multiple images leaking out last night show NBA 2K13 featuring Oklahoma City’s new alternate jerseys—with the team nickname misspelled as THUDNER. What’s crazy is that everyone seemed to miss the misspelling the first time it was posted. That image above comes from Operation Sports’ Steve Noah on his Twitter account. Daily Thunder, a fan site…

Talk Amongst Yourselves is where you should go to talk about games. And life. And how depressing The Walking Dead is

You Loved Wing Commander. Now Meet Wing Commander‘s 21st-Century Successor

Somebody needs to get the President, Mitt Romney and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a room and show them the next game from the creator of Wing Commander. Because the awesomeness on display in Star Citizen is a brilliant argument for why mankind needs to be in space. Star Citizen isn’t anywhere near done…

This is a Game About Collecting Garfield Trading Cards — Just Collecting Them

There is no crazy trading card battle system woven into Garfield Collections. It’s just a game about buying, selling and collecting virtual trading cards. I am not sure how that makes me feel. Developer DeckDAQ wants to bring collecting and trading into the digital age, so instead of collecting and trading real items, Garfield Collections…

Borderlands 2 Update Hints That The Game’s First DLC Pack is All About Pirates

Achievements and trophies added in yesterday’s patch for the PC and PS3 versions of Borderlands 2 hint at a new piece of downloadable content called “Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty.” Gamers on NeoGAF and other big message boards are reporting the details. Here are the three trophies, as posted on both GAF and PS3Trophies,…

The Walking Dead’s Episode Four Finally Broke My Resolve

Spoilers for previous episodes follow, as well as minor episode four spoilers. For all my positivity and knack for comforting others, for all my efforts to preserve any sense of morality in a dark, dim world full of death, nothing I do seems to help for more than a moment. Last night I played as…