If You’re Playing Madden 13, Unplug Your Kinect When Others Are in the Room

A dorm-room staple for two decades, Madden brings voice-activated commands—snapping the ball, calling time out, changing the play—that are at high risk of abuse in that particular environment. You may wish to turn them off unless you can be assured you’re the only one in the room. Madden NFL 13‘s voice-activated Kinect prompts work only…

MMOs Are More Magical When You Can Cast Spells on the Move

In today’s magic missile-casting episode of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Kyle DeBona discusses how wonderful it is not to be frozen in one spot with a horrible monster bears down on you, desperately praying for the casting bar to finish. If you’re like me, you’ve probably played at least on game in time where…

Zynga’s COO and number 2 man John Schappert has left the embattled company as part of a “high level restructuring.”

Persona 4 Arena: The Kotaku Review

I’d imagine the Venn diagram comparing fighting game players to Japanese role-playing game fans doesn’t have much overlap. These are two wildly disparate genres. One caters to the competitive, requiring quick reflexes and the ability to perform lengthy, timing-intensive strings of input commands quickly and strategically. The other satiates the story-hungry gamer, asking only that…

Hybrid Experiencing Launch Day Woes on Xbox Live [Update]

Hybrid—the gravity-defying action title developed by Jeremiah Slaczka‘s 5th Cell’s studio—is supposed to be launching today on Xbox Live. But the experimental shooter doesn’t even appear to be available to download. According to Joystiq, Hybrid has been pulled from Xbox Live Marketplace due to server issues. Slaczka posted the following message on the game’s forums:…

There Are Lots Of Cool-Looking Indie Games Coming Out This September

Here’s the latest trailer from the Indie Games Uprising, a program designed to promote indie games on the Xbox Live Marketplace. This year it’s running from September 10 to September 20. One game a day. Some of these indies look pretty damn cool. Any of them catch your eye?

Windows Is Its Own Biggest Threat to the Future of PC Gaming

Hey, do you remember Blackberry? Remember how for years, every white-collar professional who worked in every office had to have one? And how they made consumer smartphones, that some people actually bought, and wanted to be all cool? When I started work at the headquarters for a major media company in 2008, every executive had…

This Should be Commander Shepard’s Favorite Case Mod On or Off the Citadel

Yes, nitpickers, I know: the Normandy was never red and black. That’s strictly for Shepard’s default N7 armor. Possibly the case should have been Alliance blue, or Cerberus yellow and black. But I think this is gorgeous just the way it is. Because this might have to be what I do to my next PC.…

This Charming Indie Puzzler Isn’t Mechanical At All. It’s Unmechanical.

This is not actually a little blue apple, though you might be forgiven for thinking so. It’s a lonely little helicopter, who got separated from its little helicopter friends and sucked into a bizarre underground labyrinth. The dark and twisty maze in question is a series of contradictions. Some areas move right to left; others,…

BioShock Developer Loses Two Key Members

Two senior-level members of Irrational Games—the highly regarded development studio behind BioShock and the upcoming BioShock Infinite—have left the studio, according to Gamasutra Director of product development Tim Gerritsen and art director Nate Wells are both leaving Irrational. Gerritsen, an industry veteran who was at Prey developer Human Head before coming to Irrational—was a forward-facing…

Your FarmVille Clicking Helped Buy Mark Pincus This $16 Million House

Mark Pincus, CEO of the currently embattled FarmVille developer Zynga, hasn’t let his company’s legal and PR troubles stop him from purchasing a baller $16 million pad in San Francisco’s lovely and exclusive Pacific Heights neighborhood. These images come via Trulia, as shared by Forbes It isn’t a 25,000-square-foot palace like the one enjoyed by…

The Prettiest 8-Bit Montage of the Olympic Games Around

If you were wondering what the Olympic games might look like in 8-bit form, this montage video is here for you. As a bonus, the chiptunes track is just as pretty as the 8-bit art. Plus, it’s fairly educational, considering it gives you a neat rundown of what activities are considered Olympic sports The 8-Bit…

The Other Far Cry 3, A Baffling PopCap Mystery And Other Gaming Secrets

Editor’s Note: Imagine that there are secrets about video games buried under the soil on which you stand. The mysterious person known as Superannuation wields a shovel; so please step a little to the left and see what Superannuation is digging up just for you… Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3 was originally going to be a…

Steam To Start Selling Non-Game Software

Valve’s popular Steam service is going to expand beyond games, the company has announced. An email from Valve informs us that Steam will soon host a collection of non-game “Software Titles.” Eeeeehnteresting. From Valve: The Software titles coming to Steam range from creativity to productivity. Many of the launch titles will take advantage of popular…

This Unconfirmed Campaign Breakdown of Black Ops II Is Making the Rounds

This is going to sound like one of those stories in which a friend of a friend heard something from a janitor’s mother-in-law. This isn’t like last year, when we had the story of Modern Warfare 3 dead to rights in May, six months before the game’s release, thanks to some chatty sources. But we’d…

Nintendo Says They’ve Finalized Wii U Box Art Designs. They Probably Look Like This.

The leak of Wii U box art for a few Ubisoft titles got people wondering if the images seen online were real. Then Ubisoft confirmed the leaked box art was in fact legit. Now Nintendo is chiming in. Here’s what Nintendo sent Kotaku when we asked about the legitimacy of the designs: Nintendo has finalized…

Black Ops II Looks Great In Super Slow Mo

We’ve slowed yesterday’s Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer trailer to about 1/20th its normal speed. Because most things look cooler in super slow-mo.

There Are Four Glorious Gaming Tees That Need Your Money Today

Thanks to Tee Magnet, we have a pretty nifty round-up of awesome t-shirts awaiting your credit card numbers. Four of those are gaming related. Four of those are awesome. Four of those need your attention. Check them out above and below, and make your choice(s) wisely. Imperial Damacy [TeeFury] Occupied [Shirt Woot!] OOOOOOH! [Qwertee] Rapture…

The Tomb Raider Reboot Could Use a T-Rex

I’m worried that Lara Croft won’t ever get to fight a dragon again. And that she’ll never go back to Atlantis. Everything we’ve seen so far from the gritty Tomb Raider reboot due out next year seems to indicate that the Crystal Dynamics is burning the fantasy trappings off of the action franchise. And that…

Microsoft Says When They Said ‘New Xbox,’ They Didn’t Really Mean New Xbox

Last week on a podcast, Microsoft’s Brian Hall mentioned “the new Xbox” while discussing products that his company will be releasing in the near future. But Microsoft now says he wasn’t actually talking about the new Xbox. Up until now, Microsoft has refused to confirm what we all know: there’s an Xbox 360 successor en…