The Expendables 2: The Kotaku Review

The Expendables is all about elite mercenaries, intense action sequences and a lot of meat-headedness. Seems like it could be the perfect fit for a trigger-happy group of friends to virtually tear through an onslaught of enemies, no? The shooting would be rampant and fun. The characters would be amiable, muscular soldier types with a…

Leaking Early Code of the Pony Fighting Game is Not Magic

To call My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic a fan-made game is doing the tremendous effort by the Mane6 development team a great disservice. They’ve assembled an amazing team of programmers, animators, artists and musicians. They’ve recruited amateur voice actors. They’ve shown the game at the EVO 2012 Fighting Championships. What they are doing, really,…

Samurai Meets Star Wars in a More Civilized Boba Fett Helmet

Samurai. Skyrim. Or even ancient Mayan prophecies. Star Wars helmets are fertile ground for artistic reinterpretation. But now, it’s all for a cause that’s bigger than simply awesome art. The As You Wish Helmet Project is a charity art endeavor that features over 40 reworked Boba Fett and Clone Trooper helmets to be auctioned off,…

Can Someone Put This Dam in a Video Game? Please?

Video games have the ability to take us, well, anywhere. We can visit other planets, we can visit destinations far away, and we can even travel back in time. I’d like to go here. Here is the Irganai Dam in Dagestan, Russia—the largest derivational hydroelectric power station in the country. Construction on the plant began…

Square Enix’s New Game with Cars. Transforming Robot Cars.

Always nice to see game makers step outside their comfort zone, and bit by bit, Square Enix has been doing just that. The Tokyo-based game maker, best known for Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, is working on a new car game called Gyrozetter. A new transforming robot car game. It’s Unreal Engine powered, there’s an…

How the Wii Pulled Off a Hassle-Free MMO Roll Out

Yesterday marked the release of Dragon Quest X, the newest title in one of Japan’s most phenomenally popular series. But not only is this a new Dragon Quest game, it’s also an MMORPG. You could say that I am a veteran of MMO launches—and countless pre-launch beta test weekends (which, let’s face it, are basically…

South Korea Reacts to “Nice Korea” and “Naughty Korea”

Australian free daily The Mx included “Nice Korea” and “Naughty Korea” in its medal count—presumably as some sort of gag? Online in South Korea, the reaction has been varied. “This makes it seem like North Korea has done something bad to get medals,” wrote one, while another explained, “This is how Australia sees the two…

The Metal Gear Solid 4 trophy and install patches hit Japan on August 6.

Square Enix said it plans on supporting Dragon Quest X with new content for the next ten years.

Man Makes His Own Batcycle from Random Junk

Don’t you just love the amazing things people can make? One gentleman constructed his own working Batcycle from, what looks like, fitness machines and other bits and bobs. The result is absolutely heroic. Someone Made A Batcycle With Spare Parts And Exercise Equipment [Beijing Cream]

Do You Like This Pokémon Reimagining? Would You Buy This Stuff?

Japanese illustrator Momo Okada is everywhere of late. She’s done collaborations with Hello Kitty—and now, her take on Pokémon is getting its own line of products called “Poké Momo” for the Pokémon Centers in Japan. Okada’s illustrations look like “yura kyara”, which are the local mascots created to promote cities, towns, and rural villages in…

Diablo III‘s “Plunging” Popularity in Korea is All Relative

Diablo III‘s release was eagerly anticipated in South Korea. The country has always been a strong Blizzard bastion. But several months after its release, the game’s popularity is now on the slide in South Korea. Or is it? One of the country’s most authoritative online game ranking sites, GameNote, revealed that Diablo III has plunged…

The Controversy Surrounding the Launch of This Year’s Biggest Wii Game

It finally happened. For years, Japan has been waiting for the latest Dragon Quest game, and yesterday, it launched. Anxious gamers lined up in droves to purchase the title. In Shibuya, there was a special countdown event at retailer Tsutaya for the game. The first person in line appeared on stage and received his purchased…

id’s John Carmack Gets a Reminder on How Mario Used to Kick Our Ass

Here’s a short, cute clip from id boss John Carmack’s keynote address at this year’s QuakeCon, in which the brutality of Super Mario Bros. 3 is compared to the more pedestrian Mario games of today. Why do I bring it up? Well, Carmack and his old colleague John Romero once took Super Mario Bros. 3…

The Mass Effect 3 Ending I Wanted, But Never Got

It may have been extended, but the “new” Mass Effect 3 endings still didn’t give me the closure I needed. I didn’t want touching moments and galactic melodrama. I wanted rainbows Sass Effect [Tumblr]

The Game That’s Been Downloaded 100 Million Times (and Isn’t Angry Birds)

Proving that iOS games can steamroll their way to world domination without having any fat red birds in them, Temple Run – a game about little else but running – has crossed the 100,000,000 download mark. For a game that I used to call “Canabalt for less awesome people”, that’s one hell of an achievement.…

Just Cause 2 Supports Multiplayer? Holy Exploding Crap.

Sandbox action game Just Cause 2 was a blast to play solo, but sadly shipped without any kind of multiplayer. No matter. Fans of the game’s PC edition have whipped up a version that lets a reported 600 people play it at once. On the same island. The results are predictably…insane. Note that this is…

Welcome Back, Rise of the Triad, You’ve Been Missed

Perhaps the strangest news of the day, if not much longer, is that cult 90’s shooter Rise of the Triad is getting a remake Considering a whole generation of gamers has now grown up likely not having played the thing, they’re probably wondering, what’s all the fuss about? Here’s what all the fuss is about.…

The Horror of Broken Old Nintendo Games

Old video games may have a certain charm to them when they’re working, but what about when they’re not? When they’re crashing and bugging out all over the place, no matter how many times you shake them or blow in the cartridge slot? Glitchee’s site is a wonderful catalogue of just such episodes, mostly of…

Conan O’Brien Plays Skyrim as “Mr. Buttons”

As you may have guessed by now, comedian and talk show host Conan O’Brien is fairly rubbish at video games. Mostly because he neither plays nor really even likes games. But then, that’s exactly what makes his “reviews” so good.