Vancouver, once a boom town for video game development, could soon become a ghost town instead

Based on the font (among other hints), this countdown looks like a new The World Ends With You teaser.

The People Making the Trailers That Make You Go “Whoah”

Whenever somebody sees a fancy cinematic trailer or intro sequence to a game these days, if they don’t just assume it’s the work of the game’s developers, they assume it’s the work of Blur Studios But Blur isn’t the only team in the field. Another outfit is Plastic Wax, who are based in Sydney, Australia.…

Sleeping Dogs is Actually Shenmue 3, Only With More Punching

Since the chances of us seeing another proper Shenmue game are approximately 3720 to 1, DSimphonyHD figured the next best thing would be to try and recreate Yu Suzuki’s Dreamcast adventure in Sleeping Dogs. It works. It works brilliantly [thanks Nicholas!]

Why Be a Tower Defender, When You Can Be a Tower Attacker?

Last year’s Anomaly Warzone Earth flipped the tower defence genre on its head, putting you in the shoes of the guys trying to get past the powers, instead of the guys building them. It was, to keep things brief, brilliant It’s now got a sequel. Anomaly Korea does the usual sequel thing: there’s new units,…

Commander Shepard Takes Up Space Graffiti, Quickly Excels

Bored with saving the galaxy, and in particular all that mining (couldn’t someone else be doing that?), Commander Shepard has taken to killing some time deploying probes. Creatively. Human Spectre [Tumblr]

OnLive Is Still Called OnLive, Says Nothing Is Changing

Ever since Friday—when reports started surfacing that cloud gaming pioneer OnLive was shutting down and ceasing to exist—speculation has mounted over who, if anyone, had purchased the remains of the company. But OnLive—which isn’t changing its name—has just issued a statement announcing its new status and that offers details on the business dealings of the…

Two Mirandas, Catwoman and a Black Widow Walk Into a Bar…

And…look, I’d finish that with a punchline, but I’ve been distracted by somebody cosplaying the lights out as Zelda’s washed-up sailor, Linebeck. Those mentioned and more are the stars of this latest instalment of Fancy Pants, our regular look back at the best of the past week in cosplay. Fancy Pants is a look at…

New Steam Community Feature Shows Testers Prefer Sex, Butts, Memes

When Valve sat down to design its new Steam Community system, it probably figured including the ability to share screenshots would lead to page after page of glorious vistas, hilarious missteps and dramatic explosions. Nope. Turns out most people currently in the community beta just want to see sex. And butts. And Sonic memes. The…

For the Longtime Sports Gamer, What’s Not in the Game Counts More

He wasn’t some chicken-feed performer. His jersey number was retired and he’s in the hall of fame, and he was also named one of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players. Sure, he played for a small college, and to the general public his name is always mentioned alongside an even greater teammate’s. Yet nothing can take…

Tyrion Lannister Statue is Just Like The Man Himself: Small, Yet Impressive

Dark Horse will next year be releasing this statue based on the Game of Thrones TV series, featuring the likeness of Tyrion Lannister, who is played by Peter Dinklage. Standing 10″ tall and due in February 2013, the statue will sell for $200. What’s cool is that Dinklage himself was filmed by the show’s crew…

The Week in Games: Worlds in Conflict

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive arrives on PC/Mac and the PS3 and Xbox 360 this week, along with Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, from High Moon Studios. New Super Mario Bros. 2 hit shelves today. Today •New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS) Tuesday • Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (pS3, 360, PC) • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (PC, PSN) •…

Sony says most LittleBigPlanet costumes will be cross-compatible with LittleBigPlanet Karting and LittleBigPlanet Vita.

Did OnLive Gut Its Employees’ Stock Options to Make Itself Cheaper to Buy Out?

In the aftermath of OnLive’s not-really-bankruptcy, not-really-restructuring comes this rumor from TechCrunch, which may explain why the cloud-gaming service would want to, effectively, terminate itself as a company, but not its services, nor offer up any of its assets for liquidation to settle its mounting debts. OnLive, suggests TechCrunch, opted for its technical “form of…

The Nintendo 3DS XL: The Kotaku Review

Who are you? Are you a person who has a 3DS? You should think about upgrading to the 3DS XL. Are you a person who does not have a 3DS at all? You should get one. The $200 3DS XL is a very good gaming machine, possibly the best portable gaming device ever, which, yeah,…

At SummerSlam, THQ revealed the WWE 13 roster. More than 70 performers span the Attitude and modern eras. Full list here

League of Legends Wins Fight Against Porn Site

Apparently when GoDaddy was hawking .co domain registrations with Danica Patrick and bodypaint, some Colombian outfit snapped up LeagueOfLegends.co and redirected gamers who forgot to type that last “M” to a porn site. Considering the overall popularity of LeagueOfLegends.com, this was a shrewd bit of cybersquatting. Well, now their cynical pornmongering has come to an…

The more people who preorder the “Wizard Edition” of the latest Ni No Kuni, the more freebies it gets. Details here.

New Super Mario Bros. 2: The Kotaku Review

Now here’s the story of a guy named Mario. It’s an old story. You’ve probably heard it before. Princess is lounging around, minding her own business. Giant turtle jumps out of the sky. Drags her away. Sticks her in a cage and waits for Mario to follow. The specifics might change every now and then—a…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Raising Excitement

We’re kind of late on this one, but there was a major game announcement back in July: Farming Simulator 2013 arrives in October for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, in Europe, of course. Now, I can’t understand why they don’t release Farming Simulator every two or three years, with the latest and greatest genetically modified…