Job Opportunity: Unpaid Internship With Startup Superhero

This listing hit Craigslist in Raleigh, N.C. a week ago and immediately went to its best-of archive. As a former resident of North Carolina’s capital city, I can tell you that this guy is neither the hero we deserve, nor the one we need right now. I am preparing to make my debut as Raleigh’s…

Mulder, It’s Me

I don’t know why, but a ton of people I know on Twitter have been talking about and rewatching The X-Files. (Clarification: This phenomenon pre-dates rumors that Mulder and Scully had gotten together in real life (which have since been debunked?) though I’m sure that’s contributing lately.) I remembered from my time watching the show…

Will New Physics Make a Better Madden? Find Out When the Demo Hits Tuesday.

The Madden NFL 13 demo arrives on Aug. 14, two weeks before the game’s release, offering a rematch of last year’s NFC Championship Game, and a Seattle-Washington matchup that showcases Redskins quarterback (and NCAA Football 13 cover star) Robert Griffin III. Players will get a full game of four five-minute quarters will commentary from the…

Yesterday’s Blizzard Hack Makes This Guy Almost Eat His Battle.Net Authenticator

I had to watch this about four times just to be completely sure that Internet video game rage comedian Francis did not, in fact, eat his Blizzard keychain authenticator during this rant about yesterday’s breach of Battle.Net. Obviously, this video is loud and its language is NSFW. He’s fast. I don’t think Francis actually chewed…

I Think I Unlocked Nintendo’s Worst Achievement

I earned this commendation yesterday after playing the Nintendo 3DS’ built-in role-playing game, Find Mii. Let’s unpack this a bit, shall we? Nintendo, which isn’t big on Xbox-like Achievements, does have an Achievement-like system built into the 3DS. The 3DS’ achievements primarily reward users for networking their system to others’. You get commendations when your…

Did You Buy a Borked Silent Hill HD on Xbox 360? Here, Have Frogger on the PS2

Konami’s considerate decision not to patch the broken Xbox 360 version of the Silent Hill HD Collection (read: because it costs money) has led the publisher to offer a free game to those who complain (read: because it costs less money). You just have to send an email to Konami to get the offer, according…

How Kinect Can Ruin Your Marriage

First it was Mass Effect. Then Gears of War. Now Kinect is ruining marriages everywhere. R.I.P. marriage. (Thanks, Andrew!)

Kinect-Supported Cussing is the Hip New Thing in Video Games Now

Well, well, look at this. FIFA 13‘s developers experimented with the concept but found there was no fair way to assess it within the rules of football. NBA 2K13, however, can take advantage of basketball’s technical foul rules to sanction you for cussin’ into the Kinect sensor after a total bullshit call. Basketball allows for…

The Best and Worst of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale So Far

The closed beta for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was released earlier this week. While it’s in no way a complete product (it’s a beta, after all) there were some things about it I loved and hated. Watch the video above to find out.

It’s Not A Glitch. It’s A Feature. It’s Art. It’s Beautiful.

We lacked a campfire, but that didn’t stop us from telling tall tales about the incredible—but completely true, I swear!—things that happened to us while we played our favorite games. Forget about title recommendations, or stories of overcoming difficult challenges. That impressed nobody at recess. The gold was in glitches, and we panned endlessly for…

Happy 80th Birthday, LEGO!

On this day all the way back in 1932, a little company we now know as LEGO was born. It’s come a long way; what began as a small outfit building traditional wooden toys has transformed into one of the most popular and iconic brands in the world today, its trademark plastic bricks playing a…

Let’s Hear It For the Mom and Pop Video Game Shops

In today’s slowly fading edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Professor Rickshaw wonders how many people still have locally-owned, “mom and pop” video game stores (like CC Gaming World in Kennesaw, Georgia, pictured above) in their area, and shares a reason why they are awesome places to shop. Recently (just a few hours ago,…

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Week in Gaming Apps

This highly educational Week in Gaming Apps is brought to you by the letter T, the number 10,000,000, the sounds of jazz and the culture of Mexico. It’s been the busiest Week in Gaming Apps ever, at least for yours truly. I’ve been steeping myself in Windows Phone 7, Android and iPhone games over the…

Phil Fish told Kotaku a Tweet about Zynga wanting Fez for mobile was “not a joke.” He turned them down.

Another Gamer Testifies To The Awesome Calorie-Burning Power Of His Standing Desk

Earlier this week, I shared my story of falling in love with playing video games (and working) at a standing desk. In this video found via Reddit, YouTuber Happy Jack enthusiastically shows off his standing desk, which he made out of an art easel (nice call!) and actually uses an Ergotron monitor holder (Ergotron makes…

That Guy You Hated in The Walking Dead Game Has Been Punched In the Face 1.4 Million Times

One of the things that makes Telltale’s The Walking Dead video game tick is choice. Players get to make a series of both time-critical and leisurely decisions as the chapters go by. Everything from “who is Lee polite to” to “who gets to live and who dies horribly” is up for grabs, and the game…

Is Valve Teasing a Third, Gray Faction For Team Fortress 2?

There’s a blood-stain on the logo atop the Team Fortress 2 website. A reader at the message board NeoGAF noticed today that it links to a letter. And in that letter is a story, a story that reads like a tease, a tease that seems to be pointing to something new for Team Fortress… a…

Some Americans Think A “Super PAC” Is A Video Game. Most Don’t Know What One Is.

Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and even Super Pac-Man… all video games. But not Super PAC—despite its similar name, a Super PAC is in no way related to Pac-Man. It’s a term for a controversial type of political action group that’s able to accept an unlimited amount of campaign donations and in so doing get around some…

Bullet Time Isn’t Just A Fictional Badass Move. It’s A Real Thing.

For Neo, moving faster than bullets was a matter of realizing the Matrix’s rules could be bent. For most of our video game heroes, bullet time is a popular mechanic that has appeared on titles like Max Payne, Red Dead Redemption, Vanquish and more. It’s not possible to slow down time and perform amazing feats—not…

Five Reasons I Can’t Stop Playing This New Strategy-RPG

I play a lot of role-playing games. You know this already. You read Random Encounters every week. You understand my fascination with this strange and quirky genre. So hopefully you won’t be too angry when I tell you that my shelves are overflowing with the cartridges of RPGs that I’ve opened, launched, and immediately given…