Papo & Yo Might Just Have the Prettiest Video Game Graffiti Ever

Graffiti’s played an important part in video games since early days, especially on console. Who can forget Jet Grind Radio‘s neon-colored spray paint? And, of course, Marc Ecko’s Getting Up centered its entire essence on the politics around graf writing. But upcoming PS3 game Papo & Yo might boast the most painterly street art ever.…

Though Mum on Specifics, 2K Sports Insists Jay-Z Isn’t a Glorified Celebrity Endorser for NBA 2K13

Jay-Z, the hip-hop mogul and entrepreneur, is indeed the executive producer of NBA 2K13, but what exactly that means as far as features within the game, 2K Sports isn’t really saying yet. “I don’t want to get too into detail right now, because we’ve got a lot of stuff coming down the road,” Jason Argent,…

First Trailer for Fistful of Rupees, A Zelda Western

Kotaku columnist and actress Lisa Foiles recently told readers about A Fistful of Rupees, a Zelda-themed spaghetti western. This is the official trailer, but for background, check out Lisa’s behind-the-scenes report The three-part Fistful of Rupees will premiere on the GameStation’s YouTube channel starting August 7. FISTFUL OF RUPEES TRAILER – Zelda / Western Mash-Up…

Amaterasu Is Already Beautiful. The Papercraft Is Just To Show Off.

Amaterasu of Okami fame is a majestic creature. One that is definitely worthy of artistic mediums, far and wide. And of these art forms includes the delicate nature of papercraft, seen above by artist Richi89. You can see older shots on his deviantART page. Ammy and Chibi [deviantART via Ian Brooks]

Man Prank Calls GTA Publisher With a Potentially NSFW Question

The executives at Take Two Interactive, publisher of such video game franchises as Grand Theft Auto, BioShock and Civilization take questions from investors every three months. The major bosses of all publicly-traded companies do this. Usually they don’t take prank phone calls. Today, they did. (Image inspired by the clean-thinking chaps at Game Developer/Gamasutra.)

Now This Is How To Get People To Work For Your Video Game Company

This video has been making the rounds today. It’s pretty hilarious. Worth at least 3 minutes and 19 seconds of your time. Even if you don’t want to work for Kixeye.

Hindu Group Wants Religious Arena Combat Game Pulled From QuakeCon

QuakeCon 2012 is coming up in just a few days. It’s a huge LAN party, featuring well-known speakers and panelists, and sprawling over Dallas. The roster of games, of course, features Quake tournaments but other games make a showing as well. This year, the online battle arena game Smite is one of a handful of…

What Crazy Video Game Dreams Would You Realize if You Had All the Money?

In today’s dream-fueled episode of Speak Up on Kotaku, amazingly-named commenter Mr. Allspark wants to give you all of the money in the world, hypothetically. I have a question for you. What kind of nerdy/video game related things would you do if you were rich? And I’m talking rich. That Scrooge McDuck swimming-pool-full-of-gold rich. Richie…

This Isn’t Mario Kart Running on the PS3, But It’s Close

Nobody at Sony is recommending that you recreate iconic tracks from Nintendo’s Mario Kart in the upcoming PlayStation 3 game LittleBigPlanet Karting. But what do you think is going to happen when you let gamers into a beta of a kart-racing game that has a very malleable track editor? You get Mario Kart tracks in…

Star Wars: The Old Republic Now Has Fewer Than A Million Subscribers

Star Wars: The Old Republic currently has less than a million subscribers, publisher Electronic Arts said in an investors call today. BioWare’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game has been hemorrhaging subscribers since it launched last December. Earlier this year, the subscriber total dropped from 1.7 million to 1.3 million EA did not give the number…

Yep, This is Modern Video Gaming

The people who run mega-giant-huge gaming company EA have said they want to put out few games. Probably to be like their rivals at Activision. Make a few huge console and PC games and maybe they’ll be golden. But they also believe in something else you may have heard about: that mobile games, Facebook games…

Rockstar will release three DLC packs for Max Payne 3 instead of the five originally announced, the company said today.

According to the latest financial results, EA has sold more than 1.3 million subscriptions to Battlefield 3 Premium

Five Comics That Will Shift Your Realities This Week

If you’re here in the Panel Discussion programming block, you might be a lapsed comics reader, trying to find a way back to the JLA Satellite. Or you might someone killing time until you pick up your weekly Wednesday pull list. Or maybe you’ve said goodbye to dozens of longboxes to embrace the promise of…

One of Batman’s Best Stories Comes to Life in a New Animated Movie

I’d known about the upcoming animated adaption of The Dark Knight Returns for a while now, but that awareness receded somewhere into the back of my brain somewhere. Like Old Bruce in a bathrobe. But this new trailer—via MTV Geek—is like “the rain on my chest,” a baptism. A baptism of remembering. It makes sense…

Star Wars: The Old Republic Is Going Free-To-Play This Fall

BioWare’s massively multiplayer online RPG Star Wars: The Old Republic will go free-to-play this fall, publisher Electronic Arts said today. EA later said in a press release that The Old Republic will go free-to-play this November. The game will be available for $15 starting August 7, a price that also includes a month of free…

Bethesda-S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Rumor Resurfaces, But No One’s Talking [UPDATE]

In April, we fielded a rather confusing rumor that involved game developer Sergei Girgorovich supposedly telling a Russian news outlet that he had sold the rights to his development team’s acclaimed post-nuclear-apocalypse-horror-first-person-shooter series, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., to Bethesda, the people who brought us the acclaimed post-apocalyptic first-person role-playing game Fallout 3. But a Bethesda rep no-commented and…

It’s Much Easier to Play A Game When You Can Tell What The Buttons Do

Over the years, I’ve dabbled in a hefty number of video games. I’m pretty used to sitting down and picking up a new system reasonably quickly. It’s part of my job, after all. I may not be good at it right away (or ever), but I can navigate myself around a world and figure out…

Rekindling My Lust for Adventure, One Page at a Time

My earliest days as a computer gamer were spent scouring static scenes with my mouse pointer, waiting for that telltale shape change that indicated the item or bit of scenery that would lead me to the next static scene. These were adventure games, and they were the closest gaming came to delivering a cinematic experience…

Lawsuit Says Zynga Insiders Knew Stock Would Tank When They Cashed Out

The folks behind Words with Friends have yet another problem on their hands: a new lawsuit charges Zynga’s top-level employees with insider trading. Law firm Newman Ferrara, one of five to announce that it would investigate Zynga for violating federal laws in the wake of news that insiders dumped half a billion in stock three…