- CultureTotal Recall
The Dangers of Using Wikipedia for Video Game History
When I put Total Recall stories together, I use a ton of sources. My memory/brain, for one, but also specialised history and collector sites, weird blogs, books, all kinds of places. Wikipedia is, sometimes, one of those places. It’s also not always the most reliable. A great piece this week over on Hardcore Gaming reminds…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 20, 2012 - Uncategorized
DayZ Might Have Some Competition From a New Zombie MMO
Zombie survival sim DayZ is awesome, but its ability to really follow through on its promise is limited somewhat by the constraints of the game it’s a mod for, ArmA II. The War Z, which has an awful name, sounds like it’s doing much the same thing, dropping people into a zombie-filled world and asking…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 20, 2012 -
UncategorizedHere’s the Gorgeous Intro (Well, Intros) to Guild Wars 2
It’s testament to just how damn pretty Guild Wars 2 is that, despite me being someone who’d normally rather set my face on fire than play an MMO, I’m quietly excited about sitting down the game. Until that time comes, though, I’m going to have to content myself with watching these intro videos instead. Which,…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 20, 2012 -
UncategorizedMen Spend 71 Hours Sorting 65,000 Pieces of LEGO. And Film It.
Delightful Swedish pair Rymdreglage, whose LEGO videos you may have seen here before, are making another LEGO video. This is a LEGO video about the LEGO video they’re making. In which they left a camera running while they spent 71 hours sorting 65,000 pieces from 100 boxes. Most of it is done by the one…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 19, 2012 -
UncategorizedMoscow’s Metro Isn’t a Post Apocalyptic Wasteland. It’s Actually Quite Lovely.
For a generation of gamers, the words “Metro” and “Moscow” will conjure images of an oppressive, bleak place, a last refuge for humanity against the forces of mutants, darkness and whatever the hell else had been conjured up when we blew up the planet. Which, I think, is a bit of a shame. Because in…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 19, 2012 - CultureTotal Recall
Total Recall, Kotaku’s History Section, is Moving
Just a quick public service announcement to let you know that Total Recall, Kotaku’s history feature, is changing timeslots. It’ll now appear between 1am and 2am Eastern, Tuesday through Friday.
By Luke Plunkett Published July 19, 2012 - Uncategorized
It’s Time For A Breaking Bad Death-Pool
Tell me you guys watch Breaking Bad. You do, right? If you don’t… well, you should. It’s a very good show. It features a lot of what my sister calls “Capital ‘A’ Acting,” and kickass cinematography and cool music and it’s basically just wicked-cool. As the show fires up its final season (well, the first…
By Kirk Hamilton Published July 19, 2012 - Reviews
An Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse So Powerful You Can Use It One-Handed
Not a day goes by that I don’t get an email from left-handed mutants wondering why I don’t review mice made just for them. I believe I just answered that question. What I can do, however, is review a gaming mouse for people both right and wrong-handed. A mouse that weighs its fearful symmetry to…
By Mike Fahey Published July 19, 2012 - Uncategorized
Apple Store Rips Down Torchlight Ripoff
The mall cops in the iTunes App Store today finally ejected Armed Heroes Online, a Chinese-published MMO, sold only in iTunes’ Canadian store, which evidently stole most, if not all, of its audiovisual assets from the PC dungeon-crawling hit Torchlight. The takedown came about a week after demands from Torchlight‘s lawyers. That doesn’t mean Armed…
By Owen Good Published July 19, 2012 -
UncategorizedThe Uncertain Musical Fate Of Assassin’s Creed
Assassin’s Creed III is going to introduce a lot of changes to the series. It will feature a new setting, a new time period and a new protagonist. And one of the biggest changes has yet to be fully explored—the game’s soundtrack will be crafted by an entirely new composer. Jesper Kyd, the composer responsible…
By Kirk Hamilton Published July 19, 2012 - Uncategorized
Miles Davis Hated Everything
Jazz trumpet genius Miles Davis had a lot of things going for him. He had a unique musical intelligence, an unparalleled instinct for musical innovation, and a reserved sense of compositional control that set his music apart from the many trumpeters of his day. And yet when you asked people to list his positive attributes,…
By Kirk Hamilton Published July 19, 2012 -
UncategorizedDyad‘s Ending Is Perfect
Few endings get it right—often, they can be the most disappointing part of a work. But Dyad, the PS3’s new psychedelic downloadable racer, nails it. Spoilers ahead! You can’t lose. Actually, most of the challenge and complexity that earlier levels build up to is gone. There’s only enemies lined up to make simple pairs, allowing…
By Patricia Hernandez Published July 19, 2012 -
UncategorizedRhythm Thief And The Case Of The Ultimate Ringtone
Just listen to it. That’s the music that plays every time you clear a puzzle in Sega’s Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure. It’s like… some unholy blend of classic Sega “level cleared” music and hilarious vocal jazz. I love it so much. I liked this game a whole lot, and the main reason I…
By Kirk Hamilton Published July 19, 2012 -
UncategorizedFrom Tetris to Metroid: The ‘Hip’ Tanaka Mixtape
Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka’s music is infectious. It gets in your blood. Metroid, Tetris, Kid Icarus: if you own a Gameboy, or a Nintendo you’ve had one of his songs stuck in your head. Possibly for a week. This week on the Kotaku Mixtape, we take a look at one of the great composers of all…
By Chris Person Published July 19, 2012 - Uncategorized
Too Bad You Can’t Actually Travel Across The Room With These Portals
Sure, it’s fairly cheap and easy to make yourself a Portal-themed mirror with some paint and a quick trip to IKEA. But what really makes a portal fun isn’t just its blue or orange halo but rather, that trippy infinity effect. For that, you need two mirrors. And some LEDs. Or if you’re not particularly…
By Kate Cox Published July 19, 2012 - Uncategorized
Scottish Team’s Bankruptcy Means FIFA 13 Faces a Financial Decision, Too
It’s a simple truth: A club that is relegated out of a league appearing in EA Sports’ FIFA runs the risk of getting relegated out of the video game, too. For the more popular sides, this usually isn’t much of a threat, and in any event many of the biggest leagues run two divisions deep,…
By Owen Good Published July 19, 2012 - Uncategorized
Recruiting Myself with NCAA Football and Wondering If I’ll Even Answer the Phone
Deciding where to go to college was very simple for me. It had nothing to do with a university convincing me to enroll there; it had everything to do with convincing one to actually admit me. N.C. State, for whatever reason, sent me the fat envelope in late 1990, and I said yes on the…
By Owen Good Published July 19, 2012 - Uncategorized
Craigslister Offers Spare Dark Knight Ticket In Exchange For Sex [UPDATE]
Tickets for the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises might be sold out across the board, but here’s one guy with a spare. Don’t get too excited: there’s a catch. Update: The listing, created as a prank by comedian Joe Stapleton, has sadly been removed from Craigslist This anonymous Craiglister, posting in the “men…
By Jason Schreier Published July 19, 2012 - Uncategorized
How Many Games Systems Do You Have Hooked Up?
Ultimately we want to own all of the game consoles, but how many do we keep hooked up at one time? Commenter Rumbrave_Remy wants to know in today’s installment of Speak Up on Kotaku. How many game systems do you have plugged in at once? I feel like this is a question that comes up…
Featuring Rumbrave_Remy Published July 19, 2012 - Uncategorized
EA, Zynga, Microsoft Support Challenge to Defense of Marriage Act
Three companies with major involvement in video games—EA, Zynga and Microsoft—have joined some 40 other companies, including the Gap, Google and Starbucks, along with several cities, including New York, Boston and Los Angeles, in filing a brief to support a legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act. The Act, signed into federal law in…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 19, 2012