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  A Father’s Day Bike Race in NYC, from the Makers of Grand Theft Auto

  The folks at Rockstar Games are bicycle-crazy, as Brooklynites who sees people decked in Rockstar jerseys zipping by can attest. This Sunday, Rockstar sponsors their annual Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic. Details to watch in person or online at Rockstar’s site

  By Stephen Totilo Published June 15, 2012
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  Two Dozen All-Time Greats Available in Madden 13, with More to be Unlocked

  News and notes from around the world of sports video gaming: • Madden NFL 13‘s new “Connected Careers” mode will allow gamers to play as one of several all-time greats—rated according to their rookie seasons—or run a team as one of seven hall-of-fame coaches. There are 27 players and seven coaches in all, but some…

  By Owen Good Published June 15, 2012
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  A Handshake-Only Deal Pays Off for FIFA and an Unlikely Champion

  EA Sports is well known for licensing partnerships, especially exclusive ones that command quite a premium from the publisher. Yet in one of its timelier, and more unusual ones, no money changed hands. The label, through its FIFA franchise, of course, is the official games partner of Manchester City, recently crowned champion of the English…

  By Owen Good Published June 15, 2012
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  Now Batting, Number 6 (p.m.), in Left Field, Sportaku

  From the Worldwide Leader in Sports … Video Games, your 6 p.m. Sportaku begins now.

  By Owen Good Published June 15, 2012
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  Do We Really Need Video Game Consoles Anymore?

  Following a disappointing console showing at E3 2012, commenter DocSeuss believes now is the best time to throw off our proprietary shackles and make the PC plunge. Who’s with him? Do we really need consoles anymore? After seeing E3, I’m not really that sure. I mean, we all know that PC games dominated E3 because…

  Speak Up Published June 15, 2012
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  This is Only a Launch Trailer for Heroes of Ruin If You’re in Europe

  Square Enix’s four-way online multiplayer Diablo-esque action role-playing game Heroes of Ruin is out today in Europe and the UK for the 3DS, so they can enjoy this launch trailer. North Americans are free to ignore this until next month.

  By Mike Fahey Published June 15, 2012
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  Return of the Revenge of the Week in Gaming Apps II: This Time It’s Portable

  Now that E3 2012 is slowly fading to bitter, disappointing memory, it’s time to return to those things that consistently bring us pleasure, day in and day out. And when we’re finished drinking it’s time for some gaming apps. I wouldn’t say we skipped a week as much as we missed a week filled with…

  By Mike Fahey Published June 15, 2012
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  Whew, Epic Mickey 2 Gets Its Co-Op and Camera Right

  Epic Mickey was a game that fought against itself. Oh, I really, really wanted to fully embrace Warren Spector’s love letter to Walt Disney’s creations. But the continual struggle against the game’s camera meant that the Wii exclusive undercut all its charm with severe control problems. So I breathed a strong sigh of relief during…

  By Evan Narcisse Published June 15, 2012
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  StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Is 99% Complete

  StarCraft II‘s next expansion doesn’t have an official release date yet, but its creators say it’s almost crossed the finish line. Speaking to lead designer Dustin Browder in a phone interview this afternoon, I asked how close the team was to completing the game. “We are 99% done,” he told me, “but that last 1%’s…

  By Jason Schreier Published June 15, 2012
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  Try the Marvelous Botanicula For Free, Right In Your Browser

  Hopefully by now, you’ve played Amanita Design’s marvelous point-and-click adventure/exploration/music-time story-thing Botanicula. But I’m entirely open to the idea that you have not—and so is Amanita, who have now made the first section of the game playable for free through their website You may recall that earlier this year I said Botanicula so charming that…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published June 15, 2012
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  The Walking Dead Game Will Return This Month, More Brutal Than Ever

  Last week at E3, I had a chance to sit with the folks at Telltale and watch the first 20 minutes of episode 2 of The Walking Dead, their 5-part episodic game series based on the comic series of the same name. AMC’s well-known television adaptation is also based on the comics, but in a…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published June 15, 2012
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  The Surprisingly Simple Story Behind What Might Be The Last Great Wii Game

  Nintendo has an annoying tendency to keep games all to themselves. Over the past few years, the Japanese company has sat on the rights to much-requested series like Mother, Fatal Frame, and Fire Emblem, stubbornly refusing to translate and ship them over to U.S. shores. So it was a pleasant surprise when the Mario makers…

  By Jason Schreier Published June 15, 2012
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  Watch Our Own Tina Amini Talk Lollipop Chainsaw’s Pros and Cons

  Maybe you felt like you didn’t get all of Tina Amini’s thoughts in her excellent review of Lollipop Chainsaw. Well, now you can catch her discussing Grasshopper Manufacture’s latest cheerleading zombie apocalypse release on the Revision3 webshow right here. Tina knows her Suda51 so you should watch.

  By Evan Narcisse Published June 15, 2012
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  Can Americans Not Handle The Sight of Their Ancestors Being Killed in Assassin’s Creed?

  From the very first day I saw the new Assassin’s Creed, the top creative people involved with the game assured me that their game, set during the American Revolution, was not a rah-rah, jingoistic USA #1 kind of video game. “[People were worried] that it’s going to be rah-rah-Team America and flag-waving,” the game’s creative…

  By Stephen Totilo Published June 15, 2012
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  Nominate Your Favorite Comment Here

  What’s up Kotaku people? I’m typing to you from the PAST because as of Thursday night I will be in Austin vacationing it up. In the meantime, please do drop in your favorite comments down below. If your favorite comment has already been nominated, vote it up! We will choose the best, most popular one…

  By Tina Amini Published June 15, 2012
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  All That Ultraviolence Bothers The People Who Make Video Games, Too

  Did all the neck-stabbing, animal-killing, city-destroying carnage at E3 stand out to you this year? Whether you were there in person or not, it was hard not to notice the uptick in egregious on-screen violence at the 2012 edition of the expo and that rising trend dominated much of the talk coming out in the…

  By Evan Narcisse Published June 15, 2012
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  America Will Get Its Gold PS3 Controllers Through GameStop

  It looks like the Metallic Gold PlayStation 3 DualShock 3 controller that is slated for release in Europe this month as a tie-in to the Olympics will be sold in America through GameStop this October. $55. Product listing here

  By Stephen Totilo Published June 15, 2012
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  Valve’s Hat-Based Economy Now Has Its Own Hat-Based Economist

  The creators of Team Fortress 2 have hired their very own economist to help out with their various crazy hat-based projects. Writing on his new blog over at Valve’s website, newly-minted consultant Yanis Varoufakis discusses how he met with Valve chief Gabe Newell and put a deal together “Within hours, an agreement was reached: I…

  By Jason Schreier Published June 15, 2012
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  The Many Games of E3 2012 That We Can’t Play Until 2013

  The good news is, we saw a lot of really good-looking games at E3 this year. Some we’ve known about for a while; others were surprises that leaped out at us, making us want more. The bad news? A huge number of them, like so many other games we’ve heard news about this year, are…

  By Kate Cox Published June 15, 2012
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  Watch the Entire Dead Space 3 E3 Demo. Scared?

  Dead Space 3 crashes series hero Isaac Clarke on a snow planet, where things appear to be a little less dark and scary, but still violent and tense. The game debuted last week at E3, and, last night, Spike’s GTTV aired pretty much everything that was at E3 on TV. Now it’s all on the…

  By Stephen Totilo Published June 15, 2012