This Great Video Game Trailer Is Incredibly Upsetting

Most video game trailers flirt. They tell you: If you play this game, you will feel awesome. The new live-action trailer for Metro Last Light doesn’t do that. It’s here to make you sad. It’s harrowing, wrenching, emotionally-manipulative and captivating. I usually prefer video game trailers that show some gameplay. Not this time. This one’s…

Unfortunately There Are No Rehab Clinics for Addiction To Scramble With Friends

You’re probably at least somewhat familiar with Scramble With Friends. Similar to Zynga’s Words With Friends, you trade knowledge and skill of a wordsmith against your friends, or random online opponents. This isn’t a new game by any means. It’s just one we haven’t featured often here at Kotaku, but one that I’m still completely…

That Red Sand Mass Effect Fan Film Is Shaping Up Nicely

Luke first told us about Red Sand, a fan-made Mass Effect film starring the voice actor—Mark Meer—of Commander Shepard himself, in February. Back in February we got an introduction to Mark Meer’s character and the setting of the film, which is 35 years in the past. We finally get to see another few clips of…

Thursday Watch This, Play This

Watch This: That Red Sand Mass Effect Fan Film Is Shaping Up Nicely Play This: Unfortunately There Are No Rehab Clinics for Addiction To Scramble With Friends

Scammers Behind Fake Version of Angry Birds Ordered to Refund Customers

There is a legitimate, free version of Angry Birds for Android. But one app that appeared on the Android Market (now Google Play) last fall wasn’t it. It was a fake, a piece of malware explicitly designed to part phone owners from their cash. Now, the scammers that took the money have been ordered to…

Minecraft on Xbox 360 Will Edge Closer to Its PC Counterpart With “Difficult” 1.8 Update

When Minecraft hit Microsoft’s game console a few weeks ago, it was readily apparent that the 360 version of Mojang’s popular hit wasn’t going to have quite everything that the original PC game does. But, in true Minecraft fashion, future updates promise to make the game’s sandbox more complex and more creative. According to an…

Talk Amongst Yourselves

There is nothing—nothing, I say—better than the Thursday before a long weekend. Except the Friday before a long weekend. Welcome to Kotaku’s official forum, known affectionately as Talk Amongst Yourselves. This is the place where we gather on a daily basis to discuss all things video game and existential. Want to talk about new games,…

Why Call of Duty Still Has Single-Player Campaigns

Call of Duty was always popular, but became a cultural phenomenon only in 2007 thanks to a revised multiplayer system that hooked players with a then-innovative ability-unlocking level-based system. That year’s Call of Duty IV: Modern Warfare became the new GoldenEye, the new Halo… the new multiplayer game that it seemed like everyone who had…

One of the Best Downloadable 3DS Games Gets a Little Better in This Week’s Nintendo Download

Last week it was a Mario Kart patch, this week it’s a version update, with new content added to WayForward Technologies’ Mighty Switch Force inching the 3DS eShop ever closer to iTunes territory. Mighty Switch Force is a puzzling platformer that relies on the tried-and-true switch mechanic, in which platforms and such phase in and…

Ron Gilbert’s New Game Mixes Maniac Mansion With a Little Metroidvania

Wait, I’m sorry. I think you just said, “Maniac Mansion and Metroidvania.” Did you say that? Or was I just dreaming? GO ON, I’M LISTENING. Okay well, yes, Adventure game legend Ron Gilbert’s The Cave combines the varied, differently abled cast and single ever-shifting setting of Maniac Mansion with a large, fully traversable world a…

Screenshots From Within The Cave

Can Rift‘s Player-Versus-Player Revamp Save it From the Oncoming Storm?

Trion World’s MMO rift has done well enough for itself, but with Tera underway and The Secret World and Guild Wars 2 looming, they’ve got to be feeling some heat. Can the newly-revamped three-faction Conquest system keep folks playing? I’m not quite sure. I mean, Rift is a solid game with plenty of character options…

Pirate Uses “150 IQ” To Shoot Himself In The Foot

Selling pirated software or software that allows one to pirate is illegal. But that didn’t stop one man from doing so anyways. A Japanese man with a self-proclaimed “150 IQ” was arrested for misusing his astounding intellect for piracy. According to reports, in April, 29 year-old Yuuichi Shimizu was arrested and charged with selling modded…

If You Swallow an SD Card with Illicit Photos, the Cops Will Know

Earlier this month, a 55 year-old junior high school teacher allegedly took pictures up a young woman’s skirt at an anime shop in Osaka’s geek district, Den Den Town. The teacher, Manabu Wakita, admitted that he was following a 20-something woman around, but “absolutely” denied that he took illicit photos of her with a small-sized…

Images of this Skyscraper City Will Blow Your Friggin’ Mind

To say Hong Kong is crowded is an understatement. Over seven million people are squeezed into just 1,108 square kilometers. And boy, in some places it’s a tight squeeze. As website China Smack pointed out, the city has 6,588 high-rise buildings, which is more than New York’s 5,818. Hong Kong truly is a “skyscraper city”.…

Doorknob Licking Girls Invade Tokyo Bookstores

Last fall, a series of photos featuring girls licking doorknobs took the internet by storm. This year, the photographers behind the pics are hoping they do the same in bookstores. The “Doorknob Shojo” or “Doorknob Girl” pictures were recently published in a new photo book. Japanese website Akiba Blog picked it up at bookshops in…

Yakuza 5 Plot Sounds Epic, But There Will Still Be Porn Stars

With the announcement that Yakuza 5 will feature 5 main characters in 5 major cities across Japan, and a new game engine to upgrade the outdated look of the series, Sega has released a teaser site and revealed the back story of the new chapter. Back Story: 2010. The feud between the two yakuza clans,…

Foreign Languages Kill Your Video Game Bullsh*t Detectors

There’s an image floating around online. It’s rumored to be a “major specifications” sheet for the PlayStation 4. Personally, I don’t buy it. The PlayStation 4 is coming. It’s inevitable. Kotaku first broke that the console is codenamed Orbis. This “major specifications” sheet, however, certainly can be disputed. However in Japan, websites and blogs are…

Creepy Jerk Arrested for Illicit Photos. He Tried To Blame Video Games.

In years past, video games have been scapegoats. Need something to blame social problems on? Blame video games. This is changing, sure, but that doesn’t mean people still don’t try to do it. Heck, even suspected criminals do. On April 30, a 38 year-old Osaka City bureaucrat was arrested for taking upskirt photos of a…

One of Japan’s Greatest Directors Brings Steel Battalion to Life

Mamoru Oshii, the creative force behind the Ghost in the Shell anime, recently helmed a live-action TV spot for Kinect game Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor. This is it. The result will look familiar to those who saw Oshii’s 2001 live-action flick Avalon Yes, this is a nice spot. Needs more basset hound, though. Check out…