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  This Portal Movie May not be Official, but it Still Looks Awesome

  Aperture: Lab Ratt is a fan film based on the Portal universe. And, as you’ll see five seconds into this trailer, it’s looking very professional. Proper music, proper outfits, an expensive camera, good lighting…yes, it’s looking lovely. If it helps sell you on the quality behind this flick, it’s being made by the same crew…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2012
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  Cerberus Wants YOU!

  French artist Rémy Pontzeele has done these super Mass Effect posters, one each for two of humanity’s less…savoury organisations. There’s one for science villains Cerberus and another for cut-throat mercenaries the Blue Suns. Norzeele [DeviantArt, via Nerdwire]

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2012
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  EA is a “Worst Company in America” Semi-Finalist!

  Consumerist’s always-entertaining “Worst Company in America” showdown is on right now, and a video game company is making a rare appearance alongside the likes of Bank of America and AT&T That company is Electronic Arts, which while being a rookie in the comp has stormed into the semi-finals, blowing past more fancied opponents like Comcast,…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2012
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  Westeros Deserves Better From The Game of Thrones Video Games

  It’s the biggest thing in fantasy, and right now, with the possible exception of The Hunger Games, the biggest thing in entertainment, especially with its second season about to kick off this weekend. So why has George R R Martin’s Game of Thrones series been given such short shrift by video game publishers and developers?…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2012
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  Giant Painting is a Capcom Fan’s Delight

  Artist Larry D Warren Jr., who we recently featured with his giant Zelda painting, is back, this time with a giant Capcom painting including characters from most of the publisher’s most treasured properties. So, yeah, Ryu is there. And Mega Man. And Ryu, Phoenix Wright and Dante. But there are plenty of other lesser-known heroes…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2012
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  CultureTotal Recall

  The Ugly Duckling of the Prince of Persia Series

  It’s funny, when people think of Prince of Persia games, they think of either the first one, or the ones including and following 2003’s Sands of Time. It’s as though there was a game in there that never existed… That game was 1999’s Prince of Persia 3D The 1989 original, and its 1993 sequel (which…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 29, 2012
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  Prince of Persia’s Source Code Found in Dad’s Closet

  Jordan Mechner, the creator of the Prince of Persia series, hasn’t had his hands on the source code to the original game for over a decade. Why? Because it had been sitting hidden in his dad’s closet, that’s why. Mechner recently got a call from his dad to tell him that, after cleaning out a…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 29, 2012
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  Come Here, Cersei Lannister; Go Away, Cersei Lannister

  Hello, Kotaku! Welcome to our Thursday night open thread. Are you as excited as I am for the second season of Game of Thrones? Probably. I hope so, anyway. Here, from around the internet, are some fun things to read and check out and talk about. Some Game of Thrones links may or may not…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published March 29, 2012
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  Hunger Games Stud Can’t Shake Off the Super Mario Theme

  At the end of a nearly 13 minute interview, Peter Travers, the eminent film critic from Rolling Stone asks Josh Hutcherson, who plays Peeta in current box office smash The Hunger Games to sing the song currently on his mind. OK, Hutcherson says, just one problem: The song has no lyrics. For some reason, the…

  By Owen Good Published March 29, 2012
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  BioWare Gives All 400 Protest Cupcakes to Charity

  As promised, 400 cupcakes commissioned as a protest against the conclusion of the Mass Effect trilogy arrived at developer BioWare’s offices today. They were not, however, gobbled up by BioWare employees. Writing on the company’s forums, Chris Priestley says that while “we appreciate creative and thoughtful” acts of feedback, “we decided ultimately the reason that…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 29, 2012
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  Draw Something Gets Better When It’s Draw Batman

  Some players of Draw Something are exceptionally good at it, creating little digital masterpieces for their play partners’ benefit. Then there are players like me, who have the audacity to consider their orange-ish, vaguely four-pronged blobs a reasonable representation of a tiger. And then there’s what happens when a cartoonist by trade, Mathew Digges, starts…

  By Kate Cox Published March 29, 2012
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  Insomniac’s Canceled Pinball Project had Powerful Potential

  Celebrating the company’s transition to Facebook’s mandatory Timeline format, Insomniac Games shares the secrets of 1080Pinball , the high-definition downloadable game that never was. Ratchet & Clank and Uncharted Resistance (sorry, temporarily insane) are nice and all, but give me a strong pinball video game with tight physics and a meaty selection of tables and…

  By Mike Fahey Published March 29, 2012
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  Dragon Roost Island, You Stole My Heart

  Long-time readers of Kotaku may already know that my absolute, unquestioned, favourite video game of all time is The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. There are many reasons for this. The timeless art style, the “open world” design, the inherent charm and humour present throughout. There’s one more reason though that’s not quite as…

  By Luke Plunkett Published March 29, 2012
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  The Silly Bulls*** of Censored Soundtracks in Sports Video Games

  Sports video games must license everything. League symbols, player likenesses, individual events, even certain stadiums. Then they must provide a soundtrack every year and, yep, those songs must be licensed, too. It is a neverending headache unique to the sports genre. Further complicating the job, nearly all league-licensed sports video games are rated E, or…

  By Owen Good Published March 29, 2012
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  A Hidden Gem on the Greatest Jazz Album of All Time

  It’s widely held that Miles Davis’ 1959 album Kind of Blue is the greatest jazz album of all time. I believe that in some jazz style-manual or another, it is actually required that people who write or talk about it refer to it as a “seminal.” While it’s of course impossible to declare that any…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published March 29, 2012
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  This Game Will Make Your Epic Sax Guy Dreams Come True

  We all want to be Epic Sax Guy. No matter our race, creed or political persuasion, every single person on the face of the planet has wanted to put on some blue pants, don some red leather gloves, pick up an alto saxophone and pelvic-thrust their way to glory. Now, thanks to the magic of…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published March 29, 2012
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  On the Trail of Metronome, The Sound-Bending Marvel That Never Was

  On Tarsier Studios’ website you’ll find a game, The City of Metronome, presented among its existing projects. It’s there, not far below a banner for the forthcoming Little Big Planet Vita (the Swedish developer’s current project). Only, this inclusion is not a celebration of past achievement or of a concrete undertaking. Without a release date,…

  pierre bienaimé Published March 29, 2012
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  Tactics Ogre: Weird Name, Amazing Soundtrack

  See what I did in that title? I hope you did. Okay, so you guys were right. When I asked for reader’s submissions for the best game music of 2011, a ton of people said “Dude! Tactics Ogre!” Those people were correct. I didn’t have a chance to play the PSP remake last year, but…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published March 29, 2012
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  The Kotaku Mixtape Vol 4: Nobuo Uematsu

  When you talk to people about game music, Nobuo Uematsu is gonna come up. It’s just going to happen, and with good reason: the guy is the John Williams of the Final Fantasy series. The sheer volume and quality of work the man has produced is pretty staggering, and I can think of a number…

  By Chris Person Published March 29, 2012
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  Kotaku Melodic Starts Here

  Greetings, and welcome to Kotaku Melodic, your one-stop-shop for music, video games, and musical video games. For the next two hours, you’re all mine. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the sounds.

  By Kirk Hamilton Published March 29, 2012