Disconnect at the Global StarCraft League Finals Has Fans Shouting “We Want LAN!”

That Team Prime’s MarineKing won the Global StarCraft II League finals held during the Starcraft II IPL 4 tournament in Las Vegas earlier this month comes as no surprise to fans of competitive gaming. The fact that he might have lost if not for a last-minute dropped connection, on the other hand… StarTale player Won…

Best Buy Offering Pre-orders For…Half-Life 2: Episode 3? [Update: The Joke Was a Hoax]

Reddit user Tabisama strolled into Best Buy, but wasn’t expecting to stumble on this pre-order for what appears to be Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Looking at this poster, you might think that it’s genuine. But looking at that 99,999,999 countdown, you might think otherwise. These Episode 3 teases are not uncommon. After all, everyone knows…

Nvidia Lets Everyone Know It’s Coming

It’s coming, everybody. Nvidia’s GeForce Facebook page updated this morning to ensure fans of the video card line knew that. And now you know. Don’t thank me. Wait, what’s coming? Nvidia was understandably tight-lipped about what exactly they are teasing; one wouldn’t want a high-quality image like this going to waste. Speculation is leaning towards…

You Can Make Anything You Can Imagine With LEGO. Even a PC.

One case modder out there in the world has finally found a use, a true purpose, for the featureless square “houses” and “castles” young me inevitably built (and tore down) from my LEGO collection. This particular PC is, indeed, made of LEGO bricks. Sure, the motherboard and processor and fans and the rest aren’t made…

My First Tentative Steps into the Turn-Based Tactical World of Wakfu

I’ve wandered through dozens of fantasy worlds in my massively multiplayer online gaming career, but Wakfu is the first one I’ve played where my wanderings were tied to a grid. Released in North America by Square Enix, Wakfu is one of a trio of online games by French developer Ankama Games (Dofus and Dofus Arena…

Digital Storm Unveils Its Most Affordable Gaming PCs Yet

When I think about boutique gaming PC maker Digital Storm, the first image that pops into my head is large stacks of money. Having reported on machines that can run upwards of $8,000, I never thought I’d see the day when a Digital Storm machine was priced at under $1,000. Enter the Marauder line, the…

Is This an Official Poster for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2?

It’s looking more and more like this year’s Call of Duty is going to be a sequel to 2010’s Black Ops. A retail source forwarded the following image from a poster received today. It’s been widely speculated that this year’s Call of Duty game will be a sequel to Black Ops, which was developed by…

First Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Starts April 27

Players that have preordered pre-purchased (different thing) Guild Wars 2 for guaranteed access to the beta will be able to take advantage of said benefit April 27 through April 29, when ArenaNet hosts the first of many weekend events. Huzzah!

What’s New With Intel’s Z77 Panther Point Chipset

Continuing its tick-tock release cycle, Intel plans to unveil a new CPU microarchitecture at the end of April. Codenamed Ivy Bridge (tick), the update will bring a 22nm die shrink of current 32nm Sandy Bridge technology (tock), bringing greater efficiency and allowing Intel to cram more into the same size die. Intel is often criticized…

PC Gaming Lives!

For the next two hours PC gaming holds the spotlight on Kotaku. The rest of the time it secretly holds it, but don’t tell anyone.

The Splendid Botanicula Overflows With Weapons-Grade Joyfulness

Joy is a terribly underrated commodity in video games. Most of the games I play inspire all kinds of feelings—stress, tension, exhilaration, frustration, even less-celebrated but still mentionable sensations like “comforting routine” and “empowering murder-fantasy.” There aren’t all that many games that make me feel really, truly joyful. Botanicula is one of them. Argh, this…

If You’re Female, Online Gaming Is A Festival of Compliments and Flattery, Comic Asserts [UPDATE]

If you play a video game online, accidentally kill your pals (virtually) and let the word out that you’re female, you’ll be showered with kind words. That’s according to The Oatmeal an online comic that contrasts this experience with that of screwing up online while male. If you’re a guy and do that, you’ll be…

Speculation: Marvel to Buy THQ and Make Video Games In-House

THQ’s in dire straits, financially. Marvel—now a wholly-owned division of Disney—has lots and lots of money. Maybe, if the former buys the latter, they hold hands and make beautiful games together? That’s what comics culture website Bleeding Cool seems to think. Editor Rich Johnston pieces together comments and business dealings from Marvel, Disney and THQ…

Hopefully Some JRPG Isn’t As Boring As Its Title

I kinda want to play Some JRPG, an upcoming role-playing game that promises to be a delightful cocktail of tropes and cliches. Out this summer for PC, Some JRPG will spoof what it calls generic JRPG gameplay by offering its own version of generic JRPG gameplay. It could be really funny or it could be…

Lego PC Gallery

Turns Out Drunk Navi Is Just As Annoying As Sober Navi

I, like everyone else familiar with this beaten to death meme, am pretty tired of the “shit X says” videos. Regardless, the irony of featuring Navi for this video is enough to warrant another pass through the joke made popular on the Internet. Just like in Ocarina of Time, Navi can be helpful (or at…

Skyrim‘s “Arrow in the Knee” Makes a Guest Appearance on NCIS

I used to think the CBS Naval Intelligence procedural NCIS was a show aimed squarely at the extremely mature crowd, until a recent episode took an arrow in the knee. So the NCIS writers were a little late to the party; they’ve got a production schedule to adhere to. The fact that they managed to…

Spin Up Will Make You Joyously, Frantically Dizzy

Spin Up mixes a lot of different influences into a fresh-feeling whole. It’s got a bit of Donkey Kong‘s ladder-climbing DNA spliced with the infinite running of Canabalt, only the perpetual movement’s vertical in this game. This may sound like a weird recipe but Spin Up hinges on a key difference that makes the game…

Insane ‘Tube Transport’ Will Zip You From New York to L.A. In 45 Minutes

This ridiculous video envisions a hypothetical future much like the television show Futurama, in which humanity’s main method of travel is via super-fast transport tubes. Using these tubes, patented by the folks at ET3, you could hypothetically travel around the entire world in six hours. Six hours! Now all they need is money to build…

Wednesday Watch This, Play This

Watch! *Groan* Another “arrow to the knee” joke. Watch! Transportation in the future is ridiculous. Play! Evan has fun with Spin Up on his iPad. Watch! Dammit, Navi. I heard you already.