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Expansion Plans
StarCraft II‘s next expansion, Heart of the Swarm is available for pre-order—at two different prices—so be sure to pick the one that’s about $20 less while it still lasts. That value, plus discounts on this week’s new releases, and next week’s too, highlight this 60-deal edition of The Moneysaver Software • StarCraft II: Heart of…
By Owen Good Published March 10, 2012 - Uncategorized
The Best of Kotaku, This Week
Another week survived! It’s particularly momentous because it was the Game Developers Conference all week, during which we brought you the most interesting segments, speeches, panels and news. First up, though, is the picture above which is a mashup of adorable Pokémon characters drawn by Olly Moss. Taken individually, they’re perfect for you phone background.…
By Tina Amini Published March 10, 2012 - Uncategorized
Survey Says 56% of U.S. Households Own Gaming Consoles
Over half of homes in the United States own current-generation gaming consoles, according to a survey put together by the Nielsen Group and released today. That’s up six percent from last year The survey has some other interesting facts, but here’s the point I found most salient: The Web is increasingly important in generating awareness…
By Jason Schreier Published March 9, 2012 - CultureTotal Recall
Total Recall Will Return Next Week
Happy Friday everyone! Unfortunately for Total Recall fans, Kirk is out and about at the Game Developers Conference. But Luke will be providing you with old school gaming goodness as soon as Monday. Sit tight! In the meantime, you can browse through past Total Recall articles. Oh, and in case you were wondering, that image…
By Tina Amini Published March 9, 2012 - Uncategorized
The Day the Dorito Shell Tacos Made Kotaku Nauseous
We get a bunch of weird things in the office, especially because we share the editorial space with our sister sites, like Gizmodo for instance. Today, Taco Bell brought Gizmodo a stack of boxes filled with a dozen tacos each. But these aren’t just any tacos. No. These tacos are wrapped in a Dorito chip…
By Tina Amini Published March 9, 2012 - Uncategorized
Spy Party‘s Chris Hecker Calls Out Players, the Press, and Developers for Lack of Variety in Games
Why are so many games just copies of past games? Who is responsible for this state of affairs? Does the industry need more variety to survive? At the “Game Developers’ Rant” session at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Spy Party developer Chris Hecker made a call for more variety in games. The rants…
By Kirk Hamilton Published March 9, 2012 -
UncategorizedTwirling Robots Rarely Look This Pretty
This is a real-time motion test for ROBOTA: Vengeance, run on the Unity Engine. At first it looks really good. Then you realize that it’s slated to be released on iOS and Android. Suddenly it looks holy shit good. The creators, Sixits Studios, are trying to crowdfund a whopping $100,000 to finance ROBOTA: Vengeance, which…
By Jason Schreier Published March 9, 2012 - Uncategorized
Can We All Please Ignore Roger Ebert From Now On? Thanks.
Let’s stop giving a shit what Roger Ebert says about video games, and art, OK? We’ve tried like hell to make him into a punching bag, and neither he nor the rest of America gives a crap for the fact we choose to feel so insulted every time he says something about video games. This…
By Owen Good Published March 9, 2012 - Uncategorized
The Week in Evil DLC
Downloadable content. Everyone hates it—but everyone buys it. Yes, even you in the comments, smart guy. Here’s a look at the latest package of extensions and pre-order bonuses designed to crowbar the last dollar out of your wallet. Can you still respect yourself if you buy it? Street Fighter X Tekken: The Dirty Dozen Available:…
By Owen Good Published March 9, 2012 - Uncategorized
Backhanded Box Quotes: ‘I’d Rather Be Sodomized’
Welcome to “Backhanded Box Quotes,” a collection of super pissed-off user reviews from people just like you! Whoa, whoa, don’t take that personal. This week, Backhanded Box Quotes could have given over the entire feature to the fanboy backlash against Mass Effect 3. There are many day-one complaints against the space-opera RPG below, and also…
By Owen Good Published March 9, 2012 - Uncategorized
Blizzard Tables Diablo III PVP in Favor of a Timely Release
In its continuing quest to release Diablo III sometime before the rabid fanbase burns the building down, Blizzard has decided to drop the game’s player-versus-player arena combat feature for release, adding it into the game via patch at a later date. Diablo III maestro Jay Wilson made the announcement earlier today via the Diablo III…
By Mike Fahey Published March 9, 2012 -
UncategorizedThese Guys Tied Game Controllers To Their Butts, For a Good Reason
Doug Wilson makes unusual games, like this one that you have to play on all fours, with a PlayStation Move controller tethered to your rear end. It’s called Dog the Wag It’s goofy. It’s not quite his best game, though it might be his wackiest. His best game is probably the graphics-less Johann Sebastian Joust,…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 9, 2012 - Uncategorized
Biff Tannen’s Special Tournament Edition Gives You All the Conference Champions Right Now!
Hey, are you a sports fan on the go? Who has time these days to watch the big game, or bother with messy DVR, or boring highlight shows? With Biff Tannen’s Sports Almanac, we’ll give you the weekend’s biggest matchups before they happen, thanks to these highly accurate peer-reviewed scientific simulations of sports video gaming’s…
By Owen Good Published March 9, 2012 -
ReviewsMLB 12: The Show: The Kotaku Review
When you have done so much right for so long, to the point that very little needs to be changed, the paradox of your success is that what you offer risks becoming stale. For years, MLB The Show has been one of the most universally acclaimed video games, regardless of genre, and its improvements—while observable—sometimes…
By Owen Good Published March 9, 2012 - Uncategorized
Activision Wins Small Battle in Large Call of Duty Lawsuit
Publisher Activision took home a small victory in its longstanding legal battle against Call of Duty creators Jason West and Vincent Zampella earlier this week, convincing a Los Angeles judge to drop a fraud claim against it, according to a news report. Bloomberg reports that State Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle dropped one of two…
By Jason Schreier Published March 9, 2012 - Uncategorized
One of the Worst Features of Mass Effect 3 Is in this Week in Gaming Apps
It’s Mass Effect 3 week, and BioWare’s latest is so powerful and compelling it even made it into a Gaming App of the Day post—and a fairly negative one at that. Oh well, at least we’ve got Snake Mass Effect 3 tie-in Infiltrator did not make a good impression on Evan Narcisse, so much so…
By Mike Fahey Published March 9, 2012 - Uncategorized
Console Companies Continue to Keep Inspectors Out of Factories
We’ve written many times before about the working conditions at Foxconn and other Chinese plants at which nearly all of the electronics used for gaming are manufactured. The short version is, its not great. Factory workers manage extraordinary hours for very little pay, living in cramped conditions. Following a spate of suicides in 2010 and…
By Kate Cox Published March 9, 2012 - Uncategorized
Nominate This Week’s Best Comment
You may have noticed that we’ve stopped running out daily notes. And you also may have noticed last week’s “The Best of Kotaku, This Week” feature. Well, this is going to be a regular thing. Part of this thing includes nominating a Best Comment of the Week. That’s you guys. We want to highlight the…
By Tina Amini Published March 9, 2012 -
UncategorizedShepard’s War Begins In This New Mass Effect 3 Trailer
Mass Effect 3 launched three days ago, but that hasn’t stopped publisher Electronic Arts from releasing new trailers for the sci-fi action-roleplaying game. Not that I’m complaining—this one is pretty awesome. Explosions, spaceships, and dramatic proclamations round out this look at Commander Shepard’s latest adventure, which developer BioWare released Tuesday for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3,…
By Jason Schreier Published March 9, 2012 - Uncategorized
Barbara-Freaking-Gordon Proves How Clever She is in this Batgirl #7 Preview
Back in action years after being crippled by the Joker, Batgirl’s biggest problem in DC Comics’ New 52 reboot seems to be all the men in her life worried about her getting hurt again. Batwoman doesn’t have to deal with this crap. After a tense confrontation with Batman in issue #6, writer Gail Simone explores…
By Mike Fahey Published March 9, 2012