Hacker Claims He Tricked Taco Bell Into Sending Him a PlayStation Vita

A hacker says he used a bot to scam Taco Bell into sending him a PlayStation Vita during the “Unlock the Box” contest. Using an automated program to generate codes for Taco Bell’s Vita contest-turned-debacle, a message board user named “Sinister” says he managed to win one of Sony’s new handheld systems. Writing in a…

Downton Abbey Meets Magic: The Gathering, and It Is Glorious

Okay, yes, fine. This post is at least partly an excuse for me to finally tag something “Downton Abbey” here at Kotaku. But in this case, the tag is warranted—over at Kill Screen, writer Sarah Elmaleh (who some of you may remember as the voice of Aeris in that column I wrote about silent protagonists)…

This Is What A Gamer’s Sexual Harassment Looks Like

One competitive gamer’s inflammatory comments in support of sexual harassment set off a firestorm of drama in the gaming world yesterday. This video makes things seem even worse. In a recent interview, competitive gamer Aris Bakhtanians said “sexual harassment is part of [the] culture” in the fighting game community, where players compete in titles like…

PlayStation 4 Ditching The Cell Processor, Sources Say, Which Leads to Some Wild Theories.

The PlayStation 4 will not use Sony’s Cell processor nor any possible successor to the vaunted chipset that was introduced to the world through the PlayStation 3, gaming industry sources tell Kotaku What we’re hearing from sources follow a Forbes rumor last week that chip-maker AMD would make the graphics chip for a PS4, a…

The Banner Saga To Begin Waving This Summer

Indie developer Stoic Studio has released the first trailer for their new Viking-themed turn-based strategy role-playing game, The Banner Saga The three developers who form the studio all previously worked at BioWare, and drew attention with the earlier announcement of their new title. While details regarding the game are still scarce, the art speaks for…

PCGamingWiki Wants to Solve the Biggest Problems with PC Gaming: Intimidation and Confusion

Have you ever had a problem installing the latest and greatest PC game and were forced to scour semi-helpful forum posts for hours looking for a solution? Andrew Tsai certainly has, and he created PCGamingWiki so no one else ever has to. If Tsai, who goes by the handle Andytizer on the PCGamingWiki site (and…

What Can Gigabyte’s $500 3GB Radeon HD 7950 Do For Your Gaming Rig?

AMD ended 2011 on a high note, unleashing the market’s fastest single-GPU card and beating its adversary to the next-generation graphics yet again. The Radeon HD 7970 outpaced the GeForce GTX 580 by over 20% in our tests and that achievement is made even sweeter by the fact that Nvidia’s response is still months away.…

The Custom PC of Yesterday’s Future, Today

PC case mods aren’t always about adding character and catching the eye. As this lovely design by Swedish artist Love Hulten demonstrates, it can also be about adding sophistication and capturing the hi-fi spirit of yesteryear. This particular case made the rounds last year, but the design is timeless. Well, perhaps timeless is the wrong…

Tera‘s Frightening Spokesman Continues to Terrorize Innocent Role-Players

Last week Tera‘s mixed martial arts master spokesman pitched the game’s action-oriented combat to a room full of guild leaders from other massively multiplayer online games. This week he breaks into a player’s house. Oh those MMO-FOs. Last week’s viral MMO-FO video from En Masse Entertainment at least featured some actual gamers. This week sees…

FTL Is The Star Trek Game I’ve Always Wanted

Republished from Rock, Paper Shotgun Every fantasy you’ve ever had to reroute power to the shields exists in FTL. I know because I just pulled power from the sick-bay to boost my shields while I attempted to flee a hostile enemy scout. If you don’t have those fantasies yet, then soon it’ll be all you…

Deep Black: Reloaded is Worth Playing Just to Hear Men Die

Created by Russian independent developer Biart, Depp Black: Reloaded is a third-person shooter driven by a unique blend of underwater and land-based exploration and combat. Other than that there’s not much going for it, except for these gut-wrenching screams. Originally called Underwater Wars or U-Wars, Deep Black: Reloaded weaves a tale of suspense, mystery, terrorism,…

PC Gaming Lives Reporting for Duty

It’s time for two hours of PC gaming goodness. Grab your mouse and keyboard and come along!

In the Game of Thrones MMORPG, You Win or You Grind

Popular fantasy franchise Game of Thrones will become a browser-based massively multiplayer online game this fall, publisher Bigpoint said today. Bigpoint, the studio behind several free-to-play online games, says it will reveal more information next week at the Game Developers Conference. Development studio Artplant (Battlestar Galactica Online) will partner with Bigpoint to make the game.…

Leaked Pics Appear to Show a Sprawling, Gorgeous SimCity 5

A set of seven leaked images assumed to be concept art for SimCity 5 have surfaced today, along with rumors indicating that the game is 30% of the way through development, and will be released in 2013. Users at NeoGAF have posted the images as well as a translation from a print edition of German…

Sputnik Gallery

Blizzard Axes 600 Employees, World of Warcraft Dev Team Not Affected

Blizzard, the development studio behind the Diablo, StarCraft, and Warcraft franchises, has laid off 600 employees, it said today in a press release. Ninety percent of the cut staff were in departments unrelated to game development, the company said. Blizzard does not expect the news to affect upcoming games Diablo III, World of Warcraft: Mists…

WTPT: Battlefield 3 Is Beautiful With A Tilt-Shift Perspective

Battlefield 3 has never looked prettier than from this angle. Using a tilt-shift camera perspective, Independent Gamers Production managed to create this array of scenes from Battlefield 3 in a unique perspective. From the more distant angle and with a sharper look, the trees and water look even more realistic. That same effect that makes…

British Commentary Makes Everything Funnier, Especially Basketball

Comedian Anthony Richardson knows how to make basketball even more entertaining — fill it with hilarious, clueless commentary that seems to be voiced by somebody who has never watched a game of hoops in his life. Check out this video of him commentating on an NBA 2k12-simulated matchup of last week’s NBA All Star Game.…

Take Out Skeletons with Take-Out Pizza in this Ridiculous iPhone Platformer

More often than not, it seems that mobile game developers are encouraging you to not take their games too seriously. The art is fun, and the game mechanics are typically quirky. Pizza Vs. Skeletons is maybe the quirkiest of them all. As the name suggests, you’ll be controlling an animated pie of pizza against a…

Morsel Kombat: One Man’s Quest To “Finish” His Meal

In the eternal struggle between man and lunch, there can be only one victor! It takes dedication, preparation, and a vat of ketchup to defeat the breaded foe once and for all. The nuggets may fight back, but it is a fighter’s task — nay, his silly, funny, comic duty — to FINISH THEM. Morsel…