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  Pick Out All Your Holiday Gifts Without Leaving Your Couch

  Yes, it’s that time of year again. But rest easy — this year, if you want to buy gifts for everyone you know in the same amount of time it takes to press pause and get a soda, check out the awesome Gawker Artists Shop and give the gift of original art! Finding a print…

  Sponsored post Published December 7, 2011
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  Rift‘s New Instant Adventure Feature Lives Up to Its Name

  Plenty of massively multiplayer online role-playing games attempt to fulfill the promise of easy-in, easy-out gameplay to appease folks that don’t have a great deal of time on their hands and just want a quick fighting fix. Rift might be the first MMORPG to deliver. If it works as advertised, that is. From the look…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 7, 2011
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  Requiem for a Skyrim Blacksmith

  In today’s tear-jerking and slightly spoilery edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Firescorpio tells us about a special relationship he formed in Skyrim, and how he wound up ruining it. Today I think Skyrim for the first time made me care in a very strange way for an NPC, not even a very important…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 7, 2011
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  How Fan Revolt In EVE Online Gave Birth to Its Latest Expansion

  2011’s been a year of unexpected protests. We’ve had the Arab Spring reconfiguring the political map of various Muslim governments and the Occupy movements calling for financial reform. This summer, a video-game equivalent happened on the servers of CCP’s cult sci-fi MMO EVE Online. In the words of senior producer Arnar Gylfason, “It wasn’t a…

  By Evan Narcisse Published December 7, 2011
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  It’s Bat-Dork vs. Joker Goth in This New Gotham City Impostors Animated Teaser

  The latest set-up clip from Warner Bros. Animation for the upcoming Bat-FPS puts viewers in the middle of a firefight where the game’s factions face-off against each other. Sure, a gun battle in what looks like broad daylight probably isn’t how Bruce Wayne would handle things but the Bat-vibe in this game will be different…

  By Evan Narcisse Published December 7, 2011
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  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  Hello, Kotaku. Is your weather as dreary as New York’s has been? I hope not. It’s hard to ring in the holiday cheer with consecutive days of rain. But, that’s beyond our control. Gaming and rainy days go hand in hand anyway, right? On that note, let us know what you’ve been playing below, and…

  By Matthew Buzzi Published December 7, 2011
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  How to Make 3D Videos, Stop Motion Movies With Your 3DS

  Nintendo’s 3DS is quickly, finally becoming a must-have gaming handheld. Games like Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 are easily satisfying my gaming itch these days and this latest update for the system adds the sorts of new features that has me once more showing off the 3DS to friends and relatives. The…

  By Brian Crecente Published December 7, 2011
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  Ninja Hoodie Lets You Unleash Unlimited Shurikens in an On-Rails World

  Ninjas. They’ve been a staple of video game adventures for decades now, but games featuring them almost always happen in feudal times. Makes sense, I suppose, since it’s easier to set up a shadow warrior’s superhuman powers of stealth in a world without electric lighting. Or cameras. Or alarm systems. Developed by indie studio Ink…

  By Evan Narcisse Published December 7, 2011
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  Boy, This Is Pretty

  Alfista | Xbox 360: As detailed on sister site Jalopnik, the Dec. Forza 4 DLC comes with a 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider QV. (Photo: Microsoft) Mario Kart 7: The Kotaku Review There’s a spot on the couch where Mario Kart 7 sits, a well-worn seat where the pillows and cushions have been arranged just so.…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 7, 2011
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  PopCap Yanks Bejeweled 2 + Blitz from iTunes to Split It in Two

  PopCap Games is “retiring” Bejeweled 2 + Blitz from iTunes today, replacing it with another version of Bejeweled that sells for the same price, but which doesn’t come with Blitz Instead iPhone and iPod Touch gamers will have to pick up a new “freemium” version of Bejeweled Blitz if they want to play that version…

  By Brian Crecente Published December 7, 2011
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  Time To Justify Giant Breasts and Panty Shots

  Some video games have exploding heads. That evokes criticism. Other games have giant breasts and panty shots. Likewise, people get upset. Skullgirls developer Reverge Labs is here to pass out the chill pills. Skullgirls is an all girl-on-girl 2D fighting game. Skullgirls roster features characters like Valentine, a nurse ninja; the demon-haired Filia; a girl…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 7, 2011
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  Screw Crazy Crotches! Persona Figures are Better with Tiny TVs.

  The last Persona figure Kotaku posted had a crazy crotch. This one does not. It has a television. Japanese figure maker Good Smile Company is showing off this upcoming Persona 4 Teddie figure. There’s also a plastic television—a nice touch. If you haven’t played Persona 4 or seen the anime, Teddie is a mysterious creature…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 7, 2011
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  Your Inside Peek at Akihabara’s Most Famous Retro Game Shop

  Two of my favorite Tokyo people, CheapyD of CheapAssGamer fame and Scott Popular of Scott Popular fame, provide an inside look at iconic retro game shop Super Potato. Nice cinematography and soothing tunes accompany the two gents as they make their retro gaming crawl. RETRO GAME HEAVEN SUPER POTATO [Studio Donbe]

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 7, 2011
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  Last Guardian Executive Producer Quits. Goes Elsewhere.

  Is Yoshifusa Hayama the latest Last Guardian casualty? The former Sony Computer Entertainment Vice President and Last Guardian executive producer has left the company. The eagerly awaited game has been years in development. It was supposed to be finished this year, but was delayed to next year. The Last Guardian was AWOL at this year’s…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 7, 2011
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  A Half-Life Gravity Gun That Exists In the Real World

  Master craftsman Harrison Krix has built himself a replica of Gordon Freeman’s Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2. It’s really something. Made internet famous by similar projects based on the weapons of series like Mass Effect and World of Warcraft, the gun has that post-apocalyptic finish you’d expect, along with some amazing lighting effects that bring…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011
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  Is This Figure Really Worth $5,000?

  In Japan, selling customized figures can get you arrested. It call also get you crazy amounts of money. Like this one did, for example. A customized Hatsune Miku figure (above, in a bridal gown) recently went for ¥389,000 or US$5,002. No small chump change. The customized figure combines a ¥8,980 ToHeart2 Tamaki Kousaka wedding dress…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 7, 2011
• Culture

  Who are you to Resist This God of War Art?

  With over a decade’s experience in video game concept art, Carlo Arellano has worked on some of the industry’s biggest franchises, including World of Warcraft, Resistance and God of War More recently, he’s been involved in designing characters for Insomniac’s Overstrike, that sci-fi game from E3 that was announced and then promptly slid into the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011
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  Batman’s PC Version Fixed, But Also Kinda Broken

  Arkham CIty’s had some DX11 problems since its delayed PC release. A new patch from Rocksteady tries to fix this, but only if you don’t have Windows Vista or 7 32-bit. If you do, it makes things worse. Oh dear. [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011
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  Zelda’s Song of Storms, Recreated

  Artist Erik Schumacher didn’t paint this striking image of Link atop Epona. It’s not a photo either. It’s a little bit of both, something called “photomanipulation”. What that means is he took dozens of existing images and smashed them together. Like a collage, only, seamless. Then he joins them all together with trimmings like Link’s…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 7, 2011
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  Chet Atkins: The Third Man Theme

  Pull up a chair. It’s that time when Kotaku takes a break from it’s round the clock gaming news and how-is-this-news? and cozies up with some music. This is Soundtrack Tonight, we’ve got country music icon Chet Atkins playing “The Third Man Theme”, originally written and performed by Anton Karas for the 1949 film of…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 7, 2011