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The Independent Games Festival Finalists are Outstanding
The Independent Games Festival (IGF) has announced the finalists for this year’s IGF Awards, which will be held at the Game Developers’ Conference in San Francisco in March. Some truly great games on this list. We’ll have more coverage of the IGF in the coming weeks.
By Kirk Hamilton Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
The Week in Unbelievably Gorgeous Screenshots
Since running a big, enjoyable feature on Duncan Harris, the “video game photographer” behind the website DeadEndThrills, I’ve been sharing some of his work each week here. This week has some great stuff. Here we go! First up, at top, we’ve got one of several shots from Star Trek Online, this one titled: “Harbour Lights.”…
By Kirk Hamilton Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
Study: Video Games Keep Out The Nightmares
The Wall Street Journal has news of yet another gaming study, but this one’s pretty darn interesting: Rather than judge video games’ effect on violent behavior or socialization, the study looks at whether games can help people escape nightmares. Specifically, the study looked at military men and women, 64 of whom were “hard-core gamers” and…
By Kirk Hamilton Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
On Playing Dance Central 2 While Male
Recently my friend, who for this article we’ll call “Dan,” was over at my apartment for beers and video games. We’d gone through most of the big fall releases—I showed him some craziness from Saints Row: The Third, got across the gist of Catherine, and played some (shockingly fun) split-screen Modern Warfare 3 spec-ops. The…
By Kirk Hamilton Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
This Isn’t A Confirmation of Half-Life 3, Either
Gabe Newell Could Kill You | But first he’d make you wait a long, long time. (Image via Reddit.) This Could Be Your Last Chance to See Retro Game Master Last year Kotaku readers were enthralled by the daring exploits of Shinya Arino as he desperately attempted to finish a dozen of the most brutal…
By Stephen Totilo Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
Zombies, Muffins, Doodles, and Kangaroos? It Must Be The Week in Gaming Apps
We’re finally back up to speed after last week’s regrettable triple play, charging headfirst into 2012 with our mobile devices held up in front of our faces so we can’t see a thing. What might we be playing when we stumble into traffic? Speaking for myself, there’s a good chance I’ll severely dent someone’s Prius…
By Mike Fahey Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
Canadian Broadcast News Talks Propaganda Games
Canadian broadcast news organization CBC has put together audio documentary about propaganda games, featuring our own Stephen Totilo. In the piece, they discuss the case of Amir Mirza Hekmati, a man sentenced to death by the Iranian government for, among other things, allegedly making propaganda video games for the company Kuma Games. They also talk…
By Kirk Hamilton Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
This Could Be the Very Best Pokémon Art Exhibit, Like No One Ever Was
This April the Light Grey Art Lab in Minneapolis, Minnesota will be transformed into the ultimate trainer fantasy, when 151 artists take on the 151 original pocket monsters in an all-out Pokémon Battle Royale. Light Grey Art Lab co-owner Chris Hajny dropped us a line this afternoon to fill us in on what could be…
By Mike Fahey Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
Kotaku Commenters Do Not Suck
Here at Kotaku, we run all sorts of stories. Video game news and reviews, culture stories, stories about Japan, stories about the history of video games, funny posts about snack foods. But no matter what stories we’re running, there seems to be a consensus out there in Internetland: “Kotaku commenters are the worst.” I’ve been…
By Kirk Hamilton Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising Does Away With Subscription Fees
In preparation for its eventual move to free-to-play, Heatwave Interactive’s Romanesque massively multiplayer online game Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising is ditching subscription fees and lowering its initial price to $9.99. Or you could just wait a few months and pay nothing. [Gods & Heroes]
By Mike Fahey Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
It’s Hard to Ignore a Franchise That Sells 25 Million Games, Even If It’s Just Dance
Go ahead, snicker and titter just like you do when you pass a display of Ubisoft’s dancing franchise games at Target or Walmart. With 25 million copies sold across six titles, odds are you secretly own a copy of Just Dance yourself. I’m probably one of the first guys to point and giggle at those…
By Mike Fahey Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Coming to PlayStation Network Next Week
Team Ico’s two classics—Ico and Shadow of the Colossus— will be coming to the PS3’s digital storefront on January 17th. For $20 each, you’ll be able to download the games to your hard drive. [PlayStation Blogcast, via Joystiq]
By Evan Narcisse Published January 13, 2012 -
UncategorizedBeat Sneak Bandit Will be the Jazziest Game You Play All Year
Indie developers Simogo have loosed another glimpse of their stealth/rhythm/platformer mash-up and the clip makes me need this game in my hands as soon as possible. You can see how the sneaky-toon character movement gets perfectly synced to BSB‘s wonky jazz instrumentals, making you hold both the whole song and patrol patterns in your head…
By Evan Narcisse Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
This Could Be Your Last Chance to See Retro Game Master
Last year Kotaku readers were enthralled by the daring exploits of Shinya Arino as he desperately attempted to finish a dozen of the most brutal retro games Japan has to offer. Now we’re giving you one last chance to watch before Retro Game Master goes away forever. It was a grand experiment, broadcasting weekly episodes…
By Mike Fahey Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
Get a Glimpse at an Elseworlds Batman in the Cancelled Gotham by Gaslight Game
Even as Rocksteady Studios’s turned out two stellar Batman video games, other visions of the Dark Knight have shown up in Batman: Brave and the Bold and DC Universe. (Gotham City Impostors doesn’t really count since players aren’t controlling Batman, just his bizarre fan club.) A new blog post from visual artist Julie Farrell there…
By Evan Narcisse Published January 13, 2012 -
UncategorizedSumioni: Demon Arts, a.k.a. the Vita’s Best-Looking Game, Will be Coming to the West
Sumioni: Demon Arts wowed our own Brian Ashcraft at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, so much so that he declared it the prettiest thing going on Sony’s new handheld. While it seemed likely that the Acquire-developed game would head westward, things were still up in the air even after Sony announced the launch line-up for…
By Evan Narcisse Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
The Dark Souls PC Petition Has Namco Bandai’s Attention
Internet petitions are normally as effective in bringing about a desired result as closing your eyes and wishing really hard, but with more than 66.000 signatures accrued in just one week the petition for Namco Bandai to release uber-challenging dungeon crawler Dark Souls on PC seems to have gotten the company’s attention. Launched last week…
By Mike Fahey Published January 13, 2012 - Uncategorized
Reminder: You Could Be Reading Kotaku Core
As announced yesterday, we’re giving readers who want news and opinion just about video games themselves—and not coverage of the culture that extends from or intersects with them—a way to read Kotaku filtered for that. Try Kotaku.com/KotakuCore. Enjoy!
By Stephen Totilo Published January 13, 2012