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  Theme Park is Back, and it’s Ready to Fuck You Over

  Bullfrog’s Theme Park is one of the greatest management games ever made. It’s return, courtesy of rights-holders EA, should be a cause for celebration. It’s not. The game is on iPhone. Which is…OK. I mean, SimCity is on iPhone and works pretty well, there’s no reason Theme Park can’t do the same. Only, it looks…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 6, 2011
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  A Musical Collaboration Between Two of Japan’s Finest

  Hello, Kotaku. The night is dark, and full of terrors. Oh, and video game news. So let’s take a five-minute break with some music, OK? Welcome to Soundtrack. A new bonus segment here on Kotaku. This isn’t a trap. We’re just relaxing with some tunes. Stuff we think you might like to stick on while…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 6, 2011
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  Japan’s Biggest Website, Awash in Illegal Drugs

  Drugs, and drug culture, are common and prevalent in much of the West. Ditto for Japan, even if superficially the country seems immune to such devices. It’s not. Sometimes buying drugs in Japan is as easy as walking up to someone standing on a corner in Tokyo’s Roppongi. Sometimes, it’s far more complex, say, if…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 6, 2011
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  How a Diablo III Cosplay Scares the Neighbors

  Unless it’s Halloween, cosplay is restricted to indoors and nerd events. Crafty-type Joshua Smith seems to have forgotten this when he took his truly amazing Diablo III out and about. Previously, Kotaku profiled Joshua’s impressive costume, as well as his creepy room. In the above video, you can see the full body costume in motion—and…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 6, 2011
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  Counter-Strike, You’ve Changed (For the Better!)

  This mighty helpful YouTube video shows just how far Valve’s shooter Counter-Strike has come over the past eight years, between the release of the landmark version 1.6 and subsequent revisions like Condition Zero, Source and the upcoming Global Offensive All shots are from the game’s trademark level, de_dust2, and show that the biggest addition to…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 6, 2011
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  Burglar Tries To Steal Xbox 360, Pulls Knife, Gets Stabbed a Shitload

  An overnight worker in Chicago came home to discover a 20-something year old burglar attempting to make off with his flat-screen TV and Xbox 360 in a suitcase. That’s when all hell broke loose. According to the Chicago Tribune, the resident confronted the burglar in the apartment foyer, and the crook pulled a knife. Then,…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published December 6, 2011
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  Trying to Explain Skyrim’s Awful PS3 Lag

  There’s a problem with Skyrim on the PS3, in that for many gamers, the bigger their save game file gets, the slower the game gets. It’s so bad sometimes the framerate can drop to zero. Despite a recent patch many users are still complaining about the problem so, uh, what’s up? Nobody knows! Since the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 6, 2011
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  Here’s…One New BioShock Infinite Screenshot

  It’s a tease for the game’s new trailer, to be shown at the VGAs next week. Way to be stingy, guys! In lieu of actual facts, then, we’re going to substitute them for non-facts. Folks, this is Eusebius Fink, owner of the Sky City Knickerbockers. He’s made entirely of bronze, stands eleven feet tall, and…

  By Luke Plunkett Published December 6, 2011
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  Shoot a Nuke Down a Bug Hole, You Got a Lot of Dead Bugs

  Greetings, travelers, and welcome to another Kotaku open thread. How have you been? Good? I hope so. I’ve been keeping warm, and this morning, they posted the second part of that Revision3 TV interview I did, where I talked about a bunch of things, from jazz to Far Cry 2 to sweat pants. I also…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 5, 2011
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  Embargo Breaking and You: The New Yorker Takes On Sony Pictures

  Those following the world of cinema today are most likely aware of a slap-fight that broke out between Sony Pictures and New Yorker film critic David Denby, who broke the agreed-upon embargo for his review of the highly anticipated film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. He and other critics were allowed to view the…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 5, 2011
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  Rayman Creator: Mario Games Don’t Have Enough Slapping

  In a lengthy interview published today on Gamasutra, Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil creator Michel Ancel confesses that although he likes The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, he doesn’t care for playing Miyamoto’s Super Mario games. From the interview: I will tell you something terrible — I don’t really enjoy playing…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 5, 2011
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  This Fan-Made Mass Effect Film is Shaping Up Nicely

  The folks at The Sneaky Zebra are making a short film based on the Mass Effect universe, and have sent along three new character trailers for the game. The one up top is for a renegade character named “Hale,” which I would imagine (or at least hope!) is a reference to voice actor Jennifer Hale,…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 5, 2011
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  Like Scott Pilgrim Before it, To The Moon Tells a Personal Story in the Language of Video Games

  Video games have a language all their own. It’s a language that most people understand implicitly—concepts like extra lives, leveling up, experience points, and boss battles have gone mainstream. That language has begun to seep into other media as well—movies like The Matrix, Source Code, and books like those in the Scott Pilgrim series all…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 5, 2011
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  When Bioshock Becomes a Little Too Real

  The latest “Co-Op Life” video from Machinima focuses on Bioshock, and it’s pretty funny stuff. A couple of guys are playing the game on the couch, and the whole experience has… well, it’s come out into the real world with them. It’s basically a much more high-budget approach to the same kind of satire we’ve…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 5, 2011
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  We Are Wookiee

  Darth Arts | An image from The Art and Making of Star Wars The Old Republic Here’s Why Former Presidential Candidate Herman Cain Was So Obsessed With A Pokémon Song If one didn’t know better, it would be easy to think one-time presidential candidate Herman Cain is a gamer. His tax plan seems to be…

  By Brian Crecente Published December 5, 2011
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  Microsoft Teams Up With the Independent Games Festival

  The Independent Games Festival has announced a multi-year partnership with Microsoft Games Studios. The partnership will involve a jury of indie game developers awarding an “XBLA Prize” (XBLA being Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade service), which will be given out at the IGF, a festival and awards ceremony that happens each March at the Game Developers…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published December 5, 2011
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  Is Televangelist Benny Hinn Skyrim’s Dragonborn?

  This is the power of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Non gamers watch this video and think they may be witnessing the powers of international televangelist Benny Hinn during one of his many faith healing summits. Gamers watch this video and know what’s really going on here: FUS RO DAH!. Good thing Hinn doesn’t know…

  By Brian Crecente Published December 5, 2011
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  Video Game Wars Should Feel Real, EA Says

  When I talked to EA’s Frank Gibeau earlier this fall about the making of Battlefield 3, the words that kept coming up were realistic and authentic. Yes, the ambitious war game still counts as fiction, what with its earthquake-aided insurrection and nuclear terrorism. However, it’s not quite as popcorn as the plot presented in the…

  By Evan Narcisse Published December 5, 2011
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  The Lady Who Saw a Wii at Grandpa’s Hospital and Now Thinks She Wants One

  As much as you’re able to instantly recommend the best products to your fellow gamer, you might grope for advice when that older person, maybe a family member, suddenly expresses an interest in video games for the first time. What you’re being asked to do is help someone develop or understand their actual taste in…

  By Owen Good Published December 5, 2011
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  Kinect Helps High School Duo Win $100,000 National Science Prize

  Who says gaming can’t lead to a higher education? Ziyuan Liu and Cassee Cain of Oak Ridge High School in Oak Ridge are splitting a $100,000 college scholarship awarded in the Siemens Foundation’s annual high school science competition after creating a Kinect-powered application that uses Microsoft’s magical camera to analyze the way a person walks.…

  By Mike Fahey Published December 5, 2011