Two Years in the Slammer for Hacker Who Stole $300,000 from Zynga Poker

The British hacker who fleeced Zynga Poker for 400 billion chips, which have an official worth of $12 million, $300,000 on the black market, will serve two years in prison. Ashley Mitchell did a poor job of covering his tracks after breaking into a Zynga server running the casino game and robbing it of the…

Square Enix Has Balls, Sega… A Banana Holder?

Swag | Sometimes the freebies that arrive on my doorstep kinda go together. (Photo: Brian Crecente) Bedtime Stories PS3 Hacker Flees the Long Arm of Sony for South American Freedom The saga of George “geohot” Hotz continues, hurdling deeper into absurdity with each growing unit of acceleration. He fought the law and lost-a judge demanded…

Lego Star Wars III Proves That New Star Wars Can Be Amazing Star Wars

Did you love those original Star Wars movies? Were you horrified by the newer ones… or think they were at least a wee bit inferior? Attention: we’re actually living in an era of great Star Wars. That might amaze you as much as the news that the newly-released Lego Star Wars III may be the…

Which Big Series Still Has Room For A PS2 Version?

Of course, the WWE is a series that’s so… down-market? salt-of-the-earth? … that they still have a PS2 version of their newest game. Never leave the common man behind, WWE!

Paper Train Is Fight Control For Dummies

Paper Train takes the traffic management features of games like Fight Control and puts the whole thing on rails, with the player controlling when the trains start, stop, and crash into cows. It looks good on paper, but is it challenging? The answer is a little sketchy. Anyone that’s played the iPhone classic Fight Control…

LEGO Star Wars III Will Make You Shit a Brick

Hahahahahaha….

Hyper Violent School Shooter Mod Yanked From Mod Hosting Site

The intentionally, unabashedly offensive School Shooter: North American Tour 2012, designed to be “the most realistic student slaughtering modification ever made,” has lost support from its former host. ModDB, original host of the Half-Life 2 mod—and hundreds of other mods—has pulled School Shooter from its site. ModDB founder Scott “INtense!” Reismanis says site administrators yanked…

iPods, Onlive, Lithographs and LEGO Statues Among Silent Charity Auction Items

We’re just a day away from Kotaku’s final Denver fundraiser, a party we’re throwing to raise money for those in need following the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Hosted at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom in downtown Denver, the event will now also include a silent auction and live DJ set by DJ LiciousD. That’s on…

Liberty City’s Most Dangerous Police Chases Make For Awesome GTA IV Cinema

Can you handle more than thirteen crazy minutes of Grand Theft Auto IV police chases, with Niko Bellic and his cousin Roman fleeing from cop cars, armored vehicles and police helicopters? Test your machinimatic endurance skills with “Hard Charger: Wide Open.” Written and directed by L.J. Carantan, “Hard Charger” is stuffed with thrills, spills, jumps,…

But How Many 3DS Game Cartridges Fit In A 3DS Game Box?

In the midst of more serious experimentation with the Nintendo 3DS, I’ve been wondering how many 3DS game cartridges I could fit into the slim 3DS game boxes. I wondered this because I’ve long used a DS game box to transport a fistful of DS games any time I travel with Nintendo’s portable machine. Were…

Delayed Games In Japan Give Dynasty Warriors, Dissidia Duodecim More Time To Shine

It was a week light in new video game releases in Japan. Sega’s gangsters meet zombies game, Yakuza Of The End, was supposed to have been released this past week, but was delayed after Japan’s natural disasters. That gives not-so-fresh games more opportunity to sell overseas. Last week’s bestseller, Dynasty Warriors 6 (DW7 in North…

The First Templar Slices A Bloody Path Towards The Holy Grail

The secrets of the Order of the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail unravel in The First Templar, Kalypso Media’s combat-heavy cooperative third-person historical action game. The blood flows like wine in the latest gameplay trailer. Due out in May for the Xbox 360 and Windows PC, The Last Templar is the tale of a…

For The Sake Of Sex: Serena Williams Drops Pants, Pretenses In Video Game Ad

Let’s talk about sex. More specifically, sex, and sports, and video games, the perfect trifecta of ways to grab a certain demographic’s attention, and hopefully dollars. Watch the above commercial, a web-only spot for 2K Sports’ Top Spin 4. I’ll give you a couple of minutes if you need some time alone. What you just…

Green Lanterns, The Illusive Man And The Best Week Of Comics On The iPad… Ever?

The selection of video game comics this week is thin, but a couple of major stories launch in the world of super-hero comics, one of the best graphic novelists in the world releases his first book in over a decade, and the iPad gets probably its best release of recent classics ever. This is a…

PS3 Hacker Flees the Long Arm of Sony for South American Freedom

The saga of George “geohot” Hotz continues, hurtling deeper into absurdity with each growing unit of acceleration. He fought the law and lost—a judge demanded he hand over his PS3-hack relevant hard drives. His answer? I’m out, bitches. According to a court document filed by Sony in its noble, interminable battle to prevent people from…

Crysis 2 Delivers a Stunning Standout

Ensconced in a suit of modern day armor, Force Recon Marine “Alcatraz” can survive high rise drops, turn invisible and absorb the impact of machine gun fire. But his augmented Nanosuit is most powerful when it stops working. It’s during those moments in Crysis 2 when the player loses control, when the suit reboots and…

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Faces Off Against The Forces Of Chaos

THQ’s third-person shooter Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine would be pretty boring if you were only fighting the Ork forces. Developer Relic Entertainment mixing things up by introducing the forces of Chaos, the original mixer-uppers. Due out in August for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows PC, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is a far cry…

Bizarro Kotaku vs. Bizarro Gizmodo: Should We Buy An iPad 2?

From time to time we like to publish a post from our ceiling-walking neighbors down under. Today Kotaku Australia debates Gizmodo Australia about the question of the century: Should gamers buy an iPad 2? So the iPad 2 hits Australia this Friday, and we’ve already had the price confirmed – the only question that remains…

Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls Casts Its Spell On The PlayStation Network

The original Dungeons & Dragons-flavored first-person dungeon crawler makes its current-generation debut on the PlayStation Network this spring, as XSEED Games brings Japan’s Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls to North America and Europe. Ah, Wizardry, how I love thee. From the 1981 original, which I played all-too-briefly on a school computer, to 1990’s Wizardry VI:…

Wizardry Gallery