Halo: Reach’s Defiant Map Pack Hits This March

Due out this March, the Defiant Map pack for Halo: Reach will include three new maps and 150 more Gamerscore points for $10. The three maps, all produces of 343 Studios, not Bungie, include one for Firefight and two for competitive play. Here’s the break down. Condemned: Condemned takes place aboard Orbital Station Gamma, a…

Music, Toys And A Whole Book Full Of Chocolate

Went to the in-laws over the weekend and got some Valentine’s chocolate from my Mother-in-law. Apologies for all the people chattering away in Japanese! Also ate some clams. Bad clams. Man, there’s nothing worse than bad clams. Darkspore Splices Fresh DNA Into Online MultiplayerSpore is an amazing creative experience diluted by a broad gameplay focus.…

Free-Wheeling Bullet Hell Shooter Gets Strict

Touhou Project is a series of self-published shmups created by the one-man studio Team Shanghai Alice, lead by a fella named “Zun” who designs, develops and creates the games. And it’s got a bunch of new rules. Since the game is dojin, the games were opened to seemingly endless fan interpretations and merchandising with Zun…

Writer Calls His Dragon Ball Movie Reboot Listing “Nonsense”

Movie listing site IMDB has a new page for a Dragon Ball reboot, which is worrying for fans of the anime, manga and video games. Remember what Hollywood did to Dragon Ball the last time? Yeah The IMDB listing has Takashi Yamazaki listed as director and Kazuaki Kiriya listed as writer. According to IMDB, Jon…

Darkspore Splices Fresh DNA Into Online Multiplayer

Spore is an amazing creative experience diluted by a broad gameplay focus. Darkspore has one focus: Building a better killing machine. I took my monster squad to task in story mode and player-versus-player combat and lived to tell the tale. Darkspore takes the popular creature creation tools from Spore and weaponizes them. That’s the simplest…

Nintendo’s Hologram Is A Vision Of The Future

On February 26, the Nintendo 3DS is going on sale in Japan. It’s hitting North America in late March. That might sound like the future. Technically, it is. But it’s hardly the future. Nintendo held a Nintendo 3DS event in Bristol over the weekend, giving UK gamers a chance to check out the upcoming handheld.…

How The Nintendo DSi Stopped A “Killer”

On February 6, an anonymous message appeared on a Japanese bulletin board, predicting a random attack. Memories of the Akihabara Massacre came flooding back, and the police moved into action. “On February 11, at 9pm sharp, there will be random slashing at Shinjuku Station’s highway bus entrance,” the message read. “You might want to sit…

This PS3 Smashes Up Real Nice

We’re big fans of the classy way French gaming mag Amusement handles its visuals. If you’re not, maybe you should check these out. The spread, called TRONIFIED! in honour of the recent-ish release of Tron Legacy, shows a range of everyday appliances getting, well, Tronified. Which is really just an excuse to show what it…

A Cosplayer Fit For Prime Time

Alodia Gosiengfiao is more than a cosplayer. She’s a super cosplayer, an über cosplayer with added umlaut, if you will. And she’s proving that cosplay is more than putting on costumes. “I see cosplay as a form of art,” she tells Kotaku. “It’s not just dressing-up.” For the 22-year-old, cosplay incorporates craft, sewing, make-up, wig…

Video Games Finally Won A Grammy

The medium of video games won its first ever Grammy tonight. Yeah, it’s for a song that was featured in a game that’s nearly six years old, but we’ll take it where we can get it! While the amazing musical works of games like Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect 2 went entirely unnoticed, composer…

FarmVille’s Creators Are Worth Nearly TEN BILLION DOLLARS

Get this. Zynga, the company behind social games like FarmVille and CityVille, has an estimated worth of between seven and nine BILLION DOLLARS. Or, as they would call it, CashVille.

Some Stuff You May Not Know About The Masters Of PC Gaming

Whether through its dominance of PC retail via Steam or its own classic franchises like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead, Valve is the king of hardcore PC gaming. Here’s some stuff you may not know about your PC’s overlords. In a new interview with Forbes, Valve boss Gabe Newell spills the beans on a number…

Why Hollywood is Fighting A Video Game Lawsuit

The long-running attempts by former college football players to earn a share of EA’s revenues from the NCAA series won’t just affect video games and “amateur” athletics. It could hit music, TV, movies and comic books, too. The legal battle, which was originally between former NCAA players and the games publisher, has grown over the…

PS3 Hacker Tells Sony How He Really Feels

Remember when George Hotz, aka “GeoHot”, appeared on television? He sounded so intelligent and well-composed, and Sony’s lawsuit just seemed unwarranted. Now, Hotz doesn’t nearly sound as well-composed, but rather NSFW and petulant. Well, at least he’s got flow and rhymes. George Hotz, along with the failoverflow team, cracked the PS3 open. He is currently…

Portal Guns Beat Chocolates This Valentine’s Day

Or, they do in this clip for Valve’s upcoming first-person puzzler, anyway.

The Japanese Mafia Wants You To Learn English

Crime saga Yakuza 3 takes players to the belly of the beast, giving them a chance to view the underworld up close and personal. But more than hostesses and mahjong was cut from the game, including an English speaking class. The English conversational industry is, according to Tokyo Vice writer Jake Adelstein, “one of the…

Flight Stick

The Best, Oddest And Video Gamiest Play Things Of Toy Fair 2011

Kotaku spent the weekend at Toy Fair 2011 in New York City to check out the newest toys around. From Transformers to Play-Doh to…Tetris the Card Game, we’ll be showcasing the toys that gamers will love or just find downright weird. This is what we saw… Tetris Tetris The Card Game? And that’s not even…

Mega Man, Duke Nukem, Sonic, Gears of War 3, Twisted Metal And More… The Last Big Toy Fair 2011 Gallery

So. Many. Video. Game. Toys. At. Toy. Fair. 2011. How ’bout we put a bunch of ’em in a gallery, huh? Sound good? This is Mega Man from D-Arts. NECA’s Duke Nukem Forever statue figure, set for April release. NECA’s Claptrap (from Borderlands), scheduled for May. NECA’s Gears of War 3 NECA’s Gears of War…

Mario Checkers, Mario RC Cars, Mario Memory Game??

By the time I saw some Mario and Luigi Halloween costumes at Toy Fair in New York City today, I was done taking pictures of Mario merchandise. There’s a lot of Mario stuff being made by a battalion of the world’s toy-makers. Perhaps you’ve seen some of it. Around many corners at Toy Fair there…