Is Video Game Difficulty Ass-Backwards?

Kotaku commenter SuicidalEarthworm (don’t do it!) feels that video games are handling difficulty wrong, getting progressively easier instead of more difficult. Add your two cents in today’s Speak-Up on Kotaku. You know what I think, game difficulty is all backwards in practically all games. You start up with barely any weapons…and if a game involves…

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Meet Anarchy Reigns’ Zero And His Two Stabby Friends

Yesterday we got our first look at Anarchy Reigns’ Ice Queen Sasha in action. Now we meet Zero, a dual-wielding swordsman who could give Metal Gear Solid’s Raiden a run for his money. We’re slowly being introduced to the full cast of Anarchy Reigns, the online beat-em up from the makers of Bayonetta and MadWorld.…

Talk Amongst Yourselves

It’s a new month here at Talk Amongst Yourselves. We are still Kotaku’s official forum, where you can talk about video games all you want. We’ve got new artwork for you to riff on. February’s art is Katsushika Hokusai’s 19th-century print The Great Waves of Kanagawa. We present it here with a 16×9 crop so…

Now You Can Skip the Super Bowl

Cancel the subs! Madden NFL 11 predicts that the Pittsburgh Steelers will win their record seventh Vince Lombardi Trophy, defeating the Green Bay Packers 24-20 in Super Bowl XLV, according to the annual EA SPORTS Super Bowl Simulation powered by Madden NFL 11. Six out of the last seven Super Bowl champions have been accurately…

Black Ops’ Newest Four Maps in Action, Plus Zombies!

Call of Duty: Black Ops’ four newest maps add a healthy mix of new places to run and gun, hide and shoot, play and kill. Here’s a first-hand play-through. I spent a few hours yesterday playing around with Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike maps for the Xbox 360 in Training Grounds, pitting myself…

Watch My Pink Hands Get Warm

Sounds like you’ll need a gajillion of these in Denver. What you missed last night The PS3 Slim Now Comes In Silver Here’s How One PC Maker is Dealing With Intel’s Recall Before There Was Dragon Quest, There Were Dirty Games Kotaku, the Gamer’s Guide Games That Make You Want To Go Places

Luigi Mecha Ready To Destroy The Mushroom Kingdom

From the man who brought you the Yoshi mecha and the Mario mecha comes the, wait for it, Luigi mecha. Donald “KodyKoala” Kennedy is a wizard at producing slick and imaginative custom figures. The 29-year-old married father of three got into custom vinyl figures after returning to Texas from living in Hawaii. “I don’t think…

Get your image featured in the next installment of TAY! All you need to do is put a joke or some sort of witty word-ballooned comment on top of this month’s image. Two technical notes: 1) post your submissions at 640-pixel width. 2) the image needs to be in a 16×9 aspect ratio, which for…

Chinese Parents Are Able To Control, Ban Online Gaming

There is a war raging right now in China, and it’s against online addiction. The latest recruits aren’t doctors or bureaucrats, but parents. Starting next month, a new “parental watch project” will go into effect that will require online gaming companies to have a web page and call center hotline for parents to monitor their…

This Spring, Japanese PSPs Getting Healthy Dose Of Retro Arcade Gaming

Famed arcade developer SNK is bringing a slew of retro titles to Japanese PSPs with “SNK Arcade Classics 0”. Check out the list of games here

Don’t Let The Movies Kill Dead Space

Dead Space 2 is a crazy good game, and the survival horror series is building up a sizable fan base. Know what that means? There are rumblings of movie possibilities. The games already got the animated and graphic novel treatment as well as toys. So a big screen version seems to be the logical next…

Games That Make You Want To Go Places

Video games are meant to be an escape from the real world. Yet sometimes, escape be damned, they do such a good job of depicting real locations that the player can’t help but want to pack their bags and go travelling. Whether that be because a game is set in a painstakingly realistic simulation of…

The Loneliest PS2 Game Is Also A Novel

Popular Japanese author Miyuki Miyabe offers her take on one of the PlayStation 2’s video games, Ico. The game’s minimalistic plot might have left holes for you to fill. If you’re not creative enough to do that, let Miyabe! The game was designed by Fumito Ueda, and Miyabe offers her own take on the title.…

Re-Releasing Old PS1 Games Is Harder Than It Sounds

I’ve often wondered just how “classic” games are re-released for a modern home console. Like, the process that actually goes into digging up the old code. So it was awesome today to get some answers on the subject! Sony’s European blog has outlined just what needs to happen to turn a classic PS1 game into…

Hollywood, Where Video Game Movies Go To Die

Of course, it could be argued that Hollywood is simply where video games go to die. Kane and Lynch: Dead Men, the action game about two career criminals, is getting the big screen treatment. One day. Maybe. The movie adaptation was first revealed in 2007 when the script was finished. A year later, Bruce Willis…

Let’s Play A Very Disappointing Round Of Video Game Bingo

Bingo is fun! Least, it is when old ladies play. When it’s based on how predictable blockbuster video game marketing and design has become, though, it’s kind of a bummer. By Christina Coffin, as seen on I Get Your Fail

This Real Final Fantasy Sword Does Some Real Damage

As the main weapon from Final Fantasy VII, the “Buster Sword” is a video gaming icon. In this clip, a man makes a real, giant replica, then has another man run at a piece of wood and smash it to bits. Hats off to the guy for making the sword, as it looks enormous (and…

Imagine A World Without Grand Theft Auto

Seems ridiculous, what with Rockstar’s epic crime series still a benchmark for open-world gameplay, but did you know that the very first GTA came close to never being released? It had nothing to do with politics, or censorship, either. Instead, it was regular old-fashioned development troubles that nearly robbed the world of one of its…

Get Ready For the Hardest Game You’ll Play This Year

Demon’s Souls was a hard, hard game. Its spiritual successor doesn’t sound any easier — even with its brand new title. Previously the game sported the working title “Project Dark”, but according to the latest issue of Japanese game magazine Famitsu, the game is now called “Dark Souls”. Spiritual successor, perhaps, but the world and…