You’ve Never Heard Tetris, Pac-Man and Mega Man Sound Like This

Composer and sound designer Jake “Virt” Kaufman follows up his Super Mario Bros. hi-def sound design experiment by giving 8-bit games like Tetris, Pac-Man, Mega Man, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda and Contra the “ultra nextgen AAA” sound design treatment. My favorite maybe be the brief, horrifying sounds of Asteroids. Kaufman trades the thumping…

Everybody Wants To Pass As Cats In Marvel Vs. Capcom 3

The cast of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 get a feline makeover, courtesy of Capcom Unity’s Wave

Minecraft Is Also A Musical Instrument That Can Play Movie Theme Songs

We know that hit game Minecraft could use some long-term goals. You learn to play it, you survive the monsters, you build a palace and then what? Treat it like a musical instrument, perhaps. The January addition of musical blocks to Minecraft encouraged someone to create a block arrangement that could play the theme song…

Microsoft Invalidates Stolen Point Codes, Considers Punishment For Exploiters

An algorithm that allowed the generation of working Microsoft point codes resulted in the unauthorized acquisition of what some claim could be as high as $1.2 million in virtual currency. Microsoft tells Kotaku that they looking into punishing those that took advantage. Microsoft points might not be real money but they are purchased with real…

Movie-Goers Don’t Deserve an Uncharted Movie

There was a time when video game developers seemed to be seeking approval from a wider, more mainstream audience. Games were child’s play, or so non-gamers seemed to think. I believe that’s one of the reasons, maybe even right behind money, that so many developers seemed interested in having their games turned into movies. It…

Want To See What A Hacking Attempt Looks Like?

Contrary to 1995 movie Hackers, breaking into a computer system does not involve colorful cartoon characters. The act can be accurately represented visually, however, as proven in this excellent video created by Ben Reardon of Dataviz Australia. Reardon’s visualization transforms the act of hacking a voice over IP server into a strategic dance. The hacker…

The Absurd Motion-Sensing, Keyboard-Packing, Gamepad

Veho’s Mimi Wifi Keyboard & AirMouse with Game Controller gizmo looks as clunky as it sounds. The device includes a full keyboard with definable hot keys, motion sensing air mouse, left and right mouse buttons, LED indicates for battery status all packed into a gamepad that also has two analog thumbsticks, an eight-way directional pad,…

The Secret World Takes You On A Terrifying Trip Around The Globe

Funcom takes us from New York to Egypt to do battle with everything from demons to dinosaurs in the epic Game Developers Conference trailer for its upcoming modern day supernatural MMO. In The Secret World Earth is Funcom’s playground. Setting a massively multiplayer online game on a modern day version of our own planet gives…

Transformers Dark of the Moon Is A Triple-Changin’ Good Time

There’s even more more than meets the eye in the next Transformers game, High Moon Studios’ take on the Michael Bay explode-a-thon Transformers: Dark of the Moon. This is a movie game from the studio responsible for the great Transformers: War For Cybertron, so maybe silence your movie game prejudices. We got a peek at…

Lightning Strikes In Dissidia Duodecim‘s Downloadable Prologue

Final Fantasy stars battle once more when Dissidia Duodecim hits the PSP on March 22, but first Final Fantasy XIII’s Lightning strikes out on her own in Dissidia Duodecim Prologus, the downloadable prologue that brings Aerith back to life, kinda. Pink-haired powerhouse Lightning makes her Dissidia debut on March 15, when Square Enix releases Prologus…

Dragon Age II In Stores Now

The epic sequel to the 2009 Game of the Year from the makers of Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2 is here. In Dragon Age II, you are one of the few who escaped the destruction of your home. Now, forced to fight for survival in an ever-changing world, you must gather the deadliest…

These May Not Be The 10 Best Video Games Of All Time

We’re never going to know what the 10 best video games of all time are. But we sure can try. Since early 2010, my friend N’Gai Croal and I have been trying in the most semi-serious, pseudo-scientific way possible to deduce the 10 top games ever. Our way is surely the best. On Friday, in…

Xbox Live Labs Exchanges Your Time And Bandwidth For Avatar Goodies

Microsoft wants to enlist your help in testing the Xbox Live network, rewarding volunteers willing to donate up to six hours of Xbox 360 time with crazy mad scientist goodies once the testing’s done. Here’s how to participate. Xbox Live Labs is really a brilliant idea. Microsoft needs to test its network, so why not…

Updating Kills The Joy Of Broken Games

Remember back when broken console games stayed broken? Commenter Don’t forget to bring a towel! does, pining for the pre-update era in today’s Speak-Up on Kotaku. Enough updating. It seems nearly every game I play these days requires lengthy updates every other time I play them. The frequency of being updated is so absurd that…

Don’t Watch This: How Dragon Age 2 Ends

There’s more than just awkward sex in Dragon Age 2. There’s also, you know, a plot. Which ends in one of two forking paths. Even if you don’t have thirty hours plus to spend earning the ending yourself, you could still pick only one of these videos to watch. That’s sort of a game! Give…

iPad 2 “Built For Gaming”

John Gruber of Daring Fireball, reviewing the iPad 2, had a developer friend write a quick testing suite for the tablet’s upgraded graphics: For example, on my original iPad, with 200 on-screen sprites, the framerate dropped to 45 fps. On the iPad 2, with 400 on-screen sprites, the framerate remained at 65 fps. On the…

Get Your Star Wars: The Old Republic Guild Started Right Now

BioWare has launched Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Guild Headquarters, a place where players can get their groups organized well in advance of the massively-multiplayer online game’s launch. Are you and your friends ready to adventure in a galaxy far, far away? While Star Wars: The Old Republic isn’t due out any time soon, BioWare…

Transformers: Dark of the Moon: The Video Game Screen Shots

Okabu, the Secretly Pro-Environment Video Game

Okabu isn’t meant to be an “issues” game. It isn’t meant to teach you that we should care for our environment, that pollution could one day kill us. But it is, and it does. Fortunately it’s also a charming, creative game that hides those lessons behind the oddly anthropomorphic heroes of Finnish artist Mikko Walamies’…

Talk Amongst Yourselves

Come here, one and all, to talk about video games, be they Killzone 3, Killzone 1, Killzone 2, Killzone Liberation or even not at all related to Killzone. Thanks to FiveSpeed for today’s pic. Submit your image to #TAYpics. We’re running low, TAY readers. Now’s your chance to get yours features. (Read this thread for…