And the Year’s Best Indie Games Are…

Each year the Independent Games Festival awards recognize what are often the most interesting, most innovative games of the year. This year was no different. Here are your winners: Best Student Game Fract Technical Excellence Amnesia: The Dark Descent Excellence in Design Desktop Dungeons Best Mobile Game Helsing’s Fire Excellence in Visual Art Bit.Trip Runner…

The Return of Demon Tits

I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to type four words in my life. Famously referenced in Dragon Age: Origins’ original ESRB ratings certificate, the demon protuberances were believed absent from its sequel. We were wrong! At 0:41 of this Dragon Age II trailer, we see a pair of mephistophelian boobies, albeit with pasties. As…

Hands On With Resistance 3 Single and Multiplayer

It starts as a breeze. It’s almost lost amidst the clutter of a minutely detailed junk yard, the armed conflict of man versus alien, the spectacle of a floating space ship in the distance. The wind isn’t really noticeable, not at first. But as the fight progresses, as I help a “rag-tag” band of humans…

The Original Pac-Man Sketches

Burger Time Reboot Adds More Enemies from the Major Food Groups

BurgerTime, that lovable WTF acid-trip from the food-genre minifad of the 1980s [Food Fight, Pressure Cooker] is getting a high definition reboot, according to the ESRB. It’ll have more than an fried egg chasing your ass around, too. The game will be released on all three consoles and the PC. It looks like a downloadable…

A Heartfelt British Rap Tribute To A Video Game Western

Independent British musical artist Akira the Don loved Red Dead Redemption so much he wrote a song about it. Wanna hear it? Here goes. White British men rapping / talking over music is an acquired taste, one that I picked up courtesy of English alternative rock band Pop Will Eat Itself back in the 90’s,…

Super Meat Boy’s Wii Version Officially Dead

When last we heard from Super Meat Boy’s plans for the Wii, the game simply couldn’t be squeezed into the size limitations imposed on WiiWare titles. The game’s creators tried to line up a publisher for a retail release, but have now given up, finding none. “We really tried hard to make this happen but…

Homefront Balloons Don’t Fly in San Francisco [Update]

A Homefront promotion for the Game Developers Conference involved releasing hundreds of red balloons in the downtown of one of the most environmentally conscious cities in America. Many floated into its neighboring bay. Bad idea? Yeah, you could say that. [Update] GameStop has released a statement, saying publisher THQ initiated the promotion and used environmentally-friendly…

So, How’d The Nintendo 3DS Do In Its First Week On The Charts?

This past weekend, the Nintendo 3DS officially launched (in Japan), moving more than 350,000 units in just two days on the market. Not bad! Nintendo 3DS games managed to sell pretty well too, with the latest Professor Layton game performing better than anything else for Nintendo’s new portable. But it wasn’t the week’s most popular…

Just Making Sure We All Still Hate Escort Missions

In today’s extremely late edition of Speak-Up on Kotaku, commenter Krakenstein2 rallies us around our shared hate of having to protect someone else in our video games. Screw that. So, does anybody actually like escort missions? I am just asking cause I like to play games just to play and not to protect a character…

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D Will Look This Good In June

Nintendo announced at GDC today that it’s bringing Netflix streaming movies, 3D movie trailers, and Sega Game Gear and Turbografx games to its Nintendo 3DS. It even announced a new Super Mario game for its 3D handheld! So here are some new screen shots of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. That Nintendo…

The Final Night of a Great American Arcade

Caught in a dispute over business licenses, Los Angeles’ Arcade Infinity was forced to close this weekend after 11 years. The arcade was well known for its robust collection, specializing in imported Japanese cabinets and rare finds. Videographer Hubert Cheng composed this loving tribute to one of North America’s finest arcades. Godden, the star of…

Epic Says This Is What Next-Gen Should Look Like

Epic Games isn’t just showing off the latest improvements to the Unreal Engine 3 at GDC 2011. They’re showing us what the next-generation of games should look like. Do the images hold up to the hype? Considering the percentage of games released every year powered by the Unreal Engine 3, Epic might have a point.…

Encounter Endless Adventure In inFamous 2

Imagine a sprawling open-world game like inFamous 2 for the PlayStation 3, filled with countless user-created levels for you to explore. Then watch this trailer of the newly-revealed feature and see how close you got.

Next Wii Zelda Looking Unlikely Before June

Nintendo Wii fans got a huge game last May in the form of Super Mario Galaxy 2, but chances for an imminent release of the next Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, dimmed when Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told Kotaku today that we’d find out more about the game at E3. The…

The Batmobile Is Out, But Who Knows About Robin

“We’re not making a racing game,” one of the creators of this fall’s Batman Arkham City politely told me today when I inquired when I asked him whether the Batmobile would be featured in this fall’s big video game Dark Knight sequel. No Batmobile. No driving. This caped crusader hitches rides on the undercarriages of…

The Near Future Of Video Games, Straight Outta San Francisco

The Kotaku crew is hip-deep in the 2011 Game Developers Conference, bringing you the latest news, newest games, and anything else we can drag kicking and screaming out of one of gaming’s biggest annual events. It’s not over until our boys in the field come home, and even then the coverage will keep on coming.…

How the Collapse of the Soviet Union Led to One Amazing Arcade Game

The collapse of the Soviet Union wasn’t just a generation-defining moment that led to the end of the Cold War and disintegration of one of the largest communist states in the world, it also helped launch one of the great arcade fighting games. Virtua Fighter 2 helped redefine what arcade games could look like when…

How To Dress Your DS For Pokémon Black And White Success

Pokémon fans are a proud lot, so when Black and White launch this Sunday, they’ll want to make sure everyone knows they want to be the very best. That’s where Power A’s line of official Pokémon accessories comes in. Power A dropped its entire line of officially licensed Pokémon Black and White accessories on my…

A PC Fit For Battlefield 3

The rig DICE game developers used to run Battlefield 3’s debut live gameplay demo yesterday, as seen at the game’s showcase event in San Francisco. And as a bonus, their mousepad. Read our impressions of Battlefield 3. Watch the latest trailer.