Wait’ll Next Year

To: Luke From: Owen Re: The Mountain You might remember that last year, my on-the-record Christmas wish was a conference championship for N.C. State in either football or basketball. Yesterday, State was a win away from playing for just such a thing in football, and then promptly defecated in its bunk. It was a Double…

A Visual Guide To Mafia II: Joe’s Adventures

Review: Mafia II: Joe’s Adventures — The Third Strike For A Repeat Offender

Mafia II returns to Empire Bay with “Joe’s Adventures,” the game’s second paid DLC extension. Can its 24 new missions carry the game forward, or do they dwell on what made Mafia II a good-but-not-great action game? Mafia II: Joe’s Adventures is a flashback to the 10-year period during which Vito Scaletta went to prison…

The Week In Games: Slipped A Mickey

Games enter their post-holiday hibernation with just two big releases: Epic Mickey for the Wii, and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn on the DS. Super Meat Boy also arrives on the PC. Monday (Nov. 29) Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS) – The third entry in the handheld role-playing series, and first on the DS, is set…

Kotaku’s Top 5 List of Top 10 Lists

Each week throws off several new video game lists ranging from the humorous to the trivial. What’s better? A list of those. Here’s a roundup of the rundowns out there. •12 Video Game Characters with Eating Disorders [Ranker] A rather fitting roundup for Thanksgiving and the holiday season looks at game characters with a tendency…

Minecraft’s Latest Megaobject: The Earth

Object building, especially megaobject building, is a side pursuit in Minecraft’s classic creative mode that’s gotten so much attention that folks who haven’t played the game don’t know of its survivalist objectives. The latest doozy: Earth. YouTube user roddds469 built this by using a NASA terrain height map. It’s a smaller-scale, 1,000-by-500 block test before…

Free BBC America Shows Hit PlayStation Network

Episodes of Doctor Who are coming to the PlayStation Network Store; episodes of Top Gear already are there, and two are free. The freebie vids kickoff an arrangement bringing BBC America programming to PSN’s video service. Right now, Top Gear’s Season 1, Episode 1, and Episode 101 (the show’s American debut), are both free in…

Can A Video Game Make You Into An Elite Race Driver?

iRacing is an extremely realistic racing simulator. Its top driver won $10,000, despite never driving over 100 mph in real life. Top Gear put him in an open-wheel racer to see if digital skills translate to real racing prowess. It was lots closer than you might expect. Racing in a Star Mazda, the driver, a…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: GT5 WTF

Tuesday, Luke posted a set of pictures and asked which were from real life, and which were from Gran Turismo 5. This week’s ‘Shop Contest draws on that. Here’s the gist of it: Fake us out, or fail horribly with something really hilarious. Take a GT5 screenshot and ‘Shop in another car – with 1,061…

Sunday Comics

Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Nov. 22 – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Nov. 23 – Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published Nov. 24 – Read more of Penny Arcade Manly Guys Doing Manly Things by Kelly Turnbull published Nov.…

Weekend Talk Amongst Yourselves

Because you’ve had enough fun in dead-end conversations with weird relatives and neighbors you only see once a year, we’re gonna let you talk about games to your heart’s content. p4w4rr10r is the weekend winner of the #taypics derby. There are six chances each week to get your handiwork featured. Just shop up this image…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Flaws Winners

Last week, Kotaku ‘shoppers took red pen in hand to annotate the lesser appealing aspects of games’ looks and suggest airbrushing instructions. I don’t know that we made things any worse, but we did make them funnier. 8thR (1), Ambolee (2), KidFlik (13), Shanzay (14), soren121 (16), SP-Butters (17) and William Henry Harrison (18) all…

Ratings Board Tips Metal Slug X, Front Mission 3 On PSN

ESRB certificates for Metal Slug X and Front Mission 3 indicate both titles will be released as PSOne Classics sometime soon. Both titles got ratings of T-for-Teen, for violence. Examiner, which spied the listings first, notes that Front Mission 3 was re-released on the Japanese and European PlayStation Stores in March 2009 and September of…

Kinect Hacked To Play Super Mario Bros.

This unholy marriage of Microsoft technology and Nintendo software comes from Yankeyan, who probably just gave Shigeru Miyamoto an inspiration for the Wii’s next exergaming title. Yankeyan programmed this with OpenKinect drivers and Nintendo emulation, so that Kinect recognized his motions and virtual button presses onto the emulator. “I could have placed a simulated keypad…

FarmVille Maker Settles Trade Secret Lawsuit With Disney

Zynga, makers of Farm- Frontier- and all things -ville on Facebook, slapped Disney with a lawsuit after it acquired social games competitor Playdom and, Zynga alleges, hired off ex-Zynga workers to learn its “secret sauce.” The matter is now settled. The lawsuit, settled for an undisclosed amount, accused Playdom of poaching Zynga employees and convincing…

The Games For All Of Us

With respect and admiration for, if not apologies to, the late Ernie Harwell, here’s something adapted from his famous Induction Day speech at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Aug. 2, 1981, which itself was adapted from this 1955 essay Sports video games are the very first video game, a glowing ball bouncing back across…

Rampant Cheating Results In Sonic Scoreboard Reset

Hackers and cheaters figured out how to post redonkulous (and bogus) times in Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1; Sega has informed the community that the game’s scoreboards are all being reset. Seriously, cheating at Sonic? This is something the community has been asking for since about three weeks after the game released. It’s not…

Super Street Fighter IV’s Yun And Yang Also Delivering To Consoles?

Capcom’s official Japanese-language blog posted a few screens of new characters Yun and Yang in their Arrange Costumes, where they change from a mere skateboarder and rollerblader into a skateboarder chef and a rollerblader waiter. Additionally, EventHubs got a tip that new achievements for Super Street Fighter IV on the Xbox 360 show Yun and…

Box Scores: BCS Buster

Two missed field goals effectively ended Boise State’s shot at a BCS title game bid. Bodies will hit the floor in college football’s penultimate weekend, but zillions of strivers are still alive – in EA Sports’ NCAA Football, that is. Reader Koda89 dusted off a copy of NCAA Football 2007 and challenged himself to take…

Super Street Fighter IV Yun and Yang