Lawsuit: Activision Created Modern Warfare “Police State”

Guarded doors, secret interrogations and broken promises are just the latest allegations laid out in the ongoing saga about the break-up between the world’s largest game publisher and the people in charge of creating Modern Warfare 2. Activision created a “police state,” conducted secret “interrogations” of employees and held $54 million dollars hostage as they…

Trial Date Set in Infinity Ward Suit

A California judge today set a trial date of May 23 for the lawsuit involving Activision and Infinity Ward founders Vince Zampella and Jason West. A hearing in Los Angeles today scheduled both the trial and also another hearing for Aug. 5 to determine whether a third lawsuit, filed by employees of Infinity Ward against…

Even Psychopathic Killers Need To Observe Workplace Safety

Here we are, trying to have a nice new bunch of action-packed screens for Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, and Lynch goes and slips in a puddle of blood, causing a potential worker’s comp lawsuit. Good going guys. On the job safety is no laughing matter, no matter what The Onion might say. Just…

Big Ben’s Suspension Gets the Madden Treatment

We won’t be seeing Ben Roethlisberger until at least Week Six of the NFL season. In Madden NFL 11 the embattled quarterback is available from day one. That doesn’t mean EA Sports is going to tout him in the screenshots. A star once held in high regard, before allegations of sexual assault at a Georgia…

GameStop’s One-Hour Red Dead Redemption Sale Falls Flat

Who wants Red Dead Redemption for $23.99? Enough people to crash GameStop’s web page, foiling the company’s attempt to feature the game as this week’s Power Hour deal. GameStop’s weekly Power Hour deals are generally the source of some pretty good video game bargains. Previously featured deals include Halo 3: ODST and God of War…

Madden NFL 11: AFC North and South

The Ideal Length Of A Role Playing Game Is…

…40 hours, Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii told Kotaku today. Why 40? Why not 30 or 50? “It just sounds like the right number,” Horii said through a translator in an interview with Kotaku at Nintendo’s New York office today. “No particular reason.” Horii is the creator of the Dragon Quest role-playing game series, one…

Time Travel Is Easy Once You Get Around Relativity

Going back in time may seem like an impossibility, but so did air travel at one point. According to Mark Thompson, the astronomy guy from BBC’s The One Show, it’s all a matter of side-stepping Einstein’s theory of relativity. As Thompson explains in a special guest article written for Discovery, time travel is already possible.…

Just Imagine Team Deathmatch, In Your Backyard

The man with the Lazer Tag guns had to go to catch a flight. Otherwise I’m sure we would have been zapping each other. Nevertheless, yesterday was my chance to bring up the topic of Battle Tag to someone who works for Ubisoft and ask: Huh? Chris Grandjean, Ubisoft PR man at a New York…

Civilization V Develops Snazzy $100 Edition

PC strategy fans love them some Civilization, but do they love it enough to spend double retail price for the game plus collector swag? For $49.99 come September, you’ll be able to get your hands on the normal retail version of Sid Meier’s Civilization V. What do you get for $99.99? Why, a plethora of…

Bad Aim Doesn’t Bedevil PlayStation Move, Not This Time

The PlayStation Move, like a Wii Remote bolstered by Motion Plus is supposed to tolerate people who stop pointing the controller at the TV. I accidentally completed a successful test of that yesterday. I was trying Ubisoft’s upcoming PlayStation 3 version of Racquet Sports, swinging through some tennis volleys with a company public relations person.…

Star Wars: The Old Republic Testing Begins

If you’ve not signed up for a chance to beta test BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, now would be a good time, as the process of putting the eagerly anticipated MMO through its paces gets underway. The news comes by way of an email and a post on the Star Wars: The Old Republic…

Backyard Adaptations Of Video Game Classics

Growing up meant summers spent outside for me. Long days locked outside with no hope of returning home until the sun fell and my parents called us for dinner. This is a Kotaku Classic, a golden oldie we’re bringing back to the front page in case you missed it. Originally published July 20, 2009. My…

Own a Piece of the Worst Mario Movie Ever Made

I know Super Mario Brothers was also kinda the only Mario movie ever made, but I suspect it can retain its title as the worst one no matter how many future movies based on Nintendo games come down the pipeline. And now you can own a piece of it, if you believe Craigslist! These oddly-shaped…

My Weirdest Kinect Experience So Far

Does this look like a Kinect game to you? An Xbox 360 game that has you doing some body-puppetry of an avatar on your TV? Well, it is the Kinect game I played yesterday. This is a screenshot of Motion Sports, a Ubisoft launch game for the Xbox 360 Kinect that takes a peculiar route.…

Blizzard Scraps Plans To Display Real Names In Forums

Following an overwhelmingly negative response from fans, Blizzard has decided not to implement the planned forum changes that would require players to post using their real names. In a post by Blizzard staffer Nethaera on behalf of Blizzard CEO and president Mike Morhaime, the controversial changes have been reversed. I’d like to take some time…

How To Read Kotaku Filtered, Extra Smooth

I think Kotaku is 1000 percent great. I love all of the articles on the site and all of the diverse topics, but there are some of you who don’t want to read about certain things. Here’s a solution for you that will spare you the need to scroll! We’ve posted about it before, many…

Enslaved Stares Down An October Release Date

Namco Bandai unleashes a slew of gorgeous new screenshots for Ninja Theory’s Enslaved: Odyssey to the West to celebrate the game’s shiny new October release date. I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t been paying as close attention to Enslaved as I should, so these new screens really caught me off guard. These are some really…

Prepare To Be Soaked In Deep Black

505 Games is bringing Russian developer Biart Studio’s underwater third-person shooter to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and while the concept is intriguing, the name could probably use a little work. Unless of course I’m the only person who immediately thought of pornography. The game isn’t about porn, however. It’s a game of action-packed…

NCAA Football 11 Review: A Big Man On Campus

College football is pageantry, tradition, the gleam of a sousaphone, the wink and tight sweater of a Song Girl. It’s also the promises and browbeatings of a recruiting call, and desperate gambles made beneath a sky the color of lead. EA Sports hauls up the gauzy myths and cold realities of the collegiate game with…