Kotaku Off Topic: Ring A Ding Ding

For relaxing times, make it Kotaku Off Topic time, where we talk about all things, not just video games. But we do talk about video games. I wish I had some booze right now, but a gut full of chili verde burritos and a copy of Adobe Illustrator will have to do. This artwork isn’t…

All Hail the Stanley Cup Champs; Opening Day is, Like, Tomorrow

Jesus, didn’t we just get done with the NHL? I did a little bit of checking and, yep, of the major team simulations, it has the shortest span between crowning its champion and the release of its next video game. Chicago’s Blackhawks (figuring in all but three of these 15 screens that EA Sports released)…

Twitter Comes To Arcades, Courtesy Virtua Fighter

Sega is letting the Virtua Fighter faithful update their friends and foes on their fighting game accomplishments, 140 characters or less at a time, with something new for arcades—Twitter support in Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown. The official Japanese Virtua Fighter web site broke the news today, via Versus City, that players will be able…

Team Fortress 2, by Heavy, Age 5

The mangled syntax and childlike enthusiasm of Team Fortress 2‘s Heavy is very much reminiscent of a five-year-old’s view of the world, the obvious inspiration for this crayon drawing about his friends and teammates. The entire thing is so damned large I have to link it here. Note: Yes, we know a child did not…

The ‘E3’ Of 20 Years Ago Also Had Its Share Of Motion Control

World Cup, fancy hands-free motion-sensing controllers,the Big Three battling for console dominance—as it was at E3 2010, so it was at the annual gaming expo’s predecessor, the Consumer Electronics Show 20 years ago. While the graphics may have improved and the business boomed, 1UP‘s great retroactive look at 1990’s equivalent of E3, the summer CES…

NHL 11 Screenshots

Fight Brews Over Game Crazy’s Remaining Inventory

Game Crazy went belly-up earlier this year, removing one more retail alternative to GameStop from American shopping centers and malls. The sell-off of its remaining stock is on hold while two liquidators battle over who’s bidding the most for it. Movie Gallery, the parent company of Game Crazy, wants a bankruptcy court to go ahead…

Finally, M.I.A. Offers Her Thoughts On Video Game Violence

Musical artist, apparent Sonic the Hedgehog aficionado and one of Time magazine‘s “World’s Most Influential People” M.I.A. answers a long burning question—what does the woman known as M.I.A. think of video game violence? According to an interview in Complex magazine, as relayed by CVG, M.I.A. seems conflicted on the matter, concerned more about her own…

Report: PlayStation 3 May Also Get Hulu

Reports of Hulu’s expansion to consoles appear not to have been greatly exaggerated. The TV and movie service, already pegged to come to the Xbox 360 and iPad, may also be on its way to the PlayStation 3. According to a report from Bloomberg, Hulu, which carries programming from NBC Universal, Fox and ABC, is…

Journey to the Center of a Vagina with Privates

No word if Microsoft has changed positions on Privates, the irreverent safe-sex-themed game still being produced for PC. Zombie Cow Studios has gone ahead with this trailer anyway. “Don’t touch it, you don’t want it growing all up your balls!” No word on its release either, except for the oh-so-clever signoff that it’s coming (pause)…

PC Has Arisen

To: Ash From: Crecente Re: About The Time The Car Got Stuck I once got a four-wheeler stuck in an enormous single-wheel pot hole. It sucked. What doesn’t suck is that my PC, down for the count all of yesterday, woke up just fine this morning when I rebooted it. Weird huh? What you missed:…

Armageddon Cat Will Ruin Your Team Fortress 2 Achievement Dreams

For the Team Fortress 2 player obsessed with joylessly grinding for Steam achievements, the community creates special maps. One of those achievement whoring maps has a special, apocalyptic surprise. A furious feline filled with lasers and bees. Bees? Bees!! Want to experience this furry armageddon yourself? Look for a server running “achievement_all_v4,” part of a…

NCAA Football 11 Demo Impressions: Warming Up the Pre-Game

With six additional teams and a slew of custom visuals, NCAA Football 11 released an uncommonly ambitious demo last week. Football is still a results-driven enterprise, and its video games are rightly held to the same expectation of on-field execution. That’s not to say this game can’t be fundamentally enhanced by pageantry and atmospherics. This…

The Art Of Darksiders Debuts At Comic Con

While Darksiders fans won’t see a sequel until 2012, that doesn’t stop THQ from rolling out the tie-in merchandise, starting with a 288-page art book coming from UDON Entertainment, debuting as a limited hardcover edition at the San Diego Comic-Con. Before he made video games, Darksiders creative director Joe Madureira was a prolific comic book…

Don’t Use The Word ‘Shmup’ Around The Creators Of Ikaruga And Sin & Punishment

Because, believe it or not, the people who designed some of the world’s best scrolling shoot ’em ups, including Ikaruga, Gradius V and Radiant Silvergun, claim to have never seen the abbreviated term “shmup” used to describe their games before. So says Masato Maegawa, president of Treasure and producer on the company’s latest bullet-filled video…

Chimpanzees Take Us Beyond Good And Evil

Annexing territory, sending out scouting groups, beating enemies to death, and eating babies. It may sound like a plot to a particularly violent video game, but it’s really just chimpanzees, giving us some serious insight into human nature. Chimpanzees have been known to kill, but a study performed over the course of ten years on…

The Astral-Projection Car Swapping of DRIVER San Francisco

The big new twist in DRIVER San Francisco is that the entire game takes place inside the comatose hero’s head. What’s that mean? Car swapping! You can, instead of having to worry over the technique required for a bootleg turn or fancy 180, just swap cars on the fly by floating out of the driver’s…

Time Crisis For PlayStation Move Is Actually Three Games In One

Maybe I should have dedicated more of my time at E3 to check out Time Crisis: Razing Storm for the PlayStation 3, the new Move-enabled “light gun” shooter, because it’s more than just one Time Crisis. Also thrown into the PS3 package is the already released Time Crisis 4, included in full on the upcoming…

Steam Saves Us From Sharks With Massive Sale

Steam kicks off its massive “Perils of Summer” sale today, with daily sales, ridiculous discounts on game bundles, and slashed prices in every genre, all aimed at making sure you don’t go to the beach and get eaten by sharks. There have been more than 2,251 unprovoked shark attacks reported worldwide, none of which have…

We Talk Video Games With Jimmy Fallon, Who Knows The Score

It is a cliché to say it is a cliché that a celebrity seemed like a normal person. So let’s just say that, in his office today, Jimmy Fallon seemed just as concerned about the next GoldenEye as you, though maybe more excited about the next Star Fox. Technically it is Video Game Week at…