A Celebration Of Video Game Trees. And Bushes. And Grass.

If you’re a lover of niche video game Tumblrs, here’s a fantastic one: Video Game Foliage. “A blog dedicated to the beautiful and weird approximations of plants found in video games.” I came for the shrubbery, but stayed for the mention of Boku no Natsuyasumi, a Japanese series I’ve got a very soft spot for…

A Headset That Could Help Cure Gamer Rage

Visual designer Samuel Matson has an idea on how to rid the world of gamer rage. It’s not through medication, counselling or discipline. It’s through prevention. He’s designed a headset called Immersion, which not only uses biometrics to track a user’s heart rate, but can then adjust what’s going on in a game accordingly. Based…

Fable Trilogy, a bundle comprising the three HD editions of the series (Fable 2, Fable 3, and the upcoming HD re-release of the original) will be available on Feb. 4 from the Xbox Live Marketplace.That’s the same day that Fable Anniversary launches for Xbox 360.

Once Again, Baseball Sends Up a Pinch-Hitter on the Xbox

For the second straight year we’ve gotten a January surprise with regards to baseball video games. And for the second straight year, it only nominally keeps Xbox as a relevant platform for Major League Baseball fans. The nostalgic pull of the R.B.I. Baseball name notwithstanding, Xbox 360 and, particularly, Xbox One gamers still have little…

The soundtrack for Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver is available now on iTunes. It’s $9.99 and includes 270 tracks. Soundtracks for Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire, Diamond/Pearl, Black/White and Black 2/White 2 will be released later this year, says The Pokémon Company.

The Week in Games: Olli Olli Oxen Free

Not much cooking this week in terms of new releases, outside of Olli Olli on Tuesday for PS Vita. One more week of this and we’ll be done with the usual deep freeze on the release calendar. Jan. 21 Olli Olli (PS Vita) Also in January: Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z (360, PS3, PS…

​XCOM-like Espionage Game Renamed to Invisible, Inc.

Remember Incognita? (I do!) It’s no longer known by that name. Klei Entertainment has renamed it Invisible, Inc., saying that title resonated more with focus groups. “After some focus testing, Invisible, Inc. was better received than the old Incognita,” Klei said on its official forums. “Our focus of the design does not change in that…

EVE Online‘s Two Biggest Factions Had an Enormous Battle Yesterday

What you see in that image is a Doomsday weapon, a superlaser that can only be fired from a Titan, the largest and most expensive ship in EVE Online. More than 50 of them were present yesterday for an enormous, quintessentially EVE capital ship throwdown between the two biggest coalitions in the spacefaring MMO. It’s…

Austria’s Game of Thrones NFL Intro Shows America How to Do a Pre-Game

American football isn’t just popular in America. It’s also an attraction in Austria, whose PULS 4 network concocted this Game of Thrones-style introduction for the two conference championships the NFL plays today. It beats Cleatus, that doofus Fox Sports robot, by a mile, er, several kilometers. PULS 4 also went American-style with its pregame coverage,…

Sunday Comics: Where Everybobble Knows Your Name

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Double XP by M.S. Corley and Josh Crandall. Published Jan. 13. Read more of Double XP Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published Jan. 13. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Mario Horse: The Winners

The plight of Mario Horse, the equine cosplayer who is either sad or embarrassed, or both, was this week’s study for our ‘Shop artists. There are 19 finalists inside, plus overall No. 1 beerhayzeus! Thanks to everyone who entered this week; we’ll have another ‘Shop Contest, celebrating the fourth anniversary of the feature, tomorrow! [A]…

The Speakys, the reader-voted awards of TAY, Kotaku’s official reader-written blog, have named the winners and runners-up for nearly a dozen categories. Every winner now gets lumped into one final vote for overall Speaky Game of the Year. Vote!

Here Are the Faces of EA Sports’ UFC 2014

It’s going to be a long spring and summer for EA Sports, which thanks to cutbacks and cancellations has two titles between now and August, when Madden NFL Whatever Number Comes After 25 releases. That’s a World Cup edition for FIFA, and EA Sports UFC. Neither game has a release date yet. EA Sports UFC…

The trademark for Star Wars 1313 has been abandoned, according to the mark’s filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Though that game was canceled last spring, this is as sure as sign as any that the concept, which wowed everyone at E3 2012, is completely dead.