A Very NSFW Xbox One Christmas

Reader Andy thought he was performing a pretty typical search on his Xbox One. It’s the holiday season, so he wanted to search for some Christmas music. He did not getwhat he was expecting. I’m picturing a very happy family, all gathered around the tree, some Bing Crosby playing softly in the background. Father says…

Auctions of eight Capcom Cup tournament edition fight sticks—awarded only to top finishers of the tournament last week—haveso far raised $18,000 for relief to the Phillippines in its recovery from Typhoon Haiyan. Four more auctions close tomorrow, and will raise at least $6,300 more.

Problem Gaming: When You Take Five iPads Into The Shower

“I hate my job,” George Yao told The New York Times. After moving across the country to a tiny apartment, to a city where he had no friends, he found an outlet in Clash of Clans. Then Yao found himself standing in the shower with five iPads—individually bagged—struggling to preserve his No. 1 ranking in…

Nine Years Later, Latin America’s Leagues Keep MVP Baseball Alive

We are nearing the 10-year anniversary of the licensing deal that killed MVP Baseball, yet still the game lives on—on PC, even—thanks to “MVP Caribe,” a celebration of Latin American baseball that just published its seventh “total conversion” mod. “MVP Caribe,” the work of a team of modders from across Latin America, replaces teams in…

Cops Say Man Broke Baby’s Leg When Diaper Change Interrupted His Game

A Florida man is in jail without bond after authorities say he broke a one-month-old child’s leg when he was interrupted from a video game to change the infant’s diaper. Paul Lejeunesse, 20, of Citrus County Fla. faces a charge of aggravated child abuse and, according to a report filed by child protection authorities, appears…

The Week in Games: PS4 Pinball and Spartan Assault

By God, we are going to wring every last new game out of this year if it’s the last thing we do. And sure enough there are a couple of digital releases worth a look this Christmas week. But the hay is in the barn for 2013, folks. That’s why the Steam Holiday Sale is…

Freedom Wars Makes You Work Off a Million-Year Sentence

I’ve been quite curious about Freedom Wars ever since I completely misjudged what sort of game it would be. So when I discovered that Sony had a playable demo booth set up at this year’s Jump Festa, I had to try it out. For the demo, I was treated to a tutorial video explaining the…

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix released this new trailer at Jump Festa this weekend. It’s in Japanese, though that does mean you get to hear Goofy, Jiminy Cricket and Chip & Dale speaking in Japanese.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: ‘Shop Talk

Let’s go ahead and give credit to reader JustWaitingForAMate for this idea. This week Luke wrote about Nintendo’s first electronic toy—a walkie-talkie from the mid-1960s. “Does this scream Kotaku photoshop contest to anyone else?” wrote JWFAM. Well, it did to me. Some folks already took to the comments of that post with ‘Shops of their…

NBA Live Gets Its First Patch, but Don’t Expect It to Change Much

NBA Live 14 showed a lot of problems at release a month ago—problems EA Sports vowed to fix through title updates. They rolled out the first patch for the game on Friday and, like everything else with this series for the past three years, it’s another promise this will be a good game at some…

Sunday Comics: It’s the Thought That Counts

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best in video game webcomics. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon. Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published Dec. 16. Read more of Penny Arcade Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published Dec. 16. Read more of Awkward Zombie…

Strike Vector Still Looking Cool As Hell

Strike Vector’s beta will be commencing very soon. If you look at this gameplay clip and don’t want to join in, I don’t think we can be friends. You can sign up to take part here

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: The Ballad of Greychalk: The Winners

Two weeks ago The New York Times revealed the National Security Agency was operating from a base within the Goldshire Inn on the Moon Guard server of World of Warcraft. These communiques compromised Greychalk, who is the NSA section chief for Azeroth—and the subject of our latest ‘Shop Contest! Congratulations to CATSOLDIER, the overall No.…

After the Sandy Hook school massacre last year, Antwand Pearman of GamerFitNation organized a “cease fire” day during which gamers avoided first-person shooters and other violent games. Today is the second Cease-Fire, a statement against gun violence and supporting victims of it. The Cease-Fire lasts to midnight. “It’s an opportunity for gamers to show that…

Peggle 2 Marriage Proposal Level Had ‘Nope,’ Just In Case

Rob and Shireen are bigtime Peggle fans. Big enough that Rob went to PopCap and asked if they’d help him pop the question. Hell yes they would! Game studios love this kind of thing. But just in case Rob and Shireen weren’t like, an actual thing, Peggle 2 made sure to leave a way out.…

PS4, Xbox One ‘May Use 3 Times More Power’ Than the Last Generation [Corrected]

I just got my power bill for Nov. 15 to Dec. 15, and while I was ready for a big number after switching from oil to a heat pump, I’m wondering if my PS4 and Xbox One weren’t the real culprits. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, I can expect to pay $150 in…

Breakup Advice, from Mortal Kombat

Poor Sub. I guess Mileena was only looking for Friendship. This image made the rounds this past week—maybe you saw it on Tumblr, or via Cheezburger. It’s by the illustrator and photographer Ryan T. Alexander, whose portfolio you can see here. To contact the author of this post, write to [email protected] or find him on…