The Week in Games: The Smurfs? The Smurfs.

Well alright then. The Smurfs 2 it is this week, a movie adaptation doing every single platform like it’s still 2008 or something. Not much else to discuss. Monday • RuneScape 3 (Online) Tuesday • The Smurfs 2 (360, PS3, Wii U, Wii, DS) • The Raven – Legacy of a Master Thief Deluxe Edition…

Avengers Alliance Is About To Get Three Times Cooler

At yesterday’s Marvel Games panel at the San Diego Comic-Con, Playdom revealed exciting plans for its social/mobile hit Avengers Alliance, though none quit as exciting as these three upcoming purchasable heroes — Squirrel Girl, Moon Knight and Doctor Voodoo. Season Two of Avengers Alliance is hitting the Facebook version of the game soon, bringing with…

Wasteland 2 Got Too Big For Its Own Good, and Is Now Delayed

Wasteland 2, like Double Fine’s adventure game, is one of Kickstarter’s greatest video game project successes. And, like Double Fine’s adventure game, it’s also run into a snag because, well, y’all just gave it too darn much money. The game is six weeks behind schedule, says developers inXile entertainment, and the reason is the “increased…

Moneysaver: Steam Summer Sale Encore (3 Hours Remain)

Dealterdämmerung About the Moneysaver The Steam Summer Sale is without a doubt the year’s most well-known series of discounts on games, but at Kotaku we know you want gaming deals every day. Brought to you by the Commerce Team, the Kotaku Moneysaver posts every day at 2:15pm ET*, bringing you the best, most complete, and…

Following a last-minute delay that pushed the launch from June to July, today Nvidia confirmed with Kotaku that the Shield handheld is officially launching on July 31.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Comic-Con Cosplay Extravaganza

As has been the tradition for the past three or so years, when we go to Comic-Con, we come back with cosplay, and then we turn that cosplay into your ‘Shop Contest. So that’s where we’re headed with this week’s challenge, brought to you in part by our friends at io9. Fahey was kinda busy,…

All the Memories of an Unforgettable EVO 2013 Are in This Superb Video

It’s been a week since EVO 2013 , and while you can revisit any of the Grand Finals, or an anthology of the best combos, sometimes it takes a video like this to unify the themes of a chaotic, energetic eSports spectacle that crowns nine champions. Edited and uploaded by evo2kvids yesterday, it’s as good…

Sunday Comics: Barter Economy

Welcome to Kotaku‘s Sunday Comics, your weekly roundup of the best webcomics, chosen by our readership. The images enlarge if you click on the magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner. Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich. Published July 15. Read more of Awkward Zombie Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Published July…

Now That’s Just Cheating, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes

Because depicting the Hulk, Rhino, Kingpin, the Blob and Colossus as regulation LEGO minifigs looks silly, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes uses LEGO Big Figures. Hmph. I suppose it’s one way to do it, but they do lose some of that LEGO charm when they go large. Alas, the Hulk Big Figure made his debut last…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Grand Theft A-Hole: The Winners

GTA V‘s moment of sibling discord provided the grist for us in an otherwise quiet week for timely exploitables. The result was a number of entries I haven’t seen in two years. The 20 finalists you see inside really earned their way into this edition, most especially overall No. 1 Homeless_Zombie! arniejolt billysan BlackRainbowFT Brandon0151…

Here’s the Way the Ball Bounces in NBA Live 14

Revealed a month ago at E3, NBA Live 14 is the series’ next-gen only re-entry into the market, and will rely on something called “BounceTek” to distinguish its gameplay as truer to life. BounceTek got a nice hype reel in Los Angeles, but now we can see a little more clearly what it means in…

After 30 Years, Donkey Kong Gets a Proper Port to the Atari 2600

Drawn to the Atari Age forums this week by Princess Rescue—the port of Super Mario Bros. to the Atari VCS—I stumbled across something even better: Donkey Kong VCS, a proper, great-looking and, most importantly, fun port of Donkey Kong for the 2600, after all these years. The original was none of these. You’re at least…

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Could Use a Tune-Up, Says Producer [Update]

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was, on the whole, considered a better balanced edition than regular-old Marvel vs. Capcom 3. That’s not to say it couldn’t use some tuning, and Capcom’s top fighting game producer says a balancing patch could be coming. This despite rumors that the game no longer has a development team, and…

Dead Rising 3 Would Break the 360, That’s Why It Went to Xbox One

Properly conveying the size and behavior of a shambling horde of mindless, slobbering zombies takes up a lot of memory in video game development. That’s why the crowd at Cleveland Browns games is even more lifeless in Madden. And it’s why Dead Rising 3 decided to sit out the current generation for more power in…

Moneysaver: Steam Sale Day 10 Breakdown [Updated 11:20am Sunday]

Dealgularity. About the Moneysaver The Steam Summer Sale is without a doubt the year’s most well-known series of discounts on games, but at Kotaku we know you want gaming deals every day. Brought to you by the Commerce Team, the Kotaku Moneysaver posts every day at 2:15pm ET*, bringing you the best, most complete, and…

EA Sports’ College Football Series Survives Another Three Years

When word passed the NCAA waspulling its name and logo off EA Sports’ 21-year-old NCAA Football series, many immediately assumed it was the death of the title. Once everyone realized another entity altogether handles the 120+ teams who appear in the game, it became clear this was largely an ass-covering technicality. That was made even…

Well, Thank God, Someone’s Finally Making the Sequel to Chess

Next time you complain about Half-Life 3 taking forever, consider this: the modern game of chess is believed to have originated in 1575, and only now is Chess 2: The Sequel coming out. And it’s an Ouya exclusive. The game is by Ludeme Games and David Sirlin, a designer and game theory author who has…

New DLC Will Bust a Cap in Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2 will increase its level cap by 11 to 72 and cheerful blind amputee T.K. Baha returns in two more DLC extensions this fall that Gearbox Software announced today at PAX Australia. The level cap raise will occur in the “Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 2: Digistruct Peak Challenge.” The challenge refers to a…

This Week in the Business: Staring Into the Uncanny Valley

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “If improved graphics aren’t combined with better animation, all these games are going to dive into the uncanny valley.”—Julien Merceron, worldwide tech director for Square Enix, talking about escaping from the uncanny valley with next-gen games QUOTE | “It takes women…

Finally: The Next Big Halo Tournament. Watch It Live, Right Here.

This weekend, we are finally seeing a strong return of eSports in the competitive Halo scene. Since Major League Gaming ceased operations of Halo events on their pro circuit, we haven’t seen a major tournament for the series in quite some time. Thanks to 343 Industries and the Arena Gaming League, all that changes in…