Forget Playing Games. Meet the Man Who Wants to Empower You to Make Games

Rod Humble makes video games. He knows a lot of people who wish they could, and he’s made it his job to help them. “Just about everybody I know who isn’t in the games business or programming business comes to me with a game idea or a website, and the truth of the matter is,…

Talk Amongst Yourselves is where you should go to talk about games. And life. And that really awesome dream you had.

Yes, You Will Have To Use Origin To Play EA Games On The Wii U

Since 2011, all of EA’s games released on PC have been tied to Origin. PC gamers who wanted to play Battlefield 3 or Mass Effect 3 logged in through the orange-hued Steam competitor, and now it seems that Wii U owners will do the same. As IGN reports, recent changes to the EA privacy policy…

This Week’s iPhone Charts: Can Felix Fix the Bad Piggies?

Last Tuesday we brought back our weekly iPhone charts, listing the best paid and free games available for the long phone and its ancestors. This week we get to see how those charting games like to move it, move it. Only one week out and already I’m beginning to see some trends forming. For instance,…

Meet The Most Amazing Etch-A-Sketch Artist I’ve Ever Seen

Yes, Etch-A-Sketch artists are a thing, or at least they should be an official thing. Looking at this list of hand-picked, video game related selections from Jane Labowitch, aka pikajane, what else could you call her? My hands are tired just looking at these things. Etch A Sketch Art [pikajane via Geekologie]

Eleven Japanese Video Game Names You Won’t Believe Are Real

Today marks the release of lovely little adventure game Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, and if you think that’s a silly name, you’re not alone. For decades now, Japanese developers have whipped up a great number of video games with titles that seem more than bizarre to Western audiences. As an unabashed fan of Japan-made…

Transform Grand Theft Auto IV Into Zelda, Mass Effect, TMNT or Halo

The PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV allows for mods. We’ve shown you some of these before. But I’ve never seen a collection so diverse, and so impressive, as that of modder William Peddell. Posting on the GTA4-MODS forum, he’s made a speciality of transforming the game’s star into everyone from Zelda’s Link to…

Macross FB7 is More a 90-Minute Commercial Than a Film

Thanks to the surprise popularity of Macross Frontier, the Macross franchise has been riding a wave of popularity for the last five years. However, as popular as Macross Frontier is, the longest series in the franchise was 1994’s Macross 7 (52 episodes, a movie, and an OVA). So this year, as part of Macross‘ 30th…

Report: iPad Screws Up Kid’s Neck

Apple’s iPads are intuitive. Even kids can easily use them! But should they? Like, all the friggin’ time? According to NdDaily (via MIC), a seven year-old boy in China experienced severe headaches and neck pain after spending too much time playing his iPad. The boy spent long stretches of time playing games on his iPad,…

Sexy? Disgusting? This Silent Hill Statue Is Being Called Both

Next February, figure maker Gecco is releasing this 25cm Silent Hill 2 Bubble Head Nurse figure. It’s priced at ¥9,800 (US$123—though, you can find it cheaper). Online in Japan, bloggers and net users are calling the figure “eroguro” (エログロ), which means both “erotic” and “grotesque”. Fair enough, I guess, as that’s what the Bubble Head…

Hideo Kojima’s Iconic Mecha Will Soon Loom Over Tokyo

As part of the Zone of the Enders HD Edition launch, Konami is rolling out a large Jehuty mecha on the rooftop of a building in Tokyo’s geek district, Akihabara. On Thursday, the Jehuty statue will go up on Shimura Musen Building in Akihabara and should be viewable from the main drag until it’s taken…

Modern Warfare Map Returns, Minus the Offensive Imagery

Earlier this month, one of Modern Warfare 2‘s most popular maps, Favela, disappeared. The reason was that the map contained imagery some players found offensive: holy teachings written in a bathroom. As previously reported, in a single room on the map, two paintings had been hung whose frames contained a decorative representation of a quote…

The First Two Hours of Project X Zone are Wall-to-Wall Insanity

This last week I picked up the Capcom/Namco-Bandai/Sega mega crossover Project X Zone. The game sports characters from Space Channel 5, Resident Evil, and Tales of Vesperia, just to name a few. But nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared me for the utter and complete insanity of this game. Read on to see…

The Racial Politics of a “White Guy” Playing an Asian Bad Guy in Iron Man 3

Ah not a white guy, sighed a Kotaku commenter after seeing Sir Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin in the Iron Man 3 trailer. Kingsley, however, isn’t simply “a white guy”, and this isn’t simply another example of Hollywood whitewashing an Asian character. Quick background: Kingsley was born as Krishna Pandit Bhanji in England to mixed…

Watching Project X Zone In Action Sounds Like a Good Strategy

Project X Zone is a game that combines many of Capcom, Sega, and Namco-Bandai’s most famous franchises into one mega crossover—including series like Street Fighter, Valkyria Chronicles 3, and Tekken, among many others. On the battle map, it’s like most strategy games. On your turn, you move your characters around a grid-based map and attack…

You Can Get a 250GB Xbox 360 For $99 (But There’s a Catch)

Microsoft is expanding its “pay as you go” plans for the Xbox 360 in the United States, adding a 250GB console (and a 250GB console + Kinect) to go alongside the 4GB console that’s been available for a few months now For $99, you can get the 250GB unit (the 250GB + Kinect deal is…

You’ll Never Believe What Game Character This Volcano Erupted

When Kyoto resident Clifford Brown was in Kagoshima on vacation this spring, he noticed something familiar in the swirl of volcanic ash in the sky. He noticed Yoshi. On his Flickr page, Brown recently uploaded the photo and titled it, “Yoshi Volcano”, adding that it depicts a “Yoshi shaped eruption from Sakurajima”. Sakurajima or “Sakura…

The Most Amazing Place to Play Phantasy Star Online 2 in Japan

An internet cafe in Tokyo’s Takadanobaba is rolling out a Phantasy Star Online 2 “Arks Briefing Room”, which available for hourly rent. According to 4Gamer, the space is decked out with four, pricey Emperor 1510 gaming chairs, ALIENWARE Aurora ALX computers, and slick displays. Stunning. In case you missed it, here are Kotaku‘s impressions of…

First Look at the Newest World Ends with You. It’s a Social Game.

The World Ends with You is getting a new game for smartphones. It’s a social game called The World Ends with You: Live Remix, and it features songs from the previous game. According to Famitsu, the game uses touch controls, and it’s described as “an easy way” for players to enjoy The World Ends with…

Gotham Overrun with Leather, Latex, and Itchy Plants

Last week, Kotaku took a look at the men of Batman. This week? This week, it’s the ladies’ turn. Brace yourself for the likes of Batgirl, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and more. Any one familiar with Batman knows that the outfits—both for both male and female characters—aren’t exactly a snap to pull off—literally and figuratively. They…