The First Minute of Microsoft’s New Kinect Game Doesn’t Exactly Instill Confidence in the Kinect’s Tech

One of Microsoft’s big holiday-season Kinect games, Fable: The Journey, came out today. As our reviewer notes, it’s not very good, because Microsoft’s popular Kinect sensor often fails to properly detect the movement of the player trying to control the game. It seems that even the people at the Microsoft-owned development studio behind the game…

Reviewers Love Killing Aliens One Turn At A Time In XCOM: Enemy Unknown

I’ll admit to rooting for XCOM: Enemy Unknown to be a hit ever since I got a speeding ticket coming home from a press preview event for it over the summer. Sure, I deserved it, but I wanted that embarrassment (and money) at least to be worth something. So did XCOM deliver on its promise…

Buying the Total Recall Blu-Ray that goes on sale on Dec. 18 will get you God of War: Ascension‘s E3 demo. Details here.

Making Gorgeous Maps In Halo 4‘s Forge Mode

Via GameSpot, here’s a great ten-minute video showing off some of the cool things you can make in Halo 4‘s version of Forge, the map editor first seen in Halo 3. Enjoy! Exclusive Halo 4 Forge Mode Details [GameSpot]

OK, Persona 4 Golden Looks Friggin’ Tremendous

The graphics! The music! The new social links! The beaches! The skiing! Atlus released this video today to show off the new features in Persona 4 Golden, and holy crap. It looks fantastic. Between this and Paper Mario: Sticker Star, I am going to be staring at small screens all damn fall.

Valve Wants You To Come Test Out Their Games And Hardware

Valve is looking for playtesters to come try out all of their cool new gadgets and games. They want Seattle/Bellevue-based testers for now, but they also might have plans for remote playtesting in the future, according to Valve’s Burton Johnsey, who posted on Steam’s forums to announce the playtesting: We’re looking for folks to come…

Three Upcoming Mobile Zombie Shooters All At Once, All For You

Halloween is right around the corner, and that means its time for a flood of zombie games to iOS and Android devices. Gamevil, Gameloft and Foursaken Media each sent me info on a different zombie game today, so I’ve bunched them together into a shambling zombie game horde. What’s new with the walking dead? Check…

This Is What Your Very Own Volus Biotic God Looks Like In Mass Effect 3‘s New DLC

The new Retaliation multiplayer DLC for Mass Effect 3 is out today. I’ve dabbled with it a bit so far and, sadly, luck is not with me when it comes to unlocking a volus. (I got a vorcha, instead. So close, game, and yet so far…) Other folks, however, have had better luck with their…

Apps Plus Toys: Zapped Battleship and Spellshot

Hasbro’s Zapped line of app-enabled toys and games combine the company’s popular properties with interactive iPad apps, creating a compelling hybrid of the old and the new. The initial entries in the line were products in which the iPad was used to supplement popular board games like Monopoly and The Game of Life. These are…

Four Comics That Mix Things Up This Week

If you’re here in the Panel Discussion programming block, you might be a lapsed comics reader, trying to find a way back to the JLA Satellite. Or you might someone killing time until you pick up your weekly Wednesday pull list. Or maybe you’ve said goodbye to dozens of longboxes to embrace the promise of…

Mobile MMO Arcane Legends Stars Warriors, Sorcerers, Rogues and Puppies

How am I supposed to care about the main characters in Spacetime Studios’ latest mobile and browser MMO when there’s an adorable little puppy following me around? Hopefully they’ll take the cuteness down a touch once Arcane Legends gets out of the cinematic trailer phase. Spacetime Studios has been kicking out legendary MMO jams on…

Green Arrow Is The Latest Addition To Injustice: Gods Among Us

The superheroes that make up the battling members of Injustice: Gods Among Us was today revealed by Entertainment Weekly to grow by one new hero. In the gameplay trailer over at EW, you can see Green Arrow use his arrows and bow to shoot and slap around his opponents. Oliver Queen’s trademark trash-talk is in…

One Creeper, Several Aquamen and, Well, Just About Everybody Shows Up in This DC Comics Cosplay Video

I should know better than to ever be surprised by any cosplay creativity. The people dedicated to dressing up as their favorite fictional characters keep on raising the bar for ingenuity. Still: there are people dressed as MiniMates. MiniMates! Spotted on the Distractotron YouTube Channel, this video parades hundreds of DC Comics characters in front…

I Would Watch An Entire Movie Of The Avenger Pugs

Without their masks, these pugs seem like normal, adorable squishy-faced pups. But with their mighty armor and weapons strapped to their paws, they make up The Avenger Pugs. I’d put my life in their hands. They seem reliable. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Are… Avenger Pugs! [YouTube via BuzzFeed]

No More Crossovers: Five Thoughts on the End of Marvel’s Avengers vs. X-Men

This is the way things work in superhero comics: trauma explodes and its aftermath is only good for shuffling the status quo. Grief gets its 15 minutes, sure, but cataclysmic happenings are really just about getting readers interested in coming back for new chunks of story. That’s not always a bad thing, but it’s annoying…

FarmVille 2 Worked Out Okay, So Zynga’s Working on CityVille 2

Currently the fastest-growing game on Facebook, FarmVille 2 is a bright spot for the financially troubled social gaming masters at Zynga. Its 3D graphics and crafting system have drawn in new players and kept them in the game (that’s me testifying). So it’s no surprise that the newly-revealed CityVille 2 features the same friend-driven gameplay…

Square Enix Defends The Surprisingly High Pricing of Their iOS/Android Games

Over the past few years, Square Enix has become something of a force in mobile gaming. The big Japanese publisher, best known for making console role-playing games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, has also found success making solid games for tablets and phones. Some of them are ports of old classics; others are new,…

Fable: The Journey: The Kotaku Review

Did you ever go to school with a kid that was way too into horses? Like, waaaaaay too into horses? I’m talking about the kind of kid who has horse posters on the wall, a horse lunchbox and a horse backpack. Because Fable: The Journey feels like a game made by and for that kid.…

Guild Wars 2 Adds PvP Features, Plans For a Future Jump Into eSports

If there is one overwhelming theme to gaming in 2012, it seems to be the rise of eSports and competitive PvP. MOBAs attract millions of players and tens or even hundreds of millions of watchers logged into livestreams. Prize pools for competitions grow ever larger, and more and more games are jumping into the fray.…

The Redesigned Games.com Makes It Easier to Play New Games on Any Platform

AOL’s destination for competitive casual gaming features more than 5,000 games to play. Today a sleek new multi-platform redesign for Games.com makes it much easier for players to find and play them. The problem with having several thousand web-based games in one spot is giving users a way to sort through and discover them without…