Another Mobile Game About Obama and Romney Hitting People

Hot on the heels of Chair’s Vote!!! comes another game that involves the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates laying the smack down, only in Vellum Interactive’s Political Arena your in-game purchases directly benefit the candidate you choose to play. A recent Esquire poll Political Arena asked people who they thought would win in a fistfight,…

Goodbye, FarmVille 2. It’s Been Fun, But I’ve Had Enough.

This past weekend, I took a trip out of town. I went outdoors, I sat in the sun. I drove through Northern California, past vinyards and polo fields, plots of land with a strip of earth out front for growing tomatoes and corn. I didn’t really have my computer with me. When I got back,…

The NFL’s Replacement Refs Are Horrible, But At Least There’s Always Madden

One of my favorite moments of last night’s football debacle was this tweet by the folks at EA: That’s one of the nice things about virtual football, isn’t it? You don’t have to worry about lockouts or labor strikes. And there are no replacement referees to screw up game-changing calls and ruin the integrity of…

The “Argul’s Tomb” DLC for Darksiders II is available today. It’s 560 MS Points on 360, or $6.99 on PS3 & PC.

Verily, This Hip-Hop Graphic Novel’s Take on Romeo & Juliet Is My New Joint, Yo

I haven’t read Shakespeare since high school. But Prince of Cats makes me want to go back to 10th grade English class and actually pay attention. Was Romeo a grafitti artist when the Bard of Avon first created him? Of course he wasn’t. But that change and the rest of the updating that writer/artist Ronald…

Two Comics That Ignite Your Minds 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…

Sumo Will Weigh on Your Mind In Ways You Won’t Expect

Don’t go in expecting E. Honda or Ganryu-style throwdowns in this new graphic novel about sumo wrestlers. Giant near-naked men do slap each around in Sumo, but the true pain comes from one transplanted quarterback’s broken dreams. Like a string of haiku, Sumo captures moments in time, remarking on the power that comes from their…

Final Fantasy Creator’s Blade Guardian Hits iOS Next Week

Mistwalker’s first mobile game, Party Wave, was certainly not what I expected from the company fronted by the creator of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi. Blade Guardian, a real-time tower defense strategy title due out on October 1, is much more like it. It’s not that I don’t like surfing; I plan on picking up a…

These sure look like the first screenshots of Black Ops II‘s zombies. Go look at the rest over at Charlie Intel.

Man Who Believes That Reptiles Rule The World Wants To Know Why Sega Thinks He’s A ‘Controversial Figure’

Dear David Icke, I see you’re wondering why Sega thinks you’re a controversial figure. You’re holding an event called the Great Gathering of Consciousness in which you will spend nine hours telling an audience how to free themselves from the moon, and you’re wondering why Sega won’t let you use one of their songs from…

Torchlight II‘s Amazing Hidden Tribute To Minecraft

It’s really been a couple of weeks for hidden easter eggs in games. First we’ve got Borderlands 2, which managed to hide something in what feels like every single room, and now there’s Torchlight II The third act of Torchlight II is so big that I have a feeling people are just scratching the surface…

Official Hobbit Games Make the Perilous Journey to Mobile Phones and Web Browsers

As the geek cinema event of the year slowly approaches, Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment teams with Kabam to create a pair of social strategy games loosely tied to Bilbo’s epic journey. I say loosely tied because I don’t recall Bilbo creating and managing his own fantasy kingdom as players will do in The Hobbit: Kingdoms…

The President of the United States Says Our American Hero Can Break The Law To Kill Terrorists. Wanna Play?

This is the new Splinter Cell, subtitled Blacklist. What’s the sale here in the new trailer for the 2013 console and PC game? The ability to play as an American agent who can do whatever the hell he wants. “Completely off the books, no prosecution,” the President promises. Our playable hero, Sam Fisher, is down.…

Slay Along With Season Seven with Dexter’s Disciples

While season seven of Showtime’s critically acclaimed serial killer drama (I prefer serial killer comedies) Dexter doesn’t start until Sunday, the Facebook app that allows fans to play episode-specific trivia is already alive and kicking. Challenging players to answer questions about lines spoken and actions taken during the first episode of season seven, “Are you…?”,…

On The PlayStation 3, You Can Pay $54 For Some Huge Fall Games (But There’s a Catch)

Tired of paying $60 for brand new video games? Would you rather pay $54? You’ll be able to do that on a PlayStation 3 this fall, Sony revealed today, if you’re shopping for NBA 2K13, Dishonored, and Need for Speed: Most Wanted But… Only if you buy them digitally to download to your PS3. And…

This Is What It Looks Like When Steam Is Down [Update]

No, it’s not just you. It’s everyone. Steam is well and truly down. This is what it looks like when millions of players online suddenly drop to none. No matter how much you want to try the XCOM demo, it looks like you’ll just have to wait. We’ve reached out to Valve to find out…

Dead or Alive 5: The Kotaku Review [Update]

The Dead or Alive series has always felt like it was my fighting franchise. From the moment I first button-mashed my way to my first counter in the 1997 Sega Saturn import, I knew that I had found the fighter for me. I was entranced by the flow of battles, the block and counter, the…

The Fall 2012 Games We’re Most Excited About

Magical assassins. Two-dimensional plumbers. Japanese high schools. Those are just some of the nutty things you’ll see in fall 2012’s crop of eclectic video games. We’ve got big-budget blockbuster shooters, PC strategy games, and even a couple of handheld RPGs. Here at Kotaku, we’ve spent a great deal of time playing and digging for info…

Lucky Battle is a Massively Multiplayer Online Fighting Game, Only Without the Fighting

True to its name, no fighting skill is required to rise through the ranks of Nine Waves’ colorful anime fighter Lucky Battle — blind chance, diligent weapon upgrading and a bit of backstabbing are the keys to success here. Ah, me, once again lured by the cuteness of an icon into an addictive little iPhone…

With Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft‘s Age Is Starting To Show

This morning, I got up early and sat down to a freshly-patched World of Warcraft to play a brand-new Pandaren. I still don’t love the WoW art style—I never have, it’s just personal preference really—but even I had to admit that the vivid blue streak in my panda’s pigtails was kind of cute. And if…