Rumor: 3DS Stolen From Chinese Factory

A worker at a Chinese manufacturing facility claims to have smuggled out a production model of Nintendo’s latest handheld. As proof, he offers these lovely photos. There are no blurry, rushed shots here; instead, the guy has sat down with the console, switched it on, taken his time and given us a good look at…

This Year, Marcus Fenix Hopes To Cut Back On The Reps

Did any of you make a new year’s resolution? These guys did. Let’s hoping most of them, Gordon Freeman aside, can actually stick to them! You can see the full gallery over on Dorkly, but these are the highlights. While some are reaching at jokes, others – Marcus Fenix in particular – read true enough…

Little Girls Make StarCraft II Sound Like SweetCraft II

You want to know how cute 4 year-old girls are? They can make Starcraft II sound adorable This clip, part of a fan podcast of sorts, may look like the internet’s 1,114,236th home-made video about Starcraft II, but it’s not. Because the interrupting exclamations of a small child make it more heart-warming than the rest.…

Microsoft Researchers Made An Xbox Game

For years, getting a computer to play chess has been a badge of honour for AI programmers. Getting an Xbox Live game to play something 10x more complex, then, seems like something to be proud of. Microsoft has quietly released a first-party game on Xbox Live Arcade called “Path of Go”, a computerised version of…

Hacker Claims To Have The PS3’s Front Door Keys

Famed hacker George “GeoHot” Hotz, who among other things helped crack the iPhone, reckons he’s found what are essentially the keys to the PlayStation 3. And has posted them online for the world to see. While a group claimed last week that they’d done much the same thing, and were in the process of releasing…

All Packed Up With Nowhere to Go

To: Luke From: Owen Re: Did You Keep Your 2010 Resolutions? I Almost did Some highlights from this weekend: Galaga World Record Falls Mass Effect 2’s Cerberus Network Taking Hiatus; More DLC Confirmed 2010: The Year In Gaming Red-Ringed Xbox 360 Faces Celebratory Firing Squad Lian Li PC-V2120 Full Tower Case Review Tactic 3D Sigma…

Activision Threatens 600 UK Jobs Over Loss of Tax Breaks

Activision’s so incensed over the United Kingdom’s rollback of promised tax breaks for video games development that the publisher is considering the withdrawal of its 600-employee office from the country, according to The Telegraph. Though tax relief proposals had support from both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat leadership in Parliament, the plans were scrapped in…

Xbox 360 Toaster Is Part Of Your Complete Morning

The idea behind this casemod may sound ludicrous, but let’s think for a second. When was the last time a burglar went straight for a toaster? Of course, this is a toaster plugged into a TV, so maybe that’s a dead giveaway that this console mod does not in fact lightly brown slices of bread.…

The Week In Games: Puzzling Prospects

The critically anticipated Lost in Shadow for the Wii (pictured), and the cheerful platformer ilomilo on Xbox Live Arcade highlight the first week of major releases in 2011. Tuesday (Jan. 4) Lost in Shadow (Wii) – Kotaku’s runner up for Best New Game of E3, Lost in Shadow is the journey of a boy’s shadow,…

Kotaku’s Top 5 List of Top 10 Lists

Each week throws off several new video game lists ranging from the humorous to the trivial. What’s better? A list of those. Here’s a roundup of the rundowns out there. •Five Video Game Drinking Games That Are Worth a Shot [Joystick Division] As these involve drinking whenever Super Meat Boy dies or John Marston is…

Any Dead Space Gamesave Gives You OG Plasma Cutter in Dead Space 2

Whether or not you’ve completed the original Dead Space, if you have any game save file from it on your hard drive, you’ll get Isaac’s original plasma cutter free for use in Dead Space 2, which arrives Jan. 25. Louis Gascoigne of developer Visceral Games told Joystiq that any upgrades to the weapon in the…

Galaga World Record Falls

Galaga’s tournament-setting world record fell again, reclaimed on New Year’s Day by the previous record holder, Andrew Laidlaw of Washington state. Laidlaw’s 4,525,150 was certified on Friday by Twin Galaxies, the world sanctioning authority for video game high scores. Laidlaw set the mark on the tournament setting, which allows for five lives total on the…

Mass Effect 2’s Cerberus Network Taking Hiatus; More DLC Confirmed

News updates from Mass Effect 2’s Cerberus Network will cease after the service marks its one year anniversary on Jan. 24. Updates will then come only with downloadable content – and one more package is on the way in 2011. Cerberus Network’s daily update has added background to the Mass Effect continuity, providing a short…

The Moneysaver: The First Hangover of 2011 [Updated]

Don’t you worry your pretty striped head, we’re gonna get you back to Tyson and your cozy tiger bed. And then we’re gonna find our best friend Doug, and then we’re gonna give him a best friend hug. But if he’s been murdered by crystal meth tweakers, well then we’re shit out of luck. Good…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Tron-ify Everything

Tron: Legacy is a critical mixed bag at best – unless you’re Ian Bogost’s daughter – but it’s still useful for something: The first ‘Shop Contest challenge of 2011. Drawing from this poor cat and BossLogic’s awesome Street Fighter art, we’re going to transport games to the Game Grid this week. There’s an unintentional yo-dawg.…

Sunday Comics

Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich published Dec. 27 – Read more of Awkward Zombie Nerf NOW!! by Josué Pereira published Dec. 28 – Read more of Nerf NOW!! Penny Arcade by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik published Dec. 27 – Read more of Penny Arcade Manly Guys Doing Manly Things by Kelly Turnbull published Dec.…

The Week In Review: Ringing Out The Old

The winner and losers; the highs and lows; the disappointing failures and the heartwarming successes of 2010, we covered it all as the Earth’s odometer rolled over another year this past week. Fahey supplied a gorgeous, poster-quality roundup of the 2010 timeline to roundup our recap. Other fan favorites included Crecente’s accounting of the past…

BTTF

2010: The Year In Gaming

What would the new year be without a massive graphical detailing of the highs and lows of the year previous? Let’s take a look back at 2010, giant infographic style. This graphic is a labor of love created by myself to mark the passage of one hell of a year in gaming. How much a…

Red-Ringed Xbox 360 Faces Celebratory Firing Squad

You just wrapped up another semester of college. What are you going to do to celebrate? Shoot up a dead Xbox 360 with semi-automatic rifles of course! Ben Strauss sends in these pics of the celebratory firing squad that both wrapped up another year at a local college near Kansas City and bid adieu to…