World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta Is A Go! Invites Out!

The next big expansion to Blizzard’s massively popular massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft is, officially, in beta and ready to be tested by you. Did you get an invitation for the Cataclysm beta? Better check your Battle.net account. Blizzard says it has begun issuing invites to WoW players from around the world who…

Catalyst DSi Slim Cover Review: Worst Analogy Ever

What is it about CM4’s Catalyst DSi Slim Cover that makes me break out the worst literary comparisons I’ve written since I was into bad goth poetry in high school? The Catalyst DSi Slim Cover is a simple enough thing. You get two pieces of aluminum shaped to fit your Nintendo DSi, covered tightly with…

Don’t Give Up Hope On That BioShock Movie Just Yet

No one can stop Mr. Bubbles from making his big screen debut, not even the underperforming Prince of Persia. Gore Verbinski, the man desperate to bring BioShock to the big screen, is still slaving away at it. Verbinski, the director of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movies and now producer on BioShock’s film adaptation—Juan Carlos…

Science Proves Facial Hair Is Sexy…On Fish

Here at Kotaku, we’re big proponents of facial hair, even if some of our esteemed colleagues aren’t with the program yet. Now science proves that a bushy moustache does indeed make males more attractive to females. Well, female fish at least. Science is all about answering unanswered questions. Why is the sky blue? Why do…

With Video Games Around Them, They Did Push-Ups

Two men walked into a giant circus of video games in June and walked out with a 90-minute movie that shows them, sometimes, doing push-ups in the middle of E3. That would be Robert Pelloni (in black) and Tim Rogers (in green), the latter of whom wrote about his E3 adventures for Kotaku earlier this…

Your Portal 2 Education Continues

Get ready to think harder with portals in Portal 2. Now at your disposal in the first-person puzzler that we can wait to wrap our brains around is the “Thermal Discouragement Beam.” It’s like a laser, but with more syllables. When paired with the Weighted Pivot Cube, Portal 2’s Thermal Discouragement Beam will add something…

Speak-Up On Kotaku: Pokémon Rematches, The New WWII, Kids Reviews, And A Blizzard Love Letter

In this week’s episode of Speak-Up on Kotaku is here, with Chewblaha, Senselocke, and Pat Chan ramble on about how efficient Blizzard customer service is, easier Pokémon rematches, reviews for kids, and post-apocalysm. Don’t like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page. About Speak-Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot…

A One-Hour Quest To Decide The Best Games Of 2010… So Far

We talked about the best games of the first half of 2010 on Kotaku Talk Radio today and took your nominations by phone. What did we pick and why? Download and listen. In this episode of Kotaku Talk Radio, we go month by month, so it’s easy to following along and yell at us about…

Sega ‘Thinking About’ Saturn Games For Downloadable Releases

Sega is bringing back its beloved Dreamcast this fall—or at least two of its more memorable games, in downloadable form—but what of its predecessor, the sometimes spectacular but relatively unsuccessful Sega Saturn? Sega has not forgotten it. In fact, Sega is “thinking about ports of Saturn games” for future releases. It has already ported a…

Final Fantasy XIV PC Gets Two Release Dates

The first steps players take into the world of Eorzea will be wide ones, as Square Enix reveals two September release dates for Final Fantasy XIV on the PC; one for the normal edition, and an earlier one for the lavish collector’s edition. That’s right, Final Fantasy XIV for the PC is coming out on…

Tak Fujii, You Were Robbed

Two weeks ago, something unusual happened in Los Angeles. Something amazing. And today I will agree with video game producer Tak Fujii that the man deserves an award for it. That something was what I called the WTF Video of E3 2010 This is the video proof, in which Fujii steals the show (he’s the…

Angry Birds HD’s Big, Buggy Update Might Make You an Angry Person

If you’re a fan of Angry Birds on the iPhone, it stands to reason that you’d enjoy angrier, higher-definition birds on your iPad. That app just got a pig-popping, 45 level update, but it’s reportedly crashing just like its birds. The big iPad update finally justifies the $5 price tag (as opposed to the $1…

99%,of people’s reaction to this story: “Man, that’s horrible. Oh shit- the iPhone 4 is out?! I gotta get me one of those!”

Did Buying Your Gaming Console Help Fund War Atrocities in the Congo?

Do you own a video game console? Then you might have more to do with the bloody, brutal war in the Congo than you realize. While the availability of blood diamonds, those rare minerals mined in war zones and sold to build armies, has begun to dwindle under international scrutiny, a new set of conflict…

Student Cockpit Concept Puts Wii Balance Board In The Pilot’s Seat

How can the Wii Balance Board make life better for the pilots of international passenger aircraft? Graduate student Nicoline van der Vaart suggests they sit on it and spin. In her graduation project for Industrial Design Engineering, van der Vaart tackles the issue of airline pilot back pain with an innovative and inventive application of…

Who Cheers For War?

Are games our escapist fantasies, or our outlets for dealing with reality? Either way, why is our most common gameplay choice the pursuit of war? I remember watching a long stretch of television footage of the United States dropping bombs on Iraq. It was late at night, so the broadcast was dark green and bright…

The Best Games, The Best Play of The First Half of 2010

We are almost exactly halfway through the year twenty-ten, and lest we forget, there have been quite a few spectacular games to buy and play already. One could already make a substantial list of the best games of the year. So why don’t we, together, live, on the radio. No guest during this week’s podcasts,…

See Seth Green Talk Up Dragon Quest IX

Comedian, voice actor, and television producer Seth Green isn’t just the star of Nintendo’s Dragon Quest IX commercial, he’s also a client, or at least well-coached on the game’s merits, as demonstrated in this video clip. We posted the commercial yesterday, and I have to agree with McWhertor here – it really works. Green is…

Toronto Police Include LARPing Gear In G-20 Weapons Display

Justifying the harsh handling of protesters at the G-20 summit this weekend, Toronto police invited journalists to a viewing of dangerous confiscated weapons, including foam swords, sock-headed arrows, and a suit of scale mail. Did someone call forth a flame bolt? The 2010 G-20 financial summit in Toronto, Canada attracted more than its fair share…

NASA’s VR Headset Looks Like That Thing You Made In 4th Grade

The ’90s may’ve given us Blink 182 and stonewashed denim, but I very much doubt NASA will be reviving 1993’s virtual reality system alongside those other comebacks, seen here modeled on a (presumably) taken-advantage-of intern. According to the NASA page the VR system was found on, it was a prototype which used a head-mounted display,…