Welcome to the Best of Kotaku, where I round up all of this week's best content.
This week's best image is a cat licking a Wii U. That's right, I had to show it to you again.
Moving on to our Best Of content this week, we kick things off as usual with a comment from the community.
The Best Comment From The Community
Our favorite comment of this week comes to you from Mark Androvich in response to a gamer who used to be ashamed to be called one:
At the risk of sounding like an old-timer (in my Grandpa Simpson voice), consider yourself lucky that you grew up at a time when games were mainstream and geek is now chic. I'm in my mid-40's, and when I was young games were considered a childish pastime...along with comic books and Saturday morning cartoons. Even though we hung out in arcades, very few people in my age group continued to game after they graduated high school in the 1980's. I went on to college and grad school, but gaming remained a passion of mine like movies, books and music. The generation that never played videogames is dying out, the generation (mine) that was there from the beginning is taking its place, and the generations after us have never grown up without videogames. There's no stigma attached to them, and as with everything in life, as long as you play in moderation, I don't understand why you would be ashamed. Consider yourself lucky—comic books still don't have the mainstream acceptance (in the US) that videogames have, and they've been around far longer.
Someone once asked me if I thought I'd still be gaming in my 80's and 90's, assuming I lived that long. Of course! I will be a gamer for as long as I can hold a controller and see a screen! My grandparents didn't abandon TV, movies, music, books or any of their favorite entertainment as they grew older...why should I?
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The Contemptible Games Journalist: Why So Many People Don't Trust The Gaming Press (And Why They're Sometimes Wrong)
Stephen Totilo talks about the issues in gaming press, what's valid and what's not.More »
Wonderful but Lonely: The Empty Cities of Halo 4, Dishonored and Recent Video Games
Patricia Hernandez ponders the ups and downs of empty cities in video games. More »
Paper Mario: Sticker Star: The Kotaku Review
Jason Schreier finds Paper Mario: Sticker Star to be both delightful and infuriating. More »
A Big, Leaked Update About The Next Game From The Halo-Makers At Bungie. Plus: More Gaming Secrets.
Superannuation reveals secrets of Bungie's next game, and many others. More »
A Horny Superman and Charles Burns' Trippy Riff on Tintin Show Up for Panel Discussion This Week
Evan Narcisse chats with Jason Bergman, Douglas Wolk and Graeme McMillan about a horny Superman from DC Comics and Charles Burns' scenester horror. More »
I Don't Want My OKCupid Dates To Know I Like Video Games
Patricia took her gaming interests off her online dating profile to see if she could weed out the creeps. More »
Why Did I Become A PC Gamer? Because It's the Cheapest Way to Play.
Kate Cox explains just how accessible being a PC gamer really is. More »
Let's Rank The Halo Games, Best to Worst
Luke Plunkett analyzes his favorite to least favorite Halo games. More »
My Wii U Is In the Living Room, But I Can Play Its Games In My Bedroom
Stephen Totilo tests the Wii U's range all over his apartment. More »
The Biggest Change To Grand Theft Auto V May Well Be Musical
Kirk Hamilton is excited about news of an original score in GTAV in the midst of all the newly revealed details. More »
How Has Assassin's Creed III Disappointed Me? Let Me Count The Ways.
Kirk has a few bones to pick with the latest Assassin's Creed game. More »
I Was Ashamed of Being a Gamer. I Don't Feel That Way Anymore.
Samuel Sattin comes out of the gamer closet. More »
#firstWiiUproblems: Not Knowing Which Screen To Look At
Stephen stumbles on an interesting occurrence when using the Wii U. More »
Return To New Vegas: The Most Refreshing Video Game Sex I've Ever Had
Patricia finds gender and sexuality in New Vegas mature, kinky, but sometimes problematic. More »
How To Make Random Encounters Good
Jason lists out the ways random encounter battles in JRPGs could actually work well. More »
Virtual Tourism Has Never Felt More Real
Kate Cox talks about when the real and uncanny cross over, and virtual memories bleed into real life. More »