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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Was Beaten In Japan By…Yo-Kai Watch

There has been an awakening. Whilethe new Star Wars movie crushes box office records across the US and Europe, let’s take this moment to consider that not every market awards box office victories based on cash money. Japan, for example, tracks movies based on the number of ticket sales, not how much money was made…

And The Most Glitchy Just Cause 3 Item Award Goes To… The Pogo Stick

It’s no surprise that the pogo stick is a hidden item in Just Cause 3, when you can casually bounce on someone’s face with it and ascend to the stars, at the same time. It’s a powerful item (vehicle?) and YouTuber HelixSnake—famous for his silly Skate 3 videos—went on a crazy, glitchy rampage with it.…

Fan Creates Awesome Version Of The Witcher 3‘s Gwent Game

Although the Heart of Stone expansion’s collector’s edition had some nice physical Gwent cards, Waffleguru’sversion of the addictive mini-game is much more ambitious than that. The set is in a fancy treasure chest accompanied by a sturdy cotton playing mat, a rule book, deck boxes and a tiny chest full of counter tokens and gem…

Taking Smite‘s New Mecha Thor For A Test Drive

The ultimate unlock in Smite’s 2016 World Championship-funding Odyssey is finally live, and I get a chance to put Ragnarok Force X Thor through his paces. Religion would be a lot more entertaining if each different god across all the many and varied pantheons had a mecha form. Alas we’re going to have to settle…

Look At This Fallout 4 Figure

ThreeZero, makers of fine, large and expensive adult collectibles, is working on a Fallout 4 action figure. And it’s fantastic. See how he’s wearing power armour? And how it looks good, but not amazing? Well, the power armour can be removed, piece by piece, revealing not just the frame, but a Vault jumpsuit as well.…

Let’s Play Final Fantasy VII On PS4

The PC port of Final Fantasy VII came to PlayStation 4 earlier this month. Maybe we should play it? I’ll be streaming the seventh Final Fantasy for the next few hours, because why not? Watch here, or come over to Twitch if you wanna hang out in the chat UPDATE (12/21/15): Let’s play some more!…

That Time Team Fortress 2 And Borderlands Changed Art Styles Mid-Development

Video games change a lot between announcement and release, but most of that happens under the hood. What the game looks like is usually set in stone. But that’s not true of every video game, and it certainly wasn’t true for Borderlands and Team Fortress 2, games that looked very different by the time they…

After placing second at the Capcom Cup this year, Street Fighter superstar Daigo Umehara is donating his winnings ($60,000) to NYU’s Evo scholarship fund. Nice dude.

Huck Is Like Superman Mashed Together With Forrest Gump

The idea of a Superman-like figure dropping into the ‘real’ world—more like ours, in that it’s not filled with superheroes—is one that’s fascinated genre fiction writers for decades. Now, we’ve got an odd take on it that merges moments from America’s past and present in a quasi-fairy tale. Spoilers follow. Huck is a new series…

Black Ops III‘s First Map Pack Skipping PS3, Xbox 360

Awakening, the first $15 map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops III, will be out for PS4 on February 2 and will come out for Xbox One at a later date. It won’t be coming to PS3 and Xbox 360 at all. It’s got four maps (one in a water park!) and the first…

Shadow of Mordor Producer Fights Rare Form Of Cancer

Earlier this year, Shadow of Mordor executive producer Michael Forgey learned that he has a malignant form of brain cancer. Although the tumor is inoperable, Forgey is doing everything he can to battle against the disease. Forgey’s family and friends at Monolith Productions are raising money to help him cover medical expenses and support his…

Arkham Knight’s Big, Season-Ending DLC Hits Tomorrow

The final story-centric add-on for Batman: Arkham Knight throws multiple archvillains at the Dark Knight when it comes out on December 22. And the Season of Infamy is apparently taking some cues from Arkham Asylum, the first Batman game from dev studio Rocksteady. In a new video detailing the upcoming DLC, members of Rocksteady talk…

Killer Instinct, Deus Ex Headline Xbox’s Games With Gold For January

With December nearly over—is your shopping done?—it’s time for Microsoft and Sony to reveal their lineups for Games With Gold and PlayStation Plus. While we’re still waiting on Sony’s news, here’s what Microsoft’s offering: Remember, Games With Gold is not actually free; it requires you to sign up for an Xbox Live Gold subscription. And…

The Good, New Assassin’s Creed Expansion’s Unexpectedly Bold Depiction Of Prostitution

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s new Jack The Ripper expansion is a compelling if rough-edged remix of the base game that cleverly works in one of history’s most famous killers. It pulls off another trick, too, going to extraordinary lengths to engender empathy for a group of people who don’t get much of it in video games:…

The First Five Minutes Of Bubsy Is All The Bubsy We Need

Retro game publisher Retroism recently dug up an unfortunate remnant from the 90s mascot craze and dropped two of his games on Steam in an attempt to drum up interest in a full-blown Bubsy the Bobcat revival. No thanks, we’re good! Riding a wave of twisted nostalgia, Retroism managed to get Bubsy Two-Fur—a bundle of…

Is… is that Carrot Top in the new Uncharted 4 trailer? This slo-mo CGI promo clip is running in front of some screenings of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Too bad about that gold coin; could’ve used it for some multiplayer upgrades. Contact the author at [email protected]

Bird Lawyer Game Comes To Steam Today

You’ve probably played Phoenix Wright. But have you ever played Phoenix Wright… as a bird? Successfully Kickstarted last year and released today on Steam, Aviary Attorney puts you in the well-groomed talons of Jayjay Falcon, a defense attorney in 19th-century Paris. I’m not a huge fan of the color scheme, but damn, this game looks…

Star Wars N64 Looks Like It Was Found In The Wreckage Of Jakku

Inspired by The Force Awakens, artist Vadu Amka decided to make a Star Wars console themed after the desert wreckage scattered all over the planet Jakku. It took him around 30 hours to make, and involved everything from hammered aluminium to sanding to melting tin sheets onto the thing. You can see more pics of…

My Five Favorite Kotaku Stories From Last Week

As the year winds down, we ran our annual round-up of best surprises and biggest disappointments. Disappointments got the better traffic yet again! Both posts were among my favorites of the week, as were these five: From Japan, With Changes: The Endless Debate Over Video Game ‘Censorship’ – “‘Outside of Japan—and especially right now—you have…

How Stars Wars Mobile Games Are Celebrating The Force Awakens

Battlefront has its Jakku maps, Disney Infinity 3.0 has its movie adventure, but about the platform with more current Star Wars games than any other? Here’s how the mobile side of Star Wars gaming is celebrating the release of Episode VII Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes EA’s collectible character role-playing game was custom-built for quickly…