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My Five Favorite Kotaku Stories From Last Week

What a week. Good stories. See below. Nintendo Explains Microtransactions In The Most Nintendo Way Possible – Am I allowed to start with one of mine? Yes? Not a complex post, but I’m always delighted when we can do something interesting about a game people weren’t talking about. In this case, a little 3DS crane…

The stat-obsessive strategy-RPG Disgaea is coming to PC this February, publisher NIS America announced today. It’s rad to see all these JRPGs finally make their way to computers.

Fallout 4’s Nod To Salem Lives Up To The Terrifying Legend 

Fallout 4 is set in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston is pretty close to Salem, the town famous for the wrongful execution of women who were suspected of being witches. Naturally, Bethesda had to include Salem in some way in Fallout 4—and they did! I don’t remember how I heard about the Salem Witchcraft Museum location in…

Where Jenga Came From

“Jenga.” Depending on where you’ve played it, the very word conjures up memories of family holiday gatherings or boozy dorm room parties. But, if Hasbro had its way, the world-famous tower game would have a different name. This past Sunday, the woman who created Jenga spoke at the Practice game design conference at New York…

Reporting Error Leads To Speculation That Terrorists Used PS4s To Plan Paris Attacks

Last Friday, Islamic State terrorists attacked several locations in Paris, France, killing more than 120 people and injuring hundreds more. Over the weekend, as more information emerged, reporters and analysts began to speculate that the terrorists used an unlikely tool for coordination: the PlayStation 4. As it turns out, that was all based on a…

The Best New Comic of the Month Is a Bloody Bible Story

“And how come you ain’t dead?” “‘Cause God’s a fucking asshole, that’s why.” Sunday school, this is not. Over the last decade or so, comics writer Jason Aaron has shown a startling proficiency in a number of genres and paradigms. He’s done fantasy-inflected, big-deal superheroics on Thor for Marvel and put out his own deep-fried…

There’s more Pillars of Eternity coming, with The White March – Part 2 scheduled for January. Besides new quests and abilities, there’s also a higher level cap and something Obsidian is calling “story time” mode, which lets “players experience the incredible narrative of Pillars of Eternity at a faster pace.” Contact the author at [email protected]

That Time Star Wars Became An Awful Fighting Game

With only weeks to go until the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, everyone has Star Wars fever. Over the years, the universe of Star Wars has spawned countless video games. Some, like Masters of the Teräs Käsi, were pretty bad. Star Wars has been the basis of first-person shooters, third-person shooters, action games,…

It’s A Pretty Great Snoopy Game, Charlie Brown

Snoopy’s imagination adventures may have ruined the Peanuts comic strip, but they’re the perfect fodder for a solid movie tie-in platformer. Thought it shares the movie’s 3D look, The Peanuts Movie: Snoopy’s Grand Adventure doesn’t have much to do with Charlie Brown and friends’ big-screen debut. The kids are playing hide and seek, and Snoopy…

You Finally Got Me Amiibo, But Your Animal Crossing Board Game Is A Bore

Up until last Friday I possessed a grand total of two Amiibo figures. Now I own nine, and I’m eagerly awaiting the release of more. It’s too bad the game they’re attached to is a snooze-festival. How much did I not care about Amiibo figures prior to this past weekend? So much so that I…

Nice Fallout 4 concept art you’ve go- wait a second, that’s not concept art. It’s an amazing minifig-scale LEGO build of a Red Rocket fuel station, by Markus Rollbühler To contact the author of this post, write to: [email protected]

Players Get Some Nice Rewards For World of Warcraft’s 11th Anniversary

Surprise, surprise. Unlike last year’s 10th anniversary, we won’t get nostalgia raids or battlegrounds, but that doesn’t mean World of Warcraft players have to go through this year’s anniversary empty handed. While last year was an exception, anniversary gifts are usually small and only give you an achievement and some fun-looking pet or toy. This…

Explore Peach’s Castle in Minecraft

The castle hub from Mario 64 got a rather faithful recreation in the form of a Minecraft map. There are a couple neat touches to this build. For example, the paintings are all there in-game, regardless of the resource pack you use, because the builders—redditor SlipNSchlong and a “buddy”—imported them as maps (the in-game ones…

Think Sailor Moon, But with Shirtless Dudes

Well, this is a thing, it seems. As IT Media points out, Italian musician Paolo Tuci has released a new Sailor Moon-themed song called “Sailor Moon e il Cristallo Del Cuore.” You can see the video below. The track is available on iTunes, and it looks like there’s even a physical CD release. Previous Tuci…

Philip K. Dick: The Video Game

We’ve all seen movies, read books and played games inspired by the works of sci-fi author Philip K. Dick. Californium is different. It’s not a game about his worlds. It’s a game about Dick himself. While unable to actually use his name, Californium is a first-person title that mashes together various aspects of Dick’s life…

Card Games Are Invading Your Video Games

Don’t look now, but your favourite video games are being infiltrated by the humble playing card. Card games may be over 1000 years old, but as a way for people to get together and play (and talk shit) across a table, they should have been replaced in recent decades by video games, because video games…

Black Ops 3’s PC Version Fixes Crippling Slowdown Issue

Black Ops 3 launched on PC with some fairly serious issues, chief among them the fact it ran like stuttering garbage on i5 processors. A week later, is it safe to actually try and play the game if you’d previously been having problems? Probably. I can’t vouch for everyone’s PC, and the millions of possible…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Cloud-Based Gaming

Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud beingannounced for Super Smash Bros. got me thinking—what other games could benefit from the addition of stoic little Clouds? That’s right, this week you’re all the evil anti-Bob Ross. There are plenty of games out there. Surely some of the ones you’ve played don’t have Cloud in them but might benefit…

Sensible Soccer, one of the great arcade sports games, is making yet another comeback, this time on the PS4, Xbox One and PC. This latest attempt is called Sociable Soccer

The New Tomb Raider Made Me Think About Going Back to Church

Lara Croft’s latest adventure is surprisingly religious. It’s not just about the good aspects of a communal belief in a higher power. Rise of the Tomb Raider’s main bad guy is a true believer, too. The plot of the new Tomb Raider revolves around Lara’s search for a mythical figure called the Prophet and his…