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More Games Need Daily Challenge Modes

I’ve only scratched the surface of The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth, the latest expansion to Edmund McMillen’s popular roguelike, but I already know what might keep me coming back: the fantastic addition of a daily challenge mode. Lots of games build in reasons to play every day—The Phantom Pain gives out resources for base building,…

My Five Favorite Kotaku Stories From Last Week

This is late late late. No matter, last week boiled down to some gems, to mix-metaphors. Allow me to re-highlight them, and please don’t judge harshly that I picked one of my own. What the New Assassin’s Creed Gets Wrong (and Right), According to a Historian – Chris Suellentrop talks to a historian who shows…

Frame Rate Stutters Make Racing My Least Favorite Part Of The New Need For Speed

There are several aspects of EA and Ghost Games’ dark and rainy Need for Speed reboot that I enjoy immensely. Due to regular gameplay hiccups, racing just doesn’t happen to be one of them. Releasing tomorrow on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and later on for the PC, the new Need for Speed is a…

Treyarch’s announced that modding and map creation tools are officially coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, with a closed alpha test scheduled for next March. There will be an open beta at a later date, however, and they’re going to include things like unranked server browsers to make mod searching easier.

The Curse of Kiseki: How One Of Japan’s Biggest RPGs Barely Made It To America

One day in March of last year, video game writer Andrew Dice wrote out a check for all of his company’s money. He stuck it in the doorframe at his business partner’s apartment in Portland, Oregon, then went back to his own place. (They live in the same complex.) He closed all the windows. Then,…

Bad Things Happen in a New Comic Where a Cop Secretly Practices Witchcraft

Cops work with facts. Evidence comes from things they can see, feel, and hear. But Detective Rowan Black has a foot in the hidden world of the occult, too. In Black Magick #1, the two parts of her life collide, marking the very promising start of a new horror suspense series. It opens with a…

Anime and video game voice actress and singer Miyu Matsuki passed away on October 27 at the age of 38 following an extended battle with pneumonia. The beloved actress leaves behind a massive body of anime and game work, including the Japanese voice of Lailah in Tales of Zestiria.

Our Favorite Games from October

Like September, October saw plenty of game releases, big ones and small ones alike. And while we did have a few disappointments, the games on this list are pretty good. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate In his review, Chris considered Syndicate the best Assassin’s Creed game to come out in years. You can buy the game for…

Loads Of Fallout 4 Gameplay Details Leak Early

Screenshots and videos for the next game in the Fallout series

The New Apple TV Is The Beginning Of A Nifty Little Game Machine

The fourth generation Apple TV went on sale Friday morning, finally giving Apple’s set-top box the ability to play video games. It’s no gaming revolution, but it’s off to a pretty good start. I’ve been an Apple TV owner for a couple years now, but when I say owner I mean it in the strictest…

Pokkén Tournament Evolves Mewtwo Into A Darker, More Powerful Form

Well, power is relative when it can be beaten by Gengar, but the new boss patched into arcade versions of the Pokémon fighting game is definitely a darker version of Mewtwo. (Update: the official name is Shadow Mewtwo.) Appearing in video footage onJapan’s NicoNico service (via NeoGAF), the boss fans have dubbed Dark Mewtwo looks…

LEGO Diorama Is The Perfect Homage To Crash Bandicoot

We won’t see a new Crash Bandicoot from Naughty Dog anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean the series is losing its popularity. LEGO builder Martin Stipkovic paid tribute with this set featuring multiple levels of Crash Bandicoot 2 The color palette is a perfect match: And what’s inside the black box? Crash Team Racing! To…

Oh Hey, It’s A Laser Cutter… Using A Wiimote

The Wiimote’s fantastic design makes it useful for a lot of weird projects, like this one by Martin Raynsford. He’s using the Wiimote’s built-in infrared camera to control the laser in a laser cutter. It’s a funny little hack (via Hackaday), proving that a fishing rod isn’t the weirdest thing that could have a Wiimote…

Mario Takes Over a Sonic Game

The game is Sonic Generations. Or rather, Super Mario Generations, thanks to modder group Daku & Squiz. The mod (via DSOGaming), which has been in the works for a couple years now, basically lets you play through Sonic Generations as Mario, with the supporting characters also getting turned into various Mario ones like Peach, Donkey…

Giant Street Fighter Graffiti Covers Tokyo Building

Graffiti artist CASE (from German crew Maclaim) is famous for covering buildings in enormous, life-like images. This E. Honda he did last week in Japan is no exception. Done near the Tennōzu Isle Station in Shinagawa, Tokyo it’s around twelve stories high, and because of its size/prominence there’s a ton of cool progress shots of…

Oh, It’s N64 Games, Running On A Watch

Is this practical? No. But screw practical. Like we saw with Half-Life, trying to play a video game on a watch is futile. The touchscreen controls used by the emulator are just too damn small. But it’s the drive that we appreciate. If an “old” LG G Watch can run N64 games, then who knows,…

The Batmobile Is Just Wrecking Los Santos

brb, re-installing Grand Theft Auto V We’ve seen Batmobile impersonations in GTA V on the PC before, but this mod is the real deal. Recreating the “tank” design from Arkham City, taltigolt’s clip is the combination of three mods: esrohraw’s Tumbler, LUISDACOS’ texturesand xmod’s nitro boost Nice to see at least one Batmobile working properly…

Blade & Soul Is Going To Kill Me With Adorable

The Summoner class in Blade & Soul, NCsoft’s latest massively multiplayer Korean import, get to choose a feline companion to fight by their side for the rest of their days. There are other classes to play in the current closed beta, but they are not important. It bears noting that the cartoon of me doing…

Batman: Arkham Knight PC Refunds Offered Through 2015. Get One.

Following last week’s re-release of a game still broken for many players, Warner Bros. is now offering full refunds on Steam copies of Batman: Arkham Knight until the end of the year. Everyone who purchased a copy should take advantage. As the legend goes, Warner Bros. released a shoddy port of Batman: Arkham Knight for…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: A Very Scare Bear Halloween: Winners!

I just cannot tell. I think this is the winner oflast week’s bear mask Photoshop contest, but I’ve seen such horrors. Such maddening horrors. The picture above wasn’t technically Ozimov’s main entry, but I feel as if his take on one of the strangest moments from The Shining is a great deal more horrifying that…