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You might already know all about the SPECIAL system in Fallout, but you should give this Fallout 4 short about the strength stat a watch anyway: it’s cute and funny!

Pokémon Go Could Be Amazing (And Maybe A Bit Dangerous)

The words “alternate reality game” were the last thing some hardcore Pokémon fans wanted to hear last night. I understand why. It’s a spin-off. It’s on mobile. You can’t play from the comfort of your own home. And yet! Pokémon Go could be the shot in the arm that the monster-collecting series needs. The key…

Let’s Play Shadowrun: Hong Kong… on a Podcast

On the new episode of my podcast, Shall We Play a Game?, my co-host JJ Sutherland narrates a partial playthrough of Shadowrun: Hong Kong, the new game in a series of turn-based, cyberpunk-and-magic tactical RPGs from Harebrained Schemes. An audio Let’s Play? Of a game without spoken dialogue? It’s an experiment! What’s the point of…

Why Metal Gear Solid V‘s Ending Is So Disappointing

Metal Gear Solid V is a stellar game, with top-notch stealth action and a malleable world that leads to all sorts of memorable moments. Too bad the ending is such a mess. As I explained in my review—which you can read here—the latest Metal Gear Solid is saddled with incomprehensible characters and an unsatisfying, unfinished…

The veteran designer behind 2013’s Takedown is making a new tactical shooter, Epsilon with fellow genre vets. Key PR quote:“Epsilon focuses on pre-planning, tactics, and gadgets over linear cinematic shoot-em up gameplay, and community involvement is a key goal of our studio.” Coming to PC, Steam early access. More here

Metal Gear Solid V Is Way More Fun When You Stop Caring About Your Score

When you finish a mission in The Phantom Pain, the game dishes out a letter grade, based on your performance—S, A, B, C, etc. For the first few hours, I found this paralyzing, as I got anxious over any mistakes. Now, having ceased caring what the game thinks of me, I’m enjoying it a lot…

A Glimpse At League Of Legends’ New System For Reforming Toxic Players

Earlier this year, Riot Games announced a promising-but-still-kinda-vague “report card” system they’d developed to better address toxic in-game behavior by League of Legends players. Now they’ve finally given a sneak peek at how this new type of instant feedback will work. The new reform cards went live on League of Legends’ public beta environment last…

Three Gamers Who Can Do The Near-Impossible

A gamer who has to play his video games with one hand. Another who can win a fighting game with her eyes closed. And one more who can clear lines of Tetris using invisible pieces. Welcome to the first episode of Kotaku Compete: Uncanny Players. The gamers you’ll meet in today’s premiere aren’t letting anything…

Final Fantasy V is coming to PC on September 24, Square Enix says. Looks like it’ll use those awful smudgey graphics from the iOS version, unfortunately. This version will also include the extra dungeon (Sealed Temple) and secret boss (Enuo).

How Until Dawn Messes With Two Of Horror’s Most Overused Tropes

“Blondes make the best victims,” said filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock to CBS in 1977. “They’re like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints.” Blondes are hardly the only character-specific trope in horror, of course. There’s the the black guy who always dies, the mean jock who is murdered horribly, the character who wanders off on…

GTA Online is getting some new public activities—they’re called Freemode Events, and our friends at Kotaku UK say they’re rad. Go read Kotaku UK’s impressionsfor more info.

Miyamoto Confirms That Super Mario Bros. 3 Was A Play

One of my favorite video game theories to emerge over the past few years is that Super Mario Bros. 3, with its hanging blocks and curtains, was actually just a stage performance. Turns out, according to Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, the theory is true If you’re not familiar with the theory, or by some chance…

Japanese Commercial Says, ‘Screw Laundry; Play Destiny!’

Forget about your dirty underwear. Your Hunter needs new guns. Like the Batman: Arkham Knightadvert back in July, this Japanese PlayStation commercial for the next big thing in Destiny outclasses its Western counterparts, at least as far as goofiness goes. Actor Ryo Katsuji is the guy wearing the Guardian get-up and, boy, does he get…

Final Fantasy VII‘s Crew As Cartoon Characters

Artist ZedEdge’s making a series of Final Fantasy VII character redesigns, mostly inspired by Big Hero 6 and other recent animated movies. This means Cloud & co. got some extra charm while they all remained faithful to their original characteristics. Vincent with his quiet look is perfect for example. But here’s Aeris, Cid, Cloud and…

Why Batman‘s Story Isn’t Tragic At All

Bruce Wayne beating random thugs as Batman is probably not what Gotham needs, when corruption and poverty is all over the city, and as one of Gotham’s richest, he could be the one ending it. Dorkly’s recent video also shows that Bruce Wayne’s childhood as an orphan is nothing compared to the life of that…

The Minecraft Server Where You’re Greeted by The Joker

Actually two Jokers and one Harley Quinn, but eh, details. The Joker-themed statues and structures were created for the spawn point on one of the servers in the Arkham Minecraft server network. It was a team effort between three builders, SNIP3RxPC, JazzyZ401 and Plutouthere, and took three days to finish in total. Check out some…

New Pokémon Game Takes Place In The Real World

Today, the Pokémon Company unveiled its latest Pocket Monster experience. It’s called Pokemon Go “The day has finally come when Pokémon appear in the real world,” Pokémon designer Junichi Masuda said of the ambitious project. Here’s the debut trailer. The game is being developed by Niantic, a former Google start up known for it’s augmented…

Online Trolls Are Scamming League of Legends Players

In South Korea, people can report internet defamation to the police. According to Hankook Ilbo, one of the country’s largest newspapers, evil people are using this to their advantage. And apparently, they’re doing it in League of Legends. South Korean police report that there have been over 8,000 online defamation cases filed in 2014, and…

Shovel Knight dev Yacht Club Games has announced the release date for their game’s upcoming expansion: September 17. Plague of Shadows will feature a new character, the Plague Knight, and will be released for all versions of Shovel Knight in a free update. Trailer for it is above, in case you missed it last month.

Sunset. Kyoto, Japan. By Mickael Montandon-Clerc. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!