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Why Microtransactions Aren’t Going Away Any Time Soon

“I refuse to buy microtransactions in any game. They’re trashy, greedy, and their existence shows nothing but disrespect for players. No matter how they’re implemented they cause me nothing but unbridled hatred toward whatever marketing department decided to infect an otherwise decent game with the hyper-capitalist video game equivalent of herpes.” When I decided to…

King of the endless runners Temple Run has entered the age of virtual reality. Imangi Studios has officially released Temple Run VR, a new chapter in the running from creepy monkeys saga, for play on the Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition. Since I don’t have a means to strap a phone to my face, I…

Sunset Overdrive’s New Expansion Is Short But Sweet

Sunset Overdrive, the silly new shooter from the creators of Ratchet & Clank, got its first story-based expansion today, The Mystery Of The Mooil Rig. The DLC adds a lot of great stuff to the game, and also brings some welcome improvements. Because it’s so great, however, I wish there was more to it. As…

Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku‘s reader-run community: Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-: The TAY Review • Next Stop: New Hyrule • Pre-Cult: GTA San Andreas HD • TAY Explores Comics: The Voynich Hotel • topgearFTW’s Top 5 Anime of 2014 • Zeus, The Almighty’s Top Ten [Games] of 2014 • Psycho-Pass 2: the Ani-TAY Review…

It’s The Fan-Made Animated Shovel Knight Holiday Special

Sometimes you love a game so much you’ve just gotta create a short animated holiday special based on it, and so we have Wind-up Dog Animation‘s short but sweet Shovel Knight Animated Holiday Special. I love that we live in a time when folks with a little spare time on their hands and some love…

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker‘s Sea Chart as a LEGO Microbuild

Here’s proof that you don’t necessarily need thousands of dollars to build something unique with LEGO. Although you might need a lot of blue blocks (and around 1,900 pieces total), the simplicity is perfect in BrucilSprout‘s microbuild of Wind Waker‘s sea chart. Even things like the cave on Outset Island (that tiny hole at the…

The Ten Best Things In World of Warcraft During Christmas

So there’s a mechanical corgi in the cave near Metzen the Reindeer? And it’s been there for years? Too bad it’s not obtainable as an actual pet or toy, but there it is, well-hidden among all the other stolen stuff. Crendor has this and 9 other fun things in WoW‘s holiday event in his latest…

The Scout tries to break through the fourth wall in redditor Karhunperse’s Source Filmmaker photoshop, aptly named “4th Wall.” It might also be a reference to the thematically similar Saxxy Award-winning short, Animation vs. Animator, mentioned by Karhunperse in the post’s comments. Full pic below. 4th Wall [r/sfm] Dayshot is an image-based feature that runs…

Team Fortress 2 Gets Grappling Hooks For Christmas

Team Fortress 2‘s End of the Line update—while paired with a really fun film—was anemic, to say the least. After so much hype ended in such a trainwreck, many feared Valve might’ve been signaling its intention to put Team Fortress 2 out to pasture, or at least ease off on making new stuff for it.…

Borderlands Jacket Lets You Cosplay In Secret

One of my favourite designers on the planet, Machine56, has another piece of Borderlands-inspired gear up for sale on his store. It’s pretty great. Like I said last time, I don’t even like Borderlands that much, but would still wear this any day of the week. Well, provided I lived somewhere cooler. While it looks…

Legend of Korra Creators: Ending Was What You Thought, Deal With It

The Legend of Korra drew to a close last week with a series finale chock-full of drama, suspense, sacrifice, and last-ditch heroics. And then, when the dust had settled, something truly wonderful happened. Hey! Spoilers for the end of The Legend of Korra follow. Of all the things that happened during the final half-hour of…

The Games Of The Year, As Decided By Cold Hard Numbers

Now that the end of the year is here, everyone is starting to declare their “game of the year”—and Metacritic has now thrown its hat into the ring. Or, more accurately, ‘everyone’s’ collective hat. Metacritic pools the scores of many different gaming publications, after all. And according to those pooled scores, the top game of…

Halo 5‘s Aiming Has Changed, And Not Everyone Likes It

If you’re a longtime Halo fan, you know that a good amount of the weapons in your arsenal would only fire from the hip. That is, compared to most popular first-person shooters, they had no scope system. But in Halo 5, developers 343 are implementing something they call smart-link—which is essentially an aiming-down-the-sights scoping feature—and…

Guy Turns Grand Theft Auto Into Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater

It’s been a while since I was really into a skateboard game, but I have to say, the idea of Grand Theft Auto‘s massive world as the mother of all skateboard parks hits me right into the Tony-Hawk-shaped portion of my nostalgia. JulioNIB is doing that which not even Rockstar dared attempt: teaching grouchy old…

Playing Basketball With a Portal Gun Would Be Awesome

Two scientists get their hands on an Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Do they try to unlock its secrets? Eventually, maybe. But, first, there’s an epic game of hoops to be had. The best parts, for me, in Corridor Digital’s ‘Portal meets b-ball’ short are the hilarious faces the two lab coat-wearing experimenters make while…

Now This Is How You Banana Snipe Someone In Mario Kart

Plenty of people claim to be expert banana snipers in Mario Kart 8. Few can actually show for it. Imagine my surprise, then, when I saw someone boasting online about “banana sniping like a boss,” and they actually were. The pro banana sniper in question is Reddit user martinaee, who posted a flex-worthy video on…

Dark Souls On PC Just Got Worse

Dark Souls publisher Bandai Namco has just issued an official takedown notice to Dropbox to remove DSFix, the bunch of tweaks and fixes and bespoke config files that made Dark Souls actually playable on PC. While it’s entirely possible that there has just been a miscommunication somewhere, Durante — the guy behind the patch —…

YouTube’s Big Subscriber Problem, Broken Down

If you use YouTube much, or if you’re someone that makes videos, then you’re already familiar with one of the fundamental ways YouTube is broken: it doesn’t always show people the latest uploads, even if they’re subscribed to someone. It’s a system that’s crappy for both viewers and content creators. Fans don’t get to be…

I Wish This Was BioShock Infinite‘s Story

In case you forgot, Valve’s Source Filmmaker is an extremely powerful tool for turning games into movies. Sometimes we get things like the fantastic Team Fortress 2 End of the Line short. Other times we get sheer, unbridled madness. These videos starring BioShock‘s Booker DeWitt are the latter. This series from Grubbo uses character models…

The New Dragon Ball Z Game Doesn’t Look So Hot

Dragon Ball Xenoverse comes out in a couple of months, and based on the latest trailer from Jump Festa, well…it doesn’t look so great. And you know what? Being the trash fan that I am, I still want to play it. Such are the woes of fandom. But seriously though. Maybe this trailer is just…