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Starbound’s First Official Trailer is Four+ Minutes of Pure Magic

Welp, it’s launch day for Starbound. It took almost two years. Since its initial announcement in February 2012, Starbound has been slowly getting bigger and better under the care of developer Chucklefish—honestly, when you’re making a game about exploring procedurally generated universes, and want it to actually look good and play well, feature creep is…

Microsoft Is Researching a Bra. Well, a Smart Bra.

There’s a good reason for that. According to Microsoft, a bra is close to the heart. You know what else it’s close to? The stomach, that’s what. The BBC reports that researchers from Microsoft’s visualisation and interaction research group designed a bra that’s able to detect emotions. This comes after the reveal of Sony’s smart…

​Your Xbox One Responds To ‘Sexbox.’ The PS4? ‘Babe Station.’

To access the voice-control functionality on an Xbox One, you say, “Xbox.” To access it on PlayStation 4, you say, “PlayStation.” But those greetings aren’t very fun or sexy, are they? As Stephen found when he tested it out, the PlayStation 4 actually responds to some pretty casual language. You can say “A.C. Four” or…

Read Only Memories is a cyberpunk adventure game that takes place in a futuristic San Francisco. Players can expect solve juicy mysteries and a variety of puzzles in a game influenced by classics like Snatcher. The game hopes to raise $62,064 on Kickstarter. UPDATE 3/30/15: Full disclosure, I am friendly with the developers making Read…

The Safest Place In Battlefield 4? Inside A Wall.

Oh Battlefield, I love you so much, but you are so wonky. The first expansion has been out for less than a day and someone already got trapped in an invisible mountain. Luckily, the results are pretty entertaining Battlefield 4’s first expansion, China Rising, is out today for Premium users. YouTuber xFactorgaming was playing it,…

Where does the myth that only boys play video games come from? Polygon investigates in a fascinating report about video game history and the way games are marketed.Definitely worth a read!(Image via Polygon)

Why Everyone Still Talks About Dark Souls

Dark Souls, man. It’s always there, at the periphery of so many conversations about great games. This game is like Dark Souls, and that game wishes it were as good as Dark Souls, and hey, have you played Dark Souls? Just about two years ago, I republished the below essay by writer Chris Dahlen about…

Adventure Time is awesome. Mobile hit Ski Safari is awesome. Together, they are The League of Infinite Awesome. Or just Ski Safari: Adventure Time. Either way, there is going to be much mobile awesome soon. I can barely fathom it.

GameCube Turns Into Hookah, Continues To Be Awesome

Some people use GameCubes to, y’know, play games. In fact, most of us probably do. But you can also use GameCubes to smoke/vape, if you wanted to. The picture above comes from Nebula Vaping Lounge. They’ve created a special e-Hookah called the ‘VapeCube.’ Here’s the full picture: They’re not up for sale just yet, but…

​You Could Own Han Solo’s Blaster From The Empire Strikes Back

…if you’ve got a couple hundred grand laying around, that is. Yes, Han Solo’s blaster from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jediis up for auction, with an estimated price of $200,000 to $300,000. The full listing, courtesy Invaluable.com: Estimated Price: $200,000 – $300,000 Description: 379. Harrison Ford “Han Solo” non-firing DL-44 Blaster…

​1980s Luigi Actor Dies At 72

Canadian actor Danny Wells, best known among gamers as the man who played Luigi on the late-80s TV show The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, has died at age 72. According to his obituary in The Montreal Gazette, Wells, whose actual name is Jack Westelman, passed away last Thursday, November 28. In addition to his…

Your Crappy Artwork Solves The Puzzles In This Game

Draw a Stickman: Epic expects you to draw a stickman, when really you can draw pretty much anything, as long as it’s vaguely person shaped. Unless, of course, you want a gelatinous cube running around causing havoc. Drawing doesn’t stop with just your character, all your magical stickman powers such as fire and lightning must…

The Fifty States, Now In Pleasing LEGO Form

The world would be a much better place if everything were made of LEGO. Artist Jeff Friesen is off to a good start with the “50 States of LEGO”, blocky, happy dioramas representing every state in the Union, except Canada. I’m just kidding. Canada gets its own LEGO gallery, where the minifigs are even happier…

Battlefield 4 PS4 Patch Delayed

You’re supposed to be able to stay connected and absorb at least a few bullets during the online frenzy of a Battlefield 4 multiplayer battle. But persistent bugs on the PS4 have made crashes, one-hit kills and general instability rampant problems in EA’s flagship shooter and it looks like the wait for a fix will…

PS4 Voice Recognition Is Surprisingly Casual

Here’s a game you can play on your PS4 without leaving the main menu. 1) Plug a PlayStation Eye Camera into the console or a headset into the controller. 2) Say “PlayStation” 3) And then start naming games you’ve installed. Important! —> Be playful. Try variations. I did that and happily discovered that PS4 games…

To be fair…

The Xbox One ad here, which features a woman who loves playing Dead Rising 3, has been running since November 11. I just saw it in a pre-roll of a GameTrailers video today. First time I ever actually appreciated seeing a pre-roll ad! If people are going to complain about Xbox One marketing that supposedly…

Titanfall, Witcher 3 Highlight This Year’s Spike VGX

The Spike VGAs are now the Spike VGX. This year’s annual award show is happening this Saturday at 6pm Eastern, and although it won’t be televised live, we’ll have the whole three-hour extravaganza streaming here on Kotaku for you. So what should we expect? Other than the awards—and hopefully no teabagging—Spike says they’ve got the…

Even Find Mii Gets a Super Smash Bros. Cameo

Nintendo has shrewdly delivered fan service with its announcements of characters and cameos for Super Smash Bros., from Mega Man to The Villager to Wii Fit Trainer. The latest tease, from creator Masahiro Sakurai, will appeal to fans of StreetPass’ RPG Find Mii. It’s the Dark Lord! How can we be sure that’s him? Well,…

​The Best Next-Gen Game. The Worst Next-Gen Dialogue.

Y’know, the collective chatter amongst Kotaku writers has unofficially dubbed Need for Speed Rivals as the best next-gen game so far. Several among us have raved about the way it draws you in and entices you to keep playing. But, man, the lines coming out of the characters’ mouths in this racing game are terrible.…

Nvidia’s Shield Can Now Stream PC Games At 1080p To Your TV

I’m beginning to wonder why Nvidia included a screen on its Shield gaming handheld. I’ve barely looked at it in over a month, thanks to the Android handheld’s GameStream console mode, and now that it can stream games from my PC to the TV at 1080p? I might never open it again. This week’s update…