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79 Words You Might Be Mispronouncing, From ‘GIF’ to ‘Zooey Deschanel’

At first, I was sure I’d know the correct pronunciation for all 79 of the words Mental Floss‘ John Green lays out in this video. But I gotta admit, once he got past the halfway point, he started getting to a few that I regularly mess up. “Triathlon,” and “Etcetera” are among my mispronounced words.…

So…after watching Fennekin, one of the starters in Pokemon X & Y, use the move “Glow Punch” in the latest Pokemon trailer, any bets on whether it is (or evolves into) a fire/fighting type…just like the last few fire starters? I’m sure that for many, the mere idea elicits a reaction much like the end…

A Lovely Intergalactic Puzzle Game From An Unexpected Source

From Firebrand Games, a studio that’s mainly handled ports and licensed games, comes a beautiful puzzle game about exploring a universe in a state of decay, breathing new life into the stars. How odd. I mean, considering Firebrand’s most recent release was the relatively horrible Fast & Furious: Showdown, Solar Flux is not the sort…

John Carmack Talks Xbox One Backlash And Kinect Privacy Concerns

Super-whiz programmer John Carmack thinks some of the “witch hunt” against the Xbox One was unjustified, but he didn’t love all of the Microsoft’s original policies, either. In this clip from his marathon Quakecon keynote, Carmack forecasts the inevitably of cameras like Kinect and seems less excitable than most about machines that are constantly checking…

Jurassic Park For Sega CD: Fair or Fug?

When I was a kid, I didn’t have any set-top consoles. I read strategy guides and magazines, and lived games vicariously through text- and image-based walkthroughs. One of my fondest memories is of obsessively reading a walkthrough of Jurassic Park for the Sega CD. Oh, how I wanted to play that game! But I didn’t…

“Gun Sync” Is An Awesome Way To Shoot Firearms In Call of Duty

I can’t imagine how long it must have taken videogames to sync their guns to the song featured in this Call of Duty video, but wow. Mind, I wasn’t particularly impressed until about the 1:15 mark—at which point it’s just like, woah. Talk about breaking it down. Here’s the song that this is being synched…

This Is What Anarchy In Skyrim Looks Like

Proper role-playing in video games is more than just doing quests and slaying dragons. If you’ve completed everything (or get bored) there’s always time for pranks. Redditor OccupyTamriel knows how to cause some chaos: Total Anarchy in Skyrim [imgur, via reddit] To contact the author of this post, write to: [email protected]

John Carmack on PS4 vs. Xbox One Specs: They’re ‘Very Close’

At the start of his QuakeCon keynote, legendary tech-whiz John Carmack offered some observations about the biggest two contenders in the coming console wars. You can watch the clip from Carmack’s keynote above. While he says he hasn’t done enough benchmarking to be able to do a straight-up comparison between the PS4 and Xbox One,…

Wondering just how many game studios have laid off employees in 2013 so far? A new website called GameJobWatch will help you navigate. Laid-off developers looking for work can also post their resumes in case recruiters come calling.

Hate Plus, the sequel to Christine Love’s terrific visual novelAnalogue: A Hate Story, will be out on August 19. In the meantime, enjoy this kicky trailer.

Let’s Be Real About Walkthroughs

Fact: websites like GameFAQs and game-specific Wikis are some of the biggest, most popular websites on the internet. Fact: a lot of gaming culture prides itself on the pursuit and overcoming of difficult challenges. Hmm. Doesn’t it seem like both of these shouldn’t be true at once? Looking up how to beat a game, after…

Moneysaver: QuakeCon Deals, 20+ Games for $90

The Id Software, your ego, and the super-deal. To celebrate Quakecon, Id and Bethesda titles have been discounted across the Internet. We briefly mentioned a couple sales in today’s Moneysaver, but we’ll get into it here. The highlight is of course the Quakecon Pack on Steam, a huge bundle of more than 20 games including…

In Facebook’s Bleak New Feudalism, Creators Are Mere Serfs

In recent weeks, Facebook has been sending emails imploring me to complete a survey about how they might improve their development platform. I’d been deleting the messages, but after the third request or so, I decided to click through. For those lucky enough to have avoided it, the Facebook Platform is a set of tools…

All The Elder Scrolls Games Ever Made, All In One Box

Today at QuakeCon, Bethesda announced an all-inclusive anthology of Elder Scrolls games and add-ons coming to PC in September. Per Bethesda, the anthology will include: The Elder Scrolls Arena The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Tribunal Bloodmoon The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Knights of the Nine Shivering Isles The Elder Scrolls…

Finally, A Dragonborn Statue For The Dragon Priest Fans

As soon as I acquired the Dragon Priest Morokei Mask is Skyrim, I never — NEVER — took it off. So this new, extremely limited edition Dragonborn statue is the one for me, as long as I can convince my accountant to let me part with $370. Only 250 of these 16 inch, poly-stone beauties…

Watch John Carmack’s QuakeCon Keynote Live, Right Here

QuakeCon 2013 officially begins today in Dallas, TX. You won’t want to miss legendary developer John Carmack kicking things off on stage. His previous appearances have always been educational. Hell, we might even hear some more about Doom 4! His opening speech begins at 4:30 central time, but this Twitch stream will be your home…

Blizzard’s Next Subscription MMO Is No Longer A Subscription MMO

The project code-named Titan is changing direction completely, Blizzard said on today’s Activision earnings call. It used to be a subscription-based massively multiplayer online game. No more. “We’re in the process of selecting a new direction,” Blizzard president Mike Morhaime said on the call. Titan, which has been under development for quite some time now,…

“Video Games Are The Next Big Religion”

How do you feel about the idea of gaming as religion? I wouldn’t blame anyone for feeling skeptical, and yet it’s difficult to disagree with many of the points Andy Robertson makes in this talk that compares gaming and religion. These things have a lot more in common than you’d think! I’m not sure I’m…

Job Interviews at Resident’ Evil’s Umbrella Corporation Would Be Weird

Oh, it’s not called Umberella but anyone who’s been around video games for the last 20 17 years knows where this job interview is happening. Sparsely scattered bullets? Illegal genetic experiments? Parasol, indeed. If you’ve played Resident Evil—or, really, any other survival horror game—the jokes in here will make you laugh. You’ll also think that…

Watch Us Play… Pikmin 3 And Try To Do This Thing Called ‘Teamwork’

Pikmin 3‘s timed missions are tough, even in co-op. Here’s one of the early ones. Kotaku‘s Steve Marinconz and I had just seven minutes to slay a mighty monster. Could we do it? We recorded the video a couple of days ago, if that matters to you. For more impressions of the Wii U’s first…