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Police Blotter: Caught Sleeping With a DS

Crime is a constant feature of video games writing. Somewhere, someone is doing something illicit with them—sometimes comically stupid, sometimes tragic. Games and consoles are currency, objects of dispute, sometimes even weapons themselves. Kotaku‘s Police Blotter is here to round up the latest in games crime. Cops Find Robber in Bed with the Evidence LANESVILLE,…

The Many Ways You Can Pay To Be “Good” At A Game

How badly do you want to win? Enough that you’d pay to strap on a gaming headset that shocks your brain? Maybe that sounds insane, but then again, many of the things people do to gain an edge in multiplayer games are ridiculous. You might be familiar with more ‘tame’ practices. I for instance have…

EA Says They’re Actually Still Going To “Support” Darkspore [UPDATE]

Earlier today we linked to a report from GameTrailers noting that EA would not be supporting their 2011-released RPG Darkspore in the face of persistent errors. The moderator on the forum in question where this alleged announcement took place, however, is not an EA employee, EA said in an email to Kotaku today. Here’s the…

Last Of Us Renders One Of The Loudest YouTube Personalities Speechless

That ending, huh? It was certainly an…interesting one. To the point that it left one of the louder-known YouTube personalities in the gaming community—PewDiePie—speechless. Just for a moment, of course. Spoilers, obviously. Skip to 10:05 for the good parts. Regardless of your feelings towards PewDiePie, he’s well-known and well-liked by many on the Internet, and…

The Next Episode Of The Walking Dead Is Coming Out This Week

Wait, this week? Sweet! Telltale games has confirmed to us that 400 Days, the next episode in their lauded The Walking Dead series, will be launching this week. The game will come to PSN on July 2, PC/Mac on July 3, and Xbox live on July 5. It’ll then be out on PSN in Europe…

Hulk Smashes Everything In This Intense Grand Theft Auto IV Mod

For modder JulioNIB Liberty City was too calm, so he modded Hulk—a really detailed one!—into the game, with all his unique abilities. It’s all about thunderclap, throwing cars and definitely not setting up dates. With Tony Stark already in Liberty City we’ll probably soon have the whole cast of the Avengers in Grand Theft Auto…

The New Xbox Boss Is… Steve Ballmer?

Former Xbox boss and incoming CEO of Zynga Don Mattrick will not be replaced immediately at Microsoft, according to a memo issued to Microsoft employees from company CEO Steve Ballmer. The Microsoft chief says that Mattrick’s top lieutenants—those in charge of games, the hardware, etc.—will be reporting directly to Ballmer himself. Here’s the e-mail: From:…

Don Mattrick Is Now the CEO of Zynga [UPDATE: Mattrick weighs in]

After an earlier report said that he’d be leaving Microsoft, Don Mattrick has just been announced as CEO of Zynga. Here’s Mark Pincus’ letter detailing the changes at the Farmville company: To our Zynga employees, players and shareholders, Today is a big day. I’m excited to announce that Don Mattrick will be joining us as…

Game Designer Is Hometown Hero to Burglarized Game Store

About a week ago, burglars completely wiped out the stock of I Got Game, an independent game store in Ogdensburg, N.Y., a town of about 10,000 on the St. Lawrence River. The store hadn’t even been open a month. Nothing was insured. The owner was in a daze. Then Brenda and John Romero walked in…

He Forged An Orcish Battle Axe From Skyrim. Then, He Cut Stuff With It

Man At Arms’ Tony Swatton is back, this time trying his hand at a weapon from Skyrim. He does his best to make it look like an orc actually made it—which means making the weapon seem as if it wasn’t made by high-power tools. ‘Cause, you know. Orcs don’t have that stuff. They’d make the…

If you’re in or near New York City, you should go check out this Friday’s tournament centered on Killer Queen—the action/strategy multiplayer game that debuted in a spiffy arcade cabinet at New York University’s No Quarter exhibition. New sprites and a new map will be debuting at the event. Remember: you can cheer on a…

Local News Uncovers Adult Content in LittleBigPlanet 2 Two Years Late

In 2011, Sony released LittleBigPlanet 2 for the PlayStation 3. Two years later, Sacremento, California’s News10 uncovers the startling truth behind its misleading “E for Everyone” rating. Give players the tools to create their own game content, and sooner or later there’s going to be a penis, a phenomenon Stephen Totilo’s hard-hitting investigative report from…

How A Game Made People Think Half-Life 3 Would Be Released This Year

Bossa Studios never intended for Surgeon Simulator 2013 to become a part of a Half-Life 3 conspiracy theory—the ARG puzzle found underneath a medic figurine was simply another element in the game that would require the player to use some inference. “Surgeon Simulator is a trove of easter-eggs and references, this is a big part…

The Moneysaver: Rome II, Deus Ex, Anime, Your New Monitor, Blu-rays

The only thing better than saving on a game after it’s out is saving on it before it even releases. Today StackSocial has your hookup with $15 off future release Total War: Rome II, the eagerly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed Rome: Total War Today is also a great day to pick up Deus…

Just Like That, The Last of Us‘ Hidden Phone-Sex Numbers Are No More

Shortly after The Last of Us came out, we discovered something pretty funny. On a bulletin board in Pittsburgh hung a sign with two phone numbers for “Pest Control.” But if you called those numbers in the real world, you got phone-sex hotlines (Since I’ve seen enough people wondering about this in the comments on…

Top Fighting Gamer Arrested For Allegedly Hitting His Ex-Girlfriend

Orlando police arrested competitive gamer Noel Brown Saturday morning, charging him with “domestic violence battery” for allegedly hitting his ex-girlfriend and another competitive gamer after catching them in a hotel room together. Brown, who is ranked worldwide as a top player of the fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom 3, was competing in the Community Effort…

Report: The Man in Charge of Xbox Is Leaving Microsoft

Don Mattrick, who’s been the public face for all things Xbox for the last few years, will be leaving Microsoft to take a top leadership role at Zynga, reports All Things D Most recently, Mattrick’s been visible as the person who introduced the Xbox One, Microsoft’s next-gen successor to the best-selling Xbox 360. But the…

Nikola Tesla Battles The Undead In This Beautiful Platformer-To-Be

The evil Thomas Edison sabotaged Tesla’s latest invention, causing undead to rise all over 1800’s America. How can Tesla fix this? Archetype Games hopes to answer this question in some form with their upcoming platformer-puzzler hybrid, Tesla Breaks the World. Randomly-generated levels, unlockable inventions, simple but intuitive mechanics and truly gorgeous hand-drawn visuals will all…

Nintendo has commented on its unsuccessful effort to take control of the WiiU.com domain from someone who registered it back in 2004. “We are continuing to review our legal options,” the company said in a statement.

Neil Gaiman (and Dave McKean) Return to Sandman This October

Writer Neil Gaiman’s first new Sandman comic in a decade will be out on October 30 from Vertigo/DC and will be shipping—sigh—every other month. The prequel series, Sandman Overture, will be drawn by J.H. Williams (Promethea) with covers by Williams and original Sandman cover maestro Dave McKean. Gaiman’s Sandman series, which chronicles the exploits of…