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Nintendo’s Wii U Advertising Reaches For The Panic Button

These are so terrible I’d tell you not to watch them, but screw it, if I had to, you have to as well. If time travel is invented anytime soon, giving us the chance to atone for past mistakes, I like to think the first person in line will be the man who signed off…

Screw Maps, Let’s Play An RTS Across An Entire Planet

Because it’s being made by guys who made Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation, you expect a sense of scale from upcoming RTS Planetary Annihilation. And that’s exactly what we’re getting here in this very first look at gameplay from the Kickstarter success story. Who needs levels or maps when you can get an entire planet…

Here’s Skyrim Running On The Oculus Rift VR Headset

Reader Chris has one of the early development releases of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. He has done what the people want, and recorded himself playing Skyrim on the thing. I’m trying to think of a better way to spend a rainy day, and I’m finding it hard. Skyrim on Oculus Rift [YouTube]

World of Tanks Has Been Hacked, Hide Yo’ Wife, Hide Yo’ Passwords

User accounts for World of Tanks, one of the biggest games in the world, have been comprised following what the game’s publisher calls a “security incident”. While stating “no financial information was accessed“, operators Wargaming does say “some password hashes and email addresses may have been affected by the compromise”, and as a result is…

The remixed Fez soundtrack is now out. Get it here. At $5, you’d be crazy not to, especially since it features tracks by the composers behind games like Minecraft, Mirror’s Edge and…Fez.

A Terrific Week In Cosplay Pays Tribute To Games Both Old And New

‘Twas a strange week in cosplay. We’ve got your expected tributes, yeah, like Mass Effect. But I can’t say I’ve ever seen someone from the West dress up as a character from Zangeki no Reginleiv, a Wii RPG that was never released outside of Japan. Also featuring this week is some Watch Dogs cosplay, always…

What Final Fantasy VII Would Look Like If It Was Made In France.

TBT: The Black Tower is an unashamed tribute to the late-1990s, when Final Fantasy games weren’t afraid to toss polygonal characters on static backgrounds and your text backgrounds were a very rich blue Imagine Final Fantasy VII, then – or, on second look, maybe Final Fantasy VIII – made for the PC and developed in…

Someone Now Owns Homeworld. But Who?

Last week, the rights to Homeworld, a beloved old RTS series by Relic, went under the hammer as part of an auction following the closure of former publisher THQ. A winner was found. They now have the opportunity to create new entries in a series that’s lain dormant for a decade. It’s just…we don’t know…

The Circle Pad Pro, the second analog gamepad making Monster Hunter 3 and other titles more accessible on the 3DS, is now shipping in a 3DS XL configuration. But Nintendo has no plans to offer it at retail

NCAA 14 Brings Back the Halftime Show—Yes, They Know NFL 2K5 Had It

Last year, in a visit to Electronic Arts Tiburon, the NCAA Football development staff told me about plans to introduce more lifelike broadcast presentation to the game. It was going to be a tiered thing all along. NCAA 13 got the studio cut-ins, where ESPN’s Rece Davis—in voice only—updated you on scores from around the…

Still Traveling the Road to the Show, Even After Flunking Out of It

Ten years ago I was demoted in my job at the now-dead Rocky Mountain News. The subject is not something I talk about much, but it happened, and I worked with plenty of people who knew the score. The situation wasn’t handled well, by either me or my bosses. Ultimately, it ended my newspaper career.…

Matt Bai of The New York Times has authored a lively, comprehensive deconstruction of the downfall of 38 Studios, makers of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and a planned MMO. The story weaves in Rhode Island’s political and cultural forces in explaining the debacle. It’s a superb Sunday read.

Twin Galaxies is Taking High Scores Again—for a Fee

Twin Galaxies, the arbiter of video game records for more than three decades, and the authority Guinness World Records uses to certify video game high scores, changed hands last fall. It’s now owned by two arcades, one in Denver and the other in New Jersey. In a six-month transition period since, Twin Galaxies wasn’t accepting…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Ding

This week, the premiere date for the final season of Breaking Bad was announced (it’s Aug. 11), and that’s timely enough to for a mashup I’ve always wanted to see: Héctor Salamanca and video games. For those not in the know, (no spoilers) Héctor is a paralyzed, mute former cartel don who communicates by ringing…

Only two Sega Plutos ever were made—it was a prototype console made in the late 1990s—and the owner of this one just put it up for auction on GameGavel. High bid is currently $7,600.

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Le Chateau What-If, the Winners

My attempt at crowd-sourcing an image for this ridiculous crime story netted a dozen worthy candidates, led by overall No. 1 Abrahim Ladha. A cliffhanger awaits you, for The ‘Shop is the Cemetery of the Chateau d’If! 3Diego_Herrera Abrahim Ladha Americao Luke arniejolt arniejolt iceman09 metalliccookies resdog rv88 snufkin snufkin the-bearded-merchant toolsoldier uscg_pa

No, His Mom Isn’t Making Him Apologize to You on Xbox Live

Much as we’d all like to think this is true at face value, it isn’t. It’s a proto-meme, bubbling under the surface of the Internet for a few years. It popped up again this weekend. If you receive this message, you’re being double-victimized. First, some a-hole unfurls a homophobic slur at you in Call of…

Have you voted on Madden‘s cover enough already? Help Tecmo Super Bowl‘s de facto world championship pick its pun name for next year’s tournament. Remember when Chris Berman was funny? These are much better My favorites: The Unbearable Lightness of BJ Tolliver, Schroeders of the Lost Ark, Creedence Atwater Revival, The Mandarich Candidate and Total…

This blatantly obvious viral marketing video from 2K Games means we’ll soon be hearing about ‘The Bureau,” whether that is the title or the subtitle of the “XCOM Shooter.”

Mother 3’s Fan Translators Say Nintendo Can Have Their Script For Free

The people who translated Mother 3 to English say that if Nintendo ever wants to bring the quirky RPG to U.S. shores, the company can use their script. Free of charge. Writing on the Mother 3 fan translation website, translator Clyde Mandelin says that if Nintendo were to ever localize the game, he’d be happy…