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The Problem With BioShock Infinite‘s Combat

There’s a lot to like about BioShock Infinite. It’s gorgeous looking, the music is spectacular, and the story is good enough that a couple days after finishing it, I’m still turning it over in my head. But the game has one glaring problem: combat just doesn’t work all that well. In some games, that wouldn’t…

LucasArts is Dead: Let’s Remember The Good Times

I don’t get wistful that often when it comes to gaming news. Companies come and go, but LucasArts was something special. It’s time to remember that. Yes, the LucasArts of more recent memory was not the company it was in the 1990s. Yes, the luminaries of old had left to found their own companies. But…

This Is Why Vague Dialogue Options Would Suck In Real Life

If you’ve ever played a game with dialogue choices, chances are you’ve encountered the dreaded vague dialogue tree (if not vague dialogue options). While it’s not ‘fun’ to mean one thing and say another, at least you can restart a game. You can’t really do that in real life, though if you got into the…

A Thousand Voices Cry Out for LucasArts, in Eulogies of 140 Characters

LucasArts, a nearly 30-year-old cornerstone brand in video gaming,said today it would cease all development. It was more than a publisher of Star Wars video games, like Dark Forces or X-Wing. LucasArts gave us point-and-click adventures from the halcyon days of the genre, like The Secret of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Maniac Mansion and Full…

The Moneysaver: Rising: Revengeance, Falling Price

We’ve heard more requests for a deal on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance than any other game. Newegg has sliced 33% off Platinum’s latest, knocking the price down to $40 on both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. This is the first discount for Revengeance, so cut in before you have to wait for another. Our…

I Can’t Play the New Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Until You Pick My Pocket Monster Persona

I love roguelikes. I love Pokemon. I should have been playing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity on my 3DS a week ago, but here I am, staring at the character select screen. Which damn Pokemon should I be? In Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity the player becomes a Pokemon, taking on the form…

Disney Shuts Down LucasArts, Cancels Star Wars 1313 And Star Wars: First Assault

Disney has laid off the staff of LucasArts and cancelled all current projects. Staff were informed of the shutdown this morning, according to a reliable Kotaku source. Some 150 people were laid off, and both of the studio’s current projects—Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313—were cancelled. Disney will still use the LucasArts name…

Hard-Luck Hurler Tosses a Perfect Game in MLB 2K‘s Million Dollar Contest

T.J. Brida, one of Kotaku‘s Gamers of the Year, and the hardest of hard-luck losers in MLB 2K’s Million Dollar Challenge last year, finally threw a perfect game. He did it today with Cole Hamels and his beloved Philadelphia Phillies, against the Atlanta Braves. With 10 strikeouts and 81 pitches, he should be well positioned…

Let’s Talk About the Twists and Turns in Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite is one of those rare games that you absolutely need to talk about the second you finish it. Whether you liked the way the game ended or loathed it, you’re going to have a distinct opinion about it once you’ve finished with it and you’re going to need to talk to someone about…

NCAA Football 14 Promises It Won’t Give You the Same Old Line This Year

You can load all the physics, all the momentum, all the jukes and trucks and fakes you want into running the football in a video game, but it all unravels when the right guard just watches as a free linebacker strolls into the backfield and cleans your transmission. No matter how good the rest of…

A Little Evolution Goes a Long Way in Alien Hive

A cursory glance at Appxplore’s latest mobile game gives the impression that it’s nothing more than a standard match-three puzzle game. Alien Hive is a match-three game, but it’s also an alien-breeding strategy game — I guess that last bit is hard to convey in a single screenshot. Let’s try words instead. A match-three puzzler…

Tip: To Avoid Seeming Sketchy, Put ‘Retro’ In The Name of the Game That Inspired Yours.

I can’t vouch for the quality of the Android game Duck Retro Hunt, but I can vouch for the brazenness of the game’s name. Why, next thing you know, someone will add cutting edge technology to that beloved Pac-Man game and try to sell us Pac-Retro-Man. I’m holding out for Call of Retro Duty, myself.…

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NCAA Football 14 Will Add an Ultimate Team Mode, but How It Will Work is a Mystery [Update]

According to the game’s listing at GameStop, NCAA Football 14 is getting an Ultimate Team mode. This is a highly unusual development, given the card-trading game’s reliance on real players in titles like FIFA and Madden, and the fact using real college players’ names not only is forbidden by the NCAA, but also EA Sports’…

Five Years And Nothing To Show: How Doom 4 Got Off Track

Doom 4 is in trouble, and has been for quite some time now, according to multiple sources. Though publisher Bethesda tells Kotaku they still plan to release the highly-anticipated first-person shooter, Doom 4 has gone through at least one major reboot over the past few years, and sources say even today, five years after development…

Defiance is Off to a Rocky Start, But You Won’t See Players Complaining

It wasn’t until my third hour in the game portion of SyFy and Trion Worlds’ crossmedia project that it struck me — Defiance is the quietest MMO launch ever. I’d run into a couple bugged quests, marveled over the purposeful stupidity of enemies in the tutorial zone, and giggled at the ridiculous vehicle physics, but…

Junk Vader Finds Your Lack of Horns Disturbing

Gabriel Dishaw calls himself an up-cycler or “junk artist.” Basically, what he does is he takes small components from various old, dismantled mechanical devices, and creates something wonderful out of them. Up top is his newest work, something he calls the Red Stag Vader. In fact, he’s done several Vaders: This one’s the aptly named…

It Didn’t Take Long To Have Bioshock Infinite‘s Columbia Recreated In Minecraft

Bioshock Infinite’s floating city is a stunning setting, carefully crafted to capture the imagination, so it was only a matter of time before an enterprising Minecraft artist built Columbia in cubes. Craftsman Ilikecutepeople does an amazing job here, capturing the essence of the city right down to the distinctive color palette. The video was assembled…

The Most Awesome Japanese Video Games Where You Can Ride A Horse

One would think, that horseback riding as a feature in video games would appear most of the time in wild west-themed titles, with lots of riding and gunning. But browsing through Japanese games, it quickly becomes clear that it’s not the case. A wide variety of genres have horse companions. Most of the time they…

OXM reports that, in response to a redditor’s complaint to the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority about the visible differences between the playable and trailer-demonstrated versions of Aliens: Colonial Marines, Sega Europe has agreed to put disclaimers stating that the game shown is the demo version next to their videos. Update: Some, but not all, of…