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Why The Walking Dead Should Be Game Of The Year

The Walking Dead is lovely in the most horrifying ways. Some people have asked me why anyone would want to subject themselves to something that outwardly seems so depleting. It’s depressing. Haunting. This isn’t one of those games where you face a harrowing plot, but end the story on a happy note by conquering the…

Here Are The Worst Games Of 2012, According To Metacritic

The cynical among us might say that all the games we played this year were ‘awful.’ Fewer titles reached a score of at least 90 or higher in 2012 than in 2011, after all. “We have never encountered such a low total number of great games in a single year,” Metacritic stated on a post…

“Hater Used Hate”: This Hip-Hop RPG Video Is Super Effective at Making You Laugh

At first, the vibe of SG Grey Days’ retro-RPG-styled video didn’t grab me. An overworld that looked like something out of a Genesis-era game? Yawn. But when the random encounter battle with a Wild Hater got underway, I couldn’t stop laughing. The clip is for the Frames of Invincibility EP by rap duo SG Grey…

From Casual to Hardcore Gamer in 10 Easy Steps (or 40 Years)

While the folks at the iTunes gaming division might have trouble rooting out copycat games, what they excel at is making lists. In creating a list of ten games that can take a mobile gamer from casual to hardcore, those Apple list-builders have created a mini history of gaming in portable form. The Apple list…

Congrats to FIFA 13 for being AbleGamers‘ 2012 Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year! Noble work, rightly recognized.

Why Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward Should Be Game Of The Year

To describe why Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward was my favorite game of 2012 is to describe why I fell in love with games in the first place. I fell in love with games not when I first played the Nintendo Entertainment System, on which I mastered Super Mario Bros. 3 and Bionic Commando and…

The Sequel To The Best Reverse-Tower-Defense Game Is Superb, If Barely a Sequel

Not that you can trust user reviews on iTunes, but one player of Anomaly: Korea recently praised the reverse-tower-defense game as being “one of a kind.” That’s false. Anomaly Korea is actually very, very much like 2011’s Anomaly: Warzone Earth, the reverse tower-defense game. You still command a slow-rolling column of tanks and transports through…

What’s Your Game of the Year? Vote in the Second Annual Speakys

Speak Up on Kotaku may be no more, but its legacy lives on in The 2012 Speakys, organized by and voted on by our readers. Longtime commenter GiantBoyDetective is administering the voting once again. (He also made the logo.) Votes are being tallied for best games on all platforms, with write-in options if your favorite…

Congratulations to Journey for being Journey developer Jenova Chen’s Game of the Year! (According to an Edge round-up.)

Why Far Cry 3 Should Be Game of the Year

Far Cry 3 should not be my nomination for 2012 game of the year. I’m not a huge fan of first-person shooters. While I appreciate the technical accomplishment of the first two games in the series I’ve not felt compelled to complete either. I felt absolutely no excitement leading up to the third installment’s late…

What Was Kotaku‘s 2012 Game of the Year? We’ll Know… Soon

On Monday, January 7, you will know what Kotaku‘s 2012 Game of the Year is. But before then, you’re going to see us try to figure it all out. Starting today and running over the course of the next three days, nine Kotaku writers will publish a total of nine essays nominating their favorite game…

Got the post-holiday blahs? There’s still something to look forward to. Fire Emblem: Awakening arrives Feb. 4.

A GI Joe Action Figure To Make Your Inner Eight Year-Old Squeal

Yeah, it’s based on the upcoming movie sequel, but the design is close enough to the original that I’m going to view this as an all-purpose figure. And what a figure it is. Due from Hot Toys in Q2 2013, the 1/6 scale figure has a ton of weapons, five pairs of interchangable hands and…

DayZ Stalker Psycho Screams IM GONNA WEAR YOUR HAIR

The first one of these videos went up the other day. This is the third, in the continuing saga of a dude who is being stalked by a psycho in DayZ All I ask is that you give it about 40 seconds. Once you hit talk of balls being eaten, you’re in psycho town, and…

151 Pokémon, Transported Back In Time To 1986

Welsh student Chelsea Saunders has gone and rendered all 151 original Pokémon in a super-pixelated style, showing us what the pocket monsters would have looked like if they’d been released on the NES. Or… Commodore 64. pixelated Pokémon [PIXELATED COWBOY]

For One Day, Alice: Madness Returns Comes To Life

The world moved on from the game pretty quickly, but thanks to its vivid art style Alice: Madness Returns lives on in the hearts of cosplayers, few of which have quite nailed the game as much as michivvya and her friends. The Chinese cosplayers have recreated many of the games biggest characters (so, not just…

Playing As Bayonetta In Street Fighter

It’s a move you’d only see in fan fiction or mods for the PC version of Street Fighter, so… the fact this is a mod for the PC version of Street Fighter x Tekken probably explains things. It’s just one of a series of great mods that have been under the spotlight this past week,…

You Don’t Often Get A Chance To Own An Xbox As Cool As This

Howard Phillips may be a Nintendo legend, but after he left that company in the early 90’s he would eventually find his way to Microsoft in time to play a key role in the launch of the original Xbox. Which explains why he’s now selling one of the coolest Xbox lots I’ve ever seen on…

If Nintendo Made Another Mario Movie… For The Call Of Duty Generation

Here’s the second episode of fan series Mario Warfare, which turns the Mushroom Kingdom into something a little more Call of Duty Like the first episode, it can get a little hammy, but like the first one it’s also looks shockingly pretty. MARIO WARFARE – Part 2 [beatdownboogie]

This 90s Arcade Game Starring A Watermelon-Smashing Comedian Had The Most Insane Cutscenes Ever

If you came of age in the 1990s, you probably saw Mad Dog McCree at your local arcade. What you probably didn’t see was a game made by the same company called Gallagher’s Gallery, starring the psychotic, watermelon-smashing nutjob of the same name. I never got to play Gallager’s Gallery but by all accounts, it…