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The Moneysaver: ‘Twas the Weekend Before Christmas … [UPDATE]

Whether you’re shopping for someone else or for yourself, this is the final blowout weekend before … all the after-Christmas sales to clear stock and snarf up the money grandma gave you. There’s still a ton of action from the major names in games retailing, much of it in the form of digital downloads. Our…

The Best Of Kotaku, This Week

Welcome to the Best of Kotaku, where I round up all of this week’s best content. Up above is a cute and, oddly, heartwarming Mario gif. It’s the adorable handiwork of Paperbeatsscissors, where you can find more cute and oddly heartwarming Mario gifs. Moving on to our Best Of content this week, we kick things…

Bungie’s Destiny Hasn’t Been Officially Announced, But People Are Still Making Awesome Trailers

Sure, Bungie’s next big game after Halo might have had its coming out party spoiled just a little, but the fact remains this game has yet to be officially announced, and despite a good start, we know very little about it. That hasn’t stopped Ilya Boykov from putting together this beautiful trailer using leaked concept…

Here’s The *Official* First Trailer For Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

aka Final Fantasy XIII-3 You might have seen this a couple of days ago, if you were lucky enough to see the leaked footage before Square Enix pulled it down, but if you weren’t, here it is! Enjoy.

WWE, whose contract with bankrupt THQ is worth $45 million, released a statement that doesn’t state much of anything.

You have one final minute left to live before the Mayan Apocalypse in this Twine game. What will you do with it?

If You Like TV, Read This Book

It’s remarkable, the variety of great TV shows we’ve gotten to watch over the last ten years. From The Wire to Friday Night Lights to Deadwood to The Sopranos, I’ve found that I’ve grown far more invested and interested in television stories than I am in movies. It’s not much of a stretch to say…

What People Said About the Terrible Game the NRA Made Six Years Ago

Welcome back to “Backhanded Box Quotes,” a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic and elsewhere on the Internet. Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s No. 1 mouthpiece, emerged from Oz’s curtain this morning to condemn the worst video games of American culture. Funny, the NRA made one itself: NRA Gun…

Just Because The Shark Isn’t Moving Doesn’t Mean It’s Dead And Other Far Cry 3 Hilarity

This YouTube video by Criken is amazing. It’s basically a collection of random happenings while playing Far Cry 3. Included are: Sharks who play dead after being run over Sharks who are actually dead after locals that don’t give a damn run them over Throwing rocks at sharks. Also at domestic abusers. The water not…

This Cool New Game System Lets You Play With A Bunch Of Tiny Touch-Screens

We’ve been following the Sifteo Cubes for a while now, intrigued by their promise to give us an entirely new platform for fun, original games. The gist is this: The system consists of a collection of cubes, each of which has a touch-screen and an accelerometer. The cubes are organized by a wireless base station,…

Oh, So That’s Why The World Didn’t End Today

If the Earth did not perish in a rain of fire or a collision with the shadow planet Nubira or whatever today, you can thank the gang at DICE. They resolved a potentially catastrophic crash by patching the PC version of Battlefield 3 just in time. Hat tip to reader Zeronline for noticing and sending…

The Smartest & Dumbest Things Capcom Did In 2012

So close, Capcom, and yet so far. 2012 had the potential to be a real banner year for the developer. Starting from the top with a new numbered Resident Evil that had strong buzz, a Street Fighter crossover that had the potential to be another Marvel vs. Capcom, and the 25th anniversary of Mega Man,…

So Who Made Kindergarten Killer, Anyway?

When NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre spoke at a press conference today, he lambasted video games as a medium that “sells and sows violence against its own people.” LaPierre called out five games as examples of video game evil. Four of them are big-budget affairs, produced by multinational corporations. But it’s the naming of…

Gorgeous Games of 2012: Guild Wars 2

When we started putting together a list of the best-looking games of 2012, Guild Wars 2 was an easy choice. The massive world of Tyria contains all manner of visual wonder, and every hilltop invites a pause for wide-eyed gazing. It’s a very good game, too Chris put together this cinemagraph of my primary elementalist…

Gameloft Says They Expelled Women From Their Holiday Party Who ‘Became Topless And Tried to Dance With Our Employees’

The body-painted topless women at Gameloft’s holiday party last weekend were never supposed to be topless, and they were kicked out of the party for trying to dance with employees, Gameloft says. I reached out to the mobile game publisher this morning, right before putting up our story about topless women at the holiday party,…

Twas the Week in Gaming Apps Before Christmas

It’s almost Christmas, and that means new games and new devices to play them on! Perhaps that’s why I’ve been busting my ass playing the nine games spotlighted in this Week in Gaming Apps—gotta make room for more, right? On top of a handful of great games like the inventive shooter Alpha Zero, the tower…

Far Cry 3 Patch Cleans Up Annoying Screen-Clutter, Mostly

Far Cry 3 is a heck of a fun game, and lovely to look at. But those gorgeous sunsets and mountain vistas are marred somewhat by the intrusive screen-clutter that covers the game with waypoints, pop-up reminders, and other unwanted text. I’d been playing the game with a fairly scorched-earth mod that removes every single…

League of Legends Matches Are Still Awesome When In Lego Form

The things people do with Lego always amaze me. Here is a League of Legends match, as told through Lego. It was made by YouTube user danmovproduction My favorite part is the minion spawning, they’re so cute. The action bits are good too, makes me want to play a Lego version of League of Legends.…

The Press Row Podcast honors sports video gaming’s best of 2012. Kotaku will confer its sports awards on Sunday.

Sad Nintendo Power is gone? Check out Nintendo Force Magazine—a spiritual successor to Nintendo Power.