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I Played The War Z So You Didn’t Have To

The War Z has quickly become the week’s most interesting, and hilarious, news item. Between the bad press, the worse press and the fact the game’s been taken down from Steam, most of you are probably yet to actually play it. Well, over the past few days, I’ve been playing it. So you don’t have…

It’s A Drum Machine Made Out Of Beets. A BeetBox. Geddit?

Hang around me too much, and I’ll start drumming on something. My legs, my desk, actual drums… it’s only a matter of time. I’ve probably drummed on some beets in my day, too, but I don’t believe they ever made a sound quite like the BeetBox by Scott Garner. Check them out in the video…

Giant Mecha Bowser, Made of LEGO, Is My New Dream Christmas Present

Only one of these exists in the world. And that, my friends, is a tragedy. LEGO builder Zane Houston put this beast together for a contest, providing some back-story as to why Bowser has given up on air power and turned to bipedal mechanised killing machines: Years of battling Mario and Luigi has taken its…

Dunwall City Trials: A Welcome Addition To Dishonored

I’ve been having a lot of fun with Dunwall City Trials, the first downloadable add-on to October’s fantastic stealth game Dishonored. I’ve beaten the core game almost two times now, and while it’s such a brilliant bit of design, I’d found myself hungry for new, different challenges. It’s always felt like the game would benefit…

Here’s The First Trailer For Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII [UPDATE]

Square Enix returns to the well one more time next year with another Final Fantasy XIII spinoff, this one called Lightning Returns. Below, the game’s first trailer. That’s… quite the outfit change you’ve had there, Lightning. You can read a lot more about the game in this exclusive interview we had with its creators back…

Capcom: Let’s Get In The Holiday Spirit By Grovelling Over Dante’s Crotch

You might associate the holidays with decorative lights, presents, warmth and cheer. But that’s not the way to get into the spirit of the season, oh no. Thankfully, Capcom’s PR sets the record straight with their holiday greeting this year. Shared by Polygon, the greeting features Devil May Cry’s Dante, and boy, these scantily clad…

The Best Stealth Moments Of 2012

2012 was a banner year for stealth games. From January up through December, we got to play a healthy variety of games involving dozens of different types of sneaking, skulking, lurking, and sklurking. (It’s a thing.) You could say that these games… crept up on us. We really… didn’t see them coming Jason and I…

THQ’s Boss Explains, In Plain English, What The Hell Happened To His Company Today

Jason Rubin, the president of beleaguered publisher THQ, has penned a plain and, for the average consumer/fan, incredibly helpful summary of just what happened to his company today While the word “bankruptcy” is enough to cause alarm, as it should, Rubin reminds us that along with that move, the company has also been sold (tentatively,…

Midweek Moneysaver: Digital Deals Galore

This Wednesday edition of Kotaku’s The Moneysaver catches all the offers, promotions and bargains that can’t wait until the weekend. The Midweek Moneysaver is brought to you by Dealzon. Software Amazon Digital Holiday Deals offer a giant arsenal of individual titles at their lowest prices ever, as well as bundles in the second list below.…

Men And Women Sound Sexual, Sometimes Terrifying When In Pain

If you detach the sound of pain from its source, I’m willing to bet the result sounds kind of uncomfortable. Here is a whole Tumblr dedicated to what women in games sound like when in pain. These can sometimes err toward sounding sexualized. Personally, that’s not surprising—my family listens to a whole lot of Spanish…

An open-minded mom is uneasy about giving her son shooter games for Christmas. A must-read about our culture of violence

OK, Now This Video of an Angry Bird Attacking a Baby is Totally Real. Swear.

So, that viral video of the eagle snatching a baby off the ground is a confirmed fake. But this? Totally for reals. Trust me. Animal control officers are worried that, since this marauding Red Bird didn’t clear the area in one shot, he may keep returning until he three-stars the level. Video by Chris Person

DC Universe Online is offering 30 days of Legendary access free to former subscribers. Deal ends Jan. 16. Details here.

Some War Z Images Were Ripped From The Walking Dead

As promised, the strange saga of War Z just keeps getting stranger. Turns out this promo screen for zombie survival game, which was pulled from Steam earlier today, was plagiarized from The Walking Dead A Kotaku reader sent over the following image to show off just how much of this War Z title screen was…

Peter Molyneux’s marriage is safe. His team’s new game, Godus, just hit its Kickstarter goal. Commence terraforming!

Team Fortress 2 Players Are About To Get A ‘Boatload’ More Adult Swim Gear

More stuff to play dress up with in Team Fortress 2, hooray! This time, it’s Adult-Swim related—take a look at the picture above, or head down to the official website to get a 360 view of the models. I think my favorite is the Dr. Roxxo related gear. No specific dates as to when this…

The Smartest & Dumbest Things Ubisoft Did In 2012

Bonjour friends! American gaming’s Franco-friends Ubisoft had quite the year, releasing or showing off games for what seemed like all of their major franchises, and revealing a new one to boot. Other than the pretty fun Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, the beginning of their 2012 was defined by arcade and mobile titles like the dangerously…

There is something about this chiptune version of Kavinsky’s Nightcall. It’s hard to explain.

If you have really good taste, this is how you’ll count down to the end of the world.

Now The Bastion Narrator Can Announce Your Dota 2 Game

One of the neat things about Dota 2 is that you can download “Announcer Packs” that change the voice of the in-game announcer to any of a number of other characters. This one may take the cake—Supergiant games has contributed a Bastion Announcer Pack to the game. I haven’t used it, but it sounds like…