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Nintendo Confirms the End of the Nintendo Power Era

Yesterday, news broke suddenly that Nintendo Power—one of the oldest game magazines around—would be shutting down. Today, Nintendo confirms that the Future-published magazine is ending this year. Here’s their official statement: Nintendo can confirm that Future US will end the production of Nintendo Power magazine with the last issue slated for December 2012. For Nintendo…

Play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive On A Mirror’s Edge Map. With Zombies. And Parkour.

Let’s all admit that Dust was a fantastic map in Counter-Strike: Source. It was small enough to where the pace was always active, with the proper amount of choke points and alternate routes for optimal strategizing. But part of the charm of Source was discovering the community maps and mods. Valve understands that charm all…

The price of a Kinect is dropping down from $149.99 to $109.99, according to Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb

Seven Game Critics Combine to Form a Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Frankenreview

What’s the most power combiner team in the Transformers universe? The fierce and relentless Predaking? The cool and calculating Computron? The eagle-elephant-lion Magnaboss? As far as Fall of Cybertron is concerned, it’s Reviewertron, guardian of Metacritic. Like any combiner team, this one is made up of several wildly disparate elements united under a common cause,…

Looks Like Interplay Is Bringing Back The Studio That Made Fallout [UPDATE]

It seems like Black Isle, the game studio behind RPG classics like Fallout and Planescape: Torment, is making some sort of comeback. An official website for the new Black Isle popped up today, as did Facebook and Twitter pages (as spotted by the folks on NeoGAF). The website appears to have been registered by Interplay,…

This New Vita Game Is Undeniably Adorable

This is SunFlowers, a casual game that will be out for PlayStation Vita this fall. A casual super cute game that will be out for PlayStation Vita this fall. Sure, it looks like the type of title suited more for your phone or tablet than dedicated gaming hardware, but it also looks creative and fun.…

This Exuberant Dirt-Racing Game Helped Me Get Over My Childhood Fear Of Moles

Did I ever tell you about how terrified I was of moles when I was a kid? Oh man, I was. I really was. I think I saw a mole once above ground, and according to my parents I spent the day shouting “Mole! Mole!” and running and hiding. Burrowing little MF-er scared the pants…

Grand Theft Auto V Screens Are Nice, But How About a Skyrim Final Fantasy Dragon in GTA IV?

We’ll have tennis and dirt-biking in Grand Theft Auto V, but can we not also have a dragon that breathes fire while someone (the dragon?) does the Skyrim Fus-Roh-Dah shout? Yes, we can, thanks to the ever-wonderful mod community that keeps on tweaking the PC version of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV. Follow YouTube GTA…

Ubisoft Says 93-95% of Their PC Games Get Stolen by Pirates

Few video game companies’ PC release practices are as reviled as Ubisoft’s. From titles that require always-on internet connections to security-compromising DRM, attempts by the Assassin’s Creed publisher to stop people from illegally obtaining or running their games on PC have met with strong criticism. Their responses haven’t always helped However, Ubi CEO Yves Guillemot…

Retromags has the first 150 issues of dearly departed Nintendo Power in digital format, perfect for teary remembrance.

Holy Crap, Grand Theft Auto V Looks Gorgeous

These new screenshots for Grand Theft Auto V, which Rockstar will release at some point to be announced on some consoles to be announced, are absolutely stunning Parachuting (pictured below) isn’t new to the series; The Ballad of Gay Tony downloadable content added it to Grand Theft Auto IV. [And San Andreas had it too,…

Cliff Bleszinski’s Perfect Eulogy for Nintendo Power

After news broke yesterday that Nintendo Power seems all but doomed as a print publication and may be finished outright, I reached out to the biggest fan of Nintendo Power that I know of: Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski. Yes, before he led the creation of Gears of War, worked on Unreal Tournament and became one…

My Self-Defiant Passion for Dishonored Captured in One Single Screen

I have never played Dishonored. The entirety of my exposure to it has been articles posted on Kotaku. I it places an emphasis on stealth, which I generally avoid. I also know that, should I play it, I will be treated to magnificent sights such as this one, and that’s more than enough to get…

Sony Closes One of the Oldest Video Game Developers in the World

Sony Liverpool, a studio with one of the longest and proudest track records in video game history, has been closed. While this is sad news at the best of times, what makes this particularly devastating for the British industry (and older gamers) is the fact that Sony Liverpool, once known as Psygnosis, have been around…

Just Like That, Dead or Alive‘s Kasumi Comes Alive

Kasumi is one of the most iconic characters in Japanese gaming. Her ninja outfit in its various colors is instantly recognizable. She isn’t merely in Dead or Alive; she is Dead or Alive. What makes great Kasumi cosplay great is that it doesn’t merely rely on the character’s curvy physique, but also pulls off the…

Max Payne 3, Now Available in Black & White

Taking a page from LA Noire’s case notes, Rockstar’s Max Payne 3 will on August 28 be adding something called “Noir Mode”, which is a tidy term for “playing the game in black & white”. It fits with the game’s noir overtones, I guess, but given so much of Max Payne 3 is spent in…

Borderlands Commercial Leads to Fake 1989 Violence

It’s not the most obvious way to market a game (especially since it can’t really mention Borderlands 2), but where Gearbox (or their British PR helpers) miss out on conspicuousness they more than make up for with wardrobe authenticity.

Someone’s Making, Basically, a Boardwalk Empire Video Game

It lacks the official license, of course, but Omerta: City of Gangsters is a game based on (or cashing in on) HBO’s awesome series in all but name. Currently in development at Tropico devs Haemimont Games, Omerta outlines the game as “Starting with small jobs, his character recruits a gang and expands his empire by…

Turn That Old, Silver DS Into a Bright Orange Game Boy

Reader Maarten, from the Bureau voor Gamers, sent us this cool project he and his team recently completed, turning an old Nintendo DS “phat” into what’s basically a more modern model of the Game Boy. It’s not the most complex of hack jobs I’ve ever seen, seeing as all they’ve really done is remove the…

Sony Wants to Turn Commercials Into Video Games

A Sony patent called “System for converting television commercials into interactive networked video games” is trying to do…well, exactly what its title says it’s trying to do. In basic terms, Sony is looking at a way for its game consoles to detect when an advertisement being “broadcast or streamed” contains an “interactive segment”. When it…