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The Best of Kotaku, This Week

Welcome to the Best of Kotaku, where I round up all of this week’s best content. It would make me insanely happy if kid Ryu and kid Ken went into an actual arcade to play as their adult doppelgangers in Street Fighter. Apparently it would also make deviantARTist randis happy, as well. Thanks to InsanelyGaming…

Here’s To Ginger, Our Favorite Dog With Person Arms

Tina started this week’s off-topic posts with cats, and I kept it going, but I thought I’d close out the week with some dogs. Not just any dog. Ginger, one of the internet’s greatest dogs. Look, I don’t know why it’s so funny. I mean, I know why it’s funny. But I still don’t know…

How Skyrim Should’ve Ended

I’ve been digging back into Skyrim, updating my mods (and downloading some sweet new ones) and getting ready to really get into Dawnguard now that it’s finally out on the PC. I also finally beat the storyline a few weeks ago. Considering that I didn’t love the story to Oblivion, the Skyrim finale was pretty…

Cold Stream, Left 4 Dead 2‘s long-overdue campaign, has finally arrived for Xbox 360. It’s 560 Microsoft points.

Andrew Lloyd Webber Is Making A Game And It Will Undoubtedly Embarrass You

Being caught belting out the entirety of Phantom of the Opera in your living room can be pretty embarrassing. (In my defense, I was nine and I could, in fact, hit those notes. Mostly.) This fall, you can at least try to recapture some of your dignity (you won’t succeed, but you can try) by…

Backhanded Box Quotes: Pro Hater Edition

Welcome back to “Backhanded Box Quotes,” a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic, Amazon and elsewhere. Good luck getting a job with Irrational Games if your game shows up here. NCAA Football 13 Released: July 10 Critic: guillermop (Metacritic) • “This game is alpha quality at best this game is…

There’s Nothing to Steal: Why Everyone Hates the Free-to-Play Switch

I’m not proud of it, of course, but I’ve profiled others according to skin color. You see, glowing, primary color skin on a character in D.C. Universe Online is a sure sign of a free-to-play player, especially if they’re low level. It indicates they really didn’t give a shit what they looked like when they…

This Sega Genesis Mod Shocks You Every Time You Die

This mod is called “GeneZap,” and its motto is “No pity for bad players.” It’s a dog shock collar programmed to zap the wearer whenever he screws up or takes damage in any of half a dozen Sega Genesis games. (I’m guessing the first four letters are pronounced as two syllables, as in “Genesis,” not…

Man Misses Out On $7,000 Because He Didn’t Know The Konami Code

You’d think that the Konami Code would be a well-known part of pop culture these days, even if you’re not a gamer. It’s everywhere I’ll take that $7,000, BTW, since that guy clearly doesn’t want it. Thanks in advance.

Pod Racing and Playing GoldenEye with a Proper Dual Analog Controller for the Nintendo 64

A UK modder wanted to do a favor for his American buddy, who is still obsessed with Star Wars: Episode I Racer 13 years after it released on the Nintendo 64. In the game, if you enter a certain code you can use two N64 controllers to control the pod racers’ engines independently. So how…

Max Payne’s Miserable Life Still Looks Cool

This video starts off slow, showing you just how depressed and lifeless poor Max is, but it really picks up once some of Max’s, um, “friends” come around. Max Payne’s life might be full of misery, but at least the special effects are pretty awesome. Max Payne: Bloodbath [YouTube]

NBA 2K13 Adds Kinect Features, Says Retail Listing

Somehow, NBA 2K13 has managed to have a three-stage cover reveal. First, there were the stars. Then the cover added in Jay-Z as an executive producer, right there under the logo. Now, as first noticed by 360sync.com, we see the Xbox 360 box art, and notice it says “Better with Kinect.” Sports simulations so far…

Fighting Game Revisions Have Made Him Neurotic

In today’s episode of Speak Up on TAYtaku, because folks are spending more time there than in Speak Up, commenter MrGilder explains how the fear of new versions of new fighting games has him frozen in fear. So I am absolutely terrified to buy Persona 4 Arena any time soon. Why? Because it’s an Arc…

Airplanes and Monsters in the Week in Gaming Apps, I Could Really Use a Witch Right Now

Witch right now. Witch right now. I could use some spears or some monsters or a witch, or to get back to some gaming apps much simpler than this. Because after all the crashin’ and matchin’ and thrashin’, the monster bombin’ and the droppin’ and hack-and-slashin’… Okay, that’s enough of that. It’s the Week in…

Should The Gaming Industry Be More Talkative? Game Makers Speak Up

Yesterday, I ran an op-ed asking the people who make and publish video games to talk more, to be more willing to answer gamers’ questions, to communicate rather than wrap themselves in a blanket of cold, corporate silence The piece triggered quite a few passionate reactions. Some agreed with my piece. Others spoke out against…

Your Favorite Superheroes Re-Imagined As Guitars. You Know, ‘Guitar Heroes.’

Do you get it? DO YOU? I’m not sure if you get it. This lovely print by Biotwist wonders not “What if Wolverine and Batman played guitar… what if they were guitars?” The results, as you can see, are a lot of fun. I like that Superman is a Les Paul, and Hulk appears to…

GameStop Secures Exclusive Skylanders Giants DLC the Hard Way

GameStop loves its retailer-exclusive downloadable content, but Skylanders Giants DLC all comes by way of toys. What’s the world’s largest dedicated video game retailer to do? Exclusive toys, of course! GameStop is now taking preorders for the Golden Dragonfire Cannon Battle Pack. a special package that contains the series 2 version of the Skylander Chop…

Here Are The Trophies For Metal Gear Solid 4, From Murder-Puking to Ocelot-Kissing

Metal Gear Solid 4 has always felt a tiny bit incomplete. It’s a game that offers a ton of hidden secrets and alternate paths, and leaves itself open to a big variety of gameplay styles. And yet there are no trophies to unlock for finding those secrets, or for playing the game in difficult, uncommon…

The Power (And Danger) Of Big Numbers In RPGs

We are obsessed with numbers. We lap them up. We get immense pleasure out of watching digits decrease and multiply as we peer over bank accounts and scales and Vegas roulette tables. Japanese role-playing games feed off this obsession, pelting us with giant numbers like we’re targets at a carnival game. Over the course of…

The Sweetest Person You Will Ever Encounter In DayZ

Raini won’t steal your beans or kill you for your ammunition. All Raini wants to do is share her soda and tent with you. DayZ – Making Friends [YouTube via DayZ]