-
NASA Made A Game That Lets You Land On Mars. Sounds Cool. Now What?
Hop on Xbox Live and search for Mars Rover Landing. You’ll find a Kinect game made by NASA and Microsoft that’s meant to simulate the tense experience of landing Curiosity, NASA’s rover that will land on Mars on August 5 after eight and a half months of travel. It’s “seven minutes of terror,” is how…
By Tina Amini Published July 16, 2012 -
One Great Steam Sale Idea Valve Hasn’t Tried Yet
The Steam summer sale is underway, and all of our wallets are at risk. Oh hey look, it’s The Legend of Grimrock for six bucks! Oh wow, Civilization V for cheaper than ever! Don’t mind if I do! Never mind the fact that I still have a few games from the last big Steam sale…
By Kirk Hamilton Published July 16, 2012 -
NCAA Football‘s Cover School Says It Had Nothing to do With Fight Song’s Disappearance
Baylor University says it demanded no extra money from EA Sports for the use of its fight song in NCAA Football 13 and no one in the university’s administration had anything to do with the song’s exclusion in this year’s version of the game, which released last week with its Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback starring on…
By Owen Good Published July 16, 2012 -
I Was Looking For a Game That Starred Empathy. I Found it Behind All the Zombies.
Last spring, I read a novel called The Passage, and I’m re-reading it again now. The book posits a scenario that in its broad strokes should be familiar by now to any gamer: a secret military science program goes horribly wrong and creates a race of man-eating, once-human monsters that more or less doom humanity.…
By Kate Cox Published July 16, 2012 -
Sometimes You Just Get Tired of Playing Video Games
In today’s half-hearted edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Robobrah shares an experience that many of us face during our gaming careers — the game completion slump. After reading this recent article it made me think of something that’s been bothering me for a while, and I’m interested if anyone else has ever experienced…
By Mike Fahey Published July 16, 2012 -
The Dorkly Weekly: This Pokémon Journey Begins with an Incredibly Bad Decision
Today marks the debut of a new Dorkly original series, Pokémon Rusty, in which a brave would-be professional pet owner sets off to catch ’em all with his trusty Kakuna at his side. True Pokémon fans are falling over laughing at this point. For those of you not in the know, Kakuna is a transitional…
By Mike Fahey Published July 16, 2012 -
Fake Gamer of the Week: If She’s Going to Play With You Clowns She Might as Well Look the Part
She’s a female gamer. She’s an attractive Asian woman. She’s not exactly the core demographic for a competitive online shooter, but she’s got an ace up her sleeve, and possibly a bouquet of fake flowers. Feel like acting like a clown around her? Fine. Two can play at that game. “Hey baby, have you got…
By Mike Fahey Published July 16, 2012 -
One Girl’s Adorable Song For Her Nerdy Boyfriend
Florida singer/songwriter Shauna Sweeney has a boyfriend, and he sounds like a pretty great guy. He’s into video games, comics, and he’s pretty good at defragging a hard drive. And so, she wrote this adorable (and catchy!) song called “My Nerdy Boyfriend.” A lot of this kind of stuff—”cute girl sings a song about nerds”—can…
By Kirk Hamilton Published July 16, 2012 -
I Think the 3DS XL Looks Pretty Darn Good After My First Hands-On With It
The 3DS XL is big. And bright. And round. I got my hands on Nintendo’s just-announced big-boy version of its 3D handheld at Comic-Con 2012 last week and it’s an impressive upscaling of the 3DS experience. I felt a bit less eyestrain looking at 3D images on the larger top screen of the XL, even…
By Evan Narcisse Published July 16, 2012 -
Either the New Devil May Cry is Very Good, or the Whiskey Was Really Strong
This past weekend I got my first chance to try out DMC, the upcoming refresh of Capcom’s popular slash-and-shoot series, and I am pretty sure I enjoyed myself immensely. I’m just not certain how much of that enjoyment stemmed from an extremely unfortunate mixed drink snafu. Evan and I stopped by the Microsoft event on…
By Mike Fahey Published July 16, 2012 -
An Insider From One Of Those Cold, Calculating Mega-Publishers Is Answering Your Questions, Right Now [UPDATE: Interview Over]
Are giant video game publishers a force for evil? Do they only care about money? What’s up with all that day-one DLC? We’ve got a real-life insider from a large gaming publisher here on Kotaku today to answer all of your nasty (and nice) questions about the world of video games. Since our insider would…
By Jason Schreier Published July 16, 2012 -
10 Hidden SNES Gems
The Angry Video Game Nerd’s Mike Matei knows the Super Nintendo better than I did and spends a half hour in this video showcasing 10 obscure SNES games that I’ve never seen. These games seem very cool. His 10 obscure SNES gems: 10. Rock and Roll Racing 9. Hagane 8. Knights of the Round 7.…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 16, 2012 -
Disney is Rewriting Your Childhood With Nostalgia For a Game That Didn’t Exist
Sega recently announced that their upcoming game Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed will feature the titular hero of Disney’s November film Wreck-it Ralph as a playable character. The movie’s director, Rich Moore, calls it a “dream come true” that we can see “Wreck-It Ralph in a real video game alongside Sonic and other iconic Sega…
By Kate Cox Published July 16, 2012 -
The Best Street Races on the iPhone Only Last 10 Seconds
Making a good-looking racing game for the iPhone isn’t that difficult, but winding tracks and multiple laps don’t sit well with players looking for a quick fix. You know what does work well? Drag racing. In a console game, drag racing is generally pretty boring. When you’ve got stunning 3D environments and all of that…
By Mike Fahey Published July 16, 2012 -
In Tomb Raider, Hell Is Always Other People
There I was, bow drawn and breath held, ready to kill a beautiful deer I’d been tracking for about five minutes. Lara Croft muttered something like “I can do this,” just before I let the arrow fly. The deer ran and more scrabbling through a dense forest followed. Two more arrows felled the deer and…
By Evan Narcisse Published July 16, 2012 -
Assassin’s Creed as Spider-Man? Sure.
The wall-crawling adventures in the Assassin’s Creed games are not directly inspired by Spider-Man comics, but the thematic connections are there. Because of that, this mock-up of Todd McFarlane’s iconic Spider-Man #1 (1990) done up as an AC comic is pitch-perfect. It’s one of several classic comic book covers re-done to feature the video games…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 16, 2012 -
Talk Amongst Yourselves
Mondays are for thinking about the games you’ve left behind and the ones you’re going to get. Anything but work. Go on and talk about the games you’re playing, loving and hating. Head over to Talk Amongst Yourselves, the place where we gather on a daily basis to discuss all things video game and existential.…
By Evan Narcisse Published July 16, 2012 -
Konami Shoots Down Metal Gear Solid 5 Rumors
Konami has denied rumors that Metal Gear Solid 5 was revealed at San Diego Comic Con this past weekend, calling them fake on its UK Twitter account today. Earlier this morning, some Redditors claimed that Konami had announced the fifth installment in its popular stealth-action series during Comic Con, posting the above image as proof.…
By Jason Schreier Published July 16, 2012