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You Don’t Know Jack Lead Writer Says Being Funny Is Serious Hard Work
I’ve got a perhaps irrational fondness for trivia games. It’s easy to like the genre when your brain is filled up with seemingly disconnected facts; trivia games give them a place to go. A tiny little factlet purpose in life. One of my favorites is You Don’t Know Jack, the intentionally irreverent trivia game. Once…
By Kate Cox Published July 2, 2012 -
I Want To Play A Full Final Fantasy Game With Rhythm Combat
There’s a new Final Fantasy game coming out tomorrow. Don’t get too excited: this isn’t Final Fantasy XV. There are no next-gen graphics or melodramatic stories here. Instead, Square Enix will release Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, a 3DS game that is best described as “Elite Beat Agents with Final Fantasy music,” or “the game that makes…
By Jason Schreier Published July 2, 2012 -
I Really Want To Watch This Show About Borderlands
It’s just a teaser right now, but what a teaser it is! This Borderlands-centric show looks fantastic. If you added a hyper realistic layer on top of the FPS/RPG hybrid by Gearbox, I imagine it’d look a lot like this. Plus, they seem to have hit the proverbial nail on the head quite squarely when…
By Tina Amini Published July 2, 2012 -
Street Fighter Expert Joins Sony to Dragon-Punch PlayStation All-Stars Into Shape
The man who became synonymous with Capcom’s fighting games will now be helping Nathan Drake, Fat Princess and Kratos knock each other out. Most gamers first got to know Seth Killian as Mr. Evo, after he helped start the internationally renown fighting games tournament that re-energized the community of fans dedicated to that genre. Then,…
By Evan Narcisse Published July 2, 2012 -
You May Already Own a PlayStation 4: The Sci-Fi Implications of Last Night’s Big Sony-Gaikai News
We can always count on the people at PlayStation for planting crazy ideas about the future of gaming in our heads. These are the people who advertised the PlayStation 2 with a commercial for the PlayStation 9, who told us that their PS2 games would look like Pixar movies and who, at one time, were…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 2, 2012 -
Pretty Zombies, Ugly Video Game
Dead Trigger is a first-person shooter that was released over the weekend on iOS and Android. The draw here is that, at least on a retina display (iPad included) it looks amazing. Shame it doesn’t play that way. Dead Trigger suffers the same issues any other first-person shooter has on a phone; namely, that there…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 2, 2012 -
Kotaku Water Cooler
Welcome to the Water Cooler, your daily dose of all things miscellaneous. Using the shiny new discussion system, we’ll be taking to the Water Cooler to show you some of the random press releases, funny images, and other off-kilter things we discuss in our private Kotaku chat room every day. Today’s my turn at the…
By Jason Schreier Published July 2, 2012 -
Talk Amongst Yourselves
Discussion… has changed. But Talk Amongst Yourselves will still be the place where we gather on a daily basis to discuss all things video game and existential. Go to the TAY forum at this link and do what you’ve always done: share your thoughts and opinions on the things you’re passionate about.
By Evan Narcisse Published July 2, 2012 -
About Commenting…
Last Thursday, we introduced our new discussion system on Kotaku. We call it Kinja. It takes the place of our previous commenting system. Since Thursday, I’ve heard from many readers about the new system. My team has heard from readers on the site. We’ve heard from folks though e-mail and on Twitter. We’ve heard some…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 2, 2012 -
Praise Be to Mars, Total War: Rome II Marches onto PCs Next Year
It’s been eons—in gaming time, at least—since The Creative Assembly’s Roman variant of the Total War strategy games let millions of players become Caesars. A sequel’s finally been confirmed today and Total War: Rome II will be sporting a new graphics engine to make the global domination shinier than ever. You’ll get your chance to…
By Evan Narcisse Published July 2, 2012 -
British Voices Make This RPG Feel More Regal
Just listen to those grand inflections. This is the new trailer for The Last Story, an upcoming Wii RPG that will be out in the U.S. this summer. (Still no official release date yet.) As you can see, the characters are very English. It’s almost as if this game was localized in Europe last year…
By Jason Schreier Published July 2, 2012 -
Assassin’s Creed III‘s Newest Trailer Is All About War
The latest trailer for the non-jingoistic Assassin’s Creed III celebrates the war for American independence, which is commemorated annually by the good, old 4th of July. There’s a lot of fighting in this Independence Day clip… plus a reminder of that hallmark of true independence: retailer-specific pre-order incentives. If GameStop was selling the Declaration of…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 2, 2012 -
Real People Actually Live in Tatooine, Like, Right Now
Mos Espa is the Tatooine spaceport that not only Anakin Skywalker called home, but also held the podrace in Star Wars: Episode I. The location is fiction, but the people who live there right now are very real. After George Lucas and his crew wrapped filming, they left the set standing—much like they did with…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 2, 2012 -
Apple Coughs Up Millions for iPad Name in China
Earlier this year, the iPad fell into a legal gray zone in China. A legal brouhaha meant that in some Chinese shops, the iPad was yanked from shelves. The reason was that the Mainland already had an iPad, and it wasn’t Apple’s. Years before Apple ever released the iPad, a Chinese company named Proview trademarked…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 2, 2012 -
Get Your First, Brief Look at Halo 4’s Live-Action Series
Microsoft has tonight released this teaser trailer for Forward Unto Dawn, its series of live-action shorts set in the Halo 4 universe Not that there’s much live action here, but then, that’s why they call it a teaser trailer. In May, we brought you some set pics from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, where…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 2, 2012 -
Annoying Subway Posters Prompt Cheeky System Error
Among more traditional pieces of stencil work, street artist Jilly Ballistic also has a bit of a recurring thing: sticking computer displays and error warnings on billboards and advertising posters. Simple, and effective, just like the best of this sort of stuff should be. Jilly Ballistic’s photostream [Flickr, via Laughing Squid]
By Luke Plunkett Published July 2, 2012 -
Sony Buys a Cloud Gaming Service
Sony announced today that on Friday, while everybody else was winding down for the weekend, it went out and bought Gaikai, an online cloud gaming service similar to OnLive. For $380 million. “By combining Gaikai’s resources including its technological strength and engineering talent with SCE’s extensive game platform knowledge and experience, SCE will provide users…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 2, 2012 -
I Don’t Remember Mass Effect’s Cover Featuring This Much Whimsy
Artist Max Fiedler’s series of “Cover Cover” images take the box art of games he loves and reimagines them as…almost the same thing. In exactly the same way. Only in his own style. Begun last year, Max has recently added a couple of new pieces No real statement to be had here. Just some cute…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 2, 2012 -
Tiny Halo Figures Designed For Giant Adult Hands
Harking back to the late-80s glory days of the style, McFarlane is next month releasing a line of Halo toys called “Micro Ops”, tiny little 1:100 (or around 15mm each) figures designed to let you recreate actual Halo battles, and not just actual heroic poses. The first series includes several different figures, vehicles and even…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 2, 2012