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The Best of Kotaku, This Week
Another week survived! It’s particularly momentous because it was the Game Developers Conference all week, during which we brought you the most interesting segments, speeches, panels and news. First up, though, is the picture above which is a mashup of adorable Pokémon characters drawn by Olly Moss. Taken individually, they’re perfect for you phone background.…
By Tina Amini Published March 10, 2012 -
Survey Says 56% of U.S. Households Own Gaming Consoles
Over half of homes in the United States own current-generation gaming consoles, according to a survey put together by the Nielsen Group and released today. That’s up six percent from last year The survey has some other interesting facts, but here’s the point I found most salient: The Web is increasingly important in generating awareness…
By Jason Schreier Published March 9, 2012 -
The Day the Dorito Shell Tacos Made Kotaku Nauseous
We get a bunch of weird things in the office, especially because we share the editorial space with our sister sites, like Gizmodo for instance. Today, Taco Bell brought Gizmodo a stack of boxes filled with a dozen tacos each. But these aren’t just any tacos. No. These tacos are wrapped in a Dorito chip…
By Tina Amini Published March 9, 2012 -
Spy Party‘s Chris Hecker Calls Out Players, the Press, and Developers for Lack of Variety in Games
Why are so many games just copies of past games? Who is responsible for this state of affairs? Does the industry need more variety to survive? At the “Game Developers’ Rant” session at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Spy Party developer Chris Hecker made a call for more variety in games. The rants…
By Kirk Hamilton Published March 9, 2012 -
Twirling Robots Rarely Look This Pretty
This is a real-time motion test for ROBOTA: Vengeance, run on the Unity Engine. At first it looks really good. Then you realize that it’s slated to be released on iOS and Android. Suddenly it looks holy shit good. The creators, Sixits Studios, are trying to crowdfund a whopping $100,000 to finance ROBOTA: Vengeance, which…
By Jason Schreier Published March 9, 2012 -
Can We All Please Ignore Roger Ebert From Now On? Thanks.
Let’s stop giving a shit what Roger Ebert says about video games, and art, OK? We’ve tried like hell to make him into a punching bag, and neither he nor the rest of America gives a crap for the fact we choose to feel so insulted every time he says something about video games. This…
By Owen Good Published March 9, 2012 -
The Week in Evil DLC
Downloadable content. Everyone hates it—but everyone buys it. Yes, even you in the comments, smart guy. Here’s a look at the latest package of extensions and pre-order bonuses designed to crowbar the last dollar out of your wallet. Can you still respect yourself if you buy it? Street Fighter X Tekken: The Dirty Dozen Available:…
By Owen Good Published March 9, 2012 -
Backhanded Box Quotes: ‘I’d Rather Be Sodomized’
Welcome to “Backhanded Box Quotes,” a collection of super pissed-off user reviews from people just like you! Whoa, whoa, don’t take that personal. This week, Backhanded Box Quotes could have given over the entire feature to the fanboy backlash against Mass Effect 3. There are many day-one complaints against the space-opera RPG below, and also…
By Owen Good Published March 9, 2012 -
Blizzard Tables Diablo III PVP in Favor of a Timely Release
In its continuing quest to release Diablo III sometime before the rabid fanbase burns the building down, Blizzard has decided to drop the game’s player-versus-player arena combat feature for release, adding it into the game via patch at a later date. Diablo III maestro Jay Wilson made the announcement earlier today via the Diablo III…
By Mike Fahey Published March 9, 2012 -
These Guys Tied Game Controllers To Their Butts, For a Good Reason
Doug Wilson makes unusual games, like this one that you have to play on all fours, with a PlayStation Move controller tethered to your rear end. It’s called Dog the Wag It’s goofy. It’s not quite his best game, though it might be his wackiest. His best game is probably the graphics-less Johann Sebastian Joust,…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 9, 2012 -
Biff Tannen’s Special Tournament Edition Gives You All the Conference Champions Right Now!
Hey, are you a sports fan on the go? Who has time these days to watch the big game, or bother with messy DVR, or boring highlight shows? With Biff Tannen’s Sports Almanac, we’ll give you the weekend’s biggest matchups before they happen, thanks to these highly accurate peer-reviewed scientific simulations of sports video gaming’s…
By Owen Good Published March 9, 2012 -
Activision Wins Small Battle in Large Call of Duty Lawsuit
Publisher Activision took home a small victory in its longstanding legal battle against Call of Duty creators Jason West and Vincent Zampella earlier this week, convincing a Los Angeles judge to drop a fraud claim against it, according to a news report. Bloomberg reports that State Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle dropped one of two…
By Jason Schreier Published March 9, 2012 -
One of the Worst Features of Mass Effect 3 Is in this Week in Gaming Apps
It’s Mass Effect 3 week, and BioWare’s latest is so powerful and compelling it even made it into a Gaming App of the Day post—and a fairly negative one at that. Oh well, at least we’ve got Snake Mass Effect 3 tie-in Infiltrator did not make a good impression on Evan Narcisse, so much so…
By Mike Fahey Published March 9, 2012 -
Console Companies Continue to Keep Inspectors Out of Factories
We’ve written many times before about the working conditions at Foxconn and other Chinese plants at which nearly all of the electronics used for gaming are manufactured. The short version is, its not great. Factory workers manage extraordinary hours for very little pay, living in cramped conditions. Following a spate of suicides in 2010 and…
By Kate Cox Published March 9, 2012 -
Nominate This Week’s Best Comment
You may have noticed that we’ve stopped running out daily notes. And you also may have noticed last week’s “The Best of Kotaku, This Week” feature. Well, this is going to be a regular thing. Part of this thing includes nominating a Best Comment of the Week. That’s you guys. We want to highlight the…
By Tina Amini Published March 9, 2012 -
Shepard’s War Begins In This New Mass Effect 3 Trailer
Mass Effect 3 launched three days ago, but that hasn’t stopped publisher Electronic Arts from releasing new trailers for the sci-fi action-roleplaying game. Not that I’m complaining—this one is pretty awesome. Explosions, spaceships, and dramatic proclamations round out this look at Commander Shepard’s latest adventure, which developer BioWare released Tuesday for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3,…
By Jason Schreier Published March 9, 2012 -
Barbara-Freaking-Gordon Proves How Clever She is in this Batgirl #7 Preview
Back in action years after being crippled by the Joker, Batgirl’s biggest problem in DC Comics’ New 52 reboot seems to be all the men in her life worried about her getting hurt again. Batwoman doesn’t have to deal with this crap. After a tense confrontation with Batman in issue #6, writer Gail Simone explores…
By Mike Fahey Published March 9, 2012 -
Shepard Makes A Last Stand Against The Infamous Mass Effect 3 Reporter [Minor Spoilers]
If you’ve played any of BioWare’s Mass Effect titles, you might have come across Kalisah Bint Sinan Al-Jilani, a reporter that you meet on the Citadel. She’s abrasive, though masked by her cool and collected reporter skills. Of course, Shepard has his/her own way of dealing with the conflict. Kirk was hoping that the reporter…
By Tina Amini Published March 9, 2012 -
Which Is The Best Final Fantasy? All of Them!
When people talk Japanese roleplaying games, there’s one question that comes up quite a bit: Which is the best Final Fantasy? Plenty of JRPG fans have wasted hours debating this question, each making his or her own case for which of Square Enix’s ubiquitous roleplaying games is the cream of the crop. It’s a stale…
By Jason Schreier Published March 9, 2012 -
Former LulzSec Leader a Troublemaker Both Offline and Online
It’s now a well-worn adage that online, each of us can be anyone. You recognize an individual by their typed words and actions. It’s possible to get to know someone very personally indeed, and yet know virtually nothing about their daily lives. Where do they work? What city do they live in? How do they…
By Kate Cox Published March 9, 2012