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These Sexy Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC Outfits Are Completely Justifiable
Arriving next week alongside the “Sazh: Heads or Tails?” story pack, these two new outfits for Final Fantasy XIII-2 main characters Serah and Noel might seem like a pair of extravagant attempts to acquire $2.99 from players, but they make perfect sense in the grand scheme of things. Take Noel’s Spacetime Guardian outfit, the main…
By Mike Fahey Published February 21, 2012 -
Spec Ops: The Line Deploys June 26, Preorders Get FUBAR’ed
Cheer up, soldier! 2K Games first foray into the military shooter genre hits retail on June 26 (June 29 internationally), and preorder customers receive a free upgrade to the premium edition in all its FUBAR glory. Man, look at that screenshot. You’d think they were in the middle of an emotionally charged military shooter, desperately…
By Mike Fahey Published February 21, 2012 -
When Sega Released the Hounds. The iHounds.
Woof | TOKYO, JAPAN: Back in 2005, Sega Toys released iDogs. (Photo: Shizuo Kambayashi | AP) Crusader Kings II: The Kotaku Review I was playing as the King of England. I ruled for over thirty years, sometimes a tyrant, other times a hero. When I died, I could keep playing, because I was now controlling…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 21, 2012 -
ARGH, a Half-Life Barnacle for your HOUSE
German artist Daniel Ritthanondh is the man to thank for this Half-Life-inspired lamp, which will simultaneously light up your room and darken your dreams. As big a Half-Life fan as I am, I could not own this. Wherever it went, I couldn’t walk under it. Ever. That or I’d come home one day and creep…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 21, 2012 -
Thug PSP Attacker Facing “Long Time in Prison”
Last August, the shameful attack on Malaysian student Ashraf Haziq—carried out as part of the riots sweeping London at the time—captured the attention of the world and left him with a broken jaw and a stolen PSP. Haziq received small consolation at the time, being given a free PSP and some games by Sony and…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 21, 2012 -
Bored Soldier Recreates Modern Warfare Box Art
Note the “bored” was the words of Reddit user Travissimo, not me. I can’t picture soldiers serving overseas having enough spare time to approach being bored, let alone bored enough to engage in box art cosplay. Of sorts. But hey, he must have had a little spare time, because he does a damn good job…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 21, 2012 -
Have You Ever Seen This Many Zelda Games at Once?
First Mega Man, then Street Fighter…there’s a video game collection arms race going on, and The Legend of Zelda just joined in. Reader Andy “thought this would be pretty cool to show on the site”. He’s damn right it would be. Note he doesn’t just have every game. For many he’s got multiple editions. Look…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 21, 2012 -
We’re Off to Find the Seven Cities of Gold
If you thought this would be about the cartoon series The Mysterious Cities of Gold, sorry! It’s about the same basic premise, though: a bunch of European types heading to the New World in search of riches. And carnage. In my Total Recall piece on Dani Bunten last week, Cities of Gold was mentioned as…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 21, 2012 -
So That’s Why People Pirate Game of Thrones Episodes!
Hello Kotaku, and welcome to a new week of video games, news, and video game news. Also, co-existing as humans, and fun, and learning. And so much more. I finished Ghost Trick last night. Wow, what an ending on that game! Anyhow, here is your evening open thread. I’m so glad to have you here.…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 20, 2012 -
Sony Working on its own Kinect
A patent filed in late 2011, but which has only been published this month, reveals that Sony is working on its own version of Kinect, Microsoft’s popular motion-sensing peripheral for the Xbox 360 (and now PC). Of course, the argument could be made that Kinect was Microsoft’s own version of Sony’s EyeToy (indeed, this new…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 20, 2012 -
How Not to Do PVP in Guild Wars 2
After spending the weekend playing Guild Wars 2 with select members of the press, I felt I had gather enough knowledge to create a video guide to the game’s standard player-versus-player combat. Then I played this round. The more hardcore alternative to Guild Wars 2 highly-accessible world-versus-world combat, the PVP in ArenaNet’s upcoming MMO is…
By Mike Fahey Published February 20, 2012 -
The iPhone’s Pokémon is Gone. Here’s How to Get Your Money Back.
Despite the fact we warned you, the lure of playing Pokémon Yellow on an iPhone proved too much for many, who sent the scam to second spot on Apple’s App Store charts Well, it’s gone now. And thousands of people paid $0.99 for something that shows a title screen and then crashes. If that’s you,…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 20, 2012 -
It’s Official: Clicking on Cows is a “Thing”
Every day, more evidence that Ian Bogost’s satirical game-turned-real-game-turned-ironic sensation Cow Clicker has become a bona fide sensation. Take the case of the startup “Wander,” which has no real product or service… at all… and yet has registered over 10,000 users. How have they done this? Why, by having their users click a cow, of…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 20, 2012 -
Swedish School goes 8-Bit
My high school had murals in the cafeteria, all painted by senior art students. And although my senior year, members of my class did get to repaint one (they went with a Calvin & Hobbes panel), the next newest one was a portrait of John Lennon painted the year before most of my graduating class…
By Kate Cox Published February 20, 2012 -
The Painstaking Process Behind ‘The Best Pinball Video Game Ever Made’
Pinball is storied; pinball is distinctive. Pinball has a fascinating history, pinball has been a part of almost every American’s youth in some capacity or another. It’s a controlled collision of physics and art, all in the service of giving players a kinesthetic experience that’s not quite like anything else. Pinball is… well, it’s pinball…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 20, 2012 -
New Skyrim App Brings ‘Free-To-Play’ To Cartography
The folks over at Prima Games have released an app for iPhone and iPad that allows you to explore and interact with Skyrim‘s entire map, developer Bethesda said today on its blog. Unlike Dragon Shout, the independently-created Skyrim map released last fall for iOS, this map will not be entirely free. Though you can snag…
By Jason Schreier Published February 20, 2012 -
Respect the Beard
The Bearded Man From City 17 | Valve’s Gabe Newell now looks a good deal more like Half-Life hero Gordon Freeman. Love the knife. (Illustration by G-e-e-r-s/Deviant Art.) Alan Wake’s American Nightmare: The Kotaku Review Going into Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, I’d worried that I hadn’t played the DLC that followed the 2010 game that…
By Kirk Hamilton Published February 20, 2012 -
Was League of Legends’ Newest Champion Inspired by an Employee?
A few days ago a League of Legends champion, named Fiora, got leaked onto a respected League of Legends‘ fansite. Accompanying the flood of information was a picture of Fiora herself who seemed…oddly familiar. On the left of the photo above we can see Fiora, the Grand Duelist, and on the right we have Nika…
By Elyas Gorogo-Baker Published February 20, 2012 -
How They Came Up With Skyrim‘s ‘Arrow In The Knee’ Line
The big video game joke of 2011—and certainly the most repeated line—came from Skyrim, a game populated by guards who used to be adventurers, just like you, before they “took an arrow in the knee.” Sorry if you thought you were done with that line. Can you tolerate it one more time, just to learn…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 20, 2012