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The Best Game Music of 2011: Readers’ Choice
We’ve already recognized a whole bunch of the best game soundtracks of 2011. But of course, there are only so many hours in the day—only so much time to play games, and one can only write about so many game soundtracks. Fortunately, you guys were up to the task of nominating outstanding soundtracks that didn’t…
By Kirk Hamilton Published December 30, 2011 -
This Man Will Soothe You with Skyrim Strings
YouTube user Jason Yang cloned himself for one very special reason: to play beautiful Skyrim music to you. That’s so nice! And the Jason Yang clone orchestra doesn’t only play the violin. There’s some drumming, too. Clone drumming. Skyrim Violin Cover [YouTube]
By Brian Ashcraft Published December 30, 2011 -
Watch Real Animals Kick Ass at Video Games
You remember that Bearded Dragon, right? Or the orangutans? Or the African bull frog crushing virtual ants? In the first video, a cat slices and dices his way through Fruit Ninja, posting an impressive score—and possibly scratching up the screen in the process. After Nintendo capitalized on games for old people and non-gamers, it looks…
By Brian Ashcraft Published December 30, 2011 -
These Are the Best Indie Games of 2011
Just as its sister site ModDB picks the top PC gaming mods of the year, IndieDB rounds out the year with a countdown of the top independently developed games of the year. Think of it as a shopping list to help establish your indie gaming cred. How many of the top ten have you played?…
By Mike Fahey Published December 30, 2011 -
Let This Comiket Cosplay Gobble You Up: Day Two
The Comiket, aka Comic Market, is in full swing in Tokyo. Comiket is not only the biggest self-published comic book fair in the world, it’s also a huge cosplay extravaganza. As previously mentioned, Comiket, first held in 1975, is now a biannual event, drawing half a million visitors to both the summer and the winter…
By Brian Ashcraft Published December 30, 2011 -
Is L.A. Noire Kotaku‘s Game of the Year?
The hardest thing at the end of the year is to parse yourself from the hype you’re experiencing and think back to the games you played during the summer, the spring, and yes, 2011’s early months. This fall, when so many of the big games were released, the studio that made my GOTY was going…
By Brian Ashcraft Published December 30, 2011 -
One Very Good Reason to Be a Nintendo-Exclusive Gamer
Tired of being picked on and looked down upon for being a Nintendo-exclusive console owner, commenter ClaudioIphigenia speaks up on Kotaku about the rather reasonable reasoning behind his brand loyalty. So after having just replied to three different comments on why I only own a Nintendo console, I figured it was time for a Speak…
By Mike Fahey Published December 30, 2011 -
Wipeout 2048 Was This Close to a Beautiful Zombie Apocalypse
For some odd reason Wipeout 2048 lead designer Karl Jones and game director Stuart Tilley decided it was a good idea to explain in detail just how cool the futuristic PlayStation Vita racer was before they scrapped the terror-inducing Zombie secret game mode. How can a futuristic racing game possibly add zombies? I know it…
By Mike Fahey Published December 30, 2011 -
Talk Amongst Yourselves
Another Friday, another holiday weekend. This time, it’s New Years, and we all have to celebrate the end o’ times. We all have one more year people. What are we going to do with it? Personally, I plan on buying a Virtua Boy. What are you going to do with your final year (you can’t…
By Chris Carolan Published December 30, 2011 -
Little Kid Freaks Out over iPod Touch
For years, the Nintendo 64 Kid has been the epitome of holiday game gift giving. Two kids went bananas over getting a Nintendo console, complete with box paw scratching and raised fists. It was a heroic moment. That was then. The Nintendo 64 Kid is all grown up. This is now. This is the iPod…
By Brian Ashcraft Published December 30, 2011 -
A Beatdown in Which No One Threw the First Punch
The guy who supposedly started this rides a crotch-rocket motorcycle, and his Facebook gallery is full of shirtless, sunglassed, dudebro posturing, koozied beer in hand. He’s in marketing and he can’t spell for shit, even when he’s insulting you. He may even be a steroid user Halfway into the Internet’s No. 1 white-hot outrage of…
By Owen Good Published December 30, 2011 -
Time Magazine Digs Minecraft Enough to Call It Game Of The Year
It’s been an incredible year for Mojang’s sandbox construction game, with mobile versions out in the wild, an ever-growing fanbase and their very own convention. To top all of that off, Notch and crew had Minecraft deemed as the past year’s best game by one of the world’s oldest newsmagazines. Time Magazine--with some help from…
By Evan Narcisse Published December 30, 2011 -
A Co-Creator of Jak & Daxter Gets Literary with Fantasy Novel The Darkening Dream
What do you do after founding and retiring from one of video games’ most successful development houses? If you’re Naughty Dog co-founder Andy Gavin, you write books. The first of said books is The Darkening Dream, a shadowy fantasy novel about a young girl caught up in a battle that pits ancient supernatural forces like…
By Evan Narcisse Published December 30, 2011 -
Old Grandma Hardcore Returns At Last to Dragon-Shout a Few Cuss Words
We haven’t heard much out of Old Grandma Hardcore—her last video was her cussing up a storm playing Final Fantasy XIII in 2010. Don’t worry. She is quite alright and still her old, irascible, potty-mouthed self, as this session with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim demonstrates. Spoiler Alert: Per OGHC’s grandson, this video “contains massive…
By Owen Good Published December 30, 2011 -
Nintendo Starts Offering NES Classics to All in the 3DS eShop
Nintendo not only gave its 3DS “Ambassadors”—early adopters of the device—10 Virtual Console classics for free, it also didn’t let anyone else buy them. That exclusive privilege appears to be headed to a close, as the Japanese eShop has already listed Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and will get Super Mario Bros. next week.…
By Owen Good Published December 30, 2011 -
Myst Re-Release Headed for 3DS in March
The super-old collection of HyperCard stacks Myst will be published as Myst 3D on the 3DS, with a release date scheduled for March 27. The publisher handling the port says it will add 3D effects to the original game, so it isn’t a reboot or a new adaptation. It will, however, include the Rime Age,…
By Owen Good Published December 30, 2011 -
I Was Working On My Own Anti-Arrow-to-the-Knee Vid Too, But Then I …
YouTube’s PsychicPebbles is extremely sick and tired of Skyrim‘s “arrow to the knee” meme, and composed this salute to all who dared to ever think it was funny. It’s extremely loud (especially when it breaks in with FUS RO DAH) and it’s extremely profane—in fact, I recommend turning your speakers down to one tick above…
By Owen Good Published December 30, 2011 -
Watch Q*Bert‘s Greatest Masochist, Still Going After 24 Hours of Play
Say this for George Leutz: that man is determined. Undaunted by the 70 hours of nonstop gameplay it is estimated to take to beat the 28-year-old all-time world record in Q*Bert, Leutz is at this moment 25 hours into his third assault on the record. His first two attempts, in April and May, ended in…
By Owen Good Published December 30, 2011 -
Salvation Army Bell Ringer Shoplifts Video Games, BB Gun, Sex Toy
I’m trying to see what the real news is here: On one hand, a Salvation Army bell-ringer stole a BB gun, two video games and a vibrator from a Kmart. On the other, Kmart sells vibrators? Lest you think this is the Hitachi Wand, a “personal massager” that has some non-masturbatory applications, cops in Sterling…
By Owen Good Published December 30, 2011
