A Jumbo Jet Crashes the City in Dead Rising 3

Dead Rising has always had a kind of joie de mort about it, but Capcom made it clear this summer that comes to an end with the Xbox One-only Dead Rising 3. Unless the pilot and everyone on board is a zombie, there’s not much dark comedy to be found in a 757 disaster. Capcom…

This Week in the Business: ‘No Game is Review-Proof’

What’s happened in the business of video games this past week … QUOTE | “Strong franchises like Call of Duty: Ghosts tend to benefit from a halo effect, but no game is ‘review proof.'”—Analyst Billy Pidgeon, explaining with other analysts why poor reviews might hurt Call of Duty: Ghosts and sales of the franchise long-term…

Good Lord, With Over 700 Pokémon, The Pokerap Has Become Massive

Electrode, Diglett, Nidoran, Mankey, Venusaur, Rattata, Fearow, Pidgey, Seaking, Jolteon, Dragonite, Gastly, Ponyta, Vaporeon, Poliwrath, Butterfreeeeee! …wait, there’s more than just these Pokémon at the start of the Pokerap? No way. Oh, but there are. Many, many more—while many of us have only memorized the first part of the famous Pokerap (a song featured in…

eBay Seller Claims Target Shipped Them an Xbox One, Yours For $9,995.00 [UPDATE: Auction pulled]

Somehow, someone seems to not only already have an Xbox One, but they’re also selling it for nearly $10,000 dollars. Console launches typically mean immediate eBay listings, many of which are absurdly priced, sure…but the Xbox One isn’t out for weeks. Well then! priceless228, an eBay user,claims that a Target shipping errorlanded them an Xbox…

Weekend Listening: I went on a couple of podcasts this week: GameTrailers‘ Side Mission Briefing, where host Rocco DeMaro and I talked about next-gen consoles and Gravity, and a Giant Bomb Spoilercast, where Patrick Klepek, Alex Navarro, Polygon‘s Justin McElroy and I did a post-game about Beyond: Two Souls

Valve Explains Dota 2‘s Missing Diretide Event, Will Release It Soon

Valve made a lot of people angry this year when they elected not to ship a Diretide event for Dota 2. They’ve reversed course in a new blog post today, explaining why Diretide hadn’t been planned for this year and saying that the event will be included in the game’s next update. Diretide is a…

The Beautiful, Beardy Banner Saga Is Out In January

Vikings and dead gods and crazy gorgeous animation—this trailer’s got everything you could possibly want on a Friday night. The Banner Saga, the gorgeous RPG that was successfully Kickstartered back in 2012, now has an official release date: January 14, 2014 for PC and Mac. Can’t wait.

​Blizzard’s Chris Metzen Could’ve Been A Heavy Metal Frontman

Blizzard games have always had a little bit of heavy metal to them. So it’s fitting that Chris Metzen, one of their most beloved developers, brought a touch of the rock to his opening keynote today at BlizzCon. Our video editor Chris Person cut together this highlight reel of Metzen’s greatest roars. Sit back, relax,…

World Of Warcraft‘s Coolest New Feature? Garrison Building.

Like Mists of Pandaria’s Pokemon before it, the new Garrison feature in World of Warcraft’s Warlords of Draenor expansion doesn’t have much to do with traditional MMO gameplay, which is probably why I find it so intriguing. That, and the collecting people thing. Garrisons, explained today during the “What’s Next” panel today at BlizzCon 2013,…

One Map Ensured A “Battlefield Moment” Every Match

I’ve been playing the Battlefield series since the original game, Battlefield 1942. Any long-time Battlefield player will tell you what makes the series great are the random moments where something happens that you didn’t know was possible. But in Battlefield 3, one map let you re-create that moment every match. So you’re playing Battlefield 3.…

How World Of Warcraft: Warlords Of Draenor Goes Back In Time

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor takes players of Blizzard’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game back to the time of the original Warcraft real-time strategy series. How does that all go down? It’s Garrosh’s fault. During the “World of Warcraft: What’s Next” panel at BlizzCon 2013, Blizzard’s Chris Metzen walked the crowd through how players…

How The Last Generation Changed JRPGs For The Better

One of this generation’s most controversial JRPG trends might also turn out to be its best. When Team Kotaku first started planning out our Last-Gen Heroesfeature, I started thinking about how JRPGs have evolved over the past generation—a generation that some would argue has been disastrous for the genre. Between a polarizing thirteenth Final Fantasy,…