Making the Most of Zynga Poker‘s Marketing Budget

With tens of millions playing on Facebook and mobile phones, Zynga stalks the streets of New York City, hunting for anyone that’s yet to sample Zynga Poker. Either that, or the game is opening for Gov’T Mule—sighted near Kotaku’s NYC office.

Planetside 2‘s Art Director and Creative Director Are Answering Your Questions Live [Interview Closed]

Planetside 2 launched just last week. Have you guys picked up the large-scale first-person shooter yet? What do you think so far? Or maybe you haven’t picked it up yet. Or, if you’re like our own Luke Plunkett, maybe you’ve had trouble getting into the game. Maybe you have a few questions for the MMOFPS’s…

Without Music Or Gunfire, Black Ops II Becomes A Surreal Symphony Of Screams

Call of Duty games have a distinctive aural imprint. The whizzing bullets, grunting allies, ringing impacts and of course, the screams of the many men you kill. But what if the game were stripped down to only that last—what if the only things you heard in Call of Duty: Black Ops II were the combatants’…

You Need to See These Crazy Video Game Controllers

What if a real-life fist bump could make something in a game explode? Or if playing a co-op game required you to scoot over to your partner and literally join hands with him/her? Sounds crazy? Well, then call the folks behind Combiform crazy. Yes, the hybrid gamepads being crowdfunded on Kickstarter can be used as…

From Far Cry 3 PC’s day-one “critical” patch: “Health regeneration option no longer has inverted functionality.” Huh?

Two free browser games from Adidas and Old Spice are actually pretty cool. Ad games that don’t stink!

If You Funded This Ambitious Kickstarter, You’ll Have To Wait At Least Another Three Months To Get Your Hands On It

Another day, another entry into the file of troubled Kickstarter successes. The Oculus Rift, a virtual reality gaming headset which raised millions of dollars on the site this summer, has been delayed from December until at least March 2013, and possibly through April. After the Rift’s coming out party at this year’s E3 (where our…

A Dragon Age III Next-Gen Mystery, A Star Wars Theory And Some Gaming Secrets

Editor’s Note: The mysterious person known as Superannuation shows up every two weeks like a new paycheck, if you had a job that paid you in gaming rumors and secrets, all sourced to publicly available information. What was hiding in plain sight this time? Plenty, though in this edition, Superannuation is seeing if the available…

CastleVille ‘The Kringle Crisis’ Quests: Everything You Need to Know

In what could be the worst timing ever, Kris Kringle (Santa, if you prefer) has fallen into a mid-life crisis in CastleVille. Christmas is in jeopardy until we help knock him out of his rut and help him remember his duties this holiday season. This comes via a new quest series called “The Kringle Crisis,”…

Crashmo: The Kotaku Review

My enthusiasm for 2011 puzzle game Pushmo was borderline unprofessional. Also: nearly irrational. Pushmo was a block-pushing game and, really, the last thing the world needs is a game that doesn’t just feature more block-pushing puzzles but is all about them. But Nintendo did good with Pushmo. I’ve long said it’s the best game on…

There’s a Bizarre Bite-Sized Blitz Version of Street Fighter X Tekken for the iPhone

Sneaking into iTunes today while I wasn’t looking, Street Fighter X Tekken Gauntlet pits Ryu and Kazuya against the entire mobile roster, 30 seconds at a time. Built in the same engine as the full $.99 version of Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile (as evidenced by the lack of iPhone 5 widescreen support), Gauntlet is…

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition: Everything You Should Know

On November 30, 1998, a little-known company called BioWare released a strangely-titled game named Baldur’s Gate for personal computers. It was critically and commercially acclaimed, an excellent RPG with a gigantic world, interesting characters, and a ton of little details to discover and enjoy. Fourteen years later, Baldur’s Gate is back. Today marks the release…

These Goofy Eyeballs Bounce into Near-Perfect Physics Perfection on the iPad

A nonsensical name. Annoying music. So-so art style. Gluddle has all of these. So why write about it? Because this iOS game also sports rock-solid, highly addictive gameplay. Gluddle plays sort of like a pinball board that you can build yourself. The object of Creative Heroes’ physics-driven puzzler is to destroy the robots of the…

Hey Xbox Live, Kingdoms Of Amalur Should Probably Not Cost This Much

38 Studios’ financial apocalypse has been well-documented. Ultimately, no amount of auctioning and memorabilia sales could redeem all-star pitcher Curt Schilling’s game development legacy. Still, you have to wonder who’s behind the pricing of the downloadable version being offered on Xbox Live Games on Demand in Australia. Maybe 38 Studios’ only release is a collector’s…

The Android version of Fuse Powered’s Scarface Multiplayer social mafia game is now available on Google Play

ZombiU Creators Weren’t Sure Their Game’s Hardest Mode Could Be Beaten. But Someone A Bunch of People Just Did.

If you play ZombiU‘s special Survival mode you only get one life for the whole game. Death is death. No respawning as another character, which is what happens in ZombiU‘s already-tough (and very fun) normal mode. The creators of the game say they didn’t even know if that tougher Survival mode could be cleared, not…

Someone Made All Of Bastion‘s Home Base In Minecraft

Maybe I’m just a sucker for pretty things, but Minecraft re-creations never cease to amaze me. Today’s impressive showing is the eponymous bastion of Bastion, created by Redditor cereal_bawks. Allow your eyes to enjoy:

And Then There Was a Collectible Pirate Women Card Game

The new wave of mobile collectible card games — which I still do not understand — is really starting to branch out. For awhile there it was all collectible fantasy creatures and demons. Now Aeria Mobile swaps collectible creatures for collectible women. It’s okay, they’re pirates. I don’t want to be known as the mobile…

This Chrono Trigger Wall Art Will Melt Your Brain

Seen on Reddit, the wall art above is literally a labor of love. Not only does it commemorate one man’s devotion to classic RPG Chrono Trigger, it’s also the product of one couple’s combined work over two years. Amazing stuff.

This Drug Is Legal. It’s Digital. And It’s Supposed To Improve How You Game. I Put It To The Test.

Bigger, better, faster, stronger. Entire industries have blossomed over the years by promising that they’ll enhance your performance or make you a more efficient human being. Here, read this productivity blog, listen to this podcast by a bestselling author, drink this vitamin-infused energy drink, take this seminar! Become the better, real you. Only x easy…