Judge Who Beat His Disabled Daughter for Downloading Video Games Gets His Job Back

It was almost a year ago to the day that Texas court-at-law judge William Adams was caught on film beating his disabled daughter Hillary after he had caught her illegally downloading video games. While the incident in question had actually taken place all the way back in 2004, the fact it was made public in…

Check Out This Elaborate, Crazy-Expensive Wii U Prototype

It’s rare we get a look at the very ground level of console hardware design, but that’s what we got this week with an Iwata Asks segment on Nintendo’s website, which shows an adorable little cardboard mock-up of a Wii U controller, used to quickly test out various possible uses for the giant pad. I…

This Should Help Show Just How Big Grand Theft Auto V’s Map Might Be

Rockstar dropped a bit of a surprise earlier today when it revealed Grand Theft Auto V wasn’t going to be a big game, it was going to be freaking huge. Like, bigger than GTAIV, San Andreas and Red Dead combined. But just how big is freaking huge? Maybe the above image can help. It shows…

Am I Really a Credit to Team? What is Team, When I do Not Know Love?

Team Fortress 2’s new Mann vs Machine mode gets surprisingly thoughtful in this series of pieces done by artist biggreenpepper tf2 Heavy MVM [DeviantArt, via Dotcore]

Quite Possibly The World’s Tiniest Terrier

It’s been a long day here in my corner of Kotaku, so let’s wind things down with this video of Meysi, a teeny tiny polish terrier that may well be the world’s smallest dog. If Tina gets to post her cat videos, I get to post my dogs from time to time. Man, I would…

Aspyr is bringing Borderlands 2 to the Mac on Nov. 20. It’s delivering the same drop-in/out co-op action as the PC.

Grand Theft Auto V? Ha! Here’s GTA III Played to 100% Completion in Less Than Seven Hours.

The news that GTA V will be bigger than Red Dead Redemption, San Andreas, and GTA IV combined is impressive. It makes on think back to the vast expanses of GTA III, the game that pioneered huge open-world experiences. People spent weeks on that game, trying to complete every last side quest and find every…

This is What the Wii U’s Online Store Looks Like

Here’s your first look at Nintendo’s eShop. Or at least, the Japanese version. You might think it looks a little bulky, but remember, this console has a touch-screen controller, meaning the whole thing is going to be about a million times faster to get around than Microsoft or Sony’s offerings. eShop [Nintendo]

The Biggest Change To Grand Theft Auto V May Well Be Musical

Grand Theft Auto has always been a singularly musical series. From classic rock blaring over a helicopter sunset to cool jazz simmering on a rainy city night, GTA‘s many in-game radio stations, coupled with Rockstar’s seemingly infallible song-selection, makes each game’s soundtrack as good as the last one. With the recent info-drop on Grand Theft…

Double Fine’s Superheroic Smartphone Game Has Its Own Origin Story

It’s been a little while since we last saw or heard anything about Middle Manager of Justice, Double Fine’s foray into free-to-play smartphone gaming. I gave the game a go back when Double Fine first announced it, and it looks like a fun, suitably goofy take on the whole smartphone time-management sim deal. After accidentally…

How Has Assassin’s Creed III Disappointed Me? Let Me Count The Ways.

I thought I was going to love Assassin’s Creed III. From everything I’d seen, it seemed like Ubisoft was doing everything in their not-inconsiderable power to push their flagship series into brave new territory. Except… well, they didn’t manage to pull it off. Rather than taking the Assassin’s Creed series forward in some bold new…

Don’t Get Your Hopes Up for a Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Wii U Re-Release

The well regarded Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars of 2010 was probably Capcom’s least-complained-about fighting game of the past three years, probably because the Wii was absolutely useless as a DLC-delivery device. While you may still play the game on the Wii U, which has backwards compatibility with the Wii’s controllers and games library, don’t…

7 Navy SEALS Disciplined For Sharing Secrets While Consulting On Medal of Honor: Warfighter

Throughout the lead-up to its launch, Medal of Honor: Warfighter touted its authenticity as a modern-day military shooter. Over the course of its production, it consulted heavily with real-life Navy SEALs, in order to make missions more realistic. The authenticity, unfortunately, didn’t help the game, and now it turns out its hurting the SEALs too.…

World of Warcraft to Sell Virtual Kittens to Raise Money for Sandy Relief

Okay. I may not love playing World of Warcraft, but I am happy to give credit where credit is due: this is both cute and awesome. World of Warcraft is adding a new pet to their pet store. First, it’s a kitten, which is just great on general principles. Second, it’s on fire, which is…

Did LeBron James Kill NBA 2K13‘s Competitive Balance?

It’s a year-round best seller and by all rights has never been better, but Ben Sin, writing for Kill Screen Daily, says NBA 2K13‘s competitive balance—online anyway—is completely thrown out of whack by the superteams that make the real league such a compelling story for basketball fans. “Whereas the Chicago Bulls, despite having only one…

Luke, Han, and Leia Could Be Back in Star Wars Sequel Penned By Toy Story 3 Writer

If the Hollywood rumor mill is to be trusted, Star Wars: Episode VII may already have its writer. Vulture reports that Michael Arndt has already written a 40-50 page script treatment for the film and is ” likely to be at least one of the writers” for the movie, which is expected to start shooting…

The Amazing J.S. Joust And Three Other Indie Sports Games Need Your $150,000 To Make It to PS3 and Computers

Have you heard people rave about the graphics-less multiplayer game Johann Sebastian Joust but never been able to play it? Have you noticed that it is played with PlayStation Move controllers and wondered why in the world Sony hasn’t greenlit it for an official PlayStation 3 release? Yes? No? J.S. Joust is a clever 21st…

My New Favorite Tablet Stand Gently Cups My Thigh

Since taking up duties as Kotaku’s official mobile gaming guy, I’ve started spending a large amount of time sitting outside on my patio, trying to look busy while playing games on my iPad or my Transformer Prime. The PadPivot is my constant companion, resting reassuringly upon my thigh andkeeping my tablet safe and secure. The…

Soak In The Lovely World Map Of New Super Mario Bros. U

Ahh, world maps. I love world maps. And I love world maps in Mario games. This particular map comes from New Super Mario Bros. U, the Wii U Mario game that will launch alongside Nintendo’s new console on November 18. It’s sort of reminiscent of Super Mario World—check out that ghost ship!—and it’s really interesting.…

People Magazine Thinks This Is Christina Aguilera Dressed Up As Zelda

Uhhhhhh. Oh, boy. Either People magazine got some really bad information on Christina Aguilera’s Halloween costume this year, or Christina Aguilera herself doesn’t know who or what Zelda is. Either way, according to this issue of People—and caught by Gamervescent—depicted above (and in full below) is “game heroine Princess Zelda, and beau Matt Rutler suited…