Elegant Puzzle Games Should Be On Oprah’s Non-Existent List of Video Game “Favorite Things”

I don’t know if Oprah Winfrey plays video games. For all I know she plays Angry Birds while commuting from her estate in California to her apartment in Chicago. Facebook games, at least, seem to be on her radar. When I was playing Splice, an indie puzzle game born on Steam and now brought to…

Gaming Accessibility Project Hopes To Help More Developers Make Games Disabled Gamers Can Play

There are two kinds of accessibility that come up in gaming discussions. One is that understanding how a game works, or how to master it, can often be impenetrable to the newbie. But the other is that no matter how experienced a gamer is, if he or she has certain disabilities, the games can be…

Video Game Controllers Are Art

The debate as to video games are art is tired. Either you think they are or that they’re not. Turns out the controllers used to engage with games can become sublime, too. Who knew decades-old wired video game controllers could be so beautiful? The lines of insulated copper and aluminum—is that what they were made…

Here’s the full list of games that Sony’s bringing to the 2012 Tokyo Games Show. No, The Last Guardian won’t be there.

The Next Game From the Makers Of Angry Birds Stars The Pigs

You like the pigs in Angry Birds? Do you feel bad for the pigs? Well, good news: the pigs are the stars in the next game from Rovio, the creators of Angry Birds. The game is called Bad Piggies and, Rovio hypes, there’s “not a slingshot in sight.” So what kind of game is it?…

Hearthfire, Skyrim‘s New DLC, Is Now Available On Xbox Live

Skyrim: The Sims is now available on Xbox Live for 400 Microsoft Points, according to a press blast sent out by Bethesda this morning. “Hearthfire allows you to purchase land and build your own home from the ground up – from a simple one-room cottage to a sprawling compound complete with armory, alchemy laboratory, and…

This Real-Life Assassin’s Creed Parkour Runner Has Great Moves

Cosplay is one thing; many men and women have worn the Assassin’s hood. Actually going out into the city and scaling buildings, though… well, that’s another thing entirely. This Assassin doesn’t quite have all of Altair’s or Ezio’s moves down—there are no convenient haystacks for ten-story leaps, and it’s just as well that he doesn’t…

PAX Attendees Trade in Bottle Caps for an Engagement Ring At Bethesda’s Booth

Two PAX attendees in Fallout cosplay thought they might be able to trade in months’ worth of bottle caps savings for some cool swag at Bethesda’s booth in Seattle this past weekend. Little did Alisha, Trevor’s girlfriend of three years, know what was hidden inside the ammo box the Bethesda booth representative handed them. Skip…

Dota Dispatch: Watching People Play Video Games For $1.6 Million

The crowd roars. It’s thrilling. So are the gasps of disbelief, the sudden outbursts of raucous applause whenever someone does something extraordinary. Even when I can’t tell why they’re on their feet, I want to join in. The energy is infectious. This sort of high-octane atmosphere makes sense: the stakes are enormous. The players on…

This Arcade Game Makes You Feel Like a Dual Wielding Bad-Ass

Gunslinger Stratos is a four-versus-four third-person shooter for Japanese arcades made by Square-Enix. But it’s not just your average TPS team deathmatch arcade. It’s also a lightgun game—a dual wielding lightgun game at that. But the gimmick goes so far beyond simple dual wielding. To switch between your weapons—which range from pistols to gravity guns—you…

Adventure Time Mastermind Talks About the Differences In Making the Show Versus the Game

Adventure Time—the lovable, adventurous Cartoon Network series penned by mastermind artist and writer Pen Ward—has blown up to staggering popularity. Search for the show and its characters online and you’ll find a mess of fan-made renditions and mash-ups and even new inventions (like the currently non-existent baby product of Jake—a dog who can stretch to…

There’s a New Arc System Works Game. It’s Not What You Expect.

Arc System Works is famous for fighting games like Guilty Gear and BlazBlue. This is not Guilty Gear. It’s not BlazBlue. It’s Tottemo E Mahjong for the PS Vita. No, really. Arc System Works Has A New Vita Game. It’s Moe-ized Mahjong [Siliconera] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the…

Making Giant Mecha Is So Very Romantic

Wataru Yoshizaki is developing software that powers a giant mecha—a giant mecha that you can actually buy. In the above video, he waxes about working on the KURATAS, which is a huge mecha Kotaku previously featured (here, here, and here). In the slick video, Yoshizaki says he wants to create a society in which we…

Ken, Your Foot Looks Bigger When It’s Kicking My Face In

Even during the past twenty-five years of Street Fighter (25 years, crazy!), there are some angles I’ve never seen in Street Fighter. Until now. Artist Kobus Faber did a series of “forced perspective” SF poses. Characters include Ken, Sagat, Cammy, Chun-Li, and Makoto, among others. The result is not only spectacular, but also fresh and…

This Man Is Flabby, Heroic

At a recent body building competition in Taichung, Taiwan, muscle-bound dudes gathered and flexed. One contestant, however, wasn’t entering a body building competition, but a courage competition. Online, he’s been dubbed “flabby brother” by netizens, who applaud his determination. What this fellow lacks in muscle and coordination, he more than makes up for it in…

The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki is not Ghibli, But it’s Pretty Darn Close

The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki is the newest film from Mamoru Hosoda, the acclaimed director of Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. In many ways, the film is reminiscent of the best Ghibli movies. It is a modern fantasy tale, filled with themes relating to family, nature, and growing up. So…

This Gamer Energy Drink Gives People Erections

There are numerous companies that churn out energy drinks. Some of them even market their beverages to gamers as “fuel”. But how many video games have energy drinks designed to help you get it up after your first round of sex? 3DS game Senran Kagura Burst does, that’s for sure. Akahige Pharmacy, “Red Beard Pharmacy”,…

The Virtual Idol Gaming Forgot About

Here at Kotaku East we have had a lot to say about Japan’s most popular virtual idol, Hatsune Miku. But just because she is the most popular one doesn’t mean that she is the only one. Back in 2006, Tetsuya Mizoguchi—creator of Space Channel 5, Rez, Lumines, and Child of Eden—teamed up with record producer…

New Resident Evil Movie Is Marred By Japanese-Chinese Political Tensions

Resident Evil: Retribution might be a Hollywood movie, but it’s based on a Japanese video game. One of the places it takes place is, well, Tokyo. Yet, the actress who plays RE character Ada Wong now wants nothing to do with Japan. Ada Wong actress Bingbing Li did not show at the recent Tokyo premiere…

Report: Sony (Mobile) Hacked

Over the Labor Day weekend, some hackers were apparently hard at work. Hacktivist group NullCew announced that it has made its way into Sony Mobile’s servers, reports ZDNet. A Pastebin dump shows a list of several hundred usernames from the website Sonymobile.com as proof of the infiltration. The Pastebin dump has the following message: Sony,…