All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Prepare to face the Kraken.

#gamers4life Are you following Kotaku on Facebook? I hope so! We give away lots of neat things on Facebook. Things like early access to video games and cool swag. And besides getting a chance to win neat prizes, it also makes you instantly super cool and lets you pass around the best of Kotaku's stories. ZU-PEAR COOOOLE!!! More »

You heard the announcement at E3 and read even more details last week. Today, we’re excited to officially announce the availability of PlayStation Plus.

You can purchase a three-month package or a one-year package on the PlayStation Store now. The three-month package is available for $17.99 and the one-year package is available for $49.99. We will also be offering three additional bonus months for free if you purchase the one-year package — that’s 15 months total for $49.99.

We hope you enjoy the exclusive set of features and content of PlayStation Plus. And remember to check back in each month as we continue to add new content and features for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

Harvest Moon publisher expects more from 3D portable than from any other system.

During our extended preview of Dance Central at Harmonix's studio (post-E3), we talked with project lead Kasson Crooker and lead producer Naoko Takamoto about the challenges of making a new dance "franchise" (a term Crooker doesn't like) and finding gender balance in a game that's all about shaking what your momma gave you. Our full interview follows.

Joystiq: Is Dance Central considered "a platform" in the same way that Rock Band is?

Kasson Crooker: Yeah, it is a platform. We're at the beginning and DLC will be the extension. And I hope that if people take to it -- the non-dancers take to it, the dancers take to it, people take to it from a fitness workout physical experience -- that this is the beginning of a huge world of dance for Harmonix. The same way Rock Band has been.

#harmonix Rock Band's singing section might be very forgiving, but the ear doesn't lie. Now Harmonix teams with audio signal processing company iZotope to add real-time pitch correction to Rock Band 3, saving ears everywhere from your harpy-like screeching. More »

Arc System Works has decided to promote their WiiWare lineup of ‘Family’ games by putting together a series of interactive wallpapers for the iPhone. These wallpapers make noises when you touch them…and that’s about it. Thankfully, they come at the low, low price of zero dollars. Man, what a strange way to [...]

The Rabbids change the course of history with a brand new party game.

Burbank, Calif. – June 29, 2010 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and TT Games are building the magic in retail stores today with LEGO® Harry Potter™: Years 1-4, available now in North America for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation® 3 computer entertainment system, Wii™, Nintendo DS™, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) [...]

A 500MB PC patch for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is ready to deploy tomorrow, June 30, at 1AM EST. Developer DICE states "all game servers" are going down for the four-hour maintenance update (we're trying to clarify if that includes PS3 and Xbox 360 servers). We've listed the full changelog after the break.

Do you know what the Dendy is? You might not, but our gaming friends over in Russia do. That was the name of the gray-market NES device that was all the talk back in the day. Russians used the Dendy to get their NES gaming on, and they ready all about the [...]

#clips This dev diary for Zombie Studios' downloadable shooter BlackLight: Tango Down sheds some light on how six core weapon systems can be modified into "literally trillions of different weapon combinations." More »

< ![endif]--> REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The Wii™ system has revolutionized the way people play video games by bringing simple-to-use motion controls and a physically active brand of social fun into millions of households worldwide. Now Nintendo of America is urging players of all ages and backgrounds to step out of their homes and [...]

id/Bethesda lead the way at this year's show.

id/Bethesda lead the way at this year's show.

#e3 The Game Critics have spoken, these are the best of E3 nominees for this year... More »

id/Bethesda lead the way at this year's show.

id/Bethesda lead the way at this year's show.

After our first body-on experience with Dance Central at E3, we wanted a more accurate feeling of what the game would be like away from the bright lights and cacophony of the annual mega show. Developed by Harmonix, best known for creating Rock Band and the original Guitar Hero (along with cult favorites Frequency and Amplitude, Dance Central) is a seemingly innocent mainstream dance title which maintains the street cred and serious gaming elements we've come to expect from the Boston-based developer.

I spent a couple hours at Harmonix's studio last week getting a better idea of what the game will be like in our homes this holiday. Now, granted, none of us will likely have two of the games' producers and a publicist on hand when we're playing with our families, but it's as close as I could get to an intimate test.

#competition Are you the best Wii gamer in the country? Nintendo gives you a chance to prove your mettle in the first-ever Wii Games: Summer 2010, and it all starts in the cradle of civilization: New Jersey. More »

Are you ready to totally destroy some people on vacation who felt like trying out a Wii game? Get to your local mall or Six Flags next month! This summer, Nintendo is holding a Wii Games: Summer 2010 competition, with initial matches held throughout the country, culminating in a final showdown in Los Angeles.

The five events to get way too serious about include Wii Sports Resort's Basketball and Bowling, Wii Fit Plus's Hula Hoop Challenge, New Super Mario Bros. Wii's Coin Battle, and Mario Kart Wii's Time Trial. The schedule and locations can be found at the competition's official site. Not anywhere near one of those locations? A "home version" will soon be available on the site, so you can try out your inappropriately intense game and trash talk on your own family.

#sony A new firmware update for the PlayStation 3 ushers in the age of PlayStation Plus, Sony's new premium subscription service. Let's take a look at what your money buys you today! More »

How Ruffian's sequel ramps up the fun in Pacific City.

#clips Gamer, take a close look in the mirror. Note the exulting highs, the soul-crushing lows, of someone trying to beat a very hard level in a video game. More »

Take-Two Interactive CEO Ben Feder recently told VentureBeat that runaway stagecoach hit Red Dead Redemption, which supposedly ended up having one bucking bronco of a budget after six years of development, will be profitable for the company. Take-Two announced last month that the western had shipped over 5 million units, putting it en route to surpass the alleged 4 million units in sales it needed to recoup costs.

The executive added that Red Dead Redemption "sucked the oxygen out of the room" upon its release, leaving little room in the market for anything that launched around the same time. The UK sales charts would agree, with RDR having held a prominent place since launch. Now, we wait for the US NPD figures (which will cover two months of data) to give us an idea of how the game's been doing in the States.

#ps3 Sony's June 2009 PlayStation 3 disc-based video game inFamous is now Sony's June 2010 downloadable game. More »

4A Games' Metro 2033 came out under the radar, but quickly became a sleeper hit with Joystiq staff, what with its heavy atmosphere and mature, bleak tone. So, as you could imagine, the announcement of a sequel in development makes our hearts glow as if they were just hand-cranked by a post-apocalyptic Russian.

In discussing the topic of 3D gaming with CVG, THQ's Danny Bilson said, "We're going to be doing a 3D version of that on Metro 2034 - the sequel. And there will be some engineering costs there, but that's in our lowest cost centre in the world."

Okay, so maybe we could do with a little more fanfare accompanying our game announcements, but there you have it.

#sales Video games need a top ten list. Movies have them, music has them, but the video game industry still hasn't found a solid way to track the country's most popular video games, according to Michael Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association. More »