The globe-trotting nature of the Call of Duty series means that multiplayer maps have a plethora of locales to choose from. And the latest one is in… New York?! More »

Sony has told Kotaku that there will not be a North American version of the UMD Passport program, which would allow PlayStation Vita users to transfer their PSP discs to the upcoming handheld. More »

Have you ever made a video game character fear you? More »

Silver Dollar Games has released a teaser trailer for its next Xbox Live Indie Games release, the kung-fu brawler One Finger Death Punch.

The game distills brawler mechanics into a quick series of button presses -- no directional input is required. The developer describes it as "gaming's first rail-fighter."

While development is not yet complete, the over-the-top presentation makes it seem engrossing enough, and it looks like there are multiple difficulty levels, if jamming on the A button alone isn't enough of a challenge for you. No release date has been announced.

Your Dragonborn might be able to tear massive dragons out of the heavens with the power of his voice, but does he have back pimples? He can now, as Bethesda releases the free official high resolution texture pack for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. More »

When Lavos is in the timestream, drop him like it's hot. I believe that's what Snoop Dogg would say if he were alive today. We'll check back with him tomorrow to see if anything's changed. More »

So my inspiration for the following story is artist Daniel Canogar’s piece Hide 2. The portrait was created by inscribing many different fingerprints ( all from different people) digitally; the prints blurred and overlapped creating only partial prints.When I looked at it, it  made me think of big mixing pot were everyone was mixed together by their finger prints. So I decided to write a story where the melting pot was literal.

“Don’t go near it!” My mother said. But they were so enticing to a child. They were calling to me, literally. The landmass that we lived on, was bounded by a sea of an unknown substance. The murky mixture was also a combination of whatever fell into it: wood, metal, animals, and even humans. My mother always wondered why the sea didn’t gobble up the land and everything on it. For fun, kids would poke sticks into the mixture and watched as they slowly disassociated and faded away. They also liked to return at night and listen to the voices, while they told ghost in front of a fire they made from flashlights. The mixture wasn’t a stagnant body, but it flowed like a river does to the sea. If by luck, various pieces and particles would flow together and form a makeshift mouth, or something that resembled it. When that happened, you could hear a broken cry for help or a tortured moan. The children also liked to watch for fingers and hands that peeked out from the surface seeking something sturdy to grasp. Some children would run and hide, but the braves ones taunted the fingers and hands with outstretched branches that were just out of reach. The fingers and hands frantically jerked to even graze the branches. They laughed and chatted as they taunted these lost entities.

That was how I got pulled in. I remember the hand that I was taunting had a good grip. I didn’t let go thinking I could pull something out of the mixture. Maybe a dog with human limbs or vise versa, or a metallic hamster or a wooden rabbit that rocked instead of hopped. The strength of the hand overtook my own.

At first, I fell forward onto the bank, my hands dangling just above the surface. Whatever I was taunting sought retribution.  It grabbed one of my hands, and slowly dragged it under. It seemed whatever entity, that had possessed the hand, had fade away soon after it submerged my hand elbow deep. I quickly pulled my hand out, hoping I was OK. I hadn’t lost any fingers. I shook the water off.

Instead of loosing a finger, I had gained one. From my elbow downward, my hand was not encased by skin any longer.

From my elbow to my wrist, my hand was covered by a thin almost sheer muslin like cloth. Most of my skin had dissolved, and under the cloth you could see my tiny muscles ribbed with veins. My new sixth finger was made from the remnants of a lizard’s tail, it wiggled like it had a life of its own. Three of my other fingers were now made of wood, another finger was made of copper and my thumb was made of a blue unidentifiable material. All my finger nails were made of glass and my hand was made of cardboard.

I start to cry. Mother will be angry.

Double Fine head Tim Schafer is just as baffled as the rest of us at news that Markus "Notch" Persson wants to fund a Psychonauts sequel. More »

After posting my initial impressions of gameplay on the Razer Blade yesterday, company reps contacted me to make sure my video card was working properly. It was not. Now it is, and my impressions have been updated. More »

N'Gai Croal and Andre Vrignaud have seen the future of video games. They don't want you to be scared even though things are about to be very different. More »

DawnBreak Studios' Papa Joe almost makes me want to get myself a Windows Phone. The debut production from an upcoming Swedish development studio, Papa Joe is apparently a sneak 'em up that will have you playing as the odd-looking titular character. The story behind the game is about as strange looking as the protagonist himself. It seems that Papa Joe is the resident of a sleepy desert village that has been taken over by mysterious antennas, mysterious antennas that are trying to brainwash people into thinking beauty is everything. I don't know about you but that makes me think of modern television. The game is scheduled to launch sometime this Spring.

Official website can be found here.

Indie game fans can now semi-blind pre-order Gamasutra sister site Indie Royale's Valentine's Bundle at a recommended €/£/$10 or €/£/$5 USD contribution, and a minimum of $3.99 USD.

The games offered this time include a fantastical first-person action-adventure game (Steam for PC), an IGF-nominated puzzle adventure title (Steam for PC and Mac, Desura for PC and Linux, DRM-free PC, Mac and Linux download), a 'scorching' single and multiplayer arcade-strategy game (Steam for PC and Mac), and a world premiere on PC for a pair of retro RPG-defense games (Desura for PC, DRM-free PC download).

Those who optionally pre-order now will get game access as soon as the bundle launches, lock in the lowest price, and receive as a bonus One Life Left's eclectic 'Music To Play Games By Too' compilation, available for the first time ever digitally (this bonus is also available to those who pay more than the minimum price during the bundle.)

The Valentine's Bundle will launch fully later this week at $3.99 USD and up - watch our Twitter feed or Facebook page for immediate notice at launch time.

[Indie Royale is co-created by Gamasutra sister site IndieGames.com and Australian download site Desura.]

Most of this buzz clip that accompanied today's Skylanders Giants announcement is Activision beating its brawny chest about the success of their new toy-and-video-game franchise. But, you'll see a snippet of gameplay featuring new larger-than-normal character Tree Rex towards the end of the video. He's doing big things. More »

IndieCity-Hosted Global Game Jam Site a Success!
Gamasutra
IndieCity.com hosted its second Global Game Jam site in Birmingham, with over 50 attendees creating 11 different games. This year's IndieCity-hosted Global Game Jam site in Birmingham saw over 50 participants get together to create 11 titles, ...

Business Post Mortem: Wolf Toss: Pre-launch Planning & Blended CAC
Gamasutra (blog)
It didn't come out of a week-long game jam, or a series of game planning meetings, or some kind of market analysis showing that it was the logical evolution of the physics knock-em-down genre. Instead, as Todd Hooper wrote in his MobileDevHQ article ...

IndieCity-Hosted Global Game Jam Site a Success!
Gamasutra
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.] IndieCity.com hosted its second Global Game Jam site in Birmingham, with over 50 attendees creating 11 different ...

Remember Castle Story? We shared the trailer sometime last month. And it definitely looks like development has yet to cease. Sauropod Studios, the people responsible for the upcoming title, recently divulged a time lapse video showcasing of the gameplay elements. While it doesn't reveal all too much, it's still moderately exciting to see how detailed the various mechanics will be. Hopefully, there will be news of an alpha build in the near future. Yes? No? Please say yes, Sauropod Studios.

Official website is here.

Resident Evil: Revelations for the 3DS hits store shelves today. Our review found much to love in the eerie 3D game. More »

Those rumors about an April debut for the Kinect Star Wars game—and the fancy console associated with it—have turned out to be true. Xbox exec Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb confirmed an April 3rd date on Twitter and an official press release cites a $450 price for a console + Kinect + game bundle. More »

Remember back when the Final Fantasy franchise had room for silly jokes and random frivolity? Commenter Balmung certainly does, and he wonders we'll ever go back there in today's Speak Up on Kotaku. More »