Kotaku: Well Played

Is the PS Vita A Device Ahead of Its Time or Behind It?

Brian Crecente — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST

With its big, bright screen, ability to sense touch and motion, and controls that mimic a home game console's, Sony's Playstation Vita delivers the sort of gaming that approaches what you might expect to experience in your den. But is that what gamers still want? More »

Video Games Could Kill The TV Star

Brian Crecente — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST

As game consoles become more like cable television boxes, maybe it's time for video games to start becoming more like cable television shows. More »

For the Right Price These Gamers Will Die For You

Brian Crecente — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:00:00 EST

This story starts, as so many great ones do, with a classified ad: "I will take bullets for you," it read. More »

It's Time for a War Game that Respects the Geneva Conventions

Brian Crecente — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST

Despite its inherent brutality, war has rules. Laws of war have been around in one form or another since Biblical times. They govern the treatment of prisoners of war, the expediency of death on a battlefield. Could they, should they also pertain to the depiction of virtual war in video games? More »

These Are A Few of My Favorite 2011 Games

Brian Crecente — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST

With the holidays rounding the bend and the big shopping season about to kick off, now's a great time to start thinking about what to buy that gamer in your life, be they casual, hardcore or even a once-a-year player. More »

Getting Fit The Skyrim Way

Brian Crecente — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST

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A new fitness program that asks gamers to earn time gaming by exercising is targeting fans of one of the biggest releases of the year. More »

A Video Game Company Wants to Turn Virtual War Into Our Next National Pastime

Brian Crecente — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:00:00 EST

Baseball, hockey, football... Call of Duty? More »

One Year After Release, Microsoft Moves Kinect Toward Business and Science

Brian Crecente — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EDT

While conceived as a device meant to expand the reach of Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming platform by allowing people to play video games without the need for controllers, the Kinect has always been destined for a broader future. More »

Pinball Teeters on the Brink of Obsolescence and a Resurgence

Brian Crecente — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EDT

Pinball played right is an act of violence. More »

Why Was The PC Launch of Rage Such A "Cluster!@#$"?

Brian Crecente — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:20:00 EDT

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The idea from the start was a game that blurred the lines between how games looked on console and PC. More »

Your Cable Box Is Dying. Long Live the Game Console!

Brian Crecente — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EDT

Your cable box is headed for obsolescence. More »

Taking the Taboo Out of Mature Gaming

Brian Crecente — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:00:00 EDT

It's like clockwork; Moments after popping open any game that has a mature rating, my 10-year-old son seems to appear at my elbow to ask if he can play it with me. More »

The 2011 Guide to Fall Video Games

Brian Crecente — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:00:00 EDT

Traditionally one of the busiest times of the year for major game releases, this fall game makers seem to be focusing on an increasingly loud mantra: Quality over quantity. More »

Tokyo Game Show Soldiers On Despite A Looming Identity Crisis

Brian Crecente — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EDT

Japan may not be the birthplace of video games, but it is the heart of video game culture. More »

Why Portal's Publishers Don't Fear Piracy, Competition

Brian Crecente — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 10:00:00 EDT

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Computer games have long lived online, but nowadays video game consoles are joining them, becoming a form of entertainment that can be not just enjoyed online, but increasingly, purchased online. More »

A Visit To the Thousands-Strong Gaming Tent City of Cologne

Brian Crecente — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:00:00 EDT

COLOGNE, GERMANY - For one week a year a very different sort of campsite forms along Cologne's pebbled shores of the Rhine river. More »

These Orangutans Play with iPads

Brian Crecente — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:00:00 EDT

Orangutans, it turns out, love the iPad and its games just as much as some humans do. More »

When A Book Becomes a Game At the Hands of Pixar's Masters

Brian Crecente — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:00:00 EDT

Born of Hurricane Katrina and the passing of a dear friend, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is more than a poignant, interactive allegory, it is the budding metamorphosis of the narrative. More »

Are Gaming's Biggest Portables Becoming Its Smallest Niche?

Brian Crecente — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:00:00 EDT

Last week's drastic, surprising price drop for Nintendo's 3DS gaming portable brought turmoil not just to the last major dedicated gaming hardware company in the world, but also the notion of portable gaming. More »

For Some, "Gamer" Still Means "Social Outcast"

Brian Crecente — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EDT

Anders Behring Breivik was a likable loner, a seemingly harmless Norwegian who masked his sudden disappearance from society to prepare for the biggest single-handed massacre in recent history with a modern affliction: Video game addiction. More »

Being Terrible at Video Games Makes Surprisingly Great Television

Brian Crecente — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:00:00 EDT

People don't tune into Japanese television show Retro Game Master to watch Shinya Arino whip through video games effortlessly. They tune in to watch him fail, and fail, and fail, and perhaps to finally, painfully succeed. More »

The Reinvention of Literature

Brian Crecente — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:00:00 EDT

There's something seemingly scandalous, irreverent about Simon Meek's notion of "playing through" novels like Crime and Punishment or Wuthering Heights. More »

Angry Birds, Happy Physicists

Brian Crecente — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 14:00:00 EDT

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Galileo discovered the language of nature. Einstein questioned the color of rainbows. Today's physicists ponder the vertical acceleration and horizontal velocity of an angry bird in flight. More »

Video Games Are Ruled Protected Speech, Now What?

Brian Crecente — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 13:20:00 EDT

Ending a years-long battle with California legislators, the U.S. Supreme Court this week ruled that video games are protected free speech and that their sale to minors can't be criminalized. More »

The Big Games, Big Gadgets, Big Surprises of E3

Brian Crecente — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:00:00 EDT

The promise of uncompromising gaming on the go, a sexy new console from the makers of the Wii and a robust line-up of must-have, must-play games topped this year's celebration of all things gaming in Los Angeles last week. More »

The Undercurrent of Domestic Violence in Bioshock Infinite

Brian Crecente — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:00:00 EDT

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"I'm sorry. I never should have left. I never should have left. Take me back. Take me back. Take me home... please." More »

Modern War Begets Modern Warfare 3

Brian Crecente — Mon, 16 May 2011 13:00:00 EDT

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This fall will see the culmination of what has become one of the biggest money-earning entertainment properties in the world: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. More »

Is the bin Laden Kill Game Cathartic, Educational, or Just Ghoulish?

Brian Crecente — Mon, 09 May 2011 10:00:00 EDT

Osama bin Laden hunches quietly in the darkness of an Abbottabad basement, rifle clutched in his hands. He swivels smoothly left. Stops. Then swivels smoothly right. His face is frozen in a thousand mile stare, eyes unblinking. More »

Video Games Let You Kill, Abuse Osama

Brian Crecente — Mon, 02 May 2011 12:30:00 EDT

Sunday night a team of two dozen Navy SEALs killed Osama Bin Laden. If all goes as planned, you will soon be able to reenact that head shot in a video game this weekend. More »

Play A Game For Social Change

Brian Crecente — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:30:00 EDT

America may not be headed toward a future of citizens tracked with implanted chips, pacified by drugs and tightly segregated, but creating that Orwellian future now could be the best way to prevent it, one activist group thinks. More »

This Robot Dog's Ugly is Only Skin Deep

Brian Crecente — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 10:30:00 EDT

It looks more organic than robotic. More »

The Pros and Cons of Early 3DS Ownership

Brian Crecente — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:30:00 EDT

Being a fan of technology and gee-whiz gadgets can take its toll on your bank account and your faith in innovation at times. More »

Why 3D Isn't the 3DS' Greatest Achievement

Brian Crecente — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 10:30:00 EDT

The window into a world where I am a submarine commander, a street fighter, a pilot, a Jedi, pops outs at me in stunning 3D. More »

Earthquake Relief, 99 Cents At a Time

Brian Crecente — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:00:00 EDT

It was like a freight train hit the building. More »

Sixty-Year Old Technology Could Change the Face of Gaming

Brian Crecente — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:30:00 EST

The future of gaming is more than 60 years old. More »

How FarmVille's Makers Missed the Boat On The Next Great Era of Gaming

Brian Crecente — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:30:00 EST

Before there were virtual farmers in FarmVille and virtual shop owners in CityVille, there was Ultima Online. More »

Can A Super Smart Computer Teach Game Characters To Be As Stupid As Humans?

Brian Crecente — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:00:00 EST

Supercomputer Watson can best the best of us in Jeopardy, but can it make the games we play at home more challenging and fun? More »

The Secret to Long-Distance Friendships Could be Online Gaming

Brian Crecente — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 14:30:00 EST

Tag in the front yard, football in a field, hide-and-go seek in the neighborhood and, yes, sometimes video games online. More »

A PlayStation 3 In Your Pocket, And Maybe A Game Store Too

Brian Crecente — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:00:00 EST

Sony's Next Generation Portable sounds like a portable gaming machine powerful enough to replace the Playstation 3 home console, but it's actually meant to augment the experience, Sony Entertainment of America president Jack Tretton says. More »

Nintendo's Big, Pricey Bet on 3D

Brian Crecente — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 10:00:00 EST

Would you pay $250 for 3D gaming, movie watching and picture taking you can carry in your pocket? More »