Brian Crecente

Night Flyer

To: Ash From: Crecente Technically it’s not night, but I am flying to Los Angeles for the day. I’ll be returning tomorrow afternoon. I may have some hours to kill tonight and tomorrow afternoon any suggestions on what I should do? What you missed: Video Games Survive Recession, But At What Cost? The Best Games…

When Darksiders’ Hero Goes Off The Juice (Or A Little War Never Hurt Anyone)

War’s prop sword from Darksiders, as found in a box mailed to my house and promptly wielded (sorta) by Tristan. Later to be given away at Kotaku’s annual fundraiser.

How To Pick The Best Game of 2009

You might be wondering what happened to our annual Game of the Year awards. Don’t worry they’re coming, we just didn’t see the need to rush them. I know it’s crazy, but I’ve always felt that the game of the year should be decided after the year has actually ended. I know that may be…

iPhone Chart Toppers: Doodle Jump Hops Onto the Charts

This week’s charts remain mostly unchanged, though it appears that more people have discovered the fun-little vertical platformer Doodle Jump. I downloaded Trenches last night. Great game, but man is it short. Super short. Here’s the full list: Which do you think should be the top game? Check out all of our iPhone game reviews.…

Video Games Survive Recession, But At What Cost?

Despite the recession and a drop in video game sales last year, December was the biggest month in the history of video games. A combination of console price cuts, a holiday rich in spending and the recent release of several chart-busting titles helped the game industry pull in $5.53 billion in December alone, according to…

2000: Recently transplanted from the Forth Worth Star-Telegram. I mange to juggle my full-time job as a police reporter with the Palm Beach Post and writing occasional pieces for the feature’s section of the paper about the real value of virtual real estate, and internet addiction. After much though, I decide to put my Playstation…

Ashes to Ashes

To: Ash From: Crecente Re: Browser Recs, Please! Today Ellie and Lucy came back to us in tiny little Cherry wood boxes. Sort of sad, but we’ve got Littlefoot around cheering us up. Oh, and Trish adopted a 6-month old… um… something? that was about to be put to sleep in Kansas over the weekend.…

Sex, Drugs, But No Violence: A Porn Game With A Message?

Video game developer Andrew Hall makes no bones about his lifestyle or the game he helped make that revels in it. “I have consensual sex and I do drugs,” he told Kotaku in a recent interview. “I’ve never killed anybody before. But in video games you just go kill people all day, it’s like nothing.…

Gaming’s Trojan Horse

Who cares that only Hercules bow and arrow made it into the Trojan War, this is still a great bit of promotion papercraft I received today. Keeping true to the story of the Trojan Horse, opening up its belly revealed a fun little surprise.

Who Says Snowboarding and Evening Gowns Don’t Mix?

As seen at the United States Postal Service’s truly bizarre Consumer Electronics Show booth.

Martin Sheen Dares You To Talk Back To Him (In Mass Effect 2)

Much ado has been made about Mass Effect 2’s new combat system, but let’s not forget that it’s still a story-heavy, actor-packed role-playing game. Among the impressive list of actors lending their voice and talent to the “emotionally engaging” narrative is famed Apocalypse Now and West Wing actor Martin Sheen. I was curious how the…

Giant Bomb’s Jeff Gerstmann In Our First-Ever, In-Studio Podcast

Our latest podcast is now available for download. Listen in as we and some of you grill Giant Bomb‘s Jeff Gerstmann about review scores, discuss the inevitable failure of 3D and play with our fancy new sound effect buttons. We also unveiled our new, sound-engineered audio and discussed the ins and outs of this year’s…

C-B-S

To: Ash From: Crecente Re: Delays Aren’t Necessarily Bad, Yo Busy, busy day what with the sex bots, Tiger woods stuff and our podcast. Did you listen to the podcast? It was a ton of fun and man, the sound difference. I can’t believe the difference a professional sound engineer and studio makes. OK, I…

How Gaming Helped Create A SexBot’s Skin-Deep Personality

If you can get past the skin-soft silicon, the over-sexualized mouth, the transparent nightie and uncomfortably-separated thighs, Douglas Hines latest invention could offer some interesting insight into the way games interact with people. But there’s no getting around the awkward facts of the former Bell Labs Artificial Intelligence researcher’s creations: Roxxxy and Rocky are a…

Kotaku Talk Radio: Toll Free, Live and With Gerstmann

It’s a big day for Kotaku Talk Radio, our first broadcasting live from CBS Radio studios in New York. We’ll also have on as a special guest Giant Bomb’s Jeff Gerstmann. Our move to CBS Radio makes Kotaku Talk Radio a featured part of the Chat About It selection of talk shows . The move…

New Final Fantasy Trailer Includes Lovely Music, English Voice Acting

Click to view Caught in the translation bubble that gave Final Fantasy XIII to Japan last month, but won’t deliver it to the rest of us until March, we’re all left to watch trailers of the game set to pop music. In this one we get to watch the new International trailer which is set…

Recovering From CES… AVN

To: Ash From: Crecente It’s been a busy month or so for me. And last week was all about the Consumer Electronics Show (and a tiny bit about the AVN). While the show wasn’t heavy on over-the-top gaming news, Mike and I managed to get some pretty interesting stories out of our time spent in…

And Here’s the Winner of the Ultimate Legend of Zelda Spirit Track Kit

We asked readers to get off their duffs and try to convert people into Zelda fanatics… and to document themselves doing it. The lucky winner receives a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, a Spirit Tracks t-shirt, a $1,000 Nintendo World Store gift card, a Zelda’s “biggest fan” trophy and a white Nintendo…

Final Fight: Double Impact Puts You Back In the Arcade

The most impressive thing about Capcom’s download ports of arcade classics Final Fight and Magic Sword aren’t the gameplay, it’s the frame that the game plays within. Gamers have the option of turning on a frame for the games that turns the sides of the monitor into replicas of the old gaming guides that used…

Razer Reinvents, Perfects the Xbox 360 Controller

The second to last thing I was expecting to be writing about my visit to Razer’s CES booth was an Xbox 360 controller. The last thing? That I like it more than Microsoft’s version. The Razer Onza includes two programmable bumpers, a 15-foot braided cable, a more-responsive directional pad and the ability to adjust the…