Brian Crecente

MTV Owners Plan to Ditch Rock Band Creators

Viacom today said they plan to sell the company behind Rock Band, Kinect’s Dance Central and the original Guitar Hero. The mammoth company didn’t explain why they want to sell off Harmonix, but it’s likely tied to not just the slow down in gaming sales, but also what seems to be a distinct drop off…

Chronicles of Riddick Creators Have New Owners, New Game

The studio behind Chronicles of Riddick is working on a new “AAA title for gamers” using the technology behind upcoming titles Rage, Doom 4 and Quake, Zenimax said today. Why would the company behind Bethesda be telling us about MachineGames? Because they also confirmed this morning what we reported last week: it now owns the…

Why We Don’t Do Review Events

To: Ash From: Crecente Another story about Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops review event has kicked off a new round of navel staring on Twitter. Something similar happened late last year when we wrote about these events. And I’m sure many times before when they’ve been written about. For the record, we declined to…

Tearing the Sky – An Excerpt

The former head of the Game Developers Conference and current Electronic Arts indie headhunter just published his first science fiction novel, Tearing the Sky. “Building on their lavish extrapolation of modern discoveries and technology, the most enduring science fiction stories interactively challenge our acceptance of the status quo in our own world,” Jamil Moledina said.…

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Commercial Is Creepy Good

Creepy, subtle, seemingly completely unrelated to video games, this Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood video is exactly how I like my commercials. Let’s hope the actual game lives up to them.

Is Sonic Free Riders Broken, Or Is It The Reviewers?

I still think Sonic Free Riders for Kinect is a broken game. And I’m not alone. But it sounds like there is a whole other camp out there who haven’t really had any problems with the game. So what gives? In my review of Sonic Free Riders I talked about how completely unplayable the game…

Black Ops Xbox 360 Controller Visual Guide

Black Ops Mouse Visual Guide

Black Ops Xbox 360 Controller Visual Guide

Black Ops PC Controller Visual Guide

Black Ops Mouse Pad Visual Guide

How Does Call of Duty: Black Ops Look on the Wii?

I loved Call of Duty: Black Ops on the Xbox 360. I assume the PS3 version is just as great. The PC version, though, seems to be suffering from some major bugs. But what about the Wii take on the game? Let’s have a look. CVG gives us a look at the Wii version of…

Kotaku Brasil, She’s Alive!

Kotaku Brasil is officially live! If I could samba, I’d be doing that right now. But I really, really can’t. So instead I’m checking out stories that make it look like everyone at Kotaku suddenly learned how to write in Portuguese… over night! It’s almost like the web version of watching Leave it to Beaver…

Shopping Season Is Almost Here

To: Ash From: Crecente Hey, hey. It’s time for us to start prepping our shopping guide. Thanksgiving is less than three weeks away, which means we need to start looking for gifts, gifts for gamers. We’ve got guides coming for everything from the iPhone and iPad to the consoles, handhelds and PC. FUN! What you…

How To Unlock Zork and Call of Duty: Black Ops’ Other Hidden Games

Call of Duty: Black Ops hit stores today, so if you haven’t had a chance to check out the cornucopia of easter eggs found in the game’s menu, you may want to give this video and story a pass. If you don’t care, because really it’s not connected to the story at all, then here…

Power Company Warns Of the Dangers of “Vampire Energy” with Red Ring of Death

The Alabama Power Company created this nifty television ad to talk about how some electronic gadgets still use power when they’re turned off. Unfortunately the message is likely to be lost on gamers who won’t be able to help but fixate on those three flashing red lights on the power button of the Xbox 360…

Finally, A New L.A. Noire Trailer

As seen on Rockstar Games.

Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops Redefines Modern Warfare

Black Ops slips players into the counter-espionage and abiding fear of the Cold War, while serving as a powerful link between the World War II games that came before it and the likely countless modern shooters that will come in its wake. Developer Treyarch’s first Call of Duty set outside World War II is a…

Six Years, A Bazillion Stories

To: Ash From: Crecente Six years ago today I wrote my first story for Kotaku. Way back then Kotaku was a bit more than a month old and I was the only writer, the only editor, the only anything. At the time I spent my nights as the Rocky Mountain News’ night cops reporter and…

A Visual Guide to Call of Duty: Black Ops

Black Ops is a surprisingly gory game at times. You can play Black Ops Zombie mode without having to beat the game this time around. Dead Ops is an arcade game hidden away in Call of Duty: Black Ops. Call of Duty: Black Ops is packed with modes, maps and weapons.