Mike Fahey

What Exactly is a Witcher Anyway?

Xbox 360 gamers around the world are eagerly anticipating their chance to get in on this whole The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, but does anyone really know what a Witcher is? Of course they do, and after you watch this video so will you. The more accurate answer is that a Witcher is a…

We’re Deadly Serious About This Week in Gaming Apps

Seriously, we’re not kidding. Were today two days from now you might have cause to question our daily selection of spotlight-worth mobile games, but I specifically set up the Gregorian calendar to make sure that never happened. If today were Sunday… well, then all bets would be off. I’d have a round-up of five popular…

The Battle of the Portal-Singing Lasers is Joined By Two Amazing Versions of “Want You Gone”

Last week I posted Chris DePrisco’s fiber laser rendition of Jonathan Coulton’s “Still Alive”, the ending theme from Portal, with an implied suggestion that Portal 2‘s “Want You Gone” receive similar treatment. Well it did. Twice. From two completely different types of lasers. Late last night one David Grossman shared with me a different sort…

Tales of Graces F Brings Out the Responsible Parent In Me

I knew becoming the father of twin boys would impact the amount of time I had to play video games. I didn’t realize it would also affect the way I perceive them. As I played through the early hours of Namco Bandai’s Tales of Graces F I came to a startling realization: I’m not merely…

My Favorite Aspect of Mass Effect 3 is the Hideous Plastic Party People

There is such a thing as too much pretty. One can only stare into the face of Commander Shepard and friends so long before becoming overwhelmed. Perhaps that’s why BioWare left us this tiny slice of ugly—to keep us grounded. I love the little shortcuts that go into developing a game on the scale of…

Insomniac’s Canceled Pinball Project had Powerful Potential

Celebrating the company’s transition to Facebook’s mandatory Timeline format, Insomniac Games shares the secrets of 1080Pinball , the high-definition downloadable game that never was. Ratchet & Clank and Uncharted Resistance (sorry, temporarily insane) are nice and all, but give me a strong pinball video game with tight physics and a meaty selection of tables and…

Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Goes Single-Player as Layoffs Hit Relic and Vigil

The fate of the Warhammer 40,000 MMO has been revealed: It’s no longer a Warhammer 40,000 MMO. THQ has announced Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium has been “refocused” as a single-player action game with multiplayer elements, a change that brings with it substantial layoffs at developers Vigil Games and Relic Entertainment. Originally thought canceled due to…

Let Sleeping Dogs Drive and This is What Happens

I told you not to bother them. Now they’re doing stunts, participating in illegal street races, and jumping from car-to-car with larcenous intent. BAD DOGS. The game formerly known as True Crime: Hong Kong features a massive open world filled with things that explode, shatter, or die horribly when hit with sufficient force. Naturally vehicles…

The Most Compelling Image I Could Find to Represent This Week’s Nintendo Download

REMIX! This week sees the release of only two new games across Nintendo’s three platforms, signaling a time of change for the Weekly Nintendo download. Oh don’t worry, it’s not going away or anything. It’s just expanding to include whatever new videos the 3DS is getting in any given week, along with demos released for…

Kingdom Hearts 3DS’ Opening Movie Mixes Things Up

New screens from the opening movie for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance show off the game’s dedication to stirring the series’ already convoluted storyline into one large frothy jumble tasting faintly of salt water ice cream. I’ve been wondering which of the two Hikaru Utada opening themes they’d be using to kick off this…

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is Much More Than Meets the Cover-Based Shooter

While I loved Transformers: War for Cybertron, at the end of the day I realize it wasn’t much more than a cover-based shooter with robots. High Moon Studios is taking steps to make sure Fall of Cybertron is much more than that. As game director Matt Tieger puts it, War for Cybertron was about proving…

Best Game Ever: Thief: The Dark Project is the Only Way to Stealth

Thought we forgot about Speak Up on Kotaku’s Best Game Ever? We were only biding our time until commenter DocSeuss and admitted his love for the one stealth action game that got nearly everything right. I’m done playing third-person stealth games. I can’t do it anymore. I want to, believe me, but… yeah. No. I…

Digital Storm Beats the Heat With the “World’s Most Advanced PC”

Most boutique shops rely on other people’s technology to keep the insides of your expensive machine cool. With a custom-designed chassis, the proprietary Cryo-TEC liquid cooling system, and software capable of controlling 13 case fans all at once, Digital Storm’s Aventum isn’t your average boutique machine. The Aventum is a PC designed from the ground-up…

Brave the Darkest Depths of This Post for a Copy of Legend of Grimrock

The nice folks at GOG.com were so excited to Almost human’s Legend of Grimrock in our PC Indie Spotlight they spontaneously expelled 15 codes for the full game. I’m not touching them. I don’t know where they’ve been. As you may or may not have heard, the digital distribution platform formerly known as Good Old…

World of Warcraft Monopoly Replaces Uncle Pennybags with a Miniature Murloc

Just as the money for World of Warcraft Monopoly replaces those boring old numbers with the faces of Azeroth’s most influential, the Chance and Community Chest cards replace the stale old man in a top hat with the freshest seafood Azeroth has to offer. Two weeks ago PC Gaming Lives gave you an exclusive first-look…

Tera‘s Rabid Spokesman Brutalizes the Developers of Land of Dragonrunes

If you’re wondering why the graphics update for Land of Dragonrunes never came out, you only have the brutal hands of Tera spokesman and MMA legend Bas Rutten to blame. Well, that and the fact that the game doesn’t technically exist. Bas Rutten doesn’t let something as paltry as non-existence get in the way of…

Legend of Grimrock is Everything I Wanted in a Modern-Day Dungeon Crawler

Our beaten, bloodied and bruise party stood before the gold-trimmed door, attempting to unravel the secret means of accessing the treasures beyond it. Decimated after a fierce battle with skeletal knights, we should be making haste to the nearest healing stone, but we’d caught the whiff of treasure, and there was no turning back. The…

PC Gaming Lives Booting Up

Prepare yourselves for two hours of premium PC and PC game-related content, brought to you by the Internet: made for mouse and keyboard control.

Aventum

Rockstar Found a Novel Way to Mix Max Payne‘s Bullet Time with Online Multiplayer

One of the main challenges in creating a compelling online experience for Max Payne 3 was figuring out a way to keep the series’ signature time-slowing mechanic in the mix. How does line-of sight Bullet Time sound? It actually sounds like ridiculous amounts of fun. When you activate Bullet Time, one of several special “Burst”…