Let’s just get this out of the way: Yes, Quantum Conundrum is a first-person puzzler, just like Portal. Yes, it was designed by Kim Swift, the project lead on Portal. And yes, it shares some of Portal‘s core traits: there’s a physics-altering arm device, a goofy omniscient narrator, and an alarming number of buttons that…
In a bizarre decision presumably made to reduce server overload fight credit card fraud, Blizzard said last night that new Diablo III players may not be able to play the entire game. Here’s what Blizzard Support Forum Agent Medearn says: As of patch 1.0.3, when purchasing a digital version of Diablo III through the online…
The folks behind poorly received action game Ninja Gaiden 3 tried too hard to make it appeal to Western tastes, says Yosuke Hayashi, head of developer Team Ninja, the studio behind the game. In a new interview posted by Gamasutra yesterday, Hayashi talks a bit about what he thinks went wrong, calling the game a…
This Battle.net forum thread by user Furiant has been making the rounds on the Internet today. It’s pretty entertaining. Give it a read: First, thank you for addressing so many of the important issues in this patch. After playing a couple of quests tonight, however, I’ve realized that the fight against exploiters will never truly…
In StarCraft, you could play multiplayer games with your friends on local area network connections. In StarCraft II, you can’t. It’s online or bust. This is a decision that has driven some fans crazy, and over the past couple of years, developer Blizzard has received no shortage of flack from infuriated gamers. Sometimes they don’t…
Check out this awesome Minecraft fan film, courtesy the folks at Corridor Digital. The special effects are excellent. Kinda cheesy. But mostly excellent.
Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has some screenshots for the newest Ys game, Ys Celceta: Sea Of Trees—a remake of Ys IV that is slated for PlayStation Vita in Japan this September. Looks pretty, no? Hopefully U.S. localization house XSEED brings it over to U.S. shores. They’ve brought over some of the other Ys games (including…
Addressing criticisms of her piece about PR sexism at E3, writer Katie Williams has posted a sharp, well-reasoned follow-up on her blog. Go read it! [Alive Tiny World]
Check out this official promo art from New Super Mario Bros. 2, which Nintendo will release for 3DS this August. Pretty, no? Everything just seems better in gold. More regal. More… gold. (via TinyCartridge)
Are educational games broken? Can Portal help fix them? Speaking during a Rants session at the Games for Change conference in New York today, educators Scott Kirk (CEO, GameGurus) and Jodi Asbell-Clarke (Director, EdGE ) said perspectives like Valve’s could help shed a light on the best way to make educational games more fun. Asbell-Clarke…
Homophobia and bigotry may run rampant on Xbox Live, but game designer Robert Yang is optimistic about the present and future of LGBT issues in the gaming industry. Speaking during the Rants session of the Games for Change conference in New York Tuesday, Yang gave a brief talk about the experimental, gay-themed games he’s been…
The lead designer of StarCraft II says there are several ways the popular real-time strategy series could make its way to consoles—and that under the right circumstances, Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U might be a good fit. Blizzard has traditionally focused on PC-only titles, but the brains behind massive franchises like Diablo, Warcraft, and StarCraft are…
Want to be a better StarCraft II player? Want to boost your APM? Want to know what APM means? While chatting with StarCraft II lead designer Dustin Browder last week, I asked him to send over a few basic tips to help Kotaku readers master the challenging real-time strategy game. Since his APM (actions-per-minute, a…
You might have heard of Rainbow Moon when it was announced late last year, but now that it finally has a release window—late July for U.S. PlayStation Network users—I’m starting to get psyched to play it. Rainbow Moon will run you $15 on the PlayStation Network. Check out the game’s official Facebook page for more…
The people behind StarCraft say that while nobody’s currently working on the infamously-delayed StarCraft: Ghost, there’s a chance that could change in the future. It’s now been a decade since Blizzard first announced StarCraft: Ghost, and it has since become the poster child for indefinitely delayed video games. The game sounded fantastic. It was to…
Check out this Diablo-ized take on Where’s Waldo?, created by a Spanish Diablo fan site and tweeted on Blizzard’s official account today. Can you find Diablo III director Jay Wilson? Or Blizzard community manager Micah “Bashiok” Whipple? Or Wilson’s pendrive? Full-sized image after the jump. Drawn by Albert Palahi
StarCraft II‘s next expansion doesn’t have an official release date yet, but its creators say it’s almost crossed the finish line. Speaking to lead designer Dustin Browder in a phone interview this afternoon, I asked how close the team was to completing the game. “We are 99% done,” he told me, “but that last 1%’s…
Nintendo has an annoying tendency to keep games all to themselves. Over the past few years, the Japanese company has sat on the rights to much-requested series like Mother, Fatal Frame, and Fire Emblem, stubbornly refusing to translate and ship them over to U.S. shores. So it was a pleasant surprise when the Mario makers…
The creators of Team Fortress 2 have hired their very own economist to help out with their various crazy hat-based projects. Writing on his new blog over at Valve’s website, newly-minted consultant Yanis Varoufakis discusses how he met with Valve chief Gabe Newell and put a deal together “Within hours, an agreement was reached: I…
If you’ve kept up with my regular column about Japanese role-playing games, you likely know that one of my favorite games of the past few years is a charming RPG called Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky The problem with Trails in the Sky, released last year for PSP, is that it ends on…
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