Kirk Hamilton

One thing you’ve probably noticed while playing BioShock Infinite is that Booker DeWitt is one hungry fella. Hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, cotton candy—he’ll eat just about anything, even if he found it in the trash. Our friends over at Gourmet Gaming have posted a recipe for Finkton’s Baked Beans so that you can make your…

Everything I’ve Learned About The Witcher 3

Last week during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, I sat down with three gentlemen from CD Projekt Red to discuss their upcoming RPG The Witcher 3. We know it’s an open-world game for PC and next-gen consoles, and that it will bring the story of the Witcher Geralt of Rivia to a close.…

From Solid Snake to Sam Fisher, it seems there’s a case of “New Voice Actor-itis” going around. Thief will be the latest game to feature a new voice actor in a beloved, iconic role. Rock, Paper Shotgun takes a deeper look

Over at Unwinnable, they’ve posted a list of “The 40 Most Impressive Displays of Facial Hair at GDC 2013.” It was a pretty beardy event. To the side here is Spiky Tiger artist/illustrator Jason Bennett. The beards just get more elaborate from there.

The Problem With BioShock Infinite‘s Combat

There’s a lot to like about BioShock Infinite. It’s gorgeous looking, the music is spectacular, and the story is good enough that a couple days after finishing it, I’m still turning it over in my head. But the game has one glaring problem: combat just doesn’t work all that well. In some games, that wouldn’t…

In Puppeteer, All The World’s A Stage

Last week during the Game Developers Conference, I swung by Sony’s event space near the Moscone center to check out Puppeteer, an upcoming platforming game from Sony’s Japan Studio. I had a chance to play through a few levels of the game, and really enjoyed myself—the whole thing has a very LittleBigPlanet—like charm, but it…

At Least League of Legends Is Doing Something About Silly Female Armor

So often in fantasy games, male characters get to wear massive, fearsome plate armor while female characters ride into battle with whole swaths of skin exposed. When it comes down to it, female fantasy armor is simply inadequate. We’ve even talked to a guy who makes armor professionally and had him explain the craft-related reasons…

Mystery Solved: Why No One In Fire Emblem: Awakening Has Feet

Here at Kotaku, we like Fire Emblem: Awakening. But a while back, we had to ask: Why on earth doesn’t anyone in this game have any feet? Everything else about the characters’ design is perfectly normal. But they don’t have any feet. In a new developer interview posted by Nintendo, the localizers at 8-4 (who…

The Guy Who Made The New XCOM Meets The Guy Who Made The First X-COM

This is pretty cool: Last week during the Game Developers Conference, Jake Solomon, designer of last year’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown sat down with host Adam Sessler to chat with Julian Gollop, designer of 1994’s X-COM: UFO Defense. So, the designer of Kotaku’s 2012 game of the year talks with the man who made the original.…

The People Who Make Rock Band Celebrate The Day The Music Died

Today marks the release of the final downloadable song for Rock Band. Harmonix has chosen Don McLean’s “American Pie” for the honor, which, as I’ve already said, is an absolutely perfect choice Today, Harmonix shared this video, in which their staff members take turns plastic-instrumenting their way through McLean’s opus while various members of the…

The extended “red band” cut of the trailer for The Last of Us that aired earlier this week is the rare video game trailer that can convince TV viewers using only in-game footage. I mean, this looks like an ad for a new post-apocalyptic TV show…

This Crazy BioShock Infinite Easter Egg Can’t Be Real… Can It?

It’s got to be a coincidence. It simply can’t be real… right? But… what if it is? (Warning: Extreme BioShock Infinite Story Spoilers Follow. For Real.) That’s more or less what I thought when I first saw this easter egg from the first BioShock, which seems to possibly, maybe, just maaaaaybe demonstrate a hilariously unlikely…

And Then The Video Game Industry Woke Up

The 2013 Game Developers Conference is over. The chatter of the show floor has faded, the bathroom lines have evaporated, and the various stacked hangovers have worn off. The week still feels like something of a blur, but squint your eyes just so, filter out the noise and the music and the glowing laptop monitors,…

I Didn’t Even Notice That Commander Shepard Was In BioShock Infinite

There aren’t that many “stars” in video game voice acting, but Jennifer Hale is certainly one of them. Despite the fact that she’s played leading roles in everything from Metal Gear Solid to Knights of the Old Republic, it was really the Mass Effect series that pushed her over the top. These days, whether I’m…

As the Rock Band era draws to a close, Giant Bomb‘s Alex Navarro takes a long, thoughtful look back at the series and what it’s meant to him.

The Wii U Won’t Be Getting Unreal Engine 4 [Update]

This week at the Game Developers Conference, Epic Games took their usual opportunity to show off the latest developments in their whiz-bang Unreal graphics technology. In addition to the shooty/demonic demos in futuristic/fantasy settings, one of the most touted features of the engine was that it can scale from next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 4…

A First-Person Video Game Where You Play A Person Playing A Third-Person Video Game

Say that headline ten times fast, I dare ya. This video shows the game Atum, which is a student entry in the Independent Games Festival at GDC. In it, you play as a person in a room with a PC game, and to solve the puzzles in the game, you have to use objects from…

SimCity Designer’s GDC Talk Started With… An Error Message

At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Maxis designer Dan Moskowitz gave a talk about SimCity and sandbox design. But before he began, a joke. “So let’s get started here,” said Moskowitz, firing up his first slide. And yet… it crashed with an error message. “Unable to connect to the server.” Laughter from the…

The PS4’s Camera Can Do Some Cool Tricks

Today at the Game Developers Conference, Sony senior staff engineer Chris Norden gave a presentation designed to introduce the PlayStation 4 to developers. The talk was mostly technical, but they shared new details about the PS4, including how the augmented reality features will work. The AR will use the PS4’s camera, the PlayStation 4 Eye,…

Spec Ops Writer on Violent Games: ‘We’re Better Than That’

Walt Williams, lead writer of last year’s subversive (and flawed) shooter Spec Ops: The Line, began his talk at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco with a bit of flair: “It’s going to maybe sound like I’m being critical of violent games,” Williams said, “but I want to say right off the bat that…