Kirk Hamilton

The “complete edition” of Team Ninja’s excellent samurai action game Nioh is out today on PS4 and PC. I haven’t played enough on PC to determine the quality of the port. Seems okay, but not great. Read our PS4 review here, and find tips for playing the game here

I Love That Super Mario Odyssey Doesn’t Have A Timer

For the past week, I’ve been falling ever more deeply in love with Super Mario Odyssey. I like a lot of things about this game, but most of all, I like that there’s no timer. Super Mario Odyssey is widely considered the first “proper” 3D Mario game since Super Mario Galaxy 2 hit the Wii…

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds: The Kotaku Review

Horizon Zero Dawn was a terrific game. Guess what? Its new expansion, The Frozen Wilds, is also good. For more on the many things that made Horizon Zero Dawn a good game, go read my colleague Patricia Hernandez’s review from February. Developed by Killzone studio Guerrilla Games, it was an open-world action game about a…

The First 10 Things To Do When Your PC Can’t Run A New Game

You just got a new PC game! Hoo buddy, you are excited. You’ve been looking forward to this one for years. You load it up and… oh, hell. Something’s off. Your frame-rate is bucking wildly. The mouse input is all wrong. The introductory sequence hangs for a second or two every time someone talks. When…

Here’s To Assassin’s Creed Origins’ Helpful Boat Guy

Sometimes in Assassin’s Creed Origins, you’ll have to cross a body of water and you won’t have a boat. Fortunately, there’s this guy who really, really wants to let you use his. Origins tends to sprinkle its beaches and docks with boats your protagonist Bayek can freely use. Sometimes, however, you’ll find yourself out in…

Video Game Mini-Maps Might Finally Be Going Away

For the last 15 years or so, we have witnessed the rise of a great evil: the video game mini-map. Recent events have given me hope that the dark era of the mini-map may finally be coming to an end. For years, it has been assumed that open-world games require a mini-map in the corner…

I’ve added a few more tips to our Assassin’s Creed Origins tips post, including how to change Bayek’s hair (crucial) and how to make his eagle do a barrel roll (extremely crucial).

Remapping Destiny 2‘s PC Controls Can Make A Big Difference

Destiny has long had one of the best first-person shooter control schemes on consoles. On PC, getting there requires a little more work. When I reviewed the first Destiny back in 2014, I said that Bungie had created the most physically satisfying shooter control scheme since Gears of War. I still feel that way, though…

Bungie Lists A Bunch Of Endgame Improvements Coming To Destiny 2

Today in Bungie’s weekly Destiny 2 blog update, they laid out a number of endgame improvements they’re working on. It sounds like rewards and incentives will be improved along with weapon mods, exotics, and the emote interface. Crucible PvP will also be getting private matches in early 2018. Here’s the list of what they say…

Destiny 2 PC Impressions: It’s Good

Say you have a friend who’s always had a mustache. He’s the mustache guy. You’ve known him for like, ten years, and then one day, he shows up with no mustache. That’s kinda what it’s like playing Destiny 2 on PC after three years and hundreds of hours with the console version and its predecessor.…

Assassin’s Creed Origins: The Kotaku Review

For all its extraordinary visual splendor, Assassin’s Creed Origins is ultimately an ordinary video game. That’s not such a bad thing, particularly if you like looking at pretty vistas and watching numbers go up. Origins is the 10th main entry in Ubisoft’s series of historical murder games. It is also the latest in the current…

Tips For Playing Destiny 2 [Updated For PC!]

Destiny 2 is a much simpler game than its predecessor, but that doesn’t mean it’s simple. There are a lot of numbers, currencies, and strategies to get your head around. The tips in this post are mostly based on about 60-70 hours of play, during which I reviewed the game and completed almost everything there…

Has South Park’s Humor Changed, Or Have We?

This week on Kotaku Splitscreen, Jason and I take on South Park. We talk about the new game, The Fractured But Whole, as well as the show as a whole: its comedic sensibility, how its jokes function, and the baggage South Park has accumulated over the last 20 years on the air. I’ve excerpted a…

Bungie Explains How Destiny 2 ‘Seasons’ Will Work

Today at TwitchCon, a trio of Bungie developers hosted a panel about the future of Destiny 2. It wasn’t all that exciting, but they did share some new information about how the game’s “seasons” system will work. The panel was hosted by Destiny community manager David “DeeJ” Dague, who was joined by two designers from…

How To Throw Your Video Game Controller

Video games are a lot of fun, but they can also be frustrating. From time to time, you may even get frustrated enough that you want to throw something. Good news! Your controller is right there in your hand. I’ve often heard people refer to a game as “controller-throwingly difficult.” This is an evocative description,…

The Ten Commandments Of Video Game Collectables

Even if you don’t love video game collectables, you’re probably going to collect them. They should at least be somewhat worthwhile, right? This piece originally appeared 6/6/17. Most modern video games sprinkle small, collectable items around their levels to encourage completionists to explore. Once you’ve cleared the level of bad guys or puzzles, you can…

Bungie Pulls Destiny 2 Emote After Players Discover Wall Glitch

Sometimes even the best-intentioned jokes go awry. Over the weekend, enterprising Destiny 2 players figured out that a Monty Python-inspired emote allowed them to glitch through walls. Bungie has since pulled the emote from the in-game store, though if you bought it, you can still use it. In Destiny 2, you can purchase emotes like…

Destiny 2’s Revamped Iron Banner Is Missing Something

Destiny 2’s Iron Banner event made its debut this week, another carryover from the first game that’s been tweaked enough to require a reappraisal. Unfortunately, it’s lost something along the way. Iron Banner is a week-long event that comes around every six weeks or so. It centers on the competitive Crucible, and in the first…

Top Players Weigh In On The Good And Bad Of Destiny 2 PvP

Destiny PvP has always been where I look to more deeply understand the mechanics underpinning the game. When I look at Destiny 2’s overhauled PvP, I see a game that’s more grounded and balanced than its predecessor, but also one that’s arguably less exciting on a moment-to-moment basis. About a year ago, I reached out…

In Stardew Valley, Ignorance Can Be Bliss

If you want to maximize your productivity in Stardew Valley, you’re going to have to read some tips on the Internet. Though maybe… don’t? Newly released on the Nintendo Switch, Eric Barone’s popular 2016 life-sim Stardew Valley is ostensibly about rejecting the soulless grind of the corporate world and embracing a simple life in the…