Kirk Hamilton

One Assassin’s Creed III Debate To Rule Them All

Assassin’s Creed III is easily one of the most divisive video games of 2012. It was a hugely ambitious slate-cleaner for the long-running Assassin’s Creed franchise, and while it did a number of things right, it also got a lot of things wrong. Now that the three of us have completed the game, each of…

Stephen and Kirk are contributing to an ongoing series at The New York Times about the year in gaming. Give it a read!

Cower In Fear: It’s The First Trailer For The Sequel To Slender

Slender: The Eight Pages was one of the true surprises of 2012—a crude, free PC game that also happened to be one of the scariest games of the year We’ve known for a little while that creator Mark Hadley has been working with Blue Isle on a follow-up called Slender: The Arrival. They’ve now posted…

If You Like TV, Read This Book

It’s remarkable, the variety of great TV shows we’ve gotten to watch over the last ten years. From The Wire to Friday Night Lights to Deadwood to The Sopranos, I’ve found that I’ve grown far more invested and interested in television stories than I am in movies. It’s not much of a stretch to say…

This Cool New Game System Lets You Play With A Bunch Of Tiny Touch-Screens

We’ve been following the Sifteo Cubes for a while now, intrigued by their promise to give us an entirely new platform for fun, original games. The gist is this: The system consists of a collection of cubes, each of which has a touch-screen and an accelerometer. The cubes are organized by a wireless base station,…

Gorgeous Games of 2012: Guild Wars 2

When we started putting together a list of the best-looking games of 2012, Guild Wars 2 was an easy choice. The massive world of Tyria contains all manner of visual wonder, and every hilltop invites a pause for wide-eyed gazing. It’s a very good game, too Chris put together this cinemagraph of my primary elementalist…

Far Cry 3 Patch Cleans Up Annoying Screen-Clutter, Mostly

Far Cry 3 is a heck of a fun game, and lovely to look at. But those gorgeous sunsets and mountain vistas are marred somewhat by the intrusive screen-clutter that covers the game with waypoints, pop-up reminders, and other unwanted text. I’d been playing the game with a fairly scorched-earth mod that removes every single…

This Persona 4 Arena Figure Forges A Bond That Cannot Be Broken

I don’t own too many video game figures. Thanks to my newfound fascination with Persona, that may have to change. For example: I would gladly put this garage kit figure of Elizabeth and her persona Thanatos pretty much anywhere in my house. The figure is the work of “Mr. Etsuo,” and you can see more…

Vikings punter Chris Kluwe says that he’s becoming a playable “hero” character in XCOM, thanks to an upcoming patch.

This Boss Boss-Music Spins Sexy NiGHTS Into Saxy Dreams

Here’s a quick story. I was in New York last weekend, hanging out at Kotaku friend and columnist Leigh Alexander’s apartment. We were going through her PS3 library looking for random stuff to play, and we dug into the PSN re-release of the Saturn game NiGHTS into Dreams. Okay, cool, I know a bit about…

Check Out The Marvelous Soundtrack For The Adventure Time Game

You may have heard that the 3DS game Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d You Steal Our Garbage? is a lot of fun. The soundtrack is a lot of fun, too, and the game’s publishers have posted the entire thing to Soundcloud. You can check it out there, or listen right here: The music was…

The Year In Music At Kotaku

Nietzsche once said, “Without music, life would be a mistake.” Imaginary philosopher Richard Riemenschneider once said, “People who begin articles with Nietzsche quotes are the worst.” Let’s agree to meet somewhere in the middle. And with that, let’s look back at the best of Kotaku Melodic this year. The idea of doing discrete Kotaku “Programming…

The Biggest Disappointments Of 2012

2012 was a hell of a year for video games. We got a ton of fantastic games to play, surprises of all shapes, sizes, and colors. It was also a year of upheaval, when things often didn’t go according to plan, and when many a game failed to live up to expectations. It’s not that…

It’s A Drum Machine Made Out Of Beets. A BeetBox. Geddit?

Hang around me too much, and I’ll start drumming on something. My legs, my desk, actual drums… it’s only a matter of time. I’ve probably drummed on some beets in my day, too, but I don’t believe they ever made a sound quite like the BeetBox by Scott Garner. Check them out in the video…

Dunwall City Trials: A Welcome Addition To Dishonored

I’ve been having a lot of fun with Dunwall City Trials, the first downloadable add-on to October’s fantastic stealth game Dishonored. I’ve beaten the core game almost two times now, and while it’s such a brilliant bit of design, I’d found myself hungry for new, different challenges. It’s always felt like the game would benefit…

The Best Stealth Moments Of 2012

2012 was a banner year for stealth games. From January up through December, we got to play a healthy variety of games involving dozens of different types of sneaking, skulking, lurking, and sklurking. (It’s a thing.) You could say that these games… crept up on us. We really… didn’t see them coming Jason and I…

Now The Bastion Narrator Can Announce Your Dota 2 Game

One of the neat things about Dota 2 is that you can download “Announcer Packs” that change the voice of the in-game announcer to any of a number of other characters. This one may take the cake—Supergiant games has contributed a Bastion Announcer Pack to the game. I haven’t used it, but it sounds like…

Dishonored Designer Harvey Smith Agrees: Far Cry 2 Is Awesome

He’s not just responsible for one of the coolest games of the year, Dishonored designer Harvey Smith is also a man with impeccable taste That impeccable taste is on full display in this guest essay he wrote for Penny Arcade Report about why he thinks Far Cry 2 is brilliant. Smith shares some smart musings…

The Humble Bundle 7 has launched, and it’s great: Legend of Grimrock, Dungeon Defenders, Snapshot and more.

If The Walking Dead Had A Christmas Special

More shows need Christmas specials. The UK The Office and more recently, Downton Abbey both had some pretty outstanding specials; surely The Walking Dead could use one? This video from Jawiin imagines just such a scenario. The jokes are hit or miss, but the impersonations are all pretty great. “I’VE GOT THE HAM.” Are you…