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A Deeper Look at the Vita’s Big Charmer, Escape Plan
We’ve seen plenty of Uncharted and Resistance on the upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld, but we haven’t seen enough of the truly creative stuff. In this new video from Sony, Matt Morton from Fun Bits Interactive talks through the creation of Escape Plan, the studio’s hilariously violent-looking black-and-white puzzle game. Morton talks about why they went…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 9, 2011 -
Skyrim Will Have Infinite Randomly Generated Content. But Will It Ever Feel as Real as Minecraft?
Speaking to Wired in a new interview segment published today, Skyrim director Todd Howard revealed that the game will feature randomly generated quests created by its Artificial Intelligence “director,” known as Radiant Story Howard mentions that after finishing the written “story” quests for factions like the Dark Brotherhood (made up of assassins) and The Thieves…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 9, 2011 -
Dead Space 2, Rayman Origins Demo New This Week on the PlayStation Store
This week, Sony brings its usual raft of new and tweaked content to the PlayStation Store. Notable additions to their selections include Dead Space 2 as a downloadable for $29.99, with a free full game trial for PS+ subscribers. If you’re more in the mood to try something new, you can give the Rayman Origins…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 9, 2011 -
The Cave Story Soundtrack Goes Heavy Metal
Cave Story already has a pretty damn good soundtrack, but as with all things, it can be improved by being dipped in liquid fire and rendered into heavy metal. Thankfully there’s Erik Peabody, who has released his new 7-track album “Made of Metal” upon the world. It features “metal remixes honoring some of the most…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 9, 2011 -
Please Be Careful With The Dangling Rhino
Greetings, Kotaku readers. Or I should say, the five people who are reading this site right now instead of blowing one another to smithereens in Modern Warfare 3 Here is our nightly open thread, bolstered by some conversation-starters contributed by several members of the Kotaku editorial staff. They are as follows: Black Rhinos are airlifted…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 8, 2011 -
A Haunting, Lovely Essay From a Son Who Grew Up Geeky
Over at Gamers With Jobs, Julian “Rabbit” Murdoch has shared a personal essay that is as lovely as it is sad. It’s titled “Yes, Dad.” In it, Murdoch talks about visiting the hospital to see his sick father, and the different ways that the two of them remembered his childhood. When I turned 10, two…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 8, 2011 -
Xbox.com To Upgrade Its Social and Video Features in the Coming Days
In preparation for the upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard update, Microsoft has announced that they’ll be updating the website Xbox.com over the coming days to implement some of the dashboard’s new features before it launches on consoles later this winter. Users will be able to search the Zune store online and buy and rent movies from…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 8, 2011 -
Reminder: No Matter Which Dark Souls Character You Play, You Will Die a Lot
“Sure,” Dark Souls whispers to you in the dark, “you’ve got your Modern Warfare and your Legend of Zelda. But I’m not going anywhere.” This game is designed to be played, mastered, and played again far after its launch date. This latest video demonstrates a number of the game’s character classes, shows a bunch of…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 8, 2011 -
Is the Recession the Next Big Video Game Bad Guy?
Would you shoot someone responsible for America’s horrible housing market? Would you like to? What if you met his wife and kid first? How did we get here, and where are we going? What happens when the 99% rise up, and more to the point, how happy will you be to play a video game…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 8, 2011 -
The Latest Rayman: Origins Trailer Gets Predictably Slap-Happy
This latest trailer for Ubisoft’s upcoming Rayman Origins gives a great sense of the game—charming, chaotic, and full of slapping. So much slapping. In the video, we meet the cast of characters and get a quick tour of the many weird locales that the game will take us to. What’s the expression? “Play Rayman: Origins.…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 8, 2011 -
On the Eve of Modern Warfare 3, a Very Cool Illustration of Soap and the Gang
As we gear up to dive into Modern Warfare 3 (Top question: will you be more of a Jonah Hill or a Sam Worthington?), it’s fun to pause for a minute and take a look back. Artist Sam Gilbey sent in this illustration that Activision commissioned him to do promoting Call of Duty Elite, the…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 7, 2011 -
A Passionate IndieCade Keynote from Uncharted‘s Lead Designer
A couple of weeks ago at IndieCade, Naughty Dog’s Richard Lemarchand, lead designer on the Uncharted series, gave the keynote address. That may seem like an odd fit for an “IndieCade” keynote—after all, video games don’t get more “Big Budget” than Uncharted But Lemarchand is a longtime supporter of indie games and indie developers, and…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 7, 2011 -
It’s Pretty Much My Favorite Animal
Hello everyone, and welcome to another week of off-topic discussion. What are you playing this week? And more importantly, what are you planning on playing this week? Feels like each fall has one biggest week, and this just might be it… Here are some conversation-starters just for you. Beyonce’s music isn’t selling that well, even…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 7, 2011 -
The Week in Dangerous Games: Shooting Drugs in Modern Warfare 3 (Not Like That)
It’s the height of the fall rush, and more and more games rain down upon us every day. And with so many games, whoever will tell us which of them contains objectionable content? The Entertainment Software Rating Board, that’s who! Each week, we take a look at the newest, most salacious ESRB ratings and assemble…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 7, 2011 -
Kick Ass in Bulletstorm With Your Actual Boot, Courtesy of Kinect
I’ve yet to see convincing evidence that a first-person shooter (or indeed, any kind of non puppet-based shooter) could work on the Xbox 360’s Kinect motion controller. That said, if I had to pick an FPS that would work well with the hardware, it would probably be People Can Fly’s highly physical Bulletstorm So it’s…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 7, 2011 -
Modern Warfare 3: The Underdog?
It’s been a season of dueling titans, to be sure. We’ve got Uncharted 3 vs. Gears of War 3, Skyrim vs. Dark Souls… and of course, Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 This time last year, the Call of Duty franchise was top dog. Medal of Honor had been vanquished, and the Battlefield 3 promotional…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 7, 2011 -
Skyrim Director: “Substantial” DLC Already in the Works
I don’t think I’m breaking any embargos when I tell you that Skyrim is a terrifyingly massive game. In the true Bethesda tradition, it goes on and on and on, and it’s hard to imagine adding content to what is already such a gigantic piece of work. But the other Bethesda tradition involves releasing downloadable…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 7, 2011 -
Brace For Some Hardcore Skyrim Brit-Rapping
It maybe not be quite as sonorous as the game’s actual soundtrack, but no barbarian choir could hope to have flow like a guy with a British accent rapping about Skyrim The british rapper in question is Dan Bull, who has posted this enjoyable tribute to Bethesda’s upcoming game. This latest rap comes after his…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 7, 2011 -
Listen to the Best New Album of Video Game Music Right Now
Last week, we streamed a recording of the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing the theme from Modern Warfare 2. This track was from the orchestra’s upcoming album named “The Greatest Video Game Music.” Today, the album was released, and the nice folks at the London Philharmonic have allowed Kotaku to exclusively stream the entire album for…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 7, 2011 -
Sometimes Downloadable Content isn’t Just in the Game, it is the Game
Lots of games have downloadable content. In fact, DLC is becoming something of a point of contention between players and publishers. Indie game developer Ben Kane (who despite his moniker is not actually a comic book supervillain) has launched a game that doesn’t just celebrate DLC, it bases its entire design around it. Called DLC…
By Kirk Hamilton Published November 4, 2011
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