Kirk Hamilton

Podcast: We’re Hungry For Games That Feel Different

This week on Kotaku Splitscreen, Jason and I sat down in the very same room to talk about hamburgers, poutine, and also occasionally video games. Just kidding, we actually talked about a ton of different games this week. I’ve played a lot more Final Fantasy XV, so we got more in depth about that lovely,…

DayZ Creator On VR Development: ‘There Is No Money In It’

In a lengthy Reddit post last night, DayZ creator and Out of Ammo developer Dean Hall sounded off on the “terrible assumptions” he sees VR enthusiasts making about subsidized development deals and VR development in general. Virtual reality is not yet profitable, he says, and developers should have the right to take any help they…

Sennheiser PC 373D Headset Review: Great Audio, Steep Price

Most gaming headphones are made by companies better known for video game gear than for audio equipment. Enter Sennheiser, recording industry stalwarts trusted by people who actually use headphones to listen to music. A few weeks ago someone from Sennheiser emailed asking if I’d like to check out their new PC 373D surround-sound gaming headphones.…

Undertale just got a nice new musical tribute This one’s called “Prescription for Sleep,” and it’s a collection of chilled-out, jazzy duets from saxophonist Norihiko Hibino and pianist AYAKI. It’s a mellow, pleasant addition to the other cool musical tributes the game has gotten.

Oculus Touch Review: The Best VR You Can Get

When the Oculus Rift VR headset came out earlier this year, it was promising but incomplete. It had this nice, comfy set of virtual reality goggles… but that was all. This week, Oculus finally catches up. Competitors like the Valve-backed HTC Vive and to a lesser extent Sony’s PlayStation VR have already demonstrated why handheld…

Podcast: Westworld’s Killer Finale And The Mysteries That Remain

HBO’s Westworld just put a cap on its terrific first season. Come talk about it with us, won’t you? Jason and I stayed up late to record a special bonus episode of Kotaku Splitscreen focusing entirely on the Westworld season finale and the first season as a whole. Spoilers, obviously. At the end, we added…

Here’s our first look at Full Throttle: Remastered It looks pretty much exactly how I would expect a remastered edition of Full Throttle to look, which, not complaining! It’ll be out next year, at which point we can collectively suss out whether or not the bulk of the game holds up as well as that…

Telltale Announces Guardians of the Galaxy Adventure Game

Tonight at The Game Awards, a short teaser revealed that Telltale’s next big licensed adventure game will be based on Guardians of the Galaxy. Before I play it, I’m gonna need a security band, a quarnex battery, and that guy’s prosthetic leg. The game will be out in 2017. In a press release, Telltale’s Kevin…

Remastered Bulletstorm Coming To Consoles And PC In 2017

Tonight at The Game Awards, People Can Fly announced that a remastered edition of their excellent but frequently overlooked shooter Bulletstorm is coming to current-gen consoles and PC next year. It’s called Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition and it’ll be out on April 7, 2017. Not everyone overlooked Bullettorm, of course. Our own contributor G.B. Burford…

I’m Pretty Into These Buttons Under My Game Controller

Recently I’ve been using a new controller to play video games. It has buttons on the top, and triggers on the back. It also has buttons underneath “Buttons underneath?” you might be saying. “That is madness! What will they think of next??” Or maybe you’re thinking to yourself, “Sheesh, this guy is only now learning…

A new Dishonored 2 PC patch has hit the game’s Steam beta branch. This one promises additional optimization and performance improvements, along with several other tweaks. Full patch notes here

Years Later, Rockstar Releases New PC Patch For GTA IV

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been sitting around wondering when the next next Grand Theft Auto IV PC patch is going to hit. Wait no longer. I’m actually not entirely kidding—I’ve been wanting to replay GTA IV for a while now, and have been bummed to find it so difficult to even start the…

No Man’s Sky‘s New Update Makes The Game Much More Grounded

No Man’s Sky is getting better. The game that left so many people feeling burned back in August may still not live up to the prior months of hype, but yesterday’s patch makes big changes that anchor the game by finally allowing players to build a home among the cosmos. When No Man’s Sky came…

The Best And Worst Of Destiny PvP

There have always been at least two Destinys. There’s the Destiny that most people play, where you fly around the galaxy with your friends, blowing up aliens and carefully managing your vault space. Then there’s competitive Destiny, where players go headshot-to-headshot to see who’s deadliest. I avoided Destiny’s competitive Crucible for most of my first…

New Dishonored 2 PC Patch Is A Step In The Right Direction

For the last week and a half, a good number of PC gamers have been (im)patiently awaiting a patch to fix the myriad performance issues Dishonored 2 had at launch. Friday’s 1.1 beta patch was a mouse-fixing appetizer, but today’s 1.2 patch is more of a main course. You can now download a beta of…

Dishonored 2’s First PC Patch Isn’t The One We’ve Been Waiting For

After a week-long wait, Bethesda released a beta PC patch for Dishonored 2 yesterday afternoon. It addresses a few of the game’s many issues, but is probably not going to be the fix you were hoping for. Dishonored 2 launched in a sorry state on PC, with lots of players (including yours truly) getting uneven…

Watch Dogs 2: The Kotaku Review

Watch Dogs 2 is just a game, sitting on a screen, asking you to love it. Sometimes begging. Ubisoft’s new techno-action hackapalooza often succeeds at being likable, occasionally in spite of itself. It functions both as unspoken apologia for its scattered and frustrating predecessor and as yet another step along Ubisoft’s march to open-world game…

Tips For Playing Watch Dogs 2

Watch Dogs 2 is out today. It’s a really big game full of stuff to do. It even has dogs for you to watch! I wrapped Watch Dogs 2‘s story campaign last night, and am still messing around with its plethora of sidequests and optional challenges. If you’re just getting started and want to know…

Watch Dogs 2’s Fake Ubisoft Employees Aren’t Psyched About Assassin’s Creed Leaks

Watch Dogs 2 takes place in a fictionalized version of San Francisco that occasionally cuts pretty close to the real world. For example, there’s a Ubisoft marketing director in the game who is not happy about Assassin’s Creed games being leaked to the press. As you’re exploring Stanford University in the game, you come across a…

Want to listen to a bunch of people talking about video game music? You’re in luck. Last week I stopped by the Portland-based podcast The Future of What to talk about music and video games. It was a really fun chat! Listen below or on Soundcloud. My segment’s at the 13-minute mark: