There have been so many Mega Man soundtrack reinterpretations over the years; the classic games and their sequels feature bouncy, soaring melodies that lend themselves wonderfully to performance. But still, this one stands out: it’s an acoustic reinterpretation of “Splash Blue” from Mega Man 9, performed as a duet between nylon-string acoustic guitar and flute.…
You guys all played Amnesia: The Dark Descent, right? That whole game “happened” before I came onboard at Kotaku, but I hope that everyone here had a chance to play it and talk about it to the extent that it deserved. Because seriously: scary, rad game. Thomas Grip, the founder of Frictional Games, the studio…
I realize that this comes as news to basically no one, but felt it was worth railing about anyway. I am the proud owner of a sweet-ass new HDTV, and so I decided it was finally time to drop the VGA cables from the back of my computer monitor and hook my game consoles up…
A few days back, Plunkett posted a pretty funny video in which an intreped modder tweaked the original Deus Ex to look a lot more like its current-gen, gold-tinged offspring Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Now, the mod itself is available for download over at ModDB, created and shared by ModDB user “ceski”. I haven’t had…
I haven’t had cable since I moved, and my Xbox 360 had a lot to do with that. Over the past few years, my Xbox 360 has become a bit of a “Netflix Box,” and more often than not I’m using it to stream episodes of Twin Peaks and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Yesterday,…
VidRhythm isn’t a game per se; it’s an app that allows users to quickly assemble custom-made music videos. But given that it’s made by Harmonix, the creators of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, we’re gonna go ahead and call it a game just so we can write about it. One of my favorite things about…
Former Offworld editor, current IGF Chair, and all around cool dude Brandon Boyer wrote in today to let us know about a new project of his called “Venus Patrol.” The idea, as he describes it, is to make an online space dedicated to the culture of games that is holistic and far-ranging; it’ll avoid the…
Yesterday, several of my friends emailed me links to the video clip above, a “Fox and Friends” segment that aired a few days ago. In their accompanying emails, each person voiced similar sentiments of pissed-off frustration. “Sigh,” I thought. “Let’s see how Fox News is portraying video games this week.” I transcribed the discussion, as…
I bet you thought I was done writing about Deus Ex: Human Revolution. How wrong you were! Though in truth, I just wanted to share a particularly outstanding piece I just read about the game. So, this is me writing about writing about Deus Ex: Human Revolution. DXHR tackled some weighty topics, from transhumanism to…
By now, you’ve probably seen the leaked footage of the most recent Borderlands 2 demo, and read our own Michael McWhertor’s impressions of the game from Gamescom. Last weekend at PAX, I caught up with Gearbox’s art director Jeramy Cooke to chat with him about the new characters, guns, and art tech in Borderlands 2,…
An intrepid tipster has sent in a video s/he shot of the latest demo of Gearbox’s upcoming shooter Borderlands 2, and so of course we thought we’d share it with all of you. Unlike the last leaked footage we ran, this video is taken not from a possible pants-cam—it’s clearly in-bag. Though it wasn’t shot…
As I mentioned in my review, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game that comes to life in its details. The team at Eidos Montreal has shown a rare attention to detail and and willingness to engage in fan-service, filling the game with a nigh-on unprecedented number of hidden sight gags and easter eggs. They’re…
In anticipation of the upcoming Gears of War 3, Microsoft and Epic contracted novelist and Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter author Tom Bissell to take a deeper look into the design and history of the Gears franchise. Titled “The Art and Design of Gears of War,” it covers most every aspect of the Gears…
In preparation for the November 15th launch of Ubisoft’s upcoming open-world stealth/action/swarthiness-simulator Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, the publisher will be running a multiplayer beta for the game from September 3-11th. However, the beta is exclusive to Playstation Plus members as well as “select Playstation 3 Uplay members.” Multiplayer in the new title will be much the…
Of all the things that Batman: Arkham Asylum had going for it—and there were a lot of them—my favorite thing was the Riddler challenges. Placed throughout the game, these optional side-challenges ran the gamut from extremely easy to borderline impossible, and provided a welcome incentive to go off the path and explore. Last weekend at…
For the most part, the characters in Deus Ex: Human Revolution stick to the middle of the road. There’s the tortured, hard-to read protagonist, the brilliant woman with a secret, the sassy British tech guy, and so on. But among them, one character sticks out—Letitia, a street informant that Adam Jensen meets in Detroit. Letitia…
Inside Social Games reports that BioWare San Francisco (formerly EA’s EA2D studio) has posted a want-ad for a producer to lead a new social gaming project. Given the timing and the success of the company’s Dragon Age: Legends tie-in game, it’s certainly possible that the studio is planning the launch of a social game set…
I opened the box, and within it discovered a sheaf of love letters. There I was, hunched in the corner of my attic storage space, the afternoon light taking on a voluminous, golden quality as it cast rays through ten years’ worth of dust. The box had been pushed into a back corner, and it…
Lately, Defense of the Ancients-style games have exploded in popularity. Valve is working on DotA 2, and has already held their first international tournament. Meanwhile, Riot Games is releasing an update to their widely played League of Legends called Dominion. Yesterday at PAX I grabbed Riot Games’ senior producer Travis George to chat about Dominion…
This morning’s Halo 4 panel at PAX Prime was dispiritingly light on details. (Sample exchange: “How will the game play?” “It will play like Halo.”) But the folks at 343 Industries did close out with a neat concept-art video, which I’ve posted above. While specific details on the game were scarse, the panelists were clear…
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