Kirk Hamilton

Destiny Private Matches Are Finally Here, And They’re Really Fun

I hadn’t realized just how badly Destiny needed private competitive matches until today, when Bungie added them to the game. I also hadn’t realized how much fun I’d have going up against my friends. As of today—almost two full years after Destiny launched—it’s finally possible to put together a private match with your friends. As…

The Witcher 3’s Cats All Hate Me :(

I’ve always thought of Geralt of Rivia as a big ol’ cat. I know they call him The White Wolf, but come on: the guy is a cat. So it’s been bumming me out that after a recent patch to the game, all the cats in the Northern Realms seem to hate the guy even…

The Forgettable Music Of The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Quick: Hum the theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now hum the theme from Tim Burton’s Batman. Cool, now hum the theme from Ant-Man. No? How about Thor. Hmm… Despite the unmatched box-office success and cultural impact of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the films’ music, on the whole, is oddly forgettable. The latest video…

Bungie has detailed the weapon rebalances coming to Destiny in the Rise of Iron expansion. Lots of little tweaks: Year 3 Thorn gets a range nerf, No Time To Explain gets built-in headseeker (nice), and Touch of Malice will no longer let titans use Blessing of Light as a buffer. That last tweak actually knocks…

Let’s Talk Overwatch! We’re back for another episode of our weekly chat series where we get together to talk about the ups and downs of the week in Overwatch. This week Cecilia, Nathan and I cover the new competitive season, how we feel about competitive play in general, and which character is going to be…

Up 1-0 with a fully stacked hand. Feels good, man. I’m finally getting into Gwent and, to no one’s surprise, I really like it. I do wish my AI opponents were more clever, however. If you play Gwent in The Witcher 3, what kind of deck do you play and where can I find an…

Echo was a standout at the PAX Indie Megabooth last weekend. The concept is very cool: You have to infiltrate and explore a futuristic techno-palace. Every so often, the whole place reboots and goes dark. With each reboot, your past playthroughs “echo” as AIs that try to take you down using whatever tactics you used…

Podcast: Straight Outta PAX

Jason and I are both at PAX West in Seattle, so we recorded Kotaku Splitscreen a little later in the week than usual. It’s a rare episode where we’re sitting in the same room, at the same microphone, interrupting each other with much greater clarity and resolve. Topics discussed: Jason’s impressed with the two-hour Final…

A Newcomer’s Take On The Witcher 3

As we’ve established, many on our staff adore The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. We’ve written tons of articles about the game, and several of us have played it all the way through more than once. Our EIC Stephen Totilo, however, is still only a little ways into his first playthrough. In the video above, he…

Come On Buddy, You Can Do It

You can stand on the bridge. I believe in you!

A Year’s Worth Of Articles About The Witcher 3

Today, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt gets a Game of the Year edition. It comes with all the updates, patches, DLC and expansions released over the last year. It’s also the rare “Game of the Year” edition that is appropriately named. Here at Kotaku, many of us loooooove The Witcher 3. Love it like, “have…

Who Even Watches Their Overwatch Kill-Cam?

We’re back with the second episode of our new weekly video series where —you guessed it!—we hang out and talk about Overwatch. Working title is “Let’s Talk Overwatch.” We’ll probably change that soon. This week I’m joined once more by Cecilia and Nathan to talk about failure, death, and all that fun stuff. Do any…

On last week’s Kotaku Splitscreen, Jason and I talked a lot about Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Is it more fun the second time around, and is it more rewarding if you force some limitations on yourself? (Answers: yes and yes.) Read my full review here; find the full podcast episode here

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

It’s still hot, and it’s still summer! It’s also the weekend. What are you gonna be playing? Video games? Board games? A knock-off Fender that you found in a hotel room while on an assassination contract? I’ve recently gotten into doing Hitman escalation missions and I am fully obsessed. I’m going to do as many…

I Want To Know More About This Hitman NPC’s Extremely Grim Safari

In the newest Hitman level, there’s this guy. He’s smoking a cigarette and taking in the view, reminiscing about what sounds like the grimmest safari ever. You can watch him in the video above. Here is a full transcription: It reminded me of one time in Zimbabwe some years ago. I had just taken out…

Kubo and the Two Strings: An absurdly beautiful, hand-made hero’s tale. What it is: The latest from the stop-motion wizards at Laika, whose other films include 2009’s Coraline and 2012’s woefully underrated ParaNorman What I’ve watched: Watched the movie last night. Is it good? Yeah, it’s really cool. A few things kept me from loving…

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Sure Has Beautiful Wood

If you asked me how many graphics were in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, my answer would be, “a lot.” If I had to guess, I’d say, like, a hundred? Two hundred? It’s a lot, is the point. This game is often ridiculously good-looking, especially on PC. That’s particularly true when there are no NPCs in…

You will be shocked to hear this, but many of us on staff here at Kotaku play Overwatch It’s actually pretty unusual for so many of us to be playing the same game, so we thought we’d make some weekly videos where we casually chat about what’s new with the game. This week Cecilia, Nathan…

Tips For Playing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is out today. It’s good! And like other games in the series, it gives you a lot of options in how you want to play. It’d be easy to feel a little overwhelmed at first. Which augmentations are best? Which playstyle is the most rewarding? How do you easily make a…

Playdead’s excellent side-scrolling puzzle game Inside is now available on PS4. You should definitely play it! Read our review here