Kirk Hamilton

Arkham Knight Adds A Cool Little Tribute To Fans

This week, Batman: Arkham Knight got a few challenge mode maps lifted from Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. The maps were selected by fans on the game’s forums, and those fans’ actual forum conversations have been transcribed into the game itself. The new maps, dubbed the “Crime Fighter Challenge Pack #6,” are now available on…

Star Wars: Episode VIII Delayed To December 15, 2017

The next Star Wars movie in the new trilogy has been pushed back a bit: Episode VIII will hit theaters on December 15, 2017, several months later than its initially scheduled summer 2017 release date. Per StarWars.com, the Rian Johnson-helmed sequel to last December’s The Force Awakens will be in theaters almost two years to…

What We Liked (And Didn’t Like) About Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

It’s clear enough that a lot of us here at Kotaku liked Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. The game earned a positive review and a spot on our best of 2015 list. All the same, our three biggest Assassin’s Creed nerds had yet to sit down and talk it out. As we did with Assassin’s Creed III,…

10 Ways To Make Your Favorite Games Feel New Again

Games have rules. It’s sort of their “thing.” But just because a game suggests you’re supposed to play it one way doesn’t mean you can’t come up with some rules of your own. Whether you do it consciously or not, you probably restrict the way you play games. Maybe you force yourself to live with…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

I didn’t do a “what are you playing?” post for January, so instead I’m going to do one for this coming weekend. Weekends are people, too! So: What are you playing these days? I’ll go first: If you’ve been listening to our Kotaku Splitscreen podcast, you already know that I’ve been playing a lot of…

Oh Hey, A Bunch Of People Played The Division 

A few days ago a bunch of members of the gaming press went and played Ubisoft’s upcoming tactical shooter/RPG Tom Clancy’s The Division. Let’s see what they thought of it. We didn’t attend the preview event (obviously) but the embargo lifted this morning and there are enough substantive hands-on demo videos out there that I…

The independently developed Half-Life 2 expansion Prospekt is now Valve-approved. It’ll be available on Steam in February. Created by lone indie dev Richard Seabrook, Prospekt continues the story of Half-Life: Opposing Force and threads its way through the narrative of Half-Life 2

New Fallout 4 Update Fixes ‘Issue With Player Becoming Dismembered While Still Alive’

Fallout 4’s latest update is en route, promising to bring a few changes and fix a bunch of bugs, several of which are related to dismemberment. Gotta get that dismemberment working right! The 1.3 update is currently in beta on Steam but doubtless will be coming to all platforms in the not-too-distant future. On PC,…

A Very Anime Fan Theory About Undertale’s Undyne

Few games lend themselves to fan theories like Undertale does. I only finished it a few weeks ago, but I’ve already been having fun tracking down and pondering the most popular theories about the game’s world and characters. Undertale spoilers follow! One of Undertale’s most memorable characters is the fearsome warrior Undyne, a eyepatch-wearing fish…

Nice Monkey Island Reference, Assassin’s Creed

I was kidnapping a guy the other night in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and overheard a couple of Londoners engaging in some insult sword fighting. If you ask me, most of the enemies in these games fight like dairy farmers…

We’re Making A Change To Video Game Reviews At Kotaku

Like a one-term president we’ve had enough of, we’re ditching the Yes/No/Not Yet review system we’ve been employing for the last four years. What was meant to be a defiance of review scores became a review score. We don’t like review scores. Away it goes. We’ll be keeping the rest of our review system intact,…

A Trip Back Through BioShock’s Fantastic Opening Level

If you played BioShock, you remember the opening level of the game. Who could forget it? In a cool new video, ex-Irrational designer Bill Gardner sits down with IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey to play through “Welcome to Rapture,” the iconic opening level from the first BioShock. They chat while they play, hitting topics that range from…

The 12 Best Video Games Of 2015

We came, we saw, we played. We nominated, we debated, we decided. Here, in alphabetical order, are Kotaku’s top 12 games of 2015. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate BoxBoy Bloodborne Destiny: The Taken King Life Is Strange Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Rocket League Splatoon Super Mario Maker Transformers: Devastation Undertale The Witcher 3: Wild…

The Best Video Game Music Of 2015

The video games of 2015 often looked great, usually felt good, and probably smelled okay, too. But how did they sound? We’re glad you asked! With input from all of our staff—and in no particular order—here are our favorite video game soundtracks from 2015. Grab some headphones and listen along. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate Composer: Austin…

The Biggest Video Game Disappointments Of 2015

Every year in video games brings with it some lovely surprises, but every year also brings some sorry disappointments. [This post originally ran on December 17, 2015] At the end of each year, we like to take a moment to look back and complain about all the things that bummed us out. Hey, it’s part…

The Best Video Game Surprises Of 2015

Every year in gaming is full of shocks and surprises. This year had some really good ones. [This post originally ran on December 15, 2015] As we’ve done in past years, we’ve made a list of the best surprises from the year. Read it, and maybe you’ll even be surprised! (It can be fun to…

A Year’s Worth Of Dating Advice For The Modern Geek

Another year is ending, and with it another year of our Ask Dr. NerdLove advice column. The Doc—real name Harris O’Malley—kept his usual office hours this year, turning up a couple times per month to answer reader questions and, hopefully, help a few people on the way to a happier, healthier love life. Here are…

Shout Out To This Poor Assassin’s Creed Guy

In Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, there’s a guy whose entire job is to stand on a boat and get knocked into a river. That’s it. That’s his whole life. This man is a hero. If you’re running along in Syndicate’s version of London and happen to cross the Thames, you’ll probably see this guy. He’s all…

Kirk Hamilton’s Top 10 Games Of 2015

My 2015 was a little bit like Luke’s: I never felt like I had a shortage of cool things to play at any given moment, but when I sat down to pick my top ten, I wasn’t overwhelmed by my options. In past years, I’ve always wound up listing more than ten games. (Those lists:…

Fallout 4’s ‘Full Dialogue’ Mod Makes The Game Way Better

Opinions about Fallout 4 may be as sprawling and changeable as the Commonwealth wasteland, but most people agree that the new dialogue system leaves something to be desired. Fortunately, there’s a mod for that. With their newest game, developer Bethesda decided to change the dialogue system they’d used in previous games like Skyrim and Fallout…