Kirk Hamilton

Tales From The Borderlands’s Perfect Music Picks Made The Whole Game Better

Telltale’s episodic adventure series Tales From The Borderlands was one of 2015’s best surprises. That was mostly thanks to its funny script, well-developed characters, and killer voice acting. But the music definitely helped. After I finished the second episode back in April, I was already going on about how Telltale was wrecking it with their…

Year-end podcast alert: Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo and Evan Narcisse (along with perma-Kotaku-friend Tina Amini) guested on the star-studded Game Of The Year episode of Chris Suellentrop’s “Shall We Play A Game” podcast. Listen here

Undertale, As Told By 123 Screenshots

By now, you’ve probably heard of a little game called Undertale. You may also have heard that it’s good. Good news: It really, really is. I’d started the game a little while back but had only had time to play for an hour or so. Since then, the game went on to become the source…

Just Cause 3 is getting a new patch this week. The 1.02 patch is live on Steam, and should be appearing on consoles over the next few days. According to Avalanche’s patch notes, this update is focused more on improving load times than on overall performance, but is “part of a much larger plan to…

Destiny Players: How Much Have You Spent On Microtransactions?

Today, Bungie added some expensive, unexpected microtransactions to Destiny that will let players level their characters (slightly) faster in exchange for (a lot of) real-world money. In light of that news, I’m curious how much y’all have spent on the game so far. Back when Destiny’s in-game microtransaction system launched, we polled readers on which…

Shouldn’t that be cleverer? Oh, I’m probably overthinking it. I’m playing more Dying Light this weekend, because it’s fun and I never finished. How about you? Anything new going? Sound off below.

I Bought An Expensive-Ass PC Gaming Monitor And It’s Really Good

Look, sometimes you spend $709 on a gaming monitor and wind up really happy with your purchase. I’m not saying it happens every time, but it happened this time. After months of hemming, hawing, and talking myself out of it, last week I went ahead and dropped a bunch of bucks on a newfangled G-Sync…

The State Of The PlayStation 4 In 2015

The PlayStation 4 is an unexciting video game console, all things considered. It’s a box that you put under your TV, and it plays video games. Slowly but surely, it’s getting better at doing that. The games it plays are also getting better and more numerous. Slowly, but surely. This is part of our 2015…

An Hour-Long Look At What Made Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Movies Great

In our current age of mega-Marvel machinations and decade-long transmedia story arcs, it’s easy to forget what it was like before the Avengers assembled. Way back at the turn of the century, we got a pair of films that in many ways paved the way for the Marvel Cinematic Universe we know and love today.…

Dying Light’s The Following DLC continues to look promising. It’ll be interesting to see if the game can retain its signature flow without the verticality of the city of Harran, but those dune buggies sure do seem nifty.

How To Fly In Just Cause 3 Without Crashing Like A Loser

I was more mixed on Just Cause 3 than I was expecting to be, but the game can still be a hell of a lot of fun. It’s definitely more fun once you’ve gotten your head around how to fly without crashing into everything. I played a lot of Just Cause 2, but it still…

Destiny’s weekend vendor Xur is selling the fusion rifle Telesto. If you’re wondering if you should buy it: Yes, yes you should.

Which Fallout 4 Faction Is The Best?

There are four factions you can help out in Fallout 4. Each has its own goals, its own philosophy, and its own cool outfits. The question is: Which one is best? Patricia’s already explained why she doesn’t like the Brotherhood, but maybe you feel differently? Or maybe you’re more an a Railroad type? Or maybe…

Destiny, As Told By The Drops I Got Last Night

Last night I played Destiny for the first time in a while. It started out amazing, then got noticeably less amazing. I’d joined a group of my old raid buddies to trythe first of the new challenge modes that are being introduced to the King’s Fall raid. This week, if you beat the Warpriest boss…

What Are You Playing This December?

It’s December, baby. December! The great wave of fall video games has crashed upon us, spraying great gouts of #content as far as the eye can see. As the weather chills and the holidays beckon, what have you been playing? I’ll go first. I’m still playing Just Cause 3, both to keep an eye on…

Destiny’s first raid “challenge” went live today. It’s in the Warpriest fight near the start of the King’s Fall raid. I won’t explain how to do it here, in case you want to figure it out for yourself, but it sounds pretty straightforward. I haven’t had time to try it yet—if you finished it, what’d…

Just Cause 3: The Kotaku Review

Just Cause 3 does one thing really well, and a lot of other things poorly. The thing it does well can be extremely cool. Shame about all those other things, though. If you’re wondering what that good thing is, check this out: The new open-world game from Avalanche Studios captures the thrill of flight in…

Fallout 4‘s User Interface Is Truly Terrible

You’ll spend a lot of Fallout 4 fighting irradiated super mutants, giant killer cockroaches, and deadly cyborgs. You’ll spend just as much time fighting the game’s awful user interface. The fact that Fallout 4 has cumbersome, counterintuitive menus won’t come as a surprise to anyone who played Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas. In most…

Our Favorite Holiday Video Game Console Bundles

It’s actually not always that easy to just buy a video game console. Almost every console on offer comes bundled with some game or other. That’s not a bad thing, of course, but it can make the process of picking out a gift a little tricky. When picking a new console as a gift, your…

Destiny’s weapon balance is getting another bunch of tweaks. Over at the Bungie blog, they’ve laid out a bunch of changes coming in the December update. Notable: Pulse rifle nerf, auto rifle buff, LitC sniper nerf (yay), small hand cannon buff, substantial shotgun nerf. In the regular Bungie weekly update, they also say new exotics,…