Kirk Hamilton

Destiny’s Trials of Osiris will return next Friday, October 30th. That’s according to the latest Bungie weekly update, which also explains how the next patch (due in November) will improve crucible drops and simplify the much-derided “Crucible Forged” quest.

Destiny Players, Did You Buy Any Emotes?

A week ago, Bungie made it possible for Destiny players to buy in-game emotes for their character. The emotes are the first cosmetic microtransactions to be added to the game. I’m curious how successful the whole thing has been so far. I put together a couple of polls. I’m very interested to see the numbers…

What’s Your Best Video Game Dating Story?

People can joke all they want about how gamers are all loners. Truth is, video games bring people together. It’s time to tell some video game dating stories. Have games ever played a major part in a date you’ve been on? Is “Xbox and chill” your new late-night text? Ever had a date suddenly start…

Destiny’s Got Yet Another Hidden Weapon Today

A couple of weeks ago, Destiny players took what seemed like the first stepstoward uncovering yet another hidden weapon. Today, the rest of the path has been unveiled, and players can follow the path all the way to a new exotic gun. As most of us suspected, the weapon in question is the pulse rifle…

Destiny Players Somehow Two-Man The Final Raid Boss 

Over the weekend, two Destiny players beat Oryx, the final boss of the King’s Fall raid, without any backup. Yes, two The feat was pulled off by CommanderCuesta of The Legend Himself clan, along with his teammate A Death Card. If you’ve played the King’s Fall raid, I highly recommend watching. It is ridiculous. Check…

When Video Games Defy ‘Gamer Logic’

Lots of video games strive to look like the real world, but they still follow their own distinct rules. Every person and thing has been designed specifically for you, the player. So it can be pretty jarring—and cool—when a game throws that out the window. Generally speaking, if a video-game character asks you to do…

With Hearts of Stone, The Witcher 3 Continues To Get DLC Very Right

A month or so ago, I would’ve told you I was done playing The Witcher 3. Turns out that’s not the case. This week, The Witcher 3’s first paid downloadable expansion, Hearts of Stone, came out. While CD Projekt Red already demonstrated their ability to confidently expand The Witcher 3 with those 16 pieces of…

Destiny‘s Trials of Osiris Delayed Because Of Exploit

Bungie is delaying the much-anticipated return of Destiny’s Trials of Osiris while they address a recently discovered exploit that can totally ruin competitive matches. The announcement is part of the latest Destiny weekly update, which also includes a release date for the King’s Fall raid’s upcoming hard mode. Trials of Osiris no longer has a…

A New Cheat Is Wrecking Competitive Destiny Matches [Update]

A new exploit has turned up in competitive Destiny, and it sucks. Update 7:15 PM: Bungie has addressed the cheat in their latest Weekly Update, saying that they’re working on disabling the bug. They’ve delayed Trials of Osiris until they’ve got it cleared up. Earlier this week, someone figured out a way for people playing…

Destiny’s Latest Iron Banner: Pretty Good So Far [Update: Less Good]

It’s a big week for competitive Destiny players. Yesterday marked the start of a new Iron Banner, which is a week-long competitive multiplayer event where players get to test their mettle—and their cool new guns—against one another. This is the first Iron Banner since the launch of the Taken King expansion, and also the first…

Not All Of Us Loved Destiny’s New Raid

Over the last couple of weeks, several of us here at Kotaku have worked our way through Destiny’s new King’s Fall raid. Some of us really like it. Others, not so much. Jason and I have completed the raid a bunch of times—we went in cold the day it came out, and along with our…

80 Days is a cool game and you should play it. Here’s Cool Ghosts hosts (and friends of Kotaku) Matt Lees and Quintin Smith with an enjoyable video that captures what makes the game special.

The New PS4 Uncharted Collection Shows How Much The PS3 Evolved

If you asked a bunch of people to list the most influential games of the last console generation, there’s a solid chance most of them would include the PS3’s Uncharted series. Four or five years ago, when we needed to show a friend how visually impressive video games had become, we often reached for one…

Destiny’s PvP Matchmaking Has Been Weirder Than Ever

Along with the new Taken King expansion, Bungie fine-tuned Destiny’s PvP matchmaking. It’s not yet clear whether that has been an improvement. I’ve been playing more and more PvP lately. It’s a logical progression—the PvE stuff has reached a predictable tempo for me, so I’ve been getting ready for Trials of Osiris and Iron Banner…

Tips For Playing Destiny: The Taken King

Destiny is both refreshingly simple and terrifyingly complicated. It’s mostly about shooting aliens in the head… but it’s also about mastering a complex system of currencies, equipment, reward tiers, and experience points. I’m here to help. Over the past year, I played more than 700 hours of Destiny. Since The Taken King expansion came out…

What Are You Playing This October?

It’s October, that magical month when the trees start to turn, the big-name video games continue to drop, and a certain Kotaku features editor celebrates another year of being alive. Libras, unite. September offered a richer than usual bounty of new games to play, and I’m guessing a lot of you are still dealing with…

Destiny‘s Iron Banner And Trials of Osiris Are Getting Some Changes

Destiny’s two big multiplayer events, Trials of Osiris and the Iron Banner, are coming back in a little more than a week. The first year-two Iron Banner will begin on October 13th, with Trials of Osiris kicking off later that week on the 16th. In this week’s update to the company blog, Bungie’s PvP designers…

Destiny: The Taken King: The Kotaku Review

For most of last year, Destiny players have been spurred by hope and riled by impatience. We held out hope that this flawed but promising game would draw closer to its potential, despite our impatience with the sluggish pace of improvements. “Why do you even play Destiny?” a friend or acquaintance might ask, setting down…

The Ten Commandments Of Video Game Menus

A good video game menu is like a good roadie: It stays out of the way. But still, far too many menus waste far too much of our time. People want to play games, not mess around in menus! We’ve gone up to the top of Video Game Mountain in search of answers, and have…

Destiny’s Secret ‘Black Spindle Challenge’ Was Amazing

Yesterday, Destiny players uncovered a secret challenge hiding in a back corner of the daily heroic story mission. If you could clear a ridiculously difficult gauntlet of ridiculously difficult enemies in a ridiculously short amount of time, you’d get a ridiculously cool gun called Black Spindle. It was wild. After failing multiple times last night,…