Kirk Hamilton

Why Destiny Players Feel Screwed Over

This week, a storm of anger has enveloped the Destiny community. This particular storm was brought about by a specific thing that happened last week. But in truth, it’s been brewing for much longer. Last week at E3, Bungie was showing off The Taken King, the new expansion for Destiny. We saw and played a…

Mirror’s Edge 2 Seems More Skate-Park Than Racetrack

When the developers of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst introduced their new game at E3, they mostly focused on how players would be free to explore a large open world. Cool, I thought. Good. This is a good thing. During my brief time playing Catalyst after that demonstration—our remaining minutes precisely marked by a screen-corner countdown timer—that…

Dark Souls 3’s E3 Demo Was Kinda Dull. That’s Fine, Right?

There’s always a dissonance when one of the most promising new games you see at E3 is also one of the least traditionally “exciting” ones. Last Thursday, I smushed myself into meeting-room theater alongside 30 or 40 other members of the press to watch a demonstration of Dark Souls 3. As someone else played, the…

Let’s Rate E3 2015

Another E3 has come and gone. We’ve had a weekend to recover, and it’s time to take stock. Who did well? Who did poorly? You tell us. Last year, I made a bunch of polls so that y’all could vote for how you thought everyone “did” at E3. I thought I’d do the same thing…

The New Hitman’s Creative Director Is Saying All The Right Things

On the last day of E3, I checked out the newly announced Hitman game, which is simply called Hitman. I also spoke with IO Interactive creative director Christian Elverdam, and he had some heartening things to say. Most Hitman fans agree that 2006’s Blood Money was the pinnacle of the series, and that game came…

We Played The New Destiny Expansion At E3

Yesterday at E3, Jason and I had a chance to play a bit of the next expansion for Destiny, a game showcased at trade shows across the galaxy for journalists who secretly wish they were home playing Destiny. We didn’t get to play all that much, but what we played was pretty good. We worked…

EA Introduces Hoop Gawd, The Gawd Of Hoops

Today at EA’s E3 press conference, we got to meet a guy who goes by “Hoop Gawd.” Hoop Gawd demonstrated a new way to make a self-styled custom character in NBA Live 16, and also gave lots of people opportunities to use the words “Hoop God” in complete sentences. Thanks, Hoop Gawd. Long may your…

It’s now official: Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is coming to Xbox One on August 25th. It’ll run at 1080p and 60fps, and there’ll be a one-week public multiplayer beta starting today.

We just got a look at Cuphead, a side-scrolling platformer from Studio MDHR. It looks like an old-school Disney cartoon, and I would like to play it. It’s coming to Xbox One and PC in 2016.

Rainbow Six: Siege is coming on October 13, 2015, Ubisoft announced today at Microsoft’s E3 press conference. It’ll include copies of Rainbow Six Vegas and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on Xbox One.

An Up-Close, Ultra-Violent Look At The New Doom

Tonight at Bethesda’s pre-E3 press conference, we got our first extended (extremely violent!) look at the new Doom, which will be out in Spring of 2016. First, we got a lengthy look at a single player battle in the game, which combines the fast-paced ultraviolence of old-school Doom with some ridiculous slow-mo kill animations: Next,…

Destiny’s ‘Vintage’ Guns Are Better Than The New Ones

You know the phrase “they don’t make ‘em like they used to?” It’s not just true of stereo equipment and American muscle cars, it’s also true of Destiny guns. In Destiny, there’s a shotgun you can earn called “Felwinter’s Lie.” (It’s a good name. Lots of Destiny guns have good names.) People like Felwinter’s, especially…

Destiny’s ‘Worst’ Exotic Bounty Is Actually Brilliant

When people start talking about Destiny’s PvP multiplayer, chances are they’ll eventually bring up the infamous, deadly gun Thorn. And if they’re talking about Thorn, they’ll almost surely mention the arduous process of obtaining one. A few days ago, I underwent the trial-by-fire that is the Thorn exotic bounty. It was frequently difficult, occasionally maddening,…

Super Meat Boy is coming to PS4 and Vita later this year. It’ll be a free PS+ game at launch, too. Why yes, I will gladly play that game again on Vita.

One Of Destiny’s Most Useful Tools Wasn’t Made By Bungie

If you play a lot of Destiny, chances are you’ve had a hard time keeping track of all your gear. It’s fun to collect rare and exotic weapons and armor, but it can be a headache organizing everything. Thankfully, there’s an app for that. The app is a Chrome extension called Destiny Item Manager (DIM…

It’s Hard Not To Hate Destiny’s Best PvP Gun

If you’ve been competing in Destiny’s intense new Trials of Osiris multiplayer event, you may have noticed something: Almost every player you go up against is using the same gun. That gun is a weird-looking revolver called Thorn. If there are three players on a given Trials team, it’s a safe bet that at least…

The Witcher 3’s Free DLC So Far: Monsters, Beards, And A Pretty Dress

I’ve been replaying The Witcher 3 over the past couple of weeks, and every so often I’ll notice something is slightly different than it was the first time I played. That’s because slowly but surely, CD Projekt Red has been adding free stuff to the game. I decided to look back over what they’ve added…

Destiny’s Prison Of Elders Should Let Us Take Breaks

Destiny’s new cooperative challenge mode is called “The Prison of Elders.” It’s a fitting name: Thanks to the way checkpoints work, it really can leave you feeling imprisoned. The Prison is a new game mode introduced in the newest Destiny expansion, House of Wolves. The gist: You make a team of three and make your…