Kirk Hamilton

What’s new with Card Hunter? Why, the upcoming Attack of the Artifacts expansion, of course. Check out this video to get a sense of what’ll be added to the excellent tactics/deck-building RPG.

​Infamous: Second Son‘s New Photo Mode Is A Blast

We’ve already pretty well established that Infamous: Second Son is a really nice-looking game. Wouldn’t it be cool if we had an easy way to freeze the game in action and really drink in all those shiny graphics? Thanks to today’s free update for the game, we have an opportunity to do just that. It’s…

​If You Like Thief And Dishonored, Read This Book

Picture it: A beautiful, 18th-century city with a dark underbelly. The labyrinthine streets are faintly lit by alchemical light, and gangs of thieves and cutthroats roam the lower quarters and canal-ways. High above, Dukes and Dons attend gala society parties, far away from the plague-ridden quarters below. And somewhere, in the shadows, a master thief…

​Which Gaming System Do You Use Most?

Here at Kotaku, we cover games for just about every major gaming system out there. PC, gaming consoles, handhelds, smartphones, web browsers… we’ve got it all. But it’s been a while since we asked you, our readers, what systems you use to play games. Today, I thought I would. For this poll, you can only…

​Solid Dating Advice For The Modern Geek

Online dating, romance at cons, asking out the girl at the GameStop—it’s a wild world out there for the geek who seeks love. Our resident dating columnist Harris “Dr. Nerdlove” O’Malley is here to help. Since January, we’ve been running a bi-weekly letters column by O’Malley, and we hope that his advice has helped some…

​True Detective Meets Family Circus, And Things Get Bleak

I never really did care for Family Circus. Something about those strange children, with their gaping maws and their coal-black eyes… But as it turns out, those creepy ankle-biters fit right in with Nic Pizzolatto’s grim dialogue from True Detective, as combined and imagined over at the excellently named Tumblr Time Is a Flat Circus…

New HBO Show Makes A Pretty Good Joke About Mass Effect‘s Ending

The characters on HBO’s new show Silicon Valley work in tech, and they clearly know a thing or two about video games. So when it comes time to articulate the pointlessness of one of their peers, they’ve got a pretty solid frame of reference to work with. In this scene from last night’s episode, the…

Rock Band Cranks Out The Tetris Theme While Standing Atop A Building

I’ve gotten flak in the past for being overly glib with my use of the word “shred,” but I’d say there’s enough finger-tapping and cello-sawing going on in this video to qualify. This performance comes to us from Critical Hit, a rock band of all-star YouTubers headed up by violinist Taylor Davis, whose work we’ve…

​The Cosplay Of PAX East, Day One

Why go to a gaming convention when you can go to a gaming convention dressed up as your favorite video game character? Good question. Today was the first day of PAX East in Boston, and several of our east coast-crew were on hand to cover the show. In between game demos and the Super Exciting…

​What Makes A Bad Game Bad?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about video games, it’s that no two bad games are bad in quite the same way. In this enjoyable episode of PBS’ Game/Show series, host Jamin Warren explores bad games, and tries to get a handle on what makes them that way. It reminds me of the excellent thread…

14 Minutes Of The Super-Slick Star Citizen In Action

We’ve long known that the outer-space sim Star Citizen looks gorgeous; that’s a big part of the reason the PC game’s developers have managed to raise more than $40 million in crowdfunding. At this weekend’s PAX East convention in Boston, Star Citizen creator Chris Roberts demoed a bunch of new footage of the game in…

I can’t say enough about the Majula theme from Dark Souls II. There’s so much space; it’s so beautiful, and mournful, and still. The Emerald Herald, standing by a bonfire and overlooking the sea. A lost knight with his head in his hands. And somewhere… a bunch of pigs waiting to kill you

Finally, an accurate video game trailer. When I started watching this trailer for the upcoming Trials Fusion, I thought it would be the same marketing nonsense as most trailers. Then I started paying attention to what was actually happening on screen, which, yeah, that’s Trials

Game of Thrones Goes Smooth Jazz, And It’s Glorious

I’ve heard a lot of different versions of Ramin Djawadi’s Game of Thrones theme in my day—like this one—but never a rendition this smooth. Here we’ve got saxophonist Dave Koz sitting in with pianist Scott Bradlee’s trio, putting the G – Am – E in Game of Thrones. (I have no idea if those chords…

​Dark Souls II‘s Cat Is So Sad

Aw, Sweet Shalquoir. I’m sorry that you’re so bummed. It must be lonely in Majula, with no funky-smelling heroes around to keep you company It’s just you, some sad people, and three mean pigs. The latest from artist Stephen Maurice Graham takes a look at the inner life of Majula’s favorite feline. Turns out, Sweet…

​Dark Souls II‘s Best Early Joke

Everyone talks about how difficult Dark Souls II is. People rarely talk about how funny it is. But the Souls games really are very funny. The developers at From Software are a very specific type of smart—careful, calculated, and deliberately punishing, if never quite cruel. But all of their game’s taut toughness is packaged with…

The Wolf Among Us Is Finally Getting Really Good

Telltale’s The Wolf Among Us has always had a tricky task: Tell a story with a theoretically infinite number of famous characters, based on a comic series that not all of its players have read, and keep things reasonably focused and coherent. Give Fables fans what they want; give everyone a story that makes sense.…

​Here Are All The Settings For Dark Souls II On PC

PC gamers are understandably wary of Dark Souls II. The first Dark Souls arrived on PC in less than ideal shape, with a limited frame-rate and resolution and lousy controls. The big question has been: How will the PC version of Dark Souls II stack up? The first game was rescued by heroic modders, and…

​What Did You Think Of The Game of Thrones Premiere?

Everyone’s back, and everything’s different, and you can just tell that at some point soon, everything’s going to fall apart. Welcome back to Game of Thrones! Of course it’s all going to fall apart—what else would really happen in Westeros, after all? This isn’t really a place where things arrive at a comfortable status quo…

Here is a lovely comic about ducks. Well, it’s about a lot more than that, really. Ducks is the latest from the brilliant Kate Beaton; it’s an unusually long work for her, a five-parter that tells the story of her time working at a Fort McMurray mining site in 2008. Find all five parts here