Kirk Hamilton

The Last of Us Story DLC Is A Prequel Featuring Ellie

Today at Sony’s PS4 event Naughty Dog revealed Left Behind, the first story-based DLC for The Last of Us. The teaser trailer showed Ellie along with Riley Abel, her friend from back during her school days in the Quarantine Zone. Those who have read the Dark Horse comic run of The Last of Us: American…

​Dude Shoots PS4 With A High-Powered Rifle

What happens when you put a high-powered rifle round through a PlayStation 4? Pretty much what you’d expect. I figured the gun-toting madmen at Rated RR would take on the PlayStation 4, but maybe not quite so soon—the thing isn’t even out yet! But hey, if you’ve got a console and you’ve got a huge…

From Wii Sports to YouTube Itself, Readers Share More Last-Gen Heroes

We’re nearing the end of our Last-Gen Heroes series, but that doesn’t mean our readers have any less to say about the games of the last eight years. I haven’t run a roundup post for a little while, and our readers over at the Talk Amongst Yourselves blog have been busy. Here’s what everyone’s had…

​The Best Video Game Music Of The Last Generation

There may be no one part of a game that connects to our memories as immediately or intensely as music. Of course we remember a game’s music: Those were the melodies that accompanied us on adventures in other worlds, through trials and triumphs, through victory and defeat. A musical score exists outside of visuals and…

Say Goodbye To The Xbox 360 Era By Blowing One Up With C4

If you’re gonna ring in a new generation of gaming consoles, might as well do it… with a bang. This new video, from RatedRR, is quite… explosive. In it, they take a red-ringed Xbox 360 and place it… in the smoking section. The Xbox then gets a new kind of red ring: A red ring……

One Beard Becomes Eight, Sings Zelda‘s Most Famous Theme

It was only a matter of time before video-game a cappella master Smooth McGroove took on the Zelda theme. Now, he has—or rather he, his cat and his seven doppelgängers have. This version of Link to the Past‘s famous overworld theme is one of Smooth’s more percussive recent works, and it sure does get me…

​What Happens When The Joker Finally Pushes Batman Too Far

Batman’s deadly, never-ending tango with the Joker is the series’ most iconic, defining conflict. So what happens when the Joker finally pushes his nemesis too far? What happens when Batman decides to end it? That’s the question at the heart of “The Deal,” an incredible, incredibly dark fan comic by writer Gerado Preciado and artist…

​The Best Game Trailers Of The Generation

Video game trailers are all lies, damned lies. If they show us gameplay at all, it’s cut together in the most exciting possible way. They’re custom-crafted to generate hype, and they have the power to make a lousy game look fantastic. But, well… if they’re lies, at least they’re occasionally beautiful ones. Over the last…

See Battlefield 4 Running On PS4 Remote Play

One of the PlayStation 4’s coolest advertised features is Remote Play, which will allow gamers to play PS4 games on their Vita handheld. We’ve already seen a demo of Assassin’s Creed IV running with Remote Play, and now you can get a taste of Battlefield 4 IGN‘s Greg Miller has shared this Vine video which,…

​Finally, A Game Where You Argue About Slashfic

What if Wolverine and Battlestar‘s Number Six met and fell in love? What if Desmond from LOST had a torrid affair with Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes? We cannot stop asking these questions. We will not! Might as well make a game out of it. That’s the idea behind Slash: Romance Without Boundries, a new card…

Brilliant news: In early 2014, the excellent indie starship-management game FTL will get afree Advanced Edition that adds all sorts of new stuff. Even better, the game will finally come to iPad, also in early 2014. Yessssssss.

​Apparently Hideo Kojima Loves The PS4 Pillow, Too

Sure, the PlayStation 4 is the main attraction at Sony’sbig New York press event today. But a surprising upstart has stolen a bit of the spotlight: The PS4 Pillow. Behold, in all its glory: Ever since people at the event started sharing pictures of the pillow on social media, it’s become quite the thing. Metal…

The Best Game Ending Of The Last Generation

As we at Kotaku planed out the final couple weeks of our Last-Gen Heroes series, we considered the possibility of a list of the best endings of the generation. “But game endings all suck,” Luke said. “Well, except for The Last of Us,” I replied. And so, rather than put together some list of the…

BioShock Infinite‘s New Expansion Bites Off More Than It Can Chew

What to make of Burial at Sea? Planned as a two-part episodic expansion for BioShock Infinite, it takes us back to where the series began: The majestic underwater city of Rapture. One part BioShock nostalgia trip and one part extraneous BioShock Infinite epilogue, Burial at Sea‘s first episode falls unfortunately short of both its predecessors.…

Weekend Listening: I went on a couple of podcasts this week: GameTrailers‘ Side Mission Briefing, where host Rocco DeMaro and I talked about next-gen consoles and Gravity, and a Giant Bomb Spoilercast, where Patrick Klepek, Alex Navarro, Polygon‘s Justin McElroy and I did a post-game about Beyond: Two Souls

Valve Explains Dota 2‘s Missing Diretide Event, Will Release It Soon

Valve made a lot of people angry this year when they elected not to ship a Diretide event for Dota 2. They’ve reversed course in a new blog post today, explaining why Diretide hadn’t been planned for this year and saying that the event will be included in the game’s next update. Diretide is a…

​Blizzard’s Chris Metzen Could’ve Been A Heavy Metal Frontman

Blizzard games have always had a little bit of heavy metal to them. So it’s fitting that Chris Metzen, one of their most beloved developers, brought a touch of the rock to his opening keynote today at BlizzCon. Our video editor Chris Person cut together this highlight reel of Metzen’s greatest roars. Sit back, relax,…

​Cosplay Brings South Park‘s Most Famous Nerd To Life

Long have we loathed and admired the nameless World of Warcraft griefer at the heart of the classic South Park episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft.” Today at BlizzCon, one noble cosplayer brought him to life. This shot was snapped at BlizzCon by Phil Hornshaw and shared on Twitter by GameFront: For reference: Not bad! It’s…

​Life With Video Games Has Gotten More Depressing, Funnier

No doubt about it: Life with video games is a hell of a lot different now than it was back in the day. It’s easy to look on the past with rose-tinted glasses, but part of what I enjoy about this latest comic from Dorkly is that it feels pretty honest. Depressing, at times, but…

​Assassin’s Creed III Was Disappointing. How Does Black Flag Stack Up?

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag had a lot of making up to do. I thought the previous game in the series, Assassin’s Creed III, was a resounding disappointment. I’ve already weighed in on the new, pirate-themed Black Flag: It’s pretty good. But for those who felt burnt by the last game, a more thorough comparison…