Michael McWhertor

Enslaved Screen Shots

Yakuza Flexes Its Muscle On PS3 Sales In Japan

The PlayStation 3 had a big week in Japan, thanks to the success of Sega’s Yakuza 4, the country’s bestselling game for the country’s bestselling console. It was just a little over a year ago that the previous entry, Yakuza 3, pushed the PS3 to the top of the Media Create hardware chart. It was…

What If Tron Were Released In 1962?

If Disney’s computer generated sci-fi epic appeared a couple decades earlier and title sequence master Saul Bass got the job, well, it would probably look just like this, requiring a massive farm of PDP-1s to render. Oh, sure this Bass-inspired Tron send-up is positively ancient in internet terms—creator Hexagonall uploaded the parody to Vimeo some…

Kotaku Off Topic: Junkyard Dogs

Thank goodness it’s Friday, when the off-topic conversation occasionally steers toward the gastronomic. Let’s ring in the weekend by talking about anything we want, as long as that anything is about hot dogs. See, the PAX East festivities happening this weekend made me pine for a Spike’s Junkyard Dog, the “German Shephard” to be precise.…

Halo: Reach’s Commendations, Credits & Your Concerns Explained

Bungie is mixing up Halo: Reach multiplayer with all new rules, adding the concepts of Credits, Rank, and Commendations; it’s all part of the Xbox 360 game’s new “Player Investment” system, which sounds way more exciting than the name implies. In Halo: Reach, Bungie is throwing out much of the old way of doing things,…

Review Round-Up: Steely Damned

It was a week in which new Wii games were reviewed and old Nintendo 64 games were reviewed, as well as one that could’ve have passed for a Super NES game. It was a week’s worth of Kotaku reviews. Get yourself caught up on our weekly batch of scoreless reviews, including new Dante’s Inferno downloadable…

The iPad Launch Games, Now More Expensive

With Apple’s “magical and revolutionary” iPad hitting next week—April 3, to be exact—expect a flood of apps and video games to saturate iTunes at launch. Specifically, expect these games, unearthed from the iPad’s app store. The first wave of iPad games appear to mostly be upscaled upgrades of their iPhone and iPod Touch counterparts, according…

Kotaku’s PAX East Party: It’s A Happening!

Are you in Boston, Massachusetts and attending PAX East? If you’re in the mood to have a wicked pissa of a night, head over to tonight’s Kotaku party at the lovely Rattlesnake Bar and Grill. We’re buyin’! Well, Alienware’s buying, as they’re sponsoring the thing, providing you with refreshments from 8 p.m until 2 a.m.…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

While you’re playing video games this weekend, I’ll be making ’em. No, I’m not graduating from the school of enthusiast press to go work in game development, I’ll be playing WarioWare D.I.Y. on my non-XL Nintendo DSi. I’ve got plenty of ideas, including bizarre Super Mario Bros. and Metroid mash-ups, as well as one in…

The First King of Fighters XIII Screen Shots Bust Out

SNK Playmore is going to keep this King of Fighters thing going, unveiling the latest version, The King of Fighters XIII, in Tokyo this week. The most notable addition? The return of Mai Shiranui, the series’ bosomy fan (service) favorite. Joining The King of Fighters’ bounciest ninja will be more modest newcomers King and Yuri,…

Hydro Thunder Returns With All-New Xbox Live Arcade Sequel

Midway’s classic arcade speedboat racer Hydro Thunder is getting a full-fledged sequel with Hydro Thunder Hurricane, exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade, promising all-new, over-the-top rocket powered speedboat action. (Which you can witness in the game’s first trailer!) Hydro Thunder Hurricane will come to XBLA this summer courtesy of Microsoft Game Studios and developer Vector Unit,…

Hands-On With Breach, The New Breed Of Destruction

With its Iraq War shooter Six Days In Fallujah still in publishing limbo, developer Atomic Games is working on a new plan of attack with its new multiplayer shooter Breach, a game that’s about finding a new angle on warfare. Breach’s most talked about feature during our hands-on time with the Xbox Live Arcade and…

Breach Screen Shots

Kotaku Off Topic: We’re Here

Let’s end this Thursday—if it’s still Thursday in your part of the world—with a little off topic conversation, exactly what this post is all about. Me? I plan on leaving the conversation up to you, but if you’re heading to PAX East tomorrow, please let us know. And then let us know what your plans…

GameStop Hit With Class Action Suit Over “Deceptive” Used Game Sales

Attempts to stem used game sales at GameStop have just turned into a legal headache for the retailer who thrives on selling pre-owned video games. The company has just been hit with a lawsuit over “deceptive and misleading” sales practices. According to a class action suit spotted by IGN, GameStop is being sued for “fraudulently,…

Hydro Thunder For Xbox Live Making Surprise Appearance At PAX? Update: Yes!

Midway’s classic speedboat racer Hydro Thunder may be making its way to Xbox Live Arcade soon. And it may be playable at PAX East even sooner—as in tomorrow. According to a report from /gamer, the Xbox 360 booth at PAX East features at least one kiosk with a playable copy of Hydro Thunder, indicating an…

PlayStation Store Update: Blue Toads, Hamster Balls And Ripped Abs

We’ve got a bit of a traffic jam on our hands in this week’s North American PlayStation Store update, with almost too much to highlight this Thursday, including Section 8, Blue Toad Murder Files and Cho Aniki Zero. Yes, that downloadable PSP shoot ’em up is the source of the “ripped abs” in the headline,…

Splatterhouse Screens Get Chunks Of Stuff All Over The Place

Is it time to start age-gating screen shots? The newest Splatterhouse screens, full of blood-soaked ghouls, chunky guts and flying severed limbs, might be better limited to mature audiences only. Or are we overreacting? Maybe the very idea of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 update to Splatterhouse will turn your stomach and this much…

The Tester: Episode 6: “Focus, People, Focus!” Liveblog: No Big D Is Bad For Your Health

PlayStation Network reality show The Tester continues today with its sixth glorious episode, with just five potential candidates gunning for a spot in the illustrious PlayStation QA department, ready to fulfill a dream of filing bug reports. This week’s episode will be lighter on the LARPing and smaller on the Big D, the most recent…

The Next Club Nintendo Exclusive Is Ultra Handy

North American Club Nintendo members are in for a treat, as long as they have the 80 coins needed to purchase themselves a copy of Grill-Off with Ultra Hand!—emphasis Nintendo’s—the latest Nintendo fan reward for WiiWare. The game, released via Japan’s version of Club Nintendo as Wii de Ultrahand at the end of 2009, is…