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Gaming’s Most Impressive Storms
With most of New York City shut down—no trains, no buses, some evacuations—those of us at Kotaku who normally work in the main office are working from home. That’s me, Evan, Jason, Chris and Tina. So we’re home, looking out our windows as trees begin to bend, winds begin to howl and… is that rain…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 29, 2012 -
Final Fantasy XIV‘s New ‘Grand Finale’ Will End This Sorry Era of Square’s Troubled MMO
Today brings news, in the form of an official Square-Enix press release, that Final Fantasy XIV‘s “grand finale,” which seems like an odd thing for a company to be announcing regarding their embarrassingly flawed, overly complex and just not very well-liked massively multiplayer online game. But when Square refers to a “grand finale”, they really…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 29, 2012 -
Supposed GTA V Posters Promise Spring 2013 Release Date
A Polish website has posted images of what they say are real promotional posters for Grand Theft Auto V. The posters peg the game for a spring 2013 release date for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. We can’t verify their authenticity but have asked a Rockstar rep if he will. This post will be updated…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 27, 2012 -
Minor Console Aggravation: Those Darn PS3 Installations
Download a game on the Xbox 360 or the Wii and you’re good to go. You can play it. Download a game on the PS3 and you just might have to then tell the PS3 to install it. You have to manually install any game that you have downloaded in the background. This is strange,…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 26, 2012 -
You’ve Been Voted In as the Sexy New President of Japan. Time To Get in Your Mech Suit and Save a Nation.
For $8 you can download a game called Liberation Maiden to the 3DS and then you can experience the probable future of the second president of New Japan hopping into a flying mech in order to shoot at the forces of an evil empire that has taken over old Japan. It’s not this premise that…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 25, 2012 -
Clever Move, Activision…
Via the personal Twitter feed of Josh Olin, former community management guy for Call of Duty studio Treyarch. Now at Riot. Olin Tweeted: “So this is the packaging that @Amazon is shipping @MedalOfHonor in…. Brilliant!!! Cc: @stephentotilo pic.twitter.com/YMFWDswO” I’ve checked in with Activision PR to find out out if this was done just for Medal…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 24, 2012 -
How People Earn The Actual Medal of Honor
The video game first-person shooter series Medal of Honor has been around so long that it’s easy for a gamer to think of the words “Medal of Honor” as just a video game brand, no more tied to a real thing in the non-gaming word as a phrase like “brothers in arms”, “company of heroes”…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 24, 2012 -
Pro Wrestler Who Dresses as a Classic Nintendo Wrestler Gets In Trouble At WWE Show
The New Jersey-based wrestling league Pro Wrestling Syndicate has a guy wrestling for them who goes by the name Star Man. The inspiration for his character? The star-faced character from the old Nintendo Entertainment System game Pro Wrestling (the one the “A Winner is You” meme comes from.) Star Man isn’t in the big leagues…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 24, 2012 -
The Nintendo 3DS’ Other Problem Appears To Be The DS
Nintendo says the 3DS’ sales in the U.S. are “weaker” than hoped. Experts will blame everything from the popularity of gaming on tablets and phones to a not-yet-overwhelmingly-great software line-up for the 3DS. Maybe…. But maybe that darn Nintendo DS is to blame. From the beginning of April 2012 through the end of September, the…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 24, 2012 -
Congratulations, EA, You Just Released Your 10th Military Shooter in 5 Years
It was a long time coming—longer than the gap between the announcement of the iPad 3 and the iPad 4—but Electronic Arts has finally released another military shooter. The game is called Medal of Honor Warfighter. It’s EA’s first military shooter since 2011’s Battlefield 3 (we’re not counting this past winter’s sci-fi first-person shooter Syndicate).…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 23, 2012 -
Brutal Zynga Update: 13 Games ‘Sunsetting’. More Studio Shutdowns. 5% Workforce Reduction
Following a day of bad news for the embattled maker of FarmVille and CityVille. Zynga chief Mark Pincus just sent this note to his company: INTERNAL NOTE FROM ZYNGA CEO AND FOUNDER, MARK PINCUS Team, Earlier today we initiated a number of changes to streamline our operations, focus our resources on our most strategic opportunities,…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 23, 2012 -
You Might Be Able To Buy Some Wii U Games Early
Days before I bought a launch-day GameCube, I bought a GameCube game. Super Monkeyball, if you’re curious. It’s not unusual to be able to buy new games for a new console before you can buy the console itself. The evidence is mounting that you’ll be able to do so next month with some Wii U…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 23, 2012 -
So. Uh. People Are Playing Games on Their Tablets. While On the Couch.
Ah, the video game console. It is the machine you use when you plop down on a couch and want to play a video game. It’s been that way for decades Console will always be the machine for gaming in the living room, right? Maybe not. Consider the tablet… In a study of 33 people…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 23, 2012 -
Forget Playing Games. Meet the Man Who Wants to Empower You to Make Games
Rod Humble makes video games. He knows a lot of people who wish they could, and he’s made it his job to help them. “Just about everybody I know who isn’t in the games business or programming business comes to me with a game idea or a website, and the truth of the matter is,…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 23, 2012 -
We Just Unboxed $500 Worth of Halo 4 Stuff to Help You Decide If It’s Worth It
We got Halo 4 in the office today. The $100 Limited Edition… plus the $400 special edition 320GB Xbox 360 that comes with the game packed in. So what’s the deal with these things? We put our unboxing committee on the case. The console is partially see-through, makes Halo 4 sounds and has cool blue…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 22, 2012 -
Where is Cliff Bleszinski Going Next?
He cooked up Gears of War. was Epic’s lead game creator and then, surprising most of us, left. Yeah, Cliff Bleszinski went indie (read “is in between superstar game designer jobs”) as of a few weeks ago, and now he’s traveling the west coast, meeting people, tweeting images of their offices… maybe he’s going to…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 22, 2012 -
The Only People Who Can Play the New BioShock Infinite Web Game Are People Who Pre-Order BioShock Infinite
There’s a new BioShock web game out today, from the people who made the pretty cool puzzle game Cogs. Would you like to play it? Then pre-order BioShock Infinite Did you already pre-order BioShock Infinite? Then cancel that pre-order and pre-order again. (So says the official FAQ.) The web game, BioShock Infinite: Industrial Revolution, certainly…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 22, 2012 -
Ubisoft is ‘Fast-Tracking’ The Assassin’s Creed Movie That You May or May Not Have Wanted
One or more Assassin’s Creed games a year plus Assassin’s Creed comics, Assassin’s Creed novels and Assassin’s Creed animated shorts are not enough for Ubisoft, which remains anxious to create the thing that all great video games need: an official Hollywood-made movie. The latest incremental news about the movie is that Ubisoft is partnering with…
By Stephen Totilo Published October 22, 2012
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