-
Mickey Mouse Is Wreaking Havoc in Grand Theft Auto IV. With a Smile.
The mod scene around Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV continues to impress and amuse. Sonic The Hedgehog and the Portal robots were cool, but Mickey Mouse? We’re veering into the realm of social commentary. Or we’re veering into an alternate world where Kingdom Hearts = Disney + Rockstar. The mod was created by YouTube user…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 31, 2012 -
All of This Paper Forms the Blueprint For One Video Game
It required 100 meters (328 feet) of calculator paper to map out the sidescrolling video game Beeing You can see it here, stretched out before you, courtesy of Gonzalo Oxenford, one of the game designers who sketched the layout for their bee-themed sidescroller by hand. Each level map can be rolled up. So you can…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 31, 2012 -
Ubisoft Denies Including a Rootkit in Uplay Service, Blames Security Exploit on a ‘Coding Error’
A major security flaw in Ubisoft’s Uplay service for launching their PC games was not a product of devious programming nor part of the company’s DRM strategy, the publisher of Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry 3 said in a statement released this evening. The flaw had allowed outsiders to breach Uplay users’ computers and was…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 30, 2012 -
Some of Keita Takahashi’s Video Game Dreams Will Come True This Summer, And You Can Play Them [UPDATE]
Keita Takahashi, the free-thinking creator of Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy is teaming up with Babycastles, the free-thinking New York City-based video game art curators for a most wonderful exhibition. They’re turning several of Takahashi’s brainstorms into real-world, physical games for an exhibition premiering in Manhattan in late August. Takahashi’s ideas involve classic video…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 30, 2012 -
Compare the Same Mario Game Running on the Old 3DS and the XL One
We’ve got two copies of New Super Mario Bros. 2 in the office. And we’ve got an original 3DS and the new 3DS XL. The XL’s screens are advertised as being 90% bigger than the regular 3DS’. Numbers are nice, but wouldn’t you rather just see the same game running on each unit? That’s what…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 30, 2012 -
Fox News Stretches to Connect Video Games to Dark Knight Shooting
The tragic murder of a dozen people in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado has not, for the most part, been tied to the supposedly pernicious effects video games have on society. But Fox News’s website just found a connection. And it’s a stretch. In a piece about the case today, Fox News explores the…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 30, 2012 -
Second Thoughts About Gaming’s Most Hated Company
The bubble bursts. The blood is in the water. The knives sharpen. Pick your favorite cliché to commemorate the beating that Zynga took last week after posting some numbers that Wall Street hated and lowering their forecasts for the rest of the year. Their stock plummeted 40% and some people are rooting for the creators…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 30, 2012 -
The Video Game Version of The Dark Knight Rises‘ Prison Scene Is, Um, Different
Ah, the poetry and metaphor of the prison sequence in The Dark Knight Rises! How would one ever turn that into an awesome video game level? The answer: by adding lots of dudes for Bruce Wayne to punch. Video games are excellent at many things, but adapting movie scenes that don’t have a lot of…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 27, 2012 -
The Main Man Behind the PlayStation 3’s Trippy Dyad Is Answering Your Questions Now
There is a game called Dyad that we at Kotaku are crazy about. And there is a man named Shawn McGrath who made Dyad. Is he just crazy? Shawn will be here from 1pm-2pm ET to answer any good questions you ask him below. So, please, ask away. I think this might be one occasion…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 27, 2012 -
1st-Person Perspective: The Strongest Female Characters
Here at Kotaku, we interview many wonderful video game creators and lots of powerful gaming executives. What we don’t do—what we’re going to do a lot more of—is interview the people who simply play video games. To fix that, Kotaku video editor Chris Person and reporter Evan Narcisse ventured to downtown Manhattan shop Video Games…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 26, 2012 -
The 3DS Is Bigger In Japan Than In America
Stare, stare, stare at Nintendo’s latest hardware and software sales figures and what do you see? The Wii and DS proved to be more popular in America and in “other areas” (aka the rest of the world) than they were in Japan by a wide margin. America is pretty big, of course! But the 3DS?…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 25, 2012 -
Halifax-Based NBA Baller Beats Studio Shuts Down After Five Years [UPDATE]
The Halifax division of HB Studios, the Canadian group of developers behind numerous sports video games, is closing, an HB rep confirmed to Kotaku today. The studio is responsible for this fall’s NBA Baller Beats, an unusual and innovative Kinect game that teaches you to dribble with a real basketball (we tried it at E3).…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 25, 2012 -
If We Can’t Have Real Magical Books, At Least We’re Getting J.K. Rowling’s PlayStation-Powered Harry Potter “Wonderbook”
What if there was a book that had no words in it? What if this book that required a camera, a TV and a video game console in order for you to “read” it? Would you call this progress? Would you call it science fiction? Sony calls it the Wonderbook and has enlisted Harry Potter…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 24, 2012 -
It’s Hard to Find People Who Don’t Like The Unfinished Swan
I’m not sure what’s not to like about the first-person painting/shooter The Unfinished Swan. Who wouldn’t love this game? A few people have trouble with the game, the game’s creative director Ian Dallas told me while he let me zip through the game’s introductory level… one in which you start in what appears to be…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 24, 2012 -
One of Those Teenagers Who Makes Xbox Live Gaming So, Uh, Interesting Will Answer Your Questions Now
We’re going to call this kid Reilly. He’s 17 but has been infuriating gamers on Xbox Live since he was in the fourth grade. He doesn’t just like to beat you at games online, he likes to, in his words, terrorize you. He likes to curse at you, toss in some uglier language. You fill…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 23, 2012 -
The Great, Terrible, Incredibly Important Dark Knight Rises Game
The official video game for The Dark Knight Rises costs $7, looks amazing on my iPad, is a bit of a mess and is one of the most important video games of the year. It’s also not as good as the movie. Not even close…and that’s even if you didn’t think that highly of the…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 23, 2012 -
The Argument For a Very Violent Scene in a Very Violent Video Game
After our hero Kratos wrestles the elephant monster in God of War: Ascension to the ground, he—you—can make him stab the creature in the head. You can make him stab repeatedly. Then, at your command, Kratos slits the head open to reveal the monster’s brain. “That’s too much,” I blurted out, when David Hewitt, the…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 23, 2012 -
More PS3 Games Should Look This Crude
Do you want cutting-edge graphics? Do you need your games to look ultra-realistic? Look elsewhere. The two games in the video here, Duke Wars and Grave Diggers, are not nominees for anyone’s Best Graphics Awards. Though… I actually like how they look. A lot. So what exactly are these things? They’re multiplayer games made in…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 20, 2012 -
No Serious People Blamed Video Games For The Dark Knight Tragedy Today
A colleague IM’d me earlier today, asking if I was ready for video games to take the blame for this morning’s awful shooting rampage in Aurora, Colorado. I don’t know if I was ready, but I kept an eye out for the blamers and the blame-watchers, unsure of whose excitement to be more unsettled by.…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 20, 2012
Stephen Totilo
Stephen Totilo's posts
