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‘The Painting Obama Fears’ Is Actually The ‘Modified, Uncredited Assassin’s Creed Character Art That Obama Fears’
The folks at Wonkette and Mock, Paper, Scissors have noticed that a new $70-$4000 “painting” of late, right-wing muckraker Andrew Breitbart by artist David Bugnon looks awfully similar to character art from Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. No credit! Pic via Wonkette
By Stephen Totilo Published June 8, 2012 -
Microsoft: ‘You Do Not Want’ an Xbox Smash Bros. Clone
Sony PlayStation will soon have a Smash Bros. clone, a game called PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale that lets its most famous characters beat each other up. Why? Because it was a great idea when Nintendo first let Mario, Link, Samus and the rest of its best heroes beat each other up. Surely, Microsoft should join…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 8, 2012 -
How Unreal Engine 4 Will Change The Next Games You Play
A couple of months ago a game developer who works on a very well-known video game walked out of a secret demonstration of Epic Games’ new Unreal Engine 4 and told me it was the most impressive thing he’d ever seen in his gaming career. The Unreal Engine tech doesn’t just run games made by…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 8, 2012 -
Nintendo’s Most Important Game of 2012
The most important game for Nintendo this year is Nintendo Land. It is the launch title for the Wii U, which is perhaps the riskiest console Nintendo has ever created—yes, riskier even than the Wii. Where the Wii was built around the simple, pure idea of accessible motion-control gaming, The Wii U is designed to…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 7, 2012 -
E3’s Unsolved Mystery: Are Watch Dogs and Star Wars: 1313 Really Next-Gen Games?
Are we actually seeing PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 video games at E3 and no one’s admitting it? That’s been a popular theory all week here in Los Angeles and reporters and game creators buzz about the extraordinary-looking gameplay demonstrations of Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs and LucasArts’ Star Wars 1313. Both games looked way too graphically…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 7, 2012 -
Scribblenauts Unlimited is the First Wii U Game by a Kotaku Columnist. Take a Look.
When Jeremiah Slaczka isn’t answering your questions here on Kotaku, he’s running 5TH Cell, the game development studio behind Scribblenauts and other interesting games. There’s a Scribblenauts on the Wii U and—wouldn’t you know it—he would like to show it to you. Here’s Jeremiah, with Scribblenauts Unlimited
By Stephen Totilo Published June 7, 2012 -
Behold the Retron 2, A Machine that Is Both an NES and a SNES
There is a machine called the Retron 3, released last year by the gaming hardware folks at Hyperkin. That thing was a combo Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. What comes after the Retron 3? The Retron 2. A little weird, right? But I guess some people only wanted the NES-SNES combo. Also…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 7, 2012 -
Wow. This 140-Foot-Wide Call of Duty Trailer Is Incredible.
This is most of the stunning Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 trailer that is stopping crowds at E3. This is the spectacle of E3, in terms of stopping hordes of people in their tracks… and with good reason. The screen Activision is running this thing on is over 100 feet wide. It’s a hell…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 7, 2012 -
A Woman Stole My Face Using a Kinect. That Was Disturbing.
The upcoming “Trading Faces” app for the Xbox 360 is more creepy than cool, but still a funny demonstration of what Microsoft’s hands-free Kinect sensor can do. “Trading Faces” will be added as a downloadable Kinect Fun Labs program some time in the future. No release date. At least she didn’t turn into a zombie!…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 6, 2012 -
Halo 4 Creators are Prepping for a Halo Comeback
Halo used to the biggest thing in multiplayer Xbox gaming. It’s still a big deal, but for the last half-decade, Call of Duty has been the Xbox’s main event. At E3 this year, new Microsoft-owned development studio 343 Industries is making an interactive case that Halo is ready for top status again. They’re not saying…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 6, 2012 -
Pikmin 3 Plays Well, But I’m Not Sure Which Controller is Best For It
I finally played a new Pikmin game yesterday, which I’ve been waiting to do for eight years. The game looks great, but the tiny sliver I played got me wondering what the best way to play the game will be. Pikmin 3, like the GameCube Pikmin games before it, is about playing as a tiny…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 6, 2012 -
Why the Wii U Literally Can’t Stand Up
Unlike a Wii, an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3, the Wii U console can’t stand up. You can’t prop the system up vertically without it falling over. Horizontal is the only option. The new Nintendo console must lie on its belly like a Nintendo Entertainment System or a really lazy house cat Why? “I…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 6, 2012 -
Carmack Being Carmack: A Dozen Minutes With One of Video Game’s Smartest People
There is nothing quite like having John Carmack tell you about a technological breakthrough that excited him. The id Software programming genius who co-created Doom and launches rockets in his spare time will just unload on you. And—this is flattering—he will assume you can keep up. Yesterday at E3 in Los Angeles, I pretty much…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 6, 2012 -
My Brief, Fast Ride in an E3 Ferrari
I got an e-mail over the weekend from Microsoft public relations: “I have some sweet rides available to take you to the Halo Showcase, courtesy of ‘Forza Horizon’ if you’re interested. We’re going to have four cars around for E3: a Ferrari California, a Lamborghini Gallardo, an Audi R8 V10 and a BMW 6 Series.”…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 6, 2012 -
The New 3DS Castlevania Brings Back Metroidvania In Lovely 3D
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate is likely to be a better game for being on Nintendo’s 3DS. It is, for the most part, a game that gets two important things right. It’s mostly a side-scroller, which means it’s the rare 3DS game to use the system’s glasses-free 3D to add visual depth through…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 6, 2012 -
Your Wii Data and Games Will Tranfer to the Wii U… Somehow
Ata developers’ roundtable after E3 today, two of Nintendo’s top designers confirmed that “everything you’ve bought” will transfer from Wii to Wii U along with save files. But they did not reveal how. Stay tuned!
By Stephen Totilo Published June 5, 2012 -
There’s Some F-Zero Hiding in the Wii U’s Nintendo Land
There is some sort of Z-Fero style racing game, Nintendo producer Katsuya Eguchi showed today during an after-hours E3 showcase of the Wii U’s launch game. It’s not clear how fleshed-out the racing game is. We were shown a brief clip of a Mii character finding a signature F-Zero ship in the game’s Nintendo-item-filled hub…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 5, 2012 -
Nintendo’s Ninja Star Nintendo Land Game Exposes A Wii U Problem
One of my main concerns about the Wii U is that it has the same controller-syncing problems that required lots of one-button manual recalibration of the Wii Motion Plus Remote in Wii Sports Resort and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword The problem is that the Wii U sometimes wants you to point the GamePad…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 5, 2012 -
Hands-On With The Wii U, Nintendo’s Risky New Revolution
The Wii U does not give the immediately-wonderful first impression that the world-famous Wii did. But after having played some of the games Nintendo has made for its next console, I’m certain the Wii U has great potential. This is a familiar spot for Nintendo to be in: quirky new console, skeptical reporter, and a…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 5, 2012
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