Stephen Totilo

Resident Evil 1, 4, And 0 Are Coming To Switch On May 21

Resident Evil 0, 1 (the remake), and 4 will be released for the Nintendo Switch on May 21, according to the series’ official Twitter feed. Some people may already own these games multiple times over, but, hey, they’re pretty good games. All of the games will be on the eShop, but Capcom is selling physical…

Three Big Questions After The February 2019 Nintendo Direct

Nintendo crammed a lot of news into yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, but with that came some questions, ones that might not have concrete answers right now but are still worth some discussion. Do we now know about all of Nintendo’s big 2019 Switch games? It’s only February, but consider what we now know is announced for…

Super Mario Maker 2 Coming To Switch In June

The next big Mario game on Switch is one you’ll partially make yourself. Nintendo is bringing a sequel to the 2015 Wii U hit Super Mario Maker to its current console. The new game was shown in a trailer that kicked off today’s Nintendo Direct. It appears to use Mario assets styled based on Super…

10 Hours With The Division 2‘s Gargantuan Beta

I spent 10 hours playing The Division 2’s beta this week and didn’t see half of it. The March 15 shooter about combat in a ransacked Washington D.C. is going to be another super-sized Ubisoft game, and even its beta was bursting with interesting things to do, amid some spots that got me worried. The good…

The Division 2‘s President Has A Different Concern About The U.S.-Mexico Border

The creators of The Division 2 have been clear that their “goal isn’t to make a political statement,” but the game’s new private beta is surely making at least a political joke, or maybe it’s a political wink? When your character walks into the empty, insurgency-wracked Oval Office, they find on the president’s desk an…

I Keep Trying To Play Multiplayer Games Solo

I’ve mostly been a single-player gamer. I grew up with Nintendo consoles and went more Metroid than Mario Kart, more Super Mario Bros. than Smash Bros. When I’m playing Destiny, I’ll enjoy some of its spontaneous co-op combat, but I don’t indulge in PvP. So why do I keep buying or trying multiplayer games? My…

Far Cry 5’s Prepper Stashes Were The Best Kind Of Sidequest

The best video game sidequests are detours worth taking. They can be even more delightful than a good game’s main quests by their very nature of being optional. Bad sidequests are tedious filler that are best ignored. Those good ones, however, were made for you to find and enjoy, but only if you want to.…

The remastered version of Assassin’s Creed III will be out March 29 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC for $40 on its own or as part of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s season pass. It includes all the DLC and the very good Vita spin-off, AC III: Liberation. Plus: still undefined “gameplay mechanics and ergonomics” (we’ve asked…

Scribblenauts studio 5th Cell has announced Anchors in the Drift, a mobile adventure that lets players battle using a variety of play styles and classes, including thief, bounty hunter and tycoon. 5th Cell boss (and former Kotaku contributor) Jeremiah Slaczka tells us they’re aiming for a spring release and invites people to pre-register for the…

LGBTQ Group Nominates Assassin’s Creed Odyssey For An Award, With A Caveat

Nominees for the first ever gaming category in the annual GLAAD awards were announced today, honoring The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset, Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, The Sims Mobile and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for their representation of LGBTQ characters. The nomination of that last game included an additional explanatory…

Kingdom Hearts III Warns Users About Making ‘Commercial’ Livestreams And Music Streams

Some video game creators are cool with people livestreaming any part of their game, others not so much. People who start playing Kingdom Hearts 3 will find a message notifying them that the companies behind the game are applying some limitations. The game’s title screen includes an unusual button prompt labeled “before you stream.” Pressing…

The creators of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey said in a new forum post today that they will change a cutscene and some dialogue related to a controversial, required relationship in the game’s second paid DLC, a relationship that seemed to run afoul of promises regarding player choice. Last week, the team confirmed to Kotaku that they’d…

What Made Pikmin Special

The Pikmin series was one of those bold moves by Nintendo that seemed to be going in a different direction than anything else in the gaming industry. It didn’t pay off quite as successfully as the herd-defiant Brain Age, Wii or Nintendo Switch, to name three of the company’s more radical creations, but it did…

I’m Now Playing My Switch Vertically

I’ve played my Switch in TV mode, handheld mode and tabletop mode. Now I’ve got a game that lets me play it like I’m holding an oversized unwrapped candy bar. It’s great. The game is Downwell, a wonderful mobile game about diving and shooting your way deeper and deeper into some Metroid-looking caves. The creators…

Here’s something you don’t usually see in the hype for big budget games: Ubisoft says the PvE/PvP Dark Zone regions in March’s The Division 2 will collectively be a third smaller than they were in the first game and the player count will be halved to 12. The Dark Zone could be desolate in the…

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Director Says ‘We Missed The Mark’ With Controversial DLC Relationship [Update]

A day after apologizing for surprising Assassin’s Creed Odyssey players with a mandatory in-game relationship that seemed to contradict the game’s pre-release promise to let players define their character’s own sexuality, the game’s creative director offered a fuller apology and explanation of what his team was trying to accomplish and what they got wrong. “Reading…

The Division 2‘s story trailer shows a Washington, D.C. overrun by “ruthless hyenas,” “religious outcasts” and “depraved fascists.” Wasn’t this game supposed to be a work of fiction? Publisher Ubisoft is also saying the game’s private beta kicks off on February 7, a little over a month before its March 15 launch.

Let’s Hear It For Really Good Role-Playing Game Battle Music

I’ve got a song stuck in my head that’s somehow not getting old. A colleague recently wrote about a new Mario & Luigi remake, I dusted off an unfinished older Mario & Luigi game, and next thing I know, I’m on the subway and… am I bobbing my head to some boss battle music? Why,…

I Hit Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Original Level Cap Before Seeing Half The Map

Every time I play Ubisoft’s gargantuan Assassin’s Creed Odyssey I’m astounded at how much of it I have left. I’m also left startled by how different an experience I seem to have had from many other players I’ve heard some people complain that Odyssey is a grind, that they level too slowly, and that they’re…

All these Ubisoft games are connected, huh? We’ve seen that Assassin’s Creed is a game played in the world of Watch Dogs (and seems to co-exist in the same world as Watch Dogs). Now, in today’s new Division 2 prequel comic book, The Division: Extremis Malis, you can squint and see that people in that Ubisoft series…