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ReviewsThe PlayStation Vita: The Kotaku Review
If you’re in a hurry, you simply need to know that the PlayStation Vita is a very good portable video game machine that excels in ways that Sony hasn’t bothered to hype. If you’ve got time, well… let’s start with a true story: I recently had the opportunity to look over the shoulder of a…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 21, 2012 -
How They Came Up With Skyrim‘s ‘Arrow In The Knee’ Line
The big video game joke of 2011—and certainly the most repeated line—came from Skyrim, a game populated by guards who used to be adventurers, just like you, before they “took an arrow in the knee.” Sorry if you thought you were done with that line. Can you tolerate it one more time, just to learn…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 20, 2012 -
I’m Not Excited About Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Just Because of Metroplex
In the next major Transformers video game, you will be able to issue orders to a massive, rampaging Metroplex. You will be about to control Bruticus. You will be able to transform, as Grimlock, from robot to Tyrannosaurus Rex. You’ll breathe flames from your jaws. You will be able to fulfill the fantasies not of…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 20, 2012 -
Questionable Words With Friends
I sometimes play Words With Friends, and I play it the way I play Scrabble: using words that a) I know and that b) I’m sure are words normal people would use. I don’t use wacky words (which isn’t to say any word I don’t know is “wacky”—in some cases I’m the ignorant problem). But…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 17, 2012 -
Why Skyrim and Arkham City Don’t Have Multiplayer
Who needs multiplayer video games? Skyrim was a single-player hit. So too was last year’s Batman game, Arkham City (unless you’re counting the online leaderboards for its multiplayer challenge modes). In an age when so many games get tacked-on multiplayer to fill out a list of back-of-box bullet points, how did these two games not…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 17, 2012 -
Why Did Batman: Arkham City Have 440 Trophies? Why Did Batman Fight A Shark? And More Questions Answered
I had a chat with Sefton Hill, chief game designer at Rocksteady Studios, in Las Vegas last week. The man’s team just made two terrific Batman games, so it was time we talked. Off-limits topics: The thing about Harley Quinn at the end. OK to discuss: Lots of other stuff. Stuff you might consider to…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 17, 2012 -
Bethesda: Skyrim DLC Will Feel More Like Expansion Packs
We’ve been promised substantial downloadable content for last year’s blockbuster Skyrim, but it sounds like Bethesda is thinking really big. “For Fallout 3 we did five DLCs,” Howard told me during an interview last week at the DICE Summit. “That was a very aggressive path for us. Our plan now is to take more time,…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 17, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallWe Asked The Red Carpet: Were Old Video Games Actually Bad? Or Good?
I have a nearly irrational dislike for retro video games. I assume most of the old “classics” wasted my youth with their needlessly bottomless pits and/or a hunger for my quarters. Do old video games deserve my scorn? Will no one speak up for the quality of these things? I sought an answer to my…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 16, 2012 -
They’re Sending Copies of Mass Effect 3 Into Space Next Week
The people behind Mass Effect 3 will hoist copies of the sci-fi game into space via weather balloons next week. Gamers in Berlin, Las Vegas, London, New York, Paris and San Francisco can track (via MassEffect.com), catch and play them.
By Stephen Totilo Published February 16, 2012 -
Rick Santorum Has Scored More Than A Million Points On Temple Run, According to His Kids
Red-hot Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum used to play Angry Birds, since that’s what they put on his iPad for him. Then they put Temple Run on there for him. “I’m addicted to it,” he said. Addiction’s bad, former Senator, Santorum! Temple Run is a free iOS game in which you just keep running and…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 15, 2012 -
PC Gamer Vitriol Subsiding, EA Promises Origin Will Be Excellent Within Two Years
Less than a year ago, EA told PC gamers it would give them something that many PC gamers probably thought they didn’t need: a competitor to Steam. Another PC storefront for downloading games. Another PC service for connecting PC gamers. Another thing to install and… wait, where’d the EA games go on Steam? EA’s service…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 15, 2012 -
Why Skyrim Didn’t Play Nice With The PS3 [UPDATE]
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was a wonderful game on the PC and a fine game on the Xbox 360. On the PlayStation 3, however, it had issues for some players. Lag issues. Horrible, game-killing lag issues. Issues that made some Sony console owners shout that the game shouldn’t be Game of the Year. What…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 15, 2012 -
Sony Hopes Vita Will Stymie Pirates, Please Fans and Last Eight Years
The PlayStation Vita is built to last more than half a decade and is designed to confound pirates more than it confounds the average gamer, Sony’s head of worldwide game development, Shuhei Yoshida, tells Kotaku “We are designing this PS Vita to last five, six, seven, eight years,” he told me in an interview in…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 15, 2012 -
Lumines On The Vita Is Cool, Except for the… Tapping Parts
Lumines was one of the best games on the original PlayStation Portable. It was sort of a rave version of Tetris, which was a very good thing. The successor to the PSP is now upon us, and so is a new Lumines, subtitled Electronic Symphony The game could stand to be a littler harder, but…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 14, 2012 -
Video Proof That Touch My Katamari Is, At Last, A Good Portable Katamari Damacy
The name of the game is perverted, but Touch My Katamari is still a winner among the PlayStation Vita launch line-up. The game may have touch controls, but who needs them? The Vita has twin analog sticks, and that’s what Namco’s great everything-rolling game needs. I play the game on my Vita in this video…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 14, 2012 -
The Past and Future of Psychonauts 2
Until about, oh, early last week, Psychonauts 2 seemed like an idea—or maybe a wish—that would never become a video game. But then the man who made millions making Minecraft, Markus “Notch” Persson, offered, over Twitter, to “make Psychonauts 2 happen.” Tim Schafer, whose Double Fine Productions made the first beloved Psychonauts game told Notch…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 14, 2012 -
Making The Last Guardian is Very Hard, Sony Admits
The Last Guardian is the the PlayStation 3 game that the people who most want PlayStation 3 games want. It’s also the biggest Sony title that appears to be in risk of vanishing before our very eyes. First shown in a pair of trailers in mid-2009, it was a no-show at E3’s 2010 and 2011.…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 14, 2012 -
It’s Like Magic. Skylanders Toys Light Up When They’re Near Certain Things.
The next line of Skylanders toys—those figures that can be synced to video games of the same name—include some sort of “light technology.” Whatever. I ran into the guy who runs the Skylanders development studio at the airport last week and mocked that silly bit of hype. They have lights in them, I told him.…
By Stephen Totilo Published February 13, 2012
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