Stephen Totilo

The Waves In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Crash Beautifully

We at Kotaku have been known to gawk at a video game wave or two. We therefore can’t help but marvel at what’s crashing on the shores in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Look at these waves, people. In open-world games, you often have to assume the graphics will be decent but not quite what you’ll get…

What Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Changes From Origins

At a glance, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey looks a lot like last year’s Assassin’s Creed Origins. Despite swapping Egyptian pyramids for Greek temples, the surface-level similarities are numerous. There are plenty of subtle differences, however. (Note: This piece is based on the 14 hours I’ve played with the game as well as our reviewers’ 75 hours…

The Closest Thing To A New Zelda Dungeon Is… Nintendo Labo?

The Nintendo Labo Vehicle kit is far from a new Zelda game, but while building it recently, I had flashbacks to some of my favorite parts of some of the best Zelda adventures. I can’t stop telling people this. I hope not everyone thinks I’ve lost my mind. Like the first two Labo kits released…

PS3 Game With Great Music May Be Pulled From Sale Because Of Its Music

The 2011 PlayStation 3 game PixelJunk Sidescroller’s excellent soundtrack may be its downfall. The game may be removed from the PlayStation store by the end of the week because of a music licensing issue that the game developers and musicians both are hoping gets resolved That news came in a tweet on Sunday from Dylan…

The Gardens Between Provides My Favorite Gaming Fantasy: Control Of Time

Move forward and time advances. Move backwards and time rewinds. It’s a simple idea that games such as Superhot have done well. It’s one of the only things you can do in The Gardens Between, a simple, beautiful three-button game I’m enjoying during my breaks between climbing the mountains of this season’s gargantuan releases. The…

Shadow Of The Tomb Raider Fan Uncovers Discarded Alternate Ending, Drama Ensues

Fans who have dug into the depths of the new Tomb Raider have made a discovery that would make Lara Croft proud. By playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider without its day-one patch, they’ve found an alternate post-credits cutscene. The cutscene includes some easter eggs that weren’t in the ending most players saw and is…

Two Hours With The Amazingly Detailed Red Dead Redemption 2

I played Red Dead Redemption 2 for the first time this week, and I swiftly caused glorious chaos. Yesterday I sampled a section of Rockstar Games’ upcoming western at their New York City headquarters, a location game-previewing press haven’t had much reason to visit in the last half decade. There, I hoped to finally get…

Dead Rising Studio Capcom Vancouver Shuts Down

Capcom’s main western studio is being shut down, the publisher confirmed today. Employees at Capcom Vancouver, which was primarily known for the Dead Rising series and was already hit by layoffs earlier this year, were told today that the studio is closing. In a statement to Kotaku, a company rep noted that “as a result…

Games not made by Nintendo are dominating the Nintendo Switch’s latest eshop best-seller list. Even on the indie-stuffed Switch, there are usually one or two Nintendo games high on the list. Right now, the highest is Mario Kart 8 in the 14th spot. It helps that Nintendo has had few major releases of late.

Thoughts From A Destiny 2 Latecomer 

On my PlayStation 4, it’s still the late summer of 2017, because I’m in the early stages of Destiny 2. So far it’s both better and worse than I expected. Some context: I also waited a year to play the first Destiny, which meant I missed out on the Loot Cave, the first disappointing early…

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: The Kotaku Review

The new Tomb Raider’s freshest idea is the floating of a question: What if all this tomb raiding that Lara Croft does indicates that she is a treasure-plundering jerk who wrecks other people’s cultures and, worse, their lives? This piece originally appeared 9/10/18. We’re bumping it today for the game’s release. Despite the navel-gazing self-reflection…

Ubisoft Wants You Playing New Assassin’s Creed Games For Six Months Or More

Back when last year’s Assassin’s Creed Origins was still a fairly new game, Ubisoft found an unusual way to brag about it. In a press release three and a half months after it launched, the company noted: “Average playtime per player expected to almost double.” The claim had some odd caveats. First, it was a…

A Note About Sunday’s Spider-Man Proposal Story

Since Sunday evening, we’ve been updating our article about a marriage proposal in the new Spider-Man game to better reflect the dynamics and details of the situation. The ex-girlfriend in the story, who has been harassed in the fallout of the proposal’s coverage, denies dating the ex-boyfriend’s brother, a detail we share anew on our…

Shadow Of The Tomb Raider Is More Rewarding With The Hints Turned Off

Modern action-adventure games are pretty easy for me. They’re too easy, you might say, if you’d like there to be some mystery about where your cliff-climbing character should jump or which levers they should pull while trying to operate ancient machinery. Hints tend to come fast, as your hero will start muttering about solutions if…

Artist James Clar’s new exhibition in Manhattan, The World Never Ends, includes a mock documentary called “Beyond the Uncanny Valley,” which features top Japanese fighting game players—including Momochi and Chocoblanka—as they discuss a future in which esports is king. It runs through October 20. Details here

A meme—“Press F to pay respects”—based on a ridiculous Call of Duty moment was widely used during a Jacksonville tribute stream last night to express grief over the shootings. Twitch chat was full of “F” and other more conventionally somber sentiments. The hour-long stream appeared to raise a little over $10,000 more for victims atop…

The PS4 is losing exclusivity on a game you probably didn’t realize it had. The Lego Harry Potter Collection, which consists of two last-gen games covering all seven Potter books, is coming to Xbox One and Switch on October 30. It’s been out for PS4 since October 2016.

EA’s livestream tribute to the victims of the Jacksonville shooting will run from 5-6:30 PM ET on Thursday and will be hosted by members of the Madden community, according to an EA post. The company is also running a GoFundMe tribute fund for the victims, pledging that 100% of the money collected will go to…

There Will Be A Football Mini-Game In NBA 2K19. Hmmm.

It’s been over a decade since the gaming label 2K stopped making football games to rival EA’s Madden series, but wouldn’t you know it: someone is throwing a football at the end of the trailer for 2K’s latest big basketball game. It’s there to be noticed. A new NBA 2K19 trailer released today pushes NBA…

What’s The Quickest You’ve Bailed On A Game?

I don’t think I ever played New Super Mario Bros. Wii U past the second boss, didn’t play past the tutorial in Rainbow Six Siege. Life is short, I’ve got too many games to play, and sometimes I just need to bail early. Same with you? As a kid and as a college student, I…