Stephen Totilo

Hooray For Games That Let You Make The Text Bigger

The most exciting update to a video game on my PS4 this week is Monster Hunter: World’s new option to increase the size of the text on the game’s busy interface. I sure could use this option in a certain other major game that is launching on PS4 today. As game developer Joe Humfrey recently…

Sources: Next Call Of Duty Won’t Have A Solo Campaign, May Have Battle Royale

This fall’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will essentially be multiplayer-only, lacking the kind of single-player campaign that has been a key component of the annual series for over a decade, two sources familiar with the game tell Kotaku, corroborating a report published earlier today at Polygon One of those sources also echoed a…

I’m Feeling Good About Not Starting Destiny 2 Yet

I often like to play new video games when they’re new, but I am forever grateful for whatever part of my gut kept me from diving into the first Destiny until it was nearly a year old. I skipped playing the game when it was more boring, more barren and more hostile to its players.…

I Have More And More Sympathy For My Assassin’s Creed Enemies

I’ve killed many Egyptians and Romans in Assassin’s Creed Origins, a game I’m 96 assassinating hours into. I’m not sure all of them deserved it. I’m feeling particularly bad about this captain I just killed. I’ve figured some of the soldiers standing near treasures could have been nice people, but they must have known what…

Rockstar Must Cut Some Music From GTA IV, But Plans To Replace It

Our colleagues at Kotaku UK broke the news yesterday that music licensing issues will force Rockstar Games to remove some songs from Grand Theft Auto IV, a game that celebrates its 10-year anniversary this month. A Rockstar representative confirmed to us today that songs will indeed be removed but added that the company will add…

Decades After I Last Turned It On, My Atari Lynx Still Works

I was cleaning out my childhood bedroom yesterday and discovered my first handheld gaming system, the Atari Lynx. I plugged it in and, to my surprise, was immediately playing California Games again. I selected California Games’s BMX challenge but had forgotten how to backflip. Oh, yeah, press B. This morning I tried some surfing and…

Okay, This Time It Really Is Michael Ironside Returning As Sam Fisher

About a week ago, I was sure I heard Michael Ironside, iconic voice actor of Splinter Cell super-spy Sam Fisher, cheekily reprising the role as a retired fisherman or something in Far Cry 5. I was wrong. He is coming back as Fisher for something in Ghost Recon Wildlands. Fisher will be part of the…

I Try To Play Huge Games One Area At A Time

I don’t think I’ll ever be caught up on all the games I want to play, so these days I’m looking for moments when I can step away and switch to a new game but easily go back in the future. That’s why I just cleared out the western area of Far Cry 5 and…

The God Of War We’ve Already Been Playing In Our Heads

I do not have a copy of the new God of War yet, but I’m already playing it in my head. You may be doing that, too. I think, from time to time, about an idea that Sims lead creator Will Wright shared during a talk I attended in 2010. He described a person visiting…

How Ubisoft Makes So Many Assassin’s Creed Games

There has been one major new Assassin’s Creed game every year since 2007, except for the two years they skipped and the one year when they made two. It’s never been a secret that Ubisoft rotates teams, but it’s never been as clear how they do it until a talk given by the head of…

April is the first month beyond Ubisoft’s DLC roadmap for Assassin’s Creed Origins. With it, the company has announced a tool called the Animus Control Panel that will let players tweak 75 settings in the game. Ubi PR tells us it’s “only planned for PC at this time.” That’s a wrap on new Origins content,…

Nintendo Reached A DLC Tipping Point This Week

It’s been a quietly unprecedented week for Nintendo, and one that should change players’ expectations for the company’s games going forward. In just eight days, five of Nintendo’s major Switch games received downloadable content updates. Some of that DLC was free, some paid. The days of any of Nintendo games being static after launch appear…

Assassin’s Creed Origins’ Papyrus Mysteries Are Some Of The Series’ Best Sidequests

Ubisoft games are understandably knocked for having a lot of filler content. Often, though, one of their gargantuan open-world epics will hide a wonderful line of sidequests. It’s taken me some time to appreciate an extraordinary set of them in Assassin’s Creed Origins, a set that helps show off areas of the game players might…

How Far Cry 5’s Microtransactions Work

Like many modern video games, Far Cry 5 has microtransactions. Hate the concept? You can easily ignore them. Note: This is part of what we expect to be an ongoing series of posts explaining how the microtransactions in major games work. How much does this game cost up front? Far Cry 5 sells for $60.…

I Was So Sure I Heard Sam Fisher In Far Cry 5

Ubisoft games are known to reference other Ubisoft games, connections I’ve enjoyed spotting and posting about on this site. I recently thought I spotted a great Splinter Cell reference in Far Cry 5. I was excited but unsure. Turns out I was wrong, but I’ve been marveling for the past week about how easy it is…

The next game in the generally fun Lego series will be June 15’s Lego The Incredibles. It covers the original movie and upcoming sequel. It’s for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch. Nintendo’s device had four Lego games in its first year, some suffering performance issues. Hopefully publisher Warner Bros ups the quality control.

Guess I’m Not Done With My 3DS

My Switch backlog is ridiculous. I’m busy juggling Ni No Kuni II and a review copy of Far Cry 5 on my PS4, neglecting the half-played Evil Within 2. I’ve got games to play on my Xbox One as well (some of them old). I figured it was at least okay to stop carrying my…

My Xbox One Is Reminding Me Of The Last Console Generation’s Excellence

I had reason (research for a colleague) to play my Xbox 360 copy of Red Dead Redemption on my Xbox One earlier this week. I hadn’t touched the 2010 game probably since it came out. I try to keep up with new games, but now I’m thinking about some last-gen ones I miss or just…

Nintendo’s Newest Line-Up Of Switch Indie Games Includes Promising Ports And A Cool-Looking Pool Game

A remastered version of the classic stealth game Mark of the Ninja headlined a quick video presentation of indie games coming to the Nintendo Switch this spring, summer and fall. A bunch of cool-looking games were shown, but there were no shock announcements. For Spring: Garage, a gritty top-down shooter with VHS-inspired graphics, from Tiny…

Nintendo’s newest showcase for indie games heading to the Switch kicks off at noon ET. It’s tied to the Game Developers Conference and is in part a way to recruit more indies to the platform (not that they’re hurting for them!). Watch it here. If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can alsoread about the indies they…