Stephen Totilo

World Of Warcraft Cataclysm Gets An $80 Special Edition

Maybe we’ll find out soon when World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Blizzard’s third paid expansion to World of Warcraft will be released — this year? But at least today we can show you the special edition you can buy of it. Official special edition fancy features, according to Blizzard: · Art of the Cataclysm art book,…

Harry Potter Video Game Controlled By Xbox Kinect And The Weasleys

You can control part of the next Harry Potter video game with your body, we learned during EA’s Gamescom press conference in Germany today. Potter movie actors James and Oliver Phelps, who play Fred and George Weasley showed how it works. Watch. This mode will be featured in the Xbox 360 versions of Harry Potter…

Mass Effect 2 PS3 Trailer… Happy Now, Sony Fans?

What would Mass Effect 2 look like on a PlayStation 3? It might look like this, when it comes out in January 2011, but this is just a teaser: Click to view

Dragon Age II Debut Trailer Looks Slick, Pre-Rendered

No, Dragon Age 2 won’t look this good, but the Dragon Age 2 trailer that just debuted in Germany should give you a sense of the action they’re going for. The game will be out in late March on March 8. Click to view

EA Gamescom Liveblog!

Kotaku is in Germany and so is Electronic Arts. What will EA show us? New games? We will liveblog all about it.

The Good And Worrisome About Rock Band 3’s Keyboard

The featured instrument of Rock Band 3 at Gamescom in Germany will be the one being added to the franchise, the keyboard. MTV Games let Kotaku try the keyboard in New York. It was mostly a good experience. At MTV’s offices in Times Square, I tried the game’s keyboard trainer, which is designed to teach…

The Mystery Of The $1250 Halo Reach Has Been Solved

Why does Microsoft seem to be selling Halo Reach over Xbox Live right now for $1250? Answer from Microsoft: They’re not, and they don’t plan to sell Reach as a downloadable game. The $1250 version is for reviewers, a Microsoft spokesperson told Kotaku today and it’s not something anyone will have to or be able…

Nintendo Download: ‘Karaoke Game Of The Year’

Unless press releases lie, the Karaoke Game Of The Year became available for Nintendo DSi download today. So did a cool-looking side-scroller involving reflections. I’m not Mike Fahey, but this is your Vritual-Console-free Nintendo Download. WiiWare Space Trek Publisher: CALARIS Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Fantasy Violence Price: 700 Wii…

StarCraft II To Enable Free And Paid Character Name Changes

News from Blizzard today is that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will allow you to change your character name, something our biggest StarCraft fan on the team tells me is “huge.” Blizzard indicates that subsequent name-changes will cost a fee, a la World of Warcraft. They have not revealed the price for those later name…

Ghost Recon Predator Shows Its Screenshots, Its RC Car

Confirming a leak last month from the U.S. games ratings board, Ubisoft confirmed today that there’s a new Ghost Recon coming to PSP, a welcome addition to the platform’s thinned line-up. It’ll be out in November. At the PlayStation blog, Ubisoft brand manager Nate Mordo establishes the game as a squad-based mission behind enemy lines…

Somehow, Gun Loco Is From The People Who Make Final Fantasy

When you think Square-Enix’s Japan studios, do you think violent shooter with people wearing over-sized rabbit heads? Gun Loco, a 2011 disc-based Xbox 360 exclusive fits that bill. The game’s website launches on Wednesday, so this might be a Gamescom thing. The oddest aspect of the pre-release describing the game is that the characters are…

Gun Loco gallery

‘It Would Be Dishonest To Say This Is Not BioShock.’

If BioShock Infinite debuts with a gameplay demo and a trailer that includes no Little Sisters, no Rapture, no — so far — apparent storyline connection to earlier BioShocks, is it really a BioShock game? Yes, its creator told Kotaku. “It would be dishonest to say this is not BioShock,” Irrational Games creative director Ken…

This Is What The Halo Reach Xbox 360 Sounds Like

Microsoft’s Major Nelson just posted the Halo sound-effects the Halo Reach edition of the Xbox 360 makes when powered up and when the tray slides. He’s offering them as ring tones, an act we’re not prepared to judge yet.

We’re In Germany This Week, These Are The Big Gamescom Events

We’ve got two Mikes and one Brian in Cologne, Germany this week for Gamescom, the ever-expanding video game showcase that makes E3 look tiny and introduced the PS3 Slim to the world last year. We’ll be covering some big events live. Bookmark this. Cologne is six hours ahead of my time zone (East Coast) and…

Sony PSP Ad Mocks Apple iPhone Gaming

Apple has taken shots at the DS and PSP. The iPhone has more games, they say. Sony fires back with this ad, basically saying, yeah, but our games are better. I’ve seen game companies take shots at each other in ads. It’s common. In fact, mocking Nintendo has been a seasonal sport for Mario rivals.…

Doom 4 Targeted For Console And PC, Wolfenstein In ‘Thinking About It’ Phase

Doom 4 was a no-show at this year’s QuakeCon, and id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead told me he’ll take the arrows for raising expectations it would be there. He also share with me a sliver of details about the game. Doom 4 is well into development at id. Hollenshead said “a team and a half”…

Xbox 360 Re-Done As Arcade Cabinet

This is a custom-made arcade cabinet for this week’s downloadable Xbox Live Arcade game (coming later to PS3 and PC) Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light. Xbox Live hype man Major Nelson Tweets that he’s giving this away

Talk Amongst Yourselves

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You Could Download Kinect Betas Now, But They’re Useless

Does your Xbox 360 feel incomplete? Is it full of save files and Xbox Live Arcade games, maybe a theme or two but no Kinect-enabled software? You can waste some bandwidth today and change that. You can download the 1.7 GB Joyride Beta file, so that you can prepare to play a controller-free driving game.…