Stephen Totilo

StarCraft II No Match For World of Warcraft, At Least In Day-One Sales

Not all chest-thumping is equal. Those StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty first-day sales figures publisher Activision heralded today? They are less than half of the World of Warcraft first-day figures for that game’s last two releases. Today: Blizzard Entertainment said StarCraft II sold “more than 1 million copies sold worldwide, making it the best-selling PC…

The Second Need For Speed Released After Gran Turismo 5 Will Be…

How long will November’s Gran Turismo 5 be the newest realistic racing game you can play? Possibly not past March, as EA has revealed that Need for Speed Shift 2 will be out on console and PC in early 2011. Need for Speed: Shift 2 will be released between New Year’s Day and March 31,…

Portable Dead Space 2 In The Works?

We’ve known for months that sci-fi horror game Dead Space 2 is coming to home consoles and computers early next year, but today publisher Electronic Arts listed two more formats for the game: “handheld” and “mobile.” If EA isn’t in the business of putting typos in its quarterly press releases about company financial performance, then…

Super Scribblenauts And My Lost Wedding Ring

Inspired by the never-discouraged mailman, the true professional permits no act of nature, chance or evil to interfere with his coverage of a new video game. But what fun could you have with Super Scribblenauts just 10 minutes after your wedding ring disappeared? I ventured toward Manhattan’s west side yesterday around 5pm Eastern, off a…

How The Modern Father And Son May Bond

Author Nicholson Baker never played a video game until he tried some violent Xbox ones with his 16-year-old son for an article in this week’s New Yorker magazine. As heard on the magazine’s podcast. Nicholson Baker Examines Video games. [New Yorker: Out Loud] [Source PIC]

New GoldenEye Feature Big Hands, Not Big Heads

We’ve been comparing the new James Bond GoldenEye (Wii game set for fall release) to the original GoldenEye game (Nintendo 64, came out in ’97) as best we can. Level comparisons. Graphics comparisons. Still, people ask, what about DK Mode? “Is DK Mode back?” I asked a representative for the new GoldenEye today, as we…

Talk Amongst Yourselves

This is still the place for you to talk about video games but it is also the start of a new user-generated Talk Amongst Yourselves. Thanks to reader Tanarchi for today’s image. Submit yours at #TAYpics

This Is Dead Rising 2’s Map

You are here. You may slay virtual zombies there. This is the official map for next month’s kill-zombies-in-fake-Las-Vegas game, Dead Rising 2. Via the official Capcom blog. Click it to enlarge it.

Can You Mix Scribblenauts With LittleBigPlanet Successfully?

A few weeks ago, I saw Create, one of the newest — and still unfinished — games from EA, makers of Madden, The Sims and Dead Space. My signature swore me to temporary silence that ends now. What I saw of Create looked, at first, like derivative creativity. Here was a game set in two…

BioShock Creators’ Next Game Debuts Next Week, Trailer On Aug. 12

System Shock 3? BioShock 3? SWATshock? Ken Levine Dating Simulator? The next game from Irrational Games, makers of BioShock, will be revealed next week. Irrational’s new podcast has some fun with the guesses. Irrational Games, the Massachusetts-based developed studio headed by Ken Levine and largely responsible for BioShock, System Shock, SWAT 4, and Freedom Force,…

What Video Games Can Be

Frank Lantz, the man who brought you iPhone time-sink Drop 7 provides a bravura take on gaming’s potential — during a TEDx talk mostly about poker and probability. Spend a good 20 minutes and watch the talk.

The 20 Most-Loved Wii Games

Monster Hunter is on course to beat Smash Bros. while, lower Rock Band 2 continues to tangle with… Run Factory Frontier? These are the 20 most-loved Wii games as of August 1, 2010. (Click the chart to enlarge it.) Welcome to August and Kotaku’s monthly look at the most-loved Wii games on Nintendo’s home console.…

Talk Amongst Yourselves

We’ve got a new image for this month’s Talk Amongst Yourselves and new opportunities for you. You can still talk about games below each day’s TAY. But you can also now submit the next day’s image at #TAYpics Thanks to reader Kirk Douglas for this month’s template image, Norman Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech. If you…

Get your image featured in the next installment of TAY! All you need to do is put a joke or some sort of witty word-ballooned comment on top of this month’s image. Have fun… One technical note…. post your submissions at 500-pixel width.

Get your image featured in the next installment of TAY! All you need to do is put a joke or some sort of witty word-ballooned comment on top of this month’s image. Have fun…

DayNote.sys (This is not a file, it’s anger.)

To: Ashcraft From: Totilo Re: TWO WEEKS, I HAVE MADE IT!! Today was the day I was wondering if the PC Gaming Alliance had lost, been zapped by whatever Death Star they are fighting. Today was the day I wondered if the Games for Windows team are a bunch of sadists. Today was the day…

Sony Claims ModNation Racers Patch May Halve Load Times

In late May, ModNations Racers producer Dan Sochan told Kotaku a patch was in the works that would shorten the game’s lengthy load times. Today, IGN reports that such a patch will be out next week. First on the list of tweaks coming via the patch, the outlet reports, is: Slashed Load Times Yes, there…

To-Do In NYC: See Lil Poison Documentary

Short notice, but Lil Poison, a documentary about a kid who became the world’s youngest pro gamer plays at 6pm ET today in New York City at the New York International Latino Film Festival. Details on the movie and the screening, which is in the Chelsea neighborhood, are on the festival’s official site I haven’t…

Metroid: Other M To Include Two Hour Movie Version Of Game

Once you finish playing next month’s Metroid: Other M on the Wii, you can watch it. A “theater mode” will stitch the game’s cut-scenes and some pre-recorded gameplay into a Samus epic. This news comes from an interview with Other M creators in Famitsu, as translated by 1Up.com: The storytelling aspect of Other M continues…

Forget Limbo, LittleBigPlanet 2 Might Be Able To Do Shadow Complex (And More)

Earlier today I showed you that the first LittleBigPlanet was customized by a gamer to play like Xbox downloadable darling Limbo. Last week, however, I watched its sequel play like Xbox downloadable darling Shadow Complex. LBP2 is wonderfully flexible. Like its predecessor, LittleBigPlanet 2 is a highly customizable action game that is most impressive in…