Stephen Totilo

Wow, Rise Of The Tomb Raider Was Really Good

I had read our positive review of the 2015 Xbox One version of the game. I’d seen colleagues say it was one of the best things on that console. But I really had no idea how good Rise of the Tomb Raider was until I finally played it the PS4 version last month. I had…

Yakuza 6 and original Yakuza remake Yakuza Kiwami—the latest in the Sega-made crime series beloved in Japan and in the Luke Plunkett household—are coming to the West on PS4. Summer for Kiwami. Early 2018 for Yakuza 6 according to Sega.

Three Japanese PlayStation classics, Parappa The Rapper, Patapon and Loco Roco, are getting high resolution PS4 remasters. The first had been on PlayStation console but the latter two were originally for PSP.

Sony Is Bringing Wipeout Back With A Multi-Game Collection

After several years away, the classic PlayStation racing franchise Wipeout is returning with the Wipeout Omega Collection coming in summer of 2017. It’ll include 2012’s Wipeout 2048, 2008’s Wipeout HD and that game’s expansion 2009 expansion Wipeout Fury. The collection is for PS4. Over on the PlayStation blog, Sony is saying that the games “are…

A Day After Awards Show, Skyrim Mod Enderal Recognized As ‘Best Fan Creation’

The 2016 edition of The Game Awards came and went on Thursday night with all trophy winners announced save one. But we found out today that Skyrim mod Enderal did indeed win the fraught Best Fan Creation category. Show host Geoff Keighley confirmed the win to Kotaku, saying that not mentioning them last night was…

Overwatch Wins Game Of The Year At The 2016 Game Awards

Overwatch just took top honors as Game of the Year at this year’s The Game Awards. It beat Doom, Inside, Titanfall 2, and Uncharted 4. Eligible games had to have been out after November 24 of last year and before November 24 of this year. While accepting the award, Blizzard’s Ray Gresko said, “While we’ve…

The Division‘s Survival Expansion Has A Good Story After All

There are understandable complaints that The Division’s expansions are really just new game modes and not actual storyline extensions. But there’s a story in The Division’s Survival mode. I think it’s about me and a guy named Kirk. Kirk was this Division super-agent, all leveled up from his time in the PC version of the…

Ubisoft says Watch Dogs 2‘s seamless multiplayer modes will finally be fully live in the game at 11:30am ET today. The publisher had held them back from launch last week for technical reason and has been rolling them out gradually. According to Ubisoft, the additional options for seamless multiplayer that are being turned on allow…

The Division’s New Survival Mode Is Intense

The $15 “Survival” expansion to 2016’s second most-intense emotional rollercoaster, The Division, seems to be a very good addition to the game. Emphasis on “seems to be,” because I can only extend so much praise to a clever but brutal game mode that keeps killing me. These are first impressions from a guy just trying…

Pre-Order Loophole Allows Bogus User Ratings And Reviews To Proliferate On Xbox One And PS4 Stores

People who pre-order games digitally on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have been earning themselves an unadvertised and easily abused perk: the ability to rate, and sometimes review, video games that they have yet to play and aren’t even out yet. As a result, both online stores are full of star-ratings for games that haven’t…

The expansions are coming! The Division’s intriguing Survival expansion is hitting PC and Xbox One on Nov. 22, later on PS4. The final expansion for Star Wars Battlefront will be out on Dec 6 for season pass holders, later for everyone else. It’s set on maps based on the upcoming Star Wars Rogue One movie.

The Division’s Last Patch Removed A Crying Character Because Players Found Her Annoying

The lengthy notes detailing the changes in The Division’s big 1.4 patch last month did not mention the removal of a computer-controlled character who sobbed incessantly. But 1.4 removed her from the Ubisoft game, by popular request. “Feedback from the community was that players found the weeping ‘annoying,’ so she was removed,” a Ubisoft spokesperson…

Video Games Most People Won’t Ask For This Holiday Season, But That You Should Give Them

If you are giving a video game gift later this year, there’s a chance you’ll be wrapping up a copy of Call of Duty or Nintendo’s NES Classic. You may be dutifully satisfying a request for Overwatch or doling out for PlayStation VR. This is what people will ask for. Maybe you’d like to toss…

A Note About The Election

Here is as good a place as any to discuss the rise of Donald Trump to the highest office in the land. Kotaku is and always has been a site that is foremost about video games and the culture around them. Our site is written and run with an attempt to be honest with you…

You Can Now Make GIFs On The PS4

Sony has updated its ShareFactory PS4 application to allow users to turn gaming clips captured on the system into animated GIFs. The editing software is easy to use, though the GIFs are fairly low-res. They’re tailored for Tweeting. Here’s how it works. If you have a PS4, download the Share Factory app and make sure…

We Are Simulating Today’s Election Using A Video Game

We have let too many other people have all the fun of predicting the outcome of the election. It’s our turn. Using the video game The Political Machine 2016 and the power of Facebook Live streaming, we are pitting Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump and seeing who wins. You can watch the contest (and some…

‘Exclusive’ Pre-Order Offer Turns Out To Not Be Exclusive

Often in gaming, what’s “exclusive” isn’t really exclusive. Here is exhibit #1564. After five months of telling gamers to pre-order WWE 2K17 to play the wrestling game as former WCW star Bill Goldberg, as if that was the only way to play as him, publisher 2K Games is now letting everyone else play as him,…

The Division‘s Next Expansion Transforms It Into An Intense 24-Player Survival Game

The forthcoming Survival expansion for Ubisoft’s huge third-person open-world shooter The Division will turn the game into a treacherous multiplayer survival game in which hunger, heat and thirst are as deadly as any enemies roaming the game’s virtual New York City. The game’s developers explained the ambitious mode during a surprise livestream on Monday morning—and…

The Division‘s New Patch Has Made The Game Much Better

The Division is worth playing again thanks to its ambitious new 1.4 patch. Ubisoft’s long-stumbling third-person shooter is back to rewarding players without forcing them to grind. It’s now more hospitable to people who play solo or aren’t leveled up enough to immediately find co-op partners. It’s still paradoxically drab yet beautiful, and it needs…

Crash Bandicoot Has An Australian Accent In Netflix’s New Skylanders Show 

Former Sony mascot Crash Bandicoot hasn’t spoken much, if at all, in the video games he’s been in over the last two decades. He’s talking plenty in the new Skylanders Academy cartoonthat premiered on Neftlix last week. Above is a clip uploaded by YouTube user ARD that will allow you to hear Crash as you’ve…