By Leigh Alexander. At the E3 debut of Project Natal, Microsoft’s Don Mattrick called the controllers we’ve known and loved “a barrier separating video game players from everyone else.” Wait. Isn’t that the point? Should video game controllers really disappear? We’ve heard a million times about how the cultural presence of games is growing exponentially…
Let’s start the week with a million-dollar-idea, courtesy of Kotaku, offered for free. An idea’s been rattling in my head I’d like to share (reader warning: I’m home sick today). It’s an idea for the Xbox 360‘s controller-free control system, Project Natal, for which I’ve been able to get no official comment. Perhaps folks don’t…
A fraction of your Kotaku team is under the weather today and has spread his germs to our favorite yellow-hatted bunch. Drink plenty of fluids, and please comment about video games here. Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.
There comes a time in the week when to reflect on what got into my reporter’s notebook but didn’t turn into Kotaku blog posts. Shall we? New Professor Layton: I played Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box on Monday evening during those Nintendo demos I couldn’t stop writing about in the middle of the week.…
There are rebellions that were and weren’t intended to be part of Red Faction Guerilla, Volition and THQ’s well-reviewed destroy-everything open-world game. Kotaku talked to the game’s designers about the possibilities and politics of what they made. “I like an open world where it feels like stuff is going on around you,” James Hague, Red…
It’s a 2009 phenomenon: some of the smartest and most artistically adventurous games released on any of the big platforms come from Nintendo’s Art Style line. Enter Boxlife, the first good game about boring factory work. (Sorry, Shenmue!) What makes you laugh as a gamer? A joke? A line of dialogue or a sight gag?…
In a battle between DS owners of the Autobot and Decepticon versions of the official Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen game, the good guys have the edge. The new Transformers game, like its DS predecessor, has an online web-site-based metagame that pits its owners against each other. And, as of today, the Autobot side is…
Yesterday’s passing of pop superstar Michael Jackson has provoked widespread reminiscences. Today, leading game reporters and game designer Dave Perry recalled when they crossed paths with the King of Pop. In addition to starring in a few video games, Michael Jackson appeared at the first E3 more than a decade ago. GTTV‘s Geoff Keighley recalled…
Our favorite gaming experts have been rendered speechless. What do you think they want to say? Talk about games here, please. Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.
Here’s a rundown of the new video game-based comics going on sale in comics shops in the U.S. this week – including Starcraft 2 (not that Starcraft II). Click the thumbnails for more details. Sonic Universe #5... Written by Ian Flynn; Art by Tracy Yardley Via publisher Archie Comics: “MOBIUS: 30 YEARS LATER” TALE!: “Five…
We previewed id and Raven’s return to Wolfenstein in the spring. Yesterday, we saw it again. Our re-preview commences. The basic facts haven’t changed even if the business circumstances have quaked. Wolfenstein returns to consoles on August 4, developed primarily by Raven Software, with supervision by id. That’s id, the company that just sold to…
The campaign of this fall’s Halo 3 ODST surfaced at an event in New York this week, right near a bowl of lime green jellybeans and a bunch of Zunes. Here’s what we learned. The demo being shown in New York was the same displayed behind closed doors at E3. We’ve previewed the game’s multiplayer…
If each Fallout 3 expansion is an attempt to expand Bethesda’s game into new genres, then this week’s Point Lookout is an axe stab at survival horror. Scared? Where does a sprawling game that’s already sprawled across three downloadable expansions set partially in Alaska, Pittsburgh and an Air Force base go in a fourth? To…
Hey look! The cable didn’t cut out in my building this morning and I can post this myself. Yay for me. Now, yay for you if you can comment about video games. Just click, type and click again. Confused about commenting on Kotaku? Read our FAQ.
We get a new Zelda this fall, as Link gets a train, a phantom friend to do some of his dirty work and a new species of animal to enrage. This week, we played more. Announced at the Game Developers Conference in March, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was first playable for us at…
Some people who tried to download the Mario Vs. Donkey Kong game Nintendo recently placed on its DSiWare store might have been scared off by a pre-purchase warning about recycled content. Nintendo’s told us how much wasn’t original. In my review for Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: March of the Minis I made the educated guess…
In an interview with Kotaku, id’s John Carmack and Todd Hollenshead explained how changing circumstances with Activision and other studios spurred id’s sale to Bethesda parent ZeniMax. id Software is still a development studio that commands respect, but it’s one that had found itself not quite fitting in of late, its principals told us during…
Doom, Fallout, Oblivion, Wolfenstein, Carmack, Howard… all in one company. Two of the most acclaimed game development studios of all time are joining forces. ZeniMax Media, parent company of Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls development studio Bethesda Softworks, announced today that it is purchasing legendary Doom and Wolfenstein studio id. In an interview with Kotaku,…
All day, we’ve been bringing you new impressions of Nintendo’s big holiday games, but allow us to note some little things of possible importance from our time with those titles. Small things I observed: –MotionPlus Shouldn’t Stay Attached: Like the Nunchuck, Nintendo’s MotionPlus Wii Remote add-on can get in the way while playing some games.…
Nintendo’s women’s-fashion-shop game for the DS was called “Girls Mode” in Japan, signal enough that it’s not for macho men or the gamers who want to play as one. But there are design ideas in Style Savvy any gamer should know about. Style Savvy is a fully localized upcoming Nintendo-published DS game that’s sure to…
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