Stephen Totilo

How BioWare Plans Who You Can Romance In Their Games

Creating romances in a BioWare game isn’t just a matter of writing and art. It’s also a matter of math. That’s one of several insights in a really good 48-minute talk delivered by the writers of Dragon Age Inquisition at last week’s GaymerX2 convention. The topic was romance (read: who your character can eventually have…

No PC Gaming For Me This Morning

Someone was using my computer.

It’s Like Playing Assassin’s Creed In Real Life (Without The Stabbing)

Ubisoft has created an official Assassin’s Creed obstacle course minus any bales of hay or annoying guards. You can run through it at San Diego Comic-Con next week (location info here). Cool or not? What do you think? Let the game’s Chief Parkour Officer (!?!) walk you through it:

Earlier this week we published an opinion piece regarding a rape accusation made against the co-creator of Cards Against Humanity. We’ve taken the unusual step of publishing a revised version of the article here that I think better expresses the piece’s original intent and hopefully provokes valuable discussion. A note in that new version explains…

Hearthstone‘s big single-player expansion, Curse of Naxxramas, will start rolling out on July 22 for Mac, PC and iOS players, with new parts of it opening up each week for five weeks, Blizzard revealed today. The first part, or “wing”, is free if you get in right away, but the pricing is more complicated after…

There are no rooftop guards in Assassin’s Creed Unity? Cool. That’s going to make this next game feel very different. This official tidbit (that we missed…a month ago) is part of a handy round-up of ACU facts that you can read over at the Assassin’s Creed subreddit.

The July round-up of Kotaku reviews in today’s New York Times. Via @enMTW

I’m searching for a good GIF-making program for Mac. Gawker uses GIF Brewery. Any other recommendations are welcome!

Marvel’s Next Super-Hero Surprise Might Be A Black Captain America

Yesterday, we all found out via women-targeted talk show The View that Marvel Comics’ Thor is going to be a woman soon. Today, Marvel says their next big super-hero news will be announced on parody political show The Colbert Report. What Marvel connection could Colbert possibly have? The safe bet is that they’ll be announcing…

Kotaku secrets revealed: the entire staff does not uniformly appreciate the excellence of Pilotwings 64, a game that lets you jump across the United States. Very sad. Good thing there’s a Pilotwings mode for when you’re feeling kind of blue…

BELOW, THE OLD TMI… ABOVE, THE NEW TMI

TMI articles lower than this one were finely-crafted pieces of gaming-related web-writing by the excellent Nathan Grayson. TMI posts above this are the ramblings of the Kotaku staff. Think of it as our water cooler conversations, now made a little more public. Anything goes.

The Xbox One’s Controller Buttons Don’t Make Enough Sense

What do two overlapping rectangles and three parallel lines mean to you? They’re the labels on a pair of buttons on the Xbox One controller, but eight months since that console’s launch, you’d be forgiven if you failed to predict what pressing them actually does. The left one is the View button. The right one…

The New Civilization Is Getting Thrashed On iTunes, With Good Reason

At first it doesn’t look so bad. Two and a half stars out of five isn’t terrible. That average score, given by nearly 500 iTunes users to the two-week-old Civilization Revolution 2, isn’t glorious, of course. But maybe Civilization Revolution 2 is at least mediocre? That’s partly right. It also costs $15, and it might…

Even super-villains play Threes, according to this panel from the newest issueof the ever-excellent comic Superior Foes of Spider-Man. But if the bad guys play that game, then what kind of unscrupulous character plays 2048?

Here’s a new educational Assassin’s Creed Unity video from Ubisoft that is partly historically accurate. The French Revolution didn’t have Arno the Assassin in it, of course!

Evo’s Smash Bros. Final Came Down To An Elite Fox Vs. Jigglypuff Battle

The Super Smash Bros. Melee grand finals at this weekends huge Evo fighting game tournament culminated with a match between reputedly the world’s best Fox McCloud player against the world’s best Jigglypuff player. The guy playing Fox won the tournament last year. Could he repeat? You can watch the final round of the final match…

A Decent Showing By a Supposedly Bad Smash Bros. Character.

Just about nobody is playing as Ness today in today’s Super Smash Bros. Melee competition at Evo 2014. Good reason. The Earthbound hero is considered a bottom-tiercharacter for competitive play. But a guy named Vrud played him. He even dressed the part. Vrud didn’t win, but he put in a valiant effort that shocked Evo’s…

Watch The Year’s Biggest Fighting Game Tournament Right Now

Evo 2014 has begun, so stop wasting your time working or checking Facebook and watch some people tee off on each other in some of the best fighting games around. Today starts with pool competition in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Injustice, Tekken Tag Tournament and Ultra Street Fighter IV There are three channels to choose…

Mother Brain Has Never Been So Intimidating

Behold this massive version of Mother Brain, the number one villain of the Metroid games. She’s been turned into a difficult puzzle and Samus is not around to solve things. A guy named Mallo is. What you’re seeing is actually a user-made level in Pushmo World, the new Wii U block—pushing game. The blue square…

Learn how to play fighting games by reading a new free eBook for fighting game expert Patrick Miller. More info here. Full book title? From Masher to Master: The Educated Video Game Enthusiast’s Fighting Game Primer (Super Book Edition).