Stephen Totilo

I’m Probably Too Nice To Video Games. Maybe You Are, Too.

Do we grade video games on curve? Do we patronize them? Do we pat them on the head and praise progress over performance? “We” as in me, you and everyone else who loves games. Maybe we’re too nice. I know that I’m nice. I’m an optimist. I like games creators who try. I like games…

Transformers: The Movie: The Cover Band

Dare to be stupid! The best-looking Transformers theme band, Cybertronic Spree, playing the best/worst song on the Transformers: The Movie soundtrack. Plus, they got themselves a fake Weird Al. The performance was recorded at the Toronto-based Bit Bazaar by event coordinator and friend of the site Matt Hawkins. Want more? To contact the author of…

Need some video-game-themed holiday cards? Here you go… A quartet of good-looking gaming greeting cards that you could give as cards or as gifts. Good stuff! Order here. These are via friend of the site Matt Hawkins and the folks at Attract Mode. Need more gaming gift ideas? Check out our Kotaku Holiday 2013 Gift…

The first season of Niantic Labs’ ambitious augmented reality game Ingress draws to a close today with competing events in San Francisco and Buenos Aires. If you’re not in those cities, you can watch a livestream (4:00pm ET-8:30pm ET) at the official Ingress page Ingress comes out of beta today, so anyone can start playing…

Hey, North America, This Weekend Is ‘National StreetPass Weekend’

Move over, Christmas. Step aside, Hanukkah. There’s a new holiday to celebrate this December: Nintendo’s National StreetPass Weekend that—hmm—spreads across two nations. Details in the video here: Text explanation, if you prefer: If you use a Nintendo 3DS to check into a Nintendo Zone location in the U.S. or Canada (sorry, Mexico) on December 14…

Turn 10 Studios’ first wave of tweaks to the controversial in-game economy of Xbox One launch game Forza Motorsport 5 go live today. Details here. Things sound better, as it seems much easier now to earn things without paying extra real dollars for them.

The Big Games Are Out, So Now It’s DLC Season.

Don’t trade your games in (yet?). We’re moving into DLC season, what with yesterday’s confirmation of next week’s release of Assassin’s Creed IV‘sfirst big expansion, the recent news of bold DLC plans for GTA V—and now info about the first one for Xbox One launch game Dead Rising 3 Here’s the official blurb: Today, Capcom…

Remember Garbage Pail Kids? You can fund a pretty cool-looking documentary about them, if you’d like. More info at the 30 Years of Garbage Kickstarter page. If nothing else, watch the video at the link for a trip down 1980s memory lane. What? You weren’t alive then?? Sad.

YouTube Copyright Chaos Continues. Game Publishers To The Rescue?

Many gamers who upload footage of video games to YouTube are still getting troubling “content ID” matches that threaten to upend YouTube’s gaming content as we know it. But on day three of this controversy, some game publishers appear to be taking steps to help these gamers out. This story is unfolding rapidly as so-called…

YouTube Channels Crippled By Copyright Claims

Numerous video game-related YouTube personalities have spent the last day digging through piles of copyright claims suddenly filling their inboxes, claims that they say are messing with their ability to produce and profit from videos they post online. YouTuber Brad Colburn, whose TheRadBrad channel has some 1,943,317 subscribers, told Kotaku that he’s been getting copyright…

A Weird Game You Can Play Across Three Different PlayStations

You can play Doki Doki Universe on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 or PlayStation Vita and, no matter what, you’re going to have a strange time. You will learn about yourself, fly through the cosmos to understand what it means to be human and you will meet a toilet who dislikes poop. This is my kind…

Memories Of Doom, By John Romero & John Carmack

Carmack and Romero haven’t worked together for nearly a decade and a half

The Most Surprising Mii That I Ever Met

I StreetPassed with this person some time in the last two days. I’ve never met a Mii this… creative. Meet any unusual Miis? Share below, please! To contact the author of this post, write to [email protected] or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo.

We’re used to LEGO video games based on movies. Here’s a video game based on a LEGO movie. Maybe it’s leaning on the first full movie trailer a bit too much, but that’s only because that trailer was awesome. If the game manages to channel even a tenth of that awesome, it’ll be one-tenth as…

Ubisoft Is Asking Surprising Questions About Assassin’s Creed‘s Future

We already know that Ubisoft would like to know if fans want to play an assassin’s free pirate-only sequel to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. They also want to know if we’d like co-op, if we want horses back, if we want to play through different time periods in the same city, and…. hey, want…

Nintendo’s Appearance On The VGX Was… Awkward

Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime came to today’s exclusive-news-filled VGX show today to reveal Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze‘s release date, confirm a leaked character—Cranky Kong, and show a couple of gorgeous levels of the game. Enough? Not according to VGX host Geoff Keighley, as you’ll see in the clip here. Is Nintendo being a bit too…

New Borderlands Game Coming From Telltale, Makers of The Walking Dead

You read the headline correctly. And we are just as excited as you probably are! Telltale, the studio behind last year’s critically-acclaimed Walking Dead video game series, is developing a new series based on Gearbox’s Borderlands games. [UPDATE: Trailer added!] They’re going to call it Tales from the Borderlands, and it’s debuting next year. It…

You did good, PA Report. Penny Arcade’s editorial operation, the Penny Arcade Report, is shutting down after a two-year run. Led by Ben Kuchera, the crew there worked hard to do quality reporting and writing about video games and pop culture. Their successes are numerous, and the outlet will be missed. Good luck to all…

Destiny Will Be Out On September 9, 2014

Bungie’s big new multiplayer shooter, Destiny, has a release date. September 9 of next year for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS4. The news comes via Bungie themselves. And they’re promising a beta in the summer for PS3 and PS4. The game, or at least its beta, had previously been pegged for a spring…

If There Is a Battlefield In 2014, It Won’t Be From DICE

DICE won’t be making a new Battlefield game in 2014, in case you were wondering or worrying or simply hoping that they’d keep on focusing on making Battlefield 4 better. That word comes from gaming business analyst Michael Pachter, who says he was told as much by EA management yesterday. “Although they have not yet…